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A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has recently made a significant advancement in spinal cord injury treatment by using genetically-modified human neural stem cells (hNSCs).

They found that specifically modulating a gene expression to a certain level in hNSCs can effectively promote the reconstruction of damaged neural circuits and restore locomotor functions, offering great potential for new therapeutic opportunities for patients with spinal cord injury. The findings were published in the journal Advanced Science under the title “Transplanting Human Neural Stem Cells with ≈50% Reduction of SOX9 Gene Dosage Promotes Tissue Repair and Functional Recovery from Severe Spinal Cord Injury.”

Traumatic spinal cord injury is a devastating condition that commonly results from accidents such as falls, car crashes or sport-related injuries.

Scientists found a way to translate brain waves into music, using a Pink Floyd song — here’s how the tech could be used for communication in the future.
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An average adult human brain consumes about 20 watts of power, or less than half the consumption of a light bulb. It’s also truly intelligent.

For 80 years, researchers at Harvard have followed participants into old age, collecting data on their physical and mental health, jobs, relationships, etc.

A recent study study sheds light on how a protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP) affects the growth of nerve cells in the cortex — the human brain’s outer layer. The findings suggest that APP plays a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance between neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation during the early stages of brain development.

The research, published in Science Advances, could have important implications for our understanding of neurodevelopmental processes and neurodegenerative diseases.

APP is a class I transmembrane protein that is widely expressed during nervous system development. It has been extensively studied due to its connection to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), where its fragmentation produces amyloid peptides that contribute to neuronal death. However, the physiological function of APP, especially in the context of human brain development, has remained unclear.

A team of scientists recently aimed to better understand consciousness and its pathologies by studying the neural activity of patients with disorders of consciousness and healthy volunteers using brain imaging technology. They identified two crucial brain circuits implicated in consciousness. The results of the study have been published in Human Brain Mapping.

Consciousness is a complex and subjective experience, and there is still much debate among scientists and philosophers about its nature and origin. However, in clinical settings, doctors treating patients with severe brain injuries and disorders of consciousness need to find ways to help their patients, regardless of the exact definition of consciousness. The authors of the new study sought to better understand the mechanisms behind the pathological loss of consciousness and its recovery, as well as to have reliable ways to assess the state of the patients.

“In recent years, many studies have tried to objectively assess levels of consciousness using various neuroimaging techniques. While these studies have improved how we diagnose patients with disorders of consciousness, they haven’t fully explained how consciousness comes about,” explained study author Jitka Annen, a postdoctoral researcher at the Coma Science Group at the University of Liege.

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An innovative microscopy technique bridges the gap between field of view and resolution.

Analysis of intracranial EEG from epilepsy patients suggests three neural patterns associated with spatial attention and consciousness, and implicate high-level visual areas and lateralized fronto-parietal networks in shaping human conscious experience.