Hacker News with Generative AI: Brain

Glutamate Unlocks Brain Cell Channels to Enable Thinking and Learning (neurosciencenews.com)
In an effort to understand how brain cells exchange chemical messages, scientists say they have successfully used a highly specialized microscope to capture more precise details of how one of the most common signaling molecules, glutamate, opens a channel and allows a flood of charged particles to enter.

Neuroscience, Brain, Learning, Research, Biology

6 points by westurner 2 days ago | 2 comments

The mysterious flow of fluid in the brain (quantamagazine.org)
Encased in the skull, perched atop the spine, the brain has a carefully managed existence. It receives only certain nutrients, filtered through the blood-brain barrier; an elaborate system of protective membranes surrounds it. That privileged space contains a mystery. For more than a century, scientists have wondered: If it’s so hard for anything to get into the brain, how does waste get out?

Neuroscience, Biology, Brain, Science, Health

149 points by pseudolus 7 days ago | 36 comments

How far neuroscience is from understanding brains (2023) (nlm.nih.gov)
The cellular biology of brains is relatively well-understood, but neuroscientists have not yet generated a theory explaining how brains work.

Neuroscience, Brain, Science, Biology

101 points by Gooblebrai 22 days ago | 88 comments

Optimal brain process requires balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons (phys.org)
The brain's ability to process information is known to be supported by intricate connections between different neuron populations. A key objective of neuroscience research has been to delineate the processes via which these connections influence information processing.

Neuroscience, Brain, Science, Biology

49 points by WaitWaitWha 24 days ago | 16 comments

How your morning coffee is changing the structure of your brain (newatlas.com)
A novel placebo-controlled study has found daily caffeine consumption can significantly reduce the volume of gray matter in the human brain.

Health, Neuroscience, Caffeine, Brain

15 points by clumsysmurf 49 days ago | 5 comments

New neuroscience research shows Covid-19 leaves mark on young adult brains (psypost.org)
A new study published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity has found that young adults who have recovered from COVID-19 show distinct patterns of brain activity during cognitive tasks, even if they perform normally on those tasks.

Neuroscience, COVID-19, Health, Research, Brain

9 points by amichail 54 days ago | 1 comments

I'm a neuroscientist. Here's how gambling can change your brain (sciencefocus.com)

Neuroscience, Gambling, Brain, Psychology, Science

8 points by nabla9 59 days ago | 3 comments

Concept cells help your brain abstract information and build memories (quantamagazine.org)
Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives.

Neuroscience, Memory, Cognitive Science, Brain, Artificial Intelligence

147 points by headalgorithm 71 days ago | 18 comments

Good readers have distinct brain anatomy, research reveals (psypost.org)
The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015) and almost one in four young people aged 16-24 say they’ve never been readers, according to research by The Reading Agency.

Reading, Neuroscience, Brain, Research, Behavior

14 points by isaacfrond 76 days ago | 8 comments

Breathing coordinates brain rhythms during sleep (news.northwestern.edu)
Just as a conductor coordinates different instruments in an orchestra to produce a symphony, breathing coordinates hippocampal brain waves that strengthen memory while we sleep, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sleep, Neuroscience, Brain, Memory, Health

5 points by gnabgib 106 days ago | 0 comments

Consciousness Might Hide in Our Brain's Electric Fields (scientificamerican.com)
A mysterious electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of neurons in our brain to explain our awareness

Consciousness, Neuroscience, Brain, Electromagnetism

40 points by thomasjudge 121 days ago | 36 comments

Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread connectivity in brain (openread.academy)

Neuroscience, Brain, Handwriting, Cognitive Science

214 points by cryptozeus 122 days ago | 125 comments

Spike Protein Lingers in Brain, Fuels Long Covid (neurosciencenews.com)
A new study reveals that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein remains in brain-protective tissues and skull bone marrow for years after infection, potentially driving long COVID’s neurological symptoms.

