Lifeboat Foundation

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In a recent study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, researchers describe the relationship between problematic internet use (PIU) and the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Study: The relationship between problematic internet use and attention deficit, hyperactivity and impulsivity: A meta-analysis. Image Credit: Alexxndr / Shutterstock.com

Continue reading “Surfing the web too much? Study links problematic internet use to heightened ADHD symptoms” »

Research led by Peking University, China, has discovered a single type of retinal photoreceptor cell in Drosophila (fruit fly) is involved in both visual perception and circadian photoentrainment by co-releasing histamine and acetylcholine at the first visual synapse.

In a paper, “A single photoreceptor splits perception and entrainment by cotransmission,” published in Nature, the team details the discovery that the Drosophila visual system segregates visual perception and circadian photoentrainment by co-transmitting two neurotransmitters, histamine and acetylcholine, in the R8 photoreceptor cells.

Light detection involves capturing signals through photoreceptors in the eye, which are essential for image formation and subconscious visual functions, such as regulating biological rhythms according to the daily light-dark cycle (photoentrainment of the circadian clock). The optical system has distinct pathways for image formation (based on local contrast) and non-image-related tasks (based on global irradiance).

Last month, OM1, a leading real-world data and tech company focused on chronic conditions, announced the launch of its Parkinson’s disease (PD) premium dataset and the enhancement of its Mental Health & Neuroscience Real-World Data Network.

The dataset includes more than 7,000 patients prospectively followed by neurologists in hundreds of clinics across all 50 states. OM1 enriches the data by extracting relevant information from treating clinician notes using its AI and language modeling, and data points include key symptoms, disease severity, treatments, longitudinal outcomes and clinical response. In addition to the dataset, data from an additional 700,000 PD patients are available in the OM1 Real-World Data Cloud for modeling health economics outcomes, patient recruitment for clinical trials, prescriber trends and other research needs.

The dataset combines real-world data sources, such as electronic medical records (EMR), medical and pharmacy claims, mortality data and social determinants of health (SDoH), to provide deeper insights into Parkinson’s disease patient journeys. The data can be leveraged to accelerate medical research and to support approvals and reimbursement, reducing the time to market and improving existing therapies.

The company provided hundreds of virtual reality headsets to 30 healthcare centers across Israel to help patients struggling with PTSD, anxiety and stress.

Building upon the foundational paradigms outlined in The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution (2020), my latest work titled The Cybernetic Theory of Mind (2022), a Kindle eBook series published last year, serves as an extension and refinement, operating at the intersection of information physics, quantum cosmology, and simulation metaphysics. The objective is not merely to inform but to elucidate through an “explanatory” theory of everything, providing an integrative framework for a deeper understanding of reality.

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The Cybernetic Theory of Mind is an explanatory TOE at the intersection of information physics, quantum cosmology and simulation metaphysics.

Continue reading “Cybernetic Theory: Information Physics, Quantum Cosmology, Simulation Metaphysics” »

“For those who have lost their ability to communicate due to a variety of neurological conditions, there’s a lot of hope to preserve or regain their ability to communicate with family and friends.”

The term “brain-computer interface” (BCI) refers to a technology that creates a direct line of communication between the human brain and an outside object or computer system, opening up a wide range of possibilities for things like device control and neurological study.

Oonal/iStock.

Continue reading “ALS patients control home devices with their minds using BCI” »

Scientists have made remarkable progress in understanding the underlying changes that make cancer grow and have applied this knowledge to develop and guide targeted treatment approaches to vastly improve outcomes for people with many cancer types. And yet treatment progress for people with brain tumors known as gliomas—including the most aggressive glioblastomas—has remained slow. One reason is that doctors lack tests that reliably predict which among many therapeutic options will work best for a given tumor.

Now an NIH-funded team has developed a miniature device with the potential to change this for the approximately 25,000 people diagnosed with brain cancers in the U.S. each year [1]. When implanted into cancerous brain tissue during surgery, the rice-sized drug-releasing device can simultaneously conduct experiments to measure a tumor’s response to more than a dozen drugs or drug combinations. What’s more, a small clinical trial reported in Science Translational Medicine offers the first evidence in people with gliomas that these devices can safely offer unprecedented insight into tumor-specific drug responses [2].

These latest findings come from a Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, team led by Pierpaolo Peruzzi and Oliver Jonas. They recognized that drug-screening studies conducted in cells or tissue samples in the lab too often failed to match what happens in people with gliomas undergoing cancer treatment. Wide variation within individual brain tumors also makes it hard to predict a tumor’s likely response to various treatment options.

For those with stubbornly resistant forms of severe depression, ketamine was looking more and more like a solution. Years of research has hinted at the dissociative anesthetic’s treatment potential where other medications failed, promising the benefits of electroshock therapy with far fewer risks.

For all of the excitement, separating the hope from the hype has been challenged by the drug’s strong psychoactive effects. How can you conduct a blind test for a drug that so overtly detaches the mind from the body?

By taking advantage of the unconscious state of patients under general anesthesia, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine in the US put ketamine to the ultimate, gold standard test.

Having more pixels could advance everything from biomedical imaging to astronomical observations.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have built a superconducting camera containing 400,000 pixels — 400 times more than any other device of its type.

Superconducting cameras allow scientists to capture very weak light signals, whether from distant objects in space or parts of the human brain. Having more pixels could open up many new applications in science and biomedical research.