The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In recent decades, neuroscience has seen some stunning advances, and yet a critical part of the brain remains a mystery. I am referring to the cerebellum, so named for the Latin for “little brain,” which is situated like a bun at the back of the […]
Read MoreThe original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In recent decades, neuroscience has seen some stunning advances, and yet a critical part of the brain remains a mystery. I am referring to the cerebellum, so named for the Latin for “little brain,” which is situated like a bun at the back of the […]
Read MoreThe original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Whenever you’re actively performing a task—say, lifting weights at the gym or taking a hard exam—the parts of your brain required to carry it out become “active” when neurons step up their electrical activity. But is your brain active even when you’re zoning out on […]
Read MoreSome Neuralink rivals, such as Precision Neuroscience, are developing implants that sit on top of the brain, or in the case of Synchron, a stentlike device that’s inserted into a blood vessel and sits against the brain. These devices aim to allow paralyzed people to communicate using digital devices by reading electrical patterns generated from […]
Read MoreElon Musk said on the social media platform X on Monday that the first human patient has received a brain implant developed by his company Neuralink. After years of delays, Neuralink started recruiting patients for a clinical trial in the fall after receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and a hospital ethics […]
Read More“We think that they do everything,” Gulbransen said. “The more that people find out about them, it’s less surprising that they do these diverse roles.” They can also move between roles. They’ve been shown to change their identities, shifting from one glial cell type to another, in lab dishes—a useful ability in the ever-changing gut […]
Read MoreIn September, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink announced the much-anticipated news that it would start recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial to test its device. Known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, it collects electrical activity from neurons and interprets those signals into commands to control an external device. While Musk has said he ultimately […]
Read MoreOver the next six to eight months, Pearson’s OCD symptoms decreased significantly, and her brain activity triggered the stimulation less often. She told her doctors that before, she was sometimes spending eight hours a day performing compulsions. Now, she estimates that it’s more like 30 minutes. The effects have persisted over the two years since […]
Read MoreToday, an international team of researchers shared an extraordinarily detailed atlas of human brain cells, mapping its staggering diversity of neurons. The atlas was published as part of a massive package of 21 papers in the journal Science, each taking complementary approaches to the same overarching questions: What cell types exist in the brain? And […]
Read MoreA tiny array of microelectrodes underneath the cells recorded electrical activity in the gel surrounding the cells, while other electrodes directly stimulated the neurons and recorded their responses. Using a fluorescent dye to visualize the movement of calcium ions under a microscope, the team was able to watch the cells chemically communicate. “They behaved as […]
Read MoreElon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink has announced it is one step closer to putting brain implants in people. Today, the company stated that it will begin recruiting patients with paralysis to test its experimental brain implant and that it has received approval from a hospital institutional review board. Such boards are independent committees assembled […]
Read MoreMcKee, who is also the director of neuropathology for Veterans Affairs Boston, began studying the brains of former NFL players 15 years ago. She couldn’t believe what she saw: big lesions in the crevices of the brain, dotted with abnormal protein clusters. A huge Packers fan, McKee has watched a lot of football games. But, […]
Read MoreWhat is clear is that the brain must be able to accurately regulate how strong a mental image is to avoid confusion between fantasy and reality. “The brain has this really careful balancing act that it has to perform,” Naselaris said. “In some sense it is going to interpret mental imagery as literally as it […]
Read MoreAnn, a stroke survivor, can communicate using a digital avatar that decodes her intended speech. Photograph: Noah Berger/UCSF There are trade-offs to both group’s approaches. Implanted electrodes, like the ones the Stanford team used, record the activity of individual neurons, which tends to provide more detailed information than a recording from the brain’s surface. But […]
Read MoreThe brain has a remarkable ability to adapt in response to injury. Healthy regions can take over functions that the damaged parts used to perform. “We’re trying to promote conditions in the surviving areas of the cortex that are more favorable to functional reorganization,” says Kenneth Baker, a neuroscientist at the Cleveland Clinic and an […]
Read MoreGideon Lichfield: I’m sure it will be if it isn’t already. No, totally, I think we’re gonna get a hydroponic organic psilocybin encased in artisanal, ethically sourced chocolate harvested from the Western-facing slopes of some mountain in Nicaragua, and it’s gonna be very expensive. And somebody with a very snooty head, who’s gonna be standing […]
Read MoreThey then administered a single low dose of klotho under each monkey’s skin, raising levels of the protein to those normally present in the animals at birth. Four hours later, researchers had them complete the food-finding task in batches of 20 trials, and the team then retested the monkeys over the next two weeks. Overall, […]
Read MoreThe researchers called this type of stimulation “synced.” They also tested another form of stimulation, called “mixed-phase,” where the electrode delivered pulses into the frontal lobe without regard to activity in the hippocampus. To see if these types of stimulation would affect memory, the scientists used a test in which the patients were introduced to […]
Read MoreBecause it penetrates the tissue, the Utah array can cause inflammation and scarring around the implantation site, which leads to a decline in signal quality over time. And signal quality is important because it affects how well the BCI performs. No one actually knows how long Utah arrays can last in the brain; so far […]
Read MoreBecause it penetrates the tissue, the Utah array can cause inflammation and scarring around the implantation site, which leads to a decline in signal quality over time. And signal quality is important because it affects how well the BCI performs. No one actually knows how long Utah arrays can last in the brain; so far […]
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