A new study throws light on gut function

For the first time, new insights into how the colon functions and actually expels its contents have been revealed.

The results of the study were published in the journal – Physiology.

It promises new diagnostics tools and treatments for gastrointestinal disorders to address problems with bowel movements leading to constipation, diarrhoea and pain, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

The propulsion of intestinal contents is controlled by millions of neurons within the wall of the gut, known as the enteric nervous system. Capable of operating independently of the brain, a functioning enteric nervous system is essential for life – but exactly how it functions has been a mystery.

By unraveling the neural circuits of the enteric nervous system in guinea pigs and humans researchers are able to understand how the enteric nervous system ensures that food is slowly mixed and propelled along the digestive tube, allowing for absorption of nutrients  and excretion of waste.

“For the first time, we have combined video recording intestinal movements with a pressure-measuring manometric probe, enabling movements, pressures and electrical activities to be recorded all at the same time within the colon,” the Professor said.

“This powerful combination of techniques applied to a guinea pig colon identified several distinct neural mechanisms involved in the propulsion of colonic contents. This answers the deceptively simple question of how neural mechanisms within the colon manage the propulsion of bowel contents,” he said.

The findings also show how studies in humans and animals can be complementary, identifying fundamental mechanisms that are shared across species – in this case, guinea pigs and humans.

“Currently we treat intestinal disorders by addressing the symptoms, such stopping-up diarrhea or softening stools to ease constipation, but as a result of this new understanding of the neural networks of the enteric system, clinicians may be able to develop treatments that treat the cause of the problems,” he added.

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Immune cells rewire, repair brain while we sleep

Researchers have found that immune cells called microglia, which play an important role in reorganising the connections between nerve cells, fighting infections, and repairing damage, are also primarily active while we sleep.

Microglia serve as the brain’s first responders, patrolling the brain and spinal cord and springing into action to stamp out infections or gobble up debris from dead cell tissue.

“This research shows that the signals in our brain that modulate the sleep and awake state also act as a switch that turns the immune system off and on,” said study lead author Ania Majewska, Professor at University of Rochester in the US.

In previous studies, Majewska’s lab has shown how microglia interact with synapses, the juncture where the axons of one neuron connects and communicates with its neighbours.

The microglia help maintain the health and function of the synapses and prune connections between nerve cells when they are no longer necessary for brain function.

For the findings, researchers conducted the study on mice.

The current study points to the role of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that signals arousal and stress in the central nervous system.

This chemical is present in low levels in the brain while we sleep, but when production ramps up it arouses our nerve cells, causing us to wake up and become alert.

The study showed that norepinephrine also acts on a specific receptor, the beta2 adrenergic receptor, which is expressed at high levels in microglia.

When this chemical is present in the brain, the microglia slip into a sort of hibernation.

The study, which employed an advanced imaging technology that allows researchers to observe activity in the living brain, showed that when mice were exposed to high levels of norepinephrine, the microglia became inactive and were unable to respond to local injuries and pulled back from their role in rewiring brain networks.

“This work suggests that the enhanced remodeling of neural circuits and repair of lesions during sleep may be mediated in part by the ability of microglia to dynamically interact with the brain,” said the study's first author.

“Altogether, this research also shows that microglia are exquisitely sensitive to signals that modulate brain function and that microglial dynamics and functions are modulated by the behavioural state of the animal,” the first author said.

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Bigger brain may not make you smarter

There is an " ideal" brain circuit size suited to carry out particular tasks, a study found.

Researchers found increasing the size of neural circuits in the brain can boost learning performance.

However, this increased connectivity also has the potential to impede learning, they said.

The study looked at how neural circuits can use additional connectivity to achieve faster and more precise learning.

It showed that adding apparently " redundant" neuron cells that make the brain work and synaptic connections, that enable information to flow from one neuron to another, to a network is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, an increase in connectivity can make a task easier to learn.

On the other hand, due to inherent noisiness in signal-carrying connections, increased connectivity will eventually hinder both learning and task performance once a circuit exceeds a certain size.

The findings suggest a new potential reason why excessive numbers of noisy connections can lead to learning disorders that are associated with brain hyper-connectivity, including some developmental forms of autism.

Our research shows that adding spare or redundant connection to brain circuits can, in fact, boost learning performance, said the researcher.

These additional connections which don't appear strictly necessary for brain function can make a new task easier to learn, he said.

However, we found that of each new pathway adds ' noise' to the signal it transmits, the overall gain in learning performance will eventually be lost as a circuit increases in size.

We can predict, therefore, that there is a so-called 'sweet spot', an ideal brain circuit size that suits a particular task, he said.

While evidence points to the fact that larger brains tend to be found in species with higher cognitive function and learning ability, brain circuit size may ultimately be constrained by the need to learn efficiently with unreliable synapses, researchers said.

Adding neurons and connections to a brain can help learn up to a point.

After that, an increase in size could actually impair learning , they said.

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There is an "ideal" brain circuit size suited to carrying out particular tasks, a study has found.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/bigger-brain-may-not-make-you-smarter-study-733973.html

There is an "ideal" brain circuit size suited to carrying out particular tasks, a study has found. Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK found increasing the size of neural circuits in the brain can boost learning performance. ...

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/bigger-brain-may-not-make-you-smarter-study-733973.html