Science
Brain burnout – UVic The Ring
Cheap, portable technology measures cognitive fatigue
What if you could peer inside people’s brains to see what’s going on? This may sound like a sci-fi pipe-dream, but to University of Victoria neuroscientist Olav Krigolson, the brain is his “final frontier” containing the last great mysteries of the human body.
From his Theoretical and Applied Neuroscience Lab at UVic, Krigolson is boldly going where only multi-million-dollar technology has gone before. Krigolson has developed a unique mobile electroencephalography (EEG) system to investigate what’s happening in our brains when we’re tired, stressed, oxygen-deprived, struggling with dementia, concussed—or on Mars.
His research is making it possible to easily and cheaply identify when we are in our best brain states for learning and processing difficult information, when we are at the greatest risk of making mistakes, and when our cognitive abilities are declining.
In one of his first studies, Krigolson measured the effects of fatigue on medical residents doing acute care in the emergency room at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital.
When doctors and nurses put in long, gruelling shifts in the ER, they make mistakes. And when they make mistakes, people die. It’s really that simple and harsh. We already know this is happening. Many studies have shown this. The problem is, how do you detect it?
— UVic neuroscientist Olav Krigolson
Krigolson explains that the pattern of EEG data in each brain state—be it depression, fatigue or dementia—is distinctive. The system his team developed can identify each of these states by reading the brain waves.
What surprised the research team was that of the more than 2,500 people they’ve monitored so far across multiple occupations, few were able to accurately assess their own fatigue levels—many of whom exhibited brain states equivalent to being legally impaired. The current gold standard is to literally ask, “Are you too tired to work?” Clearly, that’s inadequate, he says. “Providing an objective way to measure that is going to save lives.”
“And in terms of having maximum impact across multiple types or workplaces, the technology has to be accessible, low cost and easy to use,” Krigolson points out.
To do this, he co-founded Suva Technologies.
In 2017, the UVic spin-off company launched PEER, the world’s first iOS application designed to collect research-grade EEG data using an adapted version of a commercially available wearable device that measures brain waves.
Funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants, Krigolson’s team has used this adaptable system to explore a growing number of human performance and health applications.
Two of the most promising applications are in concussion research and in monitoring mild cognitive impairment (MCI)—a precursor to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, Krigolson is part of a yearlong pilot project with Island Health and University of British Columbia neurologist Alex Henri-Bhargava to demonstrate if mobile EEG could be used to reliably assess and monitor MCI. If it can, it would mean improved outcomes for more people dealing with memory loss.
The long-term goal: “To have a device that anyone can use, like a blood pressure monitor or a Fitbit, to track your brain health,” says Krigolson. This sci-fi scenario may not be too far off.
EdgeWise
There are many possible uses for this technology that could have broad impacts for people who face long work hours and require critical decision- making skills in occupations such as emergency room physicians, pilots or heavy equipment operators.
Last year, an all-Canadian, multi- university research team took the technology to a simulated Mars environment to test whether the system could be a reliable way to monitor astronauts’ brain function during missions in outer space—something NASA currently doesn’t have an objective way to determine.
During the weeklong NSERC-funded simulation at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat, six scientists wore the EEG devices and tracked changes in their memory, decision-making, learning and attention.
Krigolson co-led the team with two UVic PhD students Tom Ferguson and Chad Williams (pictured), and scientists from UBC Okanagan, University of Calgary, University of Hawaii and International MoonBase Alliance.
“Our analysis will literally tell NASA: astronaut X should not do this today; astronaut Y is in better shape to do that. The system can tell them if they are depressed and need help, or if their stress is reducing their function,” he explains.
Krigolson is hoping to test the technology in a longer simulation of up to a year.
“And if that works,” he says, “hopefully it’ll go into space, either as part of the Mars mission or at the International Space Station.”
Science
Giant prehistoric salmon had tusk-like teeth for defence, building nests: study – Times Colonist
The artwork and publicity materials showcasing a giant salmon that lived five million years ago were ready to go to promote a new exhibit, when the discovery of two fossilized skulls immediately changed what researchers knew about the fish.
