December 28, 2008 by sean.

LiveScience.com explores brain prosthetics, artificial cells, regrown bone, wearbale kidneys and even new corpora cavernosa [you’ll have to look it up] in Top 10 Technologies for the Bionic Human.

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December 28, 2008 by sean.

Dr. Jerald Block writes in the latest issue of the American Journal Of Psychiatry that “people who send large numbers of text messages and emails may have a mental disorder” [via smh.com.au]:

“[I]nternet addiction” was a “common disorder” that deserved inclusion in a manual of mental disorders used by health professionals.

Those with the condition suffered withdrawal symptoms of anger and tension when a computer was inaccessible, and often lost their sense of time through excessive use… Other symptoms included feeling “the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use”, and having arguments, lying, social isolation and fatigue.”

Posted in science, pervasive computing | No Comments »

December 28, 2008 by sean.

Allen Institute for Brain Science encouraging open collaboration and personal philantropy re: brain research [via economist.com]:

Clearly the model of providing a freely accessible database is a successful one. In a sense, we have challenged other researchers to offer greater access to their findings. Will they take the challenge? My bet is that over the next 18 months we are going to see more open access and more collaboration.

In the next decade we will make great strides in uncovering the complex network of gene interactions that govern every major brain disease and will create effective therapies through traditional drug discovery or new methods for modifying gene activity. Just as the use of cardiac pacemakers or artificial knees is common today, a new generation of implantable pacemakers for the brain will be widely used to treat everything from depression to addiction and Parkinson’s disease.

Our increasing knowledge will shed light on how information is processed and stored in the human brain at a molecular level. Even now, scientists are already mimicking the brain’s information-processing capabilities to create a new generation of computer processes. We are going to get far better at this as our understanding of the brain improves.

Private philanthropy will continue to grow and help to accelerate scientific discovery. I believe we are nearing a tipping-point in brain research where the discoveries, treatments and cures will come more quickly than the questions. Private dollars, combined with broader adoption of open collaboration and data-sharing models, will help push us over the top. Success will follow.

Posted in science, neuroscience, collective intelligence, social networks | No Comments »

December 26, 2008 by sean.

Researchers at Northwestern University show that insufficient glucose may be tied to Alzheimers [via livescience.com]:

[W]hen the brain doesn’t get enough of the simple sugar called glucose — as might occur when cardiovascular disease restricts blood flow in arteries to the brain — a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer’s…

“This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s,” Vassar said.

The best ways to improve blood flow to the brain and thereby reduce the chances of getting Alzheimer’s is to reduce cholesterol intake, manage high blood pressure and exercise, especially entering mid-life.

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December 26, 2008 by sean.

New findings re: regeneration of brain tissue [via dailygalaxy.com]:

Contrary to popular belief, recent studies have found that there are probably ways to regenerate brain matter.

Animal studies conducted at the National Institute on Aging Gerontology Research Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for example, have shown that both calorie restriction and intermittent fasting along with vitamin and mineral intake, increase resistance to disease, extend lifespan, and stimulate production of neurons from stem cells.

In addition, fasting \ has been shown to enhance synaptic elasticity, possibly increasing the ability for successful re-wiring following brain injury. These benefits appear to result from a cellular stress response, similar in concept to the greater muscular regeneration that results from the stress of regular exercise.

Physical exercise may also have beneficial effects on neuron regeneration by stimulating regeneration of brain and muscle cells via activation of stress proteins and the production of growth factors. But again, additional research suggests that not all exercise is equal. Interestingly, some researchers found that exercise considered drudgery was not beneficial in neuronal regeneration, but physical activity that was engaged in purely for fun, even if equal time was spent and equal calories were burned, resulted in neuronal regeneration.

Exercise can also help reduce stress, but any stress-reducing activity, such as meditation and lifestyle changes, can help the brain. There is some evidence that chronic stress shrinks the parts of the brain involved in learning, memory, and mood. (It also delays wound healing, promotes atherosclerosis, and increases blood pressure.)

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December 23, 2008 by sean.

A team of international brain researchers report on “so-called blindsight, the native ability to sense things using the brain’s primitive, subcortical — and entirely subconscious — visual system” [via New York Times].

Scientists have previously reported cases of blindsight in people with partial damage to their visual lobes. The new report is the first to show it in a person whose visual lobes — one in each hemisphere, under the skull at the back of the head — were completely destroyed. The finding suggests that people with similar injuries may be able to recover some crude visual sense with practice…

Scientists have long known that the brain digests what comes through the eyes using two sets of circuits. Cells in the retina project not only to the visual cortex — the destroyed regions in this man — but also to subcortical areas, which in T. N. were intact. These include the superior colliculus, which is crucial in eye movements and may have other sensory functions; and, probably, circuits running through the amygdala, which registers emotion…

In time, and with practice, people with brain injuries may learn to lean more heavily on such subconscious or semiconscious systems, and perhaps even begin to construct some conscious vision from them.

“It’s not clear how sharp it would be,” Dr. Held said. “Probably a vague, low-resolution spatial sense. But it might allow them to move around more independently.”

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December 23, 2008 by sean.

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December 23, 2008 by sean.

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December 20, 2008 by sean.

Colorado Springs doctor finds a small foot and intestines inside the brain of a newborn [via denverchannel.com]:

Dr. Paul Grabb, a pediatric brain surgeon, said he was surprised when he discovered a small foot growing inside the brain of 3-day-old Sam Esquibel.

