Brain map seeks to unlock mysteries of the mind

[BlueGin]

Brain map seeks to unlock mysteries of the mind


(CNN) -- You have a brain with billions of neurons. You have thoughts, and you do things because of those thoughts. But how do tiny cells translate into thoughts and actions?

The Brain Activity Map initiative is seeking answers to that question. As described in a proposal published online Thursday in the journal Science Express, a group of prominent researchers is proposing a large-scale effort to create new tools to map the human brain in unprecedented detail. This could lead to treatments for brain disorders such as epilepsy, autism, dementia, depression and schizophrenia, as well as ways to restore movement in paralyzed patients.

"We don't actually understand (how circuits of neurons) generate all these interesting behaviors we have, like speech and language and thoughts and memory," said John Donoghue of Brown University's department of neuroscience.

"What we're hoping is that as the tools develop -- and they will continue to develop -- we have additional insights that will lead to better medical devices."

Donoghue and his colleagues are eagerly waiting to see if the federal government will approve new money to pump into the project; the recent spending cuts known as the sequester could affect that prospect. But the scientists' proposal states that the project should be "funded by a partnership between federal and private organizations," and they're already beginning to ramp up their collective efforts, according to George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who is one of the key minds behind the project.

There are already indications of federal interest. President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address in February, said, "If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas," and alluded to scientists "mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's." Along with talking about drug development and materials science, Obama stated, "Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation."

Brain map seeks to unlock mysteries of the mind - CNN.com

 

[waltky]

Hey! Who ya callin' a fat-head?...

Patient’s Fat May Help Treat Brain Tumors
March 15, 2013 - Stem cells taken from a patient’s own body fat may one day be used to treat a deadly brain cancer, based on some promising but still preliminary research.

The brain tumor known as glioblastoma occurs mostly in men, and most patients don’t live much more than a year after being diagnosed. Most of the cancer can be removed by surgery, “but unfortunately we just can’t cure the cancer, and we have to rely on other techniques to be able to do it,” says Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. He and his colleagues are trying to improve a treatment aimed at the cancer cells left behind after most of the tumor is cut away in surgery.

Harvesting stem cells from a person's fat could prove effective in treating brain cancer, according to a new report.

In recent years, doctors have focused on a kind of adult stem cell called mesenchymal stem cells, which are drawn to these cancer cells. “They can track those cells that are migrating in the human brain, and they can actually deliver a treatment. We can use them as Trojan horses,” Quiñones said. The mesenchymal stem cells now used on patients come from donor bone marrow. Quiñones’ new idea is to get them from the patient’s own fat tissue, a procedure which is cheaper and less invasive, and also avoids the risk of rejection.

In laboratory tests, as he reports in PLOS ONE, the results seem promising, even though he admits it’s not exactly clear how these stem cells seek out the cancer cells. But once they reach the cancer, they can target the disease in two ways. “They seem to secrete something that makes these tumors less aggressive already. And then we couple that with the ability to genetically engineer them to deliver a treatment that we know that can be effective on brain cancer.” Alfredo Quiñones and his colleagues have begun experiments with animals, but he says it will be three to five years before human trials begin.

Patient?s Fat May Help Treat Brain Tumors

 

[BlueGin]

Hey! Who ya callin' a fat-head?...

Patient’s Fat May Help Treat Brain Tumors
March 15, 2013 - Stem cells taken from a patient’s own body fat may one day be used to treat a deadly brain cancer, based on some promising but still preliminary research.

The brain tumor known as glioblastoma occurs mostly in men, and most patients don’t live much more than a year after being diagnosed. Most of the cancer can be removed by surgery, “but unfortunately we just can’t cure the cancer, and we have to rely on other techniques to be able to do it,” says Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. He and his colleagues are trying to improve a treatment aimed at the cancer cells left behind after most of the tumor is cut away in surgery.

Harvesting stem cells from a person's fat could prove effective in treating brain cancer, according to a new report.

In recent years, doctors have focused on a kind of adult stem cell called mesenchymal stem cells, which are drawn to these cancer cells. “They can track those cells that are migrating in the human brain, and they can actually deliver a treatment. We can use them as Trojan horses,” Quiñones said. The mesenchymal stem cells now used on patients come from donor bone marrow. Quiñones’ new idea is to get them from the patient’s own fat tissue, a procedure which is cheaper and less invasive, and also avoids the risk of rejection.

In laboratory tests, as he reports in PLOS ONE, the results seem promising, even though he admits it’s not exactly clear how these stem cells seek out the cancer cells. But once they reach the cancer, they can target the disease in two ways. “They seem to secrete something that makes these tumors less aggressive already. And then we couple that with the ability to genetically engineer them to deliver a treatment that we know that can be effective on brain cancer.” Alfredo Quiñones and his colleagues have begun experiments with animals, but he says it will be three to five years before human trials begin.

