Neurofuture

Encephalon 30: The Retirement Party

2007-08-27T02:10:00.000-07:00

This is edition number 30 of the brain science blog carnival Encephalon, and it's also my final Neurofuture post. Let's go!

Eric Michael Johnson presents The Feeling of What Happens at The Primate Diaries (above image is from his post). Using the examples of phantom limb syndrome and religious experiences stemming from temporal lobe epilepsy, he characterizes spirituality as a "trick of the mind." The post was inspired by an editorial in Nature which included a scientist's religious views, and Eric opines, "Perhaps a return to reasonable arguments based on solid evidence would be a wiser course for the future."

Would that everyone would heed that, Eric.

Pure Pedantry's Jake Young offers criticism of science writing in the New York Times with his post Article on exercise and cognition has correct facts, wrong interpretation. The NYT journalist extrapolated from a study on a spatial memory task in mice by reporting that exercise prompted neurogenesis in the hippocampus which in turn made the mice smarter, when instead what the research concluded was improved performance only in the one task. Jake says, "While it is not necessary to go into the nitty-gritty details of hippocampal neurogenesis, I think that a sentence of caveat that said, 'The link between exercise, neurogenesis, and memory has not been mechanistically established,' would make this article much more accurate."

Stephanie West Allen of Brains on Purpose illustrates a good example of inaccuracy and extrapolation in Anatomy of a telephone game applied to a neuroscience study. Research was reported in a news item, someone blogged about it, someone else write a blog post based on that blog, and…go see where it led. I don't want to add more inaccuracy by writing about the blog post about the blogging of the blog about the news based on the research article. Heh.

Paul Baxter writes an overview of Hemispheric Specialisation in Memoirs of a Postgrad. Refreshingly, he cites five papers and humbly asks readers, "Hopefully, people who know more can fill in some of the gaps by leaving some comments."

In Omni Brain, some chick writes about ACHOO syndrome (autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst syndrome) a.k.a. photic sneeze syndrome a.k.a. sun sneezing (a.k.a. AAICS contest winner). With the single comprehensive review article that was only available in hard copy from a medical library forgotten in another city while she travels, she relies on memory, abstracts and a 1968 paper to describe the basics of this curious but common neurological syndrome. Fine, but then she wrecks it by rambling about the trigeminal nerve, migraines, horses and seasonal affective disorder when there is no empirical evidence whatsoever linking them.

"Perhaps a return to reasonable arguments based on solid evidence would be a wiser course for the future." Thank you again, Eric.

However, since there's no solid evidence about the nature of consciousness, what is a reasonable argument? Here unreasonable is more entertaining, as vlog Channel N features a video with experts from varied disciplines spiritedly arguing Is Consciousness Definable?. (Image: Morning Consciousness (2004), Dionisio Ceballas.)

The Neurocritic mocks outlandish headlines and bad neuro-journalism with A Single Gene Controls Emotional Recall! T.N. would definitely echo Eric's, "Perhaps a return to reasonable…"

Cognitive Daily reliably writes reasonable things based on solid peer-reviewed research, so when Dave Munger asks Why are Visual Memories so Vivid? the answer is conservative. He summarizes an experiment on memory of visual scenes relative to length of exposure in an article by David Melcher, Accumulation and persistence of memory for natural scenes. Journal of Vision, 6, 8-17. Melcher found that increased exposure time led to increased retention but not necessarily a long-term memory, and proposed something intermediate.

Cog Daily is also leading the development of Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting, now holding a logo design contest. Entries are accepted until September 10th.

The inimitable Vaughan Bell of Mind Hacks writes some compelling criticism in the post The psychology of behavior detection officers. America's latest plan to harass its airport users [my words, not Vaughan's] is based on Paul Ekman's research on facial micro-expressions. Ekman has apparently sold officials on a deception detection system despite unproven effectiveness. He concludes, "One difficulty with all deception research is that participants told to lie in the lab are not necessarily good models for 'real-life' deception, with all its complex motivations and emotional force. Lab-based lies are likely to be a poor substitute in an actual covert terrorist situation."

Alvaro Fernandez of Sharp Brains links to some newly published and newly announced research on cognitive training, in Cognitive training research: MindFit, Lumosity, Posit Science, Cogmed. As well, The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains is a list of actionable habits for brain fitness (with over 1200 Diggs!). I'm not exactly sure what he means by "don't outsource your brain" but have a feeling I'm doing it right now.

"Perhaps a return to reasonable arguments based on solid evidence would be a wiser course for the future." Oh yeah.

Jeremy Burman of Advances in the History of Psychology submitted five posts, which is against the Encephalon rules, but I'm not so uptight I'll insist on enforcing that. Here's Exemplars in the history of psychology, “Punitive psychiatry” still practiced in Russia?, History of Psychology Conferences for 2007-2008, Conceptions of Giftedness, in light of DVD finding, and Ten things we don’t know about the brain.

From an ad-clogged blog barely distinguishable from a splog, Out of Body Experiences: Medical Mysteries or Scientific Explanation? is posted at FitBuff.com's Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog. Whoever wrote it didn't link the source they've regurgitated, but I've seen posts about this Science study spewed all over the blogosphere. I briefly debated whether or not to read the original journal article in order to correct FitBuff's misinterpretations (like that a VR avatar is a hologram), but decided that if I'm going to waste my time I'd rather do it playing Scrabble in Facebook than outsourcing my brain to them.

My emotion-schmotions (quote from FitBuff) run a little high around this final contribution. The Neurocritic writes about The Luxury of Neurobranding, which includes a link to a post from the early days of Neurofuture. Anyone else remember the neuroword contest, a invitation to people to coin their own neuro-prefixed word describing a (potentially) new discipline in brain science? It was great fun with 50 entries, lots of chuckles and beginnings of friendships cherished to this day.

A little unfinished business, on retiring. The winner was "neurologism: a word created by prefixing 'neuro' to almost any normal word." After announcing it, Jake Dunagan told me he'd coined the word some time before, in his paper Neuro-Futures: The Brain, Power and Politics. He asked me merely to mention his paper and solicit reader opinions. Lamely, procrastination stopped me. Please do check it out, it's an interesting hypothetical look at a future of cognitive enhancements. What do you think? (I think it's FTW, Jake.)

That, then, is all. May you all have happy neurofutures. Thanks for reading.

The next edition of Encephalon (make submissions here) is scheduled for September 10th, to be hosted by Dr. Deborah Serani.

Waning

2007-08-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

It's time to retire Neurofuture. I'm not deleting it and may conceivably post something in future, but for now, it's being shelved.

Encephalon, then, marks the end of Neurofuture. Please submit your entries ASAP (via that linked form, or email encephalon.host at gmail.com) and join me in making it a smash farewell party.

Anticipatory

2007-08-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Encephalon 29 is now up at Memories of a Postgrad. I'll be hosting the next edition of the neuroscience blog carnival on August 27.

Send your links to encephalon dot host |at| gmail dot com or use the submission form to be a part of it. Further info here.

Transrobotism

2007-08-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

Image: the best-in-show bot at Robogames 07. When I blocked its path, it stopped moving forward and asked my name. I didn't answer but took this photo.

Relationships with robots are examined in this interesting video (or listen to audio alone).

Transrobotism (Human-Robot Bonds). "When a humanoid robot successfully mirrors human emotion and evokes an emotional response from us, what happens to our understanding of ourselves and our emotional reality? This provocative panel discussion on the emerging new realities of human-machine relationships is guaranteed to change the way you think!" Moderated by Pia Lindman, the panel consisted of Rodney Brooks, Joy Hirsch, Sherry Turkle, Peter Galison, and David Rodowick. WGBH Lectures. 01:51:36
link http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3413
direct audio link http://forum.wgbh.org/content/forum/3413-2007_04_24.mp3

Brief clip of a child interacting with the robot above:

x-posted to Channel N

The Shapes of Thought

2007-06-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

An interesting sci-art collaboration between University of Calgary researchers and artists Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow, attempting to visualize thought in 3D space. They completed a number of projects under the umbrella of the Einstein's Brain Project; this one titled The Shapes of Thought.

The project asked participants to recall traumatic events from their past. They were asked to emote anger, and other primary emotions. Each participant was wired to EEG and EKG sensors and monitored [for as long as 8-14 hours]. The resulting information was visualized as still images using Iris Explorer and visualized in realtime, interactive space using specially developed data acquisition modules.

Other images on the site include that of a man repeatedly asked to recall an incident in which he was severely injured, including a period of agitation, and couple of animations.

See more.

RoboGames

2007-06-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to RoboGames. There were many squee moments (PLEN was there! so cute! etc.), many pictures taken (which are trapped on my phone for the moment), and many things learned while wandering around among the room full of dads and their kids.

Maybe the most important lesson was that although some robots are designed with nice goals like helping the elderly, mixing cocktails or enabling the paralysed to walk, what the crowd was most interested in was watching robots tear each other apart in combat. I'm not sure what this says about humanity - or me, since I admit to cheering when they crashed into each other and parts went flying. At least I had a conversation with an engineer about cognitive robotics as well (he wasn't applying it though). And observed that a good way for artists to make money nowadays is to make their creations coin-operated.

More later, when I get my photos, but here's a pic from the web site of the superheavyweights (300 lbs or so) in combat. Yay robots!

x-posted to Omni Brain

Artificial Brain Parts

2007-06-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

From Sensopac, who've announced plans to build an artificial cerebellum for robots:

Breakthroughs and Innovations at a Glance:
+ Developing a theoretical understanding of the basis of cognition
+ Building a machine that can explore its own environment under its own guidance
+ Understanding how to abstract cognitive notions through a self-discovery which can bootstrap cognitive development
+ Developing principles that are applicable to any sensorimotor system, even those that are not well understood.
+ Methodologies for building systems-level models that remain biologically relevant
+ Developing methodologies for reverse-engineering high-level function such as haptic cognition
+ Understanding the contribution of key brain areas such as the cerebellum in behaviour and finding application for that knowledge in artificial systems
+ Developing technologies to simulate large complex systems in real-time and so allowing these systems to be applied in artificial machines

Those are pretty amazing breakthroughs. Understanding cognition and simulating it in real time, wow. Only, that hasn't happened yet and there are many people trying to do similar things without success.

No matter, BBC News decided to report on one Sensopac goal of building an artificial cerebellum (nevermind that nobody can presently model that number of neurons and neural systems, but technology moves fast) for robots, with the future goal of improving their motor skills.

I do hope some of these breakthroughs are achieved in Sensopac's four-year quest. "A theoretical understanding of the basis of cognition" and an artificial cerebellum sound fab.

Read more.
Read more from BBC on the artificial cerebellum.
Read more from BBC on robot ethics. "Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives," Park Hye-Young of the ministry's robot team told the AFP news agency. [What does that mean?] "Others may get addicted to interacting with them just as many internet users get hooked to the cyberworld."

