Lifeboat Foundation

Mosasaurs were a diverse group of marine lizards which, much like whales and other cetaceans, adapted to life in the oceans. And though we’ve been digging them up for 200 years now, new species are still being discovered. Recently a team of paleontologists discovered not just a new species but an entirely new genus in the Pembina Member of the Pierre Shale Formation in North Dakota, United States.

RELATED: Giant mosasaur digested large prey then spit up the bones

Researchers found a mostly complete skull and jaws as well as 7 cervical vertebrae, 5 anterior dorsal vertebrae, 11 ribs, and 3 structural bones supporting the brain called hypapophyseal peduncles. The bones belonged to an animal which lived approximately 80 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Scientists dubbed the creature Jormungandr walhallaensis for Walhalla, North Dakota where it was found and for Jörmungandr, the world serpent from Norse mythology.

“The novel aspect about this study is the brain can very quickly distinguish whether an undesirable outcome is due to a (human) error, or due to something else.”

A new study demonstrates how the brain can tell the difference between an outcome that was due to human error and one where the person was not directly responsible. The process takes mere seconds.

“Our study highlights the importance of physical activity through childhood and adolescence, leading to better physical fitness, as it might be relevant to cerebellar volumes related to cognition and learning.”

Kieferpix/iStock.

Voluntary movement coordination.

Continue reading “How fit you are as a child predicts how developed your brain will be” »

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

A revolutionary brain implant invented by a team of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and engineers can transform thoughts into speech. This technology will hopefully help people who cannot speak because of neurological conditions be able to communicate once more.

Gregory Cogan, a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers in the project, explains: “There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak… But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.”

In an interesting revelation, a collaborative team of researchers across various institutions in London has shown that rocket scientists and neurosurgeons, who are often held on a high pedestal for their superior intellect are, in fact, no smarter than the general public, BBC reported.

When failing to complete day-to-day tasks, one often comes across the term “It’s not rocket science”. The phrases that have been used by the public at large tacitly imply that rocket science or brain surgery is not a menial job and requires an individual of a higher intellect. Interestingly, it was a team of neurosurgeons and those involved in studying the human brain who decided to probe whether this held true.

Treating mental disorders with fewer side effects

Now, researchers have managed to genetically modify yeast cells to produce drugs for mental disorders such as schizophrenia with fewer side effects.

“Development of medicines from natural plant substances is widely used. However, since plants do not produce these substances to fight human diseases, there is often a need to modify them to make them more effective and safe,” said Michael Krogh Jensen, a senior researcher at DTU Biosustain and co-founder of the biotech company Biomia.

The challenge of measuring adult neurogenesis is difficult, but it’s not impossible. A big part of the solution is knowing what to measure and where. While this new study was performed on rats—and therefore may be a poor predictor of what we’ll see in humans—it can direct future research by showing neuroscientists where to look and what to look for.

And unlike the hard problem of consciousness, unraveling the mysteries of adult neurogenesis may have clinical applications. Better the lifecycle of neurons may reveal how neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease emerge. There’s even research linking disorders such as depression and anxiety to neurogenesis activity.

Continue reading “Adult-made neurons mature longer, have unique functions” »

Only 2% of Alzheimer’s is 100% genetic. The rest is up to your daily habits.

Up Next ► 4 ways to hack your memory https://youtu.be/SCsztDMGP7o.

Continue reading “5 ways to build an Alzheimer’s-resistant brain | Lisa Genova” »

In 2008, Dr. Eben Alexander contracted a rare case of bacterial meningitis. As the pathogen wracked his brain, causing it to swell and suffuse with pus, Alexander entered a deep coma. He was not expected to survive. But live he did, and with a tale to tell. For in Alexander’s stricken state, he underwent a near-death experience, a profound out-of-body event. Four years later, the neurosurgeon detailed it in a best-selling book.

“I had no real center of consciousness,” he wrote. “I didn’t know who or what I was or even if I was simply… there, a singular awareness in the midst of a soupy, dark, muddy nothingness…”

More recently, Alexander’s popular account of his near-death experience attracted the attention of Pascal Michael, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Greenwich. Michael met Alexander after seeing him speak at an academic conference and was informed that Alexander had experimented with 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic closely related to DMT, secreted from the glands of the Colorado River toad.