Cerebral Cortex

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

FDA-approved, Cybin-sponsored clinicial trial to measure ketamine’s impact on the brain via Kernel Flow neuroimaging helmet

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Kernel’s Brain-Imag­ing Hel­met Approved For Clin­i­cal Tri­al On Patients Using Ket­a­mine (Forbes):

The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion has approved a clin­i­cal tri­al using a neu­roimag­ing hel­met made by Los Ange­les-based Ker­nel to track what hap­pens in the brain when a human takes a psy­che­del­ic dose of ket­a­mine. [Read more…] about FDA-approved, Cybin-spon­sored clin­i­cial tri­al to mea­sure ketamine’s impact on the brain via Ker­nel Flow neu­roimag­ing helmet

Study: Depression affects visual perception … making it more accurate

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The bright­ness of Fig­ures A and B is exact­ly the same, but they are per­ceived dif­fer­ent­ly due to a dif­fer­ence in the back­ground. This illu­sion was per­ceived sim­i­lar­ly by the patients and healthy con­trol sub­jects. The con­trast of Fig­ures C and D is exact­ly the same as well, but the per­cep­tion of this illu­sion was weak­er among the depressed patients than the con­trol sub­jects. (Salmela et al, J. Psy­chi­a­try Neu­rosci, 2021)

Depres­sion affects visu­al per­cep­tion (press release by Uni­ver­si­ty of Helsinki):

Researchers spe­cialised in psy­chi­a­try and psy­chol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Helsin­ki inves­ti­gat­ed the effects of depres­sion on visu­al per­cep­tion. The study con­firmed that the pro­cess­ing of visu­al infor­ma­tion is altered in depressed peo­ple, a phe­nom­e­non most like­ly linked with the pro­cess­ing of infor­ma­tion in the cere­bral cor­tex. [Read more…] about Study: Depres­sion affects visu­al per­cep­tion … mak­ing it more accurate

The frontal lobes, the little brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

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[Editor’s note: Con­tin­ued from Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3) and On World Health Day 2020, let’s dis­cuss the stress response and the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (2/3)]

More on the Cor­tex, the Lim­bic Sys­tem, and Stress:

The cor­tex is made up of four major sec­tions, arranged from the front to the back. These are called the frontal, pari­etal, occip­i­tal, and tem­po­ral lobes. Each of the four lobes is found in both hemi­spheres, and each is respon­si­ble for dif­fer­ent, spe­cial­ized cog­ni­tive func­tions. For exam­ple, the occip­i­tal lobe con­tains the pri­ma­ry visu­al cor­tex, and the tem­po­ral lobe (locat­ed by the tem­ples, and close to the ears) con­tains the pri­ma­ry audi­to­ry cortex.

The frontal lobes are posi­tioned at the front most region of the cere­bral cor­tex and are involved in move­ment, deci­sion mak­ing, prob­lem solv­ing, and plan­ning. There are [Read more…] about The frontal lobes, the lit­tle brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

Large study to study impact on early brain development of financial assistance to low-income mothers

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Does grow­ing up poor harm brain devel­op­ment? (The Economist):

“Plen­ty of evi­dence sug­gests that grow­ing up poor, liv­ing through these kinds of scrapes, has a detri­men­tal impact on child devel­op­ment. Chil­dren from rich fam­i­lies tend to have bet­ter lan­guage and mem­o­ry skills than those from poor fam­i­lies. More afflu­ent chil­dren usu­al­ly per­form bet­ter in school, and are less like­ly to end up in jail. Grow­ing up poor risks the devel­op­ment of a small­er cere­bral cor­tex. But these are asso­ci­a­tions [Read more…] about Large study to study impact on ear­ly brain devel­op­ment of finan­cial assis­tance to low-income mothers

Understanding the “It” in “Use It or Lose It”

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From Macro to Micro: A Visu­al Guide to the Brain (IEEE Spectrum)

In the human brain, high­er-lev­el infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing occurs in the neo­cor­tex, neur­al tis­sue that forms the out­er lay­er of the cere­bral cor­tex. In its intri­cate folds, brain cells work togeth­er to inter­pret sen­so­ry infor­ma­tion and to form thoughts and plans. The neo­cor­tex is divid­ed into regions that take the lead on dif­fer­ent types of pro­cess­ing. How­ev­er, much of today’s neu­ro­science research focus­es on map­ping the con­nec­tome: the neur­al con­nec­tions between regions…Keep Read­ing Arti­cle.

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