Category Archives: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

THE PORT RAIL: The research dimension of higher education – Tuscaloosa News

The Tuscaloosa News

As we enter a new year and chase out the tens of thousands Chinese spies inhabiting the halls (and labs) of Ivy and Kudzu across the nation, it may be a good time to take stock of why even colleges and universities exist.

They were established in the Middle Ages places like Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Salamanca, Bologna to foster Christianity, plain and simple. Universities evolved as did Western civilization over the next thousand years so today they reflect two basic areas: the best in the traditional liberal arts curriculum and the scientific and technological cutting edges of the times. The University of Alabama is no exception.

Television viewers will see the slogan Where Legends Are Made as they watch Tide football. This is marketing your product. It is selling and has nothing to do with research. More insightful are the three words printed in large letters as you approach the university near DCH Regional Medical Center. Teaching, Research, Service

Excellence as the mission of higher education. What does excellence look like?

Many of you remember more than football, girls (or boys), fraternities and sororities, the Strip, and the life of an undergraduate. I do, too. Like you, I remember faculty who woke me up to things I never thought much about, or how to think about them. I even discovered in a botany lab on Saturday mornings somewhere in the Duke University forest that there were worlds I knew absolutely nothing about. The world was bigger than my little microcosm.

Most universities have extensive graduate schools moving forward the research dimension. This research is largely reflected in master's and dissertations based on extensive studyin areas from nanoscience to Shakespeare.

You review these studies across hundreds of universities and can understand why thousands of Chinese have been sent here over the past half century to learn. Lets look at some research-based dissertations this year nominated for best dissertation of 2020.

The geographers nominated a dissertation devoted to identifying and curing water quality: I developed, wrote the author, innovative environmental remote sensing models using geospatial statistical analysis and machine learning techniques to monitor and assess inland water quality. He also suggested solutions.

The information, knowledge, and techniques derived from my dissertation research can help research scientists, water resource planners and managers, state and local officials, and local communities to detect and monitor water quality status in inland waters, and to design intelligent policies and best management practices to prevent, control, and mitigate the occurrence of nuisance algal blooms and other water quality problems.

A dissertation in education linked counseling and neuroscience in a new fashion. His research immerses both neuroscience and counseling. Since neuroscience is new to the counseling field, this work has been both challenging, innovative, and rewarding. His ability to fully engage in pioneering neuroscience work that connected with the counseling field is new and important.

A dissertation in mechanical engineering drew this rave summary from a proud dissertation director professor: I am recommending [him] for this award because of his unique contributions to the multidisciplinary research field of clean combustion that offer the potential for sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the near and mid-term. His research applies to high-efficiency diesel engines that will benefit from advanced physical concepts based on clean combustion, requiring new ways to diagnose, analyze, and control fuel sprays."

Furthermore, crossing both fields of research and service, his professor wrote that his records in the various departments in engineering are outstanding, showing a deep commitment to his field and advancing it.

One dissertation in commerce and business administrationstudied mergers and acquisitions and how productive and/or efficient, or profitable, they turn out to be. Good questions -and answers for the world of industry and business.

Her study addressed a persistent gap in the M&A(merger-and-acquisition) literature, using a typology of different theoretical applications, to theorize, model, measure, and empirically validate how M&A motives relate to different M&A outcomes.

Another one in the business school researched the passion for your work, pointing to the CEO of the highly successful Southwestern Airlines as an example of mans passion for his lifes work. This study probed the relationship between passion and success or failure, not simply interesting for the scholar, but also with immense applicability for the world of business and organizational behavior. Job satisfaction, engagement, and performance are addressed in a rigorous manner.

The history department nominated a fascinating study on the effects of the Spanish-American-Cuban War of 1898 on the American military. The author described her research as an intimate look into the experience of the common volunteer soldiers during the Spanish and Philippine American wars to illuminate the larger institutional changes in the American military at the start of the 20th century. My main purpose … was simple: to tell the stories of men frequently overlooked by previous historians, their voices drowned out by those more famous and well-known.

We all need to know how rich and profound is UAs commitment, as well as those of hundreds of other universities across the U. S., to studying, analyzing, and improving our world across an immensely varied spectrum, of which the short abstracts above represent only a small sampling.

Larry Clayton is a retired University of Alabama history professor. Readers can email him atlarryclayton7@gmail.com.

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THE PORT RAIL: The research dimension of higher education - Tuscaloosa News

Neuroscience

PhD grad uses math to explore the brain – ASU Now

December 21, 2020

Editor's note:This story is part of a series of profiles ofnotable fall 2020 graduates.

Vergil Haynes is graduating this month with a PhD in applied mathematics from Arizona State University. His research approaches old neuroscience questions but in new ways. Although the questions are simple in appearance, long-held assumptions about them have limited new insights for decades. Vergil Haynes wears a surface electroencephalogram (EEG) recording cap. Surface electroencephalography is a method for recording electrical activity associated with brain physiology from the scalp. Download Full Image

Often times when you are recording activity in the brain, you dont know precisely what influences the signals you record and this limits your ability to interpret those signals, Haynes said. Do they come from one type of brain cell or another? I ask, what is the origin of certain brain signals associated with individual brain cells, and whether knowledge of those origins can aid in improving data analysis techniques.

