[HN Gopher] The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       The brain's waste clearing lymphatic system shown in people for
       first time
        
       Author : SubiculumCode
       Score  : 270 points
       Date   : 2024-10-25 03:56 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nih.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nih.gov)
        
       | elric wrote:
       | It's taken 12 years to get from "this stuff exists in mice" to
       | "we now know it actually exists in humans and is not vestigial".
       | That seems like a long time. People get brain MRIs with contrast
       | all the time, is there any reason why this never showed up?
       | Because no one was looking? Or because it's a slow mechanism?
        
         | jhrmnn wrote:
         | Looking up "brain MRI with contrast", the biggest difference
         | seems to be that in a regular MRI the contrast goes to the
         | blood, but here it goes straight to the brain cerebrospinal
         | fluid. You need open brain for that, so indeed doesn't seem
         | trivial.
        
           | elric wrote:
           | Cerebrospinal fluid is produced in the brain, I would imagine
           | that the contrast would end up in newly produced fluid as
           | well, but maybe that assumption is wrong.
        
             | sithadmin wrote:
             | Even assuming that the contrast could show up in newly
             | excreted CSF (maybe, maybe not), MRI contrast elimination
             | half lives are very short (mostly all under ~2 hrs,
             | excepting cases like renal dysfunction), and cerebrospinal
             | fluid doesn't replenish particularly quickly.
        
         | NeuroCoder wrote:
         | Two things:
         | 
         | 1. Blood brain barrier and CSF should be separate for all but
         | tiny molecules. It's why CT angiograms are able to visualize
         | distinct vessels. So it is pretty hard to directly interact
         | with this sort of thing in vivo
         | 
         | 2. A good chunk of the neuro community have been operating
         | under the assumption that some of those mouse model findings
         | are mechanisms in humans too. Since we couldn't easily prove
         | it, people used a bunch of next best tools with fancy imaging
         | that demonstrated it was very likely. On top of furter proof,
         | this sort of study allows us to begin pinpointing exactly how
         | close our next best tools are at estimating in vivo processes
         | without opening up the head.
        
         | jb1991 wrote:
         | The main reason is because 12 years ago we didn't have ChatGPT
         | to tell the researchers the answer.
        
         | rozab wrote:
         | They injected a dye into the cerebrospinal fluid to confirm the
         | pattern of diffusion into the brain.
         | 
         | I imagine this procedure would have to be confirmed safe in
         | humans first. Also they needed subjects who already happened to
         | be undergoing a specific type of brain surgery.
        
       | PaulKeeble wrote:
       | There have been a couple of papers [1] that can induce this
       | process while awake using particular image patterns as confirmed
       | in an MRI. I think the NIH confirmation is running behind in the
       | science, independent research is quite a bit ahead of them. I
       | came across the paper on this last year and implemented a very
       | simple page with the parameters they used [2].
       | 
       | There is a number of disease models that show reduced or no
       | glymphatic clearance and as such these people need treatments to
       | clear out their brains and these image routines seem to help. A
       | lot of people find this pattern extremely taxing to watch
       | especially for the recommended number of cycles, you can feel the
       | effect on the brain its hard to describe the sensation its a bit
       | numbing and the image has the sensation of changing as the cycle
       | runs like its a visual trick. You might get left feeling like you
       | have been clubbed over the head the first time.
       | 
       | I find it interesting this is one aspect of disease research I am
       | looking into and is related to Long Covid and ME/CFS.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...
       | 
       | [2] https://www.paulkeeble.co.uk/posts/cff/
        
         | kenjackson wrote:
         | This is fascinating.
         | 
         | Curious, could seizures caused by strobe light be related to
         | the effects of draining of this fluid?
        
           | khafra wrote:
           | From the paper, it seems like that the blood flow changes and
           | the seizures are both caused by the increased processing load
           | in the visual cortex; with the seizures also resulting from
           | some faulty wiring in localizing that increased load to only
           | the visual cortex. So, more like A->B and A->C instead of
           | A->B->C. But I'd bet this visual stimuli is even more
           | effective at causing seizures in vulnerable people than an
           | unfortunate pokemon episode.
        
         | mikewarot wrote:
         | Holy cow.... that's really rough, you weren't kidding.
         | 
         | This is the closest I've ever felt to being a Borg.
        
