Golden Bracelet from the tomb of Ramses II decorated with granulation and a double-headed duck with a body made from...

Golden Bracelet from the tomb of Ramses II decorated with granulation and a double-headed duck with a body made from lapis-lazuli. Egypt, 19th dynasty. 1279 to 1213 BC. Article:…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/31/egyptian-bracelet/

It is the largest and most sophisticated object ever built off the Earth.

It is the largest and most sophisticated object ever built off the Earth. It has taken numerous spaceflights and over a decade to construct. The International Space Station (ISS) is currently the premiere habitat for humans in Earth orbit, and an…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/31/assembly-of-the-iss/

Take a few steps forward, stop, and look around.

Take a few steps forward, stop, and look around. In the world of the video game, the walls that depict a corridor four meters long are made up of green and blue patterned blocks. The floor is marked with turquoise dots. A short distance away, there’s a…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/31/maps-made-of-nerve-cells/

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble ….

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble …. maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. A frighteningly shaped reflection nebula, this cosmic crone is about 800 light-years away though. Its malevolent visage seems to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/31/the-witch-head-nebula/

Nancy Grace Roman, a renowned astronomer who led the drive to launch the Hubble Space Telescope, died on Dec.

Nancy Grace Roman, a renowned astronomer who led the drive to launch the Hubble Space Telescope, died on Dec. 25 at the age of 93, according to the Associated Press. Roman was nicknamed “the mother of Hubble” for her work on the pioneering telescope,…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/30/nancy-roman-mother-of-hubble-dies-at-93/

Can probiotics fend off mood disorders?

Can probiotics fend off mood disorders? It’s too early to say with scientific certainty, but a new study by CU Boulder researchers suggests that one particular beneficial bacteria can have long-lasting anti-inflammatory effects on the brain, making it…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/30/is-an-immunization-for-stress-on-the-horizon/

The Mars Express orbiter has taken some stunning photos of Korolev Crater, an ice-filled crater near the Martian...

The Mars Express orbiter has taken some stunning photos of Korolev Crater, an ice-filled crater near the Martian north pole. It looks from a distance like a snowy winter landscape on Earth. Mars is famous for its polar ice caps – composed of both water…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/30/perspective-view-of-korolev-crater/

When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Ultima Thule.

When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Ultima Thule. A world of the Kuiper belt 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the nickname Ultima Thule (catalog designation 2014 MU69) fittingly means “beyond the…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/29/new-horizons-at-ultima-thule/

Attendants from the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College Of Surgeons packing up some of the 3,000 human skulls...

Attendants from the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College Of Surgeons packing up some of the 3,000 human skulls stored in a shed in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, before their transfer to the Natural History Museum, July 1, 1948. The skulls include those…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/29/packing-up-human-skulls-1948/

Humans can perform a vast array of mental operations and adjust their behavioral responses based on external...

Humans can perform a vast array of mental operations and adjust their behavioral responses based on external instructions and internal beliefs. For example, to tap your feet to a musical beat, your brain has to process the incoming sound and also use your…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/29/how-the-brain-performs-flexible-computations/

Researchers at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our...

Researchers at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our solar system. These super-Earths were formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of calcium, aluminum…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/28/sapphires-and-rubies-in-the-sky/

Autophagy—the process by which a cell digests and recycles various molecules and organelles in its cytoplasm—is...

Autophagy—the process by which a cell digests and recycles various molecules and organelles in its cytoplasm—is critical for maintaining homeostasis and for helping cells survive low-nutrient conditions. In a series of steps, a vesicle precursor, known as…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/28/how-the-cell-eats-itself/

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across.

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax galaxy…
http://myfusimotors.com/?p=735

A protein in the brain that binds to alcohol could be the key to curing alcoholism, reports UH College of Pharmacy...

A protein in the brain that binds to alcohol could be the key to curing alcoholism, reports UH College of Pharmacy medicinal chemist Joydip Das in eNeuro, a journal of the Society for Neuroscience. The protein, called MUNC 13-1, plays a pivotal role in…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/28/its-all-in-your-head-brain-protein-targeted-for-alcoholism-cure/

There is no such thing as conscious thought, writes philosopher Peter Carruthers in blogs.

There is no such thing as conscious thought, writes philosopher Peter Carruthers in blogs. He insists that conscious thought, judgment and volition are illusions and that they arise from processes of which we are forever unaware. What makes you think…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/27/there-is-no-such-thing-as-conscious-thought/

Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass with age, can start as early as one’s 30s, and affects a large proportion of the...

Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass with age, can start as early as one’s 30s, and affects a large proportion of the elderly. Fortunately, exercise can combat muscle aging, likely by reversing many of the age-related physiological changes at the root of…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/27/how-muscle-age/

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our...

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy’s largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/27/the-great-carina-nebula/

New evidence suggests a mechanism by which progressive accumulation of Tau protein in brain cells may lead to...

New evidence suggests a mechanism by which progressive accumulation of Tau protein in brain cells may lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists studied more than 600 human brains and fruit fly models of Alzheimer’s disease and found the first evidence of a…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/27/research-links-tau-aggregates-cell-death-in-alzheimers/

Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure.

Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure. Cataloged as NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula houses the open star cluster Pismis 24 near its center — a home to unusually bright and massive stars. The overall blue…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/26/ngc-6357-the-lobster-nebula/

I am a bit late…again 😉 Born December 25, 1642 (on the Julian Calendar in use at the time in England) who, by the...

I am a bit late…again 😉 Born December 25, 1642 (on the Julian Calendar in use at the time in England) who, by the age of 30, would transform civilization, showing that the universe was mathematically knowable and predictable. Newton made discoveries in…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/26/happy-birthday-isaac-newton/

The sun sported four smallish prominences along its edge at about the same time (Dec.

The sun sported four smallish prominences along its edge at about the same time (Dec. 12-14, 2018). They were at the positions of 2 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock, and 10 o’clock. The largest and most active of the prominences was at the 7 o’clock point.…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/26/small-prominences/

When we speak, we engage nearly 100 muscles, continuously moving our lips, jaw, tongue, and throat to shape our...

When we speak, we engage nearly 100 muscles, continuously moving our lips, jaw, tongue, and throat to shape our breath into the fluent sequences of sounds that form our words and sentences. A new study by UC San Francisco scientists reveals how these…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/26/study-reveals-brain-activity-patterns-underlying-fluent-speech/

Yale scientists have identified a possible neurobiological home for the spiritual experience — the sense of...

Yale scientists have identified a possible neurobiological home for the spiritual experience — the sense of connection to something greater than oneself.     Activity in the parietal cortex, an area of the brain involved in awareness of self and others as…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/26/where-the-brain-processes-spiritual-experiences/

Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm. ;) Gif by Bees & Bombs https://twitter.com/beesandbombs

Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm. ;) Gif by Bees & Bombs https://twitter.com/beesandbombs
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/22/starfish/

A good night of sleep entails about eight hours of blissful immobility—a state of near paralysis that, though...

A good night of sleep entails about eight hours of blissful immobility—a state of near paralysis that, though welcome at night, would be inconvenient during the day. In a paper published in Cell Reports, Rockefeller scientists shed new light on the…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/22/drowsy-worms-offer-new-insights-into-the-neuroscience-of-sleep/

A new parenting study led by BYU professor Ali Crandall finds that the greater emotional control and problem-solving...

A new parenting study led by BYU professor Ali Crandall finds that the greater emotional control and problem-solving abilities a mother has, the less likely her children will develop behavioral problems, such as throwing tantrums or fighting. The study…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/21/keep-calm-and-carry-on-mothers-with-high-emotional-cognitive-control-help-kids-behave/

Memory, learning and cognitive flexibility depend on a protein ‘off-switch’ in the brain, according to a...