Another problem Im concerned about is community standards for modeling. Many assumptions are built into very detailed simulations of brain cells. For example, cells have protein structures in their membranes. I developed a framework for figuring out whether there are common patterns for these structure in how many there are, where they are, and what they do. For both of these problems, I use a combination of simulations, machine learning, and advanced statistical techniques to also challenge assumptions about how brain cells are grouped based on recorded signals.

Vergil is detail oriented in his research and has an astonishing knowledge of the literature. This helps him see the big picture and understand where his work lies with respect to previous and ongoing research in the community, said Sharon Crook, Haynes adviser and professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.

Vergil will stay in our group as a postdoctoral researcher for a year in order to help us advance the research that he has been contributing to. Uniquely, he has the perfect combination of skills for this work which requires both the development and execution of computational models and also machine learning to analyze large datasets, said Crook, lead researcher of the Informatics and Computation in Open Neuroscience (ICON) Lab.

The lab contributes to large, collaborative enterprises such as theNeuroML Initiative,OpenSource Brain, and theHuman Brain Project, which lead to building an interconnected infrastructure for the advancement of computing within neuroscience based on transparency and accessibility.

Vergil Haynes (third from left) with Sharon Crook (center) and other members of the ICON Lab at ASU. Photo courtesy of ICON Lab

Haynes will also continue as a post doc in the Auditory Computation and Neurophysiology Lab in the College of Health Solutions, which investigates the neural mechanisms of perceptual and cognitive functions that support auditory experience.

Im excited to work with the same two labs one is very experimental oriented, and the other is very modeling oriented, and Im at the intersection of these two, he said.

Haynes was born and raised in Melbourne, Florida, about 30 minutes south of NASAs Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. As a kid, he watched the rocket and shuttle launches from the beach.You could actually feel the sonic boom, it would shake windows and everything, he said. Many of his friends back home still think of him as someone who would one day be an astronaut, since that is what he was always saying.

I think it is still a possibility, Haynes said.

Haynes is closest to his one maternal sibling, a brother about 10 years older, born to a different father who was in the Air Force.His mother is from the Philippines and moved to the U.S. a few years after his brother was born. It was here in the states that she met Haynes father.

Haynes is a first-generation college student, raised primarily by his mother. His father was mostly out of the picture.

I could probably count on two hands how many times Ive seen him in my life, he said. His mother had a boyfriend for most of his childhood, but they did not get along.

His brother went to juvenile detention at a young age, and was later incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses that nowadays might not involve jail time.

Due to the lack of social mechanisms to reduce high prison recidivism rates in the U.S., and like many community re-entries, my brother was reincarcerated multiple times over his early adulthood, Haynes said. Even after participating in a recent work-to-release program, Haynes' brother still struggles to figure out how to get his life going.

It was like every direction I looked for a male role model, I just couldnt find one, Haynes said.

Vergil Haynes, a first generation college student, with his mother and niece on the ASU Tempe campus. Photo courtesy of Vergil Haynes.

His mother worked as a restorative technician at a rehabilitation nursing home back in Melbourne. She mostly worked with dementia patients, helping them to be able to feed themselves or walk again.

My mom would work double time, overtime, lots of holiday hours, so usually it was just easier if I just stayed there all day. I mostly lived there as a kid. Id sing to the elderly, take them to lunch, play chess or Uno with them, Haynes said.

My mother often won awards for being compassionate, generous and kind to co-workers and residents at the nursing home. This instilled in me that supporting people was one of greatest gifts you could give someone and sometimes this took hard work and sacrifice.

Those experiences were very formative in a lot of different ways in my life. Especially in trying to understand people. How do they think? Why do they wind up thinking a certain thing, or not be able to think at all, or remember at all?

In school, Haynes teachers would tell him he was unmotivated, didnt have goals but also had a lot of potential. He would sometimes fall asleep in class. He often got in trouble, resulting in suspensions or Saturday school. He failed quite a few classes in high school and almost didnt graduate. His counselor and principal agreed on a plan so he could take adult education classes after school and still be able to graduate.

I was like, Oh, I made all these choices and now Im seeing the consequences of them, which is that I might not get this diploma, Haynes said. And then Ill live this life like the rest of my family has been living, not even having finished high school.

There was a lot of hopelessness around that period of time. But there was also the peer pressure of seeing a lot of his friends were set to graduate, so he wanted to. One of the most motivating things for him was how much time he was spending with other peoples families.

My mom had moved out of the projects and into this fairly nice suburban area, and I had met some friends and started hanging out at their houses. It was like, Oh wow, your dad works at NASA, your mom is a financial adviser, and you have this nice house. For the most part, there might be some yelling here or there, but its not constantly hostile here. I remember them giving me a lot of validation, as well.

He spent considerable time with academic advisers figuring out how he could pay for college. He got a Medallion Scholarship which paid for 75% of his tuition for a four-year degree. To cover the rest, he took out loans and worked a couple of jobs throughout his undergraduate years.

I told my mom I was going to get a PhD and she was like, How are you going to do that? We dont have the money for that, said Haynes. All her co-workers said, Let him dream and let him do his thing, and hell figure it out as he goes.