Patient?s Fat May Help Treat Brain Tumors

Pretty interesting article. I wonder why they are still estimating 3 to 5 years before they do human trials? Wonder if the part that is genetically engineered has not been particularly successful?

 

[waltky]

BlueGin wrote: I wonder why they are still estimating 3 to 5 years before they do human trials?

Probably takes that long to get the funding together...

... and permission from the gov't. for the trials...

... Uncle Ferd sweet on ya.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dey'd have to give Uncle Ferd's scans a triple-X rating...

Scientists 'read dreams' using brain scans
4 April 2013 - Scientists have found a way to "read" dreams, a study suggests.

Researchers in Japan used MRI scans to predict the images that people were seeing as they entered into an early stage of sleep. Writing in the journal Science, they reported that they could do this with 60% accuracy. The team now wants to see if brain activity can be used to predict other aspects of dreaming, such as the emotions experienced during sleep. Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani, from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Kyoto, said: "I had a strong belief that dream decoding should be possible at least for particular aspects of dreaming... I was not very surprised by the results, but excited."

Brain wave

People have been trying to decipher dreams since ancient Egyptian times, but the researchers who have carried out this study have found a more direct way to tap into our nighttime visions. The team used MRI scans to monitor three people as they slept. Just as the volunteers started to fall asleep inside the scanners, they were woken up and asked to recount what they had seen. Each image mentioned, from bronze statues to keys and ice picks, was noted, no matter how surreal. This was repeated more than 200 times for each participant.

Brain activity correlated with the images that people saw in their dreams

The researchers used the results to build a database, where they grouped together objects into similar visual categories. For example, hotel, house and building were grouped together as "structures". The scientists then scanned the volunteers again, but this time, while they were awake and looking at images on a computer screen. With this, they were able to see the specific patterns of brain activity that correlated with the visual imagery.

Dream machines?

 

[LoudMcCloud]

Ray Kurtzweil says they will have map the brain so well, that computers will have the intelligence of humans by 2029. He talks about it in his book, "The Singularity."

 

[BlueGin]

Yep, they are in process of incorporating human DNA...found an article about that earlier.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/scien...ological-computer-created-with-human-dna.html

 

[waltky]

Mebbe dey could examine the bumps on dey's heads too...

Brain 'Folds' May Predict if Drugs Will Help Psychosis
August 14, 2013 — The extent of “folds” on the outer layer of the brain could give doctors a clue as to how well people suffering problems such as hallucinations or delusions will respond to antipsychotic drugs.

Researchers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of people with psychosis identified patterns of folds in the brain that could act as markers of whether a patient's symptoms will be eased by medication. Since around half of young patients get little or no benefit from the first medicines prescribed after a psychotic episode, the scientists said the finding could help identify those at greatest risk and may also help the search for better drugs. “There have been few advances in developing novel anti-psychotic drugs over the past 50 years and we still face the same problems with a sub-group of people who do not respond to the drugs we currently use,” said Paola Dazzan from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, who led the research. “We could envisage using a marker like this one to identify people who are least likely to respond to existing medications and focus our efforts on developing new medication specifically adapted to this group,” she added.

Psychosis describes mental illness symptoms like delusions and hearing voices and can be a feature of schizophrenia, which the World Health Organization says affects about 24 million people globally, and bipolar disorder, which is estimated to affect 4 percent of people. Current treatment involves a combination of antipsychotic drugs, psychological therapies and social support. But many patients do not respond to the initial medicines prescribed by their doctor, putting them at risk of further psychotic episodes and deteriorating mental health.

Dazzan's team, whose work was published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, used MRI to scan the brains of 126 people - 80 who had experienced a first episode of psychosis and 46 healthy controls. The scans were done shortly after the psychotic episodes, and the participants were assessed again 12 weeks later to see whether symptoms had improved after initial treatment with antipsychotic medications. The researchers looked at a feature of the brain called “cortical gyrification” - the extent of folding or wrinkling of the cerebral cortex, the outermost sheet of brain tissue that plays a key role in memory, language and consciousness.

They found that people who did not respond to treatment had less gyrification in many brain regions - particularly in areas considered important in psychosis such as the temporal and frontal lobes. “All of us have complex and varying patterns of folding in our brains. For the first time we are showing that the measurement of these variations could potentially guide us in treating psychosis,” said Lena Palaniyappan of Britain's Nottingham University, who worked with Dazzan. The researchers said their findings would need to be validated by further studies before routine MRI scanning could be recommended for all psychotic patients. But Dazzan said that in the longer term, “if we are able to identify poor responders at the outset, we may be able to formulate personalized treatment plans for that individual patient.”

Brain 'Folds' May Predict if Drugs Will Help Psychosis