Nature Knows and Psionic Success

Human beings have the ability to recognize emotions in others, but the same cannot be said for robots. Although perfectly capable of communicating with humans through speech, robots and virtual agents are only good at processing logical instructions, which greatly restricts human-robot interaction (HRI). Consequently, a great deal of research in HRI is about emotion recognition from speech. But first, how do we describe emotions?

Categorical emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger are well-understood by us but can be hard for robots to register. Researchers have focused on “dimensional emotions,” which constitute a gradual emotional transition in natural speech. “Continuous dimensional emotion can help a robot capture the time dynamics of a speaker’s emotional state and accordingly adjust its manner of interaction and content in real time,” explains Prof. Masashi Unoki from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), who works on speech recognition and processing.

Studies have shown that an auditory perception model simulating the working of a human ear can generate what are called “temporal modulation cues,” which faithfully capture the time dynamics of dimensional emotions. Neural networks can then be employed to extract features from these cues that reflect this time dynamics. However, due to the complexity and variety of auditory perception models, the feature extraction part turns out to be pretty challenging.

In a new study published in Neural Networks , Prof. Unoki and his colleagues, including Zhichao Peng, from Tianjin University, China (who led the study), Jianwu Dang from Pengcheng Laboratory, China, and Prof. Masato Akagi from JAIST, have now taken inspiration from a recent finding in cognitive neuroscience suggesting that our brain forms multiple representations of natural sounds with different degrees of spectral (i.e., frequency) and temporal resolutions through a combined analysis of spectral-temporal modulations. Accordingly, they have proposed a novel feature called multi-resolution modulation-filtered cochleagram (MMCG), which combines four modulation-filtered cochleagrams (time-frequency representations of the input sound) at different resolutions to obtain the temporal and contextual modulation cues. To account for the diversity of the cochleagrams, researchers designed a parallel neural network architecture called “long short-term memory” (LSTM), which modeled the time variations of multi-resolution signals from the cochleagrams and carried out extensive experiments on two datasets of spontaneous speech.

The results were encouraging. The researchers found that MMCG showed a significantly better emotion recognition performance than traditional acoustic-based features and other auditory-based features for both the datasets. Furthermore, the parallel LSTM network demonstrated a superior prediction of dimensional emotions than that with a plain LSTM-based approach.

Prof. Unoki is thrilled and contemplates improving upon the MMCG feature in future research. “Our next goal is to analyze the robustness of environmental noise sources and investigate our feature for other tasks, such as categorical emotion recognition, speech separation, and voice activity detection,” he concludes.

Looks like it may not be too long before emotionally intelligent robots become a reality!

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Combine three of these healthy brain foods into a yogurt, berry and granola parfait Photo courtesy of Metro Creative Services To keep your kids’ performance at optimum levels, we’ve rounded up seven of the best brain foods to help boost their mental power, and also talked to Brainly’s parenting expert, Patrick Quinn, for pro parenting tips on how to incorporate them into your kids’ daily diet.

Nuts and seeds are packed with nutrients that are essential for brain health including essential fatty acids, protein, zinc, and B-vitamins. They’re also natural mood boosters that are portable and versatile, making them an excellent choice for study snacks.

Parent tip: Kids aren’t always going to love these. But mixing them in a trail mix with a few chocolate pieces or yogurt chips is a great way to get them munching on the healthy nuts and seeds. Just be careful not to send this in as a school snack in districts where nut allergies can affect other kids.

Full-fat Greek yogurt packs a lot more protein than other yogurts (and much less sugar), and can help keep brain cells in good form for sending and receiving information. It’s also full of protein and B-vitamins—essential for the growth of brain tissue, neurotransmitters, and enzymes. Greek yogurt is also a great source of Calcium and Vitamin D.

Parent tip: Mix in a teaspoon of honey and some cinnamon to turn this healthy option into a delicious one as well. The problem for me at that point is avoiding eating it myself before the kids get it.

Berries are rich in a variety of compounds that may help promote academic performance and protect brain health. Berries (including blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries) are especially high in flavonoid compounds called anthocyanins, believed to improve mental performance by increasing blood flow to the brain. They also protect against inflammation and improve certain signaling pathways that promote nerve cell production and cellular processes involved in learning and memory.

