TOP SCEINCE
Our brains are not able to ‘rewire’ themselves, despite what most scientists believe, new study argues
Contrary to the commonly-held view, the brain does not have the ability to rewire itself to compensate for the loss of sight, an amputation or stroke, for example, say scientists from the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University.
One of the most common examples given is where a person loses their sight — or is born blind — and the visual cortex, previously specialised in processing vision, is rewired to process sounds, allowing the individual to use a form of ‘echolocation’ to navigate a cluttered room. Another common example is of people who have had a stroke and are initially unable to move their limbs repurposing other areas of the brain to allow them to regain control.
Krakauer, Director of the Center for the Study of Motor Learning and Brain Repair at Johns Hopkins University, said: “The idea that our brain has an amazing ability to rewire and reorganise itself is an appealing one. It gives us hope and fascination, especially when we hear extraordinary stories of blind individuals developing almost superhuman echolocation abilities, for example, or stroke survivors miraculously regaining motor abilities they thought they’d lost.
“This idea goes beyond simple adaptation, or plasticity — it implies a wholesale repurposing of brain regions. But while these stories may well be true, the explanation of what is happening is, in fact, wrong.”
In their article, Makin and Krakauer look at a ten seminal studies that purport to show the brain’s ability to reorganise. They argue, however, that while the studies do indeed show the brain’s ability to adapt to change, it is not creating new functions in previously unrelated areas — instead it’s utilising latent capacities that have been present since birth.
For example, one of the studies — research carried out in the 1980s by Professor Michael Merzenich at University of California, San Francisco — looked at what happens when a hand loses a finger. The hand has a particular representation in the brain, with each finger appearing to map onto a specific brain region. Remove the forefinger, and the area of the brain previously allocated to this finger is reallocated to processing signals from neighbouring fingers, argued Merzenich — in other words, the brain has rewired itself in response to changes in sensory input.
Not so, says Makin, whose own research provides an alternative explanation.
In a study published in 2022, Makin used a nerve blocker to temporarily mimic the effect of amputation of the forefinger in her subjects. She showed that even before amputation, signals from neighbouring fingers mapped onto the brain region ‘responsible’ for the forefinger — in other words, while this brain region may have been primarily responsible for process signals from the forefinger, it was not exclusively so. All that happens following amputation is that existing signals from the other fingers are ‘dialled up’ in this brain region.
Makin, from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: “The brain’s ability to adapt to injury isn’t about commandeering new brain regions for entirely different purposes. These regions don’t start processing entirely new types of information. Information about the other fingers was available in the examined brain area even before the amputation, it’s just that in the original studies, the researchers didn’t pay much notice to it because it was weaker than for the finger about to be amputated.”
Another compelling counterexample to the reorganisation argument is seen in a study of congenitally deaf cats, whose auditory cortex — the area of the brain that processes sound — appears to be repurposed to process vision. But when they are fitted with a cochlear implant, this brain region immediately begins processing sound once again, suggesting that the brain had not, in fact, rewired.
Examining other studies, Makin and Krakauer found no compelling evidence that the visual cortex of individuals that were born blind or the uninjured cortex of stroke survivors ever developed a novel functional ability that did not otherwise exist.
Makin and Krakauer do not dismiss the stories of blind people being able to navigate purely based on hearing, or individuals who have experienced a stroke regain their motor functions, for example. They argue instead that rather than completely repurposing regions for new tasks, the brain is enhancing or modifying its pre-existing architecture — and it is doing this through repetition and learning.
Understanding the true nature and limits of brain plasticity is crucial, both for setting realistic expectations for patients and for guiding clinical practitioners in their rehabilitative approaches, they argue.
Makin added: “This learning process is a testament to the brain’s remarkable — but constrained -capacity for plasticity. There are no shortcuts or fast tracks in this journey. The idea of quickly unlocking hidden brain potentials or tapping into vast unused reserves is more wishful thinking than reality. It’s a slow, incremental journey, demanding persistent effort and practice. Recognising this helps us appreciate the hard work behind every story of recovery and adapt our strategies accordingly.
“So many times, the brain’s ability to rewire has been described as ‘miraculous’ — but we’re scientists, we don’t believe in magic. These amazing behaviours that we see are rooted in hard work, repetition and training, not the magical reassignment of the brain’s resources.”
An experimental drug originally developed to treat cancer may help clear HIV from infected cells in the brain, according to a new Tulane University study.
Published in the journal Brain, this discovery marks a significant step toward eliminating HIV from hard-to-reach reservoirs where the virus evades otherwise effective treatment.
“This research is an important step in tackling brain-related issues caused by HIV, which still affect people even when they are on effective HIV medication,” said lead study author Woong-Ki Kim, PhD, associate director for research at Tulane National Primate Research Center. “By specifically targeting the infected cells in the brain, we may be able to clear the virus from these hidden areas, which has been a major challenge in HIV treatment.”
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is an essential component of successful HIV treatment, maintaining the virus at undetectable levels in the blood and transforming HIV from a terminal illness into a manageable condition. However, ART does not completely eradicate HIV, necessitating lifelong treatment. The virus persists in “viral reservoirs” in the brain, liver, and lymph nodes, where it remains out of reach of ART.
