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A Princeton-led team of scientists has created the first detailed connectome of an adult fruit fly brain, a complex network with almost 140,000 neurons. This significant step in neuroscience was featured in Nature and involved contributions from various global institutions, highlighting both the complexity of the fly’s brain and the potential insights it offers into human neurological diseases.

Groundbreaking Brain Mapping: A Connectome for the Adult Fruit Fly

Researchers led by Princeton University have constructed the first detailed neuron-by-neuron and synapse-by-synapse roadmap through the brain of an adult fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), achieving a major milestone in brain research. This study is the flagship article in the October 2 special issue of Nature, which is devoted to the new fruit fly “connectome.”

Masafumi Oizumi: Unsupervised alignment of qualia structures: Towards direct communication of experience.

Pre-ASSC (2024, June 30, Sun) Satellite Workshop Registration Form: Structural approaches to consciousness: Qualia Structure and Integrated Information Theory.

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Investment in large neuroscience initiatives is starting to show results, but questions remain over whether they can solve the most fundamental questions about cognition.

Disabling a gene involved in metabolism rejuvenates cells’ ability to spin off new neurons.

UC San Diego’s study reveals that meth and PCP impair memory by causing neurons to switch from glutamate to GABA, a process reversible with specific treatments.

Sustained drug abuse can have many long-lasting effects, including memory loss and reduced cognitive functions, which can persist for years. Now, neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego have identified a reversible, shared mechanism in the brain by which drugs of different classes generate cognitive impairments.

Investigating mechanisms of drug-induced cognitive deficits.

Summary: Researchers have isolated the electrical activity of individual neurons in the vagus nerve responsible for regulating cardiovascular function in humans. By identifying neurons that fire in sync with the heartbeat, scientists can now study how these neurons monitor or control heart activity.

This breakthrough could lead to new insights into how cardiovascular diseases develop and why vagal neuron activity changes in these conditions. The findings offer a foundation for exploring therapeutic targets in heart disease by studying vagus nerve activity in both healthy individuals and those with cardiovascular issues.

Summary: A recent study explored the link between cadmium exposure and cognitive decline, finding that higher cadmium levels may be associated with thinking and memory problems in white people. The study followed 2,172 people over 10 years, with results showing no association overall but revealing a possible link when analyzing Black and white participants separately.

White participants with high cadmium levels were twice as likely to develop cognitive impairment compared to those with lower levels. However, no similar association was found in Black participants, and further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Summary: Sound stimulation can manipulate brain waves during REM sleep, a stage crucial for memory and cognition. Using advanced technology, researchers were able to increase the frequency of brain oscillations that slow down in dementia patients, potentially improving memory functions.

The non-invasive technique could pave the way for innovative treatments for dementia by targeting brain activity during sleep. This approach offers hope for enhancing memory and cognition with minimal disruption to patients’ lives.

Observing anything and everything within the human brain, no matter how large or small, while it is fully intact has been an out-of-reach dream of neuroscience for decades.

Three new innovations from an MIT-based team enables high-resolution, high-throughput imaging of human brain tissue at a full range of scales, and mapping connectivity of neurons at single-cell resolution.