Long COVID, Neuroscience, SARS-CoV-2, Health, Brain

9 points by amichail 124 days ago | 0 comments

Tweaking non-neural brain cells can cause memories to fade (arstechnica.com)
Tweaking non-neural brain cells can cause memories to fade

Neuroscience, Memory, Brain, Biology, Research

31 points by hn_acker 129 days ago | 2 comments

'Brain stars' store our memories like a microscopic filing cabinet (newatlas.com)
Fascinating new findings into how clusters of 'brain stars' retain memories has changed what we know about how they're held in our minds.

Neuroscience, Memory, Brain, Research, Science

29 points by wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB 142 days ago | 1 comments

The brain summons deep sleep for healing from life-threatening injury (nature.com)
Immune cells rush to the brain and promote deep sleep after a heart attack, according to a new study1 involving both mice and humans. This heavy slumber helps recovery by easing inflammation in the heart, the study found.

Science, Health, Sleep, Brain

10 points by gnabgib 154 days ago | 0 comments

High-resolution postmortem human brain MRI at 7 tesla (pulkit-khandelwal.github.io)
Ex vivo MRI of the brain provides remarkable advantages over in vivo MRI for visualizing and characterizing detailed neuroanatomy, and helps to link microscale histology studies with morphometric measurements.

Medical Imaging, Neuroscience, MRI, Brain, Research

122 points by pulks 159 days ago | 17 comments

Oligodendroglial fatty acid metabolism as a CNS energy reserve (nature.com)
Brain function requires a constant supply of glucose. However, the brain has no known energy stores, except for glycogen granules in astrocytes. In the present study, we report that continuous oligodendroglial lipid metabolism provides an energy reserve in white matter tracts.

Neuroscience, Brain, Metabolism, Energy, Biology

4 points by PaulHoule 167 days ago | 0 comments

Human brain changes after first psilocybin use (biorxiv.org)
Psychedelics have robust effects on acute brain function and long-term behavior but whether they also cause enduring functional and anatomical brain changes is unknown.

Psychedelics, Neuroscience, Brain, Research

54 points by XzetaU8 169 days ago | 27 comments

Brain rejuvenation breakthrough: Limiting glucose could spark new neuron growth (studyfinds.org)
STANFORD, Calif. — Could the secret to maintaining a youthful, sharp mind be as simple as watching our sugar intake? A new study from Stanford Medicine suggests that glucose plays a surprising role in the aging brain’s ability to produce new neurons.

Neuroscience, Aging, Health, Glucose, Brain

28 points by gnabgib 181 days ago | 16 comments

What excessive screen time does to the adult brain (longevity.stanford.edu)
Binge-watching television, watching YouTube videos for hours, or scrolling on your phone every morning may seem harmless, but research shows that too much screen time may be detrimental to your health.

Health, Brain, Technology, Screen Time

270 points by yamrzou 182 days ago | 191 comments

Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain (jamanetwork.com)
This case series provides evidence of MPs found in the human olfactory bulb, suggesting a potential pathway for the translocation of MPs to the brain.

Science, Health, Microplastics, Brain

170 points by hindsightbias 196 days ago | 176 comments

Part of brain network much bigger in people with depression, scientists find (theguardian.com)

Neuroscience, Mental Health, Depression, Brain

7 points by amichail 210 days ago | 1 comments

Depression has a consistent mark in the brain even when symptoms are absent (nature.com)
The symptoms of depression might come and go, but new evidence suggests that the pattern of brain wiring behind it remains the same for life.

Depression, Neuroscience, Brain, Mental Health, Research

31 points by carabiner 210 days ago | 6 comments

Sleep on it: How the brain processes many experiences, even when 'offline' (news.yale.edu)

Sleep, Neuroscience, Brain, Memory, Cognition

434 points by PaulHoule 212 days ago | 137 comments

Finding love: Study reveals where love lives in the brain (medicalxpress.com)

Love, Neuroscience, Brain, Relationships, Research

9 points by XzetaU8 219 days ago | 3 comments

The brain simulates actions and their consequences during REM sleep (biorxiv.org)

Brain, Sleep, Neuroscience, Biology, Research

196 points by XzetaU8 227 days ago | 63 comments

Brain found to store three copies of every memory (newatlas.com)