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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 20 hours ago

In times of uncertainty, the brain takes the easy route by following the crowd

In uncertain situations where information is lacking, individuals often find themselves imitating the choices of others. 

This behaviour highlights a tendency to conform to others when faced with ambiguity. Computational neuroscience research has shown that the decision to follow others unconditionally serves as an alternative strategy that activates certain brain processes in uncertain environments.

Researchers investigated how the decisions of others influence individual decision-making in uncertain contexts.

Decision-making in social situations typically involves a value judgment process that integrates both personal preferences and the choices of others. This study uncovers the strategies the brain employs when access to individual preferences is compromised.

According to the research findings, now published in PLOS Computational Biology, the brain employs a "heuristic" strategy that reflects social information from the choices of others during decision-making. When value judgments based on individual preferences are not possible, individuals tend to take the shortcut of imitating the decisions made by others.

The research team arrived at these conclusions through experiments conducted on participants with partial damage to the brain's insula or dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), regions known to play critical roles in processing uncertain information.

The research team noted that the implications of these findings could extend to adolescents, whose individual preferences may be in flux. Both situations of uncertainty and the lack of established personal preferences render value judgments based on individual preferences challenging.

This study sheds light on why individuals with unclear personal preferences may be particularly sensitive to the opinions of those around them. Therefore, the importance of creating a supportive environment and implementing educational approaches to help establish individual preferences as a means of addressing social issues such as addiction.

Mark A. Orloff et al, Social conformity is a heuristic when individual risky decision-making is disrupted, PLOS Computational Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012602

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 20 hours ago

Extinction threatens nearly a quarter of all freshwater species

Freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of Earth's surface, but are vital for life on this planet. New research reveals that damage to these environments is pushing freshwater animals to the edge of extinction, with 24% of species in danger of being wiped out.

Thousands of fish, crab and dragonfly species could become extinct in the coming decades—and many more could follow.

A landmark assessment of the health of nearly 24,000 fresh water species found that just under a quarter are at risk of extinction. Of these, almost 1,000 species are considered Critically Endangered, with 200 having potentially been lost already.

These numbers may only represent the tip of the iceberg, with scientists lacking the information needed to properly understand the extinction risk of thousands of species. The authors of the study, says that urgent action is needed to understand and protect these animals.

"Lack of data on freshwater biodiversity can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction," they say. "Freshwater landscapes are home to 10% of all known species on Earth and key for billions of people's safe drinking water, livelihoods, flood control and climate change mitigation, and must be protected for nature and people alike."

While fresh, clean water is vital for all life on land, freshwater ecosystems are some of the most threatened on Earth. Freshwater environments are being put under pressure as demand for food, water and resources increases.

Wetlands in particular, including bogs, mangroves and saltmarshes, are bearing the brunt of these losses. It's estimated that an area the size of India—a staggering 3.4 million square kilometers—of wetland has been lost since 1700.

The loss of wetlands harms far more than just the animals and plants that live there, as it also limits our ability to fight climate change and stop flooding.

Freshwater sources are also suffering from a cocktail of different challenges. An increase in water abstraction and dams on rivers are reducing the available habitat for wildlife. Some rivers, like the Colorado River, no longer even reach the sea.

The animals that persist in these reduced habitats are then impacted by sewage, industrial and plastic pollution. Yet, despite the rising risk to these species, freshwater environments are significantly understudied compared to the oceans.

While around 10% of all species depend on freshwater, the study was particularly concerned with four groups that are intimately linked to it—the decapods, odonates, mollusks and fishes.

Catherine A. Sayer et al, One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08375-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 20 hours ago

AI to stop stampedes at world's biggest gathering -Kumbhmela

Science assisting spirituality

Keen to improve India's abysmal crowd management record at large-scale religious events, organizers of the world's largest human gathering are using artificial intelligence to try to prevent stampedes.

Organizers predict up to 400 million pilgrims will visit the Kumbh Mela, a millennia-old sacred show of Hindu piety and ritual bathing that began Monday and runs for six weeks.

Deadly crowd crushes are a notorious feature of Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela, with its unfathomable throngs of devotees, has a grim track record of stampedes.

More than 400 people died after being trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally. Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in the northern city of Prayagraj.

So AI is helping the police avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places.

This time, authorities say the technology they have deployed will help them gather accurate estimates of crowd sizes, allowing them to be better prepared for potential trouble. Police say they have installed around 300 cameras at the festival site and on roads leading to the sprawling encampment, mounted on poles and a fleet of overhead drones. Not far from the spiritual center of the festival at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, the network is overseen in a glass-paneled command and control room by a small army of police officers and technicians.

The footage fed into an AI algorithm that gives its handlers an overall estimate of a crowd stretching for miles in every direction, cross-checked against data from railways and bus operators.

