MetaFilter posts tagged with Brain and science

The "boy-killing, man-mutilating, money-making, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport."

phrontist — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:55:54 -0800

Does american football unavoidably lead to brain damage over time? Does a culture favoring perseverance at the expense of well being begin in high school?

The undiscovered cortex

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:40:57 -0800

Why is your brain wrinkled?

a pink sliver of rat brain sat in a beaker

kliuless — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:21:07 -0800

The simulated brain - "The scientists behind Blue Brain hope to have a virtual human brain functioning in ten years... Dr. Markram began by collecting detailed information about the rat's NCC, down to the level of genes, proteins, molecules and the electrical signals that connect one neuron to another. These complex relationships were then turned into millions of equations, written in software. He then recorded real-world data -- the strength and path of each electrical signal -- directly from rat brains to test the accuracy of the software." Is it possible to digitally simulate a brain accurately? Can it only be analog? And are there quantum effects to be considered? (previously 1 2 3 4) + some other AI/brain robot projects:

Blue Brain is controversial, and its success is far from assured. Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology, a scientist who studies consciousness, says the Swiss project provides vital data about how part of the brain works. But he says that Dr. Markram's approach is still missing algorithms, the biological programming that yields higher-level functions... Despite the challenges, the push to understand, replicate and even re-enact higher behaviors in the brain has become one of the hottest areas of neuroscience. With the help of a $4.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, IBM is working on a separate project with five U.S. universities to build a tiny, low-power microchip that simulates the behavior of one million neurons and ten billion synapses. The goal, says IBM, is to develop brainy computers that can better predict the behavior of complex systems, such as weather or the financial markets. The Chinese government has provided about $1.5 million to a team at Xiamen University to create artificial-brain robots with microcircuits that evolve, learn and adapt to real-world situations. Similarly, Jeff Krichmar and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, Calif., have built an artificial-brain robot that learns to sharpen its visual perception when moving around in a lab environment, another form of emergent behavior, a form of spontaneous self-organization. And researchers at Sensopac, a project backed by a grant of €6.7 million ($9.3 million) from the European Union, have built part of an artificial mouse brain.

BONUS MEMRISTORS - Memristor Minds, the Future of Artificial Intelligence - New Memristor Makes Low-Cost, High-Density Memory - Spintronic Memristors - The Mysterious Memristor - Understanding Memristors - "in which the memristor would be used as an analog device"*

Neurosecurity

homunculus — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:29:23 -0800

Neurosecurity: security and privacy for neural devices. "An increasing number of neural implantable devices will become available in the near future due to advances in neural engineering. This discipline holds the potential to improve many patients' lives dramatically by offering improved—and in some cases entirely new—forms of rehabilitation for conditions ranging from missing limbs to degenerative cognitive diseases. The use of standard engineering practices, medical trials, and neuroethical evaluations during the design process can create systems that are safe and that follow ethical guidelines; unfortunately, none of these disciplines currently ensure that neural devices are robust against adversarial entities trying to exploit these devices to alter, block, or eavesdrop on neural signals. The authors define 'neurosecurity'—a version of computer science security principles and methods applied to neural engineering—and discuss why neurosecurity should be a critical consideration in the design of future neural devices." [Via Mind Hacks]

I await Trepanation with great Trepidation.

phrontist — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:01:21 -0800

We've discussed trepanation, the boring of holes in the head as practiced in antiquity and by a fringe do it yourself-ers, before. There now seems to be research indicating that the procedure may have medical merit, and even help stave off age related cognitive decline. This curious research brought to you by the Beckly Foundation which "promotes the investigation of consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective" and has a sweet logo.

Wait, wait, I almost have it!

CaptKyle — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:22:45 -0800

Why do we get "tip of the tongue" moments?? We’ve all experienced the tip of the tongue moment where we wanted to say something but just couldn’t remember the word. But what causes this momentary lapses in vocabulary?

"Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will."

amyms — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:47:14 -0800

There are times when having a fully developed brain can almost seem like an impediment. Are babies more aware of the world around them than adults are? Can "thinking like a baby" lead us to be more in tune with our creativity and our ability to learn? Scientists have taken a new look inside the baby mind, which is "unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does."

