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  • July 7, 2016
  • 09:09 AM
  • 867 views

Are animals (and AI’s) people too?

by gdw in FictionalFieldwork

Charles gets up and balances on his short legs. During the brief ungainly walk to the dais, he fights the urge to scratch his arms. The vest that has been tailor-made for him itches. But it will help focus the committee on his purpose, focus on him as a person. He squats on the low […]... Read more »

Perring C. (1997) Degrees of personhood. The Journal of medicine and philosophy, 22(2), 173-97. PMID: 9186928  

Windrem MS, Schanz SJ, Morrow C, Munir J, Chandler-Militello D, Wang S, & Goldman SA. (2014) A competitive advantage by neonatally engrafted human glial progenitors yields mice whose brains are chimeric for human glia. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 34(48), 16153-61. PMID: 25429155  

  • October 21, 2015
  • 06:05 PM
  • 152 views

The ‘Glass Brain’ shows neuronal firing in real-time!

by Vaibhav Jain in NEUROFANATIC

Stunning 3D ‘glass brain’ shows neurons firing off in real-time. The structure of the brain is mapped using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The user then wears cap covered with electrodes that measure differences in electric potential to record brain activity. This activity is revealed on-screen. The different colors represent the different frequencies of electrical energy in the brain, as […]... Read more »

Mullen T, Kothe C, Chi YM, Ojeda A, Kerth T, Makeig S, Cauwenberghs G, & Jung TP. (2013) Real-time modeling and 3D visualization of source dynamics and connectivity using wearable EEG. 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Biology and Medicine Society., 2184-7. PMID: 24110155  

  • September 14, 2014
  • 01:00 AM
  • 1,187 views

Telepathy is Almost Here

by Viputheshwar Sitaraman in Draw Science

Telepathy is under works; it's just super clunky right now. Non-invasive technology enables brain-to-brain communication by converting words into binary and from binary into pulses of light and back. [Infographic]... Read more »

Grau C, Ginhoux R, Riera A, Nguyen TL, Chauvat H, Berg M, Amengual JL, Pascual-Leone A, & Ruffini G. (2014) Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies. PloS one, 9(8). PMID: 25137064  

  • August 30, 2014
  • 02:54 PM
  • 1,656 views

Direct mind-to-mind communication in humans

by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia

Image credit: www.techspot.com Here’s something right out of science fiction: a team of neuroscientists in Spain developed a system that allows a person to transmit the...... Read more »

Grau C, Ginhoux R, Riera A, Nguyen TL, Chauvat H, Berg M, Amengual JL, Pascual-Leone A, & Ruffini G. (2014) Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies. PloS one, 9(8). PMID: 25137064  

  • June 2, 2014
  • 02:41 PM
  • 1,284 views

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories

Much like this posts namesake, the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind asked what if you could erase memories? Want to forget your ex, no problem. Better yet, what PTSD? I’m sure that […]... Read more »

Sadegh Nabavi, Rocky Fox, Christophe D. Proulx, John Y. Lin, Roger Y. Tsien, Roberto Malinow. (2014) Engineering a memory with LTD and LTP. Nature. info:/10.1038/nature13294

  • January 13, 2014
  • 08:49 PM
  • 1,130 views

Using Ultrasound to Boost Brain Performance

by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have demonstrated that ultrasound directed to a specific region of the brain can boost performance in sensory discrimination. Whales, bats, and even praying mantises use ultrasound as a sensory guidance system — and now a new study has found that ultrasound can modulate brain activity to heighten sensory perception … Read More →... Read more »

Wynn Legon, Tomokazu F Sato, Alexander Opitz, Jerel Mueller, Aaron Barbour, Amanda Williams, & William J Tyler. (2014) Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates the activity of primary somatosensory cortex in humans. Nature Neuroscience. info:/10.1038/nn.3620

  • October 29, 2013
  • 06:12 AM
  • 937 views

A Tale of Two BRAINS: #BRAINI and DARPA's SUBNETS

by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic

Image credits. Left: SUBNETS program (DARPA). Right: BRAIN interim report presentation (NIH).In April, the White House announced the $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The goals of this bold new research effort are 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." A series of high-profile........ Read more »