Gr8 that the cyberworld delivers infomacnuggets like this. FTW and bring on the sensitive robots!

Prozac in a Riker Mount

2007-05-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Riker mounts are science specimen display boxes used to display butterflies and other items of scientific interest (in disciplines like lepidoptery and coleopterology). Here, they are used by artist Steve Lodefink to display a blister pack of green and yellow Prozac capsules.

"PROZAC 20 mg capsules circa. 1995" declares a typewritten, yellowed label under the pills, looking as though it could be under a beetle or a shell. Critics say the pills in a Riker mount lend a [Douglas] Couplandesque sensibility of pop culture as art. I don't know, I'm all for industrial design and packaging, but would prefer it promotes medication adherence. Science meeting art, though, is great.

Either way, the Prozac capsules are a contentious art and mental health conversation piece, simply by hanging on a wall in the older scientific context of a Riker mount. "With the addition of a Riker mount, a packet of pills becomes a commentary on late 20th century excesses in cosmetic psychopharmacology."

More
Art criticism

Glowing pill caps

2007-05-28T23:47:00.001-07:00

A glowing light embedded in a pill bottle cap alerts users to take their pills at assigned times. The caps can also send email or call a cell in an urgent situation, and can automatically alert the consumer's pharmacy of refills when they are due. All that, plus they create monthly progress reports, and even better they look funky (something your ailing loved ones are very, very concerned about). The ad says they'll also be able to say, "It's so easy I don't have to do anything different." That's progress!

Read more, or even easier, watch the video.

Via Infosthetics.

Neurosurgery via mobile

2007-04-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

"The goal of this is to make difficult surgeries easier, or impossible surgeries possible," says robotics engineer Alex Greer, who demonstrated the controls to the gathered media.

The NeuroArm was media-launched by University of Calgary researchers who'd once launched the space shuttle's robotic CanadArm. NeuroArm is a robot computer assisted surgery (CAS) system enabling remote neurosurgery. Exciting; the link is a few days old now and I wrote about teleneurosurgery a while back, but it's getting closer to what will be more exciting: clinical trials this summer.

Unrelated, but... what comes up in a search for "teleneurosurgery" includes this blog post from a Nokia mobile medical specialist. Neurosurgeons and radiologists (and cognitive neuroscientists?) can now receive MRI and CT images on mobile phones. Blogger Arto Holopainen explains the varying resolution of grey scale:

Since the images might contain theoretically 4096 different shades of grey it is obvious that smart phone displays can not handle that. But even the human eye cannot accurately distinguish between that amounts of different shades of grey. Therefore to allow the observer to interpret the image, only a limited number of greyscales are displayed at once. Clinically useful grey scale is achieved by viewing suitable range of grey scales depending on the tissue being studied.

Though it wouldn't assist in a NeuroArm surgery, images may be sent to cell phones and discussed live.

Computational vision

2007-03-29T02:02:00.000-07:00

The new study A Feedforward Architecture Accounts for Rapid Categorization, Serre, T., A. Oliva and T. Poggio, PNAS 2007, in press [not online yet] reveals the success of a computational version of vision modeled on the visual cortex processes of immediate recognition of objects. The feedforward model is based on what our vision perceives in the first 100-200 milliseconds of exposure in the ventral stream before cognitive feedback loops kick in. It recognized objects in a database of street scenes with reasonable accuracy and uses a learning algorithm to become better at categorizing new objects. In this study, their system was trained by exposure to images then pitted against human vision and both performed nearly the same, with over 90% accuracy for close-ups and 74% for distant views.

Thomas Serre, Tomaso Poggio and others at the Center for Biological and Computational Learning in the McGovern Institute, the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT collaborated on the system. Another new paper, Robust Object Recognition with Cortex-Like Mechanisms, Serre et al., IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol 29 No 3, March 2007 [free PDF], describes the development. The feedforward model uses four layers:

Visual processing is hierarchical, aiming to build
invariance to position and scale first and then to
viewpoint and other transformations.
Along the hierarchy, the receptive fields of the neurons
(i.e., the part of the visual field that could potentially
elicit a response from the neuron) as well as the
complexity of their optimal stimuli (i.e., the set of
stimuli that elicit a response of the neuron) increases.
The initial processing of information is feedforward
(for immediate recognition tasks, i.e., when the image
presentation is rapid and there is no time for eye
movements or shifts of attention).
Plasticity and learning probably occurs at all stages
and certainly at the level of inferotemporal (IT)
cortex and prefrontal cortex (PFC), the top-most
layers of the hierarchy.

Poggio said, “We have not solved vision yet, but this model of immediate recognition may provide the skeleton of a theory of vision. The huge task in front of us is to incorporate into the model the effects of attention and top-down beliefs.”

Their next goal is research on the 200-300 milliseconds after the feedforward process of immediate recognition, and a larger one is to incorporate cognitive feedback loops. The feedforward model may ultimately be useful as a front end to more complex processing systems. Bigger implications:

This new study supports a long–held hypothesis that rapid categorization happens without any feedback from cognitive or other areas of the brain. The results also indicate that the model can help neuroscientists make predictions and drive new experiments to explore brain mechanisms involved in human visual perception, cognition, and behavior. Deciphering the relative contribution of feed-forward and feedback processing may eventually help explain neuropsychological disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. The model also bridges the gap between the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience because it may lead to better artificial vision systems and augmented sensory prostheses.

Read more.
Download the open source software with StreetScenes dataset.
More research from the MIT CBCL lab.

x-posted to Omni Brain

"The brain is the wildcard"

2007-03-22T23:28:00.000-07:00

An eye prosthesis implant has gained FDA approval for clinical trials aiming to restore vision to people blinded by retinal degenerative diseases. Second Sight produced a 16-electrode implant device a few years ago, which five patients are still using with success thanks in part to an ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) film protecting its parts from body fluids. Their new Argus II device with 60 electrodes is an improvement researcher Mark Humayun says, "is like a train and a plane, they're that different."

The device consists of a tiny camera and transmitter mounted in eyeglasses, an implanted receiver, and an electrode-studded array that is secured to the retina with a microtack the width of a human hair. A wireless microprocessor and battery pack worn on the belt powers the entire device.

The camera on the glasses captures an image and sends the information to the video processor, which converts the image to an electronic signal and sends it to the transmitter on the sunglasses. The implanted receiver wirelessly receives this data and sends the signals through a tiny cable to the electrode array, stimulating it to emit electrical pulses. The pulses induce responses in the retina that travel through the optic nerve to the brain, which perceives patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to the electrodes stimulated.

While the implant doesn't restore full vision, patients interpret the light patterns as useful images to interface with the world. As Science Daily reports:

Exactly how much improvement can be achieved won't be clear, he says, until testing is underway. "The brain is the wildcard," [Hunayan] says, noting that his team was surprised by the extent to which the brain was able to "fill in" visual information from the limited number of pixels in the first model.

600 to 1000 pixels are the expected requirement to restore full vision such as facial recognition and reading, and this device doesn't have that capacity. Read Visual Prosthesis in the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering 2005, for a survey of the challenges involved. Though engineering advancements are needed, the Argus II appears to be an important visionary step towards full artificial sight.

Other implant devices in development include the Retina Implant from Germany, hoping to be on the market in 2009, and the Optobionics Artificial Silicon Retina chip using 5,000 microphotodiode cells. Both are subretinal implants that stimulate remaining healthy retinal cells. The Argus II, in contrast, is an epiretinal device that stimulates the optic nerve with external signals from the camera.

Tagged

2007-03-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Shrink Rap tagged me for a Thinking Blogger "award" and so in turn, here are five thoughtful blogs I recommend.

The Neurocritic
Brain Ethics
Positive Technology Journal
Doc Gm Splash Fly
Machines Like Us

Brain Awareness Week 2007

2007-03-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

During last year's Brain Awareness Week I was full of vim and enthusiasm, but this time I've got a flu virus and am feeling listless. Links are the better way to go.

The Dana Alliance for the Brain is the BAW umbrella organization worldwide, and the Society for Neuroscience sponsors many events (like a Brain Bee for young students) in turn. Here it's NeuroScience Canada spearheading celebrations, such as a presentation on neurobiology and psychology in space: Functioning with a Floating Brain by Dr. Luchino Cohen, Program Scientist, Space Life Sciences, Canadian Space Agency. A free, bilingual event at the Montreal Planetarium on March 12. To find goings-on in your area, check the international calendar.

Online, the Encephalon neuroscience blog carnival, hosted this time around at Pharyngula, features a variety of links to intriguing, funny, and informative original writing.

Then there are many, many links compiled at The Neurophilospher's list of neuro/psych blogs. My brain science vlog Channel N was demarcated by an asterisk of recommendation, woot. The number of subscribers soared from 14 to 30 as a result.

I don't do this for fame, y'know. Rather, the prestige and the glory.

Happy Brain Awareness Week!

Neuroethics for Barbie

2007-03-09T17:25:00.000-08:00

My Three Shrinks podcast #13: Lost It In Space features psychiatrists ClinkShrink, Dinah and Roy discussing a few questions on neuroethics I'd sent along to ClinkShrink, a forensic psych currently working in a prison. What's the line between the insanity defense and criminal responsibility, considering neuropsychiatric advances? What do they think about forced treatment of offenders, specifically chemical castration of sex offenders?

The trio offers some fun banter, and commentary based on their professional experience with the issues. ClinkShrink also followed up by writing the post Heads, You Lose in their blog, Shrink Rap. Thanks for taking on the topic!

For another view on neuroethical issues check out the excellent new blog The Situationist. There's a great three part series on Situational Sources of Evil by Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University.

cross-posted to Omni Brain

Stroke Recovery in Stained Glass

2007-03-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist and spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center at McLean Hospital, suffered an AVM stroke seven years ago that left her without math, language, and other left-hemisphere processing skills. With grittiness, family support and her professional knowledge about the brain and its plasticity, she regained capabilities in innovative ways beyond traditional stroke rehabilitation methods.

By creating stained glass brains art became both a means of expression and a logical therapeutic tool. Their beauty is almost a byproduct - except that understanding the value of being immersed in moments of appreciating beauty was another major lesson.

I asked her a few questions about her art prior to the release of her memoir, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, a fascinating and inspiring account of how and what she recovered and even gained from the experience.

---

In your designs, how much were you drawing from experience looking at and handling brains, compared to images in neuroanatomy books [which she referred to for refreshment after the stroke]?

I have a 3 dimensional picture of the brain in my mind's eye and the stained glass brain image is my artistic impression of the different parts of the organ and how they intersect. It is a composite of how others depict the brain in 2 dimension and what I know to be true about the brain in 3 dimension from dissection.

How much is science, how much is art, and how do they intersect for you?