At the same time, Haynes found himself repeating old patterns, using avoidance behaviors. If a class interested him, he would do well. But if a class stressed him out, he would stop going. He was convinced the system was trying to keep him down. There were many setbacks, and he ended up failing a math class.

I remember that was also the time in my life where my dad and I had tried to start talking with one another again, and I think I was still hesitant. I was finding out more about who is this person, and I wasnt really liking what I was seeing, but I was trying to reach out and say this is something that I want to try to rebuild.

Asking his dad for help led to a huge family blowup. It got to the point where it was like, OK, that was my last attempt.

That situation drove him forward, in a sense, since there was less constraining him to be near family. He was ready to go forward on his own. After getting his two-year associate degree, he transferred to the University of Central Florida, one of the largest public universities in the country. He was excited about all the different kinds of classes he could take. By the end of his first year at UCF, he changed his major from pre-med/biology to mathematics.

He was taking Calculus III, Linear Algebra, Introduction to C Programming those were the classes that convinced him to keep going. He took a logic and proof class that he thought was really fun.

Just the process of doing homework with people, doing projects with people and how intellectually stimulating that was, and also this sense of how I contributed some sort of value to this discussion. That was when I really started defining my personal value in relationship to math, Haynes said. People started coming to me asking for help or wanting for me to explain certain things. I was like, okay, actually Im good at this.

He had a network of people who were supporting him, but also had some people who were trying to get in his way. Particularly the faculty undergraduate adviser in the mathematics department, who he met with a couple of times. Haynes wanted to major in math with a concentration in physics. The advisor briefly looked over his academic record, which was not stellar, and then dissuaded him from pursuing that route. Maybe this isnt something for you, he said to Haynes.

I remember that resonated with me for a long time.

Haynes knew he had an interest in research, so he reached out to a professor who studied mathematics and biology, and would later become his faculty adviser.

It was a lot of leaning into him, weekly sessions with him. He would teach me how to read math papers and how to do research. He also instilled in me a sense of beauty.

I still remember the time I came to him with my first result. It was really simple. And it was something he had been missing for a while. I showed it to him and he had this moment where he stepped back, leaned against the table and was like, Wow, thats beautiful. And I was like, whoa, I had never shared that kind of moment with someone before. And I was kind of hooked.

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PhD grad uses math to explore the brain - ASU Now

Neuroscience

Understanding how mosquitoes smell humans could save thousands of human lives: researchers – CTV News

Of the more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world, just a small number have evolved to specialize in sucking human blood.

How human-biting mosquitoes track us down so effectively isn't currently known, but it matters, since they don't just make us itch. They also carry dangerous diseases such as Zika, dengue, West Nile virus and malaria that can be deadly.

In fact, stopping these pesky insects in their tracks could save up to half a million lives lost to those diseases each year.

"In each of those cases where a mosquito has evolved to bite humans which has only happened two or three times they become nasty disease vectors," said Carolyn "Lindy" McBride, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute in New Jersey.

That's why she wants to understand how they find and target humans.

"Mosquitoes mostly choose what to bite based on odour," said McBride, whose lab focuses on the Aedes aegypti mosquito species that evolved to bite humans specifically.

Only female mosquitoes suck blood since they need it to produce their eggs. Knowing how a potentially disease-carrying female mosquito sniffs out a person, while ignoring other warm-blooded animals, is a key query.

Once that's better known, much more effective repellents or bait to lure mosquitoes away from humans could be made, saving lives, said Christopher Potter, associate professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Sensory Biology.

If scientists can control their sense of smell, "we can really control what these mosquitoes are doing," said Potter, who studies another human-specific mosquito, Anopheles, which carries malaria.

It's not an easy question to answer, since any animal smell is made up of hundreds of chemical compounds mixed together in specific ratios.

"The actual chemicals that are found in human odour are basically the same as the chemicals found in animal odour it's the ratios and the relative abundance of those compounds in human mixtures that's unique," said McBride, whose research focuses on those issues.

Each time a hungry female mosquito flies by, it's doing complex chemical math in its tiny brain, figuring out what's a human, what's dog and what's a flower.

"To investigate, we decided to record neural activity in the brain of females while exposing them to natural human and animal odour extracts," wrote Zhilei Zhao, a graduate student in McBride's lab, in a Twitter thread describing the lab's work. It took four years to develop "the necessary genetic reagents, odour delivery systems, and analytical approaches," Zhao wrote.

McBride's lab team created a library of the chemical composition of animal odours. "That data set doesn't really exist so we decided to go out and collect it ourselves," said Jessica Zung, a graduate student in McBride's lab.

Zung has collected scent samples from about 40 different animals so far, including guinea pigs, rats, quail and more.

Comparing some of those to the 16 human samples, something jumped out. Decanal, a simple, common compound, is particularly abundant in human skin, Zung said.

Ubiquitous in the natural world, in humans, decanal comes from another, more complex compound. Zung dug into the archives to find research from the 1970s (much of it originally done to find an acne cure) that detailed how when one component of our skin's natural oils, sapienic acid, breaks down, decanal is left over. This acid (as indicated by its name) is only found in human beings. It's what likely leads to the high levels of decanal that help the mosquitoes smell their way to us, but more studies need to be done.

