brain

On Monday, December 12, Twitter dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, a wide-ranging group of global civil rights advocates, academics, and experts who have advised the company since 2016. Meanwhile, Musk has welcomed back previously banned high-profile extremists like the white nationalist Patrick Casey. According to data compiled by researcher Travis Brown, others reinstated include Meninist, a “men’s rights” account with more than a million followers; Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who gained a large audience for…

The three factors provide some of the secrets to maintaining a high quality of life and, ideally, aging healthily.No surprises, but confirmation that what we think we should do actually does make a difference.Your brain is really rather amazing. Around 100 billion nerve cells collaborate to keep you nimble and quick-thinking.However, like with the rest of the body, as you age your brain may not be nearly as sharp. You may need to write things down, miss appointments, or have trouble watching TV without straining to…

First of all, Elon Musk is once again making promises that he probably can't keep.The billionaire has now made what is likely his most ambitious commercial promise to date. In the past, he has predicted that Tesla's Cybertruck would go into production this year (spoiler alert: it didn't) and that he would create his own smartphone if necessary (spoiler alert: he probably won't). It is said that research on human volunteers will soon begin at Musk's biotech firm Neuralink, which develops brain chips to restore function to…

Gene usage in the brains of patients with COVID-19 is similar to those observed in aging brains, according to experiments performed by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).Scientists emphasize the value of neurological follow-up in recovered individuals.It’s true that <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>COVID-19</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>First identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China, COVID-19, or…

Severe COVID-19 looks scarily like old age in the human brain, according to a postmortem analysis of 54 healthy and infected individuals.The authors of the study say their research is the first to link COVID-19 to molecular signatures of brain aging."We observed that gene expression in the brain tissue of patients who died of COVID-19 closely resembled that of uninfected individuals 71 years old or older," says public health scientist Jonathan Lee from Harvard University.The sample, made up of people in their early…

A mouse is running on a treadmill embedded in a virtual reality corridor. In its mind’s eye, it sees itself scurrying down a tunnel with a distinctive pattern of lights ahead. Through training, the mouse has learned that if it stops at the lights and holds that position for 1.5 seconds, it will receive a reward—a small drink of water. Then it can rush to another set of lights to receive another reward.This setup is the basis for research published in July in Cell Reports by the neuroscientists Elie Adam, Taylor Johns and…

Your Vitamin D levels can have a drastic effect on your brain, according to new research. It has long been known that Vitamin D comes with several benefits to the human body. However, a new paper on the subject also suggests that brains with higher Vitamin D levels may actually function better cognitively, too. The paper was published in the latest edition of Alzheimer’s and Dementia, and in it, researchers make the case for Vitamin D based on new research that points towards Vitamin D actually being able to…

A ping from the pizza company. A couple of pings from your socials. Ping, ping, ping from your family WhatsApp group trying to organize a weekend barbecue.With all those smartphone notifications, it's no wonder you lose focus on what you're trying to do do.Your phone doesn't even need to ping to distract you. There's pretty good evidence the mere presence of your phone, silent or not, is enough to divert your attention.So what's going on? More importantly, how can you reclaim your focus, without missing the important…

US House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff want further US Department of Agriculture (USDA) scrutiny of Elon Musk's Neuralink following a Reuters report that outlined mistakes in the brain chip company's animal testing program, their offices said on Thursday.Reuters reported on Monday that the USDA's inspector general is investigating Neuralink for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and…

Earlier this year, I created a really fun project that I called "Brain to the Cloud" where I saved my brain data to the cloud while playing Call of Duty so that I could analyze the relationship between my cognitive function and video game performance. I wrote up a three-part blog post series and created some fun videos to summarize my findings onthat project. If you'd like to check those out, you can refer to the links at the bottom of this post. A few months after I published that project, I started working at Twitch as…