Interdisciplinary research spanning multiple areas of neuroscience that bridges traditional boundaries within this field
5 papersThis study compared adolescents assessed before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns and found differences in stress hormones, inflammation, and brain activity during reward processing and emotion regulation. Post-lockdown teens had lower total cortisol, higher inflammation, and less prefrontal cortex activity. The sample was primarily White and of higher socioeconomic status, limiting generalizability.
This study on young zebrafish developed a method called WHOLISTIC to image the activity of nearly all cells in the body at the same time. The researchers found unexpected cellular responses to various stimuli and identified new body-wide circuits, including a brain-gut connection involved in the regulation of blood flow during low oxygen. While the research is promising, the findings cannot be directly applied to humans due to species-specific differences, and more research is needed.
This paper proposes using brain-computer interfaces (BMI) and brain organoids (BO), or a combination thereof, to boost human intelligence in response to advancing AI. It models the potential benefits and risks of each approach, concluding that a hybrid approach may be optimal. However, the analysis is purely theoretical and lacks empirical evidence.
In young adults, one night of restricted sleep (4 hours) did not affect resting cerebral blood flow or the response to carbon dioxide. However, it weakened neurovascular coupling, the connection between brain activity and blood flow changes. This suggests that even acute sleep loss can affect important brain regulatory mechanisms.
This review summarizes the effects of exercise, diet, and sleep on the brain's ability to change (neuroplasticity), drawing largely from animal studies. While suggesting that a healthy lifestyle combining all three factors is best, it lacks enough human research to define the optimal balance or determine synergistic effects of combining different approaches. More research is needed to translate these findings into practical recommendations for people.