Understanding what the mosquitoes are sniffing out is only part of the story; knowing how they do it is also important. To see exactly how mosquitoes use this sense, scientists bred genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes "so that we could cut open their little tiny heads and put them under a fancy microscope and actually watch neurons firing when they're exposed to human and animal odours," McBride said.

The research team already knew that mosquitoes have about 60 different types of neurons that sense odours, so when they looked in the insects' brains, they thought they might see a lot of activity. But it was surprisingly quiet, meaning that the signal was perhaps quite simple, down to just a couple types of neurons.

"One type of neuron responded really strongly to both humans and animals. Another type of neuron responded to both but it responded much more strongly to humans than animals," McBride said of that work. So it may be as simple as that mosquito's brain comparing just two types of neurons.

This kind of research has only been possible since the technology to study mosquito brains in detail became available, which only happened recently. "It's been traditionally very hard to study this at the level we're doing it now," Potter said.

Incredibly, mosquitoes that target humans have evolved to be able to do this in just the last 5,000 years, so it's a "really amazing example of rapid evolution," McBride said.

The Aedes aegypti, aka "yellow fever mosquito" also carries dengue, Zika and chikungunya. The critter originated in Africa and likely made its way to its current range in the southern United States and Central and South America on slave ships during the 1600s, according to McBride.

These diseases combined kill and sicken thousands of people a year, which is why mosquitoes have been called "the world's deadliest animal" by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. McBride and Potter both hope their work could be used by others working on repellents and attractants to prevent disease.

As far as insider knowledge on how to keep from being bitten in your own backyard, McBride said she uses a fan.

"Have it blow air over where you're sitting outside or over the barbecue or under the table where they're biting your feet." It's not that you're blowing the scent around to knock the mosquitoes off track, she said.

It's simply because these deadly creatures, McBride said, "are not great fliers."

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Understanding how mosquitoes smell humans could save thousands of human lives: researchers - CTV News

Neuroscience

2020 in Neuroscience, Longevity, and AIand What’s to Come – Singularity Hub

Covid-19 sucked most of the oxygen out of science this year. But we still had brilliant wins.

The pandemic couldnt bring rockets or humans down: multiple missions blasted off to the red planet in the summer of Mars. Two astronauts launched to the International Space Stationand made it safely backin a game-changer for commercial space travel. NASA released dozens of findings on how space travel changes our bodies, paving the way to keep us healthy in orbitor one day, on Mars and beyond.

Back on Earth, scientists scoured mud ponds and fished out a teeny-tiny CRISPR enzyme that packs a massive punch for genome editing. AI and neuroscience became even more entwinedsometimes literally. Biological neurons got hooked up to two silicon-based artificial neurons, across multiple countries, into a fully-functional biohybrid neural network. Others tapped dopaminethe main messenger for the brains reward systemto unite electricity and chemical computing into a semi-living computer. While still largely a curiosity, these studies take brain-inspired computers to another level by seamlessly incorporating living neurons into AI hardware. Now imagine similar circuits inside the brainNeuralink sure is.

More abstractly, biological and artificial brains further fed into each other in our understandingand craftingof intelligence. This year, scientists found mini-computers in the input tree-like branches of neurons. Like entire neural networks, these cables were capable of performing complex logical calculations, suggesting our brain cells are far brainier than we previously thoughtsomething AI can learn from. On the flip side, a hotshot algorithm inspired by the brain called reinforcement learning pushed neuroscientists to re-examine how we respond to feedback as we learn. AI also helped build the most dynamic brain atlas to date, a living map that can continuously incorporate new data and capture individual differences.

As we leave 2020 behind, two main themes percolate in my mind, not just for what theyve accomplished, but as indicators of what lies ahead. These are the trends Ill be keeping my eyes on in the coming year.

Why we age is extremely complex. So are methods that try to prevent age-related diseases, or slow the aging process itself. This nth-dimensional complexity almost dictates that longevity research needs to self-segregate into lanes.

Take probing the biological mechanisms that drive aging. For example, our cells energy factory spews out bullet-like molecules that damage the cell. The genome becomes unstable. Cells turn zombie-like. Working stem cells vanish. Tissue regeneration suffers. Scientists often spend entire careers understanding one facet of a single hallmark of aging, or hunting for age-related genes. The lucky ones come up with ways to combat that one foefor example, senolytics, a family of drugs that wipe out zombie cells to protect against age-related diseases.

But aging hallmarks dont rear their heads in isolation. They work together. An increasing trend is to unveil the how of their interactions workcrosstalk, in science-speakwith hopes of multiple birds with one stone.

This year, longevity researchers crossed lanes.

One study, for example, took a stem cell playbook to rejuvenate eyesight in aged mice with vision loss. They focused on a prominent aging hallmark: epigenetics. Our DNA is dotted with thousands of chemical marks. As we age, these marks accumulate. Using gene therapy, the team introduced three superstar genes into the eyes of aged mice to revert those marks and reprogram cells to a younger state. Youve probably heard of those genes: theyre three of the four factors used to revert adult skin cells into a stem-cell-like state, or iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells). Resetting the epigenetic clock was so powerful it improved visual acuity in old mice, and the team has now licensed the tech to Life Biosciences in Boston to further develop for humans.