I am an artist in my heart and chose to apply my art to science in order to make a living. All of my scientific projects are aesthetically beautiful - wait till you see my triple immunofluorescence study where we visualized 3 neurotransmitter systems in the same piece of tissue! Art is beauty to me, the brain is beautiful to me, therefore the brain is beautiful art to me whether in glass or in our heads.

In the photo you sent, your design seems a mix of the two. I recognize some brain structures but some (like the multicoloured areas along the top of the cerebellum) seem to represent something else? Symbolism?

The texture of the glass of the cerebellum is different than any other glass in the brain. I chose a feathered looking glass because the cerebellar tissue looks feathered when viewed under the microscope. The brain is anatomically correct from the level of the cingulate gyrus (orange band) down, the blue is the induseum griseum - the band surrounding the fibers of the corpus callosum (red/orange opaque piece). I chose opaque for the corpus callosum to indicate its density of fibers. Each of the nodules represents something specific - the RED for the amygdala (rage and fear), green for hippocampus (memory and learning), two purples - the pineal (third eye) and the pituitary (hormones). In my newer brains I always make the most posterior portion of the brain in a black/white stripe for the visual cortex V1 of blobs and interblobs, V2 Stripes and interstripes.

This was a form of art therapy; what differences did you notice between your recovery and others who didn't benefit from it? Were certain abilities re-established more easily or quickly?

I cannot compare this project to anyone else's recovery. All I can do is speak to what it helped me with.

1. Balance and equilibrium to stand still in front of a workspace and manipulate the project.
2. Gross motor movement, handling glass is very delicate and dangerous, I was highly motivated to be very careful for both the glass and myself.
3. Fine motor dexterity, cutting glass is a precise activity, grinding glass requires holding my body firm - equilibrium, pushing into the grinder - gross motor and then lining all of the pieces up - fine motor.
4. Cognitive development - this type of a project is a long term project with lots of steps. It helped me in my linear thinking.
5. Cartoon development of the original image required a combination of intuition and sensory organization.
6. Focus and concentration balanced with sleep.
7. Artistry - how does one tweak it all to make it remarkable and beautiful.

What about your creative thinking?

When I lost my left hemisphere I lost all of the normal 'in the box' thinking. When we think about shifts in the brain it is inadequate to focus on the loss because with every loss there is a gain. As a society we do not focus on what someone has gained in the absence of something they have lost. When I lost the ability to define, organize and categorize information, I gained the ability to be intuitive and creative. In the absence of the left mind and its dominating inhibition, I gained a completely uninhibited right mind which processes information in a completely unique way when compared to
the left mind.

---

Thank you Dr. Bolte Taylor! Abject apologies for the inexcusable delay in my posting this interview. It is, however, a timeless testament to resilience and creative spirit.

NOTE: The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center is in urgent need of brain tissue from America. Please call 1-800-BRAINBANK to learn more. Also, read My Stroke of Insight for the story of how that toll-free number helped save Dr. Bolte Taylor's life.

Cellular automata

2007-02-22T01:40:00.000-08:00

Jonathan McCabe is an Australian digital artist and systems engineer I'm so keen on that I've done two previous posts about his generative art 2D images and videos. He recently sent me a nice email with a link to more of his work so I had to share.

click image for full size

These images were generated using a cellular automata program he authored. He describes the process:

Each pixel represents the state of the 4 cells of 4 cellular automata, which are cross coupled and have their individual state transition tables. There is a "history" or "memory" of the previous states which is used as an offset into the state transition tables, resulting in update rules which depend on what has happened at that pixel in previous generations. Different regions end up in a particular state or cycle of states, and act very much like immiscible liquids with surface tension. The resulting structures remind me of cells under a microscope.

click image for full size

They remind me of microscopy too; check out these stones. Obviously very different, but…

He's just added 28 new images to the archive, explaining that "these have 8 coupled cellular automata and a different function generating the state transition tables, so they look a little different. I'm guessing the larger number of automata might lead to more interesting behaviour, but it makes it slower to compute."

My brain was a bit slow to compute the concept of cellular automata (I'm so not a mathematician), but in Googling to learn I found another cellular automata art project. Visit Artificial Life and Other Experiments by Ariel Dolan for that and more online, interactive works. Enter nucleotide DNA sequences to find palindromes, woot!

Meanwhile, McCabe has more images available online in the form of tiles/coasters sold at CafePress. At $4.50 apiece, art doesn't get much more affordable than that. Also a bargain are signed prints and more signed prints.

Future Scent

2007-02-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

Lavender essential oil aromatherapy carries a long list of pseudoscience claims, and though some are outrageous, it seems aromatherapy for relaxation may have some science to back it up. Smelling lavender and rosemary increases free radical scavenging activity and decreases cortisol level in saliva, Atsumi and Tonosaki [who are dentists, not psychiatrists], Psychiatry Research, Feb 2007 (epub). "Our study may be the first to report the cortisol-lowering effect of smell in human saliva," they said, concluding that lavender and rosemary scents may provide protection against oxidative stress.

Does this justify my rosemary mint shampoo and lavender soy moisturizer as medical expenses? I wonder what Ben Goldacre would say.

The handful of other aromatherapy studies include Ambient odors of orange and lavender reduce anxiety and improve mood in a dental office, Lehrner et al., Physiol Behav. 2005 Sep 15;86(1-2):92-5, and Aromas of rosemary and lavender essential oils differentially affect cognition and mood in healthy adults, Moss et al., Int J Neurosci. 2003 Jan;113(1):15-38. The latter reported:

... lavender produced a significant decrement in performance of working memory, and impaired reaction times for both memory and attention based tasks compared to controls. In contrast, rosemary produced a significant enhancement of performance for overall quality of memory and secondary memory factors, but also produced an impairment of speed of memory compared to controls. With regard to mood, comparisons of the change in ratings from baseline to post-test revealed that following the completion of the cognitive assessment battery, both the control and lavender groups were significantly less alert than the rosemary condition; however, the control group was significantly less content than both rosemary and lavender conditions. These findings indicate that the olfactory properties of these essential oils can produce objective effects on cognitive performance, as well as subjective effects on mood.

The Reebok Zan Chi Aromatherapy tank top is designed to release lavender or peppermint scent from heat-sensitive fabric but has yet to be studied empirically. Maybe it'd be useful for anxiety-provoking situations beyond yoga, but there's no FDA approval for it or any other of the vast range of aromatherapy products for mental health.

One neuroimaging study, EEG asymmetry responses to lavender and rosemary aromas in adults and infants, Sanders et al., Int J Neurosci, 2002 Nov;112(11):1305-20., recorded a shift from left frontal activity to right frontal (indicating a calmer emotional state), could blossom into a whole new subtype of neuromarketing (neuroperfumery?) for products like Smiley.

Touting itself as an "olfactive antidepressant," Smiley is a perfume containing "micronutrients to activate happiness." Theobromine and phenylethylamine are mixed into extrait de parfum ("maximum dose"), eau de toilette ("normal dose"), and a tanning simulator lotion (dose unspecified). The "pharmacodynamic action" of those neurochemicals is usually delivered via chocolate - ingested - not perfume - an ambient whiff. You could dip yourself in melted chocolate and still not feel elation from phenylethylamine transdermally.

But Smiley doesn't take itself or its scientific claims entirely seriously (being a chic concept from a French parfumier) so at least some consumers won't either. Visual designer ora-ito said, "I was immediately seduced by the idea of taking part in the creation of the very first perfume-treatment! For the Damien Hirst fan that I am, it's a kid's dream coming true to develop an ironic clinical universe." There's a photo of 50 Cents (sic) hyping the brand at Cannes. Ironic is key.

No word from Clinique, manufacturers of Happy.

Makers of lavender and rosemary essential oils must be thrilled by this latest study, but buyer beware. Though hawked by the Discovery Channel, Lovey the Lavender Lamb hasn't been in a lab.

[Cross-posted to Omni Brain]

Bacteria culture

2007-01-30T05:16:00.000-08:00

The artist hostprods describing Autoinducer_Ph-1 (cross cultural chemistry) (2006), robotic arms tending a rice paddy, controlled by AI modelling software interacting with synthetic and organic bacteria:

Both the organic and synthetic bacteria are aware of the state of their symbiotic partner via traditional chemical detection methods. As a denizen of an electronic environment, GCS [Generalized Cellular Signaling] bacteria signals are converted into signals that control various actuators and thus the regulated environment in which the bacteria are being cultured. Through this interface, the synthetic bacteria are fully integrated into the ecosystem and exert an equal influence on the system equilibrium. In addition to producing a chemical response, certain GCS signals are translated into sound and light rounding out the environmental stimuli of the ecosystem. The sum effect is a system in flux, one that teases the Anabaena and Azolla into behaviour distinct from the natural. ‘Autoinducer_Ph-1’ employs a pair of robotic arms to deliver Azolla to the growing rice as and when the GCS/Anabaena symbiotic brain decides. Although starting out with basic behaviours the arms evolve a more and more expressive mode of operation as the piece continues.

There's video at the site. Examine some other projects too, like Phumox (2005).

A crucial part of Phumox is the recognition of emergent behaviour in organic and artificial systems and how these organic and artificial systems can be juxtaposed to produce emergent behaviour through symbiotic or parasitic activity. Exploring these boundary conditions is the focus, as the most dramatic events occur not in equilibrium but in change [emphasis mine].

That's a truth in just about any context.

The Potential of Potentials

2007-01-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

Brendan Allison, Ph.D. gave a presentation to a Microsoft Research audience in June 2006, titled Brain Computer Interface Systems: Progress and Opportunities, covering some exciting R&D.

Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) use neuroimaging systems (most commonly EEG) to measure brain activity and process signals to control software. Research is underway on implants/neural prosthetics, but EEG is non-invasive and getting more accessible. The familiar bulky array of 8 to 256 electrodes with conductive gel stuck to a user's head, impractical for portable consumer use, is changing as companies develop caps, glasses and similar small devices that allow freedom of movement and no professional assistance to hook up.

For people with locked-in syndrome from ALS, who cannot move any muscles in their body but remain conscious and alert, BCIs can be their sole means of communication with the world. Thought Translation Devices (it's not quite thought, rather ERPs) are used to write, and patients can even browse the web with Neural Internet. Researchers have created a robot controlled by BCI to function as an assistant for the disabled, and no doubt there are other human-liberating projects in development and refinement.

Games tend to get awed attention (see this clip on YouTube of Pong). There's Mindball, a competitive ball game, a video game purports to treat ADHD, and other neurofeedback games make various claims.

In the arts they've been used for performance drawing, artifact imaging, there's a proposal to create live video, and other nifty creative works.

Then there's the controversial Brain Fingerprinting lie detection method, and other applications too numerous to list in just one post.

Back in the Microsoft Research lecture video, Brendan Allison says electrode arrays cost as little as $1,000 readymade, and can be used with an ordinary computer (even a PDA). Mix in some DIY creativity and who knows what may result? If Make magazine/blog meets the OpenEEG wiki, it's really unpredictable. The future seems wide open.

