MIT Scientist Captures 90,000 Hours of Video of His Son’s First Words, Graphs It
Cognitive scientist Deb Roy blew the curve for Flip cam-packing proud pops. Since he and his wife brought their son home from the hospital, Roy has captured his every movement and word with a series of fisheye-lens cameras installed in every room. The purpose was to understand how we learn language.
Full Story: FastCompany
Our ability to ignore some, but not other stimuli, allows us to focus our attention and improve our performance on a specific task. The ability to respond to visual stimuli during a visual task hinges on altered brain processing of responses within the visual cortex at the back of the brain, where visual information is first received from the eyes. How this occurs was recently demonstrated by an international team of researchers led by Justin Gardner at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Wako.
Full Story: Science Daily
Nodding off in class may not be such a bad idea after all. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that going to sleep shortly after learning new material is most beneficial for recall.
Full Story: Science Daily
What characterizes many people with depression, schizophrenia and some other mental illnesses is anhedonia: an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences……Exactly why this happens is unclear. But new research led by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine may have literally shined a light on the answer, one that could lead to the discovery of new mental health therapies
Full Story: Science Daily
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Researchers Trigger Memories by Stimulating Individual Neurons:
MIT researchers have shown, for the first time ever, that memories are stored in specific brain cells. By triggering a small cluster of neurons, the researchers were able to force the subject to recall a specific memory. By removing these neurons, the subject would lose that memory.
As you can imagine, the trick here is activating individual neurons, which are incredibly small and not really the kind of thing you can attach electrodes to. To do this, the researchers used optogenetics, a bleeding edge sphere of science that involves the genetic manipulation of cells so that they’re sensitive to light. These modified cells are then triggered using lasers; you drill a hole through the subject’s skull and point the laser at a small cluster of neurons.
(via MIT discovers the location of memories: Individual neurons | ExtremeTech)
via joshbyard:
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John K. Mullen, hbr.org
If you’re a digital native, you should be aware that the internet may have partially rewired your brain in such a way that when you meet people face to face, you’re less capable of figuring out what they’re thinking.
No, I’m not joking. There’s …
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First step toward creating a 3D artificial brain | KurzweilAI
Nerve cells growing on a three-dimensional nanocellulose scaffold. Functioning synapses are yellow; the red spots show where synapses have been destroyed (credit: Philip Krantz, Chalmers)
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have taken the first step in creating a three-dimensional model of the brain by attaching neurons to a positively charged nanocellulose scaffold.
The purpose is to understand Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease better, for example.
Nitrocellulose (microfibrillated cellulose) is obtained from plant materials, such as woodpulp.
‟Pores can be created in nanocellulose, which allows nerve cells to grow in a three-dimensional matrix. This makes it extra comfortable for the cells and creates a realistic cultivation environment that is more like a real brain compared with a three-dimensional cell cultivation well,” says Paul Gatenholm, Professor of Biopolymer Technology at Chalmers.
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In a study published last year, S. Adam Brasel and James Gips studied the behavior of TV use when a computer was also present:
Media Multitasking Behavior: Concurrent Television and Computer Usage - Brasel and Gips, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Changes in the…
Shyness may be the result of deficits in two areas of the brain, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. Extremely shy or inhibited individuals are typically slow to acclimate to new people.
Paul Higgins: I think that we have to be really careful in these sorts of areas in confusing the ideas of a disease with a range of behaviours or states along a continuum of normal human behaviour. Having been a shy child myself, and still tending towards the shy and introverted side of the spectrum (although a lot of people would not pick that up) I think it is important that when seeking to understand how the brain works we do not categorise people as abnormal just because they are not average.
Full Story: Science Daily
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