Another study combined three main puzzle pieces in agingzombie cells, inflammation, and malfunctioning mitochondriainto a full picture, with the surprise ending that senolytics has multiple anti-aging powers in cells. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Finally, one team (which I was a part of) combined two promising approaches for brain rejuvenationexercise and young bloodto begin pushing the limits of reigniting faltering memory and cognition due to aging.

Longevity research has long been fragmented, but its starting to coalesce into a multidisciplinary field. These crossovers are just the start of a rising trajectory to combat the multi-headed Hydra thats aging. More will come.

If youre looking for a sign that AI is leaving the digital realm of Atari games and heading into the real world, this year was it.

In biotech, theres no doubt of AIs promise in drug discovery or medical diagnoses. In late 2019, a team used deep learning and generative modelssimilar to AlphaGo, the DeepMind algorithm that trounced humans at Go and wiped the Atari libraryto conjure over 30,000 new drug molecules, a feat chemists could only dream of. This year, the viral hurricane thats Covid-19 further unleashed AI-based drug discovery, such as screening existing drugs for candidates that may work against the virus, or newlydesigned chemicals to fight off SARS-CoV-2 infectionthe virus that causes Covid-19.

For now, we dont yet have an AI-designed drug on the market, an ultimate test for the technologys promise. However, although AI wasnt able to make a splash in our current pandemic battle, the scene is set for tackling the next oneand drug discovery as a whole.

In contrast, AI-based medical diagnosis had a resounding win. This year, the FDA approved a software that uses AI to provide real-time guidance for ultrasound imaging for the heart, essentially allowing those without specialized training to perform the test. The approval brings a total of 29 FDA-approved AI-based medical technologies to date. Even as the debate on trust, ethics, and responsibility for AI doctors cranked up in temperature, the Pandoras box has been opened.

Medicine aside, deep learning further honed its craft in a variety of fields. The neuroscience-AI marriage is one for the ages with no signs of fracture. Outside the brain, AI also gave synthetic biology a leg up by parsing the interactions between genes and genetic networksa mind-bending, enormously complex problem previously only achieved through trial and error. With help from AI, synthetic biologists can predict how changes to one gene in a cell could affect others, and in turn, the cells biochemistry and behavior. Bottom line: it makes designing new biological circuits, such as getting yeast to pump out green fuels or artificially hoppy beer, much easier.

But the coup de grce against AI as an overhyped technology is DeepMinds decimation of a 50-year-long challenge in biology. With a performance that shocked experts, DeepMinds AlphaFold was able to predict a proteins 3D structure from its amino acid sequencethe individual components of a proteinmatching the current gold standard. As the workhorses of our bodies, proteins dictate life. AlphaFold, in a sense, solved a huge chunk of the biology of life, with implications for both drug discovery and synthetic biology.

One more scientific brilliance this year is the use of light in neuroscience and tissue engineering. One study, for example, used lasers to directly print a human ear-like structure under the skin of mice, without a single surgical cut. Another used light to incept smell in mice, artificially programming an entirely new, never-seen-in-nature perception of a scent directly into their brains. Yet another study combined lasers with virtual reality to dissect how our brains process space and navigation, mentally transporting a mouse to a virtual location linked to a reward. To cap it off, scientists found a new way to use light to control the brain through the skull without surgerythough as of now, youll still need gene therapy. Given the implications of unauthorized mind control, thats probably less of a bug and more of a feature.

Were nearing the frustratingly slow, but sure, dying gasp of Covid-19. The pandemic defined 2020, but science kept hustling along. I cant wait to share what might come in the next year with youmay it be revolutionary, potentially terrifying, utterly bizarre* or oddly heart-warming.

* For example, Why wild giant pandas frequently roll in horse manure. Yes thats the actual title of a study. Yes, its a great read. And yes, its hilarious but has a point.

Image Credit: Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash

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2020 in Neuroscience, Longevity, and AIand What's to Come - Singularity Hub

Neuroscience

Want To De-clutter Your Brain? Neuroimaging Reveals the Most Effective Strategies – Technology Networks

"Let it go." "Think about something else." "Clear your head."

In our attempts to de-clutter our busy minds and make room for new, often more productive thoughts, people tap an array of different approaches. Which works best, and how does each strategy distinctly impact the brain?

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Texas have taken a first stab at answering this question, combining novel brain imaging with machine learning techniques to offer an unprecedented window into what happens in the brain when we try to stop thinking about something.

The findings, published this month in the journalNature Communications, lend new insight into the basic building blocks of cognition and could inform new therapies for issues like post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. They also provide clues on how to form better study habits or innovate at work.

"We found that if you really want a new idea to come into your mind, you need to deliberately force yourself to stop thinking about the old one," said co-author Marie Banich, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder.

For the study, Banich teamed up with Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, a cognitive neuroscience at UT-Austin, to examine brain activity in 60 volunteers as they tried to flush a thought from their working memory.

As Lewis-Peacock describes it, working memory is the "scratch pad" of the mind where we store thoughts temporarily to help us carry out tasks. But we can only keep three or four thoughts in working memory at a time. Like a sink full of dirty dishes, it must be cleaned out to make new ideas possible.