         | noja wrote:
         | For the cff page on Safari, create a bookmarklet to make it go
         | pure full screen:
         | 
         | javascript:document.documentElement.webkitRequestFullScreen();
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | I think I must have turned off repetitive play in browser.
         | wonder if there is an m4v version
        
         | khafra wrote:
         | This is some amazing work; and it also raises my belief that a
         | Langford Basilisk is neurologically possible by about 25%
        
           | reverius42 wrote:
           | Thanks for introducing me to the concept! Just read the short
           | story I assume you are referring to:
           | https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm
        
             | Karellen wrote:
             | Looks like it, according to Wikipedia:
             | https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Langford%27s_basilisk
             | 
             | Just read the story, thought it was very reminiscent of one
             | of the plot points in Neal Stephenson's _Snow Crash_ (1992)
             | - until I noticed the publication date of 1988, 4 years
             | earlier!
        
               | evanjrowley wrote:
               | You'll also find a similar concept throughout David
               | Foster Wallace's _Infinite Jest_ (1996).
        
               | hobs wrote:
               | Charles Stross who for some reason posted on usenet about
               | it in the wikipedia article uses a form of this to great
               | effect in several books in The Laundry Files
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | Accelerando : https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
               | static/fiction/acceler...                   Not
               | everything is sweetness and light in the era of mature
               | nanotechnology. Widespread intelligence amplification
               | doesn't lead to widespread rational behavior. New
               | religions and mystery cults explode across the planet;
               | much of the Net is unusable, flattened by successive
               | semiotic jihads. India and Pakistan have held their long-
               | awaited nuclear war: external intervention by US and EU
               | nanosats prevented most of the IRBMs from getting
               | through, but the subsequent spate of network raids and
               | Basilisk attacks cause havoc. Luckily, infowar turns out
               | to be more survivable than nuclear war - especially once
               | it is discovered that a simple anti-aliasing filter stops
               | nine out of ten neural-wetware-crashing Langford fractals
               | from causing anything worse than a mild headache.
        
               | Karellen wrote:
               | (2005)
        
             | rozab wrote:
             | I hadn't heard of this one before, it's also similar to the
             | crucifix glitch in Peter Watts' Blindsight
        
               | haccount wrote:
               | Having read both Blindsight and Echopraxia I have to say
               | the most impressive neurological takeaway from the books
               | was the ability of my own brain to suspend critical
               | thinking for long enough to enjoy the books.
               | 
               | In retrospect the core concept can be paraphrased as:
               | Self-awareness and consciousness in pigs is the only
               | thing that prevents them from flapping their trotters
               | fast enough to fly(to the moon).
        
               | jayGlow wrote:
               | I'm not getting your point? the book had some out there
               | ideas but the core concept of consciousness not being
               | necessary for intelligence seemed fairly reasonable.
        
               | ToDougie wrote:
               | Fantastic book. Really made me think in some new ways.
        
             | shagie wrote:
             | https://www.nature.com/articles/44964 is also a fun read on
             | the BLIT.
             | 
             | I also recommend Different Kinds of Darkness.
             | 
             | https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-
             | kinds-o...
        
           | shaganer wrote:
           | I'm interested to hear your reasons why you think it's closer
           | to reality. I don't see why the discovery of the brain
           | wastage system would help a brain crash from being possible.
           | Edit: Just looked back at the post and that it involves an
           | image causing the glymphatic system to react.
        
           | haccount wrote:
           | It's possible.
           | 
           | But only for the brains of people with severe or undertreated
           | epilepsy of carefully selected varieties. You can trigger a
           | potentially fatal seizure by showing them an appropriately
           | stimulating image. Which likely was a known concept to the
           | author of the story.
           | 
           | For the rest of us the negative feedback along the optical
           | axis puts a stop to such shenanigans.
        
             | candiddevmike wrote:
             | GenAI images sometimes do this to me. Not anything scary
             | per say, but some of the faults make my brain feel weird as
             | it tries and fails to interpret parts of the image that
             | were "AI smeared".
        
             | altruios wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCollough_effect is evidence
             | to the contrary. This seems to rewire something outside the
             | optical pathway. The effect can last for months. Works on
             | almost all brains, no epilepsy required...
        
