Tag

Neuroscience

All articles tagged with #neuroscience

neuroscience8 hours ago•5 min saved

Super agers keep generating young neurons into old age

New Nature study finds that older adults with healthy cognition, including 'super agers', continue to produce immature neurons in the hippocampus at higher levels than those with cognitive decline, suggesting persistent neurogenesis may support memory; the neuron fraction is tiny (~0.01%), and the small sample sizes mean results should be interpreted cautiously; researchers hope to harness this process to develop therapies that boost neurogenesis in aging and Alzheimer's.

via Nature|

#aging #hippocampus #memory

neuroscience12 hours ago•6 min saved

Overclocking Neurons: One Training Session Yields Lasting Memories Across Species

Researchers inhibited the mitochondrial calcium exporter LETM1 in fruit flies and mice, causing calcium to linger in mitochondria and boosting ATP production. This metabolic boost allowed a single training session to form long-term memories lasting over 24 hours, while middle-term memory remained unchanged, and the effect was conserved across species, suggesting neuronal energy availability can shape memory consolidation. The approach currently relies on genetic manipulation and isn’t yet transferable to humans, but could point to future strategies to enhance memory or address diseases with energy deficits, pending safer, more precise tools.

via Neuroscience News|

#calcium #letm1 #long-term-memory

science13 hours ago•2 min saved

Columbia Neuroscience Institute Chief Resigns Over Epstein Associations

Nobel laureate Richard Axel resigns as co-director of Columbia's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute amid revelations of a multi-year association with Jeffrey Epstein; he calls the ties a serious error and will focus on his lab, while Columbia says no policy violations occurred and notes the broader fallout from the Epstein documents.

via The Guardian|

#columbia-university #epstein #ethics

science14 hours ago•3 min saved

Nobel laureate Richard Axel steps down from Columbia brain institute amid Epstein ties

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Axel is resigning as co-director of Columbia's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute after scrutiny over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. He says the decision is to restore trust, will continue his lab's research at the Zuckerman Institute, and will resign as an investigator with Columbia's Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Columbia notes no policy or legal violation, but DOJ files show Axel was in contact with Epstein.

via CNBC|

#columbia-university #epstein #neuroscience

science1 day ago•2 min saved

Birdwatching Could Help Preserve Brain Function with Age

Canadian researchers report that expert birders have higher density in brain regions tied to attention and perception, suggesting lifelong birding—and by extension bird photography—may bolster neural networks through neuroplasticity and help mitigate age-related cognitive decline, though it does not prove prevention of decline.

via PetaPixel|

#aging #birding #brain-health

science1 day ago•4 min saved

Horses Whinny with a Song-and-Whistle Duo, Study Finds

New research shows a horse’s whinny comes from two sources—low-frequency vocal cord vibrations and a whistle-like high pitch from the larynx—revealing a rare mammalian biphonation that may support different communication ranges or express emotion.

via Australian Broadcasting Corporation|

#acoustics #animal-communication #biology

business2 days ago•7 min saved

AbbVie Bets $380 Million on North Chicago API Manufacturing Expansion

AbbVie announced a $380 million plan to build two new active pharmaceutical ingredient facilities at its North Chicago campus, with construction starting in spring 2026 and full operation expected by 2029. The AI-enabled manufacturing hubs will support next-generation neuroscience and obesity medicines and are part of AbbVie's broader $100 billion U.S. R&D and capital investments commitment, including plans to hire about 300 local workers.

via AbbVie News Center|

#abbvie #ai #api-manufacturing

health2 days ago•7 min saved

Inside Arousal: How the Brain, Hormones, and Sensation Spark Sex

Arousal is a complex, multi-system process driven by brain cues, the autonomic nervous system, and neurochemicals such as dopamine, nitric oxide and oxytocin. It can begin with physical sensations or mental cues (reflex vs desire-driven) and varies by person and between sexes, with features like female “tenting.” Stress and health changes can dampen desire, while long-term relationships often rely on cue-driven arousal and deliberate mood-setting. The piece also notes age-related and health factors that can affect arousal, underscoring the importance of communication and health checks to maintain sexual well-being.

