Lifeboat Foundation

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Researchers from John Hopkins University together with Dr. Brett Kagan, chief scientist at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, have recently led the development of the DishBrain project, in which human cells in a petri dish learnt to play Pong.

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Researchers say immune cells in people with schizophrenia may hamper the growth of blood cells in their brain.

Neuroscientists at MIT have discovered a way to potentially reverse neurodegeneration and other issues related to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a news release from the school.

Researchers, experimenting on mice, found that interfering with an enzyme that is typically overactive in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s can reverse the degeneration in the brain.

Human decision-making is relevant for concept formation and cognitive illusions. Cognitive illusions can be explained by quantum probability, while the reason for introducing quantum mechanics is based on ad hoc bounded rationality (BR). Concept formation can be explained in a set-theoretic way, although such explanations have not been extended to cognitive illusions. We naturally expand the idea of BR to incomplete BR and introduce the key notion of nonlocality in cognition without any attempts on quantum theory. We define incomplete bounded rationality and nonlocality as a binary relation, construct a lattice from the relation by using a rough-set technique, and define probability in concept formation. By using probability defined in concept formation, we describe various cognitive illusions, such as the guppy effect, conjunction fallacy, order effect, and so on.

One evening, some 40 years ago, I got lost in time. I was at a performance of Schubert’s String Quintet in C major. During the second movement I had the unnerving feeling that time was literally grinding to a halt. The sensation was powerful, visceral, overwhelming. It was a life-changing moment, or, as it felt at the time, a life-changing eon.

It has been my goal ever since to compose music that usurps the perceived flow of time and commandeers the sense of how time passes. Although I’ve learned to manipulate subjective time, I still stand in awe of Schubert’s unparalleled power. Nearly two centuries ago, the composer anticipated the neurological underpinnings of time perception that science has underscored in the past few decades.

The human brain, we have learned, adjusts and recalibrates temporal perception. Our ability to encode and decode sequential information, to integrate and segregate simultaneous signals, is fundamental to human survival. It allows us to find our place in, and navigate, our physical world. But music also demonstrates that time perception is inherently subjective—and an integral part of our lives. “For the time element in music is single,” wrote Thomas Mann in his novel, The Magic Mountain. “Into a section of mortal time music pours itself, thereby inexpressibly enhancing and ennobling what it fills.”

Reversing schizophrenia with gene therapy year 2023.

Copy-number variations in the ARHGAP10 gene encoding Rho GTPase–activating protein 10 are associated with schizophrenia. Model mice (Arhgap10 S490P/NHEJ mice) that carry “double-hit” mutations in the Arhgap10 gene mimic the schizophrenia in a Japanese patient, exhibiting altered spine density, methamphetamine-induced cognitive dysfunction, and activation of RhoA/Rho-kinase signaling. However, it remains unclear whether the activation of RhoA/Rho-kinase signaling due to schizophrenia-associated Arhgap10 mutations causes the phenotypes of these model mice. Here, we investigated the effects of fasudil, a brain permeable Rho-kinase inhibitor, on altered spine density in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and on methamphetamine-induced cognitive impairment in a touchscreen‑based visual discrimination task in Arhgap10 S490P/NHEJ mice. Fasudil (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) suppressed the increased phosphorylation of myosin phosphatase–targeting subunit 1, a substrate of Rho-kinase, in the striatum and mPFC of Arhgap10 S490P/NHEJ mice. In addition, daily oral administration of fasudil (20 mg/kg/day) for 7 days ameliorated the reduced spine density of layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the mPFC. Moreover, fasudil (3–20 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) rescued the methamphetamine (0.3 mg/kg)-induced cognitive impairment of visual discrimination in Arhgap10 S490P/NHEJ mice. Our results suggest that Rho-kinase plays significant roles in the neuropathological changes in spine morphology and in the vulnerability of cognition to methamphetamine in mice with schizophrenia-associated Arhgap10 mutations.

We flew out to Salt Lake City, Utah, to get an exclusive look at the company behind some of the most advanced implantable neurotechnologies, Blackrock Neurotech. Brain implants are here, and they’re becoming more and more advanced every day. The Utah Array and Neuroport system allows for high-quality data recording and stimulation. It has the most in-subject research hours of any brain-computer interface on the market and has been a part of the most advanced BCIs since 2004, inspiring hope in persons with movement disorders. We also saw their newly announced Neuralace interface debuted in November 2022. Learn what it takes to work at a company at the forefront of brain-computer interface development.

Thanks to Blackrock Neurotech for sponsoring this video. The opinions expressed in this video are that of The BCI Guys and should be taken as such.

Continue reading “Behind the Brain Chip: An Inside Look at Blackrock Neurotech” »

Scientists at MIT have unlocked a major breakthrough in the battle to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease — one that shows “dramatic reductions” in neurodegeneration, a report stated. The exciting achievement came about after researchers were able to interfere with an enzyme typically found to be overactive in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Finding ways to integrate electronics into living tissue could be crucial for everything from brain implants to new medical technologies. A new approach has shown that it’s possible to 3D print circuits into living worms.

There has been growing interest in finding ways to more closely integrate technology with the human body, in particular when it comes to interfacing electronics with the nervous system. This will be crucial for future brain-machine interfaces and could also be used to treat a host of neurological conditions.

But for the most part, it’s proven difficult to make these kinds of connections in ways that are non-invasive, long-lasting, and effective. The rigid nature of standard electronics means they don’t mix well with the squishy world of biology, and getting them inside the body in the first place can require risky surgical procedures.