               | haccount wrote:
               | That sounds more like a learned visual effect, something
               | quite different from frying the brain of anyone with a
               | basilisk.
               | 
               | Experiments with cats(
               | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1111849/ ), and the
               | outcome of patients with strabismus/lazy eye(effective
               | blindness on defective eye), suggests that seeing (or not
               | seeing) is a learned trait. Which is a few steps removed
               | from being a backdoor to epileptic seizures or remote
               | controlling heart activity
        
               | altruios wrote:
               | Exert from that same wiki page about the anti-McCollough
               | effect, I may have the two confused.
               | 
               | Given that AMEs do transfer interocularly,[8] it is
               | reasonable to suppose that they must occur in higher,
               | binocular regions of the brain. Despite producing a less
               | saturated illusory color, the induction of an AME may
               | override a previously induced ME, providing additional
               | weight to the argument that AMEs occur in the higher
               | visual areas than MEs.[8]
        
           | theGnuMe wrote:
           | Sure, we know imagery can cause fatal seizures so... yes.
        
         | jdthedisciple wrote:
         | It seems to have no effect on me.
         | 
         | Am I an outlier?
        
           | PaulKeeble wrote:
           | Its very much experimental so we don't know if there are
           | people for whom this has no impact, all the people in the
           | studies respond so the question is whether your cerebral
           | spinal fluid is being pumped around and flushing your brain
           | and you don't feel an impact or whether you get no cerebral
           | spine fluid movement at all. Someone would need to recreate
           | this experiment with you in the MRI to find out which it is.
        
             | LinuxBender wrote:
             | What is one supposed to experience or feel? Maybe my
             | computer is too slow or my monitor is too small? I used to
             | collect gifs that were similar to this just because they
             | had a neat visual effect but neither those nor this image
             | gives me any kind of experience. If I could find a private
             | business that has an MRI I would pay cash to get a full
             | body scan and then just a brain scan as I have always
             | wanted one but hospitals around me want me to go through
             | their _process_ and give me strange looks when I just want
             | to pay cash and be scanned. I think it would be interesting
             | to see what effect assorted images have. There was another
             | type of scanner, I forgot what it was called ... that would
             | show a 3D image of the brain during activity and would show
             | when parts of the brain that should be responding are not.
             | In that study it was used primarily on kids /teens that
             | were prone to crime. I can not remember what it was called.
             | This was quite some time ago. The patient would have many
             | wires attached to their head. It would effectively show
             | animated _holes_ so to speak when part of a persons brain
             | was not functioning correctly due to physical trauma,
             | drugs, etc...
        
               | giantg2 wrote:
               | The places that specialize in full body scans will do it
               | for cash. I think technically you need a script for any
               | MRI, so you may still need to speak with a doctor ar
               | their facility first. My understanding is it's more
               | streamlined there and will be way cheaper than any
               | hospital. If you talk to your primary or can get a
               | telemedicine appointment online then they might be
               | willing to write you the script and you can go to a local
               | MRI. I would avoid the hospital as they are 5x higher in
               | cost than my local outpatient imaging facility.
        
               | LinuxBender wrote:
               | _I think technically you need a script for any MRI_
               | 
               | I'm in the US. I am guessing a script is the same thing
               | wherever you are as what is called a referral here. I
               | will ask around. Thankyou for the idea. I will research
               | what outpatient imaging facilities are around me. Would
               | they use some kind of mirror system to watch this image?
               | I can't imagine a PC could be near the MRI.
        
               | wyldfire wrote:
               | "script" is "prescription" (here in US and possibly
               | elsewhere). Imaging techniques generally require them
               | because medicine considers the potential harm of giving
               | patients an inconclusive diagnosis or a conclusive
               | diagnosis for which there's no treatment. Without a
               | symptom to weigh against these risks, it makes some sense
               | to consider them as not "over the counter".
               | 
               | But in practice I think you can show up at any imaging
               | center and get some kind of "full body MRI" to screen for
               | cancer or some other risk. They'll probably ask about
               | family history and other predispositions but even if you
               | didn't have those they'd still take your money.
        
               | LinuxBender wrote:
               | I will give that a shot. A family member was a signalman
               | for the railroad for over 40 years and got melanoma back
               | when there was no treatment for it. Perhaps that may
               | suffice.
        