The brain has been a particularly challenging area for treatment due to the blood-brain barrier — a protective membrane that shields it from harmful substances but also blocks treatments, allowing the virus to persist. In addition, cells in the brain known as macrophages are extremely long-lived, making them difficult to eradicate once they become infected.
Infection of macrophages is thought to contribute to neurocognitive dysfunction, experienced by nearly half of those living with HIV. Eradicating the virus from the brain is critical for comprehensive HIV treatment and could significantly improve the quality of life for those with HIV-related neurocognitive problems.
Researchers focused on macrophages, a type of white blood cell that harbors HIV in the brain. By using a small molecule inhibitor to block a receptor that increases in HIV-infected macrophages, the team successfully reduced the viral load in the brain. This approach essentially cleared the virus from brain tissue, providing a potential new treatment avenue for HIV.
The small molecule inhibitor used, BLZ945, has previously been studied for therapeutic use in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and brain cancer, but never before in the context of clearing HIV from the brain.
The study, which took place at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, utilized three groups to model human HIV infection and treatment: an untreated control group, and two groups treated with either a low or high dose of the small molecule inhibitor for 30 days. The high-dose treatment lead to a notable reduction in cells expressing HIV receptor sites, as well as a 95-99% decrease in viral DNA loads in the brain .
In addition to reducing viral loads, the treatment did not significantly impact microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, which are essential for maintaining a healthy neuroimmune environment. It also did not show signs of liver toxicity at the doses tested.
The next step for the research team is to test this therapy in conjunction with ART to assess its efficacy in a combined treatment approach. This could pave the way for more comprehensive strategies to eradicate HIV from the body entirely.
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, including grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and was supported with resources from the Tulane National Primate Research Center base grant of the National Institutes of Health, P51 OD011104.
TOP SCEINCE
Chemical analyses find hidden elements from renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe’s alchemy laboratory
In the Middle Ages, alchemists were notoriously secretive and didn’t share their knowledge with others. Danish Tycho Brahe was no exception. Consequently, we don’t know precisely what he did in the alchemical laboratory located beneath his combined residence and observatory, Uraniborg, on the now Swedish island of Ven.
However, during an excavation in 1988-1990, some pottery and glass shards were found in Uraniborg’s old garden. These shards were believed to originate from the basement’s alchemical laboratory. Five of these shards — four glass and one ceramic — have now undergone chemical analyses to determine which elements the original glass and ceramic containers came into contact with.
The chemical analyses were conducted by Professor Emeritus and expert in archaeometry, Kaare Lund Rasmussen from the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark. Senior researcher and museum curator Poul Grinder-Hansen from the National Museum of Denmark oversaw the insertion of the analyses into historical context.
Enriched levels of trace elements were found on four of them, while one glass shard showed no specific enrichments. The study has been published in the journal Heritage Science.
“Most intriguing are the elements found in higher concentrations than expected — indicating enrichment and providing insight into the substances used in Tycho Brahe’s alchemical laboratory,” said Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
The enriched elements are nickel, copper, zinc, tin, antimony, tungsten, gold, mercury, and lead, and they have been found on either the inside or outside of the shards.
Most of them are not surprising for an alchemist’s laboratory. Gold and mercury were — at least among the upper echelons of society — commonly known and used against a wide range of diseases.
“But tungsten is very mysterious. Tungsten had not even been described at that time, so what should we infer from its presence on a shard from Tycho Brahe’s alchemy workshop?,” said Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
Tungsten was first described and produced in pure form more than 180 years later by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Tungsten occurs naturally in certain minerals, and perhaps the element found its way to Tycho Brahe’s laboratory through one of these minerals. In the laboratory, the mineral might have undergone some processing that separated the tungsten, without Tycho Brahe ever realizing it.
However, there is also another possibility that Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen emphasizes has no evidence whatsoever — but which could be plausible.
Already in the first half of the 1500s, the German mineralogist Georgius Agricola described something strange in tin ore from Saxony, which caused problems when he tried to smelt tin. Agricola called this strange substance in the tin ore “Wolfram” (German for Wolf’s froth, later renamed to tungsten in English).
“Maybe Tycho Brahe had heard about this and thus knew of tungsten’s existence. But this is not something we know or can say based on the analyses I have done. It is merely a possible theoretical explanation for why we find tungsten in the samples,” said Kaare Lund Rasmussen.
Tycho Brahe belonged to the branch of alchemists who, inspired by the German physician Paracelsus, tried to develop medicine for various diseases of the time: plague, syphilis, leprosy, fever, stomach aches, etc. But he distanced himself from the branch that tried to create gold from less valuable minerals and metals.
In line with the other medical alchemists of the time, he kept his recipes close to his chest and shared them only with a few selected individuals, such as his patron, Emperor Rudolph II, who allegedly received Tycho Brahe’s prescriptions for plague medicine.
