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1
How the human brain integrates information from social networks to make decisions
Social animals are exposed to complex intertwined social connections (such as those arising from blood, social or work relationships). These connections determine who we interact with and from whom we get information, profoundly influencing our thinking and behavior. In the past 20 years, "social network analysis" has achieved remarkable results. However, most of these studies have focused on the macro and group levels, and until now, we have not yet known how the human brain interacts with the complex, connected social environment at the individual level. This poses theoretical and experimental challenges to the field of social and decision neuroscience.
Recently, the laboratory of Lusha Zhu, a researcher at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Peking University-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, combined with multidisciplinary research methods such as brain imaging, social network analysis, and reinforcement learning, revealed for the first time the neural computing process of the human brain to integrate the information transmitted on social networks for decision-making, and for the first time explored the impact of the structure of social interaction on human decision-making at the cognitive and neural levels, expanding the traditional neural computer research of social learning and reinforcement learning to a broader scope A more ecologically valid decision-making environment also proposes a novel, cognitive-neural explanation for important social phenomena, including the spread of false information, and opens up an expandable experimental and computational framework for studying the neural mechanisms of individual decision-making in complex social networks.
Content Source:
https://news.pku.edu.cn/jxky/ac914ecdfbfa4fa197b235977e68146d.htm
2
Cortical tracking and neural coding mechanisms of human motor rhythms
In recent years, the boom of home exercise has made fitness videos popular all over the Internet, and the dancing and jumping of coaches in the video is like a metronome to make you feel a strong rhythm in front of the screen. An interesting question is: How does the brain read rhythmic information in human body movements and encode the biological properties in them?
Researchers from Jiang Yi's team, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, used EEG technology to explore how the human brain achieves specific dynamic neural coding for biological movement based on rhythmic features in limb movement. Furthermore, computational modeling methods were used to evaluate the contributions of two potential spatiotemporal information accumulation coding mechanisms to the above biomotor-specific cortex tracing process. The results showed that the brain's tracking of "integration signals" (from opposing movements of the opposite limb), rather than "summation signals" (linear superposition of different joint movements), drives biomotority-specific neural coding. This study reveals the phenomenon of cortical tracing based on the characteristics of rhythmic dynamics in human movement and its spatiotemporal coding mechanism, which provides a time frame for the spatiotemporal integration and segmentation of biological movement information, and helps the brain to extract and perceive key dynamic information of biological movement. In addition, the hierarchical cortical tracking effect found in the study has certain similarities with the results of language and music studies, providing insights into how the human cognitive nervous system processes these complex and meaningful dynamic information.
Content Source:
https://www.cas.cn/syky/202302/t20230214_4874943.shtml
3
Regulate urban soil biodiversity and promote human health
Soils are one of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity on the planet, dominating several key ecosystem functions. Soil biodiversity and its functions affect human health in a number of ways. However, the link between soil biodiversity and human health in urban settings has not been adequately studied. The research results of soil biodiversity and its functions in urban systems compiled by Zhu Yongguan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher of the Institute of Urban Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, lay a practical foundation and provide reference for integrating soil biodiversity to promote human health and sustainable urban development, and deserve further attention from relevant departments such as public health, urban planning, environmental sustainability and biodiversity management. At the same time, harnessing urban soil biodiversity to promote human health will provide new perspectives on nature-based solutions that help address challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change and the growing human burden of disease in cities.
Content Source:
https://www.cas.cn/syky/202302/t20230217_4875194.shtml
4
SPIRIT step-by-step suspension printing technology makes 3D printing complex organs tangible and more "soulful"
In vitro functional reconstruction of complex tissues/organs has been a long-standing goal in the field of biomanufacturing and regenerative medicine. In recent years, bio-3D printing technology has developed rapidly, and through the precise assembly of living cells and biological materials, it has great advantages in complex tissue and organ construction. However, existing biological 3D printing technology still has certain limitations. Taking heart construction as an example, although the existing technology can print and construct complex heart chamber structures, it is difficult to reproduce the cardiovascular system and other vasculature systems (such as cardiac electrical conduction system and nervous system) that play an important role in heart function, so that the printed heart model has a shape, lacks the inner "Sequential Printing in a Reversible Ink Template" (SPIRIT), and cannot play the real heart function. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a new bio-3D printing process to realize the coupling construction of the external geometry of complex organs (corresponding to the "chamber structure" of the heart) and the internal fine features (corresponding to the "vasculature" of the heart).
Recently, the research group of Associate Professor Xiong Zhuo and Associate Researcher Zhang Ting of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Tsinghua University has developed a stepwise suspension 3D printing (SPIRIT) technology, which can realize the rapid construction of tissues and organs with complex external structures and internal vascular networks, and successfully print ventricular models containing perfusion vascular networks, effectively expanding the technical boundaries of conventional extrusion 3D printing, and is expected to accelerate the transformation and application of engineered tissues and organs in the medical field.
Content Source:
https://www.view.sdu.edu.cn/info/1021/175249.htm
5
Yeast micro-nano biorobot for precise drug delivery
Human imagination of micro-nano robots has a long history. In the 60s of the 20th century, the science fiction movie "Magical Journey" described the adventure of a "mini-submarine" shrunk to the size of a cell into the human body. In the real world, scientists have never stopped exploring micro-nano robots, especially micro-nano biorobots with self-propelled and navigation capabilities because they can reach microscopic areas that are difficult to reach with existing medical devices, which are expected to achieve precise diagnosis and treatment of diseases and innovate traditional medicine, so they have attracted much attention. However, due to the existence of multiple physiological barriers in the body, it is challenging to develop micro-nano robots that can adapt to changes in the microenvironment and accurately deliver drugs to remote lesions. Recently, Cai Lintao's team from the Nanomedicine and Technology Research Center of the Institute of Biomedicine and Technology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a dual-engine adaptive yeast micro-nano biorobot, which can penetrate the multiple physiological barriers of the human body through the switching of biological enzymes and macrophage engines like a "nano courier", and achieve precise delivery of drugs to remote inflammatory lesions. The development of yeast micro-nano biorobots provides a new technical means for the treatment of gastrointestinal inflammation and other inflammation-related diseases. Content Source:
https://www.cas.cn/syky/202302/t20230223_4875739.shtml
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