Category Biology/Biotechnology

Researchers develop a Material that Mimics how the Brain Stores Information

First artificial synapse that reproduces learning during sleep. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona researchers have developed a magnetic material capable of imitating the way the brain stores information. The material makes it possible to emulate the synapses of neurons and mimic, for the first time, the learning that occurs during deep sleep.

Neuromorphic computing is a new computing paradigm in which the behavior of the brain is emulated by mimicking the main synaptic functions of neurons. Among these functions is neuronal plasticity: the ability to store information or forget it depending on the duration and repetition of the electrical impulses that stimulate neurons, a plasticity that would be linked to learning and memory.

Among the materials that mimic neuron synapses, me...

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Study shows that Adaptive Immune Responses can cause Cellular Loss in the Aging-Related Brain

Study shows that adaptive immune responses can cause cellular loss in the aging brain
The cell type composition of scRNA-seq was analyzed and oligodendrocytes were separated into four different sub-clusters. Two previously unknown oligodendrocyte clusters appeared in aged mice, which were enriched in the white matter. One was associated with injury responses. Because this cluster was highly enriched in the aged white matter, it was named aging-related oligodendrocytes (Fig. 1b-c, e). Also a smaller interferon-responsive oligodendrocyte subpopulation (IRO) was characterized by the expression of genes commonly associated with an interferon response. Credit: Kaya et al.

Past neuroscience studies have consistently demonstrated that the aging of the mammalian nervous system is liked with a decline in the volume and functioning of white matter, nerve fibers found in deep brai...

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Brain Changes in Autism are far more sweeping than previously known, study finds

This shows a brain
The new study finds brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 cortical regions analyzed, regardless of whether they are higher critical association regions – those involved in functions such as reasoning, language, social cognition and mental flexibility – or primary sensory regions. Image is in the public domain

Brain changes in autism are comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex rather than just particular areas thought to affect social behavior and language, according to a new UCLA-led study that significantly refines scientists’ understanding of how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) progresses at the molecular level.

The study, published today in Nature, represents a comprehensive effort to characterize ASD at the molecular level...

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Researchers studying new way to Heal Diabetic Wounds by Activating ‘Hidden’ Mechanism in the Body

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are looking for ways to heal wounds by using a healing protein that is active in fetuses, but largely inactive in adults and absent in diabetic adults.

“We already know from previous studies at other institutions that if a fetus is wounded, it can regenerate the tissue, or repair it to be like new,” said Chandan K. Sen, PhD, associate vice president of military and applied research, the J. Stanley Battersby chair and distinguished professor of surgery and director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at Indiana University School of Medicine. “But after birth, such regenerative wound healing ability is lost. Healing in adults is relatively inefficient often associated with undesirable scar formation.”

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