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Tag: Brain

  • Venice Canal assault victim files $5-million claim against the city of Los Angeles

    Venice Canal assault victim files $5-million claim against the city of Los Angeles

    A woman who was attacked and sexually assaulted while out for a walk on the Venice Canals in April has filed a $5-million claim against the city of Los Angeles, charging that the government was derelict in its duty to provide safe streets and protect its citizens.

    Mary Klein, 55, who suffered a savage beating that left her with missing teeth and a blood clot in her brain, was attacked around 10:30 p.m. April 6 as she strolled through the upscale seaside neighborhood. Another woman, Sarah Alden, 53, was also attacked that night and later died.

    Police later arrested Anthony Francisco Jones, 29; he was charged with two counts of forcible rape, murder, attempted murder, mayhem, torture and sodomy by use of force. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The Times does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, but Klein came forward to share her story, saying people should take it as a wake-up call that more social services are needed for people suffering from mental illness and more police protection is needed for everyone.

    “That’s why all this crime is happening — we’re ignoring the extreme mental health crisis going on in our streets,” she said this summer.

    In filing her claim, Klein said she is trying to drive home the point that the government must do more to protect its citizens. The attack on her, she said, has turned her into an activist for public safety.

    Los Angeles City officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the claim.

    Klein filmed herself walking up to Los Angeles City Hall on Friday to submit her claim, speaking into the camera as the government buildings loomed behind her. A claim against the city can be a precursor to a lawsuit.

    “There is a dereliction of duty by the government in Los Angeles, in California,” she says in her video. “A dereliction of duty to protect its citizens from the criminals and also to fund the police correctly.”

    “I have lifelong damages to my jaw, my brain, blood clotting in my brain, due to a transient attacking me on an un-patrolled street in Venice,” she said. The street, she said, “was dark, no lighting, a public street where numerous incidents of violent crime and murder have occurred, and still absolutely no police presence on the street.”

    “That’s not the police’s fault,” she said. “That’s the people who defund the police.”

    In an interview, she said she was appreciative of Los Angeles officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, the City Council and the Los Angeles Police Department. She said she supports Bass’s goal to expand the LAPD by 1,000 officers.

    “This is not about City Hall,” she said. “I see them doing a lot of work to help the community.” But the government as a whole must do more, she said.

    Jessica Garrison

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  • Need To Cut Back On Sugar? A Doctor's Advice On How To Finally Succeed

    Need To Cut Back On Sugar? A Doctor's Advice On How To Finally Succeed

    Bring on the candy (for a little while).

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  • This Is How Soybean Oil Can Negatively Affect Brain Health

    This Is How Soybean Oil Can Negatively Affect Brain Health

    It’s not exactly a secret that vegetable oils aren’t the best type of oil for us to consume. They’re loaded with saturated fats, and they lack the redemptive omega-3 fatty acids in other oils that are actually good for us. And in the case of soybean oil, it may cause changes in the brain that affect conditions like autism, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, and depression.

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  • 4 Ways To Detox Microplastics From The Brain (& Reduce Alzheimer's Risk)

    4 Ways To Detox Microplastics From The Brain (& Reduce Alzheimer's Risk)

    Plastic particles in the brain? No thank you.

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  • How Women Can Prevent Dementia In Their 40s (& Beyond)

    How Women Can Prevent Dementia In Their 40s (& Beyond)

    These reproductive hormones push neurons to bring glucose and make energy—thus, if your hormone levels are high, your brain energy is high. “But then what happens to testosterone is that it doesn’t quite decline that much over time; whereas for women, estrogens pretty much plummet when women go through menopause,” she explains. “If you think of these hormones as having some kind of superpowers for the brain, women lose the superpower around the time that menopause hits, right? And the brain is left a little more vulnerable.”