               | PaulKeeble wrote:
               | After focussing on the dot for a few seconds the images
               | appear to produce a tunnel or other change in effect from
               | just images flipping, maybe a moving star. Then when the
               | grey image appears you get an after effect of the overall
               | image for about a second. Some feel a form of pressure or
               | even light seizure sensation in the brain and have
               | auditory experience like there was a sound that
               | disappears each time the grey clearing screen
               | appears.Then afterwards some people feel a bit
               | cognitively fatigued, drunk even for a few minutes to
               | hours.
               | 
               | It feels odd, its hard to describe it feels like
               | something weird is happening in the brain.
        
               | LinuxBender wrote:
               | Interesting. So I do get the over-shadow effect for about
               | 1.5 seconds but I get that from any bright light that
               | transitions to a grey background mostly from taking high
               | dose benfotiamine, along with lutein and astaxanthin and
               | chelated copper as my nervous system was being depleted
               | of thiamine due to a dumb self induced issue that I have
               | nearly resolved. Maybe I am not a good test subject for
               | that reason. Or perhaps my monitor is too bright.
               | 
               | Edit: I reduced the brightness, contrast and changed the
               | black mode of the monitor and went through several
               | cycles. I still get the over-shadow effect for anywhere
               | from 1.5 to 2 seconds but no other effects. Perhaps my
               | supplements are interfering or confounding. I guess it
               | may be useful to note what supplements the test subject
               | is consuming along with dosage to determine if that is a
               | confounding factor.
        
               | anal_reactor wrote:
               | I don't feel anything either. Not sure why
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Maybe try it again at the end of the workday?
        
             | jdthedisciple wrote:
             | I tried it again several hours later, being more tired, and
             | on my 22" fullscreen instead of my phone.
             | 
             | Still nothing.
        
           | theGnuMe wrote:
           | Try lying down and then watching the screen.
        
           | fny wrote:
           | Why do you assume you're supposed to feel an immediate
           | effect?
           | 
           | Increased CSF flow aids in clearing metabolic waste,
           | distributing nutrients, and reduced oxidative stress. You'll
           | feel none of this after a 3 minute session.
           | 
           | A lot of the reactions here reek of placebo.
        
         | mettamage wrote:
         | In me, there seemed to be an illusion going on. It felt like a
         | tunnel and it felt as immersive as a "dream world" (albeit a
         | bit of a boring one).
         | 
         | What I also noticed were the after image effects. A strong blue
         | dot every time it flashed and circles divided into 8 sections
         | like a star.
         | 
         | This was trippy.
        
           | boringg wrote:
           | Noticed that as well. Very trippy
        
         | coxmi wrote:
         | Clearing the waste sounds like a good thing, I guess. Haven't
         | got time to read the study, but can this have beneficial
         | effects to do while awake?
         | 
         | It certainly feels quite strange after watching the prototype
         | for 8 cycles.
        
         | feoren wrote:
         | Staring at the v0.3 produces an effect similar to something I'm
         | able to do trigger manually on command. I've always had the
         | feeling that I'm somehow triggering a "flow" in my brain, but I
         | have no way to confirm what's actually going on. It's actually
         | stronger when I trigger it manually, and it feels like it flows
         | down my spine and eventually some weak signal reaches my
         | extremities. (Maybe that means it's not CSF after all?) Oddly,
         | I do feel like I can think more clearly afterward, but the
         | brain is very bad at judging itself, so it's more likely to be
         | an illusion than anything real. Anyone else able to manually
         | trigger a feeling like this in their brains?
        
           | assadk wrote:
           | How have you trained yourself to do that?
        
             | feoren wrote:
             | I'm not 100% sure, but it's something like this:
             | 
             | If you try raising one eyebrow or wiggling one ear
             | (assuming you can't already do that), you might find that
             | you're briefly activating lots of little muscles around the
             | target as your body tries to figure out where that's mapped
             | in your brain. Once you get the right muscle, you can relax
             | the other false positives, and eventually just have the
             | single muscle isolated. It's similar in my "brain flow"
             | thing: usually a couple random muscles in my head want to
             | join in, but I can intentionally relax them and keep the
             | "flow" going. A common one is the tensor tympani -- the two
             | "muscles" seem to be closely mapped together. If you can
             | rumble your ears (manually activating the tensor tympani),
             | try initiating a rumble, and then "move" the activation in
             | between your ears, right to your mid-back brain. (Again: I
             | know there's no actual muscle there, so /shrug). Another
             | closely mapped muscle, at least for me, is a small one
             | around/under/behind the ears that has a "face tightening"
             | effect. It's like there are three muscles conceptually
             | mapped to similar brain space: one tightens my
             | ears/eyes/temples, one rumbles my tensor tympani, and one
             | induces a feeling of "flow" down my spine and through my
             | brain.
        