via The Guardian|

#health #hormones #masters-and-johnson

science3 days ago•5 min saved

Touch-neuron TRPV4 acts as the brain’s stop-scratching brake

A new study shows TRPV4 ion channels in touch-sensitive neurons act as a negative feedback brake that tells the brain when scratching has achieved relief, regulating the duration of itch. In mice, removing neuronal TRPV4 reduces scratching frequency but extends each bout, suggesting skin TRPV4 triggers itch while neuronal TRPV4 restrains it. This finding implies future therapies should target TRPV4 more precisely to treat chronic itch without blunting the brain’s stop signal.

via Neuroscience News|

#ab-ltmrs #chronic-itch #itch

science5 days ago•6 min saved

Two Labs, One Bassline: Pink Floyd Tracks Breakthroughs in Brain Research

Two independent labs—UC Berkeley and Technion—used Pink Floyd’s 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1' as a test stimulus to probe brain activity and delivery science: Berkeley reconstructed the song from intracranial recordings, while Technion showed that low-frequency sound can influence cellular uptake and gene expression in neurons and mice via lipid nanoparticles, with fMRI showing brain activation in humans. The shared choice of a bass-heavy track underscores bass as a meaningful signal, but the work is exploratory, not therapeutic, with translational questions and limited quantitative data remaining.

via Headphonesty|

#brain #drug-delivery #music

science6 days ago•7 min saved

Timing Trumps Repetition: The Brain Learns Faster with Sparse Rewards

A UCSF study shows the brain learns more efficiently when rewards are rare and spaced apart, with dopamine responses driven by the time between cue and reward rather than the number of repetitions. This challenges Pavlovian practice-as-learning and explains why cramming is less effective, while suggesting educational strategies and potential faster, sparse-learning approaches for AI.

via Neuroscience News|

#dopamine #education #learning

science6 days ago•6 min saved

Rat Study Keeps Minds Awake Longer, Stirring Quantum-Consciousness Debate

A Wellesley College study found rats given a microtubule-stabilizing treatment stayed conscious longer under anesthesia, lending experimental support to Orch OR—the idea that consciousness arises from quantum processes in the brain—and suggesting quantum effects might persist at physiological temperatures; although controversial, the result fuels the debate on whether consciousness could extend beyond the brain, if validated.

via Indian Defence Review|

#consciousness #microtubules #neuroscience

culture7 days ago•19 min saved

Pollan’s journey into consciousness spans brains, plants, and AI

Michael Pollan’s A World Appears surveys consciousness across animals, plants, and AI, blending neuroscience, philosophy and personal exploration; the Times reviewer praises Pollan’s readable synthesis and measured skepticism toward hype around AI, while noting gaps (dreaming and hypnosis) and inviting readers to rethink what consciousness means in nature and machines.

via The Times|

#ai #books #consciousness

neuroscience7 days ago•26 min saved

Breathing rhythms may choreograph memory retrieval

New findings in The Journal of Neuroscience report that breathing timing can influence memory retrieval. In 18 young adults, EEG and a breath sensor linked brain alpha/beta oscillations and memory reactivation to the respiratory cycle: recalling an image cue was more accurate when the cue appeared during inhalation, with memory processing aligning to exhalation. Stronger breath-brain coupling predicted better memory scores, suggesting respiration acts as a scaffold for episodic retrieval. Authors caution that effects are modest and causality isn’t proven, and results reflect spontaneous breathing rather than deliberate breathing exercises.

via PsyPost|

#breathing #eeg #memory

science8 days ago•8 min saved

Consciousness Without the Afterlife: From Brains to Bots

Nature’s book review of Michael Pollan’s A World Appears traces how consciousness remains hard to explain despite brain research; it surveys embodied approaches and theories (like integrated information theory and global neuronal workspace), plant sentience, interoception in the brainstem, and the free-energy principle, while questioning whether AI can ever be truly conscious given current data-driven models and the absence of subjective experience.

via Nature|

#artificial-intelligence #consciousness #neuroscience