Mind-Controlled Genes

Mind-control is not just an evil plan to rule the world anymore. Described in an article written by Jyoti Madhusoodanan for The Scientist, a new device has shown success in using human mind states to control expression of light-inducible genes in mice. This research is led by Professor Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Professor Fussenegger's lab has developed light sensitive genes that code for proteins within implanted cells when presented with, or activated by, light at a specific wavelength. This process is known as optogenetics. Fussenegger has been able to inject cells containing these genes into the bloodstream of mice as well as a bluetooth activated infrared light underneath the mice's skin.

The device uses a combination of this optogenetic technology and electroencephalogram (EEG). EEG is a neuroimaging technique that was developed by Hans Berger in 1929. Electrodes placed on the surface of the scalp measure the voltage fluctuations caused by neurons firing. Berger's goal in its development was to find a way to measure different psychological and conscious states. Through his research, he was able to identify that there were, in fact, specific patterns of voltage fluctuations shown at various brain states. In the case of Fussenegger's device, researchers asked a human participant undergoing an EEG to either focus on a game of Minecraft for ten minutes, respond to a visual stimulus of an LED display, or to simply relax. It has been observed that these three different mind states have "signatures" or typical patterns shown in the EEG data. These signatures are then recorded and given corresponding thresholds on a computer for how much light gets emitted by the infrared implant in the mouse. The computer can be connected via bluetooth to the infrared device, therefore being able to control activation of the specific light-sensitive gene's expression. Doing so, it would be able to harness the electric signaling from the human mind to control when particular genes produce protein to be secreted into the bloodstream of the mouse.

Further trials and research on this device could lead to convenient and efficient methods of treatment for certain neurological diseases that produce typical EEG patterns for humans. A patient with epilepsy could set her light to trigger implanted gene expression and thus produce crucial proteins in the bloodstream when a certain EEG signal pattern that occurs when she has seizures is observed. Although an amazing concept, one could be wary of how accurately the computer could interpret the EEG data in order to ensure that the genes are not expressed at the wrong times due to other brain activity independent of the three tasks described in this experiment. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how this technology develops further in the future. 

Works Cited:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41416/title/Mind-Controlled-Gene-Expression/

Gazzaniga, Michael S. Cognitive Neuroscience. 3^rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.

Effects of Rehearsal in Long-Term Memory

            Think about a time when you were given information such as a telephone number or address that you would have to recall seconds or minutes later. What did you do in order to remember that piece of information? Most likely, you tried rehearsing the information over and over again until you needed to put it to use. Typically, we find that this information disappears immediately after we stop rehearsing it; however, a new study conducted by Dr. Chris Bird, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, may suggest that we are capable of creating permanent memories via rehearsal as well.

            Bird and his research team had participants watch twenty-six short YouTube clips featuring a narrative element. Following twenty of those videos, the participants were given time to rehearse the information they just saw, either out loud or in their heads. This rehearsal time was not given following the other six videos. When the participants were brought back to the lab one to two weeks later, the majority of them were able to recall a good amount of details from the twenty videos that they were able to rehearse. However, the participants could not remember much about the six videos that they had not rehearsed. From this experiment, Bird found that amount of brain activity in the posterior cingulate of individuals watching and rehearsing the videos correlated to how likely the individuals were able to recall the details of the videos later. Bird was then able to conclude that the posterior cingulate not only aids in the recall of episodic memory, but also helps solidify long-term memories.

             In terms of real world application, Bird suggests that these findings “have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime.” However, I wonder how effective rehearsal would actually be after a traumatic accident or crime, since it has been mentioned previously in class that our memory is significantly impaired when we experience a high arousal of fear. Is it possible that rehearsal techniques could trump the effects of fear arousal and actually help us remember events that we otherwise would not be able to recall?

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151027213408.htm

Shock Our Brains to Make Memory Gains

 

            Think about the night before the big exam. I don’t know about you, but I would most likely be attempting to cram everything in last second. Now imagine if there was just some way to improve your memory. Some way to be able to significantly increase your ability to retain all of the information you are cramming in your head. How amazing would that be? Well luckily there is a way to do this! All you need is access to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)!

            Being realistic, most people unfortunately don’t have access to TMS. I know I don’t. But who knows, maybe someday everyone will. TMS is essentially a noninvasive way to send electrical currents to the brain. A study at Northwestern University has conducted TMS experiments on 16 healthy adults and discovered that electrical stimulation in certain places of the brain improved the participants’ memories. “We show for the first time that you can specifically change memory functions of the brain in adults without surgery or drugs, which have not proven effective,” said Joel Voss, the senior author for this experiment.