Alivisatos AP, Chun M, Church GM, Greenspan RJ, Roukes ML, & Yuste R. (2012) The brain activity map project and the challenge of functional connectomics. Neuron, 74(6), 970-4. PMID: 22726828  

Insel TR, Landis SC, & Collins FS. (2013) Research priorities. The NIH BRAIN Initiative. Science, 340(6133), 687-8. PMID: 23661744  

  • October 17, 2013
  • 10:59 AM
  • 889 views

When Neurons Have Less to Say, They Speak Up

by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos

The brain is an extremely adaptable organ – but it is also quite conservative. That’s in short, what scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried and their colleagues from the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum were now able to show. The researchers found that neurons in the brain … Read More →... Read more »

Tara Keck, Georg B. Keller, R. Irene Jacobsen, Ulf T. Eysel, Tobias Bonhoeffer, & Mark Hübener. (2013) Synaptic scaling and homeostatic plasticity in the mouse visual cortex in vivo. Neuron, 80(2), 327-334. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.08.018  

  • September 11, 2013
  • 11:56 AM
  • 1,113 views

How Schizophrenia Affects the Brain

by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos

It’s hard to fully understand a mental disease like schizophrenia without peering into the human brain. Now, a study by University of Iowa psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen uses brain scans to document how schizophrenia impacts brain tissue as well as the effects of anti-psychotic drugs on those who have relapses. Andreasen’s study (cited below), published … Read More →... Read more »

Nancy C. Andreasen, Dawei Liu, Steven Ziebell, Anvi Vora, & Beng-Choon Ho. (2013) Relapse Duration, Treatment Intensity, and Brain Tissue Loss in Schizophrenia: A Prospective Longitudinal MRI Study. Am J Psychiatry, 609-615. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12050674  

  • August 7, 2013
  • 05:59 PM
  • 710 views

Reaching out to those locked-in

by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia

Locked-in syndrome is the stuff of nightmares: You’re awake and aware of your environment, taking in everything, but communicating out nothing. You can’t move – except, if you’re lucky, an occasional voluntary blink of the eye – can’t talk, can’t tell the world that YES I’M ALIVE AND CONSCIOUS AND THINKING. Locked-in syndrome, or LIS, […]... Read more »

Josef Stoll, Camille Chatelle, Olivia Carter, Christof Koch, Steven Laureys, & Wolfgang Einhäuser. (2013) Pupil responses allow communication in locked-in syndrome patients. Current Biology, 23(15), 647-648. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.011  

  • February 27, 2013
  • 01:16 PM
  • 1,054 views

#ifihadglass I Would Build an Augmented Biomed Browser

by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Science to Grok

In the previous post, I’ve described the relationship between environmental factors and the public’s insights. Moreover, what would happen if we have more than an ideal “physical” environment? Will people embrace a brand new world in which virtual components are added to the physical ones?


We all know that more research should be carried out to create software which supports the most complex and time-consuming portions of the analytical process, so that analysts can respond to incre........ Read more »

Gershon Dublon, & Joseph A. Paradiso. (2012) Tongueduino: hackable, high-bandwidth sensory augmentation. Proceeding CHI EA '12 CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1453-1454. DOI: 10.1145/2212776.2212482  

  • February 13, 2013
  • 02:45 PM
  • 1,144 views

Terminator Vision: I Can Haz It?

by Neural Outlaw in Neural Interface

You've all seen The Terminator film and it's sequels and, admit it, you loved them. Not just because of the creepily futurealistic storyline but because of the stunts, the camerawork, the casting, and the sheer action of it all. And, of course, the special effects. As an example of the best sci-fi films out there, the Terminator films franchise has grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.Some of the iconic scenes in the movies related directly to the Terminator itself, that ice-cold star........ Read more »

Thomson, E., Carra, R., & Nicolelis, M. (2013) Perceiving invisible light through a somatosensory cortical prosthesis. Nature Communications, 1482. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2497  

  • February 13, 2013
  • 02:38 PM
  • 1,190 views

Terminator Vision: I Can Haz It?

by Neural Outlaw in Neural Interface


You've all seen The Terminator film and it's sequels and, admit it, you loved them. Not just because of the creepily futurealistic storyline but because of the stunts, the camerawork, the casting, and the sheer action of it all. And, of course, the special effects. As an example of the best sci-fi films out there, the Terminator films franchise has grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.Some of the iconic scenes in the movies related directly to the Terminator itself, that ice-cold stare as a mi........ Read more »

