A new study has found that when people work together on a task, key regions of their brains synchronize, indicating that people can match each other's neural activity when in groups. In the study, 39 pairs of volunteers were asked to design the interior of a virtual room together through a touchscreen while their brain activity was monitored through a functional near-infrared spectroscopy technique. Participants were also watched for signs of eye contact. Researchers found that when people worked together on the task, "neuron populations within one brain were activated simultaneously with similar neuron populations in the other brain", as if the two brains functioned together as a single system. This is called between-brain synchronisation (BBS)The researchers also found that BBS was strongest when one person raised their gaze to look at the other, suggesting an important role for social interactions. The study showed that humans are wired to be social creatures, but there is still a lot that is not understood about how our brains shift when we are in company. As scanning and computing technology improves, researchers are expected to shed light on these unknowns. The authors of the study believe that the investigation's method is an improvement over previous experiments in 'second-person neuroscience', which simply put two people to work on the same motor task, but they will need to find ways of measuring more complex social interactions besides eye contact in the future. ![]()
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We all struggle with completing difficult and complex tasks. The reason that we complete these tasks is that trying hard to complete a task while it is difficult and aversive at the same time also provides us with much value. Our brain is constantly running a cost and benefit analysis on all of our choices and decisions. This process is completed by the anterior cingulate cortex located near the front of our brain. This part of the brain lets us know if it is benefitable to continue to exert ourselves or if we should move on to a different task. The move effort a task takes the more value it brings to us. ![]()
Healthy body makes a healthy mind. We have already heard this many times. New research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) furthers this claim. It discovered that the health of your brain is dependent on movement of your muscles. Skeletal muscle is the muscle that allows for movement. It also is a type of endocrine tissue, meaning that it sends signals. The protein molecules that send information to areas of your body such as your brain are known as myokines. Mykontes are used when your muscles contract, expand of when you create new cells. Exercise increases metabolism in brain regions. The benefits of exercises are increasing the size of the hippocampus. Studies have proved that people with brain damage can benefit from exercise. Such as physical ability and better thinking ability. ![]()
We all know about exercise and the great benefits it has on our mental and physical health. New research shows that High intensity interval training helps with metabolism, memory formation and memory retention. David Lubans from the University of Newcastle completed the study. 56 students were put in two groups. One group was an control while the other was an high intensity exercise group. Looking at the before and after brain scans the adolescents who were in the exercise group showed changes in the brain metabolite concertation's located in the hippocampus. ![]()
The organ that uses the most energy is the brain. The brain that acts like the control center of the body. Even brains that are in a vegetative state still use large amounts of energy. As we know the brain have synapses where the neurons in the brain exchange energy. According to researchers, these synapses use up a lot of energy. The researches did tests on rats and found out that these synapses use a lot of energy even when they were not firing. The found out the protein pump of the synapse is what took up an lot of energy. They found out that the vesicles were leaky. The vesicles leaked out protons and this led to increased need for energy. ![]()
We expect humans to be far more intelligent than other species. While this is true scientists at MIT have found that human neurons have much less ion channels than expected. Looking at other animals they found a trend. As the size of the neurons increase the density of the ion channels increase. However, this is not true for human neurons. This leads us to believe that the human cortex is super-efficient. Researchers believe that this low density is a way to spend less energy on pumping ions. This allows the human neuron to be more efficient compared to other species. This will allow humans to use less ATP compared to other species.
Mind reading has just been science fiction for a long time. New AI can have amazing new abilities. An AI based Brain Computer can turn mental handwriting into text. It converts brain activity into text. These Brain computer interfaces (BCI) can help people with impaired functions in their speech. These includes people with strokes, paralyzed, spinal cord injuries, ALS etc. This research was led by Frank Willet at Stanford. A study was conducted with 65-year-old man. This patient had spinal cord injury. This caused him to have very limited motion with his limbs. The participant was told to write various different handwriting tests. His brain activity was measured. This brain activity was then put into an AI learning platform. It was then linked to the letters that were written. This technology has high potential as it could help people with impaired functions. ![]()
Virtual Reality is a great new innovation. It can help us work and play. However, there might be new benefits to virtual reality as well. Researchers found that virtual reality can help the brain as well. Scientists at UCLA created an experiment with rats. The rats were placed in a virtual environment. The rats that were placed in a virtual environment had boosted theta waves. Theta waves can improve or even restore learning, thinking and remembering. No technique so far has proven to improve theta waves. This technology has very high potential. “Virtual reality therapy” could be used to help humans in many memory and learning disorders. Such as Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s ,Epilepsy and Depression. ![]()
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In the United States 300,000 people are affected by PTSD. However, new research can help these people and people with other similar conditions. 2 different clusters of brain cells are found to increase or decrease the appearance of traumatic memories. Researchers studied intercalated cells also known as ITC’s. These cells were studied in mice. They are packed tightly around the mouse's amygdala. The amygdala is a hub for processing emotions. These researchers found that these ITC’s promote a fear response or not. These cells could possibly be controlled leading to less traumatic memoires. This would help people with PTSD and other similar diseases.
Humans are the top of the food chain and out of all animals' humans are the most dominant. However, humans are not the fastest, strongest or the most agile of animals. Despite these problems humans have been the most dominant due to one factor our intelligence. Humans are the most Intelligent animal. A Human brain is larger than a primate brain as well. A good human brain reaches 1,500 cm^3 in adulthood. However, Gorillas only reach 500 cm^3 and Chimpanzees only reach 400 cm^3. This shows the big gap between humans and other primates. So, one question that arises is why is the human brain so large? Researchers at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom tried to answer this question. They ran an experiment where they compared the brain development process between humans, chimpanzees and gorillas. They grew cells that they got form humans, chimpanzees and gorillas. After some time, the human brain organoids showed the largest growth. This was because neuronal progenitor cells in humans divided quicker compared to gorillas and chimpanzees. Zeb2 was the gene that was responsible for the quick growth of the human brain. ![]()
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February 2023
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