Brain

To promote the message of productive ageing, Lingnan University (LU) joined hands with RTHK Radio 5, New Territories West Elder Academies Cluster, and Wofoo Social Enterprises to organise O Camp 2.0 on LU campus on 17 June. The event, themed ‘Intergenerational Day Camp’, aims to promote intergenerational harmony and offer LU students a platform to assist older people in experiencing university life. They also spared time to collaborate with secondary and primary school students to set a first leisure technology SDG World Record for enhancing elderly’s interest in gerontechnology’s application in a bid to improve their quality of life as well as build up Hong Kong into an age-friendly city.

It’s not unusual for many of us to reach for a cup of coffee or cup of tea whilst focusing our attention on a screen. Scientists have long pondered whether our hand movements influence our spotlight attention. And now a group of researchers from Tohoku University have discovered that our spotlight attention and the attention paid to our moving hands operates via independent mechanisms.

- Prof. Jung Ho Hyun’s research team at DGIST has developed a tool to verify the causal relationship between specific neurons and circuits and behavior - This will provide new information for the development of treatments using light for neurological ad psychological disorders

Scientists have found a lipid transporter crucial to regulating the cells that make myelin, the nerve-protecting sheath.

Researchers discuss whether a "brain organoid" should be treated as a person by law, and suggest the need for legal and social discussions uncoupled from debates on consciousness.

The Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr once said, “An expert is a (person) that has made all the mistakes that can be made in a narrow field.” This idea that to master a skill we must learn from our mistakes and avoid making them in future has long been recognized; however, the brain mechanisms and pathways that control this ability have been poorly understood. We revealed a specific brain pathway that allows us to identify and learn from our mistakes to guide better decision-making in future. Our work is an important step towards understanding how the brain controls our daily choices and behavior. The identification of these cells as ‘mistake signalers’ may also help to guide new treatments for mental health conditions associated with impaired decision-making ability.

Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital have developed lightweight and easy-to-use Parkinson's gloves that can automatically reduce tremors, allowing patients to enjoy social life and reducing side effects from medication and risk from brain surgery.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how we are losing tribal languages, how living next to a road raises your blood pressure, and a flower hiding in plain sight.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how hanging out with friends can keep you healthy, eggs made from male mice, and taking one step closer to a machine that can read our minds.

Changes in our REM sleep patterns could potentially be used to diagnose the severity of epilepsy, a new study by Tohoku University researchers has suggested. They showed that astrocytes - star-shaped glial cells that control the local ionic and metabotropic environment of the brain - exhibit an acid response with REM sleep in mice. They theorize that the acid response could be the underlying drive for specific information processing and generating plasticity during sleep.

Brain shrinkage patterns tied to low trust have links to depression vulnerability that can alert to its early detection even before symptoms appear.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a robotic hand with a magic touch, a solution to reduce the negative effects of screen time in children, and a team charting dung beetles.

Synthetic hydrogels were shown to provide an effective scaffold for neuronal tissue growth in areas of brain damage, providing a possible approach for brain tissue reconstruction.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how mysterious enormous space bubbles are formed, how drinking sweet drinks might contribute to hair loss, and a synthetic tissue created to give pigs back their erectile function.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a team trying to decipher dolphins’ secret language, why babies move so much in the womb, and a small enzyme that can control our sleep.

New insights into the opposing actions of serotonin-producing nerve fibres in mice could lead to drugs for treating addictions and major depression.

Taking Hong Kong’s famous Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak offers stunning views of its central business district, Victoria Harbor, and the surrounding islands. But a team of international scientists has recently discovered that the trams winding journey provides a previously unrecognized situation where our vertical perception gets distorted.

A research team led by Osaka Metropolitan University has revealed a difference in neural activity in response to visual food stimuli, depending on whether those stimuli are presented consciously or unconsciously. Using a questionnaire to assess the study participants, the team found that this difference was associated with their scores on eating behaviors, including emotional eating and cognitive restraint of food intake. These results indicate that eating behavior cannot be understood without taking into account both unconscious and conscious neural processes.

- DGIST Professor Suh Byung-chang's research team identified the regulation mechanism of calcium channels, which are important for signal transmission between nerve cells - A new clue to the development of substances for treating mental and neurological diseases

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a coat that can make you invisible to AI cameras, a fossilized whale skeleton found in a river valley, and hope for humans after our Y chromosome disappears.

Therapeutically superior mesenchymal stem cells derived from the cranial bone offer hope in reversing paralysis and language impairment in moderate to severe cases of stroke.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a new planet that orbits a dying star, a map of all the airborne microbes, and the potential to protect our organs by hibernating during surgery.

Researchers at Tohoku University have shown that astrocytes in the mouse brain exhibit an acid response with intensified epileptic seizures. The astrocytes’ acid response could lead to the amplification of excitatory neuronal signals and be the underlying drive for generating plasticity for epileptogenesis.

Exploring virtual human-agent relationships, A fly protein gives clue for human cancers, Rare earth elements formed in neutron star mergers 💥, One-stop process for hydrogen production. Read all in the November's Editor's Choice plus Upcoming event K4DM KNOWLEDGE MARKETPLACE – Bangkok 2022: Exchanging Ideas for a Democratic Myanmar.

Disturbed transmission via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in chick fetuses impairs the hatchlings’ preference for animate objects—similar to what is seen in autism spectrum disorder in humans.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are jellyfish-like fossils, mythic diseases, and a transistor that can detect cancer cells.

Researchers from Hokkaido University and Toppan have developed a method to detect build-up of amyloid β in the brain, a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, from biomarkers in blood samples.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are an algorithm that can detect epilepsy from brain scans, the first National Robotics Tournament in Vietnam, and how being lonely or depressed can accelerate aging.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed between The Ngee Ann Kongsi and Duke-NUS Medical School emphasises the need for more research as treatment and prevention options are currently limited for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are dogs crying happy tears when their owner comes home, a new early warning system for solar flares, and burial practices that can tell us about ancient migration patterns.