DailyDirt: Building Better Brains

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Our brains are pretty important organs. Obviously, so are organs like skin and kidneys, but the human brain is what sets people apart from other animals. We still don't know that much about how our brains work, but that's not stopping some fascinating research that could extend our brains' capabilities with technology. Some of this research could help us do more with the brains we have or help keep our brains in tip-top shape as we age. Here are just a few brain projects off the top of my head.

• The first non-invasive human brain-to-brain interface has been demonstrated -- one person's mind was able to cause another person's finger to move. Brain activity from the controller brain (belonging to a professor of computer science and engineering) was recorded using an electroencephalography machine, and that signal was transmitted over the internet to a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil positioned over the left motor cortex of a research assistant professor in psychology. #HelloGhostInTheShell [url]
• An immature human brain has been grown in a petri dish -- resembling the brain of a 9 week old fetus at just 3-4 millimeter long. Researchers needed a brain model to study various illnesses, so they grew this one. And now we can feed zombies without killing people. [url]
• In one study, mice brains injected with human brain cells developed better learning ability and memory, compared to normal mice. The research suggests that certain types of brain cells (glia/astrocytes) play an important role in cognitive functions, and these human brain cells outperform those of normal mice. [url]

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Filed Under: astrocytes, biology, biotech, brains, cognition, glia, hmi, memory

DailyDirt: Why Do We Sleep?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are numerous hypotheses for how and why sleep is important. The facts show that a wide range of animals need sleep and that a lack of sleep is extremely unhealthy, especially if sleep deprivation lasts more than a few days. For example, sleep-deprived lab rats will die more quickly than rats deprived of food. Sleep is clearly essential to normal functioning, but there's no definitive reason for it. Here are just a few interesting articles that discuss the mystery of the function behind sleep.

• There's no consensus on why animals need to sleep, but there are few (or no) species that are completely devoid of a resting state. Sleep seems to serve at least one essential function, but it's just not clear what that function is (or if there are more). [url]
• One reason for why we need sleep might be that our brains need it to prune back synaptic formation to prevent a detrimental build-up of brain activity. But then why does synaptic pruning (usually) require an unconscious state? [url]
• The function of sleep may vary across species -- given that marine mammals can go without sleep for remarkably long periods of time. Sleep might have evolved as a trait from a common ancestor, but it could be an example of convergent evolution (eg. echolocation in bats vs dolphins). The jury is still out. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: animals, biology, brains, evolution, rem, sleep, species, synaptic formation

DailyDirt: Augmenting Animals

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are a bunch of people out there who are into turning themselves into cyborgs or adding to their natural-born abilities. Some of them say they're transhumanists, but others are just super geeks willing to experiment on themselves for fun. (Most folks are probably willing to wait a bit to make sure brain implants are actually safe.) Here are just a few projects that are working on giving lab rats some cool new upgrades.

• Rats have been given an artificial sense -- the ability to detect infrared light. An IR sensor was attached to the rat's head and after a month of training, the animal could reliably sense when researchers directed otherwise invisible IR beams of light on it. [url]
• Some neuroengineers have developed a fully implantable and wirelessly rechargeable brain device that could serve as a brain-computer interface. This implant has lasted for over a year in lab animals, and it can observe, record and process information directly from dozens of brain neurons. [url]
• Rat brains on two separate continents have been connected to work in tandem. The researchers are already working on connecting the brains of four rats at the same time, as well as starting on brains of larger mammals.... (insert ominous music here) [url]

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Filed Under: bci, biology, biotech, brain implants, brains, hmi, infrared light, neuroengineers, transhumanism

DailyDirt: Are You Smarter Than A Dolphin?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We may think we're pretty smart, but animals like dolphins are pretty smart too. For over 30 years, scientists have been trying to determine how smart dolphins really are. Bottlenose dolphins have a brain-to-body-weight ratio that is only second to humans, and they also have a very complex neocortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for traits typically associated with human intelligence, such as problem-solving and self-awareness. Researchers have even found that dolphins have von Economo neurons, which are associated with emotions, social cognition, and the ability to sense what others are thinking. Besides dolphins, people may be underestimating the intelligence of animals in general. Here are just a few links related to animal smarts.

