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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 918

Oct 9, 2015

The Possibilities and the Future of Brain Hacking

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, robotics/AI

For all of man’s scientific and technological advances, the human brain largely remains a mystery. A new Vimeo video, “Master/Mind,” examines the state of research on the human mind and the questions that scientists, ethicists, futurists and others are asking in light of what we’re learning about the mind. The video, a Vimeo Staff Pick, consists of a series of comments from scientists, technologist, futurists and ethicists.

Automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are developing so rapidly that many people are wondering if some day, man will no longer harness science but rather be controlled by it. As this question weighs heavily on peoples’ mind, there has been a focus on understanding the human brain.

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Oct 8, 2015

Complex living brain simulation replicates sensory rat behaviour

Posted by in categories: electronics, neuroscience, supercomputing

Blue Brain Project supercomputer recreates part of rodent’s brain with 30,000 neurons connected by 40m synapses to show patterns of behaviour triggered, for example, when whiskers are touched.

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Oct 8, 2015

Our Aging World: The Striking Statistics About Dementia

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

Today, dementia affects over 46 million people worldwide, by 2050 it will affect more than 131 million people.

Global costs of dementia are estimated at $818 billion. As a result, if dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy.


Dementias are one of the most expensive diseases for the healthcare system as patients require long-term care with daily activities like washing, getting dressed and eating. It has been estimated that the US health care would save an astonishing 40 billion dollars annually if the age of onset for Alzheimer’s disease was delayed by just 5 years. The estimated annual cost of dementia worldwide is 818 billion dollars, more than the current US defence budget. By 2018 the cost may reach a trillion dollars. Remarkably, if dementia were a country, it would be the 18th largest economy on earth.

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Oct 7, 2015

Scientist: We’ve grown a nearly full human ‘mini brain’ — CNN.com

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

A Harvard medical pioneer calls it “astounding” — an “incredible achievement” and a “quantum leap forward” in the battle against cancer, autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

What’s going on? Scientists at Ohio State University say they’ve figured out a way to grow the genetic equivalent of a nearly complete embryonic human brain.

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Oct 7, 2015

‘Neural Dust’ May Let Minds Meld With Machines

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, neuroscience

This neural dust sprinkled into an individual’s brain tissue could form an “implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime.”


Earlier this month, five researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, put out a paper discussing the possible development of mind-reading “neural dust,” which could be implanted directly into the human brain to allow people to interact with machines.

The paper is what the MIT Technology Review calls a theoretical study: The idea is “littered with challenges beyond the state-of-the-art.”

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Oct 7, 2015

Alzheimer’s Cure

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

An article written by Dr Michael Fossel talking about telomerase therapy for Alzheimer’s and the work Bioviva and Telocyte are doing to beat this horrific condition.


Reversing Alzheimer’s by Lengthening Telomeres.

There are telomere lengthening compounds available right now for use in research labs. They are not currently available for human use. A group of scientists wants to test these compounds on aging humans now to see if the telomere lengthening effects will induce meaningful age reversal effects.

Telomeres in our cells shorten as we grow older and create cellular havoc that predisposes us to multiple age-related pathologies. These experimental enzymes promote telomere lengthening and in the process offer an intriguing opportunity to circumvent biological aging processes.

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Oct 7, 2015

Human mini-brains may solve cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s

Posted by in categories: aging, bioengineering, health, life extension, neuroscience
[From CNN]

Human ‘mini brains’ grown in labs may help solve cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s

mini_brain

  • Ohio State biomedical research team grows nearly complete human ‘mini brain’
  • Brain organoids can be used to learn more about diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
  • Brain organoids could yield autism breakthrough within 10 years, researcher says

| Video Source: CNN
Read the full story CNN

Oct 6, 2015

Nanobots could turn us into GODS

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, nanotechnology, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, singularity

Computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, founder of the California-based Singularity University, claims that by 2030s humans could be using nanobots to connect our brains to the cloud.

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Oct 6, 2015

Celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of book The Singularity Is Near

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, singularity, virtual reality

Ray Kurzweil’s singularity of human superintelligence is a polar opposite of the singularity described by Vinge, Hawking, and Bostrom:

“The singularity will be a merger of our bodies and minds with our technology. The world will still be human, but transcend our biological roots. There will be no distinction between human and machine, nor between physical and virtual reality.”


Dear readers,

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Oct 5, 2015

This Prosthetic Could Restore Memory In Dementia Victims

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

Memory loss is a truly devastating part of dementia, but this invention aims to fix that by bypassing the damage, and repairing long term memory.

Alzheimer’s and dementia are complex diseases, and there’s currently no effective treatment. Given the unpleasant nature of the disease, there’s an urgent need for results. Instead of taking the usual biological route, one team has constructed a prosthetic made up of a small electrode array — which can help re-encode short term memory into long term.

Built using decades of research, the device operates using a new algorithm based on accumulated neural data. New sensory information is normally translated into a quick memory and transported as an electrical signal through the hippocampus, potentially for long term storage. If this region is damaged then the process is disturbed, and new experiences fail to be encoded. Alzheimer’s patients can often remember childhood events, but struggle with recent experiences; specifically because of this hippocampal damage.

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