brain
Science
Fibre Optic Cable In Your Skull Can Reprogram Your Brain
8:30AM Jason Chen | Stanford scientists discover that by changing a mouse’s neurons to respond to light, they could use fiber optic cables to influence the mouse to do certain things. The trick is to insert plant genes into the brain first. More »
Science
Electrical Shocks Slow Down Gamers, Speed Up Parkinson’s Patients
1:20PM Rosa Golijan | Researchers somehow found volunteers willingto accept electrical shocks while playing video games. Ooookay. The study’s mostly good news though: Small zaps to the brain might help Parkinson’s patients. The bad news? They’d turn us into bad video game players. More »
Science
Krang Rejoices: Artificial Brain Ten Years Away From Reality
11:30AM Rosa Golijan | Scientists are claiming that a functional, artificial brain is only a decade away. This prediction correlates with the above chart, according to which our current computing capabilities limit us to…simulated lizard brains. More »
Games
Neurosky Brain Gaming Headset Now Has Free SDK
3:00AM Jason Chen | Remember the Neurosky mind-gaming headset we tried earlier this year? The one that actually worked? It’s getting a free SDK. More »
Toys
Mind Flex: Like Basketball, FOR YOUR BRAIN
1:52AM Mark Wilson | Putting a ball through a hoop is no big deal, unless you’re using your brain to do it. More »
Science
Amazing DSI Brain Scanning Visualises Your Mind’s Inner Workings In 3D
5:00AM John Mahoney | What’s that monkey thinking about when he’s mushing down that banana or tossing faeces at you? Well, you’re looking at it–this is a map of where a macaque’s thoughts live. It’s made possible by new 3D visualisation algorithms developed by neuroscientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston which render a brain’s billions of individual neuron connections in full-colour 3D, with each visible strand representing several tens of thousands of the too-small-to-image neural pathways. It’s all done by simply applying new processing to existing MRI scan data, and thankfully, it works on human brains too. galleryPost('dsiscan', 5, ''); More »
Gadgets
Brainwave Binoculars Will Pick Out The Things You Looked At, But Didn’t See
9:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Pentagon gadget lab DARPA has just earmarked US$6.7 million to develop “brain-wave binoculars.” Electrodes placed on the user’s scalp records electrical brain activity in an attempt to use the cranium’s unrivaled ability to spot patterns. With time, the binoculars can learn to identify objects that would normally pique the user’s interest and direct them towards it. The binoculars are supposed to help soldiers out in the field by pointing out tanks or enemy combatants that they may have seen, but not noticed. More »
Science
Psychic Computer Sees Words Inside Your Brain
2:15AM Wilson Rothman | Computer science is definitely reaching the danger zone when actual words can be spotted using MRI scans. In the image above, researchers from the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh predict what the words “celery” and “airplane” look like when someone thinks of them, and then they compare the prediction to actual brain scans, with frightening similarity. The study was “calibrated” with nine students, each thinking of 58 different words. Tom Mitchell, one of the lead researchers, told Reuters the goal is to determine how the brain organises information, but how do we know Dr. Mitchell won’t abuse this newfound power by, say, winning a billion dollars on Jeopardy? We don’t, is my point. [Reuters] More »
Science
Scientists Working on Matrix-esque Brain-Computer Interface
10:20PM Gizmodo US Edition | A team at Caltech is working on a MEMS-based robot probe that will be able to slowly creep electrodes into your brain to connect up to specific neurons. Creepy indeed, but with potential uses for advanced control of prosthetic limbs, Luke Skywalker-style. But the idea has greater potential for “state-of-the-art experimental techniques for electrophysiology.” according to team-leader Michael Wolf. And that’s just got me picturing the neural probes of The Matrix. More »
Science