EEG does have limitations. It takes considerable training to operate a BCI with a biofeedback-type method in which the user relaxes into different states; or to set up an interface based on recognizing objects. The process and interface can be cumbersome.

Considering electroencephalography has been around since the early 20th century, and growing more sophisticated, it seems we'll continue to invent applictions. Allison outlines much of the progress in his talk, so do watch his presentation.

Note that Microsoft has considerately limited viewing of the video to users with Explorer and Windows Media Player. How unfuturistic of them.

---

Journal refs:

Review Brain-computer interfaces--the key for the conscious brain locked into a paralyzed body. Kübler and Neumann,
Progress in Brain Research 2005.:513-25.

Neural Internet: Web Surfing with Brain Potentials for the Completely Paralyzed, Karim et al., Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 2006, 508-515 (free PDF)

Jonathan McCabe videos

2007-01-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

Recently I featured Jonathan McCabe's two dimensional artwork, stills of patterns generated by neural nets in his exhibit Nervous States.

More and better: animations! Videos document the processes behind the stills taken for the Origami Butterfly Technique show. Fascinating to watch the changes.

[The YouTube conversion is not as good as the Quicktime, which you can get from archives.]

Jonathan McCabe is interested in theories of biological pattern formation and evolution and their application to computer art. He likes to write computer programs which measure statistical properties of images for use in artificial evolution of computer art.

Detail of an image from Origami Butterfly Technique; click for an amazing full size image.

Archived minimally; although McCabe is a digital artist, he's hasn't made a web site. Perhaps the neural nets could generate a design?

Read more from Generator.x.
Read even more from Data Is Nature.
Direct video link (.mov) Ten videos in total archived here.

Remote control cyber cockroach transformations

2007-01-09T02:42:00.000-08:00

Click image for full comic from Dinosaur Comics, by Ryan North.

The cockroach wouldn't be aware of the transformation as its consciousness changed form and function. Ideally. Ethics, right?

I'm not one to weigh ethics, that's something transhumanism is mandated for. I'm a salon transhumanist as defined by Michael Anissimov, blending into arts and culture. Read the Transhumanist FAQ to find out why I realized I was already a transhumanist (yay SRL); perhaps you are too. Or perhaps you're someone at the top who reads my little blog but doesn't require links. Either way, hope the comic made you smile.

Diseased transgenic robots

2007-01-04T01:17:00.000-08:00

Transgenic dog/cows made of hacked I-Cybie robots, in performance art about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a.k.a. Mad Cow Disease, and issues in cow cloning (newly approved by the FDA). Part of Dog[LAB]02 by France Cadet.

Suddenly these pathological symptoms start to appear and invade the whole pack. One animal, then two, then three… the whole pack seems touched by this epidemic. The animal shake, stumble, fall down, get up painfully.

Then the pack of clones starts to exhibit an uniform and synchronous behaviour: all the robots start to shake and bleat all together at the same time. They can't stand up any more on their feverish paws. The mad cow disease seems to be here!

The tremors become more and more intense, then suddenly, they all fall down at the same time. Once lying on the floor, they groan with quavering bleats which seem to be insignificant when they are alone, but when we hear the 30 cries of the dying clones, they become frightening.

This is the end... The clones become clones again. The pack is dying in unison.

The artist notes, "By using a whole pack of robotic dogs, the aim is to create a much more frightening impression than was possible with the single dog of Dog[LAB]01, which often inspired amusement – something the artist did not intend. [LOL] The use of multiple robots also evokes contemporary anxieties about cloning, the spread of new diseases, and genocide. The dramatic death of the robots challenges the utopian dreams of transhumanists in which robotic technology is seen as a means of overcoming our mortality. As Luciana Parisi emphasizes, the novelty of Dolly, the cloned sheep, was not that you could clone an adult mammal, but that our genes and organs can be designed and shaped. The point is not solely that it is now possible to reproduce artificially, but that human beings can be reproduced from scratch."

Also burgers. Researchers funded by Kirin (the brewery) claim to have bred mad-cow-disease-resistant cows by knocking out prion protein genes. [Article epub ahead of print but Nature appears not to have put it online yet.]

Which is great since the alternatives of people ceasing to eat beef, modifying factory farm feeding methods (and laws), and/or international trade restrictions seem to have been too hard to do. Instead of vegetarianism, here's genetic engineering. Simple. But:

"By knocking out the prion protein gene and producing healthy calves, our team has successfully demonstrated that normal cellular prion protein is not necessary for the normal development and survival of cattle," [said] James Robl.

Prions are now optional? I must investigate further. Perhaps toward cyborg transgenic cows; robots with cloned prion-free muscle tissue, and...

Neurotechnosocioeconomic impact

2006-12-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Neurotechnosocioeconomics is a fantastic new neuroword coined by Zack Lynch of Brain Waves in a post proposing a study on that very thing.

"What does it mean?" I was asked while spreading the new word. Just what it sounds like. The social and economic impact of neurotechnology (neurostimulators, brain-computer interfaces, etc.). Zack would like to further research the market and its social impact as regards the cost and treatment of neurological and psychiatric illnesses. He is seeking $2M in funding to quantify these trajectories.

Not the first person I've seen sort-of-seeking research funding on a blog. Does that work? Further study is required about this apparent trend, so I too will ask. I'd like a large grant for a project. Please comment with an enthusiastic "yes, I'm in!"

Various studies have compiled research on the economic impact of depression in the workplace, in developing countries, etc. One major report related to neurosocioeconomics from the WHO, The World Health Report 2001 - Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope, is oft-cited, and smaller studies also point to treatment deficits and directions. No shortage of depressing statistics on depression, for example. Unfortunately, there's been little socioeconomic impact as hospitals continue to close psychiatric beds and cut services, laws to require US health insurers to provide equity for mental illnesses languish and stall, and treatments remain inaccessible to many people suffering from brain illnesses.

Stigma is very strong. I hope Zack will have more success in swimming against the current.

Generative Art

2006-12-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

Nervous States by Jonathan McCabe is data visualization using a process that resulted in a material gallery show of six digital prints. Neural nets generated patterns processed further by the artist/programmer; entirely new, generative art. When it's based on a neural net and mixed down further, what similarities may remain with human systems? Interesting questions re the emerging art form of data aesthetics. I'm really just learning how much creative potential there is, not being a programmer myself. Two of my favourite sites on info vis are Information Aesthetics, and Data as Nature (hat tip for this very post); they feature a tantalizing variety of original ideas and images.

McCabe's Nervous States was distilled with a novel process:

Each image is essentially a visualisation of the output state of a small neural network. The X and Y coordinates correspond to two variables in the connections of the network; the colour of the pixel at that point is a representation of the network's behaviour for those parameters. So the image is a map of system states; coherent colours show areas of relative stability or gradual change; edges show sharp jumps in the output; marbled swirls show complex oscillations.

Got that? The teeming void's review continues, and sums up the intriguing essence of this work:

This work also makes me wonder about communication, meaning and generative art. As McCabe explains them, and in the context of the "nervous" metaphor, the generative system is poetic in itself; the images can be read in that context, as mysterious maps of complex dynamics - or they can function on a more "retinal" level, as sheer visual stimulus - or perhaps both. But how comprehensible is the generative system for a wide audience? Does it matter? Understanding the images as state maps, rather than physical (or even simulated physical) traces and gestures, is a considerable leap of abstraction. And at a time when open-source tools are drawing more and more artists and designers to generative techniques, McCabe's work issues a similar challenge: underneath the initial challenge of learning to code is the conceptual process of understanding, designing and visualising generative systems, and it's those systems that (I'd say) are at the core of the work.

Read on: teeming void's review of Nervous States.

Teleneurosurgery

2006-12-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

First - Omni Brain has moved to ScienceBlogs.com, part of the Seed Media Group responsible for many interesting projects (see Phylotaxis). Steve and I will continue to post brain silliness, for lots more readers. My blog attention has been focussed on the move of late, but Neurofuture remains a priority. Onward into the future!

Neurosurgery has long incorporated robotics, technology allowing far more precision. Computer assisted surgery (CAS) has been around for a while in various configurations, including telementoring in which a remote robot is controlled by neurosurgeons while closely monitored by a distant expert surgeon. A team in Saint Johns, New Brunswick and Halifax were the world's first to perform neurosurgery by telesurgery, in 2002, using the SOCRATES telementoring system (published here).

No CAS telesurgery system gave direct control of the surgery to one remote surgeon via the robot, however. That's now changed with another Canadian innovation, the NeuroArm from the University of Calgary and MD Robotics. (Canada has developed a number of telemedicine applications, being a large country with a far-flung population, and expertise in space robotics.) The NeuroArm has a haptic interface, integrates with near-realtime MR neuroimaging, and provides "all the features that a neurosurgeon would need to directly manipulate [surgery]." It's been in development for years and now going into manufacturing.

Designed based on biomimicry, the controller’s hand movements (master) are replicated by robotic arms (slave) which hold surgical tools. The NeuroArm comprises 2 arms, each with 7 degrees of freedom, and a third arm with 2 cameras which provides the surgeon with a 3-D stereoscopic view7. NeuroArm is able to carry out microsurgical techniques and soft tissue manipulations such as biopsy, microdissection, thermocoagulation, blunt dissection, grasping of tissue, cauterizing, manipulation of a retractor, tool cleaning, fine suturing, suction, microscissors, needle drivers, and bipolar forceps. All the tools are exchanged at the end-effector, which also provides haptic force feedback to the surgeon.

...In an attempt to replicate the surgical arena, the workstation provides the surgeon with 3 areas of feedback: sound, sight, and touch4. The surgical microscope (binoculars) give stereoscopic views of the brain’s complex folds, while MRIs and robotic sensors create a 3-dimensional map of the brain for the surgeon on the displays. The microsurgical tools and real-time MRIs increase the accuracy of the surgeon 1000-folds (from an accuracy level of 1 millimeter to one-thousandth of a millimeter)...The NeuroArm’s image guidance system is so advanced that the surgeon can simulate the procedure in virtual reality beforehand.

Just don't confuse it with the other NeuroArm, tempting as it may seem to build your own NeuroArm from a kit.

Read more about robotic neurosurgery and telesurgery.
Read more about medical robotics and CAS.

Sci-Artist Laura Splan

2006-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

I see in my referrer log that somebody found this blog by Googling for "art made with blood." What a handy coincidence…

I've recently discovered the innovative work of artist Laura Splan, who creates 2D and 3D pieces with materials as diverse as doilies, cosmetic facial peels, medical equipment, hand latch-hooked rugs, and of course blood, taken from her fingertip and used as ink. Concurrent with her art degree she studied microbiology, and has a family background in the medical field, which she draws inspiration from.

