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Mapmaking in the mind: new research details how the brain builds mental maps of the world

To see how cognitive maps form in the brain, researchers used a Janelia-designed, high-resolution microscope with a large field of view to image neural activity in thousands of neurons in the hippocampus of a mouse as it learned. Credit: Sun and Winnubst et al.

Our brains build maps of the environment that help us understand the world around us, allowing us to think, recall, and plan. These maps not only help us to, say, find our room on the correct floor of a hotel, but they also help us figure out if we’ve gotten off the elevator on the wrong floor.

Neuroscientists know a lot about the activity of neurons that make up these maps – like which cells fire when we’re in a particular location. But how the brain creates these maps as we learn remains a mystery.

The Entangled Mind: Could Quantum Phenomena Explain Consciousness?

Read “” by Sebastian Schepis on Medium.


Imagine a world where thoughts aren’t confined to the brain, but instantly shared across a vast network of neurons, transcending the limits of space and time. This isn’t science fiction, but a possibility hinted at by one of the most puzzling aspects of quantum physics: entanglement.

Quantum entanglement, famously dubbed spooky action at a distance by Einstein, describes a phenomenon where two or more particles become intrinsically linked. They share a quantum state, no matter how far apart they are. Change one entangled particle, and its partner instantly reacts, even across vast distances.

This property, which troubled Einstein, has been repeatedly confirmed through experiments, notably by physicist John Clauser and his colleagues, who received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work on quantum entanglement.

A Nose-Computer Interface Could Turn Dogs Into Super Detectors

Thanks to their excellent smelling ability, dogs have been used for hundreds of years to hunt down wild game and search for criminals. At airports, they help identify explosives and illicit drugs. In disaster situations, they can rescue survivors and find human remains.

But each dog can only be trained to detect one class of odor compounds, which limits the range of smells it’s able to detect. Training costs tens of thousands of dollars and takes several months. For Florida startup Canaery, the solution is merging canines with neurotechnology to allow them to detect everything from bombs and other contraband to human diseases and environmental toxins—no specialized training needed.

New(ish): Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science

The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (OECS) is a free, online collection of multidisciplinary peer-reviewed articles on various topics in cognitive science. Officially launched last August by MIT Press, the OECS is a successor to the MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. It currently has around 80 articles, with more to come, on topics such as: Social Epistemology by Mandi Astola and Mark Alfano The Mind-Body Problem by Tim Crane Bodily Sensations by Frédérique de Vignemont Personal/Subpersonal Distinction by Zoe Drayson Conceptual Analysis by Frank Jackson Natural Kinds by Muhammad Ali Khalidi Cognitive Ontology by Colin Klein Free Will by Neil Levy Experimental Philosophy by Edouard Machery Metacognition by Joëlle Proust …to pick just ten. The editors of OECS are Michael C. Frank of Stanford University and Asifa Majid of the University of Oxford. You can check it out here.

Divorce can be predicted by interactions between cultural and personal values, study finds

Divorce, the legal dissolution of marriage, can be driven by a variety of factors, ranging from changes in the economic status or health conditions of spouses to contrasting values. The end of a marriage can often be challenging to process. Thus, it can have adverse effects on the well-being and mental health of ex-spouses.

On average, the rates of worldwide have increased over the past century. Improved understanding of the primary factors that prompt people to dissolve a marriage could help to devise more effective couples and marriage counseling strategies, potentially contributing to a reduction in divorce rates.

Sari Mentser and Lilach Sagiv, two researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recently carried out a study specifically exploring the relationship between people’s values and divorce. Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that interaction between spouses’ cultural and can predict divorce.

Korean team unveils fine structure of magnons for neuromorphic devices

A Korean research team has succeeded in securing a basic technology for further improving the completeness level of neuromorphic devices. Their paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science observed the fine structure of the magnon, which is attracting attention as a key material for neuromorphic devices. As areas that are approximately 1,000 times finer than before were observed successfully, it is expected that the results will enable the design of more sophisticated neuromorphic devices.

Neuromorphic devices are next-generation semiconductors designed to mimic the structure of the human brain. They process information by mimicking the way neurons generate signals and transmit them to other neurons through synapses.

Lost for Words? Scientists Decode the Brain’s Hidden Speech Signals

The first step in this process is determining where in the brain the BCI should record from to decode someone’s intended speech.

Currently, BCI devices are only used on individuals with paralysis from ALS or stroke in the brainstem, which leaves them unable to move or communicate. In these patients, BCIs record signals from the frontal lobe. But Broca’s aphasia, which most often affects people after a stroke or brain tumor, results from damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, where speech production and parts of language are processed. So, to help patients with Broca’s aphasia, scientists would likely need to record signals from other areas of the brain.

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