Latest Neuropixels probes can track neurons over weeks
A new generation of miniature recording probes can track the same neurons inside tiny mouse brains over weeks and even months.
LEUVEN (Belgium), April 20, 2021 The new tools build on the success of the original Neuropixels probes released in 2017 and currently used in more than 400 labs. Neuropixels 2.0 are much smaller about a third the size of their predecessors. They’re designed to record the electrical activity from more individual neurons and have the unique ability to track this activity over extended time periods. That makes them especially useful for studying long-term phenomena like learning and memory in small animals such as mice, says Tim Harris, a senior fellow at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus who led the project. Harris and his colleagues describe the advance in a paper published online April 16 in the journal
Two extremes of female sexual behavior may be controlled by the same brain region
In many species, including humans and mice, the fluctuating levels of the hormones progesterone and estrogen determine whether the female is fertile or not. And in the case of mice, whether she s sexually receptive or not.
The change in receptivity is striking. Female mice shift from accepting sexual partners to aggressively rejecting them across a cycle of six short days. How can the female reproductive hormones bring about such a radical behavioral change?
When searching for an explanation, the team of Susana Lima, a principal investigator at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal, came across an intriguing discovery.
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IMAGE: Certain neurons in the brains of female mice change their structure across the reproductive cycle, gaining higher complexity during the receptive phase. view more
Credit: Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown - Lima Lab (data); Diogo Matias (design).
In many species, including humans and mice, the fluctuating levels of the hormones progesterone and estrogen determine whether the female is fertile or not. And in the case of mice, whether she s sexually receptive or not.
The change in receptivity is striking. Female mice shift from accepting sexual partners to aggressively rejecting them across a cycle of six short days. How can the female reproductive hormones bring about such a radical behavioural change?
Imec s Neuropixels 2 0 track individual neurons electronicsweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from electronicsweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Documentary chronicles a 10-year quest to simulate the entire human brain
Apr 7 2021
With major funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the film IN SILICO is bringing the opportunities and challenges of big data neuroscience to virtual screens across North America on April 30th.
The independent documentary chronicles an audacious 10-year quest to simulate the entire human brain. IN SILICO will show through May 29th in select theaters, debuting at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Massachusetts.
The film follows neuroscientist Henry Markram who, frustrated with his field s status quo, sets out on a 10-year project to simulate the human brain on supercomputers.