Knowledge Update

​New York, Jan 22 (IANS) Non-invasive brain stimulations can work like a scalpel to improve the precise memory of a human and can also be used as a treatment for those who have memory problem because of brain injury, a new study has found.

Precise memory is critical for knowing details such as the specific colour, shape and location of a building you are looking for, rather than simply knowing the part of town it is in.

Researchers from the Northwestern University found that by stimulating the brain network responsible for spatial memory with powerful electromagnets, the precision of people's memory for identifying locations improved.

"We show that it is possible to target the portion of the brain responsible for this type of memory and to improve it," said Joel Voss, assistant professor.

The scientists used MRI to identify memory-related brain networks then stimulated them with non-invasive electromagnetic stimulation.

The paper, published in the journal Current Biology, paves the way for developing new treatments for people who have problems with precise memory because of brain injury.

Toronto, Jan 22 (IANS) Scanning the brain of a premature baby shortly after birth to map the location and volume of lesions -- small areas of injury in the brain's white matter -- may help doctors better predict whether the baby will have disabilities later, researchers say.

Lack of oxygen to the brain is the most common form of brain injury in premature infants, resulting in damage to the white matter - which contains nerve fibers that maintain contact between various parts of the brain.

Damage to white matter can interfere with communication in the brain and the signals it sends to other parts of the body.

"In general, babies who are born before 31 weeks gestation have a higher risk of thinking, language and movement problems throughout their lives, so being able to better predict which infants will face certain developmental problems is important so they get the best early interventions possible," said Steven P. Miller from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

For the study, the team looked at a group of A58 premature babies with white matter injury who had an MRI brain scan at an average of 32 weeks after gestation. These babies were then evaluated for motor, thinking and language skills when they were 18 months old.

The findings showed that a greater volume of small areas of injury, no matter where they were located in the brain, could predict movement problems at 18 months.

A greater volume of these small areas of injury in the frontal lobe -- area of the brain that regulates problem solving, memory, language skills and voluntary movement skills -- could predict thinking problems.

On the other hand, premature infants with larger frontal lobe injuries had a 79 fold greater odds of developing thinking problems than infants without such injuries, as well as a 64 fold greater odds of problems with movement development.

Future studies should evaluate premature infants not just at 18 months, but at various points throughout childhood to determine the long-term consequences of early injuries in the brain, Miller added.

The study was published in the journal Neurology.

​London, Jan 21 (IANS) When people start becoming delirious, it may have a long-lasting impact on their brains, accelerating the dementia process among them, a new study has found.

A research conducted in the University College London and the University of Cambridge found that episodes of delirium in people who are not known to have dementia, might also reveal dementia at its earliest stages.

"If delirium is causing brain injury in the short and long-term, then we must increase our efforts to diagnose, prevent and treat delirium. Ultimately, targeting delirium could be a chance to delay or reduce dementia," said Daniel Davis from the University of Cambridge.

The study noted that while both delirium and dementia are important factors in cognitive decline among the elderly, delirium is preventable and treatable through dedicated geriatric care.

"Unfortunately, most delirium goes unrecognised. In busy hospitals, a sudden change in confusion is not noticed by hospital staff. Patients can be transferred several times and staff often switch over -- it requires everyone to 'think delirium' and identify that a patient's brain function has changed," Davis noted in a paper published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) In an attempt to search for life outside Earth, an astronomer has studied an exoplanet called Wolf 1061 and found the celestial body could be habitable in the future.

Astronomer Stephen Kane from San Francisco State University, in his research focused on finding "habitable zones" where water could exist in a liquid state on a planet's surface. 

Kane and his team examined a habitable zone on a planetary system 14 light years away. "The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed have life," Kane said in a statement.

One of the three known planets in the Wolf 1061 system, a rocky planet called Wolf 1061c, is entirely within the habitable zone. 

When scientists search for planets that could sustain life, they are basically looking for a planet with nearly identical properties to Earth. 

"Simply put, the planet can't be too close or too far from its parent star. A planet that's too close would be too hot like Earth's twin Venus. If it's too far, it may be too cold and any water would freeze, which is what happens on Mars," Kane noted.

Since Wolf 1061c is close to the inner edge of the habitable zone, meaning closer to the star, it could be that the planet has an atmosphere that's more similar to Venus. 

Kane and his team also observed that unlike Earth, which experiences climatic changes such as an ice age because of slow variations in its orbit around the sun, Wolf 1061c's orbit changes at a much faster rate, which could mean the climate there could be quite chaotic.

According to Kane, life is possible on Wolf 1061c under one possibility -- the short time scales over which Wolf 1061c's orbit changes could be enough that it could actually cool the planet off.

But fully understanding what's happening on the planet's surface will take more research, he added.

The findings are forthcoming in the Astrophysical Journal in a paper titled "Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System".

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) Older adults with low blood levels of a circulating protein in the blood may be at an increased risk of experiencing decline in their kidney function, a study has found.

The findings showed that higher blood levels of a protein called soluble klotho -- with anti-ageing properties -- may help preserve kidney function. 

"We found a strong association between low soluble klotho and decline in kidney function, independent of many known risk factors for kidney function decline," said David Drew from Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

The kidney has the highest levels of klotho expression and is likely the major source of soluble klotho, and thus, in patients with kidney disease levels of klotho tend to be low.

Although the exact mechanism of action of soluble klotho remains to be identified, the protein has been shown to influence multiple cellular and endocrine pathways, the researchers said.

After adjusting for various factors such as demographics, comorbidities, and kidney disease risk factors, each two-fold higher level of klotho was linked with a 15-20 per cent lower likelihood of experiencing kidney function decline in the elderly.