“The foot literally popped out of the brain,” Grabb told TheDenverChannel Wednesday.

The appendage threatened the newborn’s life.

When Grabb performed the life-saving surgery at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs, he was in for another surprise: he also found what appeared to be parts of an intestine in the folds of the infant’s tiny brain, in addition to another developing foot, hand and thigh.

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December 19, 2008 by sean.

This process is the mechanism by which the brain regulates these networks from uncontrolled growth, however; as a consequence, the central nervous system is unable to reorganize itself in response to injury or disease.

New research suggests that re-generation of neurons may not weaken with age, rather the protien capain may hinder re-growth [via xxx]:

“This discovery is exciting because we now know that neurons haven’t lost their capacity to re-grow connections, but instead are under constant repression by the protein calpain,” says Ana Mingorance-Le Meur, postdoctoral fellow in [The University of British Columbia’s] Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, who has led the investigation along with UBC Professor Timothy O’Connor. “If we can target therapies that block this mechanism, then neurons should be able to sprout new connections, therefore stimulating the brain’s ability to repair its wiring network.”

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December 18, 2008 by sean.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists building a “cognitive computer” [via physorg.com]:

The idea is to create a computer capable of sorting through multiple streams of changing data, to look for patterns and make logical decisions…

There’s another requirement: The finished cognitive computer should be as small as a the brain of a small mammal and use as little power as a 100-watt light bulb. It’s a major challenge. But it’s what our brains do every day…

(T)he ideal artificial brain will need to be plastic, meaning it is capable of changing as it learns from experience. The design will likely convey information using electrical impulses modeled on the spiking neurons found in mammal brains. And advances in nanotechnology should allow a small artificial brain to contain as many artificial neurons as a small mammal brain.

Posted in innovation, neuroscience, learning theory, software | No Comments »

December 18, 2008 by sean.

Interesting–yet polemical–article on scientists who advocate use of “cognitive-enhancing drugs” [via mercatornet]:

Nature conducted an informal survey earlier this year which found that about one in five scientists was using them for help in concentrating or memorising. Although most did not use stimulants, 80 percent defended the right to use them.

Dr Campbell and his colleagues calmly counter and dismiss the obvious objections to their zany proposal: that these drugs are not safe, that parents will force feed their children, that peer pressure will compel people to use them, that poor people can’t afford them and so on. Like all new technologies, cognitive enhancement can be used well or poorly. We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function, they explain.

Even though a couple of the authors have links to pharmaceutical companies, their ultimate goal is not making money by marketing a Viagra for the brain. Some of the enhancements they propose are not drugs at all, but other new technologies like brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips. Rather, it is to promote the notion of human enhancement, or as it is sometimes called, transhumanism. One of the article’s co-authors is a British transhumanist, John Harris, who seems to have been anointed as Nature’s house ideologue. A sign of the increasing credibility of this idea is that he was described recently by the London Times as one of the “top fifty people who influence the way we eat, exercise and think about ourselves” and one of the world’s top three bioethicists.

Posted in neuroscience, augmented cognition | No Comments »

December 17, 2008 by sean.

“(A) European endeavor called the Nepomuk Project will soon see the effort take new steps onto the PC in the form of a ‘semantic desktop‘…software that can spot meaningful connections between the files on a computer (by generating) semantic information by using ‘crawlers’ to go through a computer and annotate as many files as possible. These crawlers look through a user’s address book, for example, and search for files related to the people found in there. Nepomuk can then connect a file sent by a particular person with one related to the company that person works for.”

Posted in innovation, software | No Comments »

December 14, 2008 by sean.

Posted in science, user-created content, social networks | No Comments »

December 14, 2008 by sean.

“British archaeologists have unearthed an ancient skull carrying a startling surprise — an unusually well-preserved brain. Scientists said Friday that the mass of gray matter was more than 2,000 years old — the oldest ever discovered in Britain. One expert unconnected with the find called it ‘a real freak of preservation.’” [via Yahoo News]

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December 13, 2008 by sean.

University of Illinois research on the effects of video games on cognitive functions [via Medical News Today]:

A desire to rule the world may be a good thing if you’re over 60 and worried about losing your mental faculties. A new study found that adults in their 60s and 70s can improve a number of cognitive functions by playing a strategic video game that rewards nation-building and territorial expansion….

There was a correlation between their performance on the game and their improvement on certain cognitive tests, Kramer said.

Those who did well in the game also improved the most on switching between tasks. They also tended to do better on tests of working memory.

“In medical terminology, these would be dose-response effects,” Kramer said. “The more drug - or in this case the more training on the video game - the more benefit.”

The findings are meaningful, Basak said, because they show that multi-dimensional training can affect many individual components of cognitive function.

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December 12, 2008 by sean.

Researchers use EEG to determine if “(b)abies as young as six months old can spot mathematical errors” [via bbc news]:

Writing in PNAS, the team led by Dr Andrea Berger of Ben Gurion University of Negev, said: “This study demonstrates that this error detection system may be present in the brains of infants and is activated when they are surprised by an incorrect arithmetic solution.”

Posted in neuroscience, learning theory | No Comments »

December 4, 2008 by sean.

Excellent short film introducing Guy Kawasaki’s new book Reality Check and the relationship between innovation and evangelism [crowdsourced marketing]:

Posted in innovation, social networks | No Comments »

December 1, 2008 by sean.

Posted in games and simulations, fun, augmented cognition | No Comments »