Thomson, E., Carra, R., & Nicolelis, M. (2013) Perceiving invisible light through a somatosensory cortical prosthesis. Nature Communications, 1482. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2497  

  • January 24, 2013
  • 04:40 PM
  • 1,748 views

Flipping the Switch: Using Optogenetics to Treat Seizures

by Jalees Rehman in The Next Regeneration

The recent paper "On-demand optogenetic control of spontaneous seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy" by Esther Krook-Magnuson and colleagues in Nature Communications (published online on January 22, 2013) applies the optogenetic approach to treat seizures in mice. The researchers used mice that had been genetically modified to express the inhibitory light sensitive protein halorhodopsin (normally only found in single cell organisms but not in mammals) in neurons. They placed an optical f........ Read more »

Krook-Magnuson, E., Armstrong, C., Oijala, M., & Soltesz, I. (2013) On-demand optogenetic control of spontaneous seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy. Nature Communications, 1376. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2376  

  • January 4, 2013
  • 10:44 AM
  • 1,891 views

Cellular Recap of 2012 #2: favorites

by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale

As promised, here are my favorite posts from each month.January: The Human Neuron" not so special after all?Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N, & Hof PR (2011). Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior PMID: 22130090February: If you give a mouse a placebo...Wise RA, Wang B, & You ZB (2008). Cocaine serves as a peripheral interoceptive conditioned stimulus for central glutamate and dopamine release. P........ Read more »

Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N, & Hof PR. (2011) Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. PMID: 22130090  

Benolken RM, & Jacobson SL. (1970) Response properties of a sensory hair excised from Venus's flytrap. The Journal of general physiology, 56(1), 64-82. PMID: 5514161  

Volkov AG, Adesina T, & Jovanov E. (2007) Closing of venus flytrap by electrical stimulation of motor cells. Plant signaling , 2(3), 139-45. PMID: 19516982  

Forterre Y, Skotheim JM, Dumais J, & Mahadevan L. (2005) How the Venus flytrap snaps. Nature, 433(7024), 421-5. PMID: 15674293  

Kindt M, Soeter M, & Vervliet B. (2009) Beyond extinction: erasing human fear responses and preventing the return of fear. Nature neuroscience, 12(3), 256-8. PMID: 19219038  

Kim IJ, Zhang Y, Yamagata M, Meister M, & Sanes JR. (2008) Molecular identification of a retinal cell type that responds to upward motion. Nature, 452(7186), 478-82. PMID: 18368118  

Kay JN, De la Huerta I, Kim IJ, Zhang Y, Yamagata M, Chu MW, Meister M, & Sanes JR. (2011) Retinal ganglion cells with distinct directional preferences differ in molecular identity, structure, and central projections. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(21), 7753-62. PMID: 21613488  

Kraskov A, Dancause N, Quallo MM, Shepherd S, & Lemon RN. (2009) Corticospinal neurons in macaque ventral premotor cortex with mirror properties: a potential mechanism for action suppression?. Neuron, 64(6), 922-30. PMID: 20064397  

Casile A, Caggiano V, & Ferrari PF. (2011) The mirror neuron system: a fresh view. The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry, 17(5), 524-38. PMID: 21467305  

Blackiston DJ, Silva Casey E, & Weiss MR. (2008) Retention of memory through metamorphosis: can a moth remember what it learned as a caterpillar?. PloS one, 3(3). PMID: 18320055  

Marx M, Günter RH, Hucko W, Radnikow G, & Feldmeyer D. (2012) Improved biocytin labeling and neuronal 3D reconstruction. Nature protocols, 7(2), 394-407. PMID: 22301777  

Finger TE, & Kinnamon SC. (2011) Taste isn't just for taste buds anymore. F1000 biology reports, 20. PMID: 21941599  

Triana-Del Rio R, Montero-Domínguez F, Cibrian-Llanderal T, Tecamachaltzi-Silvaran MB, Garcia LI, Manzo J, Hernandez ME, & Coria-Avila GA. (2011) Same-sex cohabitation under the effects of quinpirole induces a conditioned socio-sexual partner preference in males, but not in female rats. Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 99(4), 604-13. PMID: 21704064  

