The human brain is the most complex and least understood biological structure in the kniwn universe.
NSF and BRAIN (brain research through Advancing Innovative neurotechnologies) invested in brain research that produced amazing discoveries related to humans and animals. Here are
Few recent findings, running the gamut from insights about the brains of dinosaurs and octopuses to discoveries involving Alzheimer's brain controlled machines and more.
Surprise! some types of wrinkles are good
Our human brain is relatively large for our body size and more wrikled than the brains of other animals. brain
size and wrinkle numbers correlate with intelligence across species.
The outer layer of the human brain is covered by wrinkles , and the more of them the better. Why? Because these wrinkles increase the surface area available for neurons (the functional units of information processing) without increasing head size- good for women during child birth. Human brain wrinkles are thought to be almost as hereditary as human height.
Elizabeth Atkinson of Washington university in St. Louis recently identified chromosome segments and genes that correlate with wrinkle numbers in about 1,000 baboons, which are genetically similar to humans. The next step: pinpointing exactly where in these genetic regions folding patterns originate, which would provide insights into the evolution of the human brain.
Dinosaurs: Not big and dumb, after all--just big?
A new map of a generalised dinosaur brain suggests the possible existence of a cerebrum, a brain part that controls complex cognitive behaviors in mammals.
Although scientists don't know what functions dinosour cerebrums may have controlled, their existance would suggest that dinosours may have performed complex behavior than previously believed-- such as forming social groups and possibly communicating.
The map is based on inferences from the genetics and organisations of crocodile and bird brains.Because crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds form an evolutionary chain, Scientists believe that these animals' brain stuctures shared important trait.
The brain map is also based on fossilized dinosaur skull cavities, which yield implications about the shape of dinosaur brains.
Such evidence provides the best clues to the dinosaur brain in the absence of any known fossilized brain tissue from dinosaurs.
The dinosaur brain was mapped by Erich Jarvis of Duke University.
A possible explanation for Einstein's intelligence
Studies of Einstein's brain conducted in the 1980s revealed that Einstein had an unusually large number of brain cells, called glia, in his cerebral cortex, and that one type of his glia was unusually large and complexly shaped. Though lacking statistical significance, these studies helped generate interest in glia.
Glia had long been dismissed as connective tissue that doesn't contribute to learning and memory, as do neurons. This idea had become entrenched because glia don't generate electrical signals--considered to be the core of brain function--as do neurons.
Harder evidence of the glia's influence on intelligence includes a 2013 study involving the injection of human glia into the brains of newborn mice. As adults, the injected mice became faster learners than control subjects.
Scientists may be able to predict when you'll be primed for risky business
Recent advances in brain imaging technology may allow researches to predict whether someone will make a safe or a risky financial decision based on certain types of brain activity prior to deciding.
According to Brian Knuston and charlene c.Wu of stanford university, people who expect to win big things show increased activity in certain brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens (group of neurons in striatum) , which is associated with reward and pleasure. whereas those expect to lose show enhanced activity in anterior insula (Linked to anxiety).
The more money at stake, the more activity in these regions observed. But while more activity in the nucleus accumbens encouraged risk-taking, more activity in the anterior insula reduced risk taking.
These findings imply that when people are more exicetes, they will take bigger risk. In fact, long shot wins (big lottery wins) powerfully increased both excitment and nucleus accumbens activity, encouraging people to take risks.
Cell-based therapy may ultimately help beat back brain cancers
Brain tumors are the second-leading cause of U.S. cancer-related deaths, with 70,000 diagnoses of this invariably deadly disease made annually.
Now, Stefan Bossmann and Deryl Troyer of Kansas State University are working to improve a type of promising cell therapy that has yet to be used successfully. The researchers' therapy would work by collecting a cancer patient's blood; refurbishing selected white blood cells with "cargo holds" or closed cavities that would be filled with anticancer drugs; and then re-injecting the patient's blood to deliver drugs directly to tumors.
Previous efforts to develop this type of cell therapy produced weak, leaky medicinal cavities that killed carrier cells, not tumors. But the researchers are improving these cavities by developing a new type of material for them that forms something akin to a self-assembling artificial bubble--designed to be selectively absorbed by the right type of white blood cells, remain strong enough to hold medicine and naturally self-destruct upon reaching tumors.
Cell therapy delivers significantly more anticancer drugs to tumors than does conventional chemotherapy and nanotherapy, without damaging the body's immune system.
With preliminary experiments in mice competed, the therapy will soon be used to specifically target mice tumors for the first time, with the hope that this therapy will ultimately be able to be successfully used on human brain tumors.
Birds responses to climate change: Its all in their heads
Different bird species use different cues to determine when to migrate and to reproduce. Whether any
To varying degrees, all bird species use day length as a cue. They measure day light and anticipate seasonal changes via light-activated receptors located deep in their brains . The light penetrates their skulls without even necessarily passing through their eyes.
Because day length is unaffected by climate change, some long distance migrators, such as the pied-flycatcher, whose main migratory cue is day length, have maintained fairly consistent arrival times at their spring breeding grounds. Yet, spring temperatures now tend to increase earlier in the year because of climate change. So such migrators now tend to arrive at their breeding grounds late relative to premature springs--and, therefore, now miss insect population peaks upon which they previously feasted. With less to eat, such migrators are now producing few chicks, which may cause population declines.
Changes in the timing of the migratory activities of some temperature sensitive bird species correlate with climate change-related temperature changes.
But most studies of the processing of day length by birds have addressed only males. Now Nicole Perfito of the University of California, Berkeley is studying how females of two bird species process day length and other cues that influence the timing of egg laying--an important factor in their potential responses to climate change.
Types of Brain: Still Unknown not longer more
The human brain has about 100 billion neurons. But Scientists don't yet have a complete inventory of the many types of brain cells and their functions.They also don't know how electrical and chemical signals from neurons produce thoughts, behavios and actions.
Without such knowledge, scientists cannot yet explain how traumatic injuries and neurodegenerative diseases impair brain or should be treated.
Yet new types of brain cells are often being identified, partly because of new brain imaging techniques that can zoom in on the brain to reveal increasing detail, just as Google maps can zoom in on neighborhoods.
To standardise the naming of neurons and create a universally accepted inventory of neurons type, Edward Boyden Of MIT and others are working with the THE ALLEN INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN SCIENCE to create the first comprehensive database of types of brain .
Designer Antibodies may ultimately help fight Alzheimer's
Antibodies, which are proteins traditionally made by the body's immune system in response to invaders, are already established allies in our fight against the flu virus and other harmful entities. Now, they are being engineered to treat and possibly protect us against disease-linked proteins, such as those associated with Alzheimer's disease.Such engineering requires designing antibodies that have extreme targeting capabilities so that they can be directed to go where and do exactly what is needed. Antibodies used for therapeutic or experimental reasons are usually taken from immunized animals or enormous antibody libraries. So it's difficult to custom-order them.
Peter Tessier of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., is working to engineer antibodies that have precise properties. By placing DNA sequences of the target protein within antibodies, Tessier may design antibodies to bind to select proteins, such as beta-amyloid plaques, a protein linked with Alzheimer's. Further research may lead to the development of antibodies that recognize and remove toxic particles before they do harm.
Source:
NSF
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