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A new study led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that a group of neurons in the brain’s striatum encodes information about the potential outcomes of different decisions. The study was published in the journal, ‘Nature Communications’.

A group of neurons in the brain become particularly active when a behaviour leads to a different outcome than what was expected, which the researchers believed helped the brain adapt to changing circumstances. “A lot of this brain activity deals with surprising outcomes because if an outcome is expected, there’s really nothing to be learned. What we see is that there’s a strong encoding of both unexpected rewards and unexpected negative outcomes,” said Bernard Bloem, a former MIT postdoc and one of the lead authors of the new study.

Impairments in this kind of decision-making are a hallmark of many neuropsychiatric disorders, especially anxiety and depression. The new findings suggested that slight disturbances in the activity of these striatal neurons could swing the brain into making impulsive decisions or becoming paralyzed with indecision, the researchers said. The striatum, located deep within the brain, is known to play a key role in making decisions that require evaluating the outcomes of a particular action. In this study, the researchers wanted to learn more about the neural basis of how the brain makes cost-benefit decisions, in which a behaviour can have a mixture of positive and negative outcomes.

Boston medical researchers in a new groundbreaking study have discovered a “vicious cycle” between daytime napping and Alzheimer’s dementia.

The Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers found a link between the two: Excessive daytime napping predicted an increased future risk of Alzheimer’s dementia, and a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia sped up the increase in daytime napping during aging.

Daytime napping is common among older adults, but researchers have not known the relationship between daytime napping and cognitive aging.

The study could provide hope for people who have locked-in syndrome. But the study author’s track record is mired with controversy.

Combining AI and robotics technology, researchers have identified new cellular characteristics of Parkinson’s disease in skin cell samples from patients.

#ai #parkinsons #neuroscience #science #robotics

Summary: Combining AI and robotics technology, researchers have identified new cellular characteristics of Parkinson’s disease in skin cell samples from patients.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Uncover Hidden Signatures of Parkinson’s Disease” »

AI and neuroscience have too many similarities. While Artificial neural networks mimic the human brain, the human behaviour holds generous data for Artificial intelligence to train itself into human mind.

Summary: Study reveals axon density is lower than previously believed between distant regions of the brain.

Source: PLOS

Understanding how the brain functions, particularly how information is processed during different activities, is difficult without knowing how many axons are in the brain and how many connect different functional regions.

Summary: Oleic acid produced in the brain is an essential regulator of processes that enable memory, learning, and mood regulation. Oleic acid, which is abundant in olive oil, also promoted neurogenesis and increases cell proliferation.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine.

Many people dread experiencing the cognitive and mood declines that often accompany reaching an advanced age, including memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and mood conditions like depression.

Surgically placed electrodes enable person with late-stage ALS to communicate via neural signals.

𝙇𝙤𝙪 𝙂𝙚𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙜’𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚—𝙖𝙢𝙮𝙤𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙨 (𝘼𝙇𝙎)—𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢, 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙖 34-𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧-𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙙-𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙇𝙎 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣… See more.

The Neuro-Network.

𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 ‘𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝-𝐢𝐧’ 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞

Continue reading “Brain implant helps completely ‘locked-in’ man communicate” »