Hacker News with Generative AI: Neuroscience

Parrots and humans share a brain mechanism for speech (sciencenews.org)
When it comes to speech, parrots have the gift of gab. And the way the brains of small parrots known as budgerigars bestow this gift is remarkably similar to human speech, researchers report March 19 in Nature.

Neuroscience, Animal Behavior, Language, Birds

6 points by gmays 12 hours ago | 0 comments

Looking under the hood at the brain's language system (news.mit.edu)
Associate Professor Evelina Fedorenko is working to decipher the internal structure and functions of the brain’s language-processing machinery.

Neuroscience, Language Processing, Brain Research

4 points by rbanffy 14 hours ago | 2 comments

Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory (2020) (nature.com)
Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices and applications have become ubiquitous over the last decade. However, it is unclear whether using GPS affects our own internal navigation system, or spatial memory, which critically relies on the hippocampus.

Spatial Memory, Neuroscience, GPS, Technology

5 points by hubraumhugo 2 days ago | 1 comments

We can, must, and will simulate nematode brains (asteriskmag.com)
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the smallest brain we know. Today, we finally have the tools to pull it off.

Science, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Biology

124 points by l1n 2 days ago | 115 comments

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 3 days ago | 2 comments

First map of human brain mitochondria is 'groundbreaking' achievement (nature.com)
Scientists have created the first map of the crucial structures called mitochondria throughout the entire brain ― a feat that could help to unravel age-related brain disorders1.

Science, Neuroscience, Medicine, Human Biology

12 points by XzetaU8 4 days ago | 0 comments

Researchers get spiking neural behavior out of a pair of transistors (arstechnica.com)
A paper published in Nature on Wednesday describes a way to get plain-old silicon transistors to behave a lot like an actual neuron. And unlike the dedicated processors made so far, it only requires two transistors to do so.

Neuroscience, Hardware, Artificial Intelligence, Semiconductors

20 points by rbanffy 7 days ago | 7 comments

First stroke rehabilitation drug discovered in mouse model (medicalxpress.com)
A new study by UCLA Health has discovered what researchers say is the first drug to fully reproduce the effects of physical stroke rehabilitation in model mice.

Medical Research, Neuroscience, Stroke, Pharmacology, Animals

3 points by PaulHoule 7 days ago | 0 comments

Calorie-free sweeteners can disrupt the brain's appetite signals (keck.usc.edu)
A study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that a common sugar substitute alters brain activity related to hunger and increases appetite, especially in people with obesity.

Health, Diet, Neuroscience, Obesity

8 points by scblzn 8 days ago | 1 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 8 days ago | 36 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, Science, Medicine

36 points by isaacfrond 8 days ago | 4 comments

The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing (asteriskmag.com)
Why do some people find certain sounds intolerable? And why has it taken so long for scientists to get even a preliminary answer?

Sensory Sensitivity, Psychology, Sound, Neuroscience

86 points by k2enemy 10 days ago | 72 comments

First-of-its-kind trial enables paralysed man to stand via stem cell injection (nature.com)
A paralysed man can stand on his own after receiving an injection of neural stem cells to treat his spinal cord injury.

Medical Research, Neuroscience, Stem Cells

175 points by bentobean 10 days ago | 34 comments

"Infantile amnesia" occurs despite babies showing memory activity (arstechnica.com)
For many of us, memories of our childhood have become a bit hazy, if not vanishing entirely. But nobody really remembers much before the age of 4, because nearly all humans experience what's termed "infantile amnesia," in which memories that might have formed before that age seemingly vanish as we move through adolescence. And it's not just us; the phenomenon appears to occur in a number of our fellow mammals.

Memory, Neuroscience, Childhood, Psychology, Animals

7 points by nobody9999 11 days ago | 1 comments

Targeting Brain's Drainage Pathways Rejuvenates Memory (neurosciencenews.com)
Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have found a way around that problem by targeting the network of vessels that drain waste from the brain. Rejuvenating those vessels, they have shown, improves memory in old mice.

Neuroscience, Aging, Memory, Brain Health

8 points by amichail 13 days ago | 4 comments

Deciphering language processing in the human brain through LLM representations (research.google)
Large Language Models (LLMs) optimized for predicting subsequent utterances and adapting to tasks using contextual embeddings can process natural language at a level close to human proficiency. This study shows that neural activity in the human brain aligns linearly with the internal contextual embeddings of speech and language within large language models (LLMs) as they process everyday conversations.