           | shaganer wrote:
           | I'm interested in how you accomplish this. I can do something
           | along the lines of that by getting myself heated. I actually
           | get a hothead and a tingling comes up to my brain like it's
           | passing in a channel. It could simply be a sensation rising
           | within the brain though, without an actual transport of
           | something.
           | 
           | I can focus better after but it doesn't clear my head, just
           | use that frustration or anger to become determined.
        
             | feoren wrote:
             | I'm not quite sure exactly what I'm doing; it feels a bit
             | like tensing a muscle, but that muscle feels like it's in
             | the middle of my head, a bit toward the back. Obviously
             | there are no actual muscles there, so I'm not sure what's
             | actually happening.
             | 
             | If you try raising one eyebrow or wiggling one ear
             | (assuming you can't already do that), you might find that
             | you're briefly activating lots of little muscles around the
             | target as your body tries to figure out where that's mapped
             | in your brain. Once you get the right muscle, you can relax
             | the other false positives, and eventually just have the
             | single muscle isolated. It's similar in my "brain flow"
             | thing: usually a couple random muscles in my head want to
             | join in, but I can intentionally relax them and keep the
             | "flow" going. A common one is the tensor tympani -- the two
             | "muscles" seem to be closely mapped together. If you can
             | rumble your ears (manually activating the tensor tympani),
             | try initiating a rumble, and then "move" the activation in
             | between your ears, right to your mid-back brain. (Again: I
             | know there's no actual muscle there, so /shrug).
        
           | sithadmin wrote:
           | That just sounds like ASMR, which some folks can induce
           | without external stimuli.
        
             | hobs wrote:
             | I think you are thinking of Frission
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson
        
               | sithadmin wrote:
               | No, the prior post's reference to having some degree of
               | control over the sensation, plus a prolonged impact on
               | mental state makes it distinctly ASMR, as opposed to
               | frission which is usually a short-lasting involuntary
               | response. [1]
               | 
               | [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6086079/
        
           | cassianoleal wrote:
           | Yep, I can do that.
           | 
           | It's similar to the effect of being hit with big news (good
           | or bad), and the "sinking" feeling that comes with it,
           | becoming suddenly introspective and oddly calm under
           | pressure.
           | 
           | At least to me, of course. I have no idea if others have that
           | same reaction.
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | Wow, that is wild. I never would have thought that simply
         | watching images would trigger something in the lymphatic
         | system. This could have huge implications for multiple
         | diseases.
        
         | haccount wrote:
         | It is well established that visual patterns affect brain
         | activity, this is used in clinical practice by
         | neurophysiologists, put on an EEG cap and then do
         | checkerboards, check if the activity is normal.
         | 
         | Now the question is if this provocation and resulting CSF flow
         | is actually beneficial. Do you spike activity and get a rebound
         | attempt at waste clearing due to waste accumulation of the
         | neural spike, or is this like a massage for the brain that
         | gives you a invigorating CSF dump?
         | 
         | I suspect it might not be a health improving activity. (I also
         | suspect that you can get even more CSF flowing if you spin
         | yourself at 6G in a full body centrifuge and that this too
         | would not be conductive to health)
        
         | llm_trw wrote:
         | Fascinating. Can you go into more details explaining what your
         | understanding of the paper is? I'm reading it now but I'm not
         | familiar with the field.
        
         | shaganer wrote:
         | I wonder how this will work with hypophantic and aphantic
         | individuals (people with little to no "mind's eye" visual
         | imagery), such as myself. Like would the effect still be
         | registered the same as anyone else, or would it cause the
         | imagery effect to lessen or be ineffective altogether?
        
         | flotzam wrote:
         | Very cool! Five minutes of this felt strangely soothing in my
         | head, after a few nights of not enough sleep.
         | 
         | Being able to set a max duration would be neat, in case it's
         | unsafe to lose track of time and let the pattern run for too
         | long?
         | 
         | Classic outdated comment BTW ;)
         | setInterval(flickerImage, 250); // 8hz
        
           | bdd8f1df777b wrote:
           | When I open the page, the image rotates for about ten seconds
           | then vanishes. How do you watch it for five minutes? What did
           | I do wrong?
        
