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Have you ever thought about using an extra thumb? Perhaps you could play the guitar faster, or hold an extra tool as you continue to work? Well think no more, as Dani Clode has invented just that. We took a trip down to the University of Cambridge, where she collaborates with neuroscientist Tamr Makin to unravel the mysteries of how this extra thumb influences the brain. Dani envisions a future where augmentation becomes a reality and the third thumb serves as a tool to enhance the capabilities of regular individuals. She also explores the impact this additional thumb can have...

A letter, signed by 124 scholars and posted online last week1, has caused an uproar in the consciousness research community. It claims that a prominent theory describing what makes someone or something conscious — called the integrated information theory (IIT) — should be labelled “pseudoscience”. Since its publication on 15 September in the preprint repository PsyArXiv, the letter has some researchers arguing over the label and others worried it will increase polarization in a field that has grappled with issues of credibility in the past. “I think it’s inflammatory to describe IIT as pseudoscience,” says neuroscientist Anil Seth, director of...

For many people, the mind and brain are interchangeable. They use one word or the other to talk about the same thing: the organ in our skull that we use to think. However, the mind and brain are actually two very different, but interconnected, entities. As a neuroscientist, this reality is the foundation of my life's research and work: The mind works through the brain but is separate from the brain. What is the difference between the mind and the brain? So what exactly is the difference between the mind and the brain? Well, the mind is separate, yet inseparable...

a hand holding a film-like brain implant Credit: Precision Neuroscience A startup founded by a former Neuralink exec is developing a safer, easier-to-place brain implant — and it just tested the device in people for the first time. Brain implants: Almost everything you think and do comes down to tiny pulses of electricity zipping between the 120 billion neurons in your brain. Brain implants give us a way to see this activity with far more precision than any device outside of the skull, like an EEG or MRI. By pairing this brain implant data with advanced computer algorithms, researchers have...

MIT neuroscientists have discovered a method to reverse neurodegeneration and other Alzheimer’s disease symptoms by blocking an overactive enzyme, CDK5, in patients’ brains. Treating mice with a peptide inhibitor, they observed significant reductions in neurodegeneration, DNA damage, and improved cognitive abilities. The peptide has the potential to be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia with CDK5 overactivation, without interfering with essential, structurally similar enzymes. The peptide blocks a hyperactive brain enzyme that contributes to the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer’s and other diseases. MIT neuroscientists have found a way to reverse neurodegeneration and other symptoms of...

Scientists have uncovered a mysterious network of brain connections that is linked to ... schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, addiction, OCD and anxiety — that share this underlying circuitry... Some "nodes" in the circuit have been linked to psychiatric disorders in the past, while others...are instead linked to key aspects of cognitive function, like selective attention and sensory processing... The team pinpointed brain regions where gray matter had atrophied, or shrunk, in the context of psychiatric disorders. [T]he disorders still had something in common: the tangled network of wires that runs between all these pockets of atrophy in the brain. The...

It’s often said that a little stress can be good for you. Now scientists have shown that the same may be true for cells, uncovering a newly-discovered mechanism that might help prevent the build-up of tangles of proteins commonly seen in dementia. A characteristic of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s—collectively known as neurodegenerative diseases—is the build-up of misfolded proteins. These proteins, such as amyloid and tau in Alzheimer’s disease, form ‘aggregates’ that can cause irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain. Protein folding is a normal process in the body, and in healthy individuals, cells carry out a...

The research involved imaging the brains of 15 astronauts before and after extended tours of duty on the International Space Station. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure perivascular space — or the space around blood vessels — in the brains of astronauts prior to their launch and again immediately after their return. They also took MRI measurements again at one, three, and six months after they had returned. Astronauts’ images were compared with those taken of the same perivascular space in the brains of 16 Earth-bound control subjects. In all cases, scientists found no problems with balance or visual...

Earlier this month, Swedish Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson delivered her maiden speech as head of the Swedish Social Democratic Party... “If you are young,” she said, “you must obtain a high school diploma and go on to get a job or higher education.” If you receive financial aid from the state, “you must learn Swedish and work a certain number of hours a week.” The Social Democrats now deploy the harsh language only far-right nativists of the Sweden Democrats party used in 2015... all major parties today stand for a restrictive migration policy with a strong focus on law...

Neuroscientists have tried to map various categories of mental function to specific regions of the brain, but recent work has shown that the definitions and boundaries of those regions are complex and context-dependent. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Neuroscientists are the cartographers of the brain’s diverse domains and territories — the features and activities that define them, the roads and highways that connect them, and the boundaries that delineate them. Toward the front of the brain, just behind the forehead, is the prefrontal cortex, celebrated as the seat of judgment. Behind it lies the motor cortex, responsible for planning and coordinating movement. To the...

