Consciousness Matters - Tanacytes & Alzheimer's - Memory Recall - GLP1 & Addiction

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Mar 7, 2026, 6:52:42 AM (10 days ago) Mar 7

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/is-ai-conscious-michael-pollan-weighs-in-on-the-debate/

Michael Pollan on why consciousness is a mystery—and why protecting it matters

By Brianne Kane, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura, Kylie Murphy, Jeffery DelViscio & Kendra Pierre-Louis

In this episode of Science Quickly, journalist Michael Pollan joins Scientific American’s Bri Kane to unpack why consciousness is so hard to define in a discussion that explores what brain science, artificial intelligence experiments and even psychedelics might reveal about how awareness works.

Bri Kane: Just to get us going on something really easy I wanted to ask you, Michael Pollan: Are you conscious, do you know if I’m conscious, and are you 100 percent certain that this microphone is not conscious?

Michael Pollan: I can’t be sure you’re conscious. I have to infer that from the evidence: that you’re the same species as me, and our species can be conscious, and we have something called philosophy of mind, which is an imaginative faculty that allows us to imagine what other people are thinking.

I know I’m conscious, I think. That’s actually the thing we know with the greatest certainty. I mean, [René] Descartes told us that 400 years ago: The only thing we can be sure of is the fact that we exist, and we are conscious. Everything else is an inference. So I’m inferring you’re conscious, and I’m gonna operate on that basis, if it’s okay.

And then the microphone, the microphone hasn’t shown me any evidence of consciousness.

Kane: So I mean, like you’re saying, there’s only so much evidence to point to for consciousness; some of it is kind of just your gut understanding. And our February cover issue this year was about these 29 different theories of consciousness, which you’ve covered is further evidence that science is really floundering on finding some solid ground on: What is consciousness, and how can we provide evidence to prove this, to tackle this subject with science?

But your work seems to really discuss when science and philosophy start rubbing up against each other, which I think is why you get into some really interesting questions in this book. So I wanted to ask you: What theory, out of those 29, do you find yourself leaning towards that seems like the most probable understanding of consciousness?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00747-x

These brain cells clear proteins that contribute to Alzheimer’s

Rachel Fieldhouse

A group of specialized cells play a crucial part in clearing toxic proteins from inside the brain1. But in people with Alzheimer’s disease, these cells malfunction, leading to the build up of tau proteins — a hallmark of the disease.

Tanycytes, specialized cells that line the third ventricle of the brain, are unique because they are in direct contact with both the bloodstream and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This means that they can circumvent the blood–brain barrier to allow molecules into and out of the brain. “Tanycytes are highways for the brain,” says Vincent Prévot, a neuroendocrinologist based in Paris at Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Although it was known that tanycytes transport molecules into the CSF, Prévot and his colleagues are the first to show that tanycytes also transport molecules out of the CSF. In particular, they move tau proteins from the CSF surrounding the brain into the bloodstream.

The findings are fascinating, says Amy Brodtmann, a cognitive neurologist and researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “No one has looked at these cells before” in relation to Alzheimer’s disease, she adds. The works shows a potential explanation for how abnormal tau proteins accumulate in the brain, she adds.

Tau proteins usually help to support the internal structure of cells and make them stronger, including cells in the brain. But in people with Alzheimer’s disease, the protein stops working properly. Brodtmann says tau then becomes “sticky”, forming clumps in the cells and causing them to die. These tau tangles tend to accumulate in regions of the brain that are involved in memory.
© 2026 Springer Nature Limited

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https://nautil.us/some-memories-live-in-the-brain-even-if-we-cant-recall-them-1278675

Some Memories Live in the Brain Even If We Can’t Recall Them

By Jake Currie

Struggling to remember a forgotten memory is an all-too-common frustration—one that unfortunately becomes more common as we age. We realize that there’s something we can’t recall, but we simply can’t raise it from the depths of our brains. So where did it go? New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests these memories are still lurking in our minds, even though we think they’re long gone.
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Psychologists from the University of Nottingham led by Benjamin Griffiths strapped participants into a magnetoencephalography machine to measure the magnetic fields surrounding the electrical activity in their brains. Participants were asked to vividly associate a short video clip with a word, and when they were later shown that word, they were asked to recall the video clip while psychologists monitored the magnetic activity of their brains.

They found that the brain reactivated memories whether they were consciously recalled or not, meaning the memories were there. When memories were successfully recalled, the reactivated memory signal fluctuated rhythmically in the alpha band. Alpha brain waves, research has shown, are associated with the memorization of visual information, but it was the rhythmicity of the waves that proved key to conscious recall.