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  • Why Broccoli Sprouts Support Brain Health + How To Eat Them

    Why Broccoli Sprouts Support Brain Health + How To Eat Them

    You likely know that broccoli is an anti-inflammatory health food—but have you heard of broccoli sprouts? These germinated seeds of the broccoli plant are a superfood with incredible benefits for brain health. Here’s what makes them so nutritious, and how to work them into your diet:

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  • How To Use Your Mind To Change Your Brain, From A Neurobiologist

    How To Use Your Mind To Change Your Brain, From A Neurobiologist

    Caroline Leaf, Ph.D, BSc, is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. She received her masters and Ph.D. in communication pathology, as well as a BSc in logopaedics from the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

    During her years in clinical practice and her work with thousands of underprivileged teachers and students in her home country of South Africa and in the USA, she developed a theory about how we think, build memory, and learn (called the Geodesic Information Processing theory). The learning process has been turned into a tool for individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), learning disabilities (ADD, ADHD), autism, dementias and mental ill-health issues like anxiety and depression.

    Leaf is author of Switch on Your Brain, Think Learn Succeed, Think and Eat Yourself Smart, and Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. She teaches at academic, medical and neuroscience conferences, churches, and to various audiences around the world. Dr. Leaf is also involved in the global ECHO movement, which trains physicians worldwide on the mind-brain-body connection, mental health and how to avoid physician burnout.

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  • 5 Quick Ayurvedic Practices You Can Do In Under 15 Minutes A Day

    5 Quick Ayurvedic Practices You Can Do In Under 15 Minutes A Day

    The ideal Dinacharya (daily practices) for staying healthy occupy a generous amount of space in ancient Ayurvedic texts. A large part of the Ayurvedic literature details how to live in a manner that leaves no room for disease. The caveat is that if you worked every single practice into your life, you’d have very little time left to do anything else!

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  • 8 Sneaky Places Where Your Inflammation Could Be Hiding

    8 Sneaky Places Where Your Inflammation Could Be Hiding

    Your liver, lymphatic system, kidneys, and gallbladder are largely responsible for detoxification as well as processing and removing toxins like alcohol, pesticides, mold mycotoxins, and the waste products of your own metabolism. If your detoxification system is impaired by inflammation, toxins can build up in your body further perpetuating inflammation and causing swelling, rashes, pain, and damage to your organs.

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  • 5 strategies to navigate science literacy in the digital age

    5 strategies to navigate science literacy in the digital age

    Key points:

    Science literacy is a crucial skill for modern students. It equips them with the knowledge to critically evaluate information, understand scientific concepts, and make informed decisions in a rapidly changing world.

    In today’s digital age, however, both students and educators are at risk of information overload. Each day, we are bombarded with content from websites, social media, and a hundred other sources that demand our attention and seek to influence our behavior. It’s enough to make the human brain short circuit.

    So, how do we prepare our students to navigate this confusing world of digital tools without getting lost in a jungle of misinformation? We start by cultivating a mindset that makes critical engagement second nature, and that fosters the confidence they need to meet challenges head on.

    Here are just five simple strategies that can help students navigate science literacy in the digital age:

    1. Is It CRAAP?:The CRAAP strategy teaches students to evaluate information sources based on five criteria: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. This teaches students to first ask important questions like, “How old is this information?”, “Is it being published by a reliable source?” and “How does this compare to other research?” This allows students to assess the reliability of the information and helps them discern credible sources from misleading ones.

    2. Employ fact-checking websites: It never hurts to call in a professional. Educators should encourage students to fact-check their own information against websites like FactCheck.org and Snopes. Both websites do a great job explaining why something is true or false and what details may have been embellished.  

    3. Bias Bingo:This activity engages students in identifying different types of bias in texts, advertisements, or media by marking corresponding squares on a bingo card. This interactive exercise helps students develop critical thinking skills and recognize bias, enhancing their ability to evaluate information objectively. There are many free bingo creator sites where educators can create their own cards to use with their students.

    4. Data your way: Students can take ownership of their learning by choosing how they represent their data from an investigation. This will stretch their abilities and teach them a new way to graph or chart data. They may also observe other students’ representations and want to learn that method. By sharing different representations with students, educators can allow them to rank them in order of how best they represent the data. As students grow in their data representation skills, they can start providing feedback to their own data representation creations.

    5. Data choice chart: As students start learning how to make their own data representations, educators should use this resource to maximize their growth. The flowchart helps students determine what sort of graph representation they might want to make for their investigation. From there, they can use the graphing tips to help them create a representation that can successfully show what happened in their investigation.

