Neuroscientists discover 'engine of consciousness' hiding in monkeys' brains

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 2 hours ago

You probably need this engine running to stay awake.

A team of researchers has found an "engine of consciousness" in the brain — a region where, in monkeys at least, even a little jump start will make them wake up from anesthesia.

Consciousness is a mystery. We don't know for certain why creatures are sometimes awake and sometimes asleep, or which mechanisms in the brain are most important for a conscious state. In this new paper, though, researchers turned up some important clues. Using electrodes across the brains of awake and sleeping macaques, as well as macaques under different forms of anesthesia, the team found two key pathways in the monkeys' brains for consciousness. The researchers also found a specific brain region that seems to get those pathways going, like an engine they could start using some highly specialized jumper cables. That region is known as the central lateral thalamus.

Related: 10 things we learned about the brain in 2019

But that doesn't mean they've found the seat of consciousness in the brain.

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Poison dart frog brains can hold a mental map

JUNE 11, 2019

by The Company of Biologists

Frogs aren't meant to be able to store a mental map in their brains. 20 years ago, Lainy Day from the University of Mississippi, USA, tested the place memory of amphibians and lizards, but none appeared capable of forming complex spatial memories. Frogs' brains were just too simple to carry a map it seemed. However, Sabrina Burmeister from the University of North Carolina recalls remarking at the time that Day should test the memories of poison frogs. After locating tiny pools of water up in the forest canopy, poison frog parents recall the location and return to deliver their freshly hatched tadpoles to develop safely in their new abodes. So, when East Carolina University ecologist Kyle Summers recently sent some green-and-black poison dart frogs (Dendrobates auratus) to Burmeister, she and graduate student Yuxiang Liu decided to investigate the remarkable amphibian's spatial awareness. They publish their discovery that the brain of the poison dart frog is sophisticated enough to form a mental map of its surroundings in Journal of Experimental Biology.

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Common pesticide inhibits brain development in frogs – via Herp Digest

September 6, 2018, phys.org,, 

New research published in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry reveals that low doses of a commonly used pesticide potentially harm the Northern Leopard frog by inhibiting their brain development.

The pesticide chlorpyifos, which has been used since 1965 in both agricultural and non-agricultural areas, had clear effects on Northern Leopard tadpoles' neurodevelopment, even in situations where the pesticide did not cause a decline in the amphibians' food source.

"Organophosphorous pesticides contaminate surface waters throughout the U.S. exposing both animals and humans to these chemicals, often at very low, presumably innocuous levels. However, this study demonstrates that exposure to these contaminants, even at these low concentrations, impacts vertebrate neurodevelopment," said lead author Sara McClelland, of Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh.

More information: Sara J. McClelland et al, Insecticide-induced changes in amphibian brains: How sublethal concentrations of chlorpyrifos directly affect neurodevelopment, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (2018). DOI: 10.1002/etc.4240

Wild cat brains: An evolutionary curveball

Date: October 31, 2016

Source: Michigan State University

The brains of wild cats don't necessarily respond to the same evolutionary pressures as those of their fellow mammals, humans and primates, indicates a surprising new study led by a Michigan State University neuroscientist.

Arguably, the fact that people and monkeys have particularly large frontal lobes is linked to their social nature. But cheetahs are also social creatures and their frontal lobes are relatively small. And leopards are solitary beasts, yet their frontal lobes are actually enlarged.

So what gives? Sharleen Sakai, lead investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded research, said the findings suggest that multiple factors beyond sociality may influence brain anatomy in carnivores.

"Studying feline brain evolution has been a bit like herding cats," said Sakai, MSU professor of psychology and neuroscience. "Our findings suggest the factors that drive brain evolution in wild cats are likely to differ from selection pressures identified in primate brain evolution."

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Underground Ants Regrew Brain Parts to See the Light

by Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer   |   March 11, 2016 01:12pm ET

About 18 million years ago, army ants that were adapted to living underground — and had lost much of their sight — returned to the surface and regrew the parts of their brains related to vision, a new study has found.

But the brain benefits didn't end there. Not only did the ants recover a set of previously underused brain structures, but their overall brain size increased as well. In turn, this brain-size increase enhanced the ants' sensory input capabilities as well as their processing centers to handle a more complex environment.

