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Anosognosia is a condition in which a patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition. Visual anosognosia, also called Anton syndrome, is associated with complete cortical blindness and unawareness of vision loss.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, sought to identify brain network connections associated with anosognosia. The investigators analyzed the connectivity patterns of 267 lesion locations associated with either vision loss (with and without awareness) or weakness (with and without awareness).

Researchers used a recently validated technique termed lesion network mapping to test whether these lesion-induced deficits map to specific brain networks. They were able to identify distinct network connections associated with visual anosognosia and motor anosognosia as well as a shared network for awareness of these deficits.

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Henry Molaison, known for years as “H.M.,” was famously unable to form new memories. If someone he had met left the room only to return several minutes later, he would greet that person again as if for the first time. Because of surgery to treat intractable epilepsy, H M. lacked a sea-horse-shaped brain structure called the hippocampus and had amnesia. His case helped establish the hippocampus as an engine of memory.

In recent years scientists have discovered another essential deficit that burdens people with hippocampal amnesia: they can’t envision the range of possibilities that must be considered to make future plans. When researchers asked a group of people with hippocampal damage to… More.

The ability to conjure up possible futures or alternative realities is the flip side of memory. Both faculties cohabit in the brain region called the hippocampus.

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Unlike many of his peers in the artificial intelligence community, Andrew Ng isn’t convinced about the dangers of AI.

In a video posted to Twitter this week, Ng, a Stanford University professor and founder of several Silicon Valley AI startups, expressed doubt about the doomsday predictions of other executives and experts in the field.

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NASA and a team of partners has demonstrated a space-to-ground laser communication system operating at a record breaking 200 gigabit per second (Gbps) data rate. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) satellite payload was designed and built by[MIT Lincoln Laboratory]. The record of the highest data rate ever achieved by a space-to-Earth optical communication link surpasses the 100 Gbps record set by the same team in June 2022.

[NASA] and a team of partners has demonstrated a space-to-ground laser communication system operating at a record breaking 200 gigabit per second (Gbps) data rate. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) satellite payload was designed and built by [MIT Lincoln Laboratory]. The record of the highest data rate ever achieved by a space-to-Earth optical communication link surpasses the 100 Gbps record set by the same team in June 2022.

TBIRD makes passes over an ground station having a duration of about six-minutes. During that period, multiple terabytes of data can be downlinked. Each terabyte contains the equivalent of about 500 hours of high-definition video. The TBIRD communication system transmits information using modulated laser light waves. Traditionally, radio waves have been the medium of choice for space communications. Radio waves transmit data through space using similar circuits and systems to those employed by terrestrial radio systems such as WiFi, broadcast radio, and cellular telephony. Optical communication systems can generally achieve higher data rates, lower loses, and operate with higher efficiency than radio frequency systems.

Continue reading “NASA Team Sets New Space-to-Ground Laser Communication Record” | >

When interacting with another person, you likely spend part of your time trying to anticipate how they will feel about what you’re saying or doing. This task requires a cognitive skill called theory of mind, which helps us to infer other people’s beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions.

MIT neuroscientists have now designed a that can predict other people’s emotions—including joy, gratitude, confusion, regret, and embarrassment—approximating human observers’ social intelligence. The model was designed to predict the emotions of people involved in a situation based on the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic game theory scenario in which two people must decide whether to cooperate with their partner or betray them.

To build the model, the researchers incorporated several factors that have been hypothesized to influence people’s emotional reactions, including that person’s desires, their expectations in a particular situation, and whether anyone was watching their actions.

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A unique use case for AI is around enhanced transaction monitoring to help combat financial fraud. Traditional rule-based approaches to anti-money laundering (AML) use static thresholds that only capture one element of a transaction, meaning they deliver a high rate of false positives. Not only is this hugely inefficient, but it can also be very demotivating for staff. With AI, multiple factors can be reviewed simultaneously to extract a risk score and develop an intelligent understanding of what risky behavior looks like. A feedback loop based on advanced analytics means that the more data is collected, the more intelligent the solution becomes. Pinpointing financial crime becomes more efficient and employees also benefit from more free time to focus efforts on other areas of importance like strategy and business development.

Thanks to its ever-increasing applications to evolving business challenges, regulators and financial institutions can no longer turn a blind eye to the potential of AI, with the power to revolutionize the financial system. It presents unique opportunities to reduce the capacity for human error, costing highly regulated industries billions each year.

What’s clear is that some technologies will, over time, become too difficult to ignore. As we saw with the adoption of the cloud, failure to embrace innovative technologies means organizations will get left behind. The cloud was once a pipedream, but now it’s a crucial part of all business operations today. Businesses implemented (or are in the process of implementing) huge digital transformation projects to migrate business processes to the cloud. Similarly, new organizations will kickstart their businesses in the cloud. This is a lesson that technologists must remain alert and continue to keep their finger on the pulse when it comes to incorporating fresh solutions.

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One month into living under Russian occupation in northern Ukraine, Marina cycled cautiously through her village. She was five doors from her elderly parents’ blue garden gate when three soldiers ordered her to stop. Grabbing her hair, they dragged Marina into a neighbour’s empty house.

“They forced me to strip naked,” the 47-year-old said, picking at the skin around her fingernails. “I asked them not to touch me, but they said: ‘Your Ukrainian soldiers are killing us’.”

Marina paused, wiped her tears and tried to steady her shaking hands. “They were shooting their guns inches away from my head so I couldn’t move or run,” she said. “Then they started raping me.”

Weeks after a Ukrainian town is liberated, its civilians are visited by sexual violence prosecutors and asked an indirect question: “Did the Russians behave?”

Continue reading “Gang-rape and genital electrocution: How Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine could go un-prosecuted” | >

Billionaire investor Li Ka-Shing is funding a new technology that can potentially rival artificial intelligence (AI) by using brain cells blended with computers in a technology it calls DishBrain.

Peter Thiel, Mark Cuban and Warren Buffet funded early-stage startups and made millions. You don’t need to be a well-connected billionaire to do the same. Click here to invest in promising startups today.

This science fiction-sounding tech comes from Australian biotech firm Cortical Labs. The company recently raised $10 million in a round led by Horizons Ventures, the investment vehicle of the 94-year-old Ka-Shing, the richest person in Hong Kong. Additional investors included Blackbird Ventures, an Australian venture capital (VC) fund; In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency; U.S. firm LifeX Ventures; and others.

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