The First Prescription Video Game, Solving the Mystery of Short-Term Memory, and Hummingbirds’ Extraordinary Vision

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 964 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about the first physical evidence that shows how our brains store short-term memory; EndeavorRx, the first ever prescription video game; and why hummingbirds can see colors that you can’t.

Scientists may have found how short term memory is physically stored by Andrea Michelson

Possible physical trace of short-term memory found. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/iosa-ppt052920.php
Vandael, D., Borges-Merjane, C., Zhang, X., & Jonas, P. (2020). Short-Term Plasticity at Hippocampal Mossy Fiber Synapses Is Induced by Natural Activity Patterns and Associated with Vesicle Pool Engram Formation. Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.05.013
The synapse (article) | Human biology | Khan Academy. (2020). Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/human-biology/neuron-nervous-system/a/the-synapse

The first prescription video game ever was just approved by the FDA by Grant Currin

Hollister, S. (2020, June 15). The FDA just approved the first prescription video game — it’s for kids with ADHD. The Verge; The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/15/21292267/fda-adhd-video-game-prescription-endeavor-rx-akl-t01-project-evo
Office of the Commissioner. (2020). FDA Permits Marketing of First Game-Based Digital Therapeutic to Improve Attention Function in Children with ADHD. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-permits-marketing-first-game-based-digital-therapeutic-improve-attention-function-children-adhd
Kollins, S. H., DeLoss, D. J., Cañadas, E., Lutz, J., Findling, R. L., Keefe, R. S. E., Epstein, J. N., Cutler, A. J., & Faraone, S. V. (2020). A novel digital intervention for actively reducing severity of paediatric ADHD (STARS-ADHD): a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Digital Health, 2(4), e168–e178. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30017-0
Klein, H. (2020, June 16). FDA Approves First-Ever Prescription Video Game. Slate Magazine; Slate. https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/endeavorrx-fda-prescription-video-game-adhd.html
Akili Announces FDA Clearance of EndeavorRxTM for Children with ADHD, the First Prescription Treatment Delivered Through a Video Game. (2020, June 15). Businesswire.com. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200615005739/en/Akili-Announces-FDA-Clearance-EndeavorRxTM-Children-ADHD

Hummingbirds can see even more colors than we thought by Grant Currin

Spectacular bird’s-eye view? Hummingbirds see diverse colors humans can only imagine. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/pu-sbv061120.php
Stoddard, M. C., Eyster, H. N., Hogan, B. G., Morris, D. H., Soucy, E. R., & Inouye, D. W. (2020). Wild hummingbirds discriminate nonspectral colors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(26), 15112–15122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919377117

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from
0:05.2	Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about the first
0:09.7	physical evidence that shows how our brain stores short-term memory, the first ever prescription
0:15.2	video game, and why hummingbirds can see colors that you can't.
0:19.6	Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:22.1	When you remember a name or a phone number, how is it stored in your brain?
0:26.6	Like is it just a nebulous mix of chemical signals or is there an actual physical
0:30.9	trace of a memory in there. Well, scientists just devised an amazing
0:35.7	method to answer that question, and they say it's the latter. Scientists may have actually
0:41.1	discovered the physical representation of short-term memory.
0:44.5	To better understand how memories are stored in our own brains, researchers at the
0:49.2	Institute of Science and Technology Austria took a close look at neurons or brain cells in mice.
0:54.8	They focused on the hippocampus where both humans and mice store memories and
0:59.6	zoomed in on a single point of connection between two neurons.
1:04.0	That point is called a synapse, and it's where messages are sent from one neuron to another.
1:09.4	Those messages come in the form of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which travel in little bubbles called
1:14.8	vesicles.
1:16.4	The scientists accomplished something that study author David Van Dell called Close to Impossible.
1:21.6	They recorded electrical signals from the sending neuron and the receiving
1:24.9	neuron at the same time while the mouse completed memory stimulating tasks. They found that
1:31.1	when a neuron fires off a signal, the connection between that neuron and the one receiving the signal strengthens temporarily.
1:38.0	That's called synaptic plasticity, and they expected it to happen.
	...

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