Category: Brain
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3D games boost memory test performance
A study by UC Irvine professor Craig Stark has shown that playing 3D video games can boost performance on memory tests by up to 12 percent. (This is the typical percentage of lost memory function from ages 45 – 75.) 69 non-gamer college students were split into 3 groups. For two weeks, 2 groups played either a 2D…
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EEG device enables thought controlled car
Duan Feng of Nankai University, in collaboration with Great Wall Motor, has developed a car that can be controlled with the brain. A 16 sensor EEG device allows a driver to move the car forward and backward, stop, and lock and unlock the vehicle. At this point, fully operating the car with thoughts is not possible. According…
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Toward embryo brain activity tracking
Hari Shroff and NBIB colleagues have developed open-source 3D software that might lead to the ability to track a human embryo’s brain activity and development. To date, the technology has only been tested on worms and will be part of a 4D neurodevelopmental “worm atlas” that attempts to catalogue the formation of a worm’s nervous system. Shroff believes…
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VR game to combat anxiety
Games designed to improve attention and memory are growing rapidly. Now the neurogaming movement is tackling panic and stress. Deep is an Oculus VR based game by Owen Harris that is meant to relieve symptoms of anxiety. The headset, headphones, and a belt that matches a player’s breathing with on-screen movements, are used to encourage breathing…
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3D printed model for brain aneurysm surgery planning
Stratasys and the Jacobs Institute have used 3D printing for brain surgery planning in an effort to reduce risk. Anatomical models of a patient’s entire brain vessel anatomy were 3D printed before she underwent an aneurysm procedure. The replica, built of a polymer that mimics human tissue, allowing the surgeons to plan their approach and practice…
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Interactive senior health and brain training app
Notre Dame’s Nitesh Chawla has created eSeniorCare, a personalized, social app to help seniors age in place. Several existing apps track data. eSeniorCare is meant to engage and stimulate seniors, and be interactive. Users can connect with carers by sending questions and concerns through text or voice recordings. Health goals are tracked and sent to supporters who…
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MRI shows structural neural substrate of happiness
Kyoto University’s Wataru Sato has used MRI to understand where happiness happens in the brain. However, the neural mechanism behind how happiness emerges remains unclear. Sato’s recent paper shows that the precuneus, which also becomes active when experiencing consciousness, mediates subjective happiness by integrating its emotional and cognitive components. Participants had MRI brain scans and completed a survey that asked…
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App identifies early signs of autism
Cognoa is an app that asks parents to answer 15 questions about behavior to indicate whether their child is at risk of autism. It is based on data from 10,000 children and validation studies led by Stanford professor Dennis Wall. The system focuses on specific behaviors from standard diagnostic instruments that have the highest value for…
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32 gene expression patterns identified in human brains
An Allen Institute study describes a surprisingly small set of patterns that characterize how brains express or use genes. This finding appears to be common to all of us. Genes were ranked by consistency of expression (or usage) patterns across each brain studied. The relationship of these genes to one another, and to brain function…
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Ultrasound penetrates blood-brain barrier to treat brain tumor
Todd Mainprize at Sunnybrook Hospital has, for the first time, delivered chemotherapy directly to a brain tumor, by breaking through the blood-brain barrier using tightly focused ultrasound. The patient’s bloodstream was infused with a chemotherapy drug, as well as microscopic bubbles, which are smaller than red blood cells and can pass freely through blood. MRI-guided, low intensity sound…
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Wearable + exercise app to improve Parkinson’s symptoms
MIO and Beneufit have partnered to develop wearables to target the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The pdFIT exercise app was developed to improve manual dexterity and fitness levels in Parkinson’s patients. The wearable continuously monitors progress via sensors on the wrist. The company claims that its Optimal Heart Rate technology cancels noise caused by movement,…
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Faster, noninvasive BCI speller system
Tsinghua University researchers have developed a noninvasive brain-computer interface with the fastest information transfer rate to date. The system is based on steady-state visual evoked potentials, where a speller system detects a user’s gaze direction to a target a character. Frequency and phase of stimulation signals were precisely encoded in single-trial SSVEPs. A user-specific decoding algorithm adjusted to…