Reading Minds - Brain Gene Editing - Fruitful Courting - DBS for Pain

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Aug 16, 2025, 6:07:27 AMAug 16

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/science/brain-neuroscience-computers-speech.html

For Some Patients, the ‘Inner Voice’ May Soon Be Audible

By Carl Zimmer

For decades, neuroengineers have dreamed of helping people who have been cut off from the world of language.

A disease like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., weakens the muscles in the airway. A stroke can kill neurons that normally relay commands for speaking. Perhaps, by implanting electrodes, scientists could instead record the brain’s electric activity and translate that into spoken words.

Now a team of researchers has made an important advance toward that goal. Previously they succeeded in decoding the signals produced when people tried to speak. In the new study, published on Thursday in the journal Cell, their computer often made correct guesses when the subjects simply imagined saying words.

Christian Herff, a neuroscientist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who was not involved in the research, said the result went beyond the merely technological and shed light on the mystery of language. “It’s a fantastic advance,” Dr. Herff said.

The new study is the latest result in a long-running clinical trial, called BrainGate2, that has already seen some remarkable successes. One participant, Casey Harrell, now uses his brain-machine interface to hold conversations with his family and friends.

In 2023, after A.L.S. had made his voice unintelligible, Mr. Harrell agreed to have electrodes implanted in his brain. Surgeons placed four arrays of tiny needles on the left side, in a patch of tissue called the motor cortex. The region becomes active when the brain creates commands for muscles to produce speech.

A computer recorded the electrical activity from the implants as Mr. Harrell attempted to say different words. Over time, with the help of artificial intelligence, the computer accurately predicted almost 6,000 words, with an accuracy of 97.5 percent. It could then synthesize those words using Mr. Harrell’s voice, based on recordings made before he developed A.L.S.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02578-8

Brain editing now ‘closer to reality’: the gene-altering tools tackling deadly disorders

Heidi Ledford

Scientists are closing in on the ability to apply genome editing to a formidable new target: the human brain.

In the past two years, a spate of technological advances and promising results in mice have been laying the groundwork for treating devastating brain disorders using techniques derived from CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing. Researchers hope that human trials are just a few years away.

“The data have never looked so good,” says Monica Coenraads, founder and chief executive of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust in Trumbull, Connecticut. “This is less and less science fiction, and closer to reality.”

Daunting challenge

Researchers have already developed gene-editing therapies to treat diseases of the blood, liver and eyes. In May, researchers reported1 a stunning success using a bespoke gene-editing therapy to treat a baby boy named KJ with a deadly liver disease.

But the brain poses special challenges. The molecular components needed to treat KJ were inserted into fatty particles that naturally accumulate in the liver. Researchers are searching for similar particles that can selectively target the brain, which is surrounded by a defensive barrier that can prevent many substances from entering.

Although KJ’s story was exciting, it was also frustrating for those whose family members have neurological diseases, says Coenraads, whose organization focuses on Rett syndrome, a rare disorder that affects brain development. “The question that I hear from our families is, ‘It was done so quickly for him. What’s taking us so long?’” she says.

That pool of concerned families is growing as physicians and families increasingly turn to genome sequencing to find the causes of once-mysterious brain disorders, says Cathleen Lutz, a geneticist at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. “People are starting to now find out that their child’s seizures, for example, are related to particular genetic mutations,” she says.

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/barfing-flies-evolution-protein

A single protein makes lovesick flies spill their guts

By Sofia Caetano Avritzer

Vomiting up a droplet of sugar might not seem like the most romantic gesture from a potential suitor. But for one fly species, males that spill their guts are quite a catch.

Drosophila subobscura flies’ peculiar “romantic” barfing might have evolved by repurposing brain cells that usually control digestion for more romantic pursuits, researchers report August 14 in Science.

Most male fruit flies court by following the females around and vibrating their wings to serenade them with a species-specific love song, says Adriane Otopalik. But some fly species, like D. subobscura, spice things up a little. The males will vomit a bit of their last meal and offer it to females they are interested in, says Otopalik, a neuroscientist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va.

Nuptial gifts like these are common in some animals, like male spiders attempting to win over their mates without getting their heads bitten off. Scientists think female flies, which can be “very choosy,” might use this romantic barf to pick suitable suitors, says Otopalik, who was not involved in the study.

The thousands of neurons that control most of male fruit flies’ courtship produce a male-specific version of a protein called fruitless. Artificially activating these neurons can make D. subobscura males go through the motions of their seduction dance — even when there aren’t any females around, says Daisuke Yamamoto, an evolutionary biologist at National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Kobe, Japan.

Yamamoto and his collaborators wondered if somewhere in these courtship brain cells was the key to understanding how nuptial gift giving evolved.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/health/pain-personalized-brain-stimulation.html

Treating Chronic Pain Is Hard. An Experimental Approach Shows Promise.

By Pam Belluck

Sometimes the pain felt like lightning bolts. Or snakes biting. Or needles.

“Just imagine the worst burn you’ve ever had, all over your body, never going away,” said Ed Mowery, 55, describing his life with chronic pain. “I would wake up in the middle of night, screaming at the top of my lungs.”

Beginning with a severe knee injury he got playing soccer at 15, he underwent about 30 major surgeries for various injuries over the decades, including procedures on his knees, spine and ankles. Doctors put in a spinal cord stimulator, which delivers electrical pulses to relieve pain, and prescribed morphine, oxycodone and other medications, 17 a day at one point. Nothing helped.

Unable to walk or sit for more than 10 minutes, Mr. Mowery, of Rio Rancho, N.M., had to stop working at his job selling electronics to engineering companies and stop playing guitar with his death metal band.

Out of options four years ago, Mr. Mowery signed up for a cutting-edge experiment: a clinical trial involving personalized deep brain stimulation to try to ease chronic pain.

The study, published on Wednesday, outlines a new approach for the most devastating cases of chronic pain, and could also provide insights to help drive invention of less invasive therapies, pain experts said.

“It’s highly innovative work, using the experience and technology they have developed and applying it to an underserved area of medicine,” said Dr. Andre Machado, chief of the Neurological Institute at Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the study.

Chronic pain, defined as lasting at least three months, afflicts about 20 percent of adults in the United States, an estimated 50 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In about a third of cases, the pain substantially limits daily activities, the C.D.C. reported.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/13/adhd-medication-linked-to-lower-risk-of-suicidal-behaviours-study-suggests

ADHD medication linked to lower risk of suicidal behaviours

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication is linked to significantly lower risk of suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, transport accidents and criminality, according to a study of the wider outcomes of treatment.

The research, based on the medical records of nearly 150,000 people in Sweden, suggested that the drugs could have meaningful benefits beyond helping with the core symptoms of ADHD.

Although the study was not a randomised trial – and so cannot definitively prove that medication caused improved outcomes – it adds to evidence of the substantial value of treatment.

“We found that ADHD medication was associated with significantly reduced rates of first occurrences of suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, transport accidents and criminality,” said Prof Samuele Cortese, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and researcher at the University of Southampton. “Our results should inform the debate on the effects and safety of ADHD medications.”

After accounting for factors including age, sex, education level, psychiatric diagnoses and medical history, ADHD medication was associated with reduced rates of a first occurrence of four of the five outcomes investigated: a 17% reduction for suicidal behaviour, 15% for substance misuse, 12% for transport accidents and 13% for criminality.

It is well established that ADHD, thought to affect about 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide, is linked to higher rates of mental health problems including suicide, substance misuse and accidental injuries. People with ADHD are also disproportionately represented within the criminal justice system.