"This suggests that klotho could play a role in the development of chronic kidney disease and also raises the possibility that klotho could be an important therapeutic target for future clinical trials," Drew added.

For the study, the team analysed 2496 study elderly with measures of soluble serum klotho and repeated measures of kidney function over 10 years of follow up.

Although additional studies are needed, the findings point to a potential target for preventing and treating kidney disease, the researchers stated.

The study is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

​Singapore, Jan 20 (IANS) Ever wondered why we are not plunged into intermittent darkness when we blink? Researchers in Singapore may have the answer.

It is because our brain works extra hard to stabilise our vision, without which our surroundings would appear shadowy, erratic and jittery after we blink, a study has showed.

Blinking lubricates dry eyes and protects them from irritants. However, when we blink, our eyeballs roll back in their sockets and do not always return to the same spot when we reopen our eyes. 

This misalignment prompts the brain to activate the eye muscles to realign our vision, the researchers said. 

The finding showed that when we blink, our brain repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused on what we are viewing.

"Our eye muscles are quite sluggish and imprecise, so the brain needs to constantly adapt its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they're supposed to," said lead author Gerrit Maus, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 

"Our findings suggest that the brain gauges the difference in what we see before and after a blink and commands the eye muscles to make the needed corrections," Maus added.

For the study, healthy young adults participated where they sat in a dark room for long periods staring at a dot on a screen while infrared cameras tracked their eye movements and eye blinks in real time.

Every time they blinked, the dot was moved one centimetre to the right. While participants failed to notice the subtle shift, the brain's oculomotor system registered the movement and learned to reposition the line of vision squarely on the dot.

After 30 or so blink-synchronised dot movements, participants' eyes adjusted during each blink and shifted automatically to the spot where they predicted the dot to be.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

New York, Jan 19 (IANS) In a ray of hope for those suffering from heart conditions, a team of scientists has developed the world's first soft robotic sleeve that is fitted around the heart, where it twists and compresses the heart's chambers just like healthy cardiac muscle would do.

To create a device that does not come into contact with blood, the team from Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital developed a thin silicone sleeve that uses soft pneumatic actuators placed around the heart to mimic the outer muscle layers of a human heart.

"This research demonstrates that the growing field of soft robotics can be applied to clinical needs and potentially reduce the burden of heart disease and improve the quality of life for patients," said lead author Ellen T Roche, a former PhD student at Harvard and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Ireland.

The actuators twist and compress the sleeve in a similar motion to the beating heart. 

The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators.

Unlike other therapeutic systems known as ventricular assist devices (VADs), the soft robotic sleeve does not directly contact blood, avoiding that risk.

With heart failure affecting 41 million people worldwide, researchers expect the device may be able to bridge a patient to transplant or to aid in cardiac rehabilitation and recovery. 

"The sleeve can be customised for each patient. If a patient has more weakness on the left side of the heart, for example, the actuators can be tuned to give more assistance on that side," Roche noted in a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The pressure of the actuators can also increase or decrease over time, as the patient's condition evolves. The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators.

According to the researchers, soft robotic devices are ideally suited to interact with soft tissue and give assistance that can help with augmentation of function, and potentially even healing and recovery.

​London, Jan 19 (IANS) Lithium batteries can be charged faster in the near future as scientists have got new insights into why adding charged metal atoms to tunnel structures within batteries improve their performance.

Rechargeable lithium batteries have helped power the 'portable revolution' in mobile phones, laptops and tablet computers. 

"Understanding these processes is important for the future design and development of battery materials and could lead to faster charging batteries that will benefit consumers and industry," said Saiful Islam, Professor at the University of Bath.

The team from the University of Bath and University of Illinois-Chicago also found a way to develop new generations of lithium batteries for electric vehicles that can store energy from wind and solar power.

The study noted that storing electrical energy more quickly than current electrodes is important for future applications in portable electronics and electric vehicles.

"Developing new materials holds the key to lighter, cheaper and safer batteries, including for electric vehicles which will help cut carbon emissions," added Islam in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

New York, Jan 19 (IANS) Scarcity of food or other resources may drive some baboon males to attack and kill infants of their own kind, a study has found.

The findings showed that some baboon males vying for a chance to father their own offspring expedite matters in a gruesome way -- they kill infants sired by other males and attack pregnant females, causing them to miscarry.

The behaviour reduces their waiting time to breed with pregnant and nursing females, who otherwise would not become sexually available again for up to a year.

"In situations where males have few opportunities, they resort to violence to achieve what's necessary to survive and reproduce. When reproductive opportunities abound, this behaviour is less frequent," said lead author Matthew Zipple, graduate student at Duke University in North Carolina, US.

Shortages of fertile females were particularly common in times of food scarcity, when baboon troops distance themselves from each other and females take 15 per cent longer between successive births -- which means males who don't kill have even longer to wait.

The perpetrators are more prone to commit domestic violence when forced to move into a group with few fertile females, Zipple added.

It was also more common when the incoming male achieved high social status very quickly, when he stayed in the group for three months or more or when there were many infants and pregnant females in the group.

"It's not just who they are, it's the circumstances they find themselves in that makes the difference," Zipple said.

In addition, the researchers found that immigrant males were responsible for roughly 2 per cent of infant deaths and 6 per cent of miscarriages between 1978 and 2015. 

But when cycling females were few, the death rates more than tripled.

The findings come from a long-term study of wild baboons monitored on a near-daily basis since 1971 at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya.

The study appeared online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.