Memory, learning and cognitive flexibility depend on a protein ‘off-switch’ in the brain, according to a breakthrough discovery made by an international research collaboration co-led by the University of Warwick.  This new knowledge could enable us to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/21/memory-processes-depend-on-protein-off-switch-could-lead-to-new-alzheimers-treatments/

The holidays are meant to be savored and food and drink are part of the celebration.

The holidays are meant to be savored and food and drink are part of the celebration. As we gather together to eat and drink, here are some suggestions to help you manage your health and weight from P.K. Newby, “The Nutrition Doctor” and author of Food and…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/21/7-tips-to-avoid-holiday-weight-gain/

Hiding in plain sight, new research shines a spotlight on the placenta’s critical role in the nature versus nurture...

Hiding in plain sight, new research shines a spotlight on the placenta’s critical role in the nature versus nurture debate and how it confers risk for schizophrenia and likely other neurodevelopmental disorders including ADHD, autism, and Tourette…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/20/genes-environment-and-schizophrenia-new-study-finds-the-placenta-is-the-missing-link/

Researchers at King’s College London have discovered a fundamental process by which brains are built, which may have...

Researchers at King’s College London have discovered a fundamental process by which brains are built, which may have profound implications for understanding neurodevelopmental conditions like autism and epilepsy. The study, published in Nature and funded…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/20/how-to-build-a-brain-discovery-solves-evolutionary-mystery/

Meteors can be colorful.

Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a Geminid captured by camera during last week’s meteor shower that was not only impressively bright, but colorful. The radiant grit cast off by…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/20/a-rainbow-geminid-meteor/

My Thoughts, I am keenly aware of the tremendous personal honor involved in my having been chosen to be a member of...

My Thoughts, I am keenly aware of the tremendous personal honor involved in my having been chosen to be a member of the Army Special Attack Corps, which is considered to be the most elite attack force in the service of our glorious fatherland. 　　My…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/19/the-last-letter-of-a-kamikaze-pilot/

What if you could hold a physical model of your own brain in your hands, accurate down to its every unique fold?

What if you could hold a physical model of your own brain in your hands, accurate down to its every unique fold? That’s just a normal part of life for Steven Keating, Ph.D., who had a baseball-sized tumor removed from his brain at age 26 while he was a…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/19/creating-piece-of-mind/

Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified a neural circuit in the amygdala, the...

Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified a neural circuit in the amygdala, the brain’s seat of emotion processing, that gives rise to anxiety. Their insight has revealed the critical role of a molecule called dynorphin,…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/18/scientists-show-how-brain-circuit-generates-anxiety/

New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 & 2...

New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 & 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/18/saturns-rings-may-disappear-in-100-million-years/

In space, the human body loses muscle mass.

In space, the human body loses muscle mass. Although living in microgravity requires no heavy lifting, this loss of muscle reduces physical performance. Decreased muscle mass could also prove particularly problematic on future missions to destinations…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/18/worming-into-research-on-aging-and-muscle-loss-in-space/

On October 29, 2018, NASA’s Juno probe successfully performed her Perijove-16 Jupiter flyby.This time, Juno’s spin...

On October 29, 2018, NASA’s Juno probe successfully performed her Perijove-16 Jupiter flyby.This time, Juno’s spin axis was pointed away from Earth, in order to obtain a better view to Jupiter for Juno’s instruments. At the same time, solar conjunction…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/17/junos-perijove/

What is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy?

What is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy? Andromeda. In fact, our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/17/m31-the-andromeda-galaxy/

A study of 35 families led by a UC San Francisco psychiatric researcher showed for the first time that the structure...

A study of 35 families led by a UC San Francisco psychiatric researcher showed for the first time that the structure of the brain circuitry known as the corticolimbic system is more likely to be passed down from mothers to daughters than from mothers to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/16/brain-structure-governing-emotion-is-passed-down-from-mother-to-daughter/

Running barefoot is better than running with shoes for your working memory, according to a new study published by...

Running barefoot is better than running with shoes for your working memory, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of North Florida. The experiment, designed by lead researcher Dr. Ross Alloway, undertaken with Dr. Tracy…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/16/researchers-show-running-barefoot-improves-working-memory/

If a mother picks up an infection during pregnancy, her immune system will kick into action to clear the infection –...

If a mother picks up an infection during pregnancy, her immune system will kick into action to clear the infection – but this self-defense mechanism may also have a small influence how her child’s brain develops in the womb, in ways that are similar to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/16/infections-during-pregnancy-may-interfere-with-key-genes-associated-with-autism-and-prenatal-brain-development/

For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars.

For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. Voyager 2 now is slightly more…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/15/nasas-voyager-2-probe-enters-interstellar-space/

OSIRIS-REx mission recently arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx mission recently arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu. On approach, data from the spacecraft’s spectrometers revealed chemical signatures of water trapped in clay minerals.  While Bennu itself is too small to have ever hosted liquid…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/15/asteroid-bennu/

Normal function of the brain’s control centers is dependent upon adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients through a...

Normal function of the brain’s control centers is dependent upon adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients through a dense network of blood vessels. Blood is supplied to the brain, face, and scalp via two major sets of vessels: the right and left common…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/15/blood-vessels-of-the-brain/

Good Morning by the Daily Mirror, England, August 9, 1943

Good Morning by the Daily Mirror, England, August 9, 1943
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/14/catastrophe/

An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have some type of sleep disorder, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have some type of sleep disorder, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Some turn to melatonin supplements to help them fall asleep. Melatonin is a hormone known to promote sleep, but its underlying mechanisms…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/14/new-findings-explain-how-melatonin-promotes-sleep/

Parts of the brain not traditionally associated with learning science become active when people are confronted with...

Parts of the brain not traditionally associated with learning science become active when people are confronted with solving physics problems, a new study shows. The researchers, led by Eric Brewe, PhD, an associate professor in Drexel University’s College…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/14/new-parts-of-the-brain-become-active-after-students-learn-physics/

Gold mining has a long history in Egypt, as ancient artifacts attest.

Gold mining has a long history in Egypt, as ancient artifacts attest. This gold and lapis lazuli bracelet was probably worn by Ramesses II (reign. c.1279-1213 BC) or one of his favorites.  The solid gold bangle is composed of two parts, linked on one side…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/bracelet-of-ramesses-ii/

The human brain is an exquisitely complex, organic CPU, made of trillions of connections between many billions of...

The human brain is an exquisitely complex, organic CPU, made of trillions of connections between many billions of neurons. Understanding such a complicated organ is a massive scientific undertaking, and researchers often use simplified models to uncover…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/building-a-brain-cell-by-cell-researchers-make-a-mini-neuron-network-of-two/

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them...

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/travel-memo/

This is NASA InSight’s first full selfie on Mars.

This is NASA InSight’s first full selfie on Mars. It displays the lander’s solar panels and deck. On top of the deck are its science instruments, weather sensor booms and UHF antenna. The selfie was taken on Dec. 6, 2018 (sol 10). The selfie is made up of…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/insights-first-selfie/

The brain has an incredible capacity to support a lifetime of learning and memory.

The brain has an incredible capacity to support a lifetime of learning and memory. Each new experience fundamentally alters the connections between cells in the brain called synapses. To accommodate synaptic alterations, certain areas of the brain are…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/memory-molecule-limits-plasticity-by-calibrating-calcium/

Psychologists at the University of Sussex have found a link between depression and an acceleration of the rate at...

Psychologists at the University of Sussex have found a link between depression and an acceleration of the rate at which the brain ages. Although scientists have previously reported that people with depression or anxiety have an increased risk of dementia…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/13/depression-speeds-up-brain-ageing-find-psychologists/

The only active region observed this week appeared on Dec.