Neuroenhancing Drugs

homunculus — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:15:14 -0800

Brain Gain: The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs. [Via]

Life Through the Lens

netbros — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:00:11 -0800

Microscope Imaging Station opens a door to the wonder of the microscopic world and allows the layman to explore it. They seek to recreate some of the excitement and wonder that the earliest biological researchers found. Features include cells with potential as well as bad oogy. The microscopic Galleries are inhabited by zygotes and organelles.

The Genomic Self

homunculus — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:48:16 -0800

My Genome, My Self: Steven Pinker considers what we can expect from personal genomics. Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes: Carl Zimmer looks at the hunt to learn about the role of genes in intelligence.

The Beautiful Mind

homunculus — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:18:20 -0800

The Beautiful Mind. An online gallery of neuroscience photographs. [Via]

Dreaming is a private thing.

teraflop — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:47:59 -0800

A team of researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto have managed to reconstruct black-and-white visual images from an fMRI scan of a test subject's brain. Some more examples of the recovered data. The organization responsible claims that the technology to record thoughts and dreams is just around the corner. The paper, "Visual Image Reconstruction from Human Brain Activity using a Combination of Multiscale Local Image Decoders", is the cover article of the December 10 issue of the journal Neuron. [via]

Diffusion spectrum imaging

srboisvert — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:10:25 -0800

The Brain Unveiled: A new imaging method offers a spectacular view of neural structures. Diffusion spectrum imaging, developed by neuroscientist Van Wedeen at Massachusetts General Hospital, analyzes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in new ways, letting scientists map the nerve fibers that carry information between cells.

I have no idea what perceptual insight is, but this is pretty interesting

TheDonF — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:29:34 -0800

An Introduction to Sine-Wave Speech Play the first sound and you'll probably hear nothing but squeaks and bleeps. Play the second one and then go back to the first. Cool!

Neural Correlates of Hate

homunculus — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:21:20 -0800

Brain's 'Hate Circuit' Identified. "People who view pictures of someone they hate display activity in distinct areas of the brain that, together, may be thought of as a 'hate circuit', according to new research by scientists at UCL (University College London)."

I Contain Multitudes

homunculus — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:00:10 -0800

First Person Plural. "An evolving approach to the science of pleasure suggests that each of us contains multiple selves—all with different desires, and all fighting for control. If this is right, the pursuit of happiness becomes even trickier. Can one self bind another self if the two want different things? Are you always better off when a Good Self wins? And should outsiders, such as employers and policy makers, get into the fray?" [Via]

Wilder Penfield

homunculus — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:15:39 -0800

Wilder Penfield, Neural Cartographer.

The Limits of fMRI

homunculus — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:20:54 -0800

Picturing our thoughts. "We're looking for too much in brain scans." [Via]

Dalek prototype

homunculus — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:50:28 -0800

Rise of the rat-brained robots. [Via]

I sense you want to plead the 5th

Gyan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:42:06 -0800

For the first time in the Indian state of Maharashtra, life sentences were meted out based on the findings of Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature(BEOS) profiling. "During BEOS profiling, an accused is asked not to give answers verbally; experiential knowledge is retrieved from his brain. ... The technique detects and differentiates whether the accused was actually involved in committing a crime or only learnt of it. It helps in the reconstruction of events." The developer of the technique appeared on the BBC Radio show All in the Mind a PubMed search turned up nothing

Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts

socalsamba — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:33:34 -0800

IQ might not be as static as science originally believed.

"I very seldom tell anyone what I actually do, because you just don't know who you are talking to."

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:14:22 -0800

"The Guardian has been granted exclusive and unfettered access to one of the most controversial research facilities at a British university." Caring or cruel? Inside the primate laboratory. Audio slideshow. A necessary evil - Colin Blakemore. Wise monkeys - Gill Langley.

MettaFilter

homunculus — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:12:50 -0800

"Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation" (PDF). A recent article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences on the neuroscience of meditation, focusing on how meditation alters and sharpens the brain's attention systems. The research is being done at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior (previously), who have also recently published research on the "Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation" (PDF), which describes how meditation can cultivate compassion by physically affecting brain regions that play a role in empathy. They shared this research with the Dalai Lama at the recent Seeds of Compassion forum.

Blue Brain

homunculus — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:42:02 -0800

Out of the Blue: "Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?"

Children's Hospital Boston

homunculus — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:54:59 -0800

Interactive Features at the Children's Hospital Boston's Website. [Via Mind Hacks.]