The finding helps explain why techniques that influence electrical fields such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation are effective for the treatment of various neurological disorders, including depression. The study also “raises many questions about the possible effects of electrical fields, such as power lines and cell phones, in which we immerse ourselves,” said David McCormick, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, a researcher of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience and senior author of the study.

A commercial brain fitness program has been shown to improve memory in older adults, at least in the period soon after training. The findings are the first to show that practicing simple visual tasks can improve the accuracy of short-term, or “working” visual memory. The research, led by scientists at UCSF, is also one of the first to measure both mental performance and changes in neural activity caused by a cognitive training program.

The researchers’ work, done on rodents, builds on findings that all mammals, including humans, make brain cells throughout their lives. Most of these die, but this drug helps more of the baby cells survive and grow to become functioning brain cells.

“We make new neurons every day in our brain,” Andrew Pieper of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview. “What our compound does in allow more of them to survive.”

The compound is called P7C3 for now, and the researchers have already started tweaking it to make it more effective. They said it seems safe and appears to work even when taken as a pill.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an extraordinary technique pioneered by neuroscientists to explore the workings of the brain. The idea is to place a human in a rapidly changing magnetic field that is powerful enough to induce currents in neurons in the brain… All that much is repeatable in the lab using giant superconducting magnets capable of creating fields of as much as 0.5 Tesla inside the brain.

But if this happens in the lab, then why not in the real world too, say Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. They calculate that the rapidly changing fields associated with repeated lightning strikes are powerful enough to cause a similar phenomenon in humans within 200 metres [via Technology Review].

Google Inc. is planning to introduce Android-based television software to developers at an event in May, according to people familiar with the matter.

The technology—designed to open set-top boxes, TVs and other devices to more content from the Internet—is attracting interest from partners that include Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International SA, which are expected to offer products that support the software, these people said. None have so far discussed the efforts publicly. [via Wall Street Journal]

1 in 8 Consumers Will Ax Their Coax This Year

Boston, MA Apr 27, 2010 - The first cord-cutters were those who cut their traditional phone cords in favor of mobile phone services. Now Yankee Group uncovers a new category: the coax-cutter. These consumers cut off their pay TV services and use their PCs, gaming consoles and other connected devices to access video programming instead. One in 8 consumers are set to join their ranks in the next 12 months. [via Yankee Group]

Audiences, and Hollywood, Flock to Smartphones

Measured against TV ratings and box-office receipts, the mobile video audience is tiny today, but a range of companies, from Hollywood studios to local TV stations, all foresee an increasingly wireless world — and they don’t want to be cut out of the picture.

Some TV shows, like “The Office” on NBC.com, are streamed at no charge now, but there is a gnawing fear among media companies that they may be leaving money on the table by relying solely on revenue from advertising. [via New York Times]

Military Wants to Super-Charge Troop Smarts

The Pentagon’s been trying to get ahead of the curve on neuroscience for years, toying with ideas like mind-reading whether people are lying and performance-degrading drugs for enemy combatants. Now, it’s launching a major effort to harness neuroscience in a way that might better prepare soldiers for the mental rigors of modern warfare.

In a series of small business solicitations released last week, the Office of the Secretary of Defense outlined plans for a new “Cognitive Readiness Technology” program with the aim of “making our warfighters as cognitively strong as they are physically strong.”[more]

Pentagon Scientists Inject Necks to ‘Cure’ PTSD

Finding an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder has been a top Pentagon priority for years. And with an estimated one in five veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD, the military’s been willing to consider anything and everything, including yoga, dog therapy and acupuncture, to alleviate symptoms.

But a small new study out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center might offer more than temporary relief — with nothing more than a quick jab to the neck. [more]