I can see clearly now

The army-ant subfamily Dorylinae dates to about 78 million years ago, and most of these ants live underground at least part of the time; their eyes are either very small or completely absent. In the study, the researchers noted that this subfamily descended from a large-eyed ancestor whose vision capabilities and vision-related brain regions dwindled over time — a transition that occurred repeatedly within the ant lineage.

But what happened to one branch of the army-ant family was extremely unusual: After living underground for 60 million years, army ants from the Eciton genus headed back into the light, and over time, their brains changed dramatically as they adapted to living on the surface.

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How a moth slows its brain to see in the dark

Nocturnal hawkmoths can track and feed from wind-blown flowers thanks to a perfect adaptation to their movement

Presented by

Zoe Gough

For animals that rely on sight to navigate their surroundings, little or no light can present particular challenges.

Animals can experience a large range of light conditions during a single day, with intensities capable of varying by more than 10-billion fold.

Special adaptations to low-light can allow an animal to increase what it sees, but this is often at the detriment of their other capabilities such as flight.

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Washington in the US wanted to find out what sort of “trade-off” makes this behaviour possible in the hawkmoth (Manduca sexta), an agile flyer that feeds on nectar at dawn, dusk and through the evening.

Read on ...

Fossilized Brains Shed Light on Arthropod Family Tree

by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer | May 07, 2015 03:14pm ET

The shiny, fossilized brains of two ancient sea-monsterlike creatures are helping researchers understand how the ancestors of modern-day arthropods, such as scorpions and lobsters, evolved, as shown in a new study.

The new research focuses on an oval structure, called the anterior sclerite, found in the heads of ancient arthropods. The anterior sclerite has long baffled researchers, especially because some prehistoric arthropods have it while others don't, and its location in the head changes, depending on the quality of the fossil.

But now, fossilized brains have helped solve that mystery. An analysis of the anterior sclerites in two arthropod fossils, both more than 500 million years old, indicates that the structures were associated with the creatures' bulbous eyes. The findings provide evidence that these oval structures were associated with nerves originating in the anterior region of the brain, according to the study. 

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Monkey leaders and followers have 'specialised brains'

2 September 2014 Last updated at 19:16

By Jonathan WebbScience reporter, BBC News

Monkeys at the top and bottom of the social pecking order have physically different brains, research has found.

A particular network of brain areas was bigger in dominant animals, while other regions were bigger in subordinates.

The study suggests that primate brains, including ours, can be specialised for life at either end of the hierarchy.

The differences might reflect inherited tendencies toward leading or following, or the brain adapting to an animal's role in life - or a little of both.

Neuroscientists made the discovery, which appears in the journal Plos Biology, by comparing brain scans from 25 macaque monkeys that were already "on file" as part of ongoing research at the University of Oxford.

"We were also looking at learning and memory and decision-making, and the changes that are going on in your brain when you're doing those things," explained Dr MaryAnn Noonan, the study's first author.

The decision to look at the animals' social status produced an unexpectedly clear result, Dr Noonan said.

"It was surprising. All our monkeys were of different ages and different genders - but with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) you can control for all of that. And we were consistently seeing these same networks coming out."

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Anti-depressants disrupt fish's brains

Drugs designed to ease the symptoms of mental health problems such as depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress can have major disruptive effects on aquatic animals' brains, say scientists.

Anti-depressants are some of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world. In 2012, there were more than 50 million prescriptions of the drugs in the UK, and in some towns and cities as many as one in six of us are taking them.

In recent years, researchers have found increasing concentrations of the drugs in rivers around the world. Most of them find their way into waterways via sewage and waste water systems, from human waste or from people flushing unwanted prescriptions down the toilet.

A suite of new research, published in a special issue of the journal Aquatic Toxicology, points to mounting evidence that they could be damaging aquatic species.

Read more at:

Master monkey's brain controls sedated 'avatar'

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News

The brain of one monkey has been used to control the movements of another, "avatar", monkey, US scientists report.

Brain scans read the master monkey's mind and were used to electrically stimulate the avatar's spinal cord, resulting in controlled movement.