Several of her series, including Reflexive 1, 2, and 3 and Thought Patterns, utilize neuroanatomical imagery drawn in blood; she describes them thusly:

Thought Patterns is a series of images inspired by neuroanatomical structures. Each drawing was created using blood taken from my fingertips as the primary medium. The series explores the relationship between the images being depicted and the source of the medium with which they are drawn. I was drawn to these images as a formal exploration of the elements of our body that tell us we sense pain or pleasure. The images of neurons and other brain structures evoke the complex psychological and physiological responses our body has to outside forces. The forms of the brain structures act as visual metaphors for the extreme complexity and delicate fragility of the human body.

The above drawing is part of the Reflexive 2 triptych.

Delicate Structures, Innate Forces is a solo exhibition of her work at the New York Hall of Science, presented by Art and Science Collaborations, Inc., currently showing through to January 2007. It includes Thought Patterns and Reflexive blood drawings, doilies designed with virus structures, and many other highly original and fascinating works.

Futurepunk

2006-11-14T13:21:00.000-08:00

After writing about mechanical brains recently, this cyborg image by DarkArt.cz caught my eye. As did the event.

Futurepunk is a loose collective of UK industrial punk/EBM musicians and artists. Listen to Futurepunk radio, and download free music at some of the artists' sites; the "transhumanist apocalypse chic" group Xykogen offers a new EP, and Deathboy has made available their entire back catalogue. [Edit - now there's also a Futurepunk compilation album featuring all the bands.]

If you're near Camden on Nov. 23, go see Futurepunk23 with Deathboy, Xykogen, History of Guns, and others. Good times. I'd go but Google Maps won't give me driving directions from Canada and I worry about getting lost in Greenland.

Neurosociety

2006-11-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

James Hughes speaks with neurologist and American Neuropsychiatric Association president Richard Restak about neurosociety and his new book The Naked Brain, on essential transhumanist podcast Changesurfer Radio. Click to listen (mp3).

Dr. Hughes has a crowded CV; Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics of Emerging Technology, Health Policy professor at Trinity College, author of Citizen Cyborg, and more. Recently he stepped down as executive director of the World Transhumanist Association, moving into the future following two successful years.

WTA Vice Chair Giulio Prisco is his successor. Prisco established a large transhumanist virtual presence in Second Life, including live webcast of the TransVision06 conference in Helsinki, Finland. (Screenshot below.)

Cultural neuron cultures

2006-11-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

BrainWaves is a musical performance by cultured cortical cells interfacing with multielectrode arrays. Eight electrodes recorded neural patterns that were filtered to eight speakers after being sonified by robotic and human interpretation. Sound patterns followed neural spikes and waveforms, and also extended to video, with live visualizations of the music and neural patterns in front of a mesmerized audience. See a two minute video here (still image below). Teams from two research labs designed and engineered the project; read more from collaborator Gil Weinberg.

The Potter Group of the Laboratory for Neuro-
Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology conducts research with cultured neuro-electrical interfaces, using recording and stimulation
techniques. BrainWaves is one creative expression of this work, another is the MEART Animat, or hybrot, that creates paintings with robotic arms. The Animat used rat neurons; mouse neurons for BrainWaves, and simple fish neurons in Fish and Chips (a predecessor of BrainWaves). Organic and digital meshed.

BrainWaves invokes aesthetics of sound patterns with neural patterns. MEART "the semi-living artist" is abstract in its output. What do these expressions mean? Their beauty lies in science, in the synchronized creative outlets in live, improvised performances with digital and audience interfaces generating compositions in reaction to neural activity. Then putting them online. Two, including BrainWaves, were documented in Interactive Sonification of Neural Activity, Weinberg & Thatcher, from Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. (PDF)

Potter recently published on plasticity in neuronal cultures, and earlier in the year co-authored An extremely rich repertoire of bursting patterns during the development of cortical cultures. Wagenaar, Pine, Potter; BMC Neurosci. 2006 Feb 7;7:11 (free full text).

The paper includes an open invitation. "Indeed, the range of behaviors of these cultures is so rich that this paper can only begin to describe the diverse activity patterns present in these recordings. Therefore, we invite others to join us in the study of activity patterns of networks of cortical cells in vitro. To this end, we have made the entire dataset used for this paper available on the web [email Potter for access]. Researchers may download our recordings of spike waveforms."

Imagine what sci-art expressions could develop in the research and infoviz from that.

After Life

2006-11-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Who is Alex Harris, Ph.D? Even he doesn't know as he awakens day after day in new realities, trying to solve the mystery of his existence.

Creatures, devices and pleasant townsfolk populate a utopia of someone's creation, he finds. His? Or one of the six copies of him? The book uses lots of tech detail in describing cyborgs, tics, robots, zombies and other transhumans. He spreads to the post-web and sets up quiet businesses, run by other copies evolved past the mind of Alex, a scientist who surely died in his own lab. He remembers volunteering for a risky and complex experiment involving consciousness uploading, zombies, AI, cyborgs. It's a digital utopia mystery with an unpredictable ending.

Written by Simon Funk, this debut novel of postcyberpunk sci-fi replete with psychological and philosophical suspense is free. Free!

Download a free PDF ebook at Lulu, read it indexed online, or order a hard copy for minimal payment.

[Disclosure: I helped out with copy editing as Simon Funk is a friend. But I'm biased because I like the story.]

The Synapse 10

2006-10-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

The Synapse, Spooky Issue 10 is up, thanks to the scarily amusing Neurocritic. This regular blog carnival in its current issue features fifteen contributions from some of the hottest neurobloggers online, including its host.

Screenprinted neuron

2006-10-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Neuron on a velvet wallet, screenprinted by hand, Smoking Lily. Original drawing in the Smoking Lily web archive, and see it printed with a word at Omni Brain.

Brain computer interface drawing

2006-10-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

Via Positive Technology Journal

In the artist's own words:

Not to Draw by Hand. To Draw by Brain.

Artists usually draw pictures by hand with brushes or
pencils. However, the activities of brains must be more
important and essential than the ones of hands at the
moment of creating art. Therefore, I decided to draw
pictures with electrodes being set on my head through
controlling the activities of my own brain. The curved
lines so-called "brain waves" in medicine must be the
"drawings" in the world of fine art, directly drawn by
my brain without using hands.

"Brain Waves Drawing"
Live Performance by Hideki Nakazawa
Nov 4-5, 2006 at Fuchu Art Museum, Tokyo
Supported by Nihon Kohden

More info

Mechanical brains

2006-10-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Via artfuture:

Award-winning sculptor Lewis Tardy creates biomechanical forms from steel parts, with a touch of Art Deco styling. He's made heads with steel brains, including Introspection (2001) comprised of vacuum tubes and steel parts, detail below.

Phoropter and Phoropter 2 (1995, 1996) have enhanced visual perception, incorporating numerous optical lenses. He's created many human and animal cyborg figures. Wheeled Racer and Running Hound capture a sense of powerful motion. The mechanical creatures aren't functional but capture moments of action in skating, dancing, diving - and thinking.

His most recent work in the online gallery again focuses on the head; Reconstruction (2006) has wires and gears in its brain. "[It's] created from Stryker titanium craniomaxillofacial reconstruction plates and screws as well as other steel and stainless steel found objects."

See more.

Hiatus

2006-08-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

On vacation until September. brb

MachinesLikeUs

2006-08-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

MachinesLikeUs is a new website about artificial intelligence, evolution, cognition and related topics. It features a news blog, book reviews, links, user forum, and informative profiles (links, quotes, bios) of scientists such as Jeff Hawkins, Stephen Pinker, Gerald Edelman, Susan Pockett, and many more.

MachinesLikeUs is especially notable as it both collects and commissions original articles. The editor, Norm, is always on the lookout for new, thoughtful work and welcomes your submissions.

"MachinesLikeUs is important to me because although there are many competent (and some brilliant) individuals working on human cognition and artificial intelligence, they are often quite isolated from one another. With the site, I hope to provide a kind of meeting ground for these various efforts, and present them in an attractive manner to the public."

So far he's succeeding admirably.

The Picower Institute

2006-08-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT's Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex (pictured), the largest neuroscience research facility in the world, just opened Dec 2005 and is generating some fascinating research. (Like the window in a mouse brain permitting monitoring of the expression of flourescent proteins that demonstrated changes in the living brain over time i.e. neural plasticity.)

Their Open Mind Series "which will explore the possibility that insights gained by neuroscientists who are studying learning and memory mechanisms in the brain might be usefully applied to problems of great societal importance" has hosted two symposia: On Addiction and On Depression. Both are archived in webcasts, as will the third symposium in the series (on the aging brain), and offer lectures and discussions with new perspectives. Titles includes Why We Do What We Do: The Neurological Basis of Motivation (Wolfram Schultz), Extreme Memory: The Molecular Basis of Learning and Addiction (Rob Malenka), and The Love of Difficulty and the Uses of Depression (Rob Pinsky).

In one lecture, Brain Disorder or Character Flaw? Public Ignorance, Public Policy and the Stigma of Addiction, Nora Volkow addresses the issue of how denying the biological basis of mental illness perpetuates stigma and impedes addiction research.

The Picower Institute opened with an inaugural symposium on The Future of the Brain, featuring novel ideas from five Nobel laureates, and discussions on memory and consciousness.

Tags: neuroscience webcast

Hybrot neuroart

2006-08-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

The Animat multi-electrode array consists of 60 electrodes embedded on a glass culture dish on which thousands of cultured rat neurons spontaneously form a neural network. They interface to control a simulator for a pair of pneumatic robot arms which self-creates paintings. The culture and simulator reside in Atlanta while the robot and video are in Perth (later New York City).

MEART (Multi-Electrode Array art) is a hybrot built in collaboration with the Symbi-oticA Research Group. The project explores epistemological, ethical and aesthetical issues concerning the use of living neurons for ethno-centric end.

The electrode array interface is a concept not far from Cyberkinetic's BrainGate neural interface implant project. They may be considered precursors of wetware, neural cyborgs and semi-organic AI (depending where it leads).

MEART: the semi living artist is a gorgeous web site from the hybrot's Australian partners, hosting images, publications, and theory about the project and touring art exhibitions.

Via The Neurophilosopher's Blog.

neuroart sci-art neuroscience hybrot transhumanism

Neuron inspiration

2006-08-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

neuronsprint
Originally uploaded by orangegalt.

Above: neuronsprint c. 2005 Megan Gwaltney. In amongst images of her art posted to her Flickr account there are eight works inspired by neurons. Incorporating drawing, collage, printmaking, and found materials (coffee, tea and peppers as neuronsfood), Gwaltney, an art student in Philadelphia, draws inspiration from science to create thoughtful mixed media abstracts.

neuroart neurons

Mirror meme

2006-07-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Mirror neuron backlash has struck! From a spark lit by Chris at Mixing Memory criticizing "massive, overblown publicity" and some iffy mirror neuron research, debate spread like brushfire (or at least, like email). Among the technical commentary and research citations, The Neurocritic was especially pithy in juxtaposing figures from Rozzalatti & Craighero (2004) with an ad from The Gap. Everyone in Mirror Neurons!