“What we showed is that even when the brain can reactivate the right memory, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll become aware of it,” Griffiths explained. “Instead, what seems to matter is that the memory rhythmically pulses so that it can be detected above and beyond other neural activity.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/mar/04/weight-loss-addiction-drugs-alcohol-study

Weight loss drugs may stop people getting addicted to drugs and alcohol

Denis Campbell

Weight loss drugs could help people avoid getting addicted to alcohol, tobacco and drugs such as cannabis and cocaine, a study has found.

They could also reduce the risk of people already addicted to illicit substances having an overdose, ending up in hospital or dying, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic, are thought to work by influencing the brain’s reward pathways in order to cut cravings. They help people feel fuller by mimicking the natural substance released after eating.

The US study analysed 606,434 US veterans with type 2 diabetes, who were monitored for up to three years. It found that GLP-1s reduced the risk of alcohol-related disorders in those with no history of substance use by 18% and of using cannabis (14%), cocaine (20%), nicotine (20%) and opioids (25%), compared with those on other sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 drugs also used to treat diabetes.

Weight loss drugs also reduce the risk of people already using substances from overdosing (39%), needing emergency help in A&E (31%) or dying (50%).

“This study adds to emerging research exploring whether GLP-1 medicines may influence brain pathways involved in reward and addiction”, said Prof Claire Anderson, the president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which represents 35,500 UK pharmacists.

She added: “As this was an observational study, it is important to be clear that it does not show these medicines prevent or treat addiction. Further research, including clinical trials, will be needed to understand whether GLP-1 medicines have a direct effect.”

https://www.thetransmitter.org/somatosensation/two-neurobiologists-win-2026-brain-prize-for-discovering-mechanics-of-touch/

Two neurobiologists win 2026 Brain Prize for discovering mechanics of touch

By Helena Kudiabor

Two neurobiologists who helped decipher how the somatosensory system detects touch and pain have won this year’s Brain Prize, the world’s largest award in neuroscience.

Patrik Ernfors, professor of tissue biology at the Karolinska Institutet, and David Ginty, professor of neurobiology at Harvard University, will share the 10 million Danish kroner (about $1.6 million) prize. The award was announced today by the Lundbeck Foundation, which founded the Brain Prize in 2011. The honorees will be officially awarded at a ceremony in Copenhagen in May.

Research by Ernfors and Ginty has “created a blueprint for understanding normal touch and for pinpointing where things go wrong in disorders such as chronic pain,” said Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, chair of the Brain Prize selection committee, in a press release announcing the winners.

Ernfors was honored for his contributions to classifying the neurons that make up the sensory nervous system in mice. Historically, neuroscientists differentiated among different somatosensory neurons based on a handful of functional features, such as conduction velocity, individual markers and cell morphology, Ernfors says. He and his colleagues have instead classified different types of neurons based on the constellation of genes they express. For example, in one of his most-cited analyses, Ernfors and his colleagues distinguished 622 mouse sensory neurons based on their gene expression patterns.

“Now that we know what kinds of neurons there are, we can establish where they project peripherally, centrally, how they connect to each other and what makes them active or inactive,” Ernfors explains.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/well/mind/the-pitt-psychosis.html

‘The Pitt’ Is Showing Us the Complicated Reality of Psychosis

By Christina Caron

On the latest season of the HBO Max hospital drama “The Pitt,” a law student named Jackson arrived in the emergency room in a state of psychosis after he “flipped out in the library” and threw a chair at a campus security guard.

The news that he might have a mental illness comes as a shock to Jackson’s family, but it soon becomes clear that his break with reality didn’t come out of nowhere.

Jackson has been hearing voices for months, viewers learn: “They don’t want me to pass the bar,” he says. “That’s what they told me.”

It’s often assumed that psychosis symptoms such as auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions appear out of the blue. But in reality, most patients with a first episode of psychosis have experienced milder symptoms for months or even years. What’s important, experts say, is recognizing and addressing those symptoms early.

“I always tell people if I broke my leg today and got it treated today, it would heal much better than if I waited 18 months,” said Nicholas J. K. Breitborde, director of the Early Psychosis Intervention Center at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Psychosis is a disruption of the mind’s thoughts and perceptions that causes someone to lose contact with reality. People with psychosis might hear voices, as Jackson did, or see things that other people don’t. They may also have difficulty thinking clearly and may harbor false beliefs, for example the idea that other people are trying to hurt them. Other symptoms include incoherent speech and inappropriate behavior