science by a simpleton

ppl in the age of books: fucking up their necks

ppl in the age of textile art: fucking up their necks

ppl in the age of picking lice: fucking up their necks

in the age of writing by hand: carpel tunnel

in the age of squeezing water out of wet clothes after cleaning them by hand: carpel tunnel

space & the brain are like the two final frontiers

we know just enough to know we know nothing

there are radically new theories all. the. time. and even just in my research assistant work i've been able to meet with, talk to, and work with the people making them

it's such a philosophical science

potential to do a lot of good in fighting neurological diseases

things like BCI (brain computer interface) and OI (organoid intelligence) are soooooo new and anyone's game - motivation to study hard and be successful so i can take back my field from elon musk

machine learning is going to rapidly increase neuroscience progress i promise you. we get so caught up in AI stealing jobs but yes please steal my job of manually analyzing fMRI scans please i would much prefer to work on the science PLUS computational simulations will soon >>> animal testing to make all drug testing safer and more ethical !! we love ethical AI <3

collab with...everyone under the sun - psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, physicists, molecular biologists, chemists, drug development, machine learning, traditional computing, business, history, education, literally try to name a field we don't work with

The study – led by the Department of Psychology’s Dr Megan Klabunde – uncovered a disruption in neural networks involved in self-focus and problem-solving.

This means under-18s who experienced abuse will likely struggle with emotions, empathy and understanding their bodies.

Difficulties in school caused by memory, hard mental tasks and decision making may also emerge.

Dr Klabunde’s cutting-edge research used AI to re-examine hundreds of brain scans and identify patterns.

It is hoped the research will help hone new treatments for children who have endured mistreatment.

This could mean therapists focus on techniques that rewire these centres and rebuild their sense of self.

Trauma triggers

Dr Klabunde said: “Currently, science-based treatments for childhood trauma primarily focus on addressing the fearful thoughts and avoidance of trauma triggers.

“This is a very important part of trauma treatment. However, our study has revealed that we are only treating one part of the problem.

“Even when a child who has experienced trauma is not thinking about their traumatic experiences, their brains are struggling to process their sensations within their bodies.

“This influences how one thinks and feels about one’s ‘internal world’ and this also influences one’s ability to empathise and form relationships.”

Dr Klabunde reviewed 14 studies involving more than 580 children for the research published in Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

Large scale brain systems

The paper re-examined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

This procedure highlights blood flow in different centres, showing neurological activity.

The study discovered a marked difference in traumatised children’s default mode (DMN) and central executive networks (CEN) – two large scale brain systems.

The DMN and the posterior insula are involved in how people sense their body, the sense of self and their internal reflections.

New studies are finding the DMN plays an important role in most mental health problems - and may be influenced by experiencing childhood trauma.

The CEN is also more active than in healthy children, which means that children with trauma histories tend to ruminate and relive terrible experiences when triggered.

Study springboard

Dr Klabunde hopes this study will be a springboard to find out more about how trauma affects developing minds.

She said: “Our brain findings indicate that childhood trauma treatments appear to be missing an important piece of the puzzle.

“In addition to preventing avoidance of scary situations and addressing one’s thoughts, trauma therapies in children should also address how trauma’s impacts on one’s body, sense of self, emotional/empathetic processing, and relationships.

“This is important to do so since untreated symptoms will likely contribute to other health and mental health problems throughout the lifespan.”

While newly approved drugs for Alzheimer’s show some promise for slowing the memory-robbing disease, the current treatments fall far short of being effective at regaining memory. What is needed are more treatment options targeted to restore memory, said Buck Assistant Professor Tara Tracy, PhD, the senior author of a study that proposes an alternate strategy for reversing the memory problems that accompany Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Since most current research on potential treatments for Alzheimer’s focuses on reducing the toxic proteins, such as tau and amyloid beta, that accumulate in the brain as the disease progresses, the team veered away from this route to explore an alternative. “Rather than trying to reduce toxic proteins in the brain, we are trying to reverse the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease to restore memory,” said Tracy. The findings appear in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The work hinges on a protein called KIBRA, named because it is found in the kidney and the brain. In the brain, it is primarily localized at the synapses, which are the connections between neurons that allow memories to be formed and recalled. Research has shown that KIBRA is required for synapses to form memories, and Tracy’s team has found that brains with Alzheimer’s disease are deficient in KIBRA.

“We wondered how the lower levels of KIBRA affected signaling at the synapse, and whether understanding that mechanism better could yield some insight into how to repair the synapses damaged during the course of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Buck Staff Scientist ​​Grant Kauwe, PhD, co-first author of the study. “What we identified is a mechanism that could be targeted to repair synaptic function, and we are now trying to develop a therapy based on this work.”

The team first measured the levels of KIBRA in the cerebrospinal fluid of humans. They found that higher levels of KIBRA in the cerebrospinal fluid, but lower levels in the brain, corresponded to the severity of dementia.

“We also found this amazing correlation between increased tau levels and increased KIBRA levels in the cerebrospinal fluid,” said Tracy. “It was very surprising how strong the relationship was, which really points to the role of KIBRA being affected by tau in the brain.” The team is exploring this phenomenon further, in hopes that KIBRA could be used as a biomarker of synaptic dysfunction and cognitive decline that could be useful for diagnosis, treatment planning, and tracking disease progression and response to therapy.

To figure out how KIBRA affects synapses, the team created a shortened functional version of the KIBRA protein. In laboratory mice that have a condition mimicking human Alzheimer’s disease, they found that this protein can reverse the memory impairment associated with this type of dementia. They found that KIBRA rescues mechanisms that promote the resilience of synapses.

“Interestingly, KIBRA restored synaptic function and memory in mice, despite not fixing the problem of toxic tau protein accumulation,” said Kristeen Pareja-Navarro, co-first author of the study. “Our work supports the possibility that KIBRA could be used as a therapy to improve memory after the onset of memory loss, even though the toxic protein that caused the damage remains.”

Hoplitis papaveris (Megachilidae) is a leafcutting bee that lines its nest with poppy petals

OKAY THIS ARTICLE IS SO COOL

I'm going to try to explain this in a comprehensible way, because honestly it's wild to wrap your head around even for me, who has a degree in chemistry. But bear with me.

Okay, so. Solids, right? They are rigid enough to hold their shape, but aside from that they are quite variable. Some solids are hard, others are soft, some are brittle or rubbery or malleable. So what determines these qualities? And what creates the rigid structure that makes a solid a solid? Most people would tell you that it depends on the atoms that make up the solid, and the bonds between those atoms. Rubber is flexible because of the polymers it's made of, steel is strong because of the metallic bonds between its atoms. And this applies to all solids. Or so everybody thought.

A paper published in the journal Nature has discovered that biological materials such as wood, fungi, cotton, hair, and anything else that can respond to the humidity in the environment may be composed of a new class of matter dubbed "hydration solids". That's because the rigidity and solidness of the materials doesn't actually come from the atoms and bonds, but from the water molecules hanging out in between.

So basically, try to imagine a hydration solid as a bunch of balloons taped together to form a giant cube, with the actual balloon part representing the atoms and bonds of the material, and the air filling the balloons as the water in the pores of the solid. What makes this "solid" cube shaped? It's not because of the rubber at all, but the air inside. If you took out all the air from inside the balloons, the structure wouldn't be able to hold its shape.

Ozger Sahin, one of the paper's authors, said

"When we take a walk in the woods, we think of the trees and plants around us as typical solids. This research shows that we should really think of those trees and plants as towers of water holding sugars and proteins in place. It's really water's world."

Richard Feynman's love letter to his deceased wife, 1946.