Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: Researchers proposed the need for a legal framework to guide the conversation on whether or not human brain organoids can be considered people.

Brain organoids are grown from stem cells in a lab, mimicking the growth and structure of real brains. However, they do not fulfill the requirements to be considered natural persons, according to the researchers.

The study explores the potential juridical personhood of human brain organoids, and whether they can be considered legal entities.

Summary: Researchers have identified spatial and temporal abnormalities in spontaneous fixational saccades as a potential biomarker for cognitive and positive symptoms in schizophrenia. Researchers combined patient data of fixational eye movement recorded over 60 seconds with machine learning technology, which was able to determine schizophrenia with 85% accuracy. This discovery suggests that fixational saccades could serve as an easily obtainable complementary diagnostic tool for the condition.

Source: Chinese Academy of Science.

In a study published online in the Schizophrenia Bulletin, researchers from Dr. Wang Wei’s lab at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Wang Jijun’ team at Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, demonstrated spatial and temporal abnormalities of spontaneous fixational saccades and their correlates with positive and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, suggesting that fixational saccades are a promising and easily obtainable biomarker for cognitive and positive symptoms and for complementary diagnosis in schizophrenia.

Discover the fascinating world of digital immortality and the pivotal role artificial intelligence plays in bringing this concept to life. In this captivating video, we delve into the intriguing idea of preserving our consciousness, memories, and personalities in a digital realm, potentially allowing us to live forever in a virtual environment. Unravel the cutting-edge AI technologies like mind uploading, AI-powered avatars, and advanced brain-computer interfaces that are pushing the boundaries of what it means to be alive.

Join us as we explore the ethical considerations, current progress, and future prospects of digital immortality. Learn about the ongoing advancements in brain-computer interfaces such as Neuralink, AI-powered virtual assistants like ChatGPT, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Will digital immortality redefine humanity’s relationship with life, death, and existence itself? Watch now to uncover the possibilities.

Continue reading “Digital Immortality Uncovered: How AI Could Help Us Live Forever” »

The development demonstrates that China is allegedly at the forefront of the “white-hot technology war between China and the US,” claims Chinese state-run media.

This development encourages the application of brain science research and demonstrates that China is allegedly at the forefront of the “white-hot technology war between China and the US,” according to Chinese state-run media reports on Friday evening.

Chinese researchers claim to have successfully conducted the “world’s first” brain-computer interface (BCI) experiment on a monkey, showcasing China’s BCI technological breakthrough.

Continue reading “China syncs monkey brain with a computer in a ‘world first’ experiment” »

I suspected both this and alzheimers are bacterial infections.

A common genus of microbe found in wet, boggy environments could play a key role in the development of Parkinson’s disease, by excreting compounds that trigger proteins inside brain cells to form toxic clumps.

The findings, made by a small team of researchers at the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland, build on the results of an earlier investigation showing that the severity of the neurodegenerative disorder in volunteers increased with concentrations of Desulfovibrio bacterial strains in their feces.

Continue reading “Parkinson’s May Be Caused by a Common Aquatic Bacterium” »

Drug company Eli Lilly reports that donanemab can slow the pace of Alzheimer’s disease by 35%, following a Phase 3 study in human patients.

Brain scans of Alzheimer’s patients with treatment (A and B) and placebo ©, showing clearance of amyloid plaques. Credit: Eli Lilly.

In recent years, Alzheimer’s has become an increasingly major public health issue. The prevalence of this disease – a progressive neurological disorder that affects memory, thinking, and behaviour – is being driven by aging populations, changes in lifestyle factors, and improvements in diagnostic techniques.

Like treasured recipes passed down from generation to generation, there are just some regions of DNA that evolution doesn’t dare tweak. Mammals far and wide share a variety of such encoded sequences, for example, which have remained untouched for millions of years.

Humans are a strange exception to this club. For some reason, recipes long preserved by our ancient ancestors were suddenly ‘spiced up’ within a short evolutionary period of time.

Because we’re the only species in which these regions have been rewritten so rapidly, they are called ‘human accelerated regions’ (or HARs). What’s more, scientists think at least some HARs could be behind many of the qualities that set humans apart from their close relatives, like chimpanzees and bonobos.

Pituitary tumors grow in the pituitary gland, the pea-sized structure just behind the eyes at the base of the brain. These tumors are almost always noncancerous, but they can cause problems if they create an overproduction of hormones in the body or grow large enough to press against the brain and optic nerves.

If you have a pituitary tumor, you may be wondering if there are any lifestyle changes you should make, such as your diet. We spoke with our clinical dietitians to learn more about diet and nutrition for people with pituitary tumors.

“A human brain model can simulate an experiment a million times for many different conditions, but the actual human experiment can be performed only once or a few times,” said Viktor Jirsa, a professor at Aix-Marseille University.

Responding to such critiques, the HBP worked to restructure the effort in its early days with new leadership, organization, and goals that were more flexible and attainable. “The HBP got a more versatile, pluralistic approach,” said Viktor Jirsa, a professor at Aix-Marseille University and one of the HBP lead scientists. He believes that these changes fixed at least some of HBP’s issues. “The project has been on a very productive and scientifically fruitful course since then.”

After restructuring, the HBP became a European hub on brain research, with hundreds of scientists joining its growing network. The HBP created projects focused on various brain topics, from consciousness to neurodegenerative diseases. HBP scientists worked on complex subjects, such as mapping out the brain, combining neuroscience and robotics, and experimenting with neuromorphic computing, a computational technique inspired by the human brain structure and function—to name just a few.