Neuroscience

We all know people who have poor impulse control. They can't open a bag of chips without eating the whole thing, or they lose their temper over something minor and can't calm down. A new study finds it may involve two major circuits in the basal ganglia.  The new study didn't start out with impulse control or suppression of it, it started with Parkinson's and Huntington's Disease. These conditions manifest as movement disorders with broadly opposite symptoms. While Huntington's patients suffer from uncontrolled, involuntary movement, Parkinson's patients struggle with action initiation.…

It's difficult to imagine that a simple dietary intervention could mean less Alzheimer’s disease but that is why observational studies and epidemiology claims are placed into the exploratory pile until science can take a look. A new paper correlates people with a higher  red blood cell (RBC) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA levels as 49% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease vs. those with lower levels, especially for those carrying the ApoE4 gene, which is also a risk factor for Alzheimer's. You know that correlation is not causation so modifying two risk factors with unclear biological…

In an Instagram post, the family of Bruce Willis revealed that the actor has been diagnosed with aphasia, and the cognitive decline resulting means he is stepping away from his acting career. Aphasia is devastating for an actor because all three kinds - Broca's aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia, and global aphasia - mean a loss of communications ability. And when an actor has to struggle to communicate at all, they are losing the ability to act. The big question the family statement does not address is why he got the diagnosis in the first place. It usually occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head…

Being a woman is correlated to being twice as men to develop Alzheimer's disease, but lacking a scientific foundation for why, epidemiology is limited to noting it on a population level and moving on. A new paper seeks to create a biological hypothesis. The authors say the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway is the core factor driving the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and searched for female hormones that are dramatically changed during menopause and tested which hormone selectively activates the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway. They have identified follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) as the…

Our auditory system is able to detect sounds at an implicit level. The brain can distinguish between even very similar sounds, but we do not always recognize these differences. A new study demonstrated using sound perception during passive listening; when the subject is not trying to explicitly hear the differences. The result was that the human brain unconsciously distinguishes between even very similar sound signals during passive listening.   Their experiment was with 20 healthy volunteers. The participants listened to sounds while the researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to…

All coronaviruses, and certainly SARS-CoV-2, have become famous as a respiratory virus, but acute COVID-19 infection has been linked to many different organ systems, including the brain, resulting in a wide range of neurological complications with long-lasting impacts.  According to a new paper by Serena Spudich and Avindra Nath, cases of neurological “Long Covid” symptoms may result from the emergence and persistence of these mechanisms and the neurological symptoms that accompany COVID-19. “With millions of individuals affected, nervous system complications pose public health…

It's nice that a robot can fold a towel really, really slowly, but they're going to remain an academic gimmick until they can engage in social interactions. Then they could replace people. If you have spent any time on Twitter, you know people are done talking to anyone who does not look, talk, or identify just like them, so robot socialization couldn't come at a better time. “Robots will live in our world soon enough and they really need to learn how to communicate with us on human terms. They need to understand when it is time for them to help and when it is time for them to see what they…

For a pilot study, a team examined blood samples from 50 patients and 16 healthy subjects. Using atomic force microscopy technology, they analyzed the surface of around 1000 red blood cells per person without knowing anything about their state of health.  They were able to detect the presence of suspicious proteins, beta-amyloid peptides and tau proteins associated with the neurodegenerative disease commonly called dementia. but also to determine their variable shape and form as well as their amounts. Finding the total amount was no big deal but visualization of differences in the…

Man's best friend learns to understand human emotions, and that can help them predict our behavior and informs their decision making. Researchers at the University of São Paulo and the University of Lincoln observed the behavior of more than 90 domestic dogs to investigate how they relate human emotional displays to subsequent actions – abilities which were previously believed to be exclusive to humans.  The study involved presenting the dogs with a social interaction between two unfamiliar people, which could be positive (happy), negative (angry) or neutral (did not display a particular…

The thought that learning language stimulates brain growth may never have crossed your mind, but the truth is that language learning challenges your brain and stimulates it to stay pliable and strong. Regardless of your age, learning a new language can boost your brain’s function in more ways than one and we’ll explore all the benefits of learning a foreign language and how it directly affects the brain.    The impact of language on a young mind Children have high neuroplasticity, something that wasn’t widely known until recent years, leading to bi-racial families teaching their…