Parent tip: Berries make an easy study snack, but they can cause sticky fingers that can lead to messy keyboards and homework papers. Try putting several different types of berries on kid-friendly skewers for a fun, healthy, and mess-free desk snack.

Fish is an excellent source of Vitamin D and the Omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA— both essential for brain growth and function. Consuming more Omega-3s means kids will have sharper minds and better mental skills.

Parent tip: You can make fish tasty for kids by serving it simply grilled, like fish sticks, or including it in tacos or in tuna sandwiches. Another option is using canned salmon to make delicious salmon salad sandwiches that can be mixed with reduced-fat mayo or non-fat Greek yogurt, raisins, chopped celery, and carrots.

The versatile egg is a great source of protein, and egg yolks are packed with choline, which helps memory development. Eggs can be served in a variety of ways and can be enjoyed at breakfast, as a mid-afternoon snack, or even at dinner.

Parent tip: Eggs are great for making grab-and-go breakfasts kids can eat on the road. Scramble eggs into a whole grain tortilla to make a grab-and-go breakfast burrito, or make your own version of an Egg McMuffin at home by putting a fried egg on top of a toasted English muffin and topping it with a slice of low-fat cheese.

Oats are extremely nutritious and they can provide the energy and fuel for the brain that kids need first thing in the morning. Oatmeal is also a fiber-rich food that keeps heart and brain arteries clear. In one study, kids who ate sweetened oatmeal did better on memory-related school tasks than those who ate sugary cereal.

Parent tip: You can dress oatmeal up with applesauce, dried fruit, almonds, and banana to make it tastier and more appealing to kids. Due to its natural compounds, adding cinnamon also gives oatmeal an extra ingredient that will help to protect brain cells.

Kids usually have a craving for sweets. Apples and plums are lunchbox-friendly items that contain quercetin, an antioxidant that helps fight the decline in mental skills. Keep them organic to get the best benefits.

Parent tip: For a heartier snack, you can also cut apples into chunky slices and spread them with almond or peanut butter, or you can freeze pitted plums and add them to a favorite nutrient-rich fruit smoothie.

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The brain is arguably the most important organ in our body. Not only does it control and coordinate our actions, it’s at the very centre of our human experience – it allows us to think, feel and form memories, and shapes our personalities too.

Yet many of us know nothing about how our brains actually work, let alone how to care for them.

“There has been a dramatic switch in the science over the last couple of decades and we’ve completely lifted the lid on what we know about how to look after our brains,” says Professor James Goodwin, neurologist and author of new book Supercharge Your Brain: How To Maintain A Healthy Brain Throughout Your Life .

Goodwin is special advisor to the Global Council on Brain Health, holds a chair at Exeter University Medical School and is a visiting professor of physiology at Loughborough University.

“If you were to ask people at a dinner party how to look after your heart, most people would be able talk about watching their cholesterol or doing exercise. But if you ask them about the brain? You’ll often be met with a blank stare,” Goodwin adds.

However, as cognitive decline continues to be a major long-term health concern, and the number of people with dementia in the UK is forecast to increase to 1,000,000 by 2025, perhaps we do need to know more about how to look after our brain health. Goodwin shares four easy ways to help keep your brain fighting fit at any age…

Make movement a part of your day

If your good intentions to complete a fitness plan in lockdown are flagging, here’s a good reason to set your alarm earlier and make sure you show up on the mat.

“In the past few years, researchers have found that exercise rejuvenates the brain,” says Goodwin. “It produces a chemical that stimulates new cells, and 30 minutes per day is all you need to reap the benefits – for five days a week at a moderate intensity.”

It could be something as gentle as brisk walking or moderate jogging, but the key is to make sure your chosen activity elevates your heart rate enough to get your blood pumping. Goodwin calls it a dose effect. “The more you do, the better the effect – but you can ruin the effects of that exercise completely by sitting down for more than eight hours per day. The longer we sit, the faster we age, so make sure you’re getting up every 20 minutes.”