The team hope the method can be refined to allow paralysed people to regain control of their own body.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, have been described as "a key step forward".

Damage to the spinal cord can stop the flow of information from the brain to the body, leaving people unable to walk or feed themselves.

The researchers are aiming to bridge the damage with machinery.

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Monkeys that eat omega-3 rich diet show more developed brain networks

Date:

February 5, 2014

Source:

Oregon Health & Science University

Summary:

Monkeys that ate a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids had brains with highly connected and well organized neural networks -- in some ways akin to the neural networks in healthy humans -- while monkeys that ate a diet deficient in the fatty acids had much more limited brain networking, according to a new study.

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Worker Wasps Grow Visual Brains, Queens Stay in Dark

Jan. 6, 2014 — A queen in a paperwasp colony largely stays in the dark. The worker wasps, who fly outside to seek food and building materials, see much more of the world around them. A new study indicates that the brain regions involved in sensory perception also develop differently in these castes, according to the different behavioral reliance on the senses. The study is published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

"The wasps in different castes within a colony don't differ much genetically. The differences we see show the signature of the environment on brain development," said Sean O'Donnell, PhD, a professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences who led the study.

Read more

Article: Do Fish Feel Pain? The Debate Continues

Do fish feel pain? The question is as old as angling itself, but it has never been answered definitively.

A recent study now concludes that fish lack the necessary pain receptors in their brains to experience pain the way humans and other animals do.

While fish have nociceptors — sensory receptors that respond to physically damaging objects and events by sending warning signals to the brain — these receptors don't function in the same way in fish as they do in humans, according to the study's authors.

"Even if fishes were conscious, it is unwarranted to assume that they possess a humanlike capacity for pain," the authors of the study, published in the latest issue of Fish and Fisheries, wrote in the study's abstract.

The researchers claim that one group of nociceptors, known as C-fiber nociceptors, is responsible for pain in humans but is rare in finned fishes and absent in sharks, ray and skates.

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Decision to Give a Group Effort in the Brain

Dec. 23, 2012 — A monkey would probably never agree that it is better to give than to receive, but they do apparently get some reward from giving to another monkey.

During a task in which rhesus macaques had control over whether they or another monkey would receive a squirt of fruit juice, three distinct areas of the brain were found to be involved in weighing benefits to oneself against benefits to the other, according to new research by Duke University researchers.

The team used sensitive electrodes to detect the activity of individual neurons as the animals weighed different scenarios, such as whether to reward themselves, the other monkey or nobody at all. Three areas of the brain were seen to weigh the problem differently depending on the social context of the reward. The research appears Dec. 24 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Using a computer screen to allocate juice rewards, the monkeys preferred to reward themselves first and foremost. But they also chose to reward the other monkey when it was either that or nothing for either of them. They also were more likely to give the reward to a monkey they knew over one they didn't, preferred to give to lower status than higher status monkeys, and had almost no interest in giving the juice to an inanimate object.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121223152732.htm

Moths Wired Two Ways to Take Advantage of Floral Potluck

Dec. 6, 2012 — Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator's buffet of flowers -- in spite of being among the insect world's picky eaters -- because of two distinct "channels" in their brains, scientists at the University of Washington and University of Arizona have discovered.

One olfactory channel governs innate preferences of the palm-sized hawk moths that were studied -- insects capable of traveling miles in a single night in search of favored blossoms. The other allows them to learn about alternate sources of nectar when their first choices are not available.

For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too.

A better understanding of the moth's neural basis of olfactory specialization and learning also might lead to insights into how human noses and brains process odor, according to Jeffrey Riffell, a UW assistant professor of biology and lead author of a paper published Thursday (Dec. 6) in ScienceExpress, the early online edition of the journal Science. Many of the mechanisms insects use to process olfactory information are similar to humans, and moths have long served as a model system for behavior and neurobiology, he said

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206141321.htm

How Common 'Cat Parasite' Gets Into Human Brain and Influences Human Behavior

Dec. 6, 2012 — Toxoplasma is a common 'cat parasite', and has previously been in the spotlight owing to its observed effect on risk-taking and other human behaviours. To some extent, it has also been associated with mental illness. A study led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now demonstrates for the first time how the parasite enters the brain to influence its host.

