How you and your friends can play a video game together using only your minds In BrainNet, three people play a Tetris-like game using a brain-to-brain interface.
Researchers grow active mini-brain-networks "Because they can mimic cerebral development, cerebral organoids can be used as a substitute for the human brain to study complex developmental and neurological disorders," says corresponding author Jun Takahashi, a professor at Kyoto University. However, these studies are challenging, because current cerebral organoids lack desirable supporting structures, such as
How information is like snacks, money, and drugs -- to your brain: Researchers demonstrate common neural code for information and money; both act on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food.
Reaching and grasping: Learning fine motor coordination changes the brain Simply grasping a coffee cup needs fine motor coordination with the highest precision.This required performance of the brain is an ability that can also be learned and trained.Prof.
How old are your organs? To scientists' surprise, organs are a mix of young and old cells: Scientists discover cellular structures with extreme longevity, leading to insights for age-associated diseases "We were quite surprised to find cellular structures that are essentially as old as the organism they reside in," says Salk Vice President, Chief Science Officer Martin Hetzer, senior author and professor. "This suggests even greater cellular complexity than we previously imagined and has intriguing implications for how we think
Small cluster of neurons is off-on switch for mouse songs: With precise control, researchers could make a mouse sing or not on command In fact, they now understand these neurons well enough to be able to make a mouse sing on command or to silence it so that it can't sing, even when it wants to impress a mate.
Brain's insular cortex processes pain and drives learning from pain We've known for a while that a brain area called amygdala is important for threat learning.
Flexibility of working memory from random connections Working memory is your ability to hold things 'in mind.' It acts as a workspace in which information can be held, manipulated, and then used to guide behavior.
Meditation needs more research: Study finds 25 percent suffer unpleasant experiences The research, published in PLOS ONE, also found those who had attended a meditation retreat, those who only practiced deconstructive types of meditation, such as Vipassana (insight) and Koan practice (used in Zen Buddhism), and those with higher levels of repetitive negative thinking, were more likely to report a 'particularly
Step towards light-based, brain-like computing chip The researchers were able to demonstrate, that such an optical neurosynaptic network is able to "learn" information and use this as a basis for computing and recognizing patterns -- just as a brain can. As the system functions solely with light and not with traditional electrons, it can process data
These trippy images were designed by AI to super-stimulate monkey neurons "When given this tool, cells began to increase their firing rate beyond levels we have seen before, even with normal images pre-selected to elicit the highest firing rates," explains co-first author Carlos Ponce, then a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of senior author Margaret Livingstone at Harvard Medical School and
Magnets can help AI get closer to the efficiency of the human brain: New brain-like networks could help robots approach human-like efficiency at object recognition tasks Purdue University researchers and experts in brain-inspired computing think part of the answer may be found in magnets..
Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks: NIH study suggests our brains may use short rest periods to strengthen memories "Everyone thinks you need to 'practice, practice, practice' when learning something new.
Eelectrostimulation can improve working memory in people: As memories fade, can we supercharge them back to life? Reinhart and Nguyen's research targets working memory -- the part of the mind where consciousness lives, the part that is active whenever we make decisions, reason, and recall our grocery lists.
I feel you: Emotional mirror neurons found in the rat Why is it that we can get sad, when we see someone else crying? Why is it that we wince, when a friend cuts his finger? Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have found that the rat brain activates the same cells when they observe the pain of others