The only active region observed this week appeared on Dec. 5, 2018 and grew into an average size display of dynamic activity (Dec. 6-7, 2018). As viewed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the region presented numerous magnetic loops of charged…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/11/solar-active-regions-cameo-appearance/

When we speak, we unconsciously pronounce some words more slowly than others, and sometimes we make brief pauses or...

When we speak, we unconsciously pronounce some words more slowly than others, and sometimes we make brief pauses or throw in meaningless sounds like “uhm”. Such slow-down effects provide key evidence on how our brains process language. They point to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/11/nouns-slow-down-our-speech/

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and University of North Carolina, USA, have identified the cell types...

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and University of North Carolina, USA, have identified the cell types underlying schizophrenia in a new study published in Nature Genetics. The findings offer a roadmap for the development of new therapies to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/11/cell-types-underlying-schizophrenia-identified/

Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

Sometimes it’s all about perspective. This very convincing image of a conjoined moon masquerading as a snowman is actually two separate Saturnian moons – Dione and Rhea – taken from such an angle by the international Cassini spacecraft that they appear as…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/10/saturns-snowman/

A study published in Nature sheds new light on the connection between the gut and the brain, untangling the complex...

A study published in Nature sheds new light on the connection between the gut and the brain, untangling the complex interplay that allows the byproducts of microorganisms living in the gut to influence the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/10/how-the-gut-influences-neurological-disease/

The Computer Science and Engineering Research Team at the Toyohashi University of Technology has measured the pupil...

The Computer Science and Engineering Research Team at the Toyohashi University of Technology has measured the pupil (referred to as the “black part” of the eye) when a person is inspired by an object. It is known that the pupil dilates and narrows to…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/10/does-pupil-dilation-occur-before-insight/

The mitrailleuse was one of the early types of mechanical machine gun, along with the Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfelt,...

The mitrailleuse was one of the early types of mechanical machine gun, along with the Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfelt, and others. “Mitrailleuse” is actually a general name for a volley gun – one with many barrels in a cluster, which are fired sequentially.…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/09/reffy-mitrailleuse-1867/

Sand dunes often accumulate in the floors of craters.

Sand dunes often accumulate in the floors of craters. In this region of Lyot Crater, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a field of classic barchan dunes on Jan. 24, 2018. Just to the south of the group of barchan dunes is one large dune with a…
http://myfusimotors.com/2018/12/09/once-in-a-blune-dune/

Smarter brains run on sparsely connected neurons

Smarter brains run on sparsely connected neurons
The more intelligent a person, the fewer connections there are between the neurons in his cerebral cortex. This is the result of a study conducted by neuroscientists working with Dr Erhan Genç and Christoph Fraenz at Ruhr-Universität Bochum; the study was performed using a specific neuroimaging technique that provides insights into the wiring of the brain on a microstructural level.

Together with colleagues from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Humboldt University of Berlin and the Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute in Albuquerque, the team from the biopsychology research unit in Bochum published their report in the journal Nature Communications on May 15, 2018.

Intelligence is determined by the number of dendrites
The researchers analysed the brains of 259 men and women using neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging. This method enabled them to measure the amount of dendrites in the cerebral cortex, i.e. extensions of nerve cells that are used by the cells to communicate with each other. In addition, all participants completed an IQ test. Subsequently, the researchers associated the gathered data with each other and found out: the more intelligent a person, the fewer dendrites there are in their cerebral cortex.

Using an independent, publicly accessible database, which had been compiled for the Human Connectome Project, the team confirmed these results in a second sample of around 500 individuals.

Previously conflicting results are thus explained
The new findings provide an explanation of conflicting results gathered in intelligence research to date. For one, it had been previously ascertained that intelligent people tend to have larger brains. “The assumption has been that larger brains contain more neurons and, consequently, possess more computational power,” says Erhan Genç. However, other studies had shown that – despite their comparatively high number of neurons – the brains of intelligent people demonstrated less neuronal activity during an IQ test than the brains of less intelligent individuals.

“Intelligent brains possess lean, yet efficient neuronal connections,” concludes Erhan Genç. “Thus, they boast high mental performance at low neuronal activity.”

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04268-8

Source:
https://news.rub.de/english/press-releases/2018-05-17-neuroscience-smarter-brains-run-sparsely-connected-neurons

#cerebralcortex #dendrites #intelligence #neuralactivity #nervecells #neuroscience

Study reveals how the brain decides to make an effort

Study reveals how the brain decides to make an effort
From deciding to quit hitting the snooze button and get out of bed in the morning to opting to switch off the TV and prepare for sleep at night, the mind weighs the costs versus benefits of each choice we make. A study reveals the mechanics of how the brain makes such effortful decisions, calculating whether it is worth expending effort in exchange for potential rewards.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the findings by psychologists at Emory University.

“We showed that the brain’s ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which was not previously thought to play a key role in effort-based choices, actually appears to be strongly involved in the formation of expectations underlying those choices,” says Emory psychologist Michael Treadway, senior author of the paper.

Treadway’s lab focuses on understanding the molecular and circuit-level mechanisms of psychiatric symptoms related to mood, anxiety and decision-making.

“Understanding how the brain works normally when deciding to expend effort provides a way to pinpoint what’s going on in disorders where motivation is reduced, such as depression and schizophrenia,” he says.

Previous research had observed three brain regions in decision-making; the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), the anterior insula (aI) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Studies had pointed to the vmPFC as central to the computation of subjective value during probability decision-making. But prior evidence also suggested that when it comes to decisions about effort expenditure, those subjective value estimates were not computed by the vmPFC but by the other two brain regions.

A limitation to previous studies on effort-based choices is that they simultaneously presented the costs and benefits of a choice to experimental subjects.

“In the real world, however, we usually have to make decisions based on incomplete information,” says Amanda Arulpragasam, first author of the PNAS paper and a psychology PhD candidate in Treadway’s lab.

Arulpragasam designed a study that allowed the researchers to model distinct neural computations for effort and reward.

Subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an effort-based decision-making task where the effort costs and rewards of a choice were presented separately over time.

The subjects could choose to make no effort and receive $1, or make some level of physical effort in exchange for monetary rewards of varying magnitude, up to $5.73. The physical effort involved rapid button pressing at varying percentages of each participant’s maximum button pressing rate. Participants were required to press the button using their non-dominant pinkie finger, making the task challenging enough to be unpleasant, although not painful.

In the effort-first trials, participants were shown a vertical bar representing the percentage of their maximum button pressing rate that would be required to do the task. They were then shown the size of the reward for performing the task. The reward-first trials presented the information in the opposite order.

After receiving both sets of information, participants were prompted to choose the no-effort option or the effort option.

The experimental design allowed the researchers to tease apart the effects of recent choices on the formation of value expectations of future decisions.

The results revealed a clear role for the vmPFC in encoding an expected reward before all information had been revealed. The data also suggested that the dACC and aI are involved in encoding the difference between what participants were expecting and what they actually got, rather than effort-cost encoding.

“Some have argued that decisions about effort have a different neural circuitry than decisions about probability and risk,” Treadway says. “We’ve showed that all three brain regions come into play, just in a different way than was previously known.”

Journal article:
http://www.pnas.org/content/115/22/E5233

Source:
http://esciencecommons.blogspot.com/2018/05/study-reveals-how-brain-decides-to-make.html

#prefrontalcortex #cingulatecortex #decisionmaking #neuroimaging #neuroscience

“I have led an extraordinary life on this planet, while at the same time travelling across the universe by using my...