"We believe that this knowledge may be important for the further understanding of complex interactions in some major public health issues, that modern science still hasn't been able to explain fully," says Antonio Barragan, researcher at the Center for Infectious Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control. "At the same time, it's important to emphasize that humans have lived with this parasite for many millennia, so today's carriers of Toxoplasma need not be particularly worried."

The current study, which is published in the scientific journal PLoS Pathogens, was led by Dr Barragan and conducted together with researchers at Uppsala University.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206203240.htm

Singing Mice Show Signs of Learning

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2012) — Guys who imitate Luciano Pavarotti or Justin Bieber to get the girls aren't alone. Male mice may do a similar trick, matching the pitch of other males' ultrasonic serenades. The mice also have certain brain features, somewhat similar to humans and song-learning birds, which they may use to change their sounds, according to a new study.

"We are claiming that mice have limited versions of the brain and behavior traits for vocal learning that are found in humans for learning speech and in birds for learning song," said Duke neurobiologist Erich Jarvis, who oversaw the study. The results appear Oct. 10 in PLOS ONE and are further described in a review article in Brain and Language.

The discovery contradicts scientists' 60-year-old assumption that mice do not have vocal learning traits at all. "If we're not wrong, these findings will be a big boost to scientists studying diseases like autism and anxiety disorders," said Jarvis, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "The researchers who use mouse models of the vocal communication effects of these diseases will finally know the brain system that controls the mice's vocalizations."

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010172128.htm

Many primates still being openly traded in markets in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities

The primate trade in Jakarta and Palembang - Courtesy of  Profauna  
July 2012. The illegal primate trade in Indonesia remains high in two big cities in the country: Jakarta and Palembang (South Sumatra). The investigative report of ProFauna Indonesia and the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) shows that dozens of primates are killed for the meat and brain as delicacies every month in both cities.

Long-tailed macaque most targetedThe species which is mostly consumed is the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis). The primates are also sold as pet animals, especially the protected species such as the slow loris (Nycticebus sp) and the siamang (Hylobates syndactylus).

The primate trade in Palembang is centred at the 16 Ilir market. Despite the small size, the market blatantly sells many protected animals including slow loris, siamang, pangolin, mouse deer, eagle, langur, long-tailed macaque and many more. Traders from the market also frequently smuggle wildlife to other cities in Java Island including Jakarta and Yogyakarta. In a month, the market can sell 50 slow loris for just 15 USD each.

The trade for monkey brains in Palembang is horrifying and at least 10 monkeys are slaughtered every week. The buyers are mostly foreign sailors from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Korea. Meanwhile, the trade in monkey meat is centred in Jakarta on Mangga Besar street. A dish of monkey brain in Palembang costs U$ 35 and a dish of monkey satay in Jakarta costs U$4. The consumers of monkey meat and brain believe that the delicacies have energy sources including as a male impotence cure.

ProFauna strongly protests against the rampant trade of primate in Palembang and Jakarta. Irma Hermawati, ProFauna Jakarta's coordinator stated "The trade of primates, whether alive or the by-products, violates the law and ethics, especially the species protected by the law."

For these reasons, Profauna urges the government to curb the trade because ProFauna believes that the traded primates are wild caught, including many that have been poached from conservation areas which should be a safe haven for wildlife.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/jakarta-wildlife-trade.html

Study finds psychopaths have distinct brain structure

LONDON, May 7, 2012 (Reuters) — Scientists who scanned the brains of men convicted of murder, rape and violent assaults have found the strongest evidence yet that psychopaths have structural abnormalities in their brains.

The researchers, based at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths' brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders.

Nigel Blackwood, who led the study, said the ability to use brain scans to identify and diagnose this sub-group of violent criminals has important implications for treatment.

The study showed that psychopaths, who are characterized by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other peoples' emotions.

While cognitive and behavioral treatments may benefit people with anti-social personality disorders, the same approach may not work for psychopaths with brain damage, Blackwood said.

Read on:  http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre8460zq-us-brains-psychopaths/