Coding Similar to Speech

Researchers used imaging techniques from the neurosciences and investigated which brain areas are activated when reading and understanding computer programs. Their amazing result: Programming is like talking. They found out that the brain regions that are most active are those that are also relevant in the processing of natural language. The findings could have far-reaching consequences in the design of programming languages, programming education, or answering fundamental questions—such as what constitutes complicated or simple program code. For the study, the team used the subtraction method, which has proven itself in neuroscience: In this method, the the subjects first work on a task in the magnetic resonance tomograph, for the solution of which they have to understand an extract of the program code. 

After a short rest period, they were asked to check a code snippet for simple syntax errors, which is a routine task for programmers, meaning it was not a question of understanding. This procedure was repeated several times. Subsequently, the images of brain activity during the processing of the routine task were subtracted from the images of the comprehension test—what remained were the brain regions that are of particular importance for the process of program comprehension. To see what happens in the brain during this process, the team used a functional magnetic resonance tomograph. The image data clearly showed activation in the test subjects' left brain areas, which are mainly associated with speech comprehension. Results could also feed back into neuroscience by discovering new cognitive processes that differ, for example, from reading comprehension and logical reasoning.

More information:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-language-brain-scans-reveal-coding.html

Next-Generation Cockroach Robot HAMR-JR

This itsy-bitsy robot can't climb up the waterspout yet but it can run, jump, carry heavy payloads and turn on a dime. Dubbed HAMR-JR, this microrobot developed by researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is a half-scale version of the cockroach-inspired Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot or HAMR. About the size of a penny, HAMR-JR can perform almost all the feats of its larger-scale predecessor, making it one of the most dexterous microrobots to date.

HAMR-JR comes in at 2.25 centimeters in body length and weighs about 0.3 grams—a fraction of the weight of an actual penny. It can run about 14 body lengths per second, making it not only one of the smallest but also one of the fastest microrobots. Scaling down does change some of the principles governing things like stride length and joint stiffness, so the researchers also developed a model that can predict locomotion metrics like running speeds, foot forces, and payload based on a target size. The model can then be used to design a system with the required specifications.

More information:

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-06-next-generation-cockroach-inspired-robot-small-mighty.html

Blind People See Shapes via Dynamic Stimulation of Visual Cortex

A US-based research team has successfully demonstrated how dynamic stimulation of the visual cortex enables blind and sighted people to see shapes, a technique that could one day be used to convey entire visual scenes to patients. Neuroscientists and neurosurgeons have long known that electrical stimulation of electrodes implanted in the visual cortex using small currents produces the perception of a small flash of light, known as a phosphene. This process could serve as the basis for a visual cortical prosthesis (VCP), a device that could restore some visual abilities to blind patients. Although some VCPs were tested in the 1960s and 1970s, they had limited effectiveness and were constrained by the technology of the time. But now a new wave of teams is attempting to produce a modern VCP, using improved electrodes and better wireless data and power transfer technology. Two such teams, based at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have carried out clinical trials and tests of a VCP device called Orion, produced by Second Sight Medical Products. 

The results show that the Orion device is a safe and effective means of providing patients with some visual experience. Instead of treating the electrodes on the array like pixels in a video display, and sending various current levels to all of them at once in an attempt to convey a particular form or shape to the patient, the device instead stimulates only the electrodes that outline the shape it is trying to convey, and stimulates them in a rapid dynamic sequence. The Orion VCP system consists of a camera, which captures an image of the visual scene in front of the patient, a visual processing unit that the subject wears on their belt and which performs some filtering of the camera image, and a transmitter worn on a headset that delivers wireless data and power to a receiving coil implanted under the skin. It also contains circuitry to handle the final conversion of signals into currents to be sent to the electrodes, as well as the electrode array itself, which consists of a flexible sheet with 60 embedded electrodes that lies on the surface of the visual cortex. Looking ahead, the team hopes to test its stimulation protocol in VCPs that have a greater number of implanted electrodes.

More information:

https://physicsworld.com/a/dynamic-stimulation-of-visual-cortex-lets-blind-people-see-shapes/