“I have led an extraordinary life on this planet, while at the same time travelling across the universe by using my mind and the laws of physics. I have been to the furthest reaches of our galaxy, travelled into a black hole and gone back to the beginning of time. On Earth, I have experienced highs and lows, turbulence and peace, success and suffering. I have been rich and poor, I have been able-bodied and disabled. I have been praised and criticized, but never ignored. I have been enormously privileged, through my work, in being able to contribute to our understanding of the universe. But it would be an empty universe indeed if it were not for the people I love, and who love me. Without them, the wonder of it all would be lost on me.”
~ Stephen Hawking, Brief Answers to the Big Questions

#wordsofwisdom #StephenHawking

Rolling ellipses of different dimensions to measure their perimeters

Rolling ellipses of different dimensions to measure their perimeters
The red line is the curve of perimeter versus how squashed the ellipse is. The curve is defined by an elliptic integral, and cannot be expressed with elementary functions.

Code:
https://pastebin.com/q4HpB39R

Credit: matthen
http://blog.matthen.com/

#math #geometry #ellipse #science

Satanic leaf-tailed gecko

Satanic leaf-tailed gecko
There are few geckos as bizarre and as fascinating as the satanic leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus phatantasicas), also referred to as “Phants” for short. These geckos' remarkable ability to mimic a leaf has captivated reptile hobbyists for decades. Originally described by George Albert Boulenger in 1888, Uroplatus phantasticas occurs in the tropical forests of the central to north east coast of Madagascar.

Determing the sex of phantasticas is rather simple. Typical of many gecko species, male phantasticas develop a clear hemipenal bulge at the base of their tail at around 5-6 months in age. Also phantasticas are sexually dimorphic in that males typically have a tail that resembles a leaf that has been predated on by insects more so than females who typically have a tail resembling a fresh leaf. However, this does not always hold true. Males typically attain a slightly smaller size than females, usually weighing in at between 4-6 grams. Females can attain 8-9 grams in weight.

Info:
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Care-Sheets/Satanic-Leaf-Tailed-Gecko-Care-Sheet/

Photos via San Diego Zoo

#biodiversity #coolcritters #satangecko

Perfume holder

Perfume holder
(27.0 x 19.0 x 15.5 cm: gold, silver and rubies), India 1870-1875

This perfume holder was presented to the Prince of Wales by Jashwant Singh ii, Maharaja of Jodhpur (1838–95). The Prince first met the Maharaja at the Madras Racecourse on 15 December, and later at Calcutta, where the Maharaja was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India on New Year’s Day 1876 .

The bud-shaped holder opens up when the finial is pressed to reveal five perfume holders held by silver filigree brackets. The openwork floral designs on the outside ‘leaves’ of the bud, the gold bottles and the silver filigree suggest that it was produced in different parts of India and later brought together. The gold scrolling foliage on the outer ‘leaves’, the ruby-inlaid perfume bottles and the fluted base are similar in style to metalwork from Madras, and the interior silver filigree work is similar to that produced in Orissa.

Source:
https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/publications/splendours-of-the-subcontinent

#history #science #indianculture

Scientists uncover brain circuits behind putting up a fight or freezing in place

Scientists uncover brain circuits behind putting up a fight or freezing in place
In a study of mice, National Institutes of Health-funded researchers describe a new circuit involved in fine-tuning the brain’s decision either to hide or confront threats. The study, published in Nature, was partially funded by the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.

“Being able to manipulate specific circuits can uncover surprising relationships between brain areas and provide great insight into how the sensory, emotional, and behavioral centers work together to drive reactions,” said Jim Gnadt, Ph.D., program director at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and a team lead for the BRAIN Initiative. “The tools and technologies developed through the BRAIN Initiative have made studies such as this one possible.”

A team of researchers led by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and of ophthalmology at Stanford University in California, investigated the role of the ventral midline thalamus (vMT) in determining how animals respond to visual threats. The thalamus is a brain region that acts as a relay station, taking in sensory information, such as what is seen and heard, and sorting out where in the brain to send that information.

Dr. Huberman and his colleagues showed that the vMT was activated when mice were confronted with a threat, specifically a black circle that grew larger on top of their cage, mimicking the experience of something looming over them. When faced with the looming threat, the mice spent most of the time freezing or hiding and very little time rattling their tails, which is typically an aggressive response.

To further investigate the role of vMT, Dr. Huberman’s team used state-of-the-art tools, including designer drugs that allowed specific circuits to be turned on and off. Although inactivating the vMT had no effect on freezing and hiding, it eliminated the tail rattling response. Turning on the vMT increased the number of tail shaking responses and caused the mice to move around more and spend less time hiding or freezing.

Dr. Huberman’s group also discovered that the vMT sends information primarily to two brain areas: the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These circuits turned out to be critical in determining how the mice reacted to a visual threat. Turning on the circuit that projected to the BLA caused more freezing responses, while activating the mPFC circuit increased tail shaking responses.

“Dr. Huberman’s work is opening a new area of vision research with the looming threat model, helping us understand how circuitry in the brain works from sensation to behavior,” said Thomas Greenwell, Ph.D., program director at the NIH’s National Eye Institute, which co-funded the study.

Dr. Huberman and his team showed that activation of the vMT increased arousal, a state of heightened alertness. Mice preferred spending more time in a room where they received vMT activation, suggesting that turning on that brain circuit made them feel good. Although there may have been a difference in response to the visual threat, either tail shaking or freezing, the underlying positive feeling was the same for both types of reactions.

“This study may help explain why acts of courage, such as standing up for yourself or for a cause, or a physical challenge can feel empowering. Experiencing that good feeling can also make it more likely to respond to future threats in a similar way,” said Dr. Huberman. “Although our study was done in mice, learning more about the vMT may provide some insight into conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder and we are now pursuing study of the human vMT for that reason.”

Future research is needed to increase understanding of ways in which the vMT circuit affects behavior and how to develop treatments that can target specific parts of this system.

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0078-2

Source:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/News-Events/News-and-Press-Releases/Press-Releases/Scientists-uncover-brain-circuits-behind-putting

Image: A new circuit for responses to threats: Researchers turned the ventral midline thalamus on and off in mice to study the animals’ responses to visual threats. Activated brain cells are shown in green.
Credit: Dr. Andrew Huberman and Lindsey Salay, Stanford University

#brain circuitry #thalamus #vMT #prefrontalcortex #amygdala #perception #visualthreat #neuroscience

Launching Rockets from the Top of the World

Launching Rockets from the Top of the World
Over the next 14 months, NASA scientists will join a group of international researchers to explore a special region — Earth’s northern polar cusp, one of just two places on our planet where particles from the Sun have direct access to our atmosphere.

What is the polar cusp?
Earth is surrounded by a giant magnetic bubble known as a magnetosphere, created by the churning of liquid iron in our planet’s outer core. Our magnetosphere protects us from many of the most dangerous denizens of the space environment, including the hot, electrically charged stream of particles known as the solar wind. Fortunately, our magnetic bubble keeps most of these solar wind particles at bay — but not all.

The polar cusps are essentially two holes in our magnetosphere. Here, Earth’s magnetic field lines funnel the solar wind downwards, concentrating its energy before injecting it into Earth’s atmosphere, where it mixes and collides with particles of Earthly origin.

The cusp stays positioned at local noon — wherever the Sun is directly overhead. As Earth turns, particles are funneled into different regions of the atmosphere like a tube of icing squirted onto a rotating cake. Once a day, the cusp passes right above Andøya Space Center and Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard rocket ranges in Northern Norway — where the Grand Challenge participants begin their investigations.