A professor of philosophy has tackled neuroscientific objections to miracles, visions and the existence of God. Brad Sickler, associate professor of philosophy and program director for the Master of Arts in theological studies at the University of Northwestern, looked at how some researchers have tried to use neuroscience to explain away religious experiences. “Some attempt to create experiences that feel to the subject like an encounter with a divine or supernatural being by manipulating the brain through physical or chemical means,” wrote Sickler in a piece titled “Is God All in the Brain? Weighing Objections from Neuroscience” published by the...

Carl Hart is a Columbia University professor of psychology and neuroscience. He chairs the psych department and has a fondness for heroin – not only as a subject of scholarly pursuit but also as a substance for personal use. At 54, the married father of three has snorted small amounts of heroin for as many as 10 days in a row and enjoyed it mightily – even if, as he recalls in his new book “Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear” (Penguin Press), he’s experienced mild withdrawal symptoms “12 to 16 hours after the last...

In Hebrews 11:1 in the Bible, faith is described as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Now, according to a new study by Georgetown University neuroscientists, the strength of one's faith in God is likely linked to the brain.In their study, Implicit pattern learning predicts individual differences in belief in God in the United States and Afghanistan, published this month in the journal Nature Communications, the neuroscientists found that an individual’s ability to unconsciously predict complex patterns, through an ability known as implicit pattern learning, had a strong correlation with the strength of their...

Call it neuroscience on the go. Scientists have developed a backpack that tracks and stimulates brain activity as people go about their daily lives. The advance could allow researchers to get a sense of how the brain works outside of a laboratory—and how to monitor diseases such as Parkinson’s and post-traumatic stress disorder in real-world settings. The technology is “an inspiring demonstration of what’s possible” with portable neuroscience equipment, says Timothy Spellman, a neurobiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine who was not involved with the work. The backpack and its vast suite of tools, he says, could broaden the landscape for...

In his 1996 essay entitled “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died,” the late essayist Tom Wolfe predicted that new technologies (such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI) would soon render our traditional ideas about the “soul,” the “mind,” the “self,” and “free will” obsolete. In their place would be a “brilliant dawn” of “Ultimate Skepticism.” Today, to paraphrase another literary giant, it seems that Wolfe’s reports of the soul’s imminent death were greatly exaggerated. An fMRI is an instrument that measures brain activity by tracking blood flow. As with other parts of the body, “when an area of the...

Scientists think they've identified a previously unknown form of neural communication that self-propagates across brain tissue, and can leap wirelessly from neurons in one section of brain tissue to another – even if they've been surgically severed. The discovery offers some radical new insights about the way neurons might be talking to one another, via a mysterious process unrelated to conventionally understood mechanisms, such as synaptic transmission, axonal transport, and gap junction connections. "We don't know yet the 'So what?' part of this discovery entirely," says neural and biomedical engineer Dominique Durand from Case Western Reserve University. "But we do...

The human hippocampus sits at the base of the brain. It stores memories, helps regulate emotions and guides navigation by spatial processing.It’s the first part of the brain impaired by Alzheimer’s; hippocampus degeneration also can cause epilepsy and other diseases.“Like a new atlas, we’ve constructed the most detailed diagram of the hippocampus to date. With a better map, we can see each region and how it functions,” said Dr. Michael Bienkowski, co-lead author of the study.“A better map is a resource scientists can use to better understand the hippocampus and how its degeneration leads to diseases.”“Researchers can use the new...

... The offspring of partying adolescents, specifically those who used THC, may be at increased risk for mental illness and addiction as a result of changes to the epigenome — even if those children are years away from being conceived. The epigenome is a record of molecular imprints of potent experiences, including cannabis exposure, that lead to persistent changes in gene expression and behavior, even across generations. Though the critical studies are only now beginning, many neuroscientists prophesize a social version of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” in which we learn we’ve burdened our heirs only generations hence.

Neuroscience startup Nectome wants to harvest your brain for science. The nascent company, which is a member of famed incubator Y Combinator’s winter 2018 class, is focused on preserving brains for future computer upload. Why Does Nectome Want My Brain? “Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family,” Nectome’s website says. “We believe that within the current century it will be feasible to digitize this information...

People who have it say it can be excruciating. Tinnitus causes pain and a constant ringing in the ears that makes it almost impossible to concentrate or enjoy a social gathering. Worst of all, there's little they can do about it. There are treatments that can help, but no cure. Now, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center and colleagues in Germany say they've discovered the brain condition that causes it. It's not a cure, but researchers say it is the first step toward finding one. Writing in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the scientists describe how the brain mechanisms that normally...