I think I've read this somewhere before

Researchers at MIT have come up with a plausible explanation for that disconcerting mental vertigo ofdéjà vu.

In very layman's terms (ie, I have no other way or hope of understanding this, so I'm going with the MIT explanation here), the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered that neurons in the brain fire when we visit somewhere new, laying down what they call a blueprint. When we return to the same place, these same neurons (called "place cells", apparently) fire again, letting us know that we have been there before.

Déjà vu may occur after visiting a very similar place leads to overlapping blueprints. Interestingly, the ability to form strong unique memories for similar looking places degenerates with age, which is a possible explanation for heightened levels of confusion among some elderly people.

Just another piece in a long line of research built off the backs of mice.

deja vu originally uploaded to Flickr by saturnism. Used under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution ShareAlike licence.

Is there anything the brain can't do?

How the brain can hear shapes

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Tech Synaesthesia

Researchers in Germany have been experimenting with a vibrating belt that gives the wearer constant input as to which direction is north. It's part of a long line of experiments all over the world that examine the ability of technology to alter and enhance our 5 senses.

The human brain is an incredible thing. With the appropriate sensory input, it can be programmed to vastly improve sense of direction (my wife would love to be able to do this to me), stabilise a damaged sense of balance through electric pulses on the tongue or how to tell which way is up and which way is down (particularly important for pilots).

We humans get just the five [senses]. But why? Can our senses be modified? Expanded? Given the right prosthetics, could we feel electromagnetic fields or hear ultrasound? The answers to these questions, according to researchers at a handful of labs around the world, appear to be yes.

- Sunny Bains, Wired.

Mixed Feelings - Wired
Originally found via Boing Boing [permalink]
feelSpace - Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Onsabruck.


Image of the feelSpace belt taken from the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Onsabruck

Forming neurons

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been able to capture neurons in the midst of their formation in mammals, the first time that this has been done (image above).

Neurons (which look a little something like the image below) are largely what make up our nervous system. The ability to see neurons being formed brings humanity one step closer to understanding how our nervous system works. According to the researchers, there are only a few places within the human brain that generate neurons, and these are the areas we need to dig deeper into (metaphorically I hope) in order to better understand what goes on between our ears.



Image of the neuron in vivo courtesy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Representation of a neuron courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons.

The Brain Game

Human brain
Originally uploaded to Flickr by Gaetan Lee.

Competition continues to be hot in the world of making playing games just that little bit lazier.

• Emotiv Systems has a prototype of a head-set based system with electrodes that attach to the skull. The setup detects electrical activity in the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions". Apparently it connects wirelessly to all game systems from consoles to PCs.
  
• NeuroSky has a technology that requires just a single small electrode (although all the press photos show that you still need to wear a headset - http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=neurosky+technology (Safe Search On). Neurosky currently has a demonstration of a small Darth Vader that can be controlled through its technology.
  
• Cyber Learning Technology LLC proudly trumpets its Smart Brain Game technology as "the ONLY Neurofeedback Technology developed, patented and tested at NASA". CyberLearning also want to draw a link between their products and research that helps sufferers of ADHD.
  

I choose to work under the assumption that if all this activity is going on in the game controller market, there has to be substantial research going on in universities and government institutions looking into brainwave telemetry for other purposes such as for disabled patients or remote and/or dangerous workplaces (underground mines, deep space etc). I sure hope so.

After reading up a little on what each of these technologies enables, I am left with just one question? Does anyone really want to be able to control a game with their mind alone? It seems to me that this could make a game fiendishly difficult, requiring great powers of concentration.

I don't know about anyone else but when I play games, I want to relax.

Brain power

The brain is an intricately confusing thing, and we still don't really know how it works. That doesn't stop humans experimenting with it though.

Recently the BrainGate caught my eye. A product of Cyberkinetics, a neurotech company, the BrainGate is a Brain-Computer Interface or BCI that is designed to restore some functionally to seriously motor impaired individuals. At this stage, the BrainGate has only had clinically conducted trials.

Consisting of a sensor implanted in the motor cortex of the patient's brain, the BrainGate analyses brain signals and works on the theory that the brain still functions in a healthy manner even though the signal pathways are no longer available. Trials with BrainGate have demonstrated that people have been able to direct cursor movements through thought alone. One patient in the trial was even able to open and close a prosthetic hand (see this BBC News article from 2005 for a wee bit more information).

The potential applications for BCI tech are pretty mind boggling, and I'm just thinking of the altruistic, nice ones. Photo-receptors to help blind people see again (actually, I don't know if this would work only on people who acquired blindness rather than born blind - I guess it depends on why the person was born blind and what elements of the pathway might be missing), basic movement for para and quadriplegics and the holy grail of prostheses that have the ability to be controlled like a normal limb could all be possible in the near future. All very good things and I hope that these avenues of research that can improve quality of life continue to be explored.

As we learn to understand more about the physiology of the brain, I do wonder how long it will be until people start trying to grow neural network cultures and then use these as a way of controlling mechanical devices. I'm not so sure I would like to see a BCI that was more C than B. That might be a little creepy.