Initial fossil discoveries of the 2.7-metre-long salmon in Oregon in the 1970s were incomplete and had led researchers to mistakenly suggest the fish had fang-like teeth.
It was dubbed the “sabre-toothed salmon” and became a kind of mascot for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, says researcher Edward Davis.
But then came discovery of two skulls in 2014.
Davis, a member of the team that found the skulls, says it wasn’t until they got back to the lab that he realized the significance of the discovery that has led to the renaming of the fish in a new, peer-reviewed study.
“There were these two skulls staring at me with sideways teeth,” says Davis, an associate professor in the department of earth sciences at the university.
In that position, the tusk-like teeth could not have been used for biting, he says.
“That was definitely a surprising moment,” says Davis, who serves as director of the Condon Fossil Collection at the university’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
“I realized that all of the artwork and all of the publicity materials and bumper stickers and buttons and T-shirts we had just made two months prior, for the new exhibit, were all out of date,” he says with a laugh.
Davis is co-author of the new study in the journal PLOS One, which renames the giant fish the “spike-toothed salmon.”
It says the salmon used the tusk-like spikes for building nests to spawn, and as defence mechanisms against predators and other salmon.
The salmon lived about five million years ago at a time when Earth was transitioning from warmer to relatively cooler conditions, Davis says.
It’s hard to know exactly why the relatives of today’s sockeye went extinct, but Davis says the cooler conditions would have affected the productivity of the Pacific Ocean and the amount of rain feeding rivers that served as their spawning areas.
Another co-author, Brian Sidlauskas, says a fish the size of the spike-toothed salmon must have been targeted by predators such as killer whales or sharks.
“I like to think … it’s almost like a sledgehammer, these salmon swinging their head back and forth in order to fend off things that might want to feast on them,” he says.
Sidlauskas says analysis by the lead author of the paper, Kerin Claeson, found both male and female salmon had the “multi-functional” spike-tooth feature.
“That’s part of our reason for hypothesizing that this tooth is multi-functional … It could easily be for digging out nests,” he says.
“Think about how big the (nest) would have to be for an animal of this size, and then carving it out in what’s probably pretty shallow water; and so having an extra digging tool attached to your head could be really useful.”
Sidlauskas says the giant salmon help researchers understand the boundaries of what’s possible with the evolution of salmon, but they also capture the human imagination and a sense of wonder about what’s possible on Earth.
“I think it helps us value a little more what we do still have, or I hope that it does. That animal is no longer with us, but it is a product of the same biosphere that sustains us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2024.
Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
Science
Giant prehistoric salmon had tusk-like spikes used for defence, building nests: study
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A new paper says a giant salmon that lived five million years ago in the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest used tusk-like spikes as defense mechanisms and for building nests to spawn.
The initial fossil discoveries of the 2.7-metre-long salmon in Oregon in the 1970s were incomplete and led researchers to suggest the fish had fang-like teeth.
The now-extinct fish was dubbed the “saber-tooth salmon,” but the study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One today renames it the “spike-toothed salmon” and says both males and females possessed the “multifunctional” feature.
Study co-author Edward Davis says the revelation about the tusk-like teeth came after the discovery of fossilized skulls at a site in Oregon in 2014.
Davis, an associate professor in the department of earth sciences at the University of Oregon, says he was surprised to see the skulls had “sideways teeth.”
Contrary to the belief since the 1970s, he says the teeth couldn’t have been used for any kind of biting.
“That was definitely a surprising moment,” Davis says of the fossil discovery in 2014. “I realized that all of the artwork and all of the publicity materials … we had just made two months prior, for the new exhibit, were all out of date.”
Science
SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit
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April 23 (UPI) — SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit Tuesday evening from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Liftoff occurred at 6:17 EDT with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sending the payload of 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster landed on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after separating from the rocket’s second stage and its payload.
The entire mission was scheduled to take about an hour and 5 minutes to complete from launch to satellite deployment.
The mission was the ninth flight for the first-stage booster that previously completed five Starlink satellite-deployment missions and three other missions.
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