From these rocket ranges, the scientists of the Grand Challenge will fly sounding rockets — sub-orbital rockets that shoot up into space for a few minutes before falling back to Earth. Sounding rockets can access Earth’s atmosphere between 30 and 800 miles above the surface, the lower end of which is too high for scientific balloons and too low for satellites. Cheaper and faster to develop than large satellite missions, sounding rockets often carry the latest scientific instruments on their first-ever flights, allowing for unmatched speed in the turnaround from design to implementation.

Several mysteries of physics lurk within the cusp. Using cutting edge scientific tools, the participants in this Grand Challenge will chart new territory in exploring them.

Get informed:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/science-on-the-cusp-sounding-rockets-head-north

#NASA #space #universe #science #research #cusps

Study Links Breast Cancer, Body's Internal Clock

Study Links Breast Cancer, Body's Internal Clock
For years, doctors have associated the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations with an increased risk of breast cancer.

But researchers at Texas A&M University have now identified another gene that may have an impact on breast cancer—associated with the body’s circadian rhythm.

Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM) professor Weston Porter and his team have found that Period 2 (Per2), a regulatory mechanism within each cell’s peripheral clock, plays a crucial function in mammalian mammary gland development and that when suppressed, Per2 leads to severely disrupted gland development in mice.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Development, add to a growing list that ties disruptions to our circadian rhythm—that is, the “central clock” mechanism in our brains—to a higher risk of cancer progression, obesity, some neuromuscular diseases, and other impairments, including jetlag.

Circadian rhythm is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain’s anterior hypothalamus. In addition to coordinating our sleep patterns, the SCN coordinates the other peripheral clocks in our body, which run on a 24-hour cycle that corresponds with each day.

“Not only do we have a central clock, but every one of our cells has one of these peripheral clocks and they’re in coordination with the central clock,” Porter said. “When you wake up in the morning and see light, the light goes right into the brain and it triggers this molecular mechanism that regulates the (circadian rhythm) process.”

In their study, Porter’s team evaluated Per2, which provides the “negative feedback,” or counterbalance, to the circadian rhythm process.

“The negative and positive feedback mechanisms are constantly in balance, going up and down. One’s up during the day, the other one’s up at night—they oscillate right at 24 hours—but when you see light, that resets it in the morning,” Porter said. “When Per2 comes back, it suppresses another gene called BMAL or CLOCK.”

Their finding—that Per2 has a crucial function outside of timekeeping in mammalian mammary gland development where Per2 plays a role in cell differentiation and identity—describes a potentially important role for Per2 in breast cancer. Per2 expression is lost in a large percentage of mammary tumors, which suggests it may have protective effects.

“We discovered that these glands have what we call a kind of a bipotent phenotype; they’re actually halfway to cancer,” Porter said. “They’ve already have many of the characteristics you would see in a premalignant cell.

“We started to look at the mechanism associated with that and found that the stem cell markers associated with a loss of Per2 are more basal, which is characteristic of more invasive cancer,” he said. “This reinforces the idea that Per2 is functioning as a tumor suppressor gene associated with cell identity.”

In addition to disruption of the developing mammary gland, Porter also saw the same defect in transplant studies, showing that it is Per2, and not just the central clock itself, that is responsible for the lack of mammary ductal growth in the developing gland.

Their next step is to revisit studies that correlate working a night shift with an increased risk of breast cancer.

“Right now, we are investigating how our findings relate to humans,” Porter said. “There are studies out there showing a relationship between decreased levels of Per2 and certain types of breast cancer, which are more invasive. So, we believe that there is a direct relationship.”

Understanding circadian rhythm and its effects on the body have become increasingly important to the science community. The 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to researchers for discoveries of the molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm, and the National Cancer Institute recently named the role of circadian rhythms in cancer as one of their 12 provocative questions for the year.

Source:
http://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/texas-am-study-links-breast-cancer-body's-internal-clock

#suprachiasmaticnucleus #circadianrhythms #cancer #genemutation #Per2 #neuroscience #research

A Vital Pause: Neurons in the Brain’s Striatum May Help Regulate Response to Unexpected Stimuli

A Vital Pause: Neurons in the Brain’s Striatum May Help Regulate Response to Unexpected Stimuli
Changing our behavior based on unexpected cues from our environment is an essential part of survival. The ability to drop what you’re doing when circumstances demand it could mean the difference between avoiding a speeding vehicle or getting hit by it. A new study at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) has delved into a brain mechanism that may regulate such adaptation.

In the study, which was published in eLife, researchers led by Dr. Stefano Zucca at the OIST Neurobiology Research Unit investigated nerve cells in the striatum, a brain region involved in movement and motivation. Here, nerve cells called cholinergic interneurons (CINs) are in a near-constant state of activity, releasing a chemical called acetylcholine every time they fire. But if the brain gets an unexpected stimulus from outside the body – for example, a startling sound – the CINs will briefly stop firing.

“The purpose of these pauses is a mystery,” said senior author Prof. Jeff Wickens. “We wanted to know, what do these pauses do?”

To find out, his team manipulated CIN activity with a method known as optogenetics. They used a virus to replace sections of these neurons’ DNA with genes encoding for light-sensitive ion channels. Optical filaments were then implanted into the striatum of mice. By shining a laser beam into the cell along the filaments, the researchers could switch the CINs into active or inactive mode as the mice moved around their cage, allowing them to generate pauses in CIN firing at will.

The next step was the most challenging: Using electrodes inserted into single nerve cells to record the electrical impulses generated during the pauses. Previous studies recorded from outside of neurons, which can only generate limited information about the impulses they generate. To get a clear recording of electrical potential, the team needed direct measurements from inside the cell. That’s easier said than done: “You have to make a hole inside an individual cell and attach a probe without damaging it”, said Wickens. “It’s extremely fine work that Dr. Zucca perfected.”

When they generated the pauses in CIN activity, the researchers observed a knock-on effect on the neurons that CINs connect to—neurons called spiny projection neurons (SPNs), which in turn send signals from the striatum to the rest of the brain. During the pauses, because SPN neurons received lower stimulation from CINs, they were less likely to fire themselves, the study showed. These pauses, then, give interrupting events significance by effectively muting the striatum’s output signals.

The stops and starts in CIN activity may be a mechanism for controlling how animals respond to stimuli from their environment, says Wickens. For example, he said, “this mechanism might regulate how an animal stops eating when it hears an unfamiliar sound”.

“The CINs only make up 1% of cells in the striatum, but they have a huge influence,” said Prof. Wickens. “They’re important in making changes in behavior, and play a part in movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease when they malfunction.”

The researchers now plan to explore the phenomenon in more detail. “Next we’d like to see if this pause is happening everywhere in the striatum at the same time, or if it’s limited to specific locations”, says Prof. Wickens. That will help reveal how it affects behaviors from moment to moment, he adds.

Journal article:
https://elifesciences.org/articles/32510

Source:
https://www.oist.jp/news-center/news/2018/5/10/vital-pause-neurons-brain%E2%80%99s-striatum-may-help-regulate-response

Image: Florescent imaging of a section of the striatum showing Cholinergic Interneurons (CINs) in green, and Spiny Projection Neurons (SPNs) in red

#optogenetics #cholinergicinterneurons #striatum #spinyprojectionneurons #neuroscience

Optical Illusions by graphic designer Yurii Perepadia using complex colors and shapes to create motion within still...

Optical Illusions by graphic designer Yurii Perepadia using complex colors and shapes to create motion within still images.

Optical illusions can use color, light and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains. The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match the true image. Perception refers to the interpretation of what we take in through our eyes. Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real.

Image credit: yuryfrom
https://www.instagram.com/yuryfrom/

#animations #opticalillusions #science #brain

InSight's first image from Mars

InSight's first image from Mars
Am I excited about this new Mars mission? Woohoo...I am beyond excited.
I mean, look at this stracciatella bonbon :)

This is the first image taken by NASA’s InSight lander on the surface of Mars. The instrument context camera (ICC) mounted below the lander deck obtained this image on Nov. 26, 2018, shortly after landing. The transparent lens cover was still in place to protect the lens from any dust kicked up during landing.

Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/22159/insights-first-image-from-mars/

#space #NASA #MARS #InSight #exploration #science #universe

SMD Spacecraft Fleet

SMD Spacecraft Fleet
NASA Science missions circle Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Mars and many other destinations within our solar system, including spacecraft that look out even further into our universe. The Science Fleet depicts the scope of NASA's activity and how their missions have traveled throughout the solar system.

Credit
NASA/GSFC

#NASA #space #universe #science

Opposing Solar Prominences

Opposing Solar Prominences
Two solar prominences, directly at opposite sides of the Sun, rose up, twisted around, and fell apart at roughly the same time over a 26-hour period (Nov. 12-13, 2018). Prominences are cooler clouds of plasma suspended above the Sun by powerful magnetic forces. Although prominences are fairly common, it is uncommon to see two of them, about the same size, diametrically opposed to each other and lasting just about the same time. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

#universe #NASA #space #sun #prominences #science

A new way to watch brain activity in action

A new way to watch brain activity in action
It’s a neuroscientist’s dream: being able to track the millions of interactions among brain cells in animals that move about freely, behaving as they would under natural circumstances. New technology developed at The Rockefeller University represents a big step toward realizing that goal.

The invention, reported in Nature Methods, is expected to give researchers a dynamic tool to study the brain’s role in various behaviors. Although designed for use on mice, information gleaned from it could someday shed light on neuronal activity in humans as well, says Alipasha Vaziri, who led the technology’s development as head of the Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics. For example, it might allow us to better understand the neuronal basis of brain disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

Vaziri says the tool provides an opening to an exciting range of discoveries. As an animal moves about its environment, for instance, some neurons direct spatial navigation while others receive sensory feedback from changes to the body’s position or the visual system. “Until now, no one has been able to detect how these different neurons, which can be located at different depths within a volume of brain tissue, dynamically interact with each other in a freely moving rodent,” says Vaziri, an associate professor at Rockefeller. Similarly, the tool can be used to record the interplay among neurons when two animals meet and interact socially.

High-tech headgear
The technology consists of a tiny microscope attached to a mouse’s head and outfitted with a specialized group of lenses called a microlens array. These lenses enable the microscope to capture images from multiple angles and depths on a sensor chip, producing a three-dimensional record of neurons blinking on and off as they communicate with each other through electrochemical impulses. (In the experiments, the mouse neurons are genetically modified to light up when they become activated.) A coaxial cable attached to the top of the microscope transmits the data for recording. The head-mounted gear weighs only four grams, but Vaziri expects that planned modifications will make it even lighter.

Once the microlens array has captured sensor images from within a volume of brain tissue, the next challenge is to process this raw data. Brain tissue is opaque, making it difficult to pinpoint the source of each neuronal light flash. Vaziri’s team solved this problem, which is the result of so-called scattering, by developing a new computer algorithm. “The algorithm utilizes the statistical properties of neurons’ distribution in space and in activity,” Vaziri explains, “while extracting additional information from the scattered emission light. This enables their activity to be simultaneously and faithfully recorded within a volume despite the highly scattering tissue properties.”

The result is a clear image that shows individual neurons flashing in sequence.

Faster, more effective imaging
Vaziri’s lab has previously applied this algorithm, known by the acronym SID, in studies in which the heads of the mice were secured in a fixed position. Their latest research is the first to demonstrate that these inventions can be used together with a tiny microscope called the Miniscope, developed by a collaborating team at the University of California Los Angeles, to measure neuronal activity volumetrically in unconstrained animals.

The technology, if widely adopted, could offer several advantages over two-photon microscopy, a broadly used neuroscience tool. For example, two-photon microscopy records neuronal activity within individual focal planes—thin, virtual “slices” of the sample—that then are combined to create a three-dimensional image. In contrast, Vaziri’s method immediately captures data in three dimensions over an entire volume of tissue, making it faster and more effective.

Vaziri plans to continue developing tools to record neuronal activity in even larger portions of the brain than currently possible, and at higher speeds and resolution. “We hope this work will ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of how the brain processes information underlying the generation of behavior,” he says.

Source:
https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/22576-new-way-watch-brain-activity-action/

Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-018-0008-0

GIF: A mouse’s hippocampal brain neurons flash on and off as the animal walks around with a microlens array on its head.
Credit: The Rockefeller University

#brainactivity #hippocampus #neurons #animalmodel #neuroscience

The Yogi masters were right – breathing exercises can sharpen your mind

The Yogi masters were right – breathing exercises can sharpen your mind
It has long been claimed by Yogis and Buddhists that meditation and ancient breath-focused practices, such as pranayama, strengthen our ability to focus on tasks. A study by researchers at Trinity College Dublin explains for the first time the neurophysiological link between breathing and attention.

Breath-focused meditation and yogic breathing practices have numerous known cognitive benefits, including increased ability to focus, decreased mind wandering, improved arousal levels, more positive emotions, decreased emotional reactivity, along with many others. To date, however, no direct neurophysiological link between respiration and cognition has been suggested.

The research shows for the first time that breathing – a key element of meditation and mindfulness practices – directly affects the levels of a natural chemical messenger in the brain called noradrenaline. This chemical messenger is released when we are challenged, curious, exercised, focused or emotionally aroused, and, if produced at the right levels, helps the brain grow new connections, like a brain fertilizer. The way we breathe, in other words, directly affects the chemistry of our brains in a way that can enhance our attention and improve our brain health.

The study, carried out by researchers at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity, found that participants who focused well while undertaking a task that demanded a lot of attention had greater synchronization between their breathing patterns and their attention, than those who had poor focus. The authors believe that it may be possible to use breath-control practices to stabilize attention and boost brain health.

Michael Melnychuk, PhD candidate at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity, and lead author of the study, explained: “Practitioners of yoga have claimed for some 2,500 years, that respiration influences the mind. In our study we looked for a neurophysiological link that could help explain these claims by measuring breathing, reaction time, and brain activity in a small area in the brainstem called the locus coeruleus, where noradrenaline is made. Noradrenaline is an all-purpose action system in the brain. When we are stressed we produce too much noradrenaline and we can’t focus. When we feel sluggish, we produce too little and again, we can’t focus. There is a sweet spot of noradrenaline in which our emotions, thinking and memory are much clearer.”

“This study has shown that as you breathe in locus coeruleus activity is increasing slightly, and as you breathe out it decreases. Put simply this means that our attention is influenced by our breath and that it rises and falls with the cycle of respiration. It is possible that by focusing on and regulating your breathing you can optimize your attention level and likewise, by focusing on your attention level, your breathing becomes more synchronized.”

The research provides deeper scientific understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms which underlie ancient meditation practices. The findings were recently published in a paper entitled ‘Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama’ in the journal Psychophysiology. Further research could help with the development of non-pharmacological therapies for people with attention compromised conditions such as ADHD and traumatic brain injury and in supporting cognition in older people.

There are traditionally two types of breath-focused practices — those that emphasize focus on breathing (mindfulness), and those that require breathing to be controlled (deep breathing practices such as pranayama). In cases when a person’s attention is compromised, practices which emphasize concentration and focus, such as mindfulness, where the individual focuses on feeling the sensations of respiration but make no effort to control them, could possibly be most beneficial. In cases where a person’s level of arousal is the cause of poor attention, for example drowsiness while driving, a pounding heart during an exam, or during a panic attack, it should be possible to alter the level of arousal in the body by controlling breathing. Both of these techniques have been shown to be effective in both the short and the long term.

