Welcome to your daily round-up of everything happening in the world of neurorehabilitation.
Research news
Wearable brain imaging gives clearest ever picture of children’s developing brain
New research has given the clearest ever picture of young children’s developing brains, using a wearable brain scanner to map electrical brain activity. The work opens up new possibilities for tracking how critical developmental milestones, like walking and talking, are underpinned by changing brain function, and how neurodevelopmental conditions like autism emerge.
The research team, led by scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, used a novel design of magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner to measure brain electrophysiology in children as young as two. The findings have been published in eLife.
Microscope system sharpens scientists’ view of neural circuit connections
The brain’s ability to learn comes from “plasticity,” in which neurons constantly edit and remodel the tiny connections called synapses that they make with other neurons to form circuits. To study plasticity, neuroscientists seek to track it at high resolution across whole cells, but plasticity doesn’t wait for slow microscopes to keep pace and brain tissue is notorious for scattering light and making images fuzzy. In a paper in Scientific Reports, a collaboration of MIT engineers and neuroscientists describes a new microscopy system designed for fast, clear, and frequent imaging of the living brain.
Company and financial neuro-rehab news
Neurocognitively-defined subtypes in bipolar disorder: a path to more personalised treatments
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is hosting a free webinar, “Neurocognitively-Defined Subtypes in Bipolar Disorder: A Path to More Personalized Treatments” on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at 2:00 pm ET. The presenter, Katherine E. Burdick, PhD, is the Jonathan F. Borus, MD Distinguished Chair in Psychiatry and the Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is the Director of the Mood and Psychosis Research Program at BWH and a Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Burdick received the Colvin Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorders Research from BBRF in 2021.
Technology news
The transformative potential of computerised brain implants
The Financial Times reports that radical advances in neurotechnology are helping disabled people walk and could provide the link between human and artificial intelligence