Be a social butterfly

Social distancing rules have made it more difficult to catch up with friends, but being socially connected to others makes us feel safe and cared for, and this has big benefits for our brains.

“Humans would have never survived if we’d have been solitary animals,” stresses Goodwin. “We survived because we were in groups, and over 1.5 million years of social structure has cemented that into the brain. We’re highly dependent for brain health on this social interaction for others.”

Goodwin claims loneliness is as bad for our health as 15 cigarettes per day or a bottle of vodka, and that those who are persistently lonely have a 50% greater chance of dying than those who are not. “Another 12-year study found that those who said they were lonely showed a 20% faster rate of decline in their brain.

“The sensation of loneliness is quite natural. It’s like a hunger or thirst – it’s the brain telling us you need to seek out some company, in the same way hunger tells that you need to eat food,” says Goodwin.

Have a healthy sex life

“Frequent sexual intercourse with a close partner is beneficial to the brain too,” says Goodwin. According to the neurologist, it can foster better memory, better verbal fluency, and even better numeracy skills.

“A study on male rats, who had between 14-28 days of daily access to a receptive female, found that the number of new cells in that brain increased massively – and it worked better on the older rats, where it had a reverse ageing effect.”
Essentially, the older rats were reaching younger levels of brain rejuvenation, which Goodwin says is astonishing. But here’s the catch – he reckons it’s sex with familiar intimate partner that really has benefits. “Rats who got dumped in with a strange female were stressed out, and while they still eventually had sex, the brain benefits were much more profound in those regular partner rats.”

Eat well

“These days, we’ve got the choice of eating what we want, but that doesn’t mean we always eat what’s best for our brain,” says Goodwin. “Vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and omega three are what I call the ‘big five’. These are the nutrients we know people are short of in Western diet.

“For a start, most of people in the Northern Hemisphere, above 35 latitude, don’t get enough sunshine to get enough vitamin D for six months of the year. B12, meanwhile, is only found in a very few foods which are mostly animal products.”

Aside from eating a varied diet with lots of plants and wholefoods, Goodwin has a couple of standout kitchen staples to keep in mind. “Spinach and flaxseed are two brain-benefiting foods packed full of Omega 3s that we need for our diet. If you’re sprinkling flaxseed on your porridge in the morning, then crack on, as you’re doing good.”

It’s not just what you’re eating that matters, but the amount you’re eating too. “The Okinawa is a Blue Zone – one of the five lucky areas of the world where people regularly live to over 100 years,” says Goodwin. “They have this Japanese expression called ‘hara hachi bu’, which means ‘leave the table 80% full’.

“The result of that eating habit is they will live longer, and rates of Alzheimer’s in Okinawa are 75% less than everywhere else in the world.” Essentially, those all-you-can-eat buffets and bottomless brunches might not be as good a deal as they seem.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, brain […]

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Vitamins are an essential part of how our body functions, but there is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about how to best get them into your cells and throughout your body.

Our parents and caretakers routinely reminded us that eating our vegetables was essential to getting all of the healthy vitamins and minerals we need to grow. Oftentimes, we might think taking a supplement is the best way to get essential vitamins the body needs, but sourcing these nutrients through food is even more effective. Shutterstock Many times vitamins are advertised as “natural” but the most natural approach is how people have done it for thousands of years— a healthy and nutritious diet filled with diverse and colorful fruits and vegetables. The more colors and varieties of produce you are eating, the more likely you are to consume a scope of key vitamins. Purchasing from small local farms that practice organic techniques can also help to ensure that your produce is as nutrient-dense as possible. Who may require supplementation?

There are certainly times when people may require vitamin supplementation because of a circumstance or condition that prevents them from adequately obtaining them. For example, people who follow a vegan diet may need to supplement with vitamin B12 (which is largely found in animal-based protein and sources) or people with cystic fibrosis may require supplements because they do not properly absorb many vitamins.

It is important to keep in mind that most supplements did not originate in pill form but, instead, are derived from traditional diets, such as the Mediterranean diet , that kept people healthy for thousands of years. While some people may need to take their vitamins in a pill form, for the average person, food can often be your medicine.

