A HS student emailed me out of the blue to do an interview as part of her capstone project on #Alzheimer's. I spoke w/her about #brain science & #caregiving. She's 18, her family has the #APOE4 gene - a risk factor for the disease - & she will study neuroscience to find a cure for Alzheimer's. She's smart, determined, & I had chills listening to her story and her passion. The senseless, fascistic #NIH cuts are imperiling the potential, the future of people like her, & our own.
@quite1enough@mastodon.socialFeb 22th I experienced major stress episode.I'm autistic and my only meaning of life is art and such, and after that I lost all my creative intuition and complex array of feelings connected to it. Almost no sexual attraction too
How long does it take to recover from severe stress? And generally what's the med protocols to treat something like I described (in autistic ppl)?
I ask periodically but haven't found an answer yet. My partner has dyslexia, and I definitely don't have that (I can easily help her spell any word she asks), but I when typing I transpose S/2/5, 1/L and of course 0/O. I also substitute words like suitcase/briefcase. I also reverse the order of letters. When reading, numbers in particular, the digits seem to shift around, and if a digit is repeated I struggle to count how many times it is repeated. Is there a name for this? #actuallyAutistic #dyslexia #brain #neuroscience
@AskPippa@c.imI get a lot of press releases. Once in a while a headline just really catches your eye. World of the weird.
"Insomniac fruit fly mutants show enhanced memory despite severe sleep loss."
It began with a rabbit: Unraveling the mystery of memory. 
From @KnowableMag: "Half a century after the discovery of long-term potentiation, we’re still learning how the brain remembers."
@nemo@mas.toResearchers at Northeastern University were left “absolutely stunned” when a preliminary study showed that psilocybin was able to restore brain function in adult rodents that had experienced mild, repetitive head injuries. @ScienceAlert has more:
Once upon a time, I asked people to review my memoir, written w/#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller, Finding the Right Words on #Amazon to help people dealing w/#dementia: the complexities of #brain health, #caregiving, #grief. B/c #Bezos is no longer someone I can support b/c he supports #Nazis, I humbly ask you -- if you've read the book -- to review it here. Also, #NIH cuts & the evisceration of #Alzheimer's research (et al.) will immiserate all of us. Grief (& rage) are the words.
"What does it feel like to have your brain flash-glassified?"
It may be the pain it causes to your teeth or the gross taste in your mouth, but a news study shows that chewing on a hard substance like wood can increase levels of a naturally occurring antioxidant in the human brain. This isn’t to suggest you gnaw on a 2x4, but perhaps chewing on a pencil may improve a person’s memory. @ScienceAlert has more on what dogs have apparently known for decades:
The #memoir I wrote with Dr. Bruce Miller is now available in #Chinese. Thank you Johns Hopkins UP & East China Normal UP. According to this article, "#China has the world's largest population of patients with #dementia, and #Alzheimer's disease and other dementias (ADOD) is the fifth leading cause of death in China." I hope this translation finds its way to people who are looking for information about #brain health, #grief, and #caregiving.
The #memoir I wrote with Dr. Bruce Miller is now available in #Chinese. Thank you Johns Hopkins UP & East China Normal UP. According to this article, "#China has the world's largest population of patients with #dementia, and #Alzheimer's disease and other dementias (ADOD) is the fifth leading cause of death in China." I hope this translation finds its way to people who are looking for information about #brain health, #grief, and #caregiving.
→ What Ketamine Does to the #Human #Brain (via @carolannie)
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/03/ketamine-effects-elon-musk/681911/
“[T]he #drug is reportedly popular among #SiliconValley’s #tech elite, and a feature at some wellness retreats, including those for #leadership development, corporate team building, or couples counseling”
“#Musk has said he uses #ketamine regularly, so for the past couple of years, public speculation has persisted about how much he takes, whether he’s currently #high, or how it might affect his #behavior”
Australian company Cortical Labs has launched the CL1, the world's first #commercial "biological computer" that merges #human #brain cells with #silicon #hardware to form adaptable, energy-efficient neural networks.
https://newatlas.com/brain/cortical-bioengineered-intelligence/
A study from EPFL, Univ of Cambridge, and Kumamoto Univ shows movement units in the neocortex consist of modules localized in areas traditionally associated with planning, executing, and sensing movements. Traditional view of cortex is it’s structured in vertical columns where neurons are stacked in layers. New finding shows movement units are organized horizontally into neuron-type-specific modules across different cortical regions.
Our #OpenAccess #book fund is showing real results! One of our supported researchers, Stephan Schleim, shared that their book "#Brain Development and the #Law: #Neurolaw in Theory and Practice" has been downloaded over 4,000 times!
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-72362-9
Stephan's publication was part of the first funding cycle that contributed to the publication of 47 open access books.
https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/funding-deals-and-discounts/oa-book-fund
A History of the Human Brain From the Sea Sponge to CRISPR, How Our Brain Evolved by Bret Stetka, 2021
“A History of the Human Brain is a unique, enlightening, and provocative account of the most significant question we can ask about ourselves.” —Richard Wrangham, author of The Goodness Paradox
In A.D. 79, a man who died in Mount Vesuvius' eruption near Pompeii had a rare transformation: His brain seemingly turned into glass. Scientists haven’t agreed on the reason, but a team of researchers offers this explanation: The pyroclastic flows must have been immediately preceded by a superheated cloud of ash that first rapidly heated and then rapidly cooled the man's brain as it dissipated. Scary thought. @LiveScience has more:
