/mastodon/gutocarvalho @gutocarvalho

**Hacker News** @h4ckernews@mastodon.social · 13h

**Flipboard Science Desk** @ScienceDesk@flipboard.social · 15h

Flipboard Science Desk @ScienceDesk@flipboard.social

How near-death experiences arise in the brain.

@SciAm reports: "Researchers put forward a comprehensive model outlining the conditions that may give rise to the vivid mental phenomena that some people experience as they near death."

https://flip.it/qAYIGR

Scientific American · 2dAre Near-Death Experiences the Brain's Attempt to Survive Lethal Threats?By Rachel Nuwer

#Brain #Neuroscience #Death

**Richard McWizard** @Qenupve@hachyderm.io · 1d *

**earthling** @appassionato@mastodon.social · 3d

earthling @appassionato@mastodon.social

The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map by Alex Hutchinson, 2025

New York Times-bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson returns with a fresh, provocative investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk shape our behavior and help us find meaning.

@bookstodon
#books
#nonfiction
#neuroscience
#psychology
#exploration

Off the beaten path, following unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and continues to mold our behavior in ways we are only beginning to understand. In fact, the latest neuroscience suggests that exploration in any form—whether it’s trying a new restaurant, changing careers, or deciding to run a marathon—is an essential ingredient of human life. Exploration, it turns out, isn’t merely a hobby—it’s our story.

In this much-anticipated follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Endure, Alex Hutchinson refutes the myth that, in our fully mapped digital world, the age of exploration is dead. Instead, the itch to discover new things persists in all of us, expressed not just on the slopes of Everest but in the ways we work, play, and live. From paddling the lost rivers of the northern Canadian wilderness to the ocean-spanning voyages of the Polynesians to the search for next-generation quantum computers, The Explorer’s Gene combines riveting stories of exploration with cutting-edge insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience, making a powerful case that our lives are better—more productive, more meaningful, and more fun—when we break our habits and chart a new path.

**earthling** @appassionato@mastodon.social · 3d

earthling @appassionato@mastodon.social

The Ageless Brain by Dale E. Bredesen, MD

From the bestselling author of The End of Alzheimer's, Dr. Dale Bredesen, comes a revolutionary new approach to preventing the onset of neurodegenerative disease and creating sustained brain health.

@bookstodon
#books
#nonfiction
#neuroscience
#brain
#ageing

n recent decades, advances in medicine have changed the way we think about our health. Chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes can be prevented or reversed. Cancer treatment has become targeted and personalized. Gene editing will allow us to eradicate many inherited disorders. But there is one class of conditions that continues to elude researchers and cause tremendous suffering: neurodegenerative disease.
More than six million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease; by 2050, this number is projected to reach thirteen million. An additional one in ten people over the age of sixty-five have dementia, while 22 percent of older adults live with some form of cognitive impairment. And it isn't just the elderly who are afflicted;

**earthling** @appassionato@mastodon.social · 3d

earthling @appassionato@mastodon.social

The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod, 2025

Why do some people become radicalized?

How do ideologies shape the human brain?

And how can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas?

@bookstodon
#books
#nonfiction
#brain
#neuroscience
#thinking
#ideology

In The Ideological Brain, Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connection between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her own pioneering research, she uncovers the complex interplay between biology and environment that predisposes some individuals to rigid ways of thinking, and explains how ideologies take hold of our brains, fundamentally changing the way we think, act and interact with others. She shows how ideologues of all types struggle to change their thought patterns when faced with new information, culminating in the radical message that our politics are not superficial but are woven into the fabric of our minds.

This authoritative, accessible and playful blend of psychology, politics and philosophy explores the cutting-edge of the emerging field of political neuroscience. Zmigrod examines its historical roots before she looks to the future, considering the broader social and political implications of her groundbreaking research. Guiding readers through her experiments, she eventually describes what a free, authentic, and tolerant brain looks like, and explains how anyone can keep their mind open and flexible in the face of extremist ideologies.

**Hacker News** @h4ckernews@mastodon.social · 3d

**Chris Simpson** @chris_e_simpson@hachyderm.io · 4d

Chris Simpson @chris_e_simpson@hachyderm.io

Had a non fiction book on my shelf for a while that I couldn't get the audiobook for, but now I'm traveling I'm finally able to get into it

It's called The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (And Other Clinical Tales) by Oliver Sacks

It's a collection of real clinical cases and the reflections of the attending neurologist (the author)

It's both a fascinating insight into the nature of experience and how that can be affected by a brain injury or disease, and a series of touching stories about helping people find peace when nothing makes sense around them

#neuroscience

**Paul Houle** @UP8@mastodon.social · 4d

**Nick Byrd, Ph.D.** @ByrdNick@nerdculture.de · 5d *

5d *

Nick Byrd, Ph.D. @ByrdNick@nerdculture.de

Overheard at a conference about #AI in #Medicine:

Speaker: "I hear neurologists prefer we say that generative AI systems 'confabulate' and not that they 'hallucinate'."

