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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 841

Sep 8, 2016

Neuroscience: Linking perception to action

Posted by in categories: futurism, neuroscience

Not surprised by these findings.


A UC Santa Barbara researcher studying how the brain uses perception of the environment to guide action has a new understanding of the neural circuits responsible for transforming sensation into movement.

“Mapping perception to a future action seems simple,” UCSB neuroscientist Michael Goard. “We do it all the time when we see a traffic light and use that information to guide our later motor action. However, how these associations are mapped across time in the brain is not well understood.”

In a new paper, published in the journal eLife, Goard and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology make progress in mapping brain activity in mice during simple but fundamental cognitive tasks. Although a mouse’s brain is much smaller than a human’s, remarkable structural similarities exist. The mouse brain is composed of about 75 million nerve cells or neurons, which are wired together in complex networks that unerlie sophisticated behaviors.

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Sep 8, 2016

Elon Musk is Looking to Kickstart Transhuman Evolution With “Brain Hacking” Tech

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, evolution, habitats, neuroscience, robotics/AI, singularity, sustainability, transhumanism

Elon Musk has recently hinted that he may be working on a “neural lace,” a mesh of electronics that will allow AI and the brain to work together. This could help human brains keep up with future enhancements in AI.

There’s no doubt that Elon Musk is one busy individual. When not playing on the Tesla factory floor, he may be bringing electric roofs to electric vehicles, or dreaming up the Hyperloop, or toying with the future of AI.

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Sep 8, 2016

“Head-Transplanting” And “Mind-Uploading:” Philosophical Implications And Potential Social Consequences of Two Medico-Scientific Utopias

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, health, neuroscience

Written by ROLAND BENEDIKTER, KATJA SIEPMANN, ALEXANDER REYMANN

ABSTRACT. This article discusses the philosophical implications and potential social consequences of two experimental – and at the present moment still widely speculative – topics at the intersection between scientific and medical advances, the human body, the human mind, and the globalized health care sector. Head-Transplanting is a chirurgical endeavor envisaged by the HEAVEN project announced to be practically implemented around 2017 and to be available for routine-use around the mid-2020s by a group of internationally as prominent as disputed transplant surgeons. Mind-Uploading is a procedure currently in the first stages of development to create artificial representations of the human brain and its processes in computers and on the internet.

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Sep 8, 2016

THINKING Podcast

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, health, life extension, neuroscience

Biohacking, nootropics, and the notion of optimizing one’s human performance are on a rapid rise. Nootrobox founders Geoffrey Woo and Michael Brandt are some of the foremost thinkers in this space, and they are here to have intellectual conversations that will make you THINK.

Episode 9 features Aubrey de Grey, the Chief Scientist Officer of the SENS Research Foundation. In this episode, Geoff, Michael, and Aubrey discuss the nuances of aging and health and their differing opinions and tactics of how to fully optimize these notions.

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Sep 7, 2016

Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosed with help from Virtual Reality

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, virtual reality

I cannot wait to see how we can use VR for obtaining additional insights on other central nervous system diseases and disorders such as MS, Dystonia, GBM, etc.


Medical applications for VR continue to spread. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how Paraplegics can learn to walk again with help from Virtual Reality. Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University and the Siberian State Medical University, in Russia, believe that it could be the future of diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Methods to diagnosis many of these conditions is accomplished by visual assessment in most parts of Russia. The brain scanning technology such as a CAT scan or MRI to confirm the diagnosis is only available in a handful of cities. The VR system being developed would be cheap and easy to roll out across the country.

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Sep 7, 2016

We Might Be Getting Closer To “Immortality” Through Medical Nanotechnology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, health, life extension, nanotechnology, neuroscience, Peter Diamandis

No shock to me.


Diamandis claimed that we are gearing towards a future possible of “interface mind-machine, where in human brain’s consciousness could be uploaded to computer and then transferred to a new body—probably a cultured in the lab. He estimates that it will just take 20–30 years to be realized.

The reality of extended life longevity to almost immortality is actually not too hard to believe these days. After all science and technology never failed to amuse us to make the once impossible possible.

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Sep 6, 2016

New Drug Clears Abnormal Brain Proteins Tied to Alzheimer’s

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

In people with Alzheimer’s disease, a new investigational drug can dramatically reduce the amount of amyloid beta plaque, the tangled clumps of proteins that form in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, according to a new early study of the drug.

The drug works by spurring the immune system to recognize and clear the plaques.

“We believe that’s a hint of efficacy,” study co-author Dr. Alfred Sandrock, a neurologist and an executive vice president at Biogen, said during a news briefing. “We believe that needs to be confirmed with further studies.” Biogen is the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company that funded the trial and applied to patent the drug. [10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Brain].

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Sep 6, 2016

Stem Cells Allow Scientists to Repair Injured Spinal Cords

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

In a study published in Nature Medicine, researchers report that they have successfully coaxed stem cell-derived neurons to regenerate lost tissue in damaged corticospinal tracts of rats.

Stem cells are an amazing part of medical research. Because of their ability to become virtually any cell in the human body, they could hold the cure for many varied and grave diseases—from bones, to sight, to memory and thinking, stem cells could help us correct a host of conditions.

In fact, it seems that stem cells might be the key to repairing spinal cord injuries.

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Sep 6, 2016

THIS is how you can use ultrasound for wound healing

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PL-0Ga9Sziw

Other than speeding up bone healing, slowing Alzheimer’s in mice, ultrasound has been found to help with speedy wound healing. Ultrasound application can help diabetic patients, who suffer from helping defects, up to 30% to decrease the healing time of wounds.

84197338_thinkstockphotos-178438513

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Sep 6, 2016

Brain circuit that drives sleep-wake states, sleep-preparation behavior is identified

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have identified a brain circuit that’s indispensable to the sleep-wake cycle. This same circuit is also a key component of the reward system, an archipelago of interconnected brain clusters crucial to promoting behavior necessary for animals, including humans, to survive and reproduce.

It makes intuitive sense that the reward system, which motivates goal-directed behaviors such as fleeing from predators or looking for food, and our sleep-wake cycle would coordinate with one another at some point. You can’t seek food in your sleep, unless you’re an adept sleepwalker. Conversely, getting out of bed is a lot easier when you’re excited about the day ahead of you.

But until this study, no precise anatomical location for this integration of the ’s reward and arousal systems has been pinpointed, said Luis de Lecea, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

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