Computers Mimic the Function of the Brain

Researchers are always searching for improved technologies, but the most efficient computer possible already exists. It can learn and adapt without needing to be programmed or updated. It has nearly limitless memory, is difficult to crash, and works at extremely fast speeds. It's not a Mac or a PC; it's the human brain. And scientists around the world want to mimic its abilities. Both academic and industrial laboratories are working to develop computers that operate more like the human brain. Instead of operating like a conventional, digital system, these new devices could potentially function more like a network of neurons.

A team of Northwestern researchers have accomplished a new step forward in electronics that could bring brain-like computing closer to reality. The team's work advances memory resistors, or ‘memristors’, which are resistors in a circuit that remember how much current has flowed through them. They are using single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a thin 2D nanomaterial semiconductor. Much like the way fibers are arranged in wood, atoms are arranged in a certain direction (called grains) within a material. The sheet of MoS2 that they used has a well-defined grain boundary, which is the interface where two different grains come together.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150406153036.htm

Thought Controlled Genes

People can control prosthetic limbs, computer programs and even remote-controlled helicopters with their mind, all by using brain-computer interfaces. What if we could harness this technology to control things happening inside our own body? A team of bioengineers in Switzerland has taken the first step toward this cyborglike setup by combining a brain-computer interface with a synthetic biological implant, allowing a genetic switch to be operated by brain activity. It is the world's first brain-gene interface. The group started with a typical brain-computer interface, an electrode cap that can register subjects' brain activity and transmit signals to another electronic device. In this case, the device is an electromagnetic field generator; different types of brain activity cause the field to vary in strength. The next step, however, is totally new—the experimenters used the electromagnetic field to trigger protein production within human cells in an implant in mice. The implant uses a cutting-edge technology known as optogenetics.

 

The researchers inserted bacterial genes into human kidney cells, causing them to produce light-sensitive proteins. Then they bioengineered the cells so that stimulating them with light triggers a string of molecular reactions that ultimately produces a protein called secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP), which is easily detectable. They then placed the human cells plus an LED light into small plastic pouches and inserted them under the skin of several mice. Human volunteers wearing electrode caps either played Minecraft or meditated, generating moderate or large electromagnetic fields, respectively, from a platform on which the mice stood. The field activates the implant's infrared LED, which triggers the production of SEAP. The protein then diffuses across membranes in the implant into the mice's bloodstream. Playing Minecraft produced moderate levels of SEAP in the mice's bloodstream, and meditating produced high levels. A third type of mental control, known as biofeedback, involved the volunteers watching the light, thereby turning SEAP production on or off.

More information:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/thought-controlled-genes-could-someday-help-us-heal/?WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook

Poverty Shrinks Brains from Birth

The stress of growing up poor can hurt a child’s brain development starting before birth, research suggests—and even very small differences in income can have major effects on the brain. Researchers have long suspected that children’s behaviour and cognitive abilities are linked to their socioeconomic status, particularly for those who are very poor. The reasons have never been clear, although stressful home environments, poor nutrition, exposure to industrial chemicals such as lead and lack of access to good education are often cited as possible factors.

 

A team led by neuroscientists Kimberly Noble from Columbia University in New York City and from Children's Hospital Los Angeles, California, looked into the biological underpinnings of these effects. They imaged the brains of 1,099 children, adolescents and young adults in several US cities. Because people with lower incomes in the United States are more likely to be from minority ethnic groups, the team mapped each child’s genetic ancestry and then adjusted the calculations so that the effects of poverty would not be skewed by the small differences in brain structure between ethnic groups.

More information:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poverty-shrinks-brains-from-birth1/?WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook

Biofeedback Enhanced Horror Game

Nevermind is unrelated to a certain moody Washington grunge band, and actually has much more in common with Jennifer Lopez's adventures in the mind of a serial killer. It's a puzzle-horror descent into the psyche of traumatized clinic patients. The catch of the game is that it consists of difficulty scales with how scared you are.

 

Using biofeedback from a heart rate sensor, Nevermind constructs a horror scenario where calmness makes it easier to navigate mental mazes of giant, screaming heads and flailing body bags. Succumb to the fear, and things start turning ugly. The goal is stronger stress control for real-life situations, presumably until we're all reacting to frightening things with an inquisitive.

More information:

http://www.pcgamer.com/nevermind-biofeedback-horror/

Virtual Nose Eliminates Simulation Sickness in VR

Simulator sickness or simulation sickness is a common phenomenon in virtual reality games. While playing these games, people sometimes face nausea and vertigo. These side effects are stopping virtual reality to become a mainstream technology. However, new findings have come up which could ease this problem. Simulator sickness is caused by many physiological systems like a person’s overall sense of position and touch, muscles controlling eye-movements and liquid-filled tubes in the ear.

Studies have suggested that simulation sickness is not as severe when fixed visual reference objects are included in the games, like an airplane’s cockpit or a car’s dashboard, which are situated within the point of view of the users. Keeping this finding in mind, the idea of inserting a virtual nose in the VR games, struck. Researchers from Purdue University found out that this helped in reducing motion sickness in VR games.

More information:

http://www.augmentedrealitytrends.com/virtual-reality/virtual-nose.html

After Learning New Words, Brain Sees Them As Pictures

When we look at a known word, our brain sees it like a picture, not a group of letters needing to be processed. That's the finding from a Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) study which shows the brain learns words quickly by tuning neurons to respond to a complete word, not parts of it. Neurons respond differently to real words, such as turf, than to nonsense words, such as turt, showing that a small area of the brain is holistically tuned to recognize complete words. People are not recognizing words by quickly spelling them out or identifying parts of words, as some researchers have suggested. Instead, neurons in a small brain area remember how the whole word looks—using what could be called a visual dictionary.

This small area in the brain is found in the left side of the visual cortex, opposite from the fusiform face area on the right side, which remembers how faces look. One area is selective for a whole face, allowing us to quickly recognize people, and the other is selective for a whole word, which helps us read quickly. The study asked 25 adult participants to learn a set of 150 nonsense words. The brain plasticity associated with learning was investigated with fMRI-rapid adaptation, both before and after training. The investigators found that the visual word form area changed as the participants learned the nonsense words. Before training the neurons responded like the training words were nonsense words, but after training the neurons responded to the learned words like they were real words.

More information:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-words-brain-pictures.html