Inflammatory gene expression also increased in the colon, particularly after one month of e-cigarette exposure, which could increase risk of gastrointestinal disease. In contrast, the heart showed decreased levels of inflammatory markers. Authors said this state of immunosuppression could make cardiac tissue more vulnerable to infection.

This shows that the flavor chemicals themselves are also causing pathological changes. If someone who frequently uses menthol-flavored JUUL e-cigarettes was infected with COVID-19, it’s possible their body would respond differently to the infection.

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Centipedes possess a decentralized nervous system, with a brain composed of two or three pairs of ganglia and a ventral nerve cord with segmental ganglia. This system allows for independent control of individual legs and body segments, even when the brain is removed, as demonstrated by experiments where centipedes can still walk and respond to stimuli after being de-cephalized. Research suggests that central pattern generators (CPGs) play a crucial role in generating locomotion patterns, with sensory feedback and descending control from the brain also influencing movement.

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Decoding Decision-Making: Insect Brains Are More Complex Than We Thought

The mushroom body—a key area in the brains of arthropods like insects—plays a crucial role in abstract behavioral decision-making.

Contrary to the long-standing belief that insects react purely on stimulus-response, the study shows they can actually make nuanced decisions based on experiences. The researchers recorded feeding behavior alongside neural signals.

The mushroom body in arthropod brains encodes for both memory formation and complex decision-making, contesting prior views that insects operate merely on a stimulus-response basis.

The research involved the American cockroach, chosen for its relatively large brain, making it easier to measure and interpret neural signals and behavior in real-time.

The output neurons of the mushroom body also take into account the current state of the animal, like whether it is hungry, enabling more precise prediction of behavior.

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Babies mimic songs

Children as young as 15 months can repeat simple melodies they hear hours after exposure to the tune.As part of the study, scientists captured audio of a 15-month-old boy making sounds similar to the beginning of the song “Happy Birthday,” hours after he heard the song played on a toy. An analysis of the sounds showed the boy hitting the first six notes of “Happy Birthday” almost spot-on, in G major.

“The social aspect of music is important — if a baby sees their mother singing, they know she’s engaging with that song, that she’s enjoying it, and they know it must be important,” Benetti said.
“I think that social context is important. It’s engaging and it’s socially relevant, and for them, that’s enough."

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Your brain releases oxytocin when someone really listens to you. That’s why one good conversation can feel better than 10 hours of sleep.

Have you had a conversation like that?

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Neuroscientists discover specific brain cells that enable intelligent behavior

For decades, neuroscientists have developed mathematical frameworks to explain how brain activity drives behaviour in predictable, repetitive scenarios, such as while playing a game. These algorithms have not only described brain cell activity with remarkable precision but also helped develop artificial intelligence with superhuman achievements in specific tasks, such as playing Atari or Go.

Yet these frameworks fall short of capturing the essence of human and animal behaviour: our extraordinary ability to generalise, infer and adapt. Our study, published in Nature late last year, provides insights into how brain cells in mice enable this more complex, intelligent behaviour.

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Some cells tracked progress towards immediate subgoals – like chopping vegetables in our cooking analogy – while others mapped progress towards the overall goal, such as finishing the meal.
Together, these goal progress cells created a system that gave our location in behavioural space rather than a physical space. Crucially, the system is flexible and can be updated if the task changes. This encoding allows the brain to predict the upcoming sequence of actions without relying on simple associative memories.

The behaviour we compose to reach our goals is replete with repetition. Generalisation allows knowledge to extend beyond individual instances. Throughout life, we encounter a highly structured distribution of tasks. And each day we solve new problems by generalising from past experiences.

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