"Once we're done using that information to answer an email or address some problem, we need to let it go so it doesn't clog up our mental resources to do the next thing," he said.

When we ruminate over something - perhaps the fight we had with a friend or an offending text -- that can color new thoughts in a negative light. Such rumination is at the root of many mental health disorders, said Banich.

"In obsessive compulsive disorder it could be the thought of as, 'If I don't wash my hands again I will get sick.' In anxiety, it might be, 'This plane is going to crash.'" To determine if people can truly purge a thought, and how, the team asked each volunteer to lay down inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI) at the Intermountain Neuroimaging Center on the Boulder campus.

They were shown pictures of faces, fruits and scenes and asked to maintain the thought of them for 4 seconds. Meanwhile, researchers created individualized 'brain signatures' showing precisely what each person's brain looked like when they thought of each picture.

Afterward, participants were told to: replace the thought ("replace apple with mountain"); clear all thoughts (akin to mindfulness meditation); or suppress the thought (focus on it and then deliberately try to stop thinking about it). In each case, the brain signature associated with the image visibly faded.

"We were thrilled," said Banich. "This is the first study to move beyond just asking someone, 'Did you stop thinking about that?' Rather, you can actually look at a person's brain activity, see the pattern of the thought and then watch it fade as they remove it."

The researchers also found that "replace," "clear" and "suppress" had very different impacts.

While 'replace' and 'clear' prompted the brain signature of the image to fade faster, it didn't fade completely, leaving a shadow in the background as new thoughts were introduced. 'Suppress,' on the other hand, took longer to prompt forgetting but was more complete in making room for a new thought.

Behavioral studies outside the scanner yielded similar results.

"The bottom line is: If you want to get something out of your mind quickly use 'clear' or 'replace,'" said Banich. "But if you want to get something out of your mind so you can put in new information, 'suppress' works best."

More research is necessary, but the findings suggest that students may want to pack up their algebra notes, take a break and deliberately try not to think about quadratic equations before moving on to study for physics.

Hit a wall on that report at work? Let it go for a while.

"People often think, 'If I think about this harder I am going to solve this problem.' But work by clinicians suggests it can actually give you tunnel vision and keep you in a loop that is hard to get out of," said Banich.

In a counseling setting, the findings suggest that to fully purge a problematic memory that keeps bubbling up, one might need to deliberately focus on it and then push it away.

Someday, the brain imaging technique could potentially be used during sessions as a sort of cognitive mirror to help people learn how to put destructive thoughts out of their minds.

Banich and Lewis-Peacock intend to study that next.

"If we can get a sense of what their brain should look like if they are successfully suppressing a thought, then we can navigate them to a more effective strategy for doing that," said Lewis-Peacock. "It's an exciting next step."

Reference:

Kim H, Smolker HR, Smith LL, Banich MT, Lewis-Peacock JA. Changes to information in working memory depend on distinct removal operations. Nature Communications. 2020;11(1):6239. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20085-4

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Want To De-clutter Your Brain? Neuroimaging Reveals the Most Effective Strategies - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market to Increase Exponentially During 2028: Lexis Business Insights Latest Updates – The Courier

Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market Professional Survey Research Report 2020-2028

Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Marketresearch report is the new statistical data source added byLexis Business Insights.

The global neuroscience antibodies and assays market is expected to reach USD 4.18 Billion by 2023 from USD 2.38 Billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 10.2%. The base year considered for the study is 2017 and the forecast period is from 2018 to 2023.

Overview:

Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market report analyzes what are the factors that are driving the growth of the Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market and the factors that are restricting the growth. The report deeply analyzes the volume trends, value of the market, pricing history, etc. which would help the companies entering the Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market to understand the growth opportunities and threats that are present in the market. A number of opportunities for investment in the Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market are discovered by analysts and are discussed in this report.

The report additionally provides a pest analysis of all five along with the SWOT analysis for all companies profiled in the report. The report also consists of various company profiles and their key players; it also includes the competitive scenario, opportunities, and market of geographic regions. The regional outlook on the Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market covers areas such as Europe, Asia, China, India, North America, and the rest of the globe.

Note In order to provide more accurate market forecast, all our reports will be updated before delivery by considering the impact of COVID-19.

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Top key players : BioLegend, Cell Signaling Technology, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, GenScript, Rockland Immunochemicals, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Siemens, and Tecan

The main goal for the dissemination of this information is to give a descriptive analysis of how the trends could potentially affect the upcoming future of Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays market during the forecast period. This markets competitive manufactures and the upcoming manufactures are studied with their detailed research. Revenue, production, price, market share of these players is mentioned with precise information.

Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market: Regional Segment Analysis

This report provides pinpoint analysis for changing competitive dynamics. It offers a forward-looking perspective on different factors driving or limiting market growth. It provides a five-year forecast assessed on the basis of how they Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market is predicted to grow. It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future and helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments.

Key questions answered in the report include:

What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2026?

What are the key factors driving the Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market?

What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in the Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market?

Trending factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, Europe, and MEA.

The report includes six parts, dealing with:

1.) Basic information;

2.) The Asia Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market;

3.) The North American Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market;

4.) The European Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market;

5.) Market entry and investment feasibility;

6.) The report conclusion.