They are using AI to track people flow, crowd density at various inlets, adding them up and then interpolating from there. The system sounds the alarm if sections of the crowd get so concentrated that they pose a safety threat.

Organizers say the scale of this year's festival is that of a temporary country -- with numbers expected to total around the combined populations of the United States and Canada.

Organizers have been eager to tout the technological advancements of this year's edition of the Kumbh Mela and their attendant benefits for pilgrims. Even the Pilgrims think  that the fact that there are cameras and drones makes them feel safe!

Yes, science and tech makes people feel safe!

Source: News agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Sepsis can be incredibly challenging to treat in such cases. The systems that control blood clotting and bleeding become dangerously unbalanced.

The study, conducted in nonhuman primates, found that when bacteria containing LPS entered the bloodstream, it quickly activated the clotting system. This included coagulating proteins like factor XII, which seems to initiate the clotting process, causing a chain reaction.

Even when we know the bacteria causing the infection, different strains can behave differently. By understanding this,  scientists hope to develop precision therapies.

André L. Lira et al, The physicochemical properties of lipopolysaccharide chemotypes regulate activation of the contact pathway of blood coagulation, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.108110

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Sepsis molecule discovery could lead to improved treatments for critically ill patients

Researchers have uncovered how a molecule found on certain bacteria may drive blood clotting in sepsis, a life-threatening condition that causes about 8 million deaths per year.

The team in the cardiovascular engineering lab at OHSU has focused on the role of specific blood clotting mechanisms in sepsis, with hopes of improving treatments for critically ill patients.

 The immune system's response to bacteria can spiral out of control sometimes.

Your blood normally forms tiny clots to contain certain bacteria to clear them from the bloodstream. But if there are too many bacteria, the system gets overwhelmed, using up all the platelets and clotting factors. The result is catastrophic—you can't stop clotting or bleeding.

The team's newest study, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, focused on lipopolysaccharide, or LPS, a molecule found on the surface of certain bacteria like E. coli. The researchers found that LPS can directly activate proteins in the blood that trigger clotting, which can block blood flow and damage vital organs.

This process, known as the "contact pathway," involves a chain reaction where proteins in the blood work together to form clots. The researchers showed that one specific type of LPS, called O26:B6, is particularly good at setting off this reaction, making it more likely to cause clotting problems.

Sepsis is a dangerous condition where the body's response to an infection spirals out of control, leading to widespread inflammation, organ failure and problems like excessive blood clotting. Gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli, are common culprits in sepsis because they release LPS when they invade the bloodstream.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Neuroimaging reveals 94% of gray matter in brains of mothers undergoes changes during pregnancy

A study led by the UAB has analyzed the brains of women during pregnancy for the first time using neuroimaging techniques. The study included non-pregnant mothers, whose partners were pregnant, to distinguish biological effects from those caused by the experience of being a mother. The research shows that there is a reduction and partial recovery of almost 5% of gray matter in 94% of the total gray matter volume of the brain, especially in regions linked to social cognition.

The researchers have published the first longitudinal neuroimaging (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) study in a cohort of more than a hundred women seeking to become mothers for the first time.

In total, the researchers have analyzed the brain of 179 women to study the structural changes that occur during the second and third trimester of pregnancy and the first six months postpartum, using a scan taken before conception as a baseline. For the first time, this cohort includes a group of non-gestational mothers as a control group: women whose partners underwent pregnancy during the study. The inclusion of this group of women made it possible to determine that the trajectory of brain changes is mainly attributed to the biological process of pregnancy, rather than to the experience of becoming a mother.

The findings reveal a dynamic trajectory in the brain during pregnancy and postpartum, significantly linked to the steroid hormone fluctuations inherent to pregnancy, and to the psychological well-being of the mothers.

This work has revealed that, during the first pregnancy, gray matter volume in the brain is reduced by up to 4.9%, with a partial recovery during the postpartum period. These changes are observed in 94% of the brain, being particularly prominent in regions linked to social cognition.

The study also demonstrates, for the first time, that the evolution of these morphological changes in the brain is associated with fluctuations in two estrogens (estriol-3-sulfate and estrone-sulfate), hormones that increase exponentially during pregnancy and return to basal levels after delivery. Specifically, the researchers observed that a greater increase and subsequent decrease in estrogen levels is associated with a greater decrease and subsequent recovery of brain gray matter volume.

Finally, in analyzing the possible influence of brain changes on maternal behaviour, this study discovered that women with a higher percentage of grey  matter volume recovery during postpartum reported a greater bond with their infant at 6 months postpartum, and that maternal well-being is a key factor that positively enhances the association between brain changes and maternal-filial bonding.