Neuroscience, Human Brain

184 points by Korling 13 days ago | 106 comments

Can Parrot Brains Teach Us About Human Speech? (smithsonianmag.com)
Parrots have long fascinated humans with their ability to mimic speech, but new research reveals their brains do more than just imitate—they use complex neural systems that parallel the way humans produce speech.

Parrots, Neuroscience, Language, Animal Intelligence, Speech

36 points by ulrischa 13 days ago | 3 comments

Sex differences in brain structure are present at birth (psypost.org)
New research published in Biology of Sex Differences has found that sex differences in brain structure are already present at birth and remain relatively stable during early postnatal development.

Neuroscience, Biology, Sex Differences, Development

9 points by amichail 14 days ago | 0 comments

Sleep pressure accumulates in a voltage-gated lipid peroxidation memory (nature.com)
Voltage-gated potassium (KV) channels contain cytoplasmically exposed β-subunits1,2,3,4,5 whose aldo-keto reductase activity6,7,8 is required for the homeostatic regulation of sleep9.

Neuroscience, Biology, Sleep, Potassium Channels

25 points by gnabgib 15 days ago | 1 comments

Trauma treatment: Playing Tetris increased hippocampal volume in PTSD patients (nlm.nih.gov)
Recent work has provided evidence for the utility of the visuospatial video game Tetris as an early therapeutic intervention for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).1–3 Holmes and colleagues have shown that playing Tetris directly after trauma exposure can reduce subsequent intrusive memories of the traumatic event, and they have demonstrated the efficacy of this “cognitive vaccine” in both experimental1 and real-world settings.2–4

Trauma Treatment, PTSD, Video Games, Neuroscience, Health

10 points by haltingproblem 16 days ago | 0 comments

To the brain, Esperanto and Klingon appear the same as English or Mandarin (news.mit.edu)
A new study finds natural and invented languages elicit similar responses in the brain’s language-processing network.

Neuroscience, Linguistics, Language Learning, Brain Research, Language Processing

9 points by ilamont 16 days ago | 4 comments

When the Animals Went Electric (nautil.us)
What a superpower sense tells us about evolutionary creativity

Evolution, Animal Behavior, Neuroscience, Superpowers

10 points by dnetesn 17 days ago | 0 comments

The Hypercuriosity Theory of ADHD (epsig.substack.com)

ADHD, Psychology, Neuroscience, Attention, Cognitive Science

16 points by paulpauper 18 days ago | 0 comments

Watching nature scenes can reduce pain, new study shows (exeter.ac.uk)
A new neuroimaging study has revealed that viewing nature can help ease how people experience pain, by reducing the brain activity linked to pain perception.

Science, Pain Management, Nature, Neuroscience

37 points by jjp 18 days ago | 11 comments

Dark Books (2016) (aeon.co)
Reading novels is good for you. This is the current wisdom, at least. A 2013 study by the New School for Social Research in New York City attempted to prove that reading passages by Don DeLillo and Lydia Davis had an immediate impact on participants’ ability to identify the emotions of others. Another, at Emory University in Georgia, found that reading novels had the potential to cause heightened ‘connectivity’ in the brain.

Literature, Neuroscience, Research

3 points by diodorus 20 days ago | 0 comments

Parkinson's treatment closer as problematic protein imaged for first time (newatlas.com)
Scientists have finally pinned down a protein that’s largely responsible for Parkinson’s disease.

Medical Research, Parkinson's Disease, Neuroscience

9 points by 01-_- 20 days ago | 2 comments

Directly converting skin cells to brain cells yields 1k% success (newatlas.com)
In a potentially major breakthrough for regenerative medicine, scientists at MIT have developed a way to convert skin cells directly into brain cells extremely efficiently, without needing to go through the intermediate step of converting them to stem cells first.

Regenerative Medicine, Neuroscience, Biology, Stem Cells

4 points by 01-_- 21 days ago | 1 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 23 days ago | 88 comments

What ketamine does to the human brain (theatlantic.com)
Excessive use of the drug can make anyone feel like they rule the world.

Drugs, Neuroscience, Human Brain

72 points by aagha 23 days ago | 19 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 25 days ago | 16 comments