Month: September 2022

SELECTION. “Synesthesia is associated with a wide variety of conceptual and perceptual benefits, suggesting that the gene(s) involved may have been selected for because of a hidden agenda. Whether this is true, and if so, what that agenda may be, beyond specific enhanced cognitive and sensory benefits, remains to be explicated.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

DOOR TO THE MIND. “But it is precisely because synesthesia seems to occupy that mysterious boundary zone between elementary sensations on the one hand and higher level abstractions (such as gender and personality, and even emotions; e.g., sandpaper evoking the sensation of jealousy) on the other that the phenomenon intrigues us and provides an experimental lever for investigating high-level mental processes.” https://lnkd.in/dfc7eju View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend section on the peculiar gifts of sensory crossovers collectively called synesthesia. They clearly suggest that the capacities of the human mind can be greatly expanded, be it in massive memory, acute discrimination between sensory inputs like color and sound, or in different creativity. There may be little downside in unlocking this perhaps early developmental stage capacity of mankind. View in LinkedIn

BENEFITS OF TRANSPLANTS. "Previous studies have shown beneficial effects of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation in central nervous system (CNS) injuries, including TBI, stroke and spinal cord injury animal models. The main findings of these studies suggested that MSCs improved neurological functional recovery, decreased apoptosis, increased endogenous cell proliferation, promoted angiogenesis and reduced lesion size." https://lnkd.in/dP2T7uQ View in LinkedIn

FEWER SYMPTOMS. "Functional studies with such human cells have not been reported in these animal models, but primary fetal human tissue is known to ameliorate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.” http://www.pnas.org/content/101/32/11839.full View in LinkedIn

VIGOROUS GROWTH. "Pyramidal Neurons Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Integrate Efficiently into Mouse Brain Circuits In Vivo. After grafting in the mouse neonatal brain, human ESC-derived cortical neurons displayed robust and specific patterns of axonal projections and dendritic outgrowth and integrated functionally with the host synaptic circuitry, after a human-specific timeline." https://lnkd.in/dRiWU7S View in LinkedIn

IMPROVED FUNCTION. "Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell transplantation significantly improves neurological function in patients with sequelae of traumatic brain injury." https://lnkd.in/dhFF73Y View in LinkedIn

NEW FRONTIER. "Recent studies have found a wide range of therapeutic applications for human amniotic membrane and amniotic fluid stem cells. Among these are the promotion of reepithelization, the modulation of cell differentiation and formation of new vessels, and a reduction in fibrosis, apoptosis, and inflammation." https://lnkd.in/dfg6Ja2 View in LinkedIn

MANY TOOLS AVAILABLE. "It is likely that increasingly sophisticated uses of human/animal chimeric models will be developed through advances in genetic manipulation, cell delivery, and in vivo imaging." https://lnkd.in/d3JtYvG View in LinkedIn