Summary: A new, open-source model of synaptic plasticity in the neocortex could propel understanding of how learning occurs in the brain.
Source: University of Montreal.
Everyone knows the human brain is extremely complex—but how does it learn, exactly? Well, the answer may be a lot simpler than commonly believed.
From the engine in your car to the components in your laptop, mechanical systems tend to heat up when they’re working harder. Now new research has revealed that the same can be said of the brain – and it runs hotter than was previously thought.
Some parts of the deep brain can get up to 40 °C (104 °F), a new study shows, though this varies by sex, time of day, and various other factors. Compare that with the average oral temperature in human bodies, which is typically under 37 °C (98.6 °F).
This isn’t a sign of malfunctioning though, researchers think, and may actually be evidence that the brain is operating healthily. Unusual heat signatures could potentially be used in the future to look for signs of brain damage or disorder.
The origin of consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries of science. One proposed solution, first suggested by Nobel Laureate and Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hammeroff, at Arizona State University, in Tucson, attributes consciousness to quantum computations in the brain. This in turn hinges on the notion that gravity could play a role in how quantum effects disappear, or “collapse.” But a series of experiments in a lab deep under the Gran Sasso mountains, in Italy, has failed to find evidence in support of a gravity-related quantum collapse model, undermining the feasibility of this explanation for consciousness. The result is reported in the journal Physics of Life Reviews.
“How consciousness arises in the brain is a huge puzzle,” says Catalina Curceanu, a member of the physics think tank, the Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, and the lead physicist on the experiments at INFN in Frascati, Italy. “There are many competing ideas, but very few can be experimentally tested.”
Quantum physics famously tells us that cats can be alive and dead at the same time, at least in theory. Yet in practice we never see felines locked in such an unfortunate limbo state. One popular explanation for why not is because the “wavefunction” of a system–its quantum character allowing it to be in two contradictory states simultaneously–is more likely to “collapse” or be destroyed if it is more massive, leaving it in one defined state, either dead or alive, say, but not both at the same time. This model of collapse, related to gravity acting on heavy objects like cats, was invoked by Penrose and Hammeroff when developing their model of consciousness, ‘Orch OR theory’ (the Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory), in the 1990s.
APIs have catalyzed the evolution of the internet and could evolve into the brain-computer interface-driven metaverse reality on the horizon.
Gabapentin, which is currently used to control seizures and manage nerve pain, might help nerve cells regrow in the brain.
Scientists are attempting to map the wiring of the nearly 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Are we close to uncovering the mysteries of the mind or are we only at the beginning of a new frontier?
PARTICIPANTS: Deanna Barch, Jeff Lichtman, Nim Tottenham, David Van Essen.
MODERATOR: John Hockenberry.
Original program date: JUNE 4, 2017
Continue reading “Cartographers of the Brain: Mapping the Connectome” »
Liz mentions combinatorial gene therapy for aging near the end which is something you hear the likes of George Church mention they are working on.
Liz Parrish is the founder of @BioViva Science, a company dedicated to curing biological aging, a disease that is at the root cause of all other chronic diseases from heart disease to Alzheimer’s. Watch this video to understand how much more control we have over our lifespan and health!
