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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 630

Nov 17, 2020

Army-funded algorithm decodes brain signals responsible for behaviors

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, information science, neuroscience

Like walking and breathing and could one day allow people to control prosthetics simply by thinking…


The US Army is funding a project that could lead to brain-machine interfaces. It includes an algorithm capable of isolating brain signals and linking them to specific behaviors such as walking and breathing.

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Nov 17, 2020

Ontological Holism: The Ultimate Reality of Self-Simulating Universe, or Why We All Are One

Posted by in categories: cosmology, evolution, neuroscience

When we apprehend reality as the entirety of everything that exists including all dimensionality, all events and entities in their respective timelines, then by definition nothing exists outside of reality, not even “nothing.” It means that the first cause for reality’s existence must lie within ontological reality itself, since there is nothing outside of it. This self-causation of reality is perhaps best understood in relation to the existence of your own mind. Self-simulated reality transpires as self-evident when you relate to the notion that a phenomenal mind, which is a web of patterns, conceives a certain novel pattern and simultaneously perceives it. Furthermore, the imminent natural God of Spinoza, or Absolute Consciousness, becomes intelligible by applying a scientific tool of extrapolation to the meta-systemic phenomenon of radical emergence and treating consciousness as a primary ontological mover, the Source if you will, not a by-product of material interactions.

#OntologicalHolism #ontology #holism #cosmology #phenomenology #consciousness #mind #evolution

Nov 17, 2020

Scientists turn dreams into eerie short films with an MRI scan

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Circa 2013


A group of scientists from Kyoto has managed to successfully analyze and “record” the basic elements of what people see when they dream. The idea of recording dreams has been a mainstay in science fiction, but also a frequent goal for researchers. As Smithsonian Magazine writes, this group designed its study based on the premise that brains react to “seeing” objects with repeatable patterns that can be measured with MRI. If a machine can recognize the patterns well enough, it can reverse-engineer them, giving us a window into what’s going on inside people’s heads while they dream.

Three participants were selected for a study and asked to sleep for several three-hour blocks in an MRI scanner. Once they fell asleep, scientists woke them up and asked them to describe what they’d seen in the dream, grouping them into loose categories and sub-categories like “car,” “male,” “female,” or “dwelling.” The group then picked representations of those categories from an online image search and showed them to the participants, once again measuring their brain activity to figure out what patterns might be unique to that concept. Finally, the participants were asked to sleep again, but this time, a machine wouldn’t simply record how their brain responded to dreaming — it would attempt to match it to one of the categories with a series of images, as seen in the video below.

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Nov 17, 2020

Uh-Oh, Scientists Used Human Genes to Make Monkey Brains Bigger

Posted by in category: neuroscience

I did the worm thing so I might as well bring up the monkey thing.


In an experiment that could portend a real-life Planet of the Apes situation, scientists spliced human genes into the fetus of a monkey to substantially increase the size of the primate’s brain. And it worked.

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Nov 15, 2020

Physics can solve key challenges facing AI, study finds

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, physics, robotics/AI

These findings represent a bridge in physics, AI and neuroscience, and has the potential to advance on-the-spot decision making in AI.

Nov 15, 2020

Neuroscience studies suggest that pilots display a unique pattern of brain functional connectivity

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Pilots display a different pattern of functional connectivity in the brain, according to new research conducted in China. The new studies examined interactions and synchronized activity between different areas of the brain, and the findings suggest that pilots tend to have enhanced cognitive flexibility compared to their non-flying counterparts.

“Civil aviation is a distinctive career. Pilots work in a complex, dynamic information environment. They must be aware of all the relevant information regarding this environment and recognize their meaning and importance,” said the authors of the new research in an article published in PLOS One.

Because of the cognitive demands placed on pilots, the researchers hypothesized that they would display a different pattern of brain connectivity compared to non-pilots.

Nov 15, 2020

Researchers identify the genetic program that allows us to see in 3D

Posted by in categories: genetics, neuroscience

A group of researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences UMH-CSIC, in Alicante, led by Dr. Eloísa Herrera, has discovered a genetic program essential for the formation of bilateral circuits, such as the one that makes possible 3D vision or the one enabling motor coordination. The finding, carried out in mice, is published today in Science Advances.

This new study not only clarifies how images are transmitted from the retina to the brain in order to see in 3D, but also helps us to understand how laterality is established in other neuronal circuits, such as the one that allows us to coordinate movements at both sides of the body, Dr. Herrera explains.

The work also reveals the important role of a protein known as Zic2 in the regulation of a signaling called Wnt, which is fundamental for the correct development of the embryo and is highly conserved among species, from fruit flies to humans, including mice, in which this study has been carried out.

Nov 14, 2020

The Future of AR

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, neuroscience

AR has been a bit of a fad in recent days. However, I personally believe that it will be an integral part of our future lives- but in the form of neural implants rather than glasses or contact lenses.

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Nov 13, 2020

Astrocytes Identified as Master ‘Conductors’ of the Brain

Posted by in categories: media & arts, neuroscience

Summary: Astrocytes are involved in regulating inhibitory synapses by binding to neurons through the NrCAM adhesion molecule.

Source: Duke University

In the orchestra of the brain, the firing of each neuron is controlled by two notes–excitatory and inhibitory– that come from two distinct forms of a cellular structure called synapses. Synapses are essentially the connections between neurons, transmitting information from one cell to the other. The synaptic harmonies come together to create the most exquisite music–at least most of the time.

Nov 12, 2020

Age is decisive for positive or negative effects of the diabetes drug metformin

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

“In our current study we were able to uncover important limitations for the use of metformin as longevity medicine,” says Dr. Ermolaeva. In contrast to the positive longevity effects in young organisms that received metformin, lifespan is shortened through metformin intake at an older age. “Previous studies that provided evidence of an extended longevity by metformin usually examined animals treated with metformin from young adult or middle age until the end of life. In contrast, we have looked at treatment windows covering the entire life span, or restricted to early life or to late life”. The study also utilized a human cell culture model of replicative aging to assess human responses to metformin at a cellular level and compare them to organismal responses of the worms.

**Metformin longevity benefits are reversed with age**

The research team led by Dr. Ermolaeva found that the very same metformin treatment that prolonged life when C. elegans worms were treated at young age, was highly toxic when animals of old age were treated. Up to 80% of the population treated at old age were killed by metformin within the first 24 hours of treatment. Consistently, human primary cells demonstrated a progressive decrease in metformin tolerance as they approached replicative senescence. The researchers were able to link this detrimental phenotype to the reduced ability of old cells and old nematodes to adapt to metabolic stressors like metformin. Under these circumstances, the exact same dose of the drug that increased longevity of young-treated organisms by triggering adaptive stress responses was harmful in animals treated at old age, which were unable to activate such protective signals.

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