            The first part of the experiment lasted over a period of 7 days. For the first day, participants took memory tests without any stimulation. The memory test was simply memorizing pictures of faces with arbitrary words attached to them. For the next 5 days, participants were given the electrical stimulation while taking the memory test. Significant improvement of memory was not shown at first, but 3 days into the experiment a 30% increase in memory capability was observed. On the 7^th day, participants still showed significant memory improvement even without the simulation! This is the first time TMS has caused a change to cognitive abilities over a long term period.

            The second part of the experiment conducted at least one week later was basically the same as the first part in terms of the experiment’s structure. However, participants were given a placebo stimulation, also known as shams. As expected, it was observed that real electrical stimulation resulted in better memory function. The people that did not show as significant of improvements could possibly be explained by misplacement of the electrical stimulation at the wrong spot on the head. Ideally, the goal is to stimulate the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for episodic memory), however the hippocampus is too deep in the brain to be able to stimulate it noninvasively. So the solution to this was to stimulate certain regions in the parietal lobe that work closely with the hippocampus. I’m sure it’s safe to assume that placing the stimulation in such a precise spot must be pretty difficult, which is why some participants may not have experienced dramatic memory improvements like the others.

Think about all the potential treatments for memory impairment diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Maybe this is the answer scientists have been looking for all these years. As said by Voss, "this opens up a whole new area for treatment studies where we will try to see if we can improve function in people who really need it." Hopefully future TMS experiments can be conducted on patients with early-stage memory loss, which is exactly what Voss and his associates plan on doing.

           

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140828142742.htm

Sleep Deprivation and Emotions

People often say when it comes to college you have to choose between good grades, a social life, and sleep.  I spend many nights at the library until two, maybe three, even four o’clock in the morning and I am not alone.  It seems as though most college students neglect the sleep option in order to get a paper in on time or to go out with friends on the weekend.  The question though is how does neglect of sleep affect us?

According to an article written by Amie M. Gordon (PhD) for Psychology Today, sleep deprivation has a severe effect on mood.  There have been multiple sleep studies where participants were brought into a lab and they are kept up through the night.  These studies all report the same thing, people who have not slept feel more irritable.  Further tests have shown that sleep deprivation is also associated with feeling more depressed and being more emotionally reactive to situations.  

The reason for this?  It all goes back to the Amygdala.  Sleep deprivation is believed to increase the right amygdala activity and prevent its regulation.  The right amygdala is said to control negative emotions so this means that your negative emotions are flowing even more rapidly with increased activity and your brain has more trouble regulating them.  According to Gordon, not only does sleep deprivation affect your negative moods by increasing them but it affects your positive experiences as well.  People who are sleep deprived are less likely to have a positive response to an achievement, they’re simply too tired to care.  If you’re feeling depressed, tired, and angry then you’re going to have a much harder time feeling excited about something.  If you stay up until 4 am to finish a paper, are you going to feel proud and fulfilled? Mostly likely not, you’re going to feel tired and mad that you haven’t slept yet.

Now college students, ask yourself this, is sleep deprivation worth it?  If you are skipping sleep to go out with friends but the result of missing sleep makes you incredibly irritable and unfriendly, what’s the point?  How well do you expect to do on an assignment when you are in an absolutely rotten mood?  If am so tired and grumpy that I can’t stand the sight of another human being, there’s no way I’m going to be in the mood to study or write a paper.  Bottom line: SLEEP! It’s important, both for yourself and those around you.

Article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/between-you-and-me/201308/all-night-the-effects-sleep-loss-mood

Picture: http://www.mytechbits.com/category/science/page/174/

"Brain Inflammation Dramatically Disrupts Memory Retrieval Networks"

In the article, “Brain Inflammation Dramatically Disrupts Memory Retrieval Networks”, from the website called “Neuroscience News”, a research done by neuroscientists Jennifer Czerniawski and John Guzowski proved that immune system signaling molecules called cytokines cause a defect in the functioning of the hippocampus. This area of the brain is crucial for declarative, or explicit memory. The purpose of the research is to explain the cognitive deficits that occur in in people undergoing chemotherapy and those with neurodegenerative diseases.

The high cytokine levels in the hippocampus only affected the explicit memory, meaning anything that was done recently that needs to be retrieved from memory. However, the explicit memory, or any memory that does not require conscious thought, was not affected by brain inflammation. The research involved rats that were placed in two similar but distinguishable environments over several days. One environment, however, gave the rats a mild foot shock daily. The researchers used Pavlov’s classical conditioning to teach the rats to know which environment will shock them and which one wont. The conditioned stimulus was the shock in the foot and the conditioned stimulus was the nervous behavior in the environment.

