Researchers Induce Hibernation In Non-Hibernating Species With Ultrasound (thedailybeast.com) 52
"Researchers have induced hibernation in a non-hibernating species (rats) with ultrasound, indicating the potential to do the same in humans with applications for medical trauma and spaceflight," writes longtime Slashdot reader Baron_Yam. The research has been published in the journal Nature Metabolism. From a report: "Ultrasound is the only available energy form that can noninvasively focus on any location within the brain with high precision and without ionizing radiation," Hong Chen, a medical ultrasound researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of the paper, told The Daily Beast in an email. "We were curious whether ultrasound could noninvasively turn on the switch to induce the torpor-like state"
Torpor is a state in which mammals reduce their metabolism and body temperature, and essentially slows down their entire system in order to conserve as much energy as possible. The authors write that the state is controlled by the central nervous system. So the idea goes that targeting the hypothalamus, which controls the nervous system, could potentially induce hibernation. It should be noted that while mice enter such a state during periods of extreme cold, rats do not. The team developed an ultrasound emitter and mounted them on the heads of mice. They then triggered 10-second pulses of ultrasound on the hypothalamus, which caused an immediate drop in the creatures' body temperature by an average of 6 degrees Fahrenheit, heart rate, and oxygen consumption. The team was also able to automate their device so it would blast the mices' brains with ultrasound whenever their body temperature rose, allowing them to safely maintain the torpor-like state for up to 24 hours. Within two hours after the experiment, the animals were able to fully recover.
The study's authors were also able to replicate the experiment in rats -- another creature that doesn't hibernate -- for up to 12 hours and found similar results. However, the rats' body temperature dropped by an average 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 6, which is partly due to the fact that they don't naturally hibernate. However, it does show that they can entire a torpor-like state with the right technique. Of course, further research is needed to determine whether it's effective on humans. Chen added that the team hopes to eventually move the technique to human trials. They might be able to prove that blasting ultrasound on the brain is a great way to get us to rest like the bears do.
Torpor is a state in which mammals reduce their metabolism and body temperature, and essentially slows down their entire system in order to conserve as much energy as possible. The authors write that the state is controlled by the central nervous system. So the idea goes that targeting the hypothalamus, which controls the nervous system, could potentially induce hibernation. It should be noted that while mice enter such a state during periods of extreme cold, rats do not. The team developed an ultrasound emitter and mounted them on the heads of mice. They then triggered 10-second pulses of ultrasound on the hypothalamus, which caused an immediate drop in the creatures' body temperature by an average of 6 degrees Fahrenheit, heart rate, and oxygen consumption. The team was also able to automate their device so it would blast the mices' brains with ultrasound whenever their body temperature rose, allowing them to safely maintain the torpor-like state for up to 24 hours. Within two hours after the experiment, the animals were able to fully recover.
The study's authors were also able to replicate the experiment in rats -- another creature that doesn't hibernate -- for up to 12 hours and found similar results. However, the rats' body temperature dropped by an average 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 6, which is partly due to the fact that they don't naturally hibernate. However, it does show that they can entire a torpor-like state with the right technique. Of course, further research is needed to determine whether it's effective on humans. Chen added that the team hopes to eventually move the technique to human trials. They might be able to prove that blasting ultrasound on the brain is a great way to get us to rest like the bears do.
Yes please (Score:5, Funny)
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Based on the one-line comments in 12 of your last 14 posts, are you sure you're awake now?
Me too (Score:2)
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Bold of you to assume that things will be getting better.
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This is actually an interesting thing to consider - because aging actually slows down during hibernation.
However, you probably wouldn't want to sleep years away at a time. While atrophy slows too, you'd want to have periods of activity for exercise and to rebuild your body fat. Hibernation is NOT suspended animation - your metabolism slows, it does not stop.
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Cool (Score:4, Interesting)
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If someone invented a safe and non-intrusive way to fall asleep quickly, it would be a major medical breakthrough. Being able to easily and precisely control sleep would be huge.
Re:Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem I can see with this as a means of causing sleep, however, is that you can become inadvertently dependent upon it as a means of falling asleep, as your brain basically forgets how to fall asleep on your own, because using artificial means to induce it is easier.
Insomnia sucks.... really it does, and I could see this being used only very occasionally for people who have sustained difficulty sleeping, but the very last thing that you should ever be wanting to do is use this sort of thing regularly as a means of inducing it.
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Maybe it could be used to train the brain to go to sleep by using it for varying periods.
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something similar, but not this. torpor is not sleep, none of the regenerative processes of sleep take place.
fun fact, i just read that some animals (particularly rodents, like in this experiment) undergo "obligated hibernation" which is torpor not induced by environmental factors, and they periodically bounce up activity. the current theory for this is that they exit torpor and raise body temperature to be able to get some necessary sleep.
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Some day, you'll be using a sleep-inducing helmet every night, but it'll cost you maybe $50 to buy and pennies in electricity on each use. You probably won't even question it. It's not all that different from needing a blanket and a mattress to fall asleep quickly.