    Let’s face it–teaching students science literacy is a challenge that won’t be solved overnight. It will take diligence, creativity, and more than a little grit. Still, by using simple strategies and keeping up with the latest digital tools, teachers can create a path forward for students in the ever-changing digital landscape. With the right attitude, students won’t just tackle the problems of today—they’ll create a future where curiosity, critical thinking, and a steadfast commitment of scientific inquiry can flourish.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    Cory Kavanagh, Van Andel Institute for Education

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  • Alzheimer’s Patients Are Often Missing These Important Antioxidants

    Alzheimer’s Patients Are Often Missing These Important Antioxidants

    It’s no secret that a healthy diet translates to so many other benefits.

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  • I'm A Memory Coach: Try This Easy Trick To Remember People's Names

    I'm A Memory Coach: Try This Easy Trick To Remember People's Names

    It’s quick and easy.

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  • Study Confirms The 3 Habits That Age Your Brain Faster

    Study Confirms The 3 Habits That Age Your Brain Faster

    And what you can do to protect your cognition.

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  • Elon Musk’s Neuralink Has Implanted Its Brain Chip in a Second Human Patient

    Elon Musk’s Neuralink Has Implanted Its Brain Chip in a Second Human Patient

    Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company has implanted a brain device into a second patient. Fakurian Design/Unsplash

    Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup Neuralink implanted a brain chip, around the size of a quarter, into a human patient for the first time. The company has since completed a second human brain implant and plans to perform eight more such procedures on trial participants by the end of 2024, Musk said in a podcast interview with Lex Fridman that aired on Aug. 2.

    “We’re hoping to do ten by the end of this year,” Musk told Fridman. “It’s obviously going to get better with each one,” he added. Neuralink’s primary products are its N1 brain-computer interface (BCI) and a robot surgeon designed to insert the chip. The implants offer independence to those with neurological damage by enabling them to control computer cursors with their thoughts and, therefore, connect to the digital world without moving. Each chip contains over 1,000 electrodes across 64 threads, transmitting neural signals once embedded into the brain’s motor cortex.

    The first recipient of a Neuralink implant was Noland Arbaugh, a 30-year-old who was left paralyzed after suffering a spinal cord injury in 2016 and received the BCI in a procedure in January. The embedded chip has allowed Arbaugh, also interviewed by Fridman during the Aug. 2 episode, to play a host of video games by himself. “Just having the freedom to do things on my own, at any hour of the day or night, it means the world to me,” said Arbaugh.

    Around a month after the procedure, however, Arbaugh began to lose some of the capabilities enabled by his Neuralink implant as many of its threads came loose from his brain. Neuralink subsequently restored the chip’s functionalities through software tweaks. Even with only 10 to 15 percent of his N1 electrodes working, Arbaugh has been able to beat his former world record for speed and accuracy in controlling a cursor with a BCI, said Musk.

    Neuralink’s second patient, whose name and identity have not been made public, currently has around 400 electrodes functioning in their brain, Musk said. “I don’t want to jinx it, but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant. There’s a lot of signals, a lot of electrodes.” Neuralink received permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct this second procedure in May. But the company didn’t reveal when the procedure was performed.

    As Neuralink continues its clinical trials, it expects N1 to showcase “gigantic” improvements over the years, according to Musk, who noted that electrode numbers will increase and signal processing will improve. “We feel pretty confident that within the next year or two, someone with a Neuralink implant will be able to outperform a pro gamer because the reaction time will be faster,” he told Fridman.

    Giving patients ‘superpowers’

    Established by Musk in 2017, Neuralink’s primary goal for the time being is to aid paralyzed individuals. “The first order of business is solving fundamental neuron damage in the spinal cord, neck or in the brain itself,” said Musk. In addition to improving the communication of patients, the Neuralink founder said his startup might as well also alter their communication data rate to exceed that of the ordinary human. “While we’re in there, why not? Let’s give people superpowers,” he said.