             | gertlex wrote:
             | As per the first line of the writeup on the page: It
             | toggles between on and off every 16 seconds.
        
             | froh wrote:
             | give it a bit, it then reappears (as described in the
             | paper, btw)
        
           | vardump wrote:
           | Isn't that 4 Hz?
        
             | flotzam wrote:
             | Exactly, the comment was carried over from V0.1 which set a
             | 125 ms timer.
        
         | jmpman wrote:
         | I'd like to see if anyone with Fatal Familial Insomnia has been
         | treated with this pattern. I expected that insomnia stops this
         | glymphatic clearance, and that's what eventually kills them.
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | Isn't it the prions gradually destroying their brain that's
           | killing them?
        
             | jmpman wrote:
             | I'm not aware of the root cause. I thought they just
             | stopped being able to sleep, and the buildup of whatever
             | junk in the brain eventually caused death.
        
         | ClearAndPresent wrote:
         | Paul's animation wasn't playing at an even rate for me, for
         | some reason, so I created two video versions (8Hz and 12Hz)
         | with the 16 second on/off period, starting with an off period,
         | running for 254 seconds, as per the paper. These versions end
         | with an an additional off period, as a 'cool down' from the
         | flicker.
         | 
         | Framerate of 24Hz differs from the 120Hz as presented in the
         | paper, but here there is no 40Hz flicker attempt so it
         | shouldn't be an issue.
         | 
         | Compression may affect the edges of the lines, but downloads
         | are enabled.
         | 
         | 8Hz version - https://vimeo.com/1023278230/8ad6db6234
         | 
         | 12Hz version - https://vimeo.com/1023275135/378186db55
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | What is the difference or use cases for 8Hz vs. 12Hz?
        
             | ClearAndPresent wrote:
             | My understanding from the paper is there is no difference
             | between 4, 8, 12, and 40Hz frequencies on the
             | neurobiologcial effects, but I found the 8Hz a bit less
             | comfortable than the 12, so I uploaded both.
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | Do these need to be full screen with your face close to
               | the screen to fill my field of vision, or would it work
               | just as well watching it in a smaller window, on an iPad
               | or even on a phone?
        
           | lagniappe wrote:
           | I stared at the 8hz one, for the entire duration, and I feel
           | a calm afterward, however I'm not sure if this is because I
           | stopped doing/thinking for a few minutes with measured
           | breathing or if it is me noticing the difference now that
           | there's a lack of stimuli after the video ends.
           | 
           | What measurements or tests can I do to judge whether
           | something is happening, or has happened after watching the
           | videos?
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | The idea that watching a video triggers some waste clearing
           | mechanism is pretty wild.
           | 
           | Makes me think of Neal Stephenson's _Snow Crash_ where a
           | datafile can be a narcotic or mind virus. Maybe that 's not
           | such a crazy idea?
        
             | diggan wrote:
             | > The idea that watching a video triggers some waste
             | clearing mechanism is pretty wild.
             | 
             | It kind of makes sense. We can look at images of food and
             | get a physical reaction like hunger, or look at macabre
             | images and feel disgust, or stare at animations for one
             | minute and then be affected for many minutes afterwards
             | when we look away.
             | 
             | It doesn't surprise me we're still discovering new
             | mechanisms for triggering physical reactions in our bodies.
             | 
             | Edit: I do agree it's pretty wild regardless :) Especially
             | wild if we're finally discovering mechanisms that have
             | useful effects, not just "fun" effects like visual
             | distortion.
        
           | sharpshadow wrote:
           | Would be interesting to find out if there could be an desired
           | effect of this in conjunction with binaural beats.
        
           | tripper_27 wrote:
           | Wow! So a visual effect similar to some psychadelic
           | hallucinations is associated with brain cleaning!
           | 
           | Also, I've been at concerts where the light show guy seems to
           | have reverse-engineered the filters our brains use to process
           | raw signal into "images", and could use the lights to create
           | just the raw primitives.
           | 
           | A few hours of that and it was like I was learning to see all
           | over again, a tune-up/calibration of my visual system.
        
             | DonHopkins wrote:
             | It's like the Brown Noise for your brain!
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ijI4HjTGkw
        
           | e40 wrote:
           | What are you supposed to look at? The center red dot?
        