Ian Robertson, Co-Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity and Principal Investigator of the study added: “Yogis and Buddhist practitioners have long considered the breath an especially suitable object for meditation. It is believed that by observing the breath, and regulating it in precise ways—a practice known as pranayama—changes in arousal, attention, and emotional control that can be of great benefit to the meditator are realized. Our research finds that there is evidence to support the view that there is a strong connection between breath-centered practices and a steadiness of mind.”

“Our findings could have particular implications for research into brain ageing. Brains typically lose mass as they age, but less so in the brains of long term meditators. More ‘youthful’ brains have a reduced risk of dementia and mindfulness meditation techniques actually strengthen brain networks. Our research offers one possible reason for this – using our breath to control one of the brain’s natural chemical messengers, noradrenaline, which in the right ‘dose’ helps the brain grow new connections between cells. This study provides one more reason for everyone to boost the health of their brain using a whole range of activities ranging from aerobic exercise to mindfulness meditation."

Source:
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/the-yogi-masters-were-right-breathing-exercises-can-sharpen-your-mind/8917/

Journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/psyp.13091

#meditation #locuscoeruleus #pranayama #noradrenaline #breathing #neuroscience

Giant Isopod

Giant Isopod
Looking like it just crawled out of a bad science fiction movie, the giant isopod is without a doubt one of the strangest creatures found in the deep sea. Known scientifically as Bathynomus giganteus, it is one of about nine members of the genus Bathynomus. It is also the largest known members of the isopod family, a group of crustaceans closely related to shrimps and crabs. The giant isopod is also related to the small pillbugs that you can find in the garden. In fact, this insect-like creature is sometimes referred to as the giant pillbug. Giant isopods are not usually fished commercially, although some can be found in the occasional oceanside restaurant in northern Taiwan, where they are boiled and served with rice.

The enormous size of the giant isopod is a result of a phenomenon known as deep sea gigantism. This is the tendency of deep sea crustaceans and other animals to grow to a much larger size than similar species in shallower waters.

The giant isopod can grow to a length of over 16 inches, which makes it one of the largest members of the crustacean family. Like its terrestrial cousin, the pillbug, the giant isopod's body is protected by a hard shell that is divided into segments. This allows it to be strong and flexible at the same time. When threatened, this animal can roll itself into a ball to protect its vulnerable underside. And just like its land-based counterpart, the isopod has compound eyes, with over 4,000 individual facets. This gives the animal a large field of view, and makes it extremely sensitive to fast movements. Because light is extremely faint in the deep sea, the giant isopod has developed large antennae to help it feel its way around as it crawls along the ocean floor.

The giant isopod is a carnivorous crustacean that spends its time scavenging the deep sea floor. Food is extremely scarce at these great depths, so the isopod has adapted to eat what ever happens to fall from above. This includes the bodies of dead whales, fish, and squid. It is believed that the isopod will also feed on some slow-moving animals such as sea cucumbers and sponges. The giant isopod has a complex mouth that with many components that work together to pierce, shred, and disembowel their prey. The isopod can go for long periods of time without eating and has been known to survive over eight weeks without food in when kept in captivity.

Giant isopods reproduce by laying eggs. These eggs are thought to be the largest of all the marine invertebrates. The females develop a pouch known as a marsupium, where the eggs are stored until the young are ready to emerge. When this happens, the young isopods escape from the marsupium as fully formed miniatures of the adults. At this stage, they are known as manca and are nearly fully developed. Bypassing the larval stage greatly enhances the young isopod's chances of survival.

Info source:
http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/giant-isopod.html

Gif via imgur

#biodiversity #coolcritters #giantisopod #science #biology #marinecritters

Leidenfrost wheels

Leidenfrost wheels
Leidenfrost drops – which skitter almost frictionlessly across extremely hot surfaces on a thin layer of their own vapor – are notoriously mobile. We’ve all seen numerous methods of controlling their propulsion, often using specially-shaped surfaces. But it turns out that some Leidenfrost drops can self-propel even on a smooth, flat surface.

Internally, large Leidenfrost drops have complicated, but symmetric flows that are driven by temperature and surface tension variations across the drop. But as the drop evaporates, that symmetry eventually gets broken, leaving behind a single large circulating flow.

Beneath the drop, that internal circulation affects the vapor layer. It causes the layer to take on an overall tilt, and the rotation, along with that slight angle in the vapor layer, causes the Leidenfrost drop to roll away like a wheel.

Image and research credit: A. Bouillant et al.; via NYTimes

Journal article
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0275-9

Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/science/leidenfrost-effect.html

#physics #leidenfrosdroplets #science

Dust Storms Raised by Strong Winds on Titan

Dust Storms Raised by Strong Winds on Titan
Earth and Mars are well-known for their dust storms, but a new source of extraterrestrial dust storms is joining them: Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan already shares unusual similarities to Earth: it is the only other place known to currently have stable liquid bodies at its surface. On Earth, water makes up our lakes and oceans; on Titan, it’s methane.

The evidence that Titan may also have dust storms dates from several Cassini flybys in 2009 and 2010. Cassini observed short-lived infrared bright spots in a dune-covered equatorial region. After considering several other possible sources for these temporary bright spots, researchers concluded that the most likely explanation was dust clouds suspended by high winds. This suggests that the dune fields on Titan are still actively changing, just like those on Earth and Mars!

Image credit: artist’s concept for Titan dust storm - NASA/ESA/IPGP/Labex UnivEarthS/University Paris Diderot;
Research credit: S. Rodriguez et al.;
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA22482

#nasa #space #Titan #Cassini #universe #science

"It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.”

"It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.”
~M.Pearson

Work by bigblueboo

#animation #processing #maths #science

Scientists search for the clocks behind aging brain disorders

Scientists search for the clocks behind aging brain disorders
To understand the link between aging and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, NIH scientists compared the genetic clocks that tick during the lives of normal and mutant flies. They found that altering the activity of a gene called Cdk5 appeared to make the clocks run faster than normal, and the flies older than their chronological age. This caused the flies to have problems walking or flying later in life, to show signs of neurodegeneration, and to die earlier.

“We tried to untangle the large role aging appears to play in some of the most devastating neurological disorders,” said Edward Giniger, Ph.D., senior investigator at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the senior author of the study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms. “Our results suggest that neurodegenerative disorders may accelerate the aging process.”

On average, the normal flies in this study lived for 47 days. To create a genetic clock, Dr. Giniger’s team measured the levels of every gene encoded in messenger RNA molecules from cells from the heads and bodies of flies at 3, 10, 30, and 45 days after birth. This allowed the researchers to use advanced analysis techniques to search for the genes that seemed to be sensitive to aging, and create a standard curve, or timeline, that described the way they changed.

When they performed the same experiments on 10-day-old mutant flies and compared the results with the standard curve, they found that the flies were “older” than their chronological age. Altering Cdk5 activity made the brains of the flies appear genetically to be about 15 days old and their bodies to be about 20 days old.

Preclinical studies suggest that Cdk5 is a gene that is important for the normal wiring of the brain during early development and may be involved in some neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, Dr. Giniger’s team found that eliminating or increasing Cdk5 activity beyond normal levels shortened the lives of the flies to about 30 days. After 10 days of age, the manipulations reduced the distance flies could climb up tubes and the alterations caused older flies to have signs of neurodegeneration, including higher than normal levels of brain cell death and degradation.

More analysis showed that altering Cdk5 activity changed the level of several groups of genes that were also affected by aging, including those that control immunity, energy, and antioxidant activity.

