Genetic modeling of degenerative diseases and mechanisms of neuronal regeneration in the zebrafish cerebellum.

The cerebellum is a highly conserved brain compartment of vertebrates. Genetic diseases of the human cerebellum often lead to degeneration of the principal neuron, the Purkinje cell, resulting in locomotive deficits and socio-emotional impairments. Due to its relatively simple but highly conserved neuroanatomy and circuitry, these human diseases can be modeled well in vertebrates amenable for genetic manipulation.

Balance training in older adults enhances feedback control after perturbations.

Background: As we age, avoiding falls becomes increasingly challenging. While balance training can mitigate such challenges, the specific mechanisms through which balance control improves remains unclear.

Methods: We investigated the impact of balance training in older adults on feedback control after perturbations, focusing on kinematic balance recovery strategies and muscle synergy activation.

Association Between Delay to First Shock and Successful First-Shock Ventricular Fibrillation Termination in Patients With Witnessed Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Background: In patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who present with an initial shockable rhythm, a longer delay to the first shock decreases the probability of survival, often attributed to cerebral damage. The mechanisms of this decreased survival have not yet been elucidated. Estimating the probability of successful defibrillation and other factors in relation to the time to first shock may guide prehospital care systems to implement policies that improve patient survival by decreasing time to first shock.

Beyond the matrix: Experimental approaches to studying cognitive agents in social-ecological systems.

Studying social-ecological systems, in which agents interact with each other and their environment are important both for sustainability applications and for understanding how human cognition functions in context. In such systems, the environment shapes the agents' experience and actions, and in turn collective action of agents changes social and physical aspects of the environment. Here we review current investigation approaches, which rely on a lean design, with discrete actions and outcomes and little scope for varying environmental parameters and cognitive demands.

AI can help humans find common ground in democratic deliberation.

Finding agreement through a free exchange of views is often difficult. Collective deliberation can be slow, difficult to scale, and unequally attentive to different voices. In this study, we trained an artificial intelligence (AI) to mediate human deliberation.