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Category: neuroscience – Page 46

What lies ahead in the aftermath of the Technological Singularity? Could the latest scientific breakthroughs refine our theological understanding? Do we live in a simulated multiverse? Are we alone in the universe? Can we achieve cybernetic immortality? When and by what means might we transcend our human condition? These profound inquiries are at the core of this enlightening volume.

#Theogenesis #CyberneticTheoryofMind #posthumanism #consciousness #evolution #cybernetics #theosophy #futurism #SyntellectHypothesis #PhilosophyofMind #QuantumCosmology #ComputationalPhysics #PressRelease #NewBookRelease #AudibleAudiobook #AmazonKindle

Ecstadelic Media Group releases THEOGENESIS: Transdimensional Propagation & Universal Expansion, The Cybernetic Theory of Mind series by Alex M. Vikoulov as an Audible audiobook in addition to a previously released Kindle eBook (Press Release, Burlingame, CA, USA, December 21, 2024 07.17 AM PST)

Continue reading “THEOGENESIS: Humanity’s Evolution Beyond the Technological Singularity” | >

In a paper published in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness psychology researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) worked with 54 participants to examine the effects of surveillance on an essential function of human sensory perception – the ability to detect another person’s gaze.

Lead author, Associate Professor of neuroscience and behaviour Kiley Seymour, said previous research has established the effects on conscious behaviour when people know they are being watched, but the new study provided the first direct evidence that being watched also has an involuntary response.

“We know CCTV changes our behaviour, and that’s the main driver for retailers and others wanting to deploy such technology to prevent unwanted behaviour,” Associate Professor Seymour said.

However, we show it’s not only overt behaviour that changes – our brain changes the way it processes information.

We found direct evidence that being conspicuously monitored via CCTV markedly impacts a hardwired and involuntary function of human sensory perception – the ability to consciously detect a face.

Continue reading “Big brother: the effects of surveillance on fundamental aspects of social vision” | >

The innovation offers potential advancements in diagnosing conditions like arrhythmia and Alzheimer’s.

Researchers at MIT have unveiled a biosensing technique that uses tiny, wireless antennas to monitor electrical signals in biological systems with unprecedented precision.

By eliminating the need for wires and amplifiers, the innovation simplifies cellular studies, offering potential advancements in diagnosing conditions like arrhythmia and Alzheimer’s and enabling more targeted treatments.

Electrical signals are fundamental to cellular communication, yet traditional methods for measuring them are cumbersome and limited in scope.

Continue reading “MIT creates tiny antennas to track brain and heart disease signals” | >

Virtual reality headsets like the Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro will be a Christmas gift in more than one home this year.

Now mice are getting in on the action.

Researchers have developed a set of VR goggles for lab mice for use in brain studies, according to a report published recently in the journal Nature Methods.

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A groundbreaking clinical trial has revealed that nerve-stimulating therapy can bring significant improvements to people with severe, treatment-resistant depression.

Nearly 500 participants, many unable to work due to their condition, received devices that stimulate the vagus nerve—a critical connection between the brain and body. After a year, those with activated devices reported measurable improvements in symptoms, quality of life, and daily functioning.

Breakthrough in Treatment-Resistant Depression.

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There’s still so much we don’t know about Alzheimer’s disease, but the link between poor sleep and worsening disease is one that researchers are exploring with gusto.

In a study published in 2023, scientists found that using sleeping pills to get some shut-eye could reduce the build-up of toxic clumps of proteins in fluid that washes the brain clean every night.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found people who took suvorexant, a common treatment for insomnia, for two nights at a sleep clinic experienced a slight drop in two proteins, amyloid-beta and tau, that pile up in Alzheimer’s disease.

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“Facial recognition is essential to human interaction, and we were curious about how the brain processes ambiguous or incomplete facial images—especially when they’re hidden from conscious awareness. We believe understanding these mechanisms can shed light on subconscious visual processing,” said study author Makoto Michael Martinsen, a PhD student conducting research under the Visual Perception and Cognition Laboratory and the Cognitive Neurotechnology Laboratory at the Toyohashi University of Technology.

To investigate how the brain processes face-like stimuli unconsciously, the researchers used a method called Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS). In this technique, participants were presented with a dynamic series of high-contrast masking images in one eye while a target image—such as a face-like stimulus—was shown to the other eye. The rapid flashing of the mask suppressed the perception of the target image, rendering it temporarily invisible to the participant. By measuring the time it took for the target image to “break through” the suppression and reach conscious awareness, the researchers could infer how efficiently the brain processed the image.

The study included 24 participants, all university students aged 20 to 24, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. They were exposed to two types of visual stimuli: grayscale images of faces and binary images resembling faces. These binary images were created using black-and-white contrasts to simulate minimal facial features, such as contours and the general arrangement of facial elements. Each image was presented in both upright and inverted orientations to assess the impact of orientation on recognition.

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The neurobiology of learning and intelligence and synthetic neurobiology.

For The Transmitter’s first annual book, five contributing editors reflect on what subfields demand greater focus in the near future—from dynamical systems and computation to technologies for studying the human brain.

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