Below, you will see nine vitamins your body needs as well as several foods that are rich in each. Then, don’t miss The 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now . Shutterstock Vitamin A isn’t actually a single vitamin but a whole family of different ones sometimes referred to as ‘retinoids’ such as retinol and carotenoids, including alpha-carotene and beta-carotene.

Function in the body: Vitamin A is important in keeping our reproductive and immune systems functioning and helps to keep our kidneys, heart, and lungs working well. It’s also essential for normal bone and tooth development. Another important job that vitamin A carries out is that it helps our eyes allow us to see in dark or dim light.

Risks of deficiency: The risk of vitamin A deficiency is pretty rare in well-nourished populations (such as the U.S.) because vitamin A is stored in the body, particularly in the liver. However, certain conditions such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, cancer, and prostate disease may cause your body to excrete too much vitamin A.

People with fat malabsorption may not be able to absorb enough vitamin A and certain medications may also interfere with vitamin A absorption, such as cholestyramine and orlistat. A lack of vitamin A can cause your immune system to function poorly. It can also cause a number of eye diseases (such as blindness), poor bone growth, and skin problems at your hair follicles.

Risks of overuse: Vitamin A is stored in fat in the body, therefore, too much of the vitamin can lead to accumulation and toxicity. Symptoms include headache, double vision, tiredness, nausea, vomiting, or vertigo. Too much vitamin A can also lead to osteoporosis, bone fractures, and liver toxicity. Larger than recommended doses of vitamin A may cause birth defects, and so pregnant women or women of childbearing age should not intake more than the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance). Beta-carotene toxicity is much less likely, but eating large amounts of carrots daily can lead to yellow-orange skin color changes.

Top foods with vitamin A: Beef liver (3 oz cooked)

Baked sweet potato

Frozen spinach (½ cup cooked)

Raw carrots

Skim milk fortified with vitamin A

Shutterstock Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid and is key for immune function .

Function in the body: Vitamin C is important in the growth and repair of tissue and helps to maintain healthy skin, teeth and bones. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that helps protect our cells from being damaged by free radicals, toxins, and radiation. Vitamin C can also help absorb iron from food in the intestines. Despite being highly advertised for preventing and treating the common cold , good data to support this claim is still unavailable.

Risks of deficiency: Deficiency of vitamin C can lead to a condition known as scurvy. Scurvy can present with fatigue, gum swelling, corkscrew hairs, and poor wound healing. It was common many years ago among sailors who did not have access to fresh fruits on long journeys. Scurvy is very rare in the U.S. because only a very small amount of Vitamin C is needed from a normal diet to prevent a deficiency.

Risks of overuse: Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin and is not stored in the body, which just means that excess vitamin C is eliminated through urine. Large doses can still cause side effects, including nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and more severely, can lead to the development of kidney stones. Patients with diabetes, recurrent kidney stones and poor kidney function should avoid high doses of vitamin C due to increased risk and complications of kidney stones.

Top foods with vitamin C: Raw red peppers (½ cup)

Orange juice (¾ cup)

Kiwi (one medium)

Frozen broccoli (½ cup cooked)

Baked white potato

Shutterstock Vitamin D is also known as calciferol. Research has shown that vitamin D can play a vital role in supporting the immune system and may help to mitigate the severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 .

Function in the body : Vitamin D seems to have an endless number of functions in our body. These include bone mineralization and helping to maintain normal calcium levels in our blood. It also helps to reduce inflammation throughout the body and to maintain […]

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Physical Activity – The Single best Medicine CREDIT: https://www.greasbroughmedicalcentre.co.uk * EIM, NHF recommended adequate physical activity as a potent force in the fight against COVID-19
*Regular exercise helps make heart stronger, lowers blood pressure, increases blood flow
*Vigorous session improves sleep, helps curb low-grade inflammation in children
*Drinking coffee before activity may help burn more fat, researchers find
*Eating just one cup of leafy green vegetables daily could boost muscle function

More reasons have emerged why most medical practitioners now recommend increased exercise or rather physical activity as medicine.

Doctors are unanimous that regular exercise such as walking tops 15 natural ways to combat high blood pressure. They say regular exercise helps make one’s heart stronger and more efficient at pumping blood, which lowers the pressure in the arteries.