To explore this idea further, the researchers tested the strength of the flies’ antioxidant defenses against toxic versions of several chemicals found in cells called oxygen free radicals. Initial experiments showed that aging reduced these defenses in normal flies. Three-day-old healthy flies lived for about 100 hours after exposure to free radicals, and that time decreased with age. In contrast, the defenses of Cdk5 mutant flies were even weaker as they died sooner than the control flies at all ages.

“Our results suggest that aging may not just predispose an individual to degeneration, as we thought. Acceleration of aging may actually be part of the mechanism by which degenerative disease disrupts the structure and function of the brain,” said Dr. Giniger. “We hope that our approach will help researchers untangle the mysteries behind several neurodegenerative disorders.”

His team plans to continue investigating the role of aging in the process of neurodegeneration.

Source:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/News-Events/News-and-Press-Releases/Press-Releases/NIH-scientists-search-clocks-behind-aging-brain

Journal article:
http://dmm.biologists.org/content/11/3/dmm031161

#aging #neurodegeneration #cdk5 #fruitflies #genemutation #neuroscience

Double Lunar Transit

Double Lunar Transit
In just about seven hours, the SDO spacecraft saw the moon transit the Sun two times (Sept. 9-10, 2018). Transits occur when an object passes between a larger body and the viewer. The first transit lasted about an hour and covered 92 percent of the Sun at its peak. The second transit lasted about 50 minutes and covered just 34 percent of the Sun at its peak. The Moon appears to go in one direction in the first transit and the opposite direction in the second.

This is because the SDO spacecraft orbits around Earth, moving in the same direction as the Moon but faster. On the first transit it catches up with and passes the Moon. As SDO swings back around the far side of Earth, it encounters the Moon again from the far side of Earth, where it appears to travel in the opposite direction. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. None of this was visible from Earth.

Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/potw/item/930

#science #universe #space #SDO #sun

The Lonely Neutron Star in Supernova Remnant E0102-72.3

The Lonely Neutron Star in Supernova Remnant E0102-72.3
Why is this neutron star off-center? Recently a lone neutron star has been found within the debris left over from an old supernova explosion. The "lonely neutron star" in question is the blue dot at the center of the red nebula near the bottom left of E0102-72.3. In the featured image composite, blue represents X-ray light captured by NASA's Chandra Observatory, while red and green represent optical light captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.

The displaced position of this neutron star is unexpected since the dense star is thought to be the core of the star that exploded in the supernova and created the outer nebula. It could be that the neutron star in E0102 was pushed away from the nebula's center by the supernova itself, but then it seems odd that the smaller red ring remains centered on the neutron star. Alternatively, the outer nebula could have been expelled during a different scenario -- perhaps even involving another star. Future observations of the nebulas and neutron star appear likely to resolve the situation.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/ESO/F. Vogt et al.); Optical (ESO/VLT/MUSE & NASA/STScI)

#space #NASA #universe #supernova #science

Stars and Dust in Corona Australis

Stars and Dust in Corona Australis
Cosmic dust clouds and young, energetic stars inhabit this telescopic vista, less than 500 light-years away toward the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. The dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way. But the striking complex of reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, and IC 4812 produce a characteristic color as blue light from the region's young, hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust.

The dust also obscures from view stars still in the process of formation. At top right, smaller yellowish nebula NGC 6729 bends around young variable star R Coronae Australis. Near it, glowing arcs and loops shocked by outflows from embedded newborn stars are identified as Herbig-Haro objects. On the sky this field of view spans about 1 degree. That corresponds to almost 9 light-years at the estimated distance of the nearby star forming region.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis

#space #nasa #universe #science

Immune system activation in pregnant women can shape brain development in their babies

Immune system activation in pregnant women can shape brain development in their babies
A landmark study published in the Journal of Neuroscience on February 26 reveals that activation of a pregnant mother’s immune system can affect her baby’s brain development. A team of researchers led by Bradley Peterson, MD, director of the Institute for the Developing Mind in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, found that short- and long-term brain functioning can be influenced by immune system activity during the third trimester of gestation.

Many triggers can generate immune responses, such as infections, stress, illness, or allergies. When the body’s immune system detects one of these triggers, proteins are released as part of an inflammatory response. Animal studies have shown that some of the proteins released during this response can impact offspring, but little is known about the effect on humans. The current study was designed to determine whether this immune response can impact the developing nervous system of infants.

The study recruited young women in their second trimester and involved a blood draw and fetal heart monitoring during the third trimester, anatomical brain scans of the newborns, and cognitive behavioral assessment of the babies at 14 months of age. The ages of the pregnant young women (14 to 19 years) put them at high risk for psychosocial stress and resulting inflammation.

This unique, prospective study design allowed Peterson and his colleagues to follow babies from a critical point in fetal brain development in utero, through birth, and all the way into toddlerhood. The goal was to examine the possible link between markers of inflammation in the mother’s blood with changes in the nervous system of their babies.

Blood drawn from mothers during their third trimester was tested for levels of IL-6 and CRP – two proteins that are found at higher levels when the immune system is activated. Peterson’s team also monitored fetal heart rate as an indicator for nervous system development. The team found that CRP did correlate with variability of the fetal heart rate, which is influenced heavily by the nervous system, indicating that maternal inflammation was already beginning to shape brain development.

When the babies were born, they were given MRI scans in their first few weeks of life, providing researchers a unique view of early neural development and the influence of prenatal factors. Brain imaging revealed a striking finding – significant changes in the communication between specific brain regions correlated with elevated maternal IL-6 and CRP levels. These brain regions are known collectively as the salience network, whose job is to filter stimuli coming into the brain and determine which deserve attention.

“Our brain is constantly receiving information from our bodies and the external world,” explains Peterson, who is also the director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Professor of Pediatrics in the Keck School of Medicine at USC. “The salience network sifts through that information and decides what is important and warrants action.” Disturbances in the functioning of this network, as well as various kind of infection and other triggers of a pregnant woman’s immune response, have been linked to development of psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. Peterson’s study is the first to link maternal inflammation directly to disruptions in the salience network in infants.

The correlations of elevated maternal inflammatory markers were not limited to the newborn period, but continued to persist into toddlerhood. When the babies turned 14 months of age, researchers assessed them for motor skills, language development, and behavior. Following the established Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition, Peterson found significant changes in the scores of toddlers born to mothers with elevated levels of both IL-6 and CRP.

While researchers still have much work to do in order to completely understand just how these immune factors contribute to altered brain development, this study represents an important step forward. “This finding fills in a missing piece,” says Peterson. “Although studies in animals have suggested it, this study indicates that markers of inflammation in a mom’s blood can be associated with short- and long-term changes in their child’s brain, which will now allow us to identify ways to prevent those effects and ensure children develop in the healthiest possible way beginning in the womb and continuing through later childhood and beyond.”

Source:
https://www.chla.org/press-release/immune-system-activation-pregnant-women-can-shape-brain-development-their-babies

Journal article:
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/11/2877

#pregnancy #braindevelopment #maternalimmuneactivation #interleukin6 #neuroscience

Saturn's North Polar Hexagon

Saturn's North Polar Hexagon
Extending to 70 degrees north latitude, the false-color video frame is map-projected, based on infrared, visible, and ultraviolet image data recorded by the Saturn-orbiting spacecraft in late 2012. First found in the outbound Voyager flyby images from the 1980s, the bizarre, long-lived feature tied to the planet's rotation is about 30,000 kilometers across.

At its center lies the ringed gas giant's hurricane-like north polar storm. A new long term study of Cassini data has found a remarkable higher-altitude vortex, exactly matching the outlines of the north polar hexagon, that formed as summer approached the planet's northern hemisphere. It appears to reach hundreds of kilometers above these deeper cloud tops, into Saturn's stratosphere.

Info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

#space #NASA #Cassini #Saturn #science #universe