brain
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Will There Ever Be a ‘Cure’ for Addiction?
Up top we should note that there are many different kinds of addiction, and many different kinds of people, and many complicated and contradictory theories re: addiction’s psychological/physiological mechanisms. There are various approaches to treating addiction as well. Proponents of a “harm reduction” strategy aren’t necessarily interested in reducing people’s drug use, for instance, but…
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Researchers Are Studying the Mechanics of Our Brain, in Particular Why It Folds
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 fibres connecting them. Unsurprisingly, the process of brain folding that results in the brain’s characteristic bumps and grooves is also highly complex. Despite decades…
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Scientists Grew a Brain-Like Blob With Primitive Eyes
Now the stem cells are just showing off. An international team of researchers say they’ve developed a lab-grown mass of tissue that mimicked a brain and was able to spontaneously produce two symmetrical optic cups, eye-like structures sensitive to light. But don’t worry — these rudimentary organoids are not conscious.
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Using Just His Thoughts, Paralysed Man Texts at a Record-Breaking 16 Words a Minute
For the first time ever, neuroscientists have translated the cognitive signals associated with handwriting into text, and in real time. The new technique is more than twice as fast than the previous method, allowing a paralysed man to text at a rate of 90 characters per minute.