Humans will inevitably become more and more dependent on technology. It's not a problem as technologies generally becomes cheaper and more reliable over time. Most people for example would not be able to be productive without electricity. But othe
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>If someone invented a safe and non-intrusive way to fall asleep
>quickly, it would be a major medical breakthrough.
it's been around forever.
Look up, "chemistry class" :)
hawk
Re: Cool (Score:2)
That is certainly not sleep. It is merely lack of consciousness. The regenerative and re-organisational processes that occur during sleep do not occur during anaesthesia. At least, not to the same extent.
Re: Cool (Score:2)
Re:Cool (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not clear if you would experience REM sleep or the other types of sleep I can't name right now.
The point is, for you to wake up feeling refreshed, your brain has to have cleared a load of crap out of your skull first. Some of it is in your memory, some of it is physical (there's some sort of protein that if not cleared out could be a marker for dementia, for example). We're only really just starting to understand all the things that happen when you sleep - suffice to say, it's a lot. All of that would have to happen in this condition - but this condition also limits your metabolism to conserve energy - that energy you're saving might be required to actually "sleep" rather than just "pass out". If you've ever watched a dog dreaming, you can see that it actually takes a fair amount of energy to do it - some humans are pretty animated when they dream too, so we're not necessarily that different.
I haven't asked a bear how they feel when they awake from hibernation, but I suspect it's "groggy but pretty good" - on that "reduced clock speed", hibernation may be as effective at doing the things a good night sleep does - but in (say) 3 months instead of 8 hours. That could be super-useful for a space flight to Mars or something though - hibernate for 3 months, but arrive feeling like you were on an overnight flight. Not so good for one night before work the next day though.
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It's not clear if you would experience REM sleep or the other types of sleep I can't name right now.
OK but I'm willing to try it and see how I feel. Maybe I'll feel great, you don't know.
Seems a lot of effort... (Score:1)
...to avoid the more commonplace whiskey method
You're Hungry (Score:2)
Blasting ultrasound into your brain, WCPGW?
They use something like this on the Tantalus Colony.
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It's perfectly safe at low levels; the only side effect is making you want to "raid a kitchen somewhere."
Ultrasound? (Score:2)
The team developed an ultrasound emitter and mounted them on the heads of mice. They then triggered 10-second pulses of ultrasound on the hypothalamus
Somehow, I was hoping for frickin' laser beams...
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:-) Is there even enough sharks to go around - all with friggin' laser beams fitted to their heads?
Plus, you don't want a hungry shark in your bedroom when you're hibernating. Or ever really - now that I think about it.
Stun gun. (Score:2)
Somehow, I was hoping for frickin' laser beams...
Sounds like a candidate for a stun gun, though.
Phase disruption weapons don't have a "stun" setting... [schlockmercenary.com]
Be careful of the side-effects (Score:3)
"They might be able to prove that blasting ultrasound on the brain is a great way to get us to rest like the bears do. "
After preliminary tests, the human test-objects insisted on shitting in the woods afterwards.
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Well then, why did they test on the Pope? Everyone knows [stackexchange.com] his proclivities in that regard.
the power of speech too (Score:2)
Insomnia cure and new rape method (Score:2)
I'd love to buy a machine I can put on my night stand to help me sleep.
Otoh, how long until this gets used for other things both good and evil. It's not clear how quickly or how deep under it outs the animals. What circumstances are required to trigger deep sleep? Would a person wake up if someone else did things to them? Could this be used on a battle field to sleep the enemy army? In a hostage situation to rescue captives?
I guess time will tell.
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Only Ultrasound non-invasive, non-ionizing energy? (Score:2)
Hypersleep has arrived (Score:1)
So what you're saying is..... (Score:2)
Sabbatical (Score:2)
I'll be taking a sabbatical...
probably consequences (Score:2)
" a great way to get us to rest like the bears do"
Hibernation isn't 'rest'. It's not 'just sleeping really well'. This is a state of torpor that has evolved as a way of coping with "not enough food for extended, generally predictable amounts of time".
It's more or less an emergency thing for these species, which would suggest it's sort of a last resort and thus something you'd probably rather avoid as a species if you can.
While I can see the utility of it for very niche situations, the summary seems to imp
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Believe me when you're in the last row of an airplane waiting to deplane the ejection seat option starts to look pretty attractive.
People are missing the real story (Score:2)
The fact that this state induces a state of higher metabolism and forces the body to consume body fat for energy, means that this will become a fashionable weight-loss technique. I can imagine going in for 24-hr sessions a few times a month to keep that weight off.
eat your heart out rohyptnol (Score:2)
Just what Bill Cosby needs, something better than rohyptnol.
To Wake Up Sleeping Legislators And Gov Officials? (Score:2)
Treatment for Sleep apnea? (Score:1)
As an ant... (Score:2)
... I do not want to hibernate. I can hibernate all I want when I am dead. :P