3 . The past few months have brought electrifying news that, for the first time, a gene treatment has provided some hearing to children born with deafness.

Eli Lilly announced this week, for example, that a profoundly deaf boy from Morocco given its treatment as part of a clinical trial in Philadelphia can now hear. And five children in China treated similarly at younger ages gained hearing with some able to verbally communicate without their cochlear implants (人工耳蜗). Their hearing recovery, first covered by the press in October 2023, is described in detail this week in The Lancet.

“It’s an enormous achievement,” says geneticist Karen Avraham of Tel Aviv University. Otolaryngologist (耳鼻喉科专家) and gene therapist Lawrence Lustig of Columbia University, whose lab was among the first to test the same approach in mice, agrees. “Other than cochlear implants, we haven’t really had any successful treatments to treat deafness,” he notes.

The various efforts from companies and academic centers each use a virus to insert the same gene, OTOF, into the children’s inner ear so the so-called hair cells there can sense sound and transmit it to the brain.

The new deafness treatments add to a string of recent successes for the gene treatment field, but also raise questions. The ear’s hair cells don’t divide, so the new copies of OTOF they contain should persist and continue to instruct the cells to make OTOF. Gene expression could drop off over time or the ear could mount an immune response that shuts it off.

But Lustig is optimistic that the various challenges will be overcome. “Now that we’ve got one success story, there’s going to be more money coming in to fund some of these other projects,” he says.

4 . As its name suggests, online therapy (心理治疗) allows people with mental health disorders to connect to a licensed therapist over the Internet. Five years ago, large scale online therapy providers started offering their services to the public.

    1    . Anyone who has access to a smart device and an internet connection will have the ability to talk to a therapist online. Many providers ask potential clients several questions prior to signing up. These questions can range from how old they are to what their current relationship status is.     2    , their algorithm (算法) then pairs them with a licensed therapist for personalized therapy sessions. Clients generally then proceed to a secure and dedicated chat room that is only accessible to them and their therapist.

There are a large list of benefits to this type of therapy. People who use an online therapy service frequently mention that they can manage the monthly payments, which generally do not exceed £200 per month.     3    . Additionally, it reduces the stigma (污名) surrounding therapy.

For all the love online therapy has received lately, it doesn't come without its flaws. The main issues many people have with online therapy are the absence of verbal or facial cues and moral implications. Due to these reasons, professional organizations are hesitant to fully support online therapy.     4    .

There are many considerations to take into account prior to joining an online therapy platform. It's important to keep in mind that though many people are already using one of these services, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good option for you.     5    , understand the risks and potentially limited impact it can have.

5 . When my son Reace celebrated his sixth birthday two years ago, he made a wish that I would get a transplant. Less than a week later, his wish came true when I received new _________.

Born with a breathing disease, I was able to manage my _________ without a hospital visit until I was 23. At 30, _________, it steadily worsened and I was _________ for a transplant. I started having check-ups once a year, then every six months, then every three months until I was _________ living at the hospital and reliant on oxygen to survive. Everyday _________ like having a shower or brushing my hair became _________.

After four months on the list, I _________ the call to say a pair of lungs was available. The transplant was successful and the _________ was noticeable. Before my transplant I had been so __________, I couldn’t even walk from the couch to the front door without __________ my breath—and it was only six paces. __________, I was so used to being breathless that I didn’t know any difference. I had __________ what it would be like to be a __________ person and now I know. I can do everything an ordinary mum would do: housework, workout, or taking Reace to basketball.

I am extremely grateful to my __________ and his family.

6 . This is Your Dream Dance

With growing evidence that dancing helps boost brain health and manage symptoms of neurocognitive (神经认知的) and movement disorders, accessible dance programmes and movement therapists are helping improve the lives of millions.     1    .

There’s actually a lot more happening inside the brain when trying to follow even the simplest choreography (舞蹈编排). “In dance class, we have to learn patterns, and remember sequences,” says David Leventhal, a programme director. The effect extends beyond the dance class to the real world.     2    .

In addition to the physical and neurological benefits, dance can also help people living with disease make out what their bodies can and can’t do. Rather than trying to control, or “fix” our body, dance is about developing greater body awareness and moving at our capacity, regardless of physical or cognitive difference.

    4    . Dancing with others not only makes people feel less different in their abilities when dealing with neurological and movement disorders, it also helps to combat the loneliness and social isolation of living with a chronic illness.

Still, researchers say they’re only scratching the surface of understanding how dance can be used therapeutically.     5    . Researchers are also trying to find out the most effective types of dance movements and the optimal length and frequency of classes.

8 . A quick increase of dopamine (多巴胺) shifts mice into a dreamy stage of sleep. In the mice’s brains, the chemical messenger triggers rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, researchers report in the March 4 Science.

These new results are some of the first to show a trigger for the shifts. Understanding these transitions in more detail could ultimately point to ways to treat sleep disorders in people.

Certain nerve cells in the ventral tegmental area of the mouse brain can pump out dopamine, a molecule that has been linked to pleasure, movement and learning, which is then delivered dopamine to the amygdalae, two almond-shaped structures deep in the brain that are closely tied to emotions.

Using a molecular sensor that can tell exactly when and where dopamine is released, the researchers saw that dopamine levels rose in the amygdalae just before mice shifted from non-REM sleep to REM sleep.

Next, the researchers forced the mice into the REM phase by controlling those dopamine-producing nerve cells using lasers and genetic techniques. Compelled with light, the nerve cells released dopamine in the amygdalae while mice were in non-REM sleep. The mice then shifted into REM sleep sooner than they typically did, after an average of about two minutes compared with about eight minutes for mice that weren’t prompted to release dopamine. Stimulating these cells every half hour increased the mice’s total amount of REM sleep.

Additional experiments suggest that these dopamine-making nerve cells may also be involved in aspects of narcolepsy (嗜睡症). A sudden loss of muscle tone, called cataplexy, shares features with REM sleep and can accompany narcolepsy. Stimulating these dopamine-making nerve cells while mice were awake caused the mice to stop moving and fall directly into REM sleep.

The results help clarify a trigger for REM in mice; whether a similar thing happens in people isn’t known. Earlier studies have found that nerve cells in people’s amygdalae are active during REM sleep.

Many questions remain. Drugs that change dopamine levels in people don’t seem to have big effects on REM sleep and cataplexy. But these drugs affect the whole brain, and it’s possible that they are just not selective enough.