MetaFilter posts tagged with Neuroscience

Genes that cause depression?

mdpatrick — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:19:24 -0800

A gene variant associated with serotonin transport (STG) , and normally associated with depression is strangely more prevalent, but also less likely to induce depression in collectivistic East Asian cultures. The study took data from 29 countries, and found a consistent trend towards this same genetic variant being strongly associated with episodes of major depression in Western cultures.

Big Brother's just a beetle on the wall

scrutiny — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:54:32 -0800

Cyborg Spy Beetles are no longer a thing of the future. UC Berkeley (funded by DARPA) has created cyborg beetles guided wirelessly via laptop. These spy beetles were created with the intent of bugging actual conversations, literally acting as the "fly on the wall". This, surprisingly, doesn't seem to be a hoax. Here's some more detailed info.

The Anxious Mind

homunculus — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:16:47 -0800

Understanding the Anxious Mind. A good article on the psychology of anxiety and how an anxious temperament at birth can ebb and flow during one's lifetime. [Via]

Monkeys inform humans about walking

scrutiny — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:30:12 -0800

What can we learn from quadrapeds about our own bipedal gait? Recently, a group of researchers has taught rhesus macaques how to walk, and then used neural recordings to develop a model of a functioning brain-machine interface (BMI) designed to take the signals from your brain and use them to interface with a prosthetic leg, which would allow previously paralyzed patients to literally walk again. Here's the abstract:

The ability to walk may be critically impacted as the result of neurological injury or disease. While recent advances in brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) have demonstrated the feasibility of upper-limb neuroprostheses, BMIs have not been evaluated as a means to restore walking. Here, we demonstrate that chronic recordings from ensembles of cortical neurons can be used to predict the kinematics of bipedal walking in rhesus macaques – both offline and in real time. Linear decoders extracted 3D coordinates of leg joints and leg muscle electromyograms from the activity of hundreds of cortical neurons. As more complex patterns of walking were produced by varying the gait speed and direction, larger neuronal populations were needed to accurately extract walking patterns. Extraction was further improved using a switching decoder which designated a submodel for each walking paradigm. We propose that BMIs may one day allow severely paralyzed patients to walk again.

This is not the first time someone has trained a monkey to walk (Mori et. al 2001), but the analysis of what neural signals are required to predict the proper movement is impressive. As of yet, they have only done this in one (right) leg, but they plan to move to both in the near future. After that, I imagine it can't be too far from human trials with paraplegics. For those curious, the researchers implanted electrode arrays into M1 and S1 and typically isolated between 200-300 stable neurons per session.

A Few Strange Notes About Schizophrenia

mdpatrick — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:50:44 -0800

Here's a strange one for the books: Science has taken notice that a really, really LARGE proportion of schizophrenic patients smoke. In fact, Scientific American Mind reports that an average of 85% of schizophrenic patients smoke cigarettes compared to only 20% in the general population. Many schizophrenics also appear to have abnormal thermoregulation, an impaired ability to understand body language, an inability to perceive an optical illusion called "the hollow mask illusion," an impaired ability to produce a brain protein known as the muscarinic M1 receptor, and an abnormally large number of genetic mutations known as CNV's or "copy number variations."

The Wisdom of Salmon

Rumple — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:33:25 -0800

Functional MRI (fMRI) is a widely used technique of brain imaging in the cognitive sciences, allowing researchers to visualize what part of the brain is responding to certain stimuli, resulting in striking images of live brains. These days, fMRI is seeing more non-research use, such as forming the basis of controversial new lie detectors. Craig Bennett, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB, submitted a whole Atlantic salmon to fMRI analysis, and found that this fish could apparently detect, and respond to, the the emotional state of human beings (poster). Remarkable science, especially considering the salmon was dead at the time. Bennett's paper is an example of voodoo correlation in brain imaging studies, wherein some false positives cannot be statistically removed without removing real data as well. Basically, low probability events will occur if enough data are generated - and fMRI generates enormous amounts of data: "your average fMRI brain scan analysis can involve 40,000 comparisons, so even if there's nothing going on, some bits of the brain are going to seem active just through falsely detecting noise and measurement error as real effect." The issue seems to be that better data filtering and better reporting of raw and corrected data are needed in this field - less sexy a conclusion than emotional dead salmon, yet an important cautionary tale that the author found surprisingly difficult to get published, or even to present at a conference. [via John Hawks]

Torture Produces False Memories and Bad Intel

homunculus — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:52:46 -0800

Torturing the brain (PDF). Extreme pain and stress can actually impair a person's ability to tell the truth. [Via]

the consumption renews the appetite

nickyskye — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:33:14 -0800

Seeking - How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting.

Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia

cashman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:30:09 -0800

Neuroscientist Lise Eliot finds that claims of sex differences fall apart. In one study, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the "boys" (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the "girls" (actually boys) as happy and socially engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens. "Eliot immersed herself in hundreds of scientific papers (her bibliography runs 46 pages). Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia, she explains that assertions of innate sex differences in the brain are either "blatantly false," "cherry-picked from single studies," or "extrapolated from rodent research" without being confirmed in people. For instance, the idea that the band of fibers connecting the right and left brain is larger in women, supposedly supporting their more "holistic" thinking, is based on a single 1982 study of only 14 brains. Fifty other studies, taken together, found no such sex difference—not in adults, not in newborns. Other baseless claims: that women are hard-wired to read faces and tone of voice, to defuse conflict, and to form deep friendships; and that "girls' brains are wired for communication and boys' for aggression." Eliot's inescapable conclusion: there is "little solid evidence of sex differences in children's brains.""

Is there no problem the internet can't solve - Flickr finds only known photo of Phineas Gage

jessamyn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:43:41 -0800

While many quirky news buffs may be aware of the story of Phineas Gage -- the Vermont railroad foreman who had a three foot iron rod penetrate his skull as the result of an explosion and lived to tell about it -- fewer know that the only known photograph of him was recently discovered. Fewer still know that the identification of that photograph happened via a Flickr comment. (no thanks to you LA Times, previously) - More on Gage from the owners of the photograph - other interesting pictures from their collection - Wikipedia article on Gage - "The American Crowbar Case and nineteenth century theories of cerebral localization" - More stories like this over at Flickr Discoveries - Other cool stuff over at the Harvard Medical School's Warren Museum - obligatory slideshare deck (actually pretty interesting)

Calories are delicious

silby — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:35:52 -0800

The Neuroscience of McGriddles: Evolutionary biology offers hypotheses about why we enjoy eating. "When you eat at McDonald's, a big part of the pleasure comes from the fact that the food is sustenance, fuel, energy. Even mediocre food is a little rewarding."

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.

neuroscience and behavior videos

nickyskye — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:39:37 -0800

At Psychoanalyst TV, we aggregate psychology and neuroscience videos, and put them on our own TV channels. Its companion site, Neurological Correlates, A Neuroscience Tabloid of Dysfunctional Behavior - Mostly Psychopaths, Narcissists, Obesity and Addiction. Includes such gems as Visualizing Desire and Sadobabies - Runaways in San Francisco.

Kick, Punch, It's All in the Mind

Christ, what an asshole — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:01:08 -0800

How Music Works - UK Channel 4 documentary (~180 mins.)
Why do some rhythms get our toes tapping, while others make us feel mellow? How does a love song bring tears to our eyes? What links African drumming to J S Bach?
Part 1 - Melody (alt)
Part 2 - Rhythm (alt)
Part 3 - Harmony (alt)
Part 4 - Bass (alt)
Then: Music producer and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, shares some of his thoughts at Google Talk.

test your your brain

not_on_display — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:53:55 -0800

Test My Brain was set up by Harvard's Vision Lab and Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab. There are five tests online at the time of this post; take one and maybe you'll learn something about yourself that you may not have known (other than your special ability to slack off on MetaFilter when you should be working). At the same time, you'll be helping researchers collect data from a wide range of subjects. One of the collaborators, Professor Ken Nakayama, is also responsible for creating these online tests for faceblindness. [previously] [Disclaimer: I work at Harvard, but not in the same department; I know none of the collaborators.]

Neurobull

fcummins — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:34:47 -0800

Help, I'm a prisoner in brain fiction factory Vaughan Bell of Mind Hacks tears into popular reporting of neuroscience. Nice literacy primer. Random phrenological link.

The Neurobiology of Birdsong

homunculus — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:24:28 -0800

The universal grammar of birdsong is genetically encoded. "A new study, published online in the journal Nature, shows that the songs of isolated zebra finches evolve over multiple generations to resemble those of birds in natural colonies. These findings show that song learning in birds is not purely the product of nurture, but has a strong genetic basis, and suggest that bird song has a universal grammar, or an intrinsic structure which is present at birth."

"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."

Fat, Salt and Sugar Alter Brain Chemistry

homunculus — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:26:11 -0800

David Kessler Knew That Some Foods Are Hard to Resist; Now He Knows Why. Former FDA commissioner David Kessler goes dumpster-diving to investigate the neurological impact of eating junk food. [Via]

Neuroenhancing Drugs

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

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

The Brain-Twitter Interface

jon_hansen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:50:36 -0800

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have recently unveiled new methods to Twitter from your brain. It may not be as efficient or pragmatic as using your phone, but there's pretty cool potential in this kind of technology.

Eternal Sunshine Within Reach.

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:26:36 -0800

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory : spotless minds might be closer than we think.

X-Phi

homunculus — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:25:20 -0800

Philosophy’s great experiment. "Philosophers used to combine conceptual reflections with practical experiment. The trendiest new branch of the discipline, known as x-phi, wants to return to those days. Some philosophers don’t like it." [Via]

Neuroengineering

homunculus — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:15:04 -0800

Rewiring the Brain: Inside the New Science of Neuroengineering. Dial H for Happiness: How Neuroengineering May Change Your Brain.