All the research report is made by using two techniques that are Primary and secondary research. There are various dynamic features of the business, like client need and feedback from the customers. Before (company name) curate any report, it has studied in-depth from all dynamic aspects such as industrial structure, application, classification, and definition.

The report focuses on some very essential points and gives a piece of full information about Revenue, production, price, and market share.

Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market report will enlist all sections and research for each and every point without showing any indeterminate of the company.

Reasons for Buying this Report

This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics

It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth

It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow

It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future

It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors

It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments

TABLE OF CONTENT:

1 Report Overview

2 Global Growth Trends

3 Market Share by Key Players

4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application

5 United States

6 Europe

7 China

8 Japan

9 Southeast Asia

10 India

11 Central & South America

12 International Players Profiles

13 Market Forecast 2019-2025

14 Analysts Viewpoints/Conclusions

15 Appendix

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Global Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market to Increase Exponentially During 2028: Lexis Business Insights Latest Updates - The Courier

Neuroscience

The Neuroscience Market To Witness A Healthy Reverberation Between 2025 – Farming Sector

Market Report Summary

Get Sample Copy of This Report -> Click Here

Read Full Press Release Below

With healthy CAGR of 6.4%, the globalneuroscience marketis likely to grow from US$ 301.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 520.8 Mn by 2025 end. This growth is mainly fuelled by advancement in neuroimaging and increasing R & D in neuroinformatics. Neuroscience Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016)and Forecast (2017-2025),is the new publication of Persistence Market Research that focuses on merger and acquisition, strategic collaborations and technology, and technology transfer agreements, which play a vital role in the global neuroscience market.

Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13390

Company Profiles

North America and Europe are expected to dominate the global neuroscience market in the assessed period of 8-years that is between 2017 and 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Relevance and Impact of Factors

Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/13390

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Component Type

On the basis of component type, the global neuroscience market is segmented into instrument, software and services. Instrument segmented is sub-segmented into MRI imaging systems and neuromicroscopy, while services segmented divided into consulting services, installation services and maintenance services.

Instrument segment dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Instrument segment is the most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 2.6 over the forecast period.

Instrument segment was valued at US$ 221.6 Mn in 2016 and is projected to be valued at US$ 408.1 Mn in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. This segment is expected to accounts for high revenue contribution to the global neuroscience market as compared to software and services segments over the forecast period.

Software segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.3 during the forecast period. This segment was accounted for 15.4% value share in 2017 which is expected to drop down to 12.9 % revenue share in 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by End User

On the basis of end user, global neuroscience market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, research institutes, and academic institutes.

Diagnostics laboratory segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market by 2025 end. However, in terms of CAGR and revenue share, hospitals segment is expected to lead he market throughout the estimated period. In 2025, hospital segment is likely to grab 40.2% market share in 2025, expanding at a robust CAGR of 7.3% during the estimated period.

Research institutes segment is expected to be the least attractive segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.7 during the forecast period.

Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/13390

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Region

On the basis of region, global neuroscience market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. North America dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period.

North America is projected to be the most attractive market with attractiveness index of 2.3 during the forecast period. Europe is expected to be the second most lucrative market, with attractiveness index of 1.1 respectively during the forecast period.

Europe Neuroscience market accounted for 23.9% share in 2017 and is projected to account for 23.1% share by 2025 end.

Explore Extensive Coverage of PMR`sLife Sciences & Transformational HealthLandscape

Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.

To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.

Our client success stories feature a range of clients from Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing startups. PMRs collaborative environment is committed to building industry-specific solutions by transforming data from multiple streams into a strategic asset.

Contact us:

Ashish KoltePersistence Market ResearchAddress 305 Broadway, 7th FloorNew York City,NY 10007 United StatesU.S. Ph. +1-646-568-7751USA-Canada Toll-free +1 800-961-0353Sales[emailprotected]Website https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

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The Neuroscience Market To Witness A Healthy Reverberation Between 2025 - Farming Sector

Neuroscience

Brain tissue yields clues to causes of PTSD – Yale News

A post-mortem analysis of brain tissue from people who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may help explain enduring mysteries about the disorder, such as why women are more susceptible to it and whether a dampened immune system response plays a role in dealing with stress, a team headed by Yale University and the VAs National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) researchers has found.

The analysis of gene expression patterns in brain tissue located in four regions of the prefrontal cortex areas of the brain associated with higher cognitive function and executive control revealed distinct differences in those who had been diagnosed with PTSD and those who had not. Major differences in gene activity particularly affected two cell types in PTSD patients interneurons, which inhibit neural activity, and microglia, immune system cells in the central nervous system, the researchers report Dec. 21 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The findings suggest that together these changes might contribute to an impaired ability to respond to traumatic stress, saidMatthew Girgenti, a research scientist in the Yale Department of Psychiatry and the NCPTSD and lead author of the study.

About 8% of the general population has been diagnosed with PTSD. But among those who have experienced severe psychological stress including combat veterans, refugees, and victims of assault as many as 35% exhibit PTSD symptoms. These symptoms include re-experiencing traumatic events, avoidance of others, and hyperarousal when exposed to events that remind the individuals of their traumatic experience.