• Recently, divers off the coast of Kona in Hawaii caught video footage of a bottlenose dolphin asking a human for help to get out of a tangle of fishing lines. The dolphin swam up to one diver as he gestured with his hand for it to come closer. The diver removed a fishing hook out of the dolphin's left pectoral fin, and at one point the dolphin had to surface for air, but it went back so that the diver could finish untangling it. [url]
• Dog owners can now figure out just how smart their dogs are with Dognition. It's a web app that lets dog owners record the results of their experiments, which involve playing games with their dogs designed to assess five dimensions of intelligence (empathy, communication, cunning, memory, and reasoning). The data collected from the Dognition project could help scientists better understand the way dogs think and behave. [url]
• Dogs are able to subtly alter the timing, pitch, and amplitude of their barks to produce a variety of sounds that could have different meanings. While humans may have trouble distinguishing between a "food growl" and a "stranger growl," studies have shown that dogs can recognize the meaning of particular barks and growls of other dogs. [url]
• Here are eight other animals that show notable signs of intelligence: Chimpanzees have DNA that is more than 98% identical to human DNA; elephants exhibit self-awareness; cephalopods are curious and have the ability to learn and use tools; crows are crafty; squirrels can be deceptive; dogs can understand people's intentions; cats are extremely adaptable; and pigs can distinguish between familiar scribbles on a screen and ones that they have never seen before. [url]

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Filed Under: animal intelligence, animals, brains, cat, cephalopod, chimpanzee, crow, dog, dognition, dolphin, elephant, intelligence, pig, smart animals, squirrel

DailyDirt: Non-human Intelligence

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Humans aren't the only animals on our planet that can communicate with other members of our species. As we study more of our fellow creatures, we continue to find surprising instances of intelligence and thought and problem-solving abilities. Here are just a few examples.

• Japanese scientists have created images showing how a thought moves through the brain of a zebrafish. The brain activity doesn't look particularly complex, but it's a start -- and it could lead to a better understanding of how other brains work. [url]
• Slime mold doesn't have a brain, but it can figure out complex problems -- if we give set it up under the right conditions. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum can navigate a maze and find the shortest path when given a map made of carefully-placed food. [url]
• Almost anyone who has observed ants closely knows that ants can communicate via trails of chemicals (pheromones) and by touching each other -- but some ants can also communicate using sounds. Researchers have recorded some of the sounds, and they've seen ants respond to the recordings as if their fellow ants were calling to them. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: animal intelligence, ants, brains, communication, intelligence, pheromones, slime mold, smart animals, thoughts, zebrafish

DailyDirt: Learning More About Our Brains

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We've discovering interesting things about the way our brains work all the time. Maybe someday we'll fully understand how our brains actually think, but we're a long way from that now. But in the meantime, here are a few more fascinating tidbits from studying our brains that might lead to smarter humans in the distant future.

• Studies of human brains and closely related primate brains have shown some differences that could point to specific genes responsible (or at least relevant) for the evolution of brain intelligence. Next stop, planet of the apes, folks. [url]
• Software can track what you've learned by constantly quizzing you, and apparently the best time to review something you want to memorize is right before you're about to forget it. Use it or lose it... and now you can precisely quantify when you're about to lose it. [url]
• Brain imaging techniques could replace IQ tests someday by predicting intelligence based on "global brain connectivity" that seems to correlate with the ability to perform challenging tasks. Taking the SAT in the future might not involve number 2 pencils, but instead a few hours in an MRI machine.... [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: brains, fmri, intelligence, learning, memory
Companies: cerego

DailyDirt: Braaiiins...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Halloween is here, so what better time to talk about human brains? Zombies are always looking to eat fresh human brains, and evil scientists need to re-stock their supply of replacement organs, too. So here are just a few links for any parties that might be interested in getting their hands on some grey matter.

• Whole brain transplants don't seem to be a practical medical procedure (yet), but maybe brain tissue engineering could help people with brain damage with brain grafts. Restoring neural pathways would be tricky, and growing viable brain tissue isn't a walk in the park either. [url]
• Dr. Robert White performed some experiments that could have been useful for doing a human brain transplant. White successfully removed a living monkey's head and attached it to another monkey's body -- and it survived for about a week. [url]
• A human brain about 2,684 years old was found, preserved in a bog, in excellent condition for its age. It apparently belonged to an Iron Age man who was hanged and decapitated -- and when 2,684 years old you reach, look as good you will not. [url]
• Scientists have isolated the brains of monkeys, dogs and cats -- keeping them alive for varying amounts of time without a body -- and a guinea pig brain has lasted about 8 hours in a fluid-filled tank. This is a repeatable procedure, but it apparently requires a lot of attention to keep the guinea pig brain going (and it only works for a day). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: brains, decapitated, disembodied, halloween, organs, preserved

