For more information on addiction services at #YaleMedicine, visit: https://www.yalemedicine.org/departments/program-in-addiction-medicine.
Written and produced by Yale Neuroscience PhD student Clara Liao.
Speech BCIs that use brain implants and algorithms to translate brain signals into text are changing the lives of people with paralysis.
What happens in the brain when we feel threatened? Answers to this question could lead to new treatments for people with anxiety and panic disorders and PTSD. Caltech neuroscientist Dean Mobbs (http://www.hss.caltech.edu/people/dean-mobbs) studies how the brain processes different types of danger. In this video, Mobbs talks about fear, horror, and hope. Participants in his studies play virtual-predator video games inspired by horror movies while fMRI machines track the activity in their brains as they encounter threats. Mobbs and his research group recently showed that two regions of the brain are involved in processing fear: one for distant threats that allow some time to strategize, and one for immediate danger that requires a fight, flight, or freeze response. (Read more: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/you-dont-think-your-way-o…tack-81542)
Mobbs conducts research in the Caltech Brain Imaging Center (http://cbic.caltech.edu), which is part of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech (http://neuroscience.caltech.edu). Founded with a $115 million gift to Break Through: The Caltech Campaign (https://breakthrough.caltech.edu/) from visionary philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, the Chen Institute at Caltech supports researchers who are deepening our understanding of the brain.
Continue reading “The Caltech Effect: This Is Your Brain on Fear” »
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a complex mental health condition characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for the rights of others and violation of societal norms. Untreated forms of ASPD affect about three percent of the general population. While the exact causes of ASPD remain unclear, researchers have identified several potential factors that may contribute to its development.
1. Genetic Factors: Studies suggest a genetic component in the development of ASPD, with heritability estimates ranging from 40% to 70%. Genetic variants involved in neurotransmitter regulation, such as serotonin and dopamine, have been implicated in antisocial behavior (Ficks & Waldman, 2014).
2. Environmental Factors: Childhood experiences play a crucial role in the development of ASPD. Early exposure to abuse, neglect, or inconsistent parenting has been linked to an increased risk of developing antisocial behavior (Rhee & Waldman, 2011).
Artificial intelligence is changing health care. It promises better diagnoses and fewer mistakes and all in less time. While some associate AI with a frightening dystopian future, many doctors see it as a source of support.
To help them care for patients, doctors are programming apps and supplying AI with data. At Berlin’s Charité hospital, Professor Surjo Soekadar is researching how neurotechnology might support paralysis patients in their everyday lives — for example, via assistance systems that are controlled via their thoughts.
Continue reading “Doctors, apps and artificial intelligence — The future of medicine” »
In September 2020 we sat down with Robert Sapolsky, Stanford professor and the author of Human Behavioral Biology lectures (https://youtu.be/NNnIGh9g6fA) to discuss if it’s possible for our society to reconcile our understanding of justice with scientific understanding of human behaviour.
Why do humans, most likely, have no free will? How does that link to depression and other psychiatric disorders? Can people accept the idea that there is no free will and start using, what science tells us about the reasons behind our behaviour, as a basis for making sense of justice and morality? If yes, can we even imagine what such society would look like?
Continue reading “Robert Sapolsky: Justice and morality in the absence of free will” »
Notably, when implanted into mouse brains, the printed cells showed both structural and functional integration with the host tissue.
“Our droplet printing technique provides a means to engineer living 3D tissues with desired architectures, which brings us closer to the creation of personalised implantation treatments for brain injury,” said Dr Linna Zhou, senior author of the study.
The researchers now aim to further evolve their technique and create complex multi-layered cerebral cortex tissues that can mimic the human brain’s architecture in a more realistic way. Beyond brain injuries, these 3D-printed cells could benefit drug evaluation and our knowledge on brain development and cognition.
According to a new theory presented by researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus and their colleagues at University College London, how useful a memory is for future situations determines where it resides in the brain.
The theory offers a new way of understanding systems consolidation, a process that transfers certain memories from the hippocampus – where they are initially stored – to the neocortex — where they reside long term.
Under the classical view of systems consolidation, all memories move from the hippocampus to the neocortex over time. But this view doesn’t always hold up; research shows some memories permanently reside in the hippocampus and are never transferred to the neocortex.