Opinions on research spread through science blogs like a Sesame Street personality quiz does on MySpace; a meme. One quite unique to neuroblogs (I read more than one baffled comment on these posts from casual readers seeking explanation), but with this much passion the issues may pick up wider attention. Wait and see. For now, keeping focus on the community it originated with, this post is the unofficial mirror neuron critic meme blog carnival. I'll add to the list as I find more entries – please comment with your links!

The instigator, Mixing Memory, writes Mirror Neurons, Language and Meaning (Oh My!).

BrainTechSci was ahead of the zeitgeist with Much Ado About Mirror Neurons (mirror neurons linked with telepathy, and more).

In Neurotopia 2.0, Everybody Post About Mirror Neurons! says there's no evidence they exist in humans.

The Neurocritic examines research in Spindle Neurons Are The Next Big Thing, and in a comment on Mixing Memory points to a study - Gridley MC, Hoff R. Do mirror neurons explain misattribution of emotions in music? Percept Mot Skills. 2006 Apr;102(2):600-2.

There is some defense, as at Small Gray Matters with Mirror Neurons Aren't Really All That Bad

Frontal Cortex asks, Are Mirror Neurons Too Cool? and follows up with Mirror Neurons Redux.

Tempest in a teapot (today's ScienceBlogs "buzz in the blogosphere") or will it continue to spread and grow? That's up to you, and your blog.

edited to add:

Vaughan at Mind Hacks responds in Reflected Glory, noting inaccuracies but asserting mirror neuron research has potential beyond its media portrayal.

The Mouse Trap posts more considerations Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most blogged of them all!

Tags: mirror_neurons neuroscience neuroblogs blogosphere

Cognitive enhancement and neurotech

2006-07-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Chris Chatham at Developing Intelligence posed a few thoughtful questions today on cognitive enhancement.

Are "cognitive enhancement" technologies overhyped?

If there is real potential for cognitive enhancement, what are the implications?

Would you use a mind-amplifying technology yourself, or if there were "critical periods" for their use, on your children?

Sure to elicit lots of interesting answers (mine's long) and he'd like to hear your opinions too, so scoot on over.

It brings to mind a recent feature on brain-computer interfaces at Nature. Their Web Focus offers links to current research in Nature (some free access), streaming video of experiments and discussion with researchers, links to relevant organizations, and archived research and news items.

BPS Research Blog wrote about some of that recent research as well, and mention the important distinction between implants and brain-computer interfaces that use external EEG neurofeedback (example in this video of an EEG-controlled Pong game).

Cognitive enhancement is an important transhumanist issue, along with its impact, the liberty for individuals to choose it, and related subjects. Here's Nick Bostrom speaking in a panel on cognitive enhancement at the 2006 “Forbidding Science” conference at Arizona State University. Video is provided by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies which contributes much to enhance understanding of the subject.

Tags: cognitive enhancement transhumanism neurotech

Vintage pharmaceutical ads

2006-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

NOTE: After composing this post yesterday I discovered Vaughan at Mind Hacks wrote about the very same thing five days before, independently. It's great that Vaughan and I share some interests and an instinct for news; he's an excellent writer and one of my fave bloggers. But – d'oh! I'm just posting this now to offer a few more perspectives. Nice post, Vaughan. :-P

Modern consumer pharmaceutical advertising is a popular and heated subject. Zoloft's blob is a cultural icon and ad parodies represent public reaction to marketing, but also surrounding mental health stigma, medical practice, and conflicting social values.

Vintage drug ads also reveal attitudes, practices and opinions (though I wonder what satirists of the times made of them). One trumpets "Mabel is unstable" and recommends barbiturates for menopause. Imagine the kerfuffle if you placed those in a modern consumer magazine! Advertising has reacted to social change and sometimes, as with the Zoloft ad, has sparked dialogue. What lessons could sociologists and marketers glean from online parodies, far beyond the official campaigns?

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art hosts print ads targeting Japanese psychiatrists in medical journals, 1956-2003. Gentle and inspiring to peculiar and surreal, my favourite are the series of haloperidol ads. Infamous first generation antipsychotic haloperidol (sold in Japan as Serenace® and Brotpon®, commonly known as Haldol®). Eerie images depict scenes such as a skulking man under a giant hand reaching from the sky to grab him while empty eye masks fly in the air, and other creative paranoia imagery.

Some ads were quite evocative and timeless, such as the diazepam (Cercine®) [Valium®] poster depicting neon numbers glowing in the dark, progressively blurrier. I really wonder about the Electric Hypnotic Machine photo, though.

Vintage Ads: Drugs displays vintage American advertising. Layouts for Thorazine® as "one of the fundamental drugs in medicine" to control the "tyrant in the house", Nembutol® for toddlers, and major tranquilizer Butibarbitol® for "'that time' in her life" seem humorous and sweetly naïve, but maybe not so innocent.

Omni Brain is scouting to form a team of neurobloggers to rule the internets. Be one of us.

Tags: ad parodies vintage ads marketing psychiatry

NeuroBarbie

2006-07-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

NeuroBarbie says, "Welcome to the neurofuture!" Friendly and familiar, her image invites everyone she encounters to learn more about the brain while she shatters gender stereotyping as a "Barbie brain" in science. Serious, with pretty hair. GI Joe's developing neuroweapons for DARPA and Ken is out exploring his sexuality after a surprising fMRI scan, but NeuroBarbie gets the job done with efficacy and flair!

Comes with assortment of gowns for award ceremonies. Skipper the Undergrad sold separately.

Yes indeedy, I have a new image and profile.

Above, Barbie stands in front of Fig. 1 from A Brain-Based Account of the Development of Rule Use in Childhood, Bunge and Zelazo (2006), Current Directions in Psychological Science. Available on PDF in a nice archive on Zelazo's web site.

Tags: neurofuture NeuroBarbie cog sci PDF

Glowing brains

2006-07-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

Derek Lowe of the In The Pipeline pharma blog has stirred up a surprisingly polarized debate over staged lab photos that feature coloured spotlights on test tubes in darkened labs. These cliché and absurd images do a disservice to the researchers they're meant to represent, he argues. Read his two posts (with dozens of comments) on the topic: Memo to the Public Relations Department, and More Purple Radiance.

There's a counterpart to those spotlights. Brains are often represented in a dark background with light emanating from within. Glowing like the dawn of a new era. And then a subgenre of glowing brains: lightning bolts. Nobody tell them the brain only uses about 15 watts. These could jump start your car. But they're fun images too.

Best – a sparkly animated glowing brain!

This has made me realize I ought to change my profile image. There is no actual brain in the photo and the lightning in the sculpture is not meant to be internal sparks from firing neurons, but the cliche lurks. Hmm.

Here's a brain that glows (without being a transgenic pig/jellyfish).

Sadly, it has no electrical discharge.

Tags: brain art neuroart

Pharmacoinformatics

2006-07-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Authors from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in India wrote an article on the Pharmabiz.com web site, Pharmacoinformatics: Expanding Horizons, a good overview of this emerging field.

It's a specialized umbrella over various informatics systems, for the purpose of drug discovery. Beyond the expected bioinformatics there's immunoinformatics, genomics, neuroinformatics, toxicoinformatics, health care informatics and more including the emerging metabolome informatics (drug metabolism, and metabolic pathways). This kind of interdisciplinary data sharing and bridging holds much potential.

The article doesn't specifically mention pharmacogenomics, but it certainly is relevant. There's a great lecture video on the subject by Russ Altman. His PharmaGKB database is a handy tool; a simple search for "depression" yields publications, phenotype and genotype data, and other info you may not otherwise see in one place.

An advantage of informatics is online integration with freely available databases and tools online. Neuroinformatics resources have ever-improving capabilities, functions, and user interfaces. One innovative site is BrainMaps (not to be confused with BrainMap, though that's a great site too, and it's definitely not the Allen Brain Atlas at brain-map.org).

I can't mention neuroinformatics without a shout-out for my fave neuroinformatics blog: BrainTechSci. News about developments in the field, of course, but delivered with insider perspectives and blog snark. It's stuff you won't learn at an educational site, but perhaps more useful.

Tags: neuroinformatics pharmacoinformatics pharmacogenomics brain mapping neuroblogs webcast

Blood flow and art

2006-07-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

Quinn's blood head (above image from artnet.com) is part of a collection of Lego recreations of major moments in contemporary fine art history by The Little Artists. It features Marc Quinn's sculpture Self, famous as the "blood head." Made with 4.5 litres of the artist's own blood, collected over time, it is frozen in a negative mold of his own head, and displayed in a refrigerated display case. Intense and unique conceptual art, it involves science indirectly and directly. It reminds us that our brain is mostly water, and prompts thoughts of cryogenics, and giving blood, while remaining an intimate self-portrait.

That's one instance of science and art merged, and it's a diverse area with room for innovation. Dynamic neurophysiologist/broadcaster/sci-artist Mark Lythgoe writes about ingenuity in the article Science plus Art: more than the sum of their parts?

Working with artists and scientists for the last 10 years (Lythgoe 2002, 2002a, 2000b) has demonstrated to me that great art constitutes an open investigation into the human condition: into experience, memory and love - subjects that are also common to scientific study. And that scientists and artists can collaborate with different aims and objectives, while pursuing similar kinds of questions.

Among other projects, Lythgoe created Mapping Perception in film and multimedia including 3D fMRI animations, and collaborated on 2D digital art in Chimera (slideshow online).

Tags: art science sci/art neuroart perception

Webcasts

2006-06-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

Another treasure trove of webcasts: The Science Museum's Dana Centre UK hosts an ongoing series of public events at d.cafe, webcast live from London every few weeks and, of course, archived. Encompassing many branches of science, quite a few are about brain sciences. The one I've chosen to spotlight here covers neurolinguistics, genetics, neuroimaging, evolutionary psychology, neuroethics and more in a future-reaching discussion.

The 21-st Century Brain. Steven Rose discusses his new book with Colin Blakemore and d.cafe participants. "The human brain is the most complex structure in the universe. We can potentially cure Alzheimer's disease and control behaviour. What are the consequences?"

I also highlighted a few psychology-related titles at Psych Central, and, because often my most popular posts are about webcasts, and podcasts, I'm launching a new blog devoted to them. Tune in daily for links to one educational video per post. (Today's pick from the same archive is on neuroethics.) Channel N posts follow a simple informative structure. I'm not stopping Neurofuture, it's an outgrowth. Add Channel N to your blogroll.

Tags: neuroblogs webcast blogs

Neurologisms revisited

2006-06-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

During Brain Awareness Week 2006 (BAW) I held a neuroword contest.

