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Archive for the ‘biological’ category

Nov 26, 2024

SnoRNA Unleashed: Hidden Power That Shapes Life’s Biggest Processes

Posted by in category: biological

University of Chicago scientists have expanded our understanding of snoRNAs, discovering their extensive influence on cellular functions beyond guiding RNA modifications.

Their work introduces potential therapeutic applications for controlling protein secretion, highlighting snoRNAs’ broader biological significance.

SnoRNAs and Their Functions.

Nov 26, 2024

Cyanobacterial circadian clock uses an AM radio-like mechanism to control cellular processes

Posted by in categories: biological, media & arts, physics

Cyanobacteria, an ancient lineage of bacteria that perform photosynthesis, have been found to regulate their genes using the same physics principle used in AM radio transmission.

New research published in Current Biology has found that cyanobacteria use variations in the amplitude (strength) of a pulse to convey information in single cells. The finding sheds light on how biological rhythms work together to regulate cellular processes.

In AM (amplitude modulation) radio, a wave with constant strength and frequency—called a carrier wave—is generated from the oscillation of an electric current. The audio signal, which contains the information (such as music or speech) to transmit, is superimposed onto the carrier wave. This is done by varying the amplitude of the carrier wave in accordance with the frequency of the .

Nov 23, 2024

Scientists uncover cross-species neural mechanism for early detection of life motion in visual processing

Posted by in categories: biological, neuroscience

Visual systems of both humans and animals can detect life motion from the environment at the earliest stage of visual processing, research by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) uncovered.

Jointly led by scientists from the CAS Institute of Psychology and CAS Institute of Biophysics, the study also highlighted the critical role of the superior colliculus (SC) in the perception of biological motion (BM) signals, suggesting a cross-species mechanism for processing BM early in the visual stream.

Results of the study were published in Nature Communications on Nov. 7, titled “Detecting biological motion signals in human and monkey : a subcortical-cortical pathway for biological motion perception.”

Nov 23, 2024

Researchers discover distributed brain network underlying neural representations of biological motion attributes

Posted by in categories: biological, neuroscience

Biological motion refers to the kinesthetic information of living beings (i.e., humans and animals). The ability of biological motion perception is crucial for the organism’s survival and social interaction. Biological motion contains multidimensional attributes, including physical, biological and social attributes. How does our brain extract each attribute from multidimensional biological motion stimuli, and what is the relationship between the processing of different attributes?

A research team led by Prof. Jiang Yi from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of multidimensional biological motion attributes in the . They used point-light displays as test stimuli, in which only the movement trajectories of a person’s major joints are represented by a set of dots. They systematically manipulated three attributes of biological motion: walking direction, gender, and .

Using multiple regression representation similarity analysis (RSA), the researchers identified the brain networks involved in the processing of these three attributes. The that encode the walking direction attribute are mainly located in the dorsal cortical areas, those that represent the gender attribute are located in the frontal and , and the neural representations of the emotional state attribute widely involve the dorsal and ventral cortical areas.

Nov 23, 2024

Face detection in untrained deep neural networks

Posted by in categories: biological, mapping, robotics/AI

Researchers have explained how the regularly structured topographic maps in the visual cortex of the brain could arise spontaneously to efficiently process visual information. This research provides a new framework for understanding functional architectures in the visual cortex during early developmental stages.

A KAIST research team led by Professor Se-Bum Paik from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has demonstrated that the orthogonal organization of retinal mosaics in the periphery is mirrored onto the and initiates the clustered topography of higher visual areas in the brain.

This new finding provides advanced insights into the mechanisms underlying a biological strategy of brain circuitry for the efficient tiling of sensory modules. The study was published in Cell Reports on January 5.

Nov 23, 2024

A single biological factor predicts distinct cortical organizations across mammalian species

Posted by in categories: biological, engineering, mapping, neuroscience

Researchers have explained how visual cortexes develop uniquely across the brains of different mammalian species. A KAIST research team led by Professor Se-Bum Paik from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has identified a single biological factor, the retino-cortical mapping ratio, that predicts distinct cortical organizations across mammalian species.

This new finding has resolved a long-standing puzzle in understanding visual neuroscience regarding the origin of functional architectures in the visual cortex. The study, published in Cell Reports on March 10, demonstrates that the evolutionary variation of biological parameters may induce the development of distinct functional circuits in the visual cortex, even without -specific developmental mechanisms.

In the (V1) of mammals, neural tuning to visual stimulus orientation is organized into one of two distinct topographic patterns across species. While primates have columnar orientation maps, a salt-and-pepper type organization is observed in rodents.

Nov 23, 2024

Dynamic brain connectivity distinguishes conscious and unconscious states

Posted by in categories: biological, neuroscience

A fascinating new study published in Communications Biology has revealed a connection between the brain’s dynamic activity and states of consciousness.

Nov 22, 2024

THE Seventh EUROSYMPOSIUM ON HEALTHY AGEING : November 2024

Posted by in categories: biological, life extension, robotics/AI

For my presentation at the 7th Eurosymposium on Healthy Aging in Brussels tomorrow, I’ve significantly updated my slides “Solving Aging: Is AI all we need?” — It’s still possible to register and attend remotely today and/or tomorrow.


:The Eurosymposium on Healthy Ageing (EHA) is a unique biennial meeting of scientists working on the biology of ageing.

Nov 22, 2024

A large field-of-view, single-cell-resolution two- and three-photon microscope for deep and wide imaging

Posted by in categories: biological, neuroscience

In vivo imaging of large-scale neuronal activity plays a pivotal role in unraveling the function of the brain’s circuitry. Multiphoton microscopy, a powerful tool for deep-tissue imaging, has received sustained interest in advancing its speed, field of view and imaging depth. However, to avoid thermal damage in scattering biological tissue, field of view decreases exponentially as imaging depth increases. We present a suite of innovations to optimize three-photon microscopy for large field-of-view imaging at depths unreachable by two-photon microscopy. These techniques enable us to image neuronal activities of transgenic animals expressing protein calcium sensors in a ~ 3.5-mm diameter field-of-view with single-cell resolution in the deepest cortical layer of mouse brains.

Nov 21, 2024

A company is now developing human washing machines

Posted by in categories: biological, futurism

Forget cold plunges. The new flex could soon be human washing machines.

According to one of Japan’s oldest newspapers, an Osaka-based shower head maker called Science has developed a contraption that’s shaped like a cockpit, fills with water when a bather sits in a seat at its center, and measures the person’s pulse and other biological data via sensors to ensure the temperature is just right. It also “projects images on the inside of [its] transparent cover to help the person feel refreshed,” says the outlet.

Dubbed “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (human washing machine of the future), the apparatus might never go on sale. Indeed, for now the company’s plans for it appear limited to an expo in Osaka this April, where up to eight people can experience a 15-minute-long “wash and dry” each day after first booking a reservation.

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