Labour MN, Banc A, Tourrette A, Cunin F, Verdier JM, Devoisselle JM, Marcilhac A, & Belamie E. (2012) Thick collagen-based 3D matrices including growth factors to induce neurite outgrowth. Acta biomaterialia, 8(9), 3302-12. PMID: 22617741  

Fu M, Yu X, Lu J, & Zuo Y. (2012) Repetitive motor learning induces coordinated formation of clustered dendritic spines in vivo. Nature, 483(7387), 92-5. PMID: 22343892  

  • December 9, 2012
  • 09:52 PM
  • 1,025 views

The basal ganglia for action selection

by Travis DeWolf in studywolf

Peter Redgrave, Kevin Gurney, and John Reynolds have a series of papers out where they detail a basal ganglia model, looking at its physiology and potential functional role in the brain. They address a number of different points in their papers, and I'm going to write up a couple of posts in hopes of making the model / material more accessible and furthering my own understanding.... Read more »

Redgrave P, Prescott TJ, & Gurney K. (1999) The basal ganglia: a vertebrate solution to the selection problem?. Neuroscience, 89(4), 1009-23. PMID: 10362291  

  • November 29, 2012
  • 06:36 PM
  • 1,322 views

Growing 3D Cells

by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale

Neurons don't grow in a vacuum. They have white fibers, other neurons, blood vessels and all sorts of other obstacles to grow around.Some NeuroArt (source)A recent paper from France details the making of a 3D environment that can facilitate 'realistic' neural growth. Labour et al. (2012) created a collagen biomimetic matrix which contains neural growth factor (NGF).  Labour et al., (2012) Figure 3These scanning electron microscope images show the porous fibril texture of the collagen matrix........ Read more »

Labour MN, Banc A, Tourrette A, Cunin F, Verdier JM, Devoisselle JM, Marcilhac A, & Belamie E. (2012) Thick collagen-based 3D matrices including growth factors to induce neurite outgrowth. Acta biomaterialia, 8(9), 3302-12. PMID: 22617741  

  • November 14, 2012
  • 09:28 AM
  • 109 views

‘The Matrix’ Becomes A Reality: Human Beings Can Be Transformed Into Batteries

by Vaibhav Jain in NEUROFANATIC

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology make glucose powered bio-electronics a reality. They have developed a fuel cell that runs on glucose for powering highly efficient brain implants of the future that can help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again. The fuel cell strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current. The researchers fabricated the […]... Read more »

Rapoport BI, Kedzierski JT, & Sarpeshkar R. (2012) A glucose fuel cell for implantable brain-machine interfaces. PloS one, 7(6). PMID: 22719888  

  • October 12, 2012
  • 04:08 PM
  • 864 views

The role of phasic dopamine in the basal ganglia

by Travis DeWolf in studywolf

I'm reading a series of papers that presents a model of the basal ganglia, written mainly by Peter Redgrave, Kevin Gurney, and John Reynolds. Of particular interest throughout these articles is a re-examination of the role of the short-term phasic dopamine (DA) signal from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). A well-propagated view is that the phasic DA signal is a reward prediction-error signal, but Redgrave et al present a strong argument against this and suggest instead a role of an agen........ Read more »

Redgrave P, Vautrelle N, & Reynolds JN. (2011) Functional properties of the basal ganglia's re-entrant loop architecture: selection and reinforcement. Neuroscience, 138-51. PMID: 21821101  

  • July 6, 2012
  • 10:14 AM
  • 1,127 views

Advances in Neuronal Destruction

by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale

Destroying neurons is not difficult.  Destroying specific neurons, but leaving others intact is another story. Ablating specific neurons usually involves fancy genetic trickery, but it can also be accomplished with fancy mechanical lasers! Laser near cell (source)A new study published in PNAS (Hayes et al., 2012) uses the cells own rhythm generating properties to target the neurons for destruction.Specifically, Hayes et al. is investigating the breathing neurons. These neurons are in t........ Read more »

Hayes JA, Wang X, & Del Negro CA. (2012) Cumulative lesioning of respiratory interneurons disrupts and precludes motor rhythms in vitro. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(21), 8286-91. PMID: 22566628  

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