#GLiA

[rosy2k]

GLiA VOL. 1

[whitedarkmoonflower]

Arnas Fedaravicius // Glia

Taglist: @sihtricfedaraaahvicius @whumpappreciation @siimonesvensson @gloriouslyalivetoday @melissarose234 @crusader1997 @sivulele @gemini-mama @bathedinheat @vashole @losstboi @fox-bright @whumpybromance @umfood @elwegencyn @keenbagelsharkbanana @the-irish-girl @tinumiel @hb8301 @miss-sparkel-mr-hitch @simpforfictionalaisela25 @alexagirlie @uunotheangel

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Glial Diversity Atlas

Study in fruit flies of the relationship between the shapes (morphologies) of distinct glial cells – non-neuronal cells of the nervous system – and their gene activity (transcription) reveals several new morphologies but no clear correlation with the transcription signatures

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Inês Lago-Baldaia and colleagues

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Biology, October 2023

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[hawtchocolate]

I love it when science talks are funny

[shoegazekid]

#glia #shoegaze

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA La Verita di Oggi mercoledì, 21 agosto 2024

[trashpandaqc]

glia set on lines, 2/24/2024

[quotesfrommyreading]

I’d learned by this point that comparing brains is a difficult business in general. In explaining how clever humans are, we often point out the extraordinarily large size of our thinking organs. Their bulk is the bane of childbirth and consumes 90 percent of the glucose in our blood. But size itself is not a clear guide for comparing animal intelligences, as some bigger animals with larger brains seem to lack the cognitive abilities of smaller ones. Size, as the saying goes, isn’t everything. Relative brain-to-body size, how wrinkled and complex brains are, the thickness of their layers, the structures within them, and the types of neurons these are made of are all helpful—though our human brains are, naturally, the yardstick that other brains are measured against. And yet it is impossible to look at a whale brain and not be surprised by its size. When Hof first saw one, despite knowing they were big, its mass still shocked him. The human brain is about 1,350 grams, three times larger than our big-brained relative, the chimpanzee. A sperm whale or killer whale brain can be 10 kilograms. These are the biggest brains on Earth and possibly the biggest brains ever, anywhere. It’s perhaps not a fair comparison: in relation to the size of our bodies, our brains are bigger than those of whales. Ours are similar in proportion to our body mass, as are the brains of some rodents; mice and men both invest a lot of themselves in their thinking organs. But we both lag far behind small birds and ants, which have much bigger brains compared to their body size than any big animals.

The outer layer of a mammal’s brain is called the cerebral cortex. In cross section, it looks a little like a wraparound bicycle helmet sitting on top of the other parts of the brain. This is the most recently evolved part of our brains, and it was by using their own cerebral cortexes that brain scientists have learned that this area is responsible for rational, conscious thought.

It handles tasks like perceiving senses, thinking, movement, figuring out how you relate to the space around you, and language. You are using yours now to read and think about this sentence. Many biologists define “intelligence” as something along the lines of the mental and behavioral flexibility of an organism to solve problems and come up with novel solutions. In humans, the cerebral cortex, acting with other bits of the brain (the basal ganglia, basal forebrain, and dorsal thalamus), appears to be the seat of this form of “intelligence.” The more cortex you have and the more wrinkled it is, the more surface area available for making connections—and voila! More thinking.

Humans have a really large neocortex surface area, but it’s still just over half that of a common dolphin, and miles behind the sperm whale. Even if you divide the cortex area by the total weight of the brain to remove the cetacean size advantage, humans still lag behind dolphins and killer whales. But there are other measurements in the cortex that seem to be associated with intelligence, and here, dolphins and whales lag behind humans.

The more neurons are packed in, how closely and effectively they are wired, and how fast they transmit impulses are also extremely important in brain function. Just as the composition and layout of the chipset in your tiny, cheap cellphone allows it to pack more computing power than a five-tonne room-sized 1970s supercomputer. Both cetaceans and elephants, the biggest mammals on sea and land, seem to have large distances between their neurons and slower conduction speeds. In raw numbers of neurons, humans here, too, have the edge, with a human cortex containing an estimated 15 billion neurons. Given the larger size of cetacean brains, you’d think they’d have more, but in fact their cerebral cortex is thinner, and the neurons are fatter, taking up more room.

Nevertheless, some cetaceans such as the false killer whale are close behind human levels with 10.5 billion cerebral neurons, about the same as an elephant. Chimps have 6.2 billion and gorillas 4.3 billion. Further complicating comparisons, whales have huge numbers of other kinds of cells, called glia, packing their cortexes. Until recently, we believed these glial cells to be an unthinking filler, but we’ve now discovered that they actually seem important for cognition, too. I don’t know about you, but all this cortex measurement and comparison makes my own feeble organ hurt.

 —   In the Mind of a Whale

[rosy2k]

GLiA VOL. 1

[gskasavillo]

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Gleeful Look

Glial cells are like an unsung network of city support workers – regulating traffic, sweeping streets, keeping things orderly and hygienic in our brain and nervous system. Their shape is key to how they interact with brain cells, but current techniques to assess this morphology are limited. A new imaging tool, GliaMorph, combines different modules to in turn quantify texture, segmentation, and other features at the individual cell and global scale. Researchers turned GliaMorph’s focus to zebrafish Müller glia – cells important to eye health. They were able to measure Müller glia development, observing the growing complexity and rearrangement (pictured, at 72 - top - and 120 - bottom - hours post fertilisation) – with the original image on the left followed left to right by segmentation, structural edges, distance between elements, and the cellular skeleton highlighted. They then measured changing protein positioning in a mouse model of glaucoma, showing the approach’s direct potential for revealing the precise morphology of human disease.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Elisabeth Kugler and colleagues

Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Development, February 2023

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[tumsnstuff]

I bet he has a fast metabolism with all that fighting

[shoegazekid]

#glia #shoegaze

[screamingforyears]

MINI_REVIEW(s):

The review template of choice for the TL;DR Tribe…

‘NEVER ENDING SPACE’ (@_a_l_t_e_r_) is the latest LP from @chainofflowersband & it finds the London by way of Cardiff based outfit “reunited & rejuvenated” across 10 tracks that combine brooding post_punkisms w/ new_waving sheen while packing plenty of brassy textures, chiming six-strings, & muscled low-ends as witnessed on the (early) U2 meets The Cure meets Blitz vibing of “Old Human Material”

‘HAPPENS ALL THE TIME’ (@candlepin_records) is the latest LP from @glia_music & it finds the group solidifying their “Houston SlackerGaze” brand across an 11-track spread that dutifully incorporates all kinds of buzz_binning appeal thru a sheer force of head lowering haze, swirled psychedelia & melancholic moodiness… & a whole lotta MBV levels of pedal_assisted dissonance as evidenced on album highlight “Turn”

‘IT CAN’T RAIN ALL THE TIME’ (@rainy_day_music) is the latest EP from @s.green_rdm & it finds the Philadelphia-based project turning its attention towards the halcyon days of the 90s across 5 tracks that suitably combine elements of goth’d-out Emo, buzzed electronica & Nu_gazing heaviness under one blown-out & dream_popping umbrealla which is on full display throughout “Sometimes I Disappear”

‘OF GOOD FORTUNE’ (@candlepin_records) is the latest LP from @wiring____ & it finds vocalist/guitarist Connor Gibson’s project (rounded out here by a whole slew of friends) bringing all kinds of nostalgia-laced, emotionally earnest & Midwest 90s vibing across an aesthetically apt 8-track spread that’s chockful of CollegeRawk jangle, angular skramz’d Emo & slow_coring IndieRawk as heard on “He’s Without”

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