From 50 entries, witty and descriptive and serious and catchy, some all at once, the winner is:

Neurologism: a word created by prefixing "neuro" to almost any normal word.

The contest was for new definitions as well as words from scratch, and it was an excellent definition. Enough to crown it a winner. Now, however, Jake Dunagan has come forward to point out he coined it in 2004, in the article Neurofutures: The Brain, Politics, and Power (page 8, at the bottom, PDF, please read as discussion is upcoming). All I can say is oops, and sorry. I was remiss in not searching more; neurologism also has other definitions but I hadn't found this one.

Neurologism as defined and credited to Neil H. remains the winning neuroword. Described by Mind Hacks as "beautifully recursive", it's been adopted by many. (Google "neurologism" now and Mind Hacks entries are ranked first, and I'm third.) Jake Dunagan now shares credit.

Today, a bigger better happier ending. Another winner! A co-winning neuroword, this one made it through searches in Google, Technorati, MedLine, OneLook, Yahoo, PsychInfo, and Wikipedia. Following that, a panel of five judges each chose it in their top three. Positive indication it's a thoroughly original and witty word, including an original spelling (neurologism was not). The co-winner is:

Neurogibberish- Seemingly impressive jargon used by some neuroscientists to hide lack of real findings.

Congratulations E.! You win puzzles, as did Neil H., but more importantly, fame and – well, fame. Great word. Thank you to the judges: The Neurocritic of the eponymous blog, Chris of Mixing Memory, Amanda of Isotripy, Caio Maximino of Sturm and Drang, and J. Stephen Higgins of Omni Brain. Superior writers with good taste all.

Honourable mention from the judges, and a little puzzle, goes to Alex for neurrelevant. He entered it along with three others (including the hilarious neuriposte):

Neurrelevant: Best practise when dealing with a neuriposte or neuro-tic, e.g. 'that's neurrelevant and you're lowering our intelligence just by bringing it up'.

I also have follow-up from a few entries.

Neurofilk: A popular or folk song with lyrics revised or completely new neurolyrics and/or neuromusic, intended for humorous effect when read, and/or to be sung late at night at SfN or other neuroscience conventions.

Entered by Alex, coined in 1996 in a funny archived Usenet post of neurofilk lyrics by Dennis McClain-Furmanski.

Neurorotica or Neurotica: Discussing the activities of the human brain in a way that is intended to cause sexual arousal. (Credit: Eric.)

In a search for neurotica there are over 700,000 hits. There's a band, a cartoon, lots of other usages. Alternately, in a search for the spelling neuroerotica there are still examples, including a neurosong by Poetic Warrior Press titled Neuroerotica (free mp3).

The Neurocritic came up with a definition of his own:

alternate definition: erotica used in a neuroimaging study to produce pictures like this one (from a study by Redoute et al., 2000).

A logical definition. But what about the discussing the brain to intentionally cause sexual arousal? Nobody else online spells it neurorotica, and apparently nobody has defined it the same way. (Though it may be among the 700,000.) So, I was inspired to create some neurorotica. A short story. For now, if you'd like to read it, email.

Yay for all the neurologisms! Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Tags: neurologisms contest baw

Media plus content

2006-06-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

There’s a lot of exciting work being done in neuroscience today. And the commercial potential is substantial. But the market sector has been oversaturated with the recycled, repackaged commodity offerings by the big players. What neuroscience really needs is an injection of new energy.

NeuroScene highlights just that, new trends in commercial neuroscience. A conference report (quoted above) looks at well-positioned players and hot topics from BIO 2006, while other market reports feature vascular dementia (the next big market?) and neurostimulator research at Cyberkinetics. There's also an mp3 podcast: the neuroscience of obesity, interview with Dr. Ann E. Kelley.

NeuroScene aggregates the more intriguing recent news, as well as original content, in a sleek site.

I adore well-designed web sites (some people like kittens, I like efficiency). Another favourite is Bjorn Bremb's Blog, a Swedish neurobiologist's blog and comprehensive homepage using the free open source e107 content management system. From his knife-making hobby to photos to a repository of his publications, with tons of site stats I didn't know I wanted to know but did (views/downloads/ratings, etc.). Breathtakingly organized. My Blogger blog seems so-o-o lame now.

Brembs also maintains an educational site called Science and Magic. Why the title, and fantasy-type images? From the intro:

The design of my homepage is the humble attempt to counterpoint the overwhelming impact science has on our thinking. By contrasting layout and content I try to put science into a different perspective than most scientists of today. I am not trying to mythologize science into some dark gibberish but rather to raise awareness that the knowledge we acquire in science is not superior to any other knowledge and should not be absolutized. Science is communication. The internet is the juggernaut of the information age.

Here you'll find his concise but specific original writing about order in spontaneous behaviour, learning and memory, evolution, a biological basis for aggression in Drosophila, concepts of metabiology and more.

Tags: new media neuroscience neuroblogs blogs podcast

Molecules on parade

2006-06-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

I've seen jewelry designers do similar things with molecules (like these neurotransmitter earrings), but none with the finesse of Muscovie Designs. Nice.

Caffeine pendant

Unrelated, in Meme Therapy's Brain Parade series, Underrated Tech Part 2, I contribute an answer to "Out of our currently existing technologies, is there one that you feel has the most underrated potential?" Go read.

Brain Parade's a cool feature; Meme Therapy gathers many interesting scientists, authors, and bloggers (including Chris Chatham of Developing Intelligence, in today's post commenting on neural nets) to talk futurism.

Tags: neuroart futurism blogs

Improvements

2006-06-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Health problems kept me off my keyboard. While I recuperated, a diet of hardcover books instead of RSS feeds changed my priorities a bit.

I'd been neglecting other projects for this blog. The intarweb is a highly distracting time suck, as I'm sure you know. I'm working on a better balance, but for now am reallocating this time until I finish a book I'm working on or at least set a better schedule.

This is not the end of Neurofuture. Stay subscribed, and stay tuned this week for a few tidying-up posts including a new co-winner of the neuroword contest.

Nanoneuroart

2006-05-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

Philippe Van Nedervelde's E-spaces 3D Art Studio created Nanobots replacing neurons (nerve cells). This a still image of HD animation, depicting robots in the brain, from the transhumanist documentary Beyond Man (2005).

Although imaginary, current developments like MIT's nano neuro knitting experiment in which peptide nanofiber scaffolding was used to repair brain tissue in a hamster (article in PNAS) make it prescient.

Van Nedervelde's art is part of NANO, a virtual exhibit curated by transhumanist visionary Natasha Vita-More to showcase nanotech art by artists from a number of disciplines, including the multitalented Anders Sandberg. He's a computational neuroscientist and research associate at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute.

Listen to a recent interview on the subject with Natasha Vita-More by RU Sirius from The MondoGlobo Network, as well as a podcast called Global Design and Nanotechnology from the (podcast archive alert!) Futures Podcast on Culture and Technology series.

[Also-must-see tangent: ZERO@WAVEFUNCTION: nano dreams and nightmares. Superb interactive nanotech art.]

Tags: neuroart art transhumanism nanotech podcast

Prizewinning neuroart

2006-05-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Science illustrator Graham Johnson won first prize in the 2005 Visualization Challenge from Science magazine with his beautiful image The Synapse Revealed. Based on brain slice microscopy, he used a combination of pencil drawing and computer manipulation to produce the final result.

The resulting image is a careful balance between precision and beauty. Because the original data were so complex, Johnson cut the number of neuron interactions depicted to only 30% of the original data--"otherwise, it's just a mass of spaghetti in front of you," he says.

"It gives us the information we need, but at the same time brings an aesthetic, a refinement," says panel of judges member Felice Frankel. "That's really important: to get the viewer to want to look--and then to ask questions."

Tags: neuroart art

Interview with Steven Hackworth

2006-05-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Steven Hackworth is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Pittsburgh who worked on the DBS-RF (a wireless deep brain stimulator) as well as the Radio Frequency-powered Neural Stimulator (RFNS) vagus nerve stimulator system. He's now doing research on energy sources and medical implants. After writing about RFID in neurotech the other day (a prequisite to this post, many links there) I did a brief email interview to follow up.

Are the DBS and VNS RFID systems using the same principle or technique or were there unique challenges for the two types of devices? I'm wondering how portable the technology is to other neurostimulation and medical devices, essentially.

The DBS and VNS systems do use the same RF technology. Magnetic inductive coupling is used for powering and communication. There are two major differences between the devices though: 1) The DBS device uses voltage pulses while the VNS device controls current injection. It was just a matter of modifying the circuitry on the output side to adapt the DBS device for VNS. 2) The implementation of each device must be different. i.e. the DBS device is under the scalp, requiring an external powering unit on the head, while the VNS device is located in the neck, requiring an external powering unit in a person's collar or similar. Though I did develop an example of a powering system (with the primary coil in a hat), this issue wasn't investigated thoroughly, and would be left to a company to come up with a suitable implementation (is a person supposed to wear a bag on his head whenever he takes a shower? ... etc.). Back to the essence of the question, the same fundamental RF technology should be transferable to other neural devices.

How do the systems ward against RF interference [thanks BGP for that question], and potential hackers? Is there a designated frequency for medical devices, different from retail RFID and such?

The inductive coupling mechanism used has a fairly short range. Depending on the system, it might be up to a foot, but practically, you don't want to blast people with RF energy. The current systems for DBS do in fact use RF communication for programming (Medtronic's system for Parkinson's, at least), but the user on/off switch is controlled by a magnet, making it susceptible to magnetic interference. Using an established protocol to turn the device on or off would guard against unwanted toggling. I think Medtronic's newer systems may be implementing this, as I've seen newer designs for the patients' controllers, but I can't say for sure. Regarding hackers, I doubt that is an issue. I haven't heard of any malicious cases
with the current easily controlled systems, so I doubt if anyone would go to the length to figure out the communication protocol and turn people's stimulators on or off. The reason for the protocol is to keep the probability of unwanted interference negligible (just like wireless internet and cell phone protocols).

The frequencies used fall into the FCC-designated ISM bands. Industrial, Scientific, and Medical. Anyone can use these frequencies, as long as they abide by certain rules and regulations. There are fairly standard frequencies used for RFID systems, and medical devices could use those or others, as long as they abide by FCC regulations.

In your current research with energy to implants, what are the main challenges (in a nutshell), and promising developments? (i.e. New types of batteries, other energy sources? What about using the body as an energy source, is that feasible?)

The main challenge involved with getting energy into the body is getting through the body itself. It is highly conductive, and conductive layers tend to block any sort of electro-magnetic signals.

However, we are doing research on using those conductive properties to actually transfer signals instead of acting as a barrier. We are also looking into what we can do to modify tissue properties to increase energy transfer efficiency. As mentioned earlier, practical implementations of the technology will be an issue. There is some research into harvesting energy from the body. Though still in its infancy, it looks ever more promising as technology improves and requires less power.

