ApplySci – Deep Tech Health + Neurotech

Category: Brain

  • Real-time brain feedback for anxiety disorders

    http://news.yale.edu/2013/05/07/research-news-real-time-brain-feedback-can-help-people-overcome-anxiety fMRI-driven neurofeedback has been used in various contexts, but never applied to the treatment of anxiety. Yale University researchers used fMRI to display the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region just above the eyes, to subjects in real time.  Through a process of trial and error, the subjects learned to control their brain…

  • Computer vision algorithms used to diagnose depression

    http://medvr.ict.usc.edu/projects/dcaps/ SimSensei software, developed by Stefan Scherer and colleagues at the University of Southern California, combines computer vision algorithms and the psychological model of depression. An on-screen psychologist asks you a series of questions and watches how you physically respond. Using Kinect, the computer vision algorithms build up a very detailed model of your face…

  • Brain scans link math learning abilities to brain structure

    http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2013/04/29/peering-into-the-brain-to-predict-kids-response-to-math-tutoring/ Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine used brain scans to look for a link between math-learning abilities and brain structure or function, and compared neural and cognitive predictors of childrens’ responses to tutoring. The analysis of the children’s structural brain scans showed that larger gray matter volume in three brain structures predicted greater…

  • Babies’ consciousness, development studied

    http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/04/when-does-your-baby-become-consc.html Finding the point at which babies’ reactions change from being purely reflexive to reflecting more intention is leading researches to focus on the first glimmers of conscious thought in infants as young as 5 months old. Ideally, the infant studies would enable scientists to trace a trajectory of how consciousness generates. “You can start…

  • Kurzweil envisions emotionally intelligent Google search

    http://www.wired.com/business/2013/04/kurzweil-google-ai/ Kurzweil predicts that computers will be able to have a deep understanding of human emotion by 2029.  He wants to see search evolve to understand even more complex language that will involve “emotional intelligence, being funny, getting the joke, being sexy, being loving, understanding human emotion.”

  • Pass-thoughts as the new passwords

    http://phys.org/news/2013-04-password-future-passthoughts.html Pass-thoughts are thoughts that a headset records through brainwaves. The computer learns what your individual brainwaves are like and then identifies you. Traditionally, these brainwaves, called electroencephalograms (EEGs), are collected through expensive and sometimes invasive devices, so the pass-thought growth has been severely stunted. Berkeley’s John Chuang and his team conducted a series of…

  • A hard look at neuroscience research from The Economist

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/04/neuroscience Sample sizes in neurological research are often too small to draw general conclusions. Marcus Munafo, from the University of Bristol, and his colleagues analyzed hundreds of neuroscience studies to determine their “statistical power”.  If the researchers’ figures are accurate—and if the 12-month period they looked at is representative of neuroscience research in general—then the…

  • fMRI differentiates physical from emotional pain

    http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-sci-pain-measure-fmri-20130409,0,5200467.story A group of scientists at the University of Michigan have succeeded in using functional magnetic resonance imaging to tease apart the brain’s consistent response to physical pain from its very similar response to emotional pain. The result is a moving picture of physical pain that allowed the researchers to predict with remarkable accuracy whether the individual…

  • Babies’ brains to be mapped in the womb and after birth

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21880017 The study – known as the Developing Human Connectome Project – hopes to look at more than 1,500 babies, studying many aspects of their neurological development. By examining the brains of babies while they are still growing in the womb, as well as those born prematurely and at full term, the scientists will try…

  • Obama launches $100M BRAIN Initiative

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/02/brain-initiative-challenges-researchers-unlock-mysteries-human-mind Thank you, President Obama. Today at the White House, President Obama unveiled the “BRAIN” Initiative—a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. The Initiative promises to accelerate the invention of…

  • MIT’s Boyden wins European prize for Optogenetics research

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/31/health/boyden-brain-map/ Ed Boyden at MIT pioneered Optogenetics–using light to manipulate the brain.  ApplySci described MIT’s latest Optogenetics chip in our post of 12/4/12. Today, at least 1,000 neuroscience groups worldwide are using Optogenetics to study the brain.  Professor Boyden compares his work to that of a philosopher and is a recipient of the 2013 Grete Lundbeck…

  • Study shows babies, children and adults learn in their sleep

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130226081155.htm Sleep helps us to learn. It may just be too hard for a brain to take in the flood of new experiences and make sense of them at the same time. Instead, our brains look at the world for a while and then shut out new input and sort through what they have seen.…