In fact, they say 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, such as running, per week, can help lower blood pressure and improve heart health.

Scientists have demonstrated in recent studies how exercise increases blood flow to the brain; can modulate various parameters associated with improved sleep, and helps curb low-grade inflammation in children. Even as other studies found drinking coffee before exercise may help burn more fat, and eating just one cup of leafy green vegetables every day could boost muscle function.

A new movement formed by Exercise is Medicine (EIM) and the Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF) has recommended adequate physical activity as a potent force in the fight against COVID-19. They said the role of physical activity in regulating immunity and providing optimum health for people with non-communicable diseases are germane in the fight against the pandemic.

Indeed, globalisation and urbanisation have brought rapid changes in lifestyle and the consequences of decreased physical activity, increased sedentary living, unhealthy diets, and increased tobacco use, with rising in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). NCDs, especially cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality as reflected in the past 18 months even with the COVID-19 pandemic all over the world.

Chairman of physical activity committee, Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF) and Director, Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Nigeria National Centre, Prof. Fatai Adeniyi, told journalists at a press conference organised ahead of the 2021 World Physical Activity Day (WOPAD) that considering the global surge in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart diseases among others, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes expedient to reiterate the benefits of being physical activities for all generations of people.

The theme for the first WOPAD adopted by NHF is “Exercise for a Healthy Heart.” The press conference was organised by the NHF in collaboration with EIM, Nigeria National Centre, the Advisory Board, and the Ambassadors.

Adeniyi said physical activity when adopted by everyone has the benefit of preventing, maintaining, and controlling the complexities surrounding non-communicable disease onset, progression, and complications. “While these aforementioned benefits are probably well known about non-communicable diseases, it is necessary to emphasis that adequate physical activity can serve as a potent force in the fight against COVID-19 as the role of physical activity in regulating immunity and providing optimum health for people with noncommunicable diseases are germane in the fight against the pandemic,” he said.

Adeniyi said the EIM Global Centre and the Nigeria National Centre are profoundly committed to the adoption of health-enhancing physical activity among the general population. They, however, believe there is a wide gap between what people know about physical activity and what they practise. “Therefore, as we celebrate the 2021 World Physical Activity Day, the EIM Nigeria calls on individuals, groups, corporate entities, traditional institutions, government and non-governmental agencies including all policy influencers and makers to pay more attention to the issues around physical activity at every level of our daily routines to narrow the gap between knowledge and actual uptake of physical activity,” he said.

Executive Director, NHF, Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, said that the discussion about physical activity has been on for many decades; hence it is not a new innovation.

Akinroye, however, the WOPAD is a day set aside to propagate in stronger terms, the benefits inherent in the adoption of physical activity. The cardiologist said the WOPAD celebrated globally on April 6 every year features various programmes to enhance the uptake of physical activity by the general public. “For the year 2021, the Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Nigeria is organising series of events in Osogbo, the Osun State capital on April 6 and 10, 2021. The programmes include radio and other sensitization talks, health screening and counselling on physical activity, group physical exercise sessions, and working Gyms and Wellness Centres in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Port-Harcourt, Abakaliki, and Osogbo,” he said.

Akinroye said the EIM Nigeria, domiciled and nurtured by the Nigerian Heart Foundation is an agency of the American College of Sports Medicine, with its headquarters in Indianapolis, United States of America (USA), but with a global presence in over 40 countries. He said Nigeria is one of the three countries in Africa with this global presence and NHF is proud to be part of this global family.

The cardiologist said WOPAD provides a unique opportunity for the EIM to reach out to the different strata of the community, as it is an opportunity to further reinforce the core visions of the EIM. Akinroye said the EIM visions include: making health care providers assess every patient’s level of physical activity at every clinic visit; determining if the patient is meeting physical activity guidelines; providing patients with brief counselling to help him/her meet the guidelines; and/or refering the patient to either health care or community-based resources/experts for further physical activity counselling and guidance.