This study, which comprehensively characterizes normative brain changes during pregnancy and postpartum, stands out for both its sample size and rigorous methodological control, including carefully selected groups that allowed the distinguishing of pregnancy-specific changes from those linked to the experience of motherhood.

The data obtained not only establishes a key reference for understanding the neurobiology of the maternal brain, but also serves as a basis for future studies analyzing other neuroimaging modalities and more diverse samples, including women with clinical conditions such as postpartum depression , allowing progress towards a more complete and applied understanding of the brain in this vital period.

Camila Servin-Barthet et al, Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Brains of people with sickle cell disease appear older, study finds

Individuals with sickle cell disease—a chronic illness where misshapen, sticky blood cells clump together, reducing oxygen delivery to organs—are at a higher risk for stroke and resulting cognitive disability. But even in the absence of stroke, many such patients struggle with remembering, focusing, learning and problem solving, among other cognitive problems, with many facing challenges in school and in the workplace.

Now a multidisciplinary team of researchers and physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has published a study that helps explain how the illness might affect cognitive performance in sickle cell patients without a history of stroke.

The researchers found such participants had brains that appeared older than expected for their age. Individuals experiencing economic deprivation, who struggle to meet basic needs, even in the absence of sickle cell disease, had more-aged-appearing brains, the team also found.

The study was published January 17 in JAMA Network Open.

Brain age modelling and cognitive outcomes in young adults with and without sickle cell anemia., JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53669

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Study provides insight into how some species thrive in dark, oxygen-free environments

Most life on Earth relies on the sun's energy for survival, but what about organisms in the deep sea that live beyond the reach of its rays? A new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published in The ISME Journal, sheds light on how a species of foraminifera, single-celled organisms found in almost all marine habitats, thrives in a dark, oxygen-free environment.

For this foraminifera species, the answer is chemoautotrophy, a metabolic process that utilizes inorganic energy sources, perhaps sulfide, to take up carbon, enabling it to survive in oxygen-free environments. Chemoautotrophy has been observed within Bacteria and Archaea, which are microbial organisms without a true nucleus. However, foraminifera are eukaryotes, meaning they have a well-defined nucleus, which houses an organism's genetic material.

 Fatma Gomaa et al, Array of metabolic pathways in a kleptoplastidic foraminiferan protist supports chemoautotrophy in dark, euxinic seafloor sediments, The ISME Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae248

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

A chain reaction: HIV vaccines can lead to antibodies against antibodies

Many vaccines work by introducing a protein to the body that resembles part of a virus. Ideally, the immune system will produce long-lasting antibodies recognizing that specific virus, thereby providing protection.

But scientists have now discovered that for some HIV vaccines, something else happens: after a few immunizations the immune system begins to produce antibodies against immune complexes already bound to the viral protein alone.

They don't yet know whether this chain reaction, described in Science Immunology, hurts or helps the immune system's ability to fight HIV, but say that understanding it better could lead to improvements in HIV vaccines. The research was published in the journal on January 17, 2025.

Understanding these responses could lead to smarter vaccine designs and immunotherapeutics. It's an exciting step forward in fine-tuning antibody and vaccine-based strategies against HIV and other diseases.

Sharidan Brown et al, Anti-Immune Complex Antibodies are Elicited During Repeated Immunization with HIV Env Immunogens, Science Immunology (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adp5218. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adp5218

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Friday

Finding Clues to Oxygen Production on Early Earth

Possible link between Earth’s rotation rate and oxygenation

Earth's Rotation Is Slowing Down, And Could Explain Why We Have Oxygen

Ever since its formation around 4.5 billion years ago, Earth's rotation has been gradually slowing down, and its days have gotten progressively longer as a result.

While Earth's slowdown is not noticeable on human timescales, it's enough to work significant changes over eons. One of those changes is perhaps the most significant of all, at least to us: lengthening days are linked to the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere, according to a study from 2021.

Specifically, the blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) that emerged and proliferated about 2.4 billion years ago would have been able to produce more oxygen as a metabolic by-product because Earth's days grew longer.

There are two major components to this story that, at first glance, don't seem to have a lot to do with each other. The first is that Earth's spin is slowing down. The reason Earth's spin is slowing down is because the Moon exerts a gravitational pull on the planet, which causes a rotational deceleration since the Moon is gradually pulling away. We know, based on the fossil record, that days were just 18 hours long 1.4 billion years ago, and half an hour shorter than they are today 70 million years ago. Evidence suggests that we're gaining 1.8 milliseconds a century.

The second component is something known as the Great Oxidation Event – when cyanobacteria emerged in such great quantities that Earth's atmosphere experienced a sharp, significant rise in oxygen. Without this oxidation, scientists think life as we know it could not have emerged; so, although cyanobacteria may cop a bit of side-eye today, the fact is we probably wouldn't be here without them.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00784-3

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