    The company’s ultimate long-term goal, however, is to “improve the A.I.-human symbiosis,” he told Fridman. Refining the bandwidth of communication for humans will be essential in a world dominated by A.I., where the technology “is simply going to get bored waiting for you to spit out a few words,” he said. But before Neuralink tackles those ambitious aspirations and embeds its chips for non-medical purposes, it needs to lessen N1’s current level of risk and see its brain chips used successfully by thousands of patients. “Perhaps at that point, you could consider saying, ‘Okay, let’s aim for augmentation,’” said Musk.

    Elon Musk’s Neuralink Has Implanted Its Brain Chip in a Second Human Patient

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Neuralink successfully implants its chip into a second patient’s brain

    Neuralink successfully implants its chip into a second patient’s brain

    Neuralink’s brain chip has been implanted into a second patient as part of early human trials, Elon Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman on Saturday. The company hasn’t disclosed when the surgery took place or the name of the recipient, according to Reuters.

    Musk said 400 of the electrodes on the second patient’s brain are working out of 1,024 implanted. “I don’t want to jinx it but it seems to have gone extremely well,” he said. “There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It’s working very well.”

    The device allows patients with spinal cord injuries to play video games, use the internet and control electronic devices using their thoughts alone. In May, the company announced that it was “accepting applications for the second participant” in trials following FDA approval.

    The original Neuralink implant patient, Nolan Arbaugh, described the surgery as “super easy.” In a demo, the company showed how Arbaugh was able to move a cursor around the screen of a laptop, pause an on-screen music device and play chess and Civilization VI.

    Arbaugh himself participated in the marathon podcast with Musk and Fridman. He said that the device allows him to make anything happen on a computer screen just by thinking it, helping reduce his reliance on caregivers.

    However, problems cropped up shortly after his surgery when some of electrodes retracted from his brain. The issue was partly rectified later on by modifying the algorithm to make the implants more sensitive. Neuralink told the FDA that in a second procedure, it would place the implant’s threads deeper into the patient’s brain to prevent them from moving as much as they did in Arbaugh’s case.

    Neuralink previously tested its implant in animals, including chimps, and some of those testing practices have been the subject of federal investigations.

    Despite those issues, the company said it had over 1,000 volunteers for its second surgical trial. Musk said he expects Neuralink to implant its chips in up to eight more patients by the end of 2024.

    Steve Dent

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  • Norway Is Paving The Path To Better Dementia Care — Here's How

    Norway Is Paving The Path To Better Dementia Care — Here's How

    An inspiring, holistic care program.

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  • How Vitamin D Regulates The Role Of Dopamine In Brain Cells

    How Vitamin D Regulates The Role Of Dopamine In Brain Cells

    It’s not clear exactly what causes schizophrenia, but we know that it’s associated with changes in the way the brain uses dopamine, and dopamine also plays a role in Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, and restless legs syndrome. It’s also possible to have low dopamine levels without a diagnosed brain disorder. As neuroscientist and psychiatrist Daniel Amen, M.D., explained previously to mbg, symptoms of low dopamine might look like: 

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  • Research Suggests Unresolved Anxiety Could Lead To This

    Research Suggests Unresolved Anxiety Could Lead To This

    If you struggle with anxiety, you don’t need us to tell you that it can be incredibly difficult to manage. But according to new research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, unresolved anxiety could cause even more issues down the road. Here’s what they found.

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  • Social Prescriptions Are The Future: Here’s 5 You Should Know

    Social Prescriptions Are The Future: Here’s 5 You Should Know

    “We sort of have our cultural picture of what loneliness is, you know, maybe an older person who’s isolated. Actually, loneliness refers to the absence of quality relationships, just as I mean, the cliché is true. You can be lonely in a crowd,” Hotz says.

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  • Is Black Coffee Good For You? Benefits & Pro Drinking Tips

    Is Black Coffee Good For You? Benefits & Pro Drinking Tips

    There haven’t been a lot of studies done on this directly, but the short answer is: maybe. “In theory, drinking black coffee may assist in reducing belly fat. The caffeine present in coffee has thermogenic properties, meaning it can stimulate the body’s metabolic rate and thus, boost fat-burning processes,” says Greenleaf. “Additionally, consuming coffee before engaging in physical exercise may enhance overall workout performance and increase the number of calories burned during the session, ultimately contributing to reduced belly fat.”

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