         | hackernudes wrote:
         | The paper says they used http://psychtoolbox.org/ to generate
         | the images.
         | 
         | > Psychophysics Toolbox Version 3 (PTB-3) is a free set of
         | Matlab and GNU Octave functions for vision and neuroscience
         | research
         | 
         | Scientists almost never want to share their code and it makes
         | me sad. Why wouldn't they want to make their paper more easily
         | reproducible?
        
         | briankirby wrote:
         | Thanks so much for creating and sharing this! Could you point
         | me to any other independent research in this area? Also, as I
         | read related journal articles, I'm trying to understand if the
         | 40Hz sound is binaural (with a 40Hz difference between
         | frequencies in each ear) or a straight 40Hz pulse (same in both
         | ears). It's surprisingly hard for me to get a clear answer. Do
         | you happen to have any experience with this or suggestions for
         | related resources that might contain the answer? Thanks!
        
         | pedalpete wrote:
         | The 40hz visual + auditory stimulation is showing to be
         | surprisingly effective in mice and humans. [1] When I first
         | heard this, I thought the open-loop nature, and the fixed
         | frequency across subjects sounded improbable, but I'm happy to
         | be proven wrong.
         | 
         | We work in the neurotech/sleeptech space doing slow-wave
         | enhancement which, it is believed, increases glymphatic
         | activity [2]. Recent studies have looked at the promise of
         | alzheimer's prevention [3].
         | 
         | More links to research papers are on our website
         | https://affectablesleep.com/science
         | 
         | [1] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07132-6 [2] -
         | https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/1...
         | [3] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10758173/
        
       | sharpshadow wrote:
       | "Other studies have suggested that the glymphatic system may be
       | most active during sleep."
       | 
       | Not only that but also the right sleeping position is relevant
       | here. I don't recall the scientist but he studied primates and
       | their natural sleeping position, exactly this position also opens
       | up the channels for the cerebrospinal fluid to flush the
       | accumulated brain waste.
        
         | lazypenguin wrote:
         | Do you recall which position?
        
           | mfro wrote:
           | > Glymphatic transport is most efficient in the right lateral
           | sleeping position
           | 
           | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7698404/ Section
           | 3.4.3
        
             | sharpshadow wrote:
             | Yes that's the position. Good to see it verified in the
             | study. Having a partner and sleeping in the same bed can
             | lead to alterations from the optimal sleeping position,
             | especially sleeping on the back is not good. Sleeping on
             | the back is also one of the main causes of snoring, which
             | often occurs in people which have a big belly and can't
             | really sleep lateralish anymore.
             | 
             | Sleep quality is important too and one big factor is not to
             | go to sleep with a full stomach. Sleep quality will suffer
             | because of the active digestion which probably will not let
             | the glymphatic transport do it's job properly.
             | 
             | Also good to know that "...low doses of alcohol (0.5 g/kg)
             | increased glymphatic clearance...".
        
               | teagoat wrote:
               | Is increased glymphatic clearance good or bad?
        
             | pragma_x wrote:
             | That's great that there's a way to passively optimize that
             | process every day. But it's also bad news considering it's
             | contrary to what you need if you have GERD.
             | 
             | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10643078/
             | 
             | > A limited number of studies have demonstrated that
             | sleeping in the left lateral decubitus (LLD) decreases
             | nocturnal reflux in patients with gastroesophageal reflux
             | disease (GERD) compared to right lateral decubitus (RLD)
             | and supine.
        
             | abdullahkhalids wrote:
             | > Glymphatic transport is most efficient in the right
             | lateral sleeping position, with more CSF clearance
             | occurring compared to supine and prone [6]
             | 
             | Reference [6] is a study on rats! The authors suggest
             | further investigation in humans.
             | 
             | Even though I would bet on this still holding for humans.
        
       | boringg wrote:
       | Interesting - whats the frequency - response hypothesis? I don't
       | think you would want to do lymphatic drainage everyday unless you
       | had a problem with your system (?)
        
       | canadiantim wrote:
       | Really shows the slow slow slow glacial pace of science and how
       | fragmented the information distribution mechanisms are...
        
         | knodi wrote:
         | Or the brain is high complex organ and full of MANY known and
         | unknown functions which meet a specific or general need. Don't
         | forget, it took us 100k years as human to get here, our current
         | understanding of brain. you're being a little harsh here.
        
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