Lifeboat Foundation

New study shows how patterns in brain activity can be an early predictor of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Paolo Sanvito would often freeze like a statue after entering a meeting room when he was working as a manager in a multinational company. Known as freezing of gait, it’s a disabling symptom of Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder that he suffers from.

The answer, Markham says, may lie in a new breed of computing chips called neuromorphic processors that are designed to operate more like the human brain. Such chips may be able to function on just 1/100 or 1/1,000 of the electricity needed by today’s processors and be less reliant on sending data to cloud servers for analysis. Everyone from tech giants like Intel, IBM, and Qualcomm to startups like aiCTX and Brainchip are racing to develop this new kind of chip.

First major corporate partners come on board effort to create neuromorphic chips based on design of the human brain.

The brain cortex, the outside layer of our brain often referred to as grey matter, is one of the most complex structures found in living organisms. It gives us the advanced cognitive abilities that distinguish us from other animals.

Neuroscientist Professor Pierre Vanderhaeghen (VIB-KU Leuven, Université libre de Bruxelles) explains what makes the human brain so unique: “One remarkable feature of human neurons is their unusually long development. Neural circuits take years to reach full maturity in humans, but only a few weeks in mice or some months in monkeys.”

“This long period of maturation allows much more time for the modulation of brain cells and circuits, which allows us to learn efficiently for an extended period up until late adolescence. It’s a very important and unique feature for our species, but what lies at its origin remains a mystery.”

Columnist Mary Beth Skylis shares some recent research that narrows in on the question of whether Parkinson’s disease is connected to the gut microbiome.

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WHAT IS A COGNITIVE BIAS? Humans tend to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from making rational judgments. These tendencies usually arise from:

The brain scans of six patients who’ve had half of their brain removed to treat severe epilepsy have left doctors in awe.

The trendy concept of “dopamine fasting” actually finds its roots in established addiction therapies.

Several newly published studies are reporting evidence affirming a growing hypothesis that links inflammation with cognitive deficits. As well as associating inflammation with the cognitive deficits seen in conditions such as bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s, some research is even suggesting low-grade systemic inflammation in healthy subjects can result in mental sluggishness.

For some time patients suffering from chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease have reported mild cognitive deficits in association with their disease. Despite a number of correlational studies finding connections between inflammation and cognitive performance, homing in on any clear causal links has been a little tricky for scientists.

“Scientists have long suspected a link between inflammation and cognition, but it is very difficult to be clear about the cause and effect,” explains Ali Mazaheri, from the University of Birmingham. “For example, people living with a medical condition or being very overweight might complain of cognitive impairment, but it’s hard to tell if that’s due to the inflammation associated with these conditions or if there are other reasons.”