Neuroscience
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Difficulties in realizing persistent neurogenesis, inabilities in modeling pathogenesis of most cases, and a shortage of disease material for screening therapeutic agents restrict our progress to overcome challenges presented by neurodegenerative diseases. We propose that reprogramming primary somatic cells of patients into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provides a new avenue to overcome these impediments. ⋯ In this review, we introduce efficient approaches to generate iPSCs and distinct iPSCs differentiation stages, and critically discuss paradigms of iPSCs technology application to investigate neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Huntington's disease (HD). Although iPSCs technology is in its infancy and faces many obstacles, it has great potential in helping to identify therapeutic targets for treating neurodegenerative diseases.
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Brain machine interfaces (BMI) have become important in systems neuroscience with the goal to restore motor function in paralyzed patients. We assess the current ability of BMI devices to move objects. The topics discussed include: (1) the bits of information generated by a BMI signal, (2) the limitations of including more neurons for generating a BMI signal, (3) the superiority of a BMI signal using single cells versus electroencephalography, (4) plasticity and BMI, (5) the selection of a neural code for generating BMI, (6) the suppression of body movements during BMI, and (7) the role of vision in BMI. We conclude that further research on understanding how the brain generates movement is necessary before BMI can become a reasonable option for paralyzed patients.