Basal ganglia

• An innovative deep-learning tool developed by researchers at multiple institutions including The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio promises to change this.
• SAN ANTONIO, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- An artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio accurately counts brain lesions on MRI scans within seconds.
• The AI tool leverages the power of UT Health Science Center San Antonio's Genie supercomputer, Habes said.
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), a primary driver for San Antonio's $44.1 billion health care and biosciences sector, is the largest academic research institution in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of more than $360 million.

• You probably fumbled around for the controls, checked every mirror multiple times, made sure your foot was on the brake pedal, then ever-so-slowly rolled your car forward.
• The task of driving, which used to take a lot of mental energy and concentration, has now become subconscious, automatic – habitual.

Habits are there to help us cope

• For example, our eyes take in over one megabyte of data every second.
• That’s equivalent to reading 500 pages of information or an entire encyclopedia every minute.
• But generally speaking, because we simply cannot process all the incoming data, our brains create habits – automations of the behaviours and actions we often repeat.

Two brain systems

• In simple terms, our brain has dual processing systems, sort of like a computer with two processors.
• When you are learning a new skill or acquiring new knowledge, you will draw heavily on the reflective brain system to form new memory connections in the brain.
• Read more:
  Here's what happens in your brain when you're trying to make or break a habit

From impulse to habit

• On the other hand, your “impulsive” (habit) system is in your brain’s basal ganglia, which plays a key role in the development of emotions, memories, and pattern recognition.
• When we repeat a behaviour in a consistent context, our brain recognises the patterns and moves the control of that behaviour from intention to habit.
• A habit occurs when your impulse towards doing something is automatically initiated because you encounter a setting in which you’ve done the same thing in the past.

Shortcuts of the mind

• In other words, habits are the mind’s shortcuts, allowing us to successfully engage in our daily life while reserving our reasoning and executive functioning capacities for other thoughts and actions.
• Your brain remembers how to drive a car because it’s something you’ve done many times before.

• Imagine-1 is a global, open-label, dose-escalation study of the AAVhu68 gene therapy PBGM01 delivered by intra-cisterna magna (ICM) injection in four cohorts of pediatric subjects with early and late infantile GM1 Gangliosidosis (GM1).
• GM1 is a rare, fatal lysosomal storage disease in which mutations in the GLB1 gene result in very low activity of the enzyme beta-galactosidase (β-Gal).
• The presentations at the WORLDSymposium™ include safety, biomarker and efficacy data from six treated patients in the first three cohorts of the study.
• A copy of the data presentation will be available on the Investor Events and Presentations page of the Passage Bio corporate website following presentation of the materials.

• The presentation evaluated different methods of measuring the volume of brain structures affected in individuals with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and Parkinson's' disease versus healthy controls.
• "Our bioMUSE natural history study continues to produce meaningful data to guide our Phase 2 trial by providing valuable insight into the diagnosis and biomarkers of MSA," said David Stamler, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Alterity.
• The study enrolled 21 individuals with early stage MSA based on neurological assessment.
• Biomarkers of progression in Multiple System Atrophy (bioMUSE) is an ongoing, natural history study that aims to track the progression of patients with MSA, a Parkinsonian disorder without approved therapy.