The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In recent decades, neuroscience has seen some stunning advances, and yet a critical part of the brain remains a mystery. I am referring to the cerebellum, so named for the Latin for “little brain,” which is situated like a bun at the back of the … Read more
Clinical depression is considered one of the most treatable mood disorders, but neither the condition nor the drugs used against it are fully understood. First-line SSRI treatments (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) likely free up more of the neurotransmitter serotonin to improve communication between neurons. But the question of how SSRIs enduringly change a person’s mood … Read more
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Science routinely puts forward theories, then batters them with data till only one is left standing. In the fledgling science of consciousness, a dominant theory has yet to emerge. More than 20 are still taken seriously. It’s not for want of data. Ever since Francis … Read more
Today, an international team of researchers shared an extraordinarily detailed atlas of human brain cells, mapping its staggering diversity of neurons. The atlas was published as part of a massive package of 21 papers in the journal Science, each taking complementary approaches to the same overarching questions: What cell types exist in the brain? And … Read more
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like wings, are easily distracted from their natural preoccupation with sipping on flower nectar, avoiding predatory bats, and reproducing. Small clutches of the eggs they lay … Read more
Elon Musk’s mind implant firm Neuralink has introduced it’s one step nearer to placing mind implants in individuals. At the moment, the corporate said that it’s going to start recruiting sufferers with paralysis to check its experimental mind implant and that it has acquired approval from a hospital institutional overview board. Such boards are impartial … Read more
McKee, who can also be the director of neuropathology for Veterans Affairs Boston, started finding out the brains of former NFL gamers 15 years in the past. She couldn’t imagine what she noticed: huge lesions within the crevices of the mind, dotted with irregular protein clusters. An enormous Packers fan, McKee has watched a variety … Read more
What is obvious is that the mind should be capable of precisely regulate how robust a psychological picture is to keep away from confusion between fantasy and actuality. “The mind has this actually cautious balancing act that it has to carry out,” Naselaris stated. “In some sense it’ll interpret psychological imagery as actually because it … Read more
Ann, a stroke survivor, can talk utilizing a digital avatar that decodes her meant speech. {Photograph}: Noah Berger/UCSF There are trade-offs to each group’s approaches. Implanted electrodes, like those the Stanford group used, file the exercise of particular person neurons, which tends to supply extra detailed data than a recording from the mind’s floor. However … Read more
One in all my assignments in my third 12 months of medical college was to ask a clinic affected person if I might go to him at dwelling. The purpose of the train (barely smug, like many such efforts at instructing humility to future medical doctors) was to higher perceive the affect of sickness on … Read more