brain disorders

On brain folding and fitting 86 billion neurons inside our 1400 cc crania

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Brain fold­ing typ­i­cal­ly begins at the end of the. sec­ond trimester of preg­nan­cy and con­tin­ues after birth. Hiroshi Watanabe/DigitalVision via Get­ty Images

The human brain has been called the most com­plex object in the known uni­verse. And with good rea­son: It has around 86 bil­lion neu­rons and sev­er­al hun­dred thou­sand miles of axon fibers con­nect­ing them.

Unsur­pris­ing­ly, the process of brain fold­ing that results in the brain’s char­ac­ter­is­tic bumps and grooves is also high­ly com­plex. Despite decades of spec­u­la­tion and research, the under­ly­ing mech­a­nism behind this process remains poor­ly under­stood. As bio­me­chan­ics and com­put­er sci­ence researchers, we have spent sev­er­al years study­ing the mechan­ics of brain fold­ing and ways to visu­al­ize and map the brain, respec­tive­ly. [Read more…] about On brain fold­ing and fit­ting 86 bil­lion neu­rons inside our 1400 cc crania

Beacon Biosignals raises $27M to scale EEG, AI-based neurobiomarker discovery platform

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Neu­rotech start­up Bea­con Biosig­nals scores $27M to bring AI to EEG analy­sis (Med­C­i­ty News):

Elec­troen­cephalog­ra­phy is a decades-old tech­nique for cap­tur­ing brain activ­i­ty, data that are used to eval­u­ate brain dis­or­ders. Bea­con Biosig­nals is apply­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to these tests, and the neu­rotech­nol­o­gy start­up has found a ready mar­ket in phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies inter­est­ed in assess­ing how their exper­i­men­tal brain ther­a­pies are work­ing. Now Bea­con Biosig­nals has some­thing else: $27 mil­lion in financ­ing. [Read more…] about Bea­con Biosig­nals rais­es $27M to scale EEG, AI-based neu­ro­bio­mark­er dis­cov­ery platform

UW Medicine creates new Institute for Brain Health Solutions focused on cognitive aging, brain wellness and mental health

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$50 mil­lion gift is foun­da­tion for brain dis­or­ders research (UW press release):

“UW Med­i­cine is cre­at­ing the Gar­vey Insti­tute for Brain Health Solu­tions to devel­op effec­tive new treat­ments for brain dis­or­ders, such as depres­sion, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, addic­tion and Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The foun­da­tion­al $50 mil­lion gift to estab­lish the insti­tute was made by local phil­an­thropists Lynn and Mike Gar­vey [Read more…] about UW Med­i­cine cre­ates new Insti­tute for Brain Health Solu­tions focused on cog­ni­tive aging, brain well­ness and men­tal health

What will neurotechnology look like just one or two decades ahead?

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Cred­it: Uni­ver­si­ty of Nottingham

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Will it be about a new gen­er­a­tion of portable brain scan­ners that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er the price of research, like the one being devel­oped by researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Not­ting­ham and Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don in the UK?

Or will it be about sophis­ti­cat­ed neur­al inter­faces, like the ones the US mil­i­tary is work­ing on, to change the ways our minds inter­act with the world around us?

Or, per­haps, will it be about inex­pen­sive, data-rich approach­es to detect pat­terns in your smart­phone usage and detect men­tal health and brain dis­or­ders in their ear­ly stages — such as what Mind­Strong Health, Neu­raMetrix and oth­ers are already doing?

–> Con­tin­ue read­ing We need to rethink neu­ro­science. And you can help us, over at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum.

Mixed reactions on the development of digital biomarkers and growth of Mindstrong Health

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(More on the pos­i­tive side, at MIT Tech­nol­o­gy Review) The smart­phone app that can tell you’re depressed before you know it your­self:

“There are about 45 mil­lion peo­ple in the US alone with a men­tal ill­ness, and those ill­ness­es and their cours­es of treat­ment can vary tremen­dous­ly. But there is some­thing most of those peo­ple have in com­mon: a smart­phone [Read more…] about Mixed reac­tions on the devel­op­ment of dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers and growth of Mind­strong Health

The Luria Neuroscience Institute announces new webinar series on Executive Functions, Dementia, TBI, Creativity and more

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Hap­py to share that the Luria Neu­ro­science Insti­tute, an esteemed Part­ner of the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit, is host­ing a new webi­nar series aimed at bet­ter equip­ping pro­fes­sion­als help­ing those with men­tal health and with brain and brain disorders.

Dates and top­ics: [Read more…] about The Luria Neu­ro­science Insti­tute announces new webi­nar series on Exec­u­tive Func­tions, Demen­tia, TBI, Cre­ativ­i­ty and more