August 19, 2024
(Undark) – In a June essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hendriks and a co-author, Christine Grady, outlined some of the thorny ethical questions related to brain research: What is the best way to protect the long-term interests … Read More
August 19, 2024
(New York Times) – In huge numbers, older people are taking gabapentin for a variety of conditions, including itching, alcohol dependence and sciatica. “It’s crazy,” one expert said. The only conditions for which gabapentin has been approved for adult use … Read More
August 19, 2024
(New York Times) – In a new frontier for deep brain stimulation, researchers used A.I. to develop individualized algorithms, which helped a skateboarder and other patients with Parkinson’s disease. In the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature … Read More
August 19, 2024
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 32, no. 8, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
August 16, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The US government just hired a researcher who thinks we can beat aging with fresh cloned bodies and brain updates. A US agency pursuing moonshot health breakthroughs has hired a researcher advocating an extremely radical plan … Read More
August 15, 2024
(Wired) – After the FDA rejected its proposed MDMA treatment, Lykos Therapeutics is laying off 75 percent of its staff and its founder has left the company. The FDA decision underscores the difficulty of getting regulatory approval for a psychedelic-based … Read More
August 15, 2024
(Wired) – In a world first, Harvard biologists worked with Google to diagram a cubic millimeter of human cerebral cortex at the subcellular level, paving the way for the next generation of brain science. This image could be hung in … Read More
August 15, 2024
(Reuters) – A man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who had lost his ability to speak has been able to communicate with a Blackrock Neurotech text-to-speech brain implant, researchers said in one of two new studies showing the promise of … Read More
August 14, 2024
(New York Times) – Many patients thought to be in vegetative or minimally conscious states may be capable of thought, researchers reported. Teams of neurologists at six research centers asked 241 unresponsive patients to spend several minutes at a time … Read More
August 14, 2024
(STAT News) – STAT spoke with Mariska Vansteensel, a neuroscientist at University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands and president of the international BCI Society, about the field and about a new study that she and her colleagues just published … Read More
August 14, 2024
(Associated Press) – Experts say generative AI tools can help people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — who experience difficulties with focusing, organizing and controlling impulses — to get through tasks quicker. But they also caution that it shouldn’t replace … Read More
August 14, 2024
(DNYUZ) – Three years later, however, no satisfactory explanation has been found, and the New Brunswick syndrome remains shrouded in mystery — and controversy. At the heart of the matter is the question of whether something in the environment may … Read More
August 13, 2024
(The Verge) – The head of chatbot maker Replika discusses the role AI will play in the future of human relationships. Replika’s basic pitch is pretty simple: what if you had an AI friend? The company offers avatars you can … Read More
August 12, 2024
(New York Times) – The psychedelic treatment, for PTSD, was rejected last week by government regulators. The journal Psychopharmacology has retracted three papers about MDMA-assisted therapy based on what the publication said was unethical conduct at one of the study … Read More
August 12, 2024
(MedPage Today) – The FDA declined to approve midomafetamine (MDMA) capsules for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), calling for another trial to evaluate the drug’s efficacy and safety, developer Lykos Therapeutics announced on Friday. Lykos said the agency determined that the … Read More
August 9, 2024
(KFF Health News) – Violent altercations between residents in long-term care facilities are alarmingly common. Across the country, residents in nursing homes or assisted living centers have been killed by other residents who weaponized a bedrail, shoved pillow stuffing into … Read More
August 9, 2024
(Nature) – An age ‘clock’ based on some 200 proteins found in the blood can predict a person’s risk of developing 18 chronic illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. The clock’s accuracy raises the prospect of developing … Read More
August 8, 2024
(Wired) – The company has revealed details of AI model safety testing—including concerns about its new anthropomorphic interface. In late July, OpenAI began rolling out an eerily humanlike voice interface for ChatGPT. In a safety analysis released today, the company … Read More
August 7, 2024
(The New Yorker) – More than ever, we’re challenged to define what’s valuable about being human. Recently, I got a haircut, and my barber and I started talking about A.I. “It’s incredible,” he told me. “I just used it to … Read More
August 5, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Participants in studies of the psychedelic, which is up for U.S. approval, tell WSJ they felt pressure to report positive outcomes. Studies being used to decide whether the U.S. should authorize an ecstasy-based drug for traumatized … Read More
August 5, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The allure of AI lies in its ability to identify our desires and serve them up to us whenever and however we wish. AI has no preferences or personality of its own, instead reflecting whatever users … Read More
August 5, 2024
(Reuters) – Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup’s owner Elon Musk. Neuralink is in the process of testing … Read More
August 5, 2024
(The New Yorker) – A mysterious neurological condition makes faces look grotesque—and sheds new light on the inner workings of the brain. In May, 2021, Duchaine interviewed Werbeloff via Zoom. Had Werbeloff suffered any traumatic brain injuries? (No.) Did he … Read More
July 31, 2024
(CNN) – A small clinical trial suggests that drugs like Ozempic could potentially be used not just for diabetes and weight loss but to protect the brain, slowing the rate at which people with Alzheimer’s disease lose their ability to … Read More
July 26, 2024
(Aeon) – When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb? Vagitus uterinus occurs – always in the last trimester – when there’s a tear in the uterine membrane. … Read More
