Studies in mice reveal neural mechanism of fear conditioning (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Researchers have, for the first time, demonstrated in mice the underlying neural mechanism that allows mice to feel empathy. In mice, observational fear, a form of emotional contagion, provokes an emotional response in the form of empathy.
- The findings about empathy in mice may turn out to be true in the case of humans too, but further studies are needed in humans to conclusively prove this.
Observational fear:
- The capacity to sense the feelings of others is not unique to humans, and its biological mechanisms are shared with other mammals, including rodents. Observational fear, which is a rodent model for emotional contagion, is the basic form of affective empathy.
- During the observational fear experiment, a demonstrator mouse is given an electric shock, while an observer mouse watches from behind a transparent screen. When witnessing another animal receiving a shock, the observer mouse displays an immediate fear response, as demonstrated by its freezing behaviour.
- The observer mouse is also known to be able to recall the experience at a later time. Thus, observational fear is considered as a basic form of affective empathy.
Basolateral amygdala (BLA) in Human:
- Brain-imaging studies in humans have shown that the neuronal activities of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala change during observation of others experiencing fear or others’ fearful facial expressions.
- It was also known that another region of the brain; basolateral amygdala (BLA) is essential for observational fear.
- So, researchers began to study the neural circuits involving the ACC and basolateral amygdala (BLA) in both the right and left hemispheres of the brain to understand the neural mechanism underlying observational fear.
How research was conducted?
- The researchers turned to optogenetic experiments to prove that reciprocal connection between ACC and BLA regions of the brain is essential for observational fear learning. Light sensitive protein was injected into the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the right hemisphere and the BLA was bilaterally illuminated with a yellow laser.
- The experiment was repeated by injecting the light sensitive protein into ACC in the left brain and BLA was bilaterally illuminated with a yellow laser.
Causal link:
- To test whether brain activity is causally linked to observational fear, the researchers undertook a closed-loop disruption of theta waves in the right ACC.
- The next step was to confirm the source of the theta oscillation. The researchers hypothesised that hippocampal theta waves may tune the synchronised theta oscillations in the ACC and BLA in the right brain during observational fear.
- To test this hypothesis, the theta oscillations in the entire hippocampal complex were first stimulated and later inhibited and its effect on the ACC and BLA in the right brain and the empathic response was studied.
- Following the changes in hippocampal theta oscillations power, 5-7 Hz rhythm in the ACC-BLA circuits and empathic responses were bi-directionally modulated. This conclusively showed that the theta oscillation is hippocampal-dependent.
Who will benefit from the UPI-PayNow link?
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow were officially connected to allow for “real-time payment linkage”.
- Singapore is the first country with which cross-border Person to Person (P2P) payment facilities have been launched.
- The plan was first announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in September 2021 to facilitate instant low-cost, cross-border fund transfer.
How will it help?
- When the scheme was announced, the RBI had said that the cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes between India and Singapore would further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries. The initiative is a part of the government’s push towards as UPI-based payment ecosystem.
- In January 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) enabled international phone numbers to be able to transact using UPI. The Union Cabinet had approved incentivisation schemes for promoting low-value BHIM-UPI transactions in April 2022.
- On February 21, both Prime Minister’s attended the virtual launch.
- This would help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students and “bring the benefits of digitalisation and fintech to the common man through instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa.”
How will the scheme work?
- For users at the Indian end, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank will facilitate both inward and outward remittances, while Axis Bank and DBS India will only facilitate inward remittances for now.
- DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group, a fintech company, will facilitate the service for users in Singapore. More banks will be included in the linkage with time.
- Account holders of listed banks can transfer funds to/from India using their UPI ID, mobile number, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA). To begin with, Indian users can remit up to ₹60,000 per day. This is equal to around $ (Singapore) 1,000.
- Cross-border remittances to Singapore can be done through the bank’s mobile application or internet banking facilities. Apps of participating Indian banks will have an opt in/opt out feature for receiving remittances from Singapore.
- India has also considered allowing UPI remittances from other countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which hosts a large Indian population.
- In November 2022, India and UAE discussed allowing cross-border remittances through UPI platforms.
What are real-time payments (RTP)?
- The real-time payments are money transfers that are mostly settled as soon as they are performed. RTPs are allowed 24x7, 365 days a year. They help simplify the process of fund transfer as well as ease communication between the payer and the payee.
- P2P payments involve the transfer of funds from one user’s bank account to another through a digital medium. Common examples of P2P mobile apps in India include GPay and Paytm. Using P2P payments eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details.
Venice’s famous canals are now drying
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- With some of Venice’s secondary canals almost drying up in the past few days, images of docked water taxis, gondolas and ambulance boats have garnered a lot of attention on social media.
- Experts believe that a prolonged long spell of low tides and lack of rain are responsible for the issue in the city.
- The low water levels have come as a surprise because Venice is known to suffer from frequent flooding. In 2019, it witnessed the worst floods since 1966, which resulted in damages worth hundreds of millions of euros.
What are the famous canal and gondolas of Venice?
- Located in northern Italy, the city of Venice has a unique geography. It is a collection of over 118 small islands spread over a lagoon, which is a kind of water body that is separated from a larger water body through some kind of land formation.
- Covering 70,176.4 ha., the Venetian lagoon is separated from the Adriatic Sea. A NASA image shows the red tile roofs of buildings in the Venetian Lagoon.
- According to UNESCO, temporary settlements in the 5th century gradually became permanent here, comprising land-dwelling peasants and fishermen.
Why have some Venitian canals gone dry?
- At present, the near waterless canals have disrupted everyday life in the city because they’re responsible for carrying a bulk of transportation, automobiles are banned throughout much of Venice.
- The situation has forced medical crews to tie up ambulance boats farther away from their destination.
- According to weather analysts, a high-pressure system is stuck over the city, creating low tides, which has led to low water levels. However, many say the root cause behind the issue is the drought-like situation across Italy.
What is the water crisis in Italy?
- Since last summer, the region has been seeing a severe shortage of water in its rivers and lakes.
- The Italian Alps have received nearly half of the normal snowfall during this winter.
- Meanwhile, Italy’s longest river, the Po, which travels from the Alps to the Adriatic, has 61 per cent less water than normal at this time of year. To make matters worse, Italy’s largest lake, Lake Garda, is also suffering from low water levels.
- Some experts suggest that the region hasn’t been able to recuperate from the after-effects of drought of 2022. In 2022, Italy experienced its worst drought in 70 years, with authorities declaring a state of emergency in five northern areas: Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto.
Conclusion:
- Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades regarding the impact of climate change on Italian rivers and lakes but successive governments have failed to take action,. Stefano Fenoglio, professor of zoology.
- Italy is very exposed to climate change, especially the Alpine region and facing this crisis should be a priority.