The rats were then given a low does of a bacterial agent that induced neuroinflammation and cytokine release into the brain. The rats were no longer able to identify the difference between the two environments. It was not said specifically how the researchers viewed the activity patterns of neurons in different networks of the rats brains, but I would assume it was similar to a Scalp Electroencephalography (EEG)  because it can record electrical activity from the brain and has excellent temporal resolution.

            This research connects to the retrieval of explicit information in the hippocampus that we talked about in class. It also showed how neuronal activity could be stimulated and analyzed using neuroimaging. The researches hope to continue this study in order to find a simple intervention, such as anti-inflammatory drug, to help chemo patients.

http://neurosciencenews.com/neuroinflammation-hippocampus-memory-1320/

The Rise of Microglia

The article I found was from the Scientific American and is entitled "The Rise of Microglia".   This article describes the new research that shows that the microglia are involved in both development and disease.  Microglia are also known as the immune cells of the brain and are now being found to play a role in the developing brain and implicated in the developmental and neurodegenerative disorders. In a diseased brain microglia find the injured neurons and strip away the synapses between the neurons.  However, researches discovered that microglia were also active in healthy brains- this led to questions and even more research.  

New research shows that the protective tag that keeps the healthy cells from being destroyed by the immune system may also protect the cells from the microglia.  A doctoral candidate (Emily Lehrman) found that the protective tag is highly pronounced in the visual system in mice five days after birth which is also when the synaptic pruning peaks.  When this protective tag was removed in the mice there was excess engulfment by mircroglia and over pruning of the neuronal connections.  Another researcher, Cornelius Gross, found that removing the receptor for fractalkine (a key molecule in neuron-microglia signaling) created many weak synaptic contacts caused by deficient synaptic pruning during the development in the hippocampus.

As I previously said, when the brain has an injury or incurs a disease the microglia surround the damaged areas and eat up the dying cells. The article discusses how the microglia may be delaying the progression of the diseases by clearing cellular debris, but, how there  is a possibility that the microglia are contributing to the disease. New evidence is leading to the possibility that microglia pruning pathways that are seen in early development may be reactivated later in life- which may cause disease.  Unpublished data suggests  that microglia are involved in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and that blocking microglia's effects may reduce the synapse loss in those with Huntington's disease.  This research has HUGE potential for the future of these diseases and is very exciting!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rise-of-the-microglia/

Moderate alcohol consumption could lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, but is it worth the risk of promoting alcoholism?

Alcohol is unavoidable in today's culture.  Portrayed constantly throughout film and television, even non-drinkers are faced with the peer pressure to join in on one of the most common hobbies.  New studies are showing even more reasons to partake.  It has been discovered that moderate alcohol consumption could lower risk of dementia or cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer's Disease.  (Collins 1) This is great news, however it should not be taken as an excuse to drink freely and without control.

For some people, alcohol is more than just a hobby, it is a problem.  Alcohol abuse is an increasingly common affliction in the United States, especially in older adults.  About 2.8 million older adults in the United States suffer from alcoholism and the number is projected to reach 5.7 million by 2020 (Ellin 1)  We should clearly do our best to reduce these numbers.  Advertising the new-found benefit of drinking may accomplish quite the opposite.  Proponents of the aforementioned study who propose moderate drinking for the possible health benefits may be attempting to promote health but might be simply providing an excuse for potential alcohol abusers.

Stephen Arndt, the director of the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, claims that people are good at twisting things around to suit their interests.  Alcohol abusers will downplay their own issues, claiming that their drinking is not a problem.  (Ellin 2)  With this new revelation about moderate alcohol use reducing the risk of diseases such as Alzheimer's, many potential alcohol abusers could use it to justify their drinking.  So then, is it worth it to risk increasing numbers of alcoholism in order to reduce the risk of diseases such as Alzheimer's?  This is dependent on how the information is presented. The goal should be to reduce the risk of the information being miscontrued by alcohol abusers.   If it can be presented with a clear description of how many drinks are suggested for obtaining the benefits without transferring into alcohol abuse, then maybe it would be worth the risk.

Sources:

1. Collins, Michael A., Edward J. Neafsey, Kewei Wang, Nicholas J. Achille, Robert M. Mitchell, and Sreevidya Sivaswamy. "Moderate Ethanol Preconditioning of Rat Brain Cultures Engenders Neuroprotection Against Dementia-Inducing Neuroinflammatory Proteins: Possible Signaling Mechanisms." Molecular Neurobiology Mol Neurobiol 41.2-3 (2010): 420-25. Web.

2.Ellin, Abby. "More Older Adults Are Struggling With Substance Abuse." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Oct. 2014. Web.