Hello friends and followers of NFBSupport!
Happy New Year to all!
We wish you all the best for the coming year! Hope your holidays and celebrations went well! Ours were busy but good, with all the family and community we could have asked for.
A couple news articles to start your year!
First up, a team from Aalto University discovered that our internal clock (circadian rhythm) changes the way we process visual data when finding direction (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191219142813.htm). They found that mice could navigate more accurately in near total darkness during night hours vs day hours. When they studied EEG data, they discovered that there was no difference in visual data, just how it was processed!
A cool creation related to mindfulness that could be useful for our practitioners out there: a group from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of California, Irvine created a mindfulness game that actually improves attention in children outside of the game (https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-mindfulness-video-game-areas-brain.html). The game, called Tenacity, is designed to practice counting breaths, and in their studies they found that after two weeks the control group had no improvement in attention outside of the game while the test group had improvements. Valuable data for kids with attention problems!
Lastly, an international team headed by researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have created an shRNA carrying harmless adeno-associated virus that rewires the SOD1 gene and stops progression of ALS (https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-virus-delivered-gene-silencer-blocks-als.html). This is big since there's been no proper way to stop progression of ALS developed at this point, but this new method of shutting off the gene associated with causing it is a big step forward. So far, mouse studies have been perfect, with no detectable side-effects a year in, and they are planning on moving into larger mammal testing soon.
This email was certainly shorter, but that's what happens when a quarter of the planet appears to be on vacation!
Here's to the new year and expanded horizons!
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