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Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

npr.org

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Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#11

Post by jwilliams »

A related and quite recent piece of research - Stimulating toxin cleanup via brain stimulation using pulsed light. Has been used to treat Alzheimer symptoms in mice models. Last I heard was being fast-tracked to humans.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/visual-stimulation-treatment-alzhei...

"This treatment appears to work by inducing brain waves known as gamma oscillations, which the researchers discovered help the brain suppress beta amyloid production and invigorate cells responsible for destroying the plaques."

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#12

Post by m3kw9 »

ramshanker wrote: post #7

Wild analogy.... Inference machines cleanup the neutral model itself when put to relax. Wait, are there any Neural Nets out there, which produce toxic "weights" to be discarded later, If not than we are far from copying the real glucose based neural networks. /Imagination

I think rest in human term is different than machines. Also, that is just a cleanup mode, machines can induce that with or without "rest"

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#13

Post by bcherny »

jwilliams wrote: post #11

A related and quite recent piece of research - Stimulating toxin cleanup via brain stimulation using pulsed light. Has been used to treat Alzheimer symptoms in mice models. Last I heard was being fast-tracked to humans. http://news.mit.edu/2016/visual-stimulation-treatment-alzhei... "This treatment appears to work by inducing brain waves known as gamma oscillations, which the researchers discovered help the brain sup…

For those that prefer research in podcast form: http://www.radiolab.org/story/bringing-gamma-back/

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#14

Post by Apocryphon »

m3kw9 wrote: post #12
ramshanker wrote: post #7

Wild analogy.... Inference machines cleanup the neutral model itself when put to relax. Wait, are there any Neural Nets out there, which produce toxic "weights" to be discarded later, If not than we are far from copying the real glucose based neural networks. /Imagination

I think rest in human term is different than machines. Also, that is just a cleanup mode, machines can induce that with or without "rest"

Yeah, all organs produce waste chemicals, the brain is no different in that respect.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#15

Post by bitexploder »

The actual research is quite interesting. Sleep disorders themselves are fascinating. There is evidence that TBI (traumatic brain injury) can cause lasting sleep cycle disruption. Perhaps sleep disruption and TBI is a much bigger factor in the lasting impact of TBI than previously thought.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3482689/).

Article review: This is pretty good science reporting, actually providing a link to the study being referenced. My one nit is the use of the word "Toxins". That is a trigger word for me that immediately makes me suspicious of the reporting. Scientific papers about the human body very rarely if ever use the word "Toxins" preferring precise terminology such as "brain waste products" or just keeping to the chemical names at hand. "Toxins" is one of those normative layman words that gets used to sweep up all sorts of ill-conceived explanations and pseudo-science.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#18

Post by piannucci »

afarrell wrote: post #16

My alma mater has a saying: "sleep is for the weak". If you go to a university with that slogan, here is one more reason why it is foolish. If you want to learn effectively and work efficiently, take care of your body and take care of your brain.

Hey, my alma mater has that slogan too... oh, hi, afarrell.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#20

Post by throwaway6497 »

piannucci wrote: post #18
afarrell wrote: post #16

My alma mater has a saying: "sleep is for the weak". If you go to a university with that slogan, here is one more reason why it is foolish. If you want to learn effectively and work efficiently, take care of your body and take care of your brain.

Hey, my alma mater has that slogan too... oh, hi, afarrell.

Which schools are these?
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