We know that Tycho Brahe’s plague medicine was complicated to produce. It contained theriac, which was one of the standard remedies for almost everything at the time and could have up to 60 ingredients, including snake flesh and opium. It also contained copper or iron vitriol (sulphates), various oils, and herbs.
After various filtrations and distillations, the first of Brahe’s three recipes against plague was obtained. This could be made even more potent by adding tinctures of, for example, coral, sapphires, hyacinths, or potable gold.
“It may seem strange that Tycho Brahe was involved in both astronomy and alchemy, but when one understands his worldview, it makes sense. He believed that there were obvious connections between the heavenly bodies, earthly substances, and the body’s organs. Thus, the Sun, gold, and the heart were connected, and the same applied to the Moon, silver, and the brain; Jupiter, tin, and the liver; Venus, copper, and the kidneys; Saturn, lead, and the spleen; Mars, iron, and the gallbladder; and Mercury, mercury, and the lungs. Minerals and gemstones could also be linked to this system, so emeralds, for example, belonged to Mercury,” explained Poul Grinder-Hansen.
Kaare Lund Rasmussen has previously analyzed hair and bones from Tycho Brahe and found, among other elements, gold. This could indicate that Tycho Brahe himself had taken medicine that contained potable gold.
TOP SCEINCE
Nitrogen emissions have a net cooling effect: But researchers warn against a climate solution
An international team of researchers has found that nitrogen emissions from fertilisers and fossil fuels have a net cooling effect on the climate. But they warn increasing atmospheric nitrogen has further damaging effects on the environment, calling for an urgent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to halt global warming.
The paper was led by the Max Planck Institute in Germany and included authors from the University of Sydney. It comes one day after new data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service indicated that Sunday, 21 July was the hottest day recorded in recent history.
The net cooling effect occurs in four ways:
- Short-lived nitrogen oxides produced by the combustion of fossil fuels pollute the atmosphere by forming fine suspended particles which shield sunlight, in turn cooling the climate;
-
ammonia (a nitrogen and hydrogen-based compound) released into the atmosphere from the application of manure and artificial fertilisers has a similar effect;
-
nitrogen applied to crops allows plants to grow more abundantly, absorbing more CO2 from the atmosphere, enabling a cooling effect;
-
nitrogen oxides also play a role in the breakdown of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The researchers warned that increasing atmospheric nitrogen was not a solution for combatting climate change.
“Nitrogen fertilisers pollute water and nitrogen oxides from fossil fuels pollute the air. Therefore, increasing rates of nitrogen in the atmosphere to combat climate change is not an acceptable compromise, nor is it a solution,” said Professor Federico Maggi from the University of Sydney’s School of Civil Engineering.
Sönke Zaehle from the Max Planck Institute said: “This may sound like good news, but you have to bear in mind that nitrogen emissions have many harmful effects, for example on health, biodiversity and the ozone layer. The current findings, therefore, are no reason to gloss over the harmful effects, let alone see additional nitrogen input as a means of combatting global warming.”
Elemental nitrogen, which makes up around 78 percent of the air, is climate-neutral, but other reactive nitrogen compounds can have direct or indirect effects on the global climate — sometimes warming and at other times cooling. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an almost 300 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Other forms of nitrogen stimulate the formation of ozone in the troposphere, which is a potent greenhouse gas and enhances global warming.
Professor Maggi said the research was important as it helped the team gain an understanding of the net-effect of the distribution of nitrogen emissions from agriculture.
“This work is an extraordinary example of how complex interactions at planetary scales cannot be captured with simplistic assessment tools. It shows the importance of developing mathematical models that can show the emergence of nonlinear — or unproportional — effects across soil, land, and atmosphere,” he said.
“Even if it appears counter-intuitive, reactive nitrogen introduced in the environment, mostly as agricultural fertilisers, can reduce total warming. However, this is minor compared with the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions required to keep the planet within safe and just operational boundaries.
“New generation computational tools are helping drive new learnings in climate change science, but understanding is not enough — we must act with great urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Gaining a holistic understanding of the impacts of nitrogen
The scientists determined the overall impact of nitrogen from human sources by first analysing the quantities of the various nitrogen compounds that end up in soil, water and air.
They then fed this data into models that depict the global nitrogen cycle and the effects on the carbon cycle, for example the stimulation of plant growth and ultimately the CO2 and methane content of the atmosphere. From the results of these simulations, they used another atmospheric chemistry model to calculate the effect of man-made nitrogen emissions on radiative forcing, that is the radiant energy that hits one square metre of the Earth’s surface per unit of time.
-
Solar Energy3 years agoDLR testing the use of molten salt in a solar power plant in Portugal
-
Camera3 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
-
world news8 months ago
Gulf, France aid Gaza, Russia evacuates citizens
-
world news3 months ago
Jewish diaspora expresses concern as Iranian drones launch toward Israel
-
Camera3 years ago80,000MP panoramas: EarthCam announces world’s highest-resolution robotic webcam
-
TOP SCEINCE3 months agoCan animals count?
-
Solar Energy8 months agoGlencore eyes options on battery recycling project
-
Camera8 months agoDJI Air 3 vs. Mini 4 Pro: which compact drone is best?
