Human Cognition and Biological Regulation of the Neural Network: Advances in X-fragile Syndrome and Alzheimer and a Machine Learning Contest

Wow.

Some people don't realize it but as we stand, we currently do not understand why people with Down Syndrome have lower cognitive ability. Talk about something important, we can detect if an embryo has this condition, but we don't know why they will on average have a lower than average cognitive ability. Similarly, in the X-fragile syndrome, that is linked to Autism, we also don't know why people have lower cognitive abilities. This seems to change according to some new findings by Kimberly Huber and her team :

Dr. Huber previously co-discovered that mice genetically engineered to lack Fmr1 have a defective signaling system in the brain that controls learning in the hippocampus. This system relies on a chemical messenger called glutamate, which under normal circumstances causes nerve cells to make proteins and change their electrical firing patterns in response to learning situations. Without a properly working Fmr1 gene, the glutamate signaling system malfunctions. In 2007 she and colleagues at UT Southwestern found that acetylcholine, another specific signaling chemical, affects the same protein-making factory that glutamate does....

“We suggest that treatment that affects the acetylcholine system might be a supplement or alternative to drugs targeting the glutamate pathway,” Dr. Huber said.

In the current study, she and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jennifer Ronesi investigated a protein, called Homer, which serves as a kind of structural support for the glutamate system. The Homer–glutamate support system is disconnected in Fragile X syndrome. Dr. Huber’s group discovered that this disconnection results in an inability of brain cells to make the new proteins important for learning and memory.

So while BERT and ERNI seem to be important in controlling brain development, Homer is central to enabling the learning process, who knew ? :-) In light of this finding, I hope that at some point we get a consistent story on why statins seem to be doing a great job for recovering cognitive abilities. In some unrelated story, a

new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. injection of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine.

If you think you have a good machine learning scheme, you might want to try it out on the Neuron Modeling Challenge organized by EPFL. The deadline is beginning of February and they give out cash rewards, something like 10 000 swiss francs, or about 6091 euros and like a million dollars these days :-)

Photo Credits: Wikipedia.