Neurologist [shouting from the back of the room]: "CORRECT!"

Chase Parsons, DO, MBI
Chief Medical Information Officer
Boston Children's Hospital

#psychiatry #neuroscience #sciComm

**Nate Gaylinn** @ngaylinn@tech.lgbt · 5d

Nate Gaylinn @ngaylinn@tech.lgbt

I really enjoyed this podcast on glial cells in the brain (https://manyminds.libsyn.com/the-other-half-of-the-brain)

Mostly we talk about brains being made of neurons, but it's much more complicated than that. There are many cell types, with different roles. Glia seem to help with development, management, and pruning of neurons throughout life.

One of my lab groups studies "meta learning," or ways of optimizing the design of artificial neural networks to suit a given learning challenge. Some of the techniques we use involve these sorts of dual systems: a neural network, and then a process that manages the growth, pruning, and activation of that network.

Those algorithms are offshoots from artificial neural networks and their very artificial and simplified model of the brain. So, I'm fascinated that from that starting point, we may have rediscovered what nature already had.

I wonder if glia really are an analog to what we're doing, and whether they have anything to teach us about meta learning.

manyminds.libsyn.comMany Minds: The other half of the brainNeurons have long enjoyed a kind of rock star status. We think of them as the most fundamental units of the brain—the active cells at the heart of brain function and, ultimately, at the heart of behavior, learning, and more. But neurons are only part of the story—about half the story, it turns out. The other half of the brain is made up of cells called glia. Glia were long thought to be important structurally but not particularly exciting—basically stage-hands there to support the work of the neurons. But in recent decades, at least among neuroscientists, that view has faded. In our understanding of the brain, glia have gone from stage-hands to co-stars. My guest today is . Nicola is a molecular neuroscientist and Associate Professor at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. She and her lab study the role of glial cells—especially astrocytes—in brain function and dysfunction. Here, Nicola and I talk about how our understanding and appreciation of glial cells has changed. We do a bit of Brain Cells 101, reviewing the main division between neurons and glia and then sketching the subtypes within each category. We discuss the different shapes and sizes of glial cells, as well as the different functions. Glia are an industrious bunch. They’re involved in synapse formation and pruning, the production of myelin, the repair of injuries, and more. We also talk about how glial cells have been implicated in various forms of brain dysfunction, from neurodegeneration to neurodevelopmental syndromes. And how, as a result, these cells are attracting serious attention as a site for therapeutic intervention. Well, it's that time of year again folks. Applications are now open for the 2025 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, or DISI. This is an intense program—highly interdisciplinary, highly international—for scholars and storytellers interested in all forms and facets of intelligence. If you like thinking about minds, if you like thinking about humans and animals and plants and AIs and collectives and ways they’re alike and different—you would probably like DISI. For more info, check out —that's D-I-S-I dot org. Review of applications begins March 1st, so don't dally too too long. Alright friends—on to my conversation with Dr. Nicola Allen. Enjoy! A transcript of this episode is available . Notes and links 3:00 – Correction: “glia” actually comes from the Greek—not the Latin—for “glue.” 3:30 – See this short on glia by Dr. Allen and Dr. Ben Barres. For a bit of the history of how glial cells were originally conceived, see on Ramón y Cajal’s contributions to glia research. 10:00 – On the nascent field of “neuroimmunology,” see . 14:00 – On the idea that “90% of brain cells are glia” see by (former ) Suzana Herculano-Houzel. 18:00 – The root “oligo” in “oligodendrocyte” means “few” (and is thus the same as the “olig” in, e.g., “oligarchy"). It is not related to the “liga-” in “ligament.” 28:00 – On the idea that the glia-neuron ratio changes as brains grow more complex, see again the by Dr. Herculano-Houzel. 30:00 – See Dr. Allen’s on the idea of glia as “architects.” See also Dr. Allen’s on the idea of glia as “sculptors.” 33:00 – See Dr. Allen’s on the idea of the “tripartite synapse.” 42:00 – A recent reviewing the phenomenon of adult neurogenesis. 48:00 – See Dr. Allen’s of the role of astrocytes in neurodegeneration. 51:30 – A on the roles of APOE in Alzheimer’s. Recommendations , edited by Beth Stevens, Kelly R. Monk, and Marc R. Freeman Many Minds is a project of the , which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by , with help from Assistant Producer and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by . Our transcripts are created by . Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter ! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit or follow us on Twitter () or Bluesky ().

#science #podcast #ml