While the types of cells most profoundly impacted by PTSD were the same in men and women, there were distinct differences between genders in where within the prefrontal cortex the genes impacting those cells were expressed. These differences might help explain why women are more than twice as likely to develop PTSD and other anxiety disorders than men and why they are likely to experience more severe symptoms, the findings suggest.

About half of PTSD patients are also diagnosed with some form of depression. However, gene expression patterns found in brain tissue are more closely linked biologically with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder than depression, the researchers found.

This is a new beginning for the PTSD field, noted Yales John Krystal,the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research, professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, and psychology, and co-senior author of the paper. We need new treatments for PTSD, and studies like this will provide the scientific foundation for a new generation of medication development efforts.

The study was supported by the National PTSD Brain Bank, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-based tissue bank whichcollects, processes, and shares research specimens for scientific research. The bank isled by MatthewFriedman of the National Center for PTSD and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, who is a co-senior author of the study.

Other co-senior authors from Yale are Hongyu Zhao and the late Ronald Duman.

See original here:
Brain tissue yields clues to causes of PTSD - Yale News

Neuroscience

The Neuroscience Market To Continue With Its Monetization At A CAGR Of 7.2% – Farming Sector

Market Report Summary

Get Sample Copy of This Report -> Click Here

Read Full Press Release Below

With healthy CAGR of 6.4%, the globalneuroscience marketis likely to grow from US$ 301.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 520.8 Mn by 2025 end. This growth is mainly fuelled by advancement in neuroimaging and increasing R & D in neuroinformatics. Neuroscience Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016)and Forecast (2017-2025),is the new publication of Persistence Market Research that focuses on merger and acquisition, strategic collaborations and technology, and technology transfer agreements, which play a vital role in the global neuroscience market.

Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13390

Company Profiles

North America and Europe are expected to dominate the global neuroscience market in the assessed period of 8-years that is between 2017 and 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Relevance and Impact of Factors

Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/13390

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Component Type

On the basis of component type, the global neuroscience market is segmented into instrument, software and services. Instrument segmented is sub-segmented into MRI imaging systems and neuromicroscopy, while services segmented divided into consulting services, installation services and maintenance services.

Instrument segment dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Instrument segment is the most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 2.6 over the forecast period.

Instrument segment was valued at US$ 221.6 Mn in 2016 and is projected to be valued at US$ 408.1 Mn in 2025 growing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. This segment is expected to accounts for high revenue contribution to the global neuroscience market as compared to software and services segments over the forecast period.

Software segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.3 during the forecast period. This segment was accounted for 15.4% value share in 2017 which is expected to drop down to 12.9 % revenue share in 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by End User

On the basis of end user, global neuroscience market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, research institutes, and academic institutes.

Diagnostics laboratory segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market by 2025 end. However, in terms of CAGR and revenue share, hospitals segment is expected to lead he market throughout the estimated period. In 2025, hospital segment is likely to grab 40.2% market share in 2025, expanding at a robust CAGR of 7.3% during the estimated period.

Research institutes segment is expected to be the least attractive segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.7 during the forecast period.

Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/13390

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Region

On the basis of region, global neuroscience market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. North America dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period.

North America is projected to be the most attractive market with attractiveness index of 2.3 during the forecast period. Europe is expected to be the second most lucrative market, with attractiveness index of 1.1 respectively during the forecast period.

Europe Neuroscience market accounted for 23.9% share in 2017 and is projected to account for 23.1% share by 2025 end.

Explore Extensive Coverage of PMR`sLife Sciences & Transformational HealthLandscape

Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.

To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.

Our client success stories feature a range of clients from Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing startups. PMRs collaborative environment is committed to building industry-specific solutions by transforming data from multiple streams into a strategic asset.

Contact us:

Ashish KoltePersistence Market ResearchAddress 305 Broadway, 7th FloorNew York City,NY 10007 United StatesU.S. Ph. +1-646-568-7751USA-Canada Toll-free +1 800-961-0353Sales[emailprotected]Website https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Read the rest here:
The Neuroscience Market To Continue With Its Monetization At A CAGR Of 7.2% - Farming Sector

Neuroscience

Tabor College rolling out Education Program initiatives – The Hutchinson News

The Hutchinson News

HILLSBORO Tabor College is putting initiatives in place to advance teacher education programming at both the graduate and undergraduate levels following the colleges recent successful accreditation review by the Kansas State Department of Education.

A Master of Education in neuroscience and trauma, launching in summer 2021 at Tabor, will be the nations first online program to train and equip trauma-responsive educators to meet the needs of students who struggle with learning dysfunction and difficult home environments.

Education and neuroscience have historically functioned in two separate silos without informing each others research, said Dr. David Stevens, lead graduate faculty member, about the new M.Ed program. Today, more than ever, there is an overwhelming need for teachers to understand how stress and trauma affect the lives and cognition of their students.

Planning is in the final stages for a comprehensive repurposing of the second floor of the library building to house the colleges Education Department.

The renovation will provide premier space for state-of-the-art instructional use, cutting-edge technology and curriculum resources, a student lounge for social interaction, and a faculty suite. Construction will begin as early as March 2021.

Original post:
Tabor College rolling out Education Program initiatives - The Hutchinson News