Akinroye said: “We use the medium to call on individuals, groups, corporate entities, traditional institutions, government and non-governmental agencies including all policy influencers and makers to pay more attention to the issues around physical activity at every level of our daily routines to narrow the gap between knowledge and actual uptake of physical activity.”

Meanwhile, physical exercise has long been prescribed as a way to improve the quality of sleep. But now, researchers from Japan have found that […]

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Tau pathology resembling that seen in Alzheimer’s disease brains. Credit: Laura Blair’s laboratory, USF Health/University of South Florida Chaperone protein imbalance can play a significant role in initiating toxic accumulation of tau in the aging brain—an early step in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies, a new preclinical study by University of South Florida Health (USF Health) neuroscientists suggests.

In humans, misfolding of the protein tau leads to its toxic accumulation inside brain cells , the formation of these tau aggregates into hallmark neurofibrillary tangles, neuron death, and eventually symptoms of cognitive decline such as memory loss and diminished thinking skills.

In this study the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine researchers used mice that were not genetically modified (wild-type mice) to examine the effects of Aha1 and FKBP52, two co- chaperone proteins of heat shock protein Hsp90, in the aging brain. They modeled molecular chaperone imbalance by overexpressing production of Aha1 and FKBP52 in these old, wide-type mice. The findings, highlighted below, were reported April 8 in Acta Neuropathologica Communications.

Hsp90 is a chaperone protein abundant in neurons and other cells in the brain. Normally, co-chaperone proteins assist chaperone proteins in monitoring and sustaining the balance (homeostasis) of proteins critical to cell health.

“The chaperone protein network is your cell’s natural defense to maintain homeostasis throughout life, and this study emphasizes the importance of protecting that balance in the aging brain,” said principal investigator Laura Blair, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular medicine at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Center, Morsani College of Medicine. “We’re excited about using this new model of tauopathy in finding ways to restore chaperone protein balance to delay or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

Among their many quality-control functions, chaperone protein networks ensure proteins are folded to conform to the proper 3D shapes, transported precisely where needed to do their jobs, and pushed toward degradation if they are abnormally modified or no longer useful. Heat shock proteins like Hsp90, triggered when a cell is under stress, play a particularly important “triage” role in correcting protein misfolding to prevent aggregation. Laura Blair, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Center, University of South Florida, was principal investigator for the study. Credit: USF Health “But in the aging brain , the balance of the chaperone proteins shifts and creates a system not working as efficiently as it normally would. Large numbers of the chaperone molecules decrease in expression, and a smaller but significant number increase in their expression,” Dr. Blair said.

Increasing age is the greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. So, the USF Health team investigated whether increased levels of FKBP52 and Aha1 alone could initiate pathological features mimicking human Alzheimer’s disease in aged wild-type mice—those with no genetic manipulations predisposing their brains to abnormally increase tau aggregation.

Key findings from their new mouse model of tauopathy include: High levels of FKBP52, and to a lesser extent elevated levels of Aha1, increased tau accumulation over time in the aged, wild-type mice.

The tau accumulation promoted by overexpression of FKBP52, but not Aha1, correlated with increased neuroinflammation through exaggerated activation of neuronal support cells, namely microglia and astrocytes. This was complemented by loss of neurons and cognitive impairments.

Existing mouse models, including those that add or subtract genes, introduce tau mutations, and seed mice brains with human tau, help scientists learn more about the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. However, they tend to be limited in capturing the physiological aspects of neurodegeneration in the context of both normal and abnormal aging.

“We hope this (chaperone imbalance) model will help us better understand the dynamics of tau aggregation and neuroinflammation, including the timing and connections among pathological events, without directly regulating one pathway or the other,” Dr. Blair said.

Dr. Blair’s team has designed follow-up studies to help unravel if, and when, tau accumulation or neuroinflammation is more influential in causing brain cell toxicity during aging. That could help determine which chaperones—FKBP52, Aha1, or others—may be the best therapeutic target options for restoring protein balance, she said.

More information: Marangelie Criado-Marrero et al, Hsp90 co-chaperones, FKBP52 and Aha1, promote tau pathogenesis in aged wild-type mice, Acta Neuropathologica Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1186/s40478-021-01159-w

Provided by University of South Florida

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