How The Press Misinterprets Scientific Studies

from the dream-recording-machines dept

There's an absolutely awesome comic by Jorge Cham of PhDComics (which you should read whether or not you're a PhD student) about the science news cycle, in which a nuanced scientific result showing a slight correlation is turned into a causal relationship by the press, leading to a flat out frenzy of others in the press who don't even bother to understand what the original research was about.
Click image to see full version I'm reminded of this particular comic as the folks at On the Media point us to a story, told by Moran Cerf at The Moth (my favorite storytelling operation), about how, as a grad student, he got some research accepted for publication in Nature, the top of the top in terms of scientific journal prestige. His rather interesting research was about sticking electrodes in patients brains during brain surgery, having them think of certain things, and being able to have a projector project an image of what they were thinking. Cool, right? You can watch the video to see what happened once the press got hold of the story. In case you can't watch the video, the short version is that Cerf had put together a short video about the research, and at the very, very, very end, when talking to a colleague about how this kind of research might advance in the future, the research mentions something about studying and recording dreams. Now, nothing in the actual research is about studying or recording dreams, but... the BBC picked up on this part of the story, and then everyone picked up on this part of the story, and things only got worse from there. And no matter what Cerf did, everyone was just focused on these claims about dream recording -- even to the point that director Chris Nolan asked him to come on tour in a discussion about the movie Inception.

You can see the original Nature story here, followed by the BBC piece that focuses on dreams, even though that's not in the actual research. At least it admits that such things are far, far away. Others in the press weren't so careful. There are plenty of other such reports, but my favorite may be Metro in the UK that claims we're on the "brink" of recording people's dreams, despite that not being even close to true. For what it's worth, it appears some sources, such as Reuters did not parrot the dream recording angle, but plenty did.

It's a pretty good reminder that, especially when it comes to scientific research, you really shouldn't believe everything you read.

Oh, and as a random aside, while this story from Moran is entertaining, it does not come close in entertainment value to this other story that Cerf told at a different Moth event about his life as a bank robber. Seriously. No matter what you're doing today, find ten minutes to watch this next video:

Filed Under: brains, journalism, moran cerf, science, storytelling

DailyDirt: Making Smarter Animals

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Animals may (or may not) be getting smarter, but there sure is growing evidence that animals have more cognitive abilities than we might have expected. In some cases, we're actually breeding animals for intelligence. (Who wouldn't want to buy a genetically engineered parrot with the conversational capability of a 5 year old kid?) Perhaps we'll end up regretting our animal experiments someday when we're faced with super-intelligent birds or insects, but for now, it's interesting to see just how smart our animal pals can get.

• Breeding smarter fruit flies doesn't sound like a good plan to create a race of super intelligent insects. Still, a decent first step has been accomplished by directing the evolution of fruit flies to exhibit the ability to count to four... [url]
• Some baboons in a French laboratory have been observed to be able to tell the difference between real English words and fake words. This study probably says more about the rules of English spelling rather than evidence of baboons being linguistic geniuses. [url]
• For many mammals, the ratio of brain size to body size is a fairly predictable matter, but there are some outliers with larger than expected brains for a given body size. Curiously, the smaller mammals with larger than expected brains tend to survive extinction better and adapt more easily to environmental changes -- but correlation isn't the same as causation. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: animals, baboons, biology, biotech, brains, fruit flies, intelligence, smart animals, spelling

DailyDirt: Misty Water-Colored Memories

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There's a lot we still don't know about how our own brains work. Our minds are sufficiently complex that the only practical way to begin studying how they work is to categorize the different processes and try to look at how those individual parts operate. How the brain stores memories is a fascinating field -- that's just starting to yield some real scientific knowledge. Here are just a few tidbits on remembering things.

• Older brains don't remember stuff as well as younger brains because the pathways leading to the hippocampus degrade over time. Now we just need to figure out how to rejuvenate those connections -- or grow completely new ones. [url]
• The "doorway effect" is a fairly common phenomenon in which you walk into another room and then realize you've forgotten why you're there. The effect works in virtual environments as well as in real life, but don't blame the doorway -- it's more likely that your brain is pre-programmed to purge your working memory after a triggering event. [url]
• Connecting our brains to computers could, if done right, extend our memories and computational abilities. Some predictions say it'll happen in about 100 years, or maybe sometime in 2100. [url]
• To discover more interesting articles on the human mind, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: brains, doorway effect, hippocampus, memories, mind, predictions