If you’ve been thinking your kids seem to be getting a lot more screen time

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BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 17, 2023--

As a rare form of Lou Gehrig's disease paralyses his body, Rodney Gorham hopes a pioneering link between his brain and a computer will help...

Software company Alteryx posts a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss, and Tripadvisor beats earnings and sales expectations. Uber and D.R. Horton are scheduled to report quarterly earnings Tuesday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2023--

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK When star witness Caroline Ellison first took the stand on Tuesday at Sam

Alcohol addiction ruins millions of lives every year, but scientists may have found a cure for this terrible affliction. A new treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been trialled in monkeys with impressive results and, if these translate to human trials, the impact could be monumental. A team of neuroscientists and physiologists from across the US tested a new type of gene therapy to see if they could directly target the underlying brain circuitry associated with sustained heavy drinking. As they noted, in the journal Nature Medicine, people suffering from AUD commonly return to alcohol use even if they attempt to quit. This is largely to do with what’s known as mesolimbic dopamine (DA) signalling – meaning how the central nervous system circuit communicates the feelgood neurotransmitter dopamine. A protein called glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is key to keeping these neurons in this reward circuitry functioning. However, experts have found that levels of GDNF are reduced in people with AUD during periods of alcohol abstinence, most notably in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as IFLScience notes. Therefore, the researchers decided to test whether using gene therapy to deliver more GDNF to the VTA could help reinforce this crucial dopaminergic signalling and prevent patients from suffering an alcoholic relapse. The team of scientists explained how alcohol consumption in non-addicts prompts the release of dopamine, creating a pleasurable buzz feeling, but chronic alcohol use causes the brain to adapt and stop releasing so much dopamine. “So when people are addicted to alcohol, they don’t really feel more pleasure in drinking,” Dr Kathleen Grant, a senior co-author of the study, said in a statement. “It seems that they’re drinking more because they feel a need to maintain an intoxicated state.” For their research, Dr Grant and her colleagues used eight rhesus macaque monkeys, who were exposed to increasing concentrations of alcohol over four 30-day “induction” periods. The monkeys then had free access to alcohol and water for 21 hours a day for six months, during which they developed heavy drinking behaviours. This was then followed by a 12-week abstinence phase, with the GDNF treatment performed four weeks in for half of the subjects. The gene therapy was delivered using a a viral vector containing a copy of the human GDNF gene injected directly into the primate’s VTA, according to IFLScience. And the results were truly jaw-dropping. “Drinking went down to almost zero,” Dr Grant said. “For months on end, these animals would choose to drink water and just avoid drinking alcohol altogether. They decreased their drinking to the point that it was so low we didn’t record a blood-alcohol level.” The most exciting aspect of their findings is the suggestion that gene therapy could offer a permanent solution for people with the most severe cases of AUD. This will be a welcome glimmer of hope to many, given that some 29.5 million people were diagnosed with AUD in the US alone in 2021, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Of these 29.5 million sufferers, almost a million (894,000) were aged between 12 and 17. It’ll likely be some time before we know for sure whether the gene therapy can be rolled out in humans, but it’s an important first step in tackling this devastating disorder. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

On Oct. 4, at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET, cellular devices, televisions, and radio systems will

Elon Musk sat down in April for an on-stage interview with Linda Yaccarino, the advertising executive he named as Twitter's new chief executive on Friday

Mistral AI, a new startup from former DeepMind and Meta Platforms Inc. researchers, has raised €105 million ($113

Irish singer Hozier has said he would consider striking over the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to the music industry. The 33-year-old said he would be willing to join similar action to the US actors and writers’ strikes, who are fighting for better contracts and protection against the use of AI in the industry. Members of US acting union Sag-Aftra and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began industrial action on July 14 and May 2 respectively. Appearing on BBC’s Newsnight, Hozier responded to presenter Victoria Derbyshire who asked if he could imagine going on strike over the threat AI poses to music. The Take Me To Church singer, whose real name is Andrew Hozier-Byrne, said: “Joining in solidarity if there was… action on that? Absolutely.” He later said: “Whether (AI is) art or not, I think, is nearly a philosophical debate. “It can’t create something based on a human experience. So I don’t know if it meets the definition of art.” Hozier’s comments come amid Hollywood concerns over proposals by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to use ground-breaking AI to keep a digital likeness of actors. The interview also heard the Grammy-nominated star discuss fellow Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who was found dead at her home in south-east London last month aged 56. He said he had been “walking on this road that she paved”, after she made headlines in 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live in protest at the Catholic church, sparking a ferocious backlash. In 2013, Hozier’s debut single Take Me To Church, in which he criticised the church’s teaching of “shame about sexual orientation”, reached number two in the UK official charts and achieved global success. Speaking about the difference in public reaction, he said: “I think sensibilities have changed. “I think part of it is because Sinead was a woman. I think a lot of it is she was one of the first who had that courage to stand up and say it. “That was such a taboo at the time.” He also revealed he had once been invited to perform Take Me To Church in the Vatican City, quipping: “That would’ve been fun.” The full interview will be broadcast on Newsnight at 10.30pm on BBC Two.