Thank you Steven!

Tags: neurotech RFID research implants science technology futurism

Interpretations

2006-05-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

The recent Science article Neurobiological Substrates of Dread, Berns et al. (2006) has drawn a lot of interest. In the mainstream media many similar dry and simplified accounts are propogating, but the blogosphere has some great analysis. Three unique perspectives:

In the Psych Central blog, John Grohol talks about distraction easing dread and notes: "...while the researchers were surprised to find that the anticipation of pain was in the rear of the brain rather than the front, I’m not sure most researchers would share that surprise. Avoidance of pain has been shown for decades to be a very core behavior in mice and humans. Nobody likes pain."

Also, "[The study] really has no impact on people’s current or future treatments when undergoing painful procedures or such in medicine."

Neuromarketing blog does draw a practical conclusion: "Between mirror neurons 'simulating' an observed (or even heard) action by another, and pain centers being triggered by thinking about future pain, it’s clear that marketers may have the opportunity to create discomfort among their targets." He gives icky examples, and warns, "I’d advise advertisers to be aware of the reality of pain anticipation and to use painful imagery with caution."

Meanwhile, The Neurocritic nimbly guts the study: "...the authors commit the logical fallacy known as 'reverse inference' by inferring the participants' emotional state from the observed pattern of brain activity. They discount the role of the amygdala in 'dread' because both moderate and extreme dreaders showed elevated hemodynamic responses there during the unpleasant interval of waiting for the shocks."

Taken together, the anatomical locations of dread responses suggest that the subjective experience of dread that ultimately drives an individual's behavior comes from the attention devoted to the expected physical response (SI, SII, the caudal ACC, and the posterior insula) and not simply a fear or anxiety response.

"So anticipation of pain is 'attention,' not fear and anxiety. It's a little early to make that conclusion."

More good points in the blog comments, too. How about yours?

Tags: neuroblogs blogs cogsci neuromarketing

RFID in neurotech

2006-05-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

“You have to void yourself of prejudices, pre-conceived ideas or whether you’ve seen this type of person before when it’s time to get to work on something,” said Marlin Mickle. “Because if you don’t, your mind starts to focus on that and you don’t get to what matters most. Nothing is useless to the man of sense – everything is taken into account.”

Mickle is a professor and director of the University of Pittsburgh's Radio Frequency Identification Center for Excellence and of the John A. Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence. Many innovative solutions have been developed in his labs - including a wireless deep brain stimulator and vagus nerve stimulator. The latter was developed with the help of a group of high school teachers.

The Radio Frequency-powered Neural Stimulator (RFNS) is described:

The RFNS is made up of a receiving device implanted under the skin of the neck and a powering device placed near the skin at the same site, under a collar. Because this requires only one surgical incision, rather than the two required by VNS, the risk of infection is reduced. Other advantages of RFNS over the existing VNS system include no invasive tunneling from the shoulder to the neck region and an external battery, which reduces the need for subsequent surgeries and further lowers the risk of infection.

Mickle told Applied Neurology, "People are lining up for it." The wireless DBS has already been licensed.

The only FDA-approved vagus nerve stimulator, from Cyberonics, has wire leads tunnelling through the neck. Other neurotech devices also use leads, including various DBS systems (for depression, Parkinson's, epilepsy primarily), and one that stimulates neural plasticity following stroke (also being investigated for tinnitus). Northstar Neuroscience manufactures the latter; they're presently recruiting an engineer to work on leads. Why?

One good idea can suddenly make all the others seem so clunky.

Tags: neurotech RFID future

Podcasts and a PSA

2006-05-05T01:53:00.000-07:00

Dana Alliance for the Brain produces a neuroscience podcast series called Gray Matters as well as panel discussions and more. These recordings include thematic collections (neuroethics) and one-on-one interviews (Eric Kandel). Access the complete collection on their archived webcasts page.

Among the offerings:

Depression and Bi-polar Disorders

Prominent faculty from The Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center discuss the latest research and clinical findings on depression and bipolar disorders. Featured speakers included co-directors of the Center and Dana Alliance members Kay Redfield Jamison and J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr.

I think Dana does great work and I'm thrilled about this archive and all but *ahem* they hit on a pet peeve.

Bipolar is not two words. You don't ride a bi-cycle to see your BiSexual lover during a Bi En Ni Al. It's bipolar. Just one word. No hyphen. Lowercase. Simple.

This has been a public spelling announcement.

Tags: podcasts bipolar neuroethics

Neurofutures that aren't mine

2006-05-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Neurofuturity: A Theory of Change coins a new meaning for neurofuture (the neuroword, not this blog). It's an article from Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. "Capturing the possible worlds to come is described here as neurofuturity. It is much broader than expectations and includes our feelings towards the future as well as our beliefs."

Another online "neurofuture" that isn't me is this guy, who is spamming the blogosphere selling expensive cognitive brain fitness products. It is most definitely not me, when you're Googling around and finding thousands of hits pushing brain fitness. Rather annoying.

Brain fitness (a.k.a. neurofitness, a neuroword and buzzword that isn't catching on) was debunked in Mental Exercise and Mental Aging: Evaluating the Validity of the "Use It or Lose It" Hypothesis, a review published in Perspectives on Psychological Science that reveals no evidence to support the claim. Not that it's necessarily wrong, but it hasn't been tested using the right approaches (it's all been correlative rather than causative).

Dr. Timothy Salthouse does also conclude, "Despite the current lack of empirical evidence for the idea that the rate of mental aging is moderated by amount of mental activity, there may be personal benefits to assuming that the mental-exercise hypothesis is true."

Maybe that's enough to warrant selling a video game, but it doesn't justify spamming.

Tags: neuroblogs neurofitness

Global village hut broadcasting

2006-05-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

Via Omni Brain: Neuro Aesthetics -Watch-: videos from a Columbia conference on neuroaesthetics, Art and the New Biology of Mind, are now online. They features talks by VS Ramachandran, Eric Kandel and other huge names.

Bora of Science and Politics also blogged it, objecting that the artists' comments after the talks were apparently the best part but are not on the videos.

Some online lecture videos do include the Q&A; it's a better format since it may answer viewer questions, and as Columbia has now discovered, it'll preclude outcry over perceived censorship. I doubt that was considered. It could be that the webmaster was trying to save bandwidth with shorter clips in smaller files, or maybe thought remarks were irrelevant. Many people would like to know what Laurie Anderson's comments were, though, even if negative. In presenting it online, the aesthetics and marketing of neuroaesthetics are, ironically enough, mostly ignored.

It'd be great if we had skilled journalists covering conferences to get that kind of comprehensiveness: packaged video documentaries covering of all aspects of an event. Not just the lectures; a lot of interesting stuff at conferences comes from informal talk over coffee breaks, and there could be "confessional cams," etc. But these are early days of crappy badly lit RealVideo online, somebody setting up a camera almost as an afterthought, and it seems we're lucky to even be getting that. Most conferences are still offline.

Institutions creating webcasts, and podcasters, could learn a lesson here. New media i.e. the intarwub, is a synthesis of old media used in new ways - learn about the old to more effectively use the new. (Columbia is renowned for its journalism program, and yet they present webcasts like this.)

Oh, and didn't anyone attending that conference have a videocam on their cell phone and a blog with RSS, or a YouTube account? Could be that those post-lecture comments, and reader comments on those, are already online.

That'd be too easy, wouldn't it?

Tags: neuroaesthetics videos media

Omni Brain

2006-04-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce I'm now blogging for Omni Brain. It's a great blog about fun and funny brain science news. Mind Hacks calls it "wonderfully anarchic."

Neurofuture remains my baby, and I also write for Psych Central, a terrific web resource. Huge archives and up to the minute info.

There are a few other sites on my personal blogroll as well but you don't want to read about my new shoes, do you?

Tags: blogs neuroblogs

Neurofuturistic art

2006-04-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

This doesn't quite fit as an item for Neurofuture, and yet it completely does. See why.

Art Metropole presents a Candy Factory Project: watch I'm Getting Married August 30th. Takuji Kogo collaborating with Mike Bode to create very new media art.

Tags: art webcast

Online neurological diagnosis

2006-04-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Trigeminal Neuralgia Diagnostic Questionnaire uses a neural net to diagnose forms of the "suicide disease," a neurological disorder characterized by facial pain so severe patients beg to be killed.

An accurate diagnosis means patients can more quickly seek appropriate treatment, he said. "A patient comes in and says, 'I'm having pain,' so a dentist might give him a root canal. The pain comes back, so the tooth is pulled out. People have all kinds of unbelievable things done before somebody finally says, 'You know what? Maybe this isn't your tooth.' To prevent unnecessary procedures, people need to be told early on what they have."

...

"We hope that as people use this system, they become more and more informed, because they should be able to make informed choices before they actually get into treatment," Burchiel said.

One treatment Burchiel offers, and which Hill has received, is a surgical therapy called microvascular decompression. The procedure involves entering the brain through a small incision behind the ear, finding and exposing the trigeminal nerve with a powerful surgical microscope, and positioning a piece of Teflon between the nerve and the artery that's touching it and causing the pain. [Videos available.]

In most cases, the procedure offers longer-term relief from facial pain than many, less-effective or inappropriate treatments people seek when they haven't been accurately diagnosed.

"People who have this condition are desperate for answers for what they have, so now, anywhere in world, somebody can log onto our Web site and basically diagnose themselves and go to the right resources," Burchiel said. "And we put the resources right there on the Web site."

The educational web site also offers neurosurgery videos, MRI protocol, and more.

Read more.

Tags: neurology video AI

Information wants to be free

2006-04-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Scientists find brain cells linked to choice, says a Reuters article in The Scotsman.

"The neurons we have identified encode the value individuals assign to the available items when they make choices based on subjective preferences, a behaviour called economic choice," Padoa-Schioppa said in a statement.

I was left with questions like, "Which neurons? Where? How? Why?" so I looked for the statement at Harvard, found nothing, then checked Nature (the article said findings were published there) and found nothing recent from Dr. Padoa-Schioppa. Turned up an abstract from a Society for Neuroeconomics conference, which revealed it involved the orbitofrontal cortex. Brainmaps.org then underwhelmed me with zero results.

This is the information age? Feh.

I do know how to find stuff, this is just a good example of the bioinformatics infrastructure making it ridiculously difficult. The statement only went to select journalists, Nature wants you to pay lots to read, the Society of Neuroeconomics wants you to travel to a conference, and Brainmaps is a nice initiative but doesn't have access to enough data and has an unintuitive search engine ("hippocampal formation" is in there, but not "hippocampus").

Best results from my brief search: related article by Dr. Padoa-Schioppa in the Journal of Neurophysiology, and Decision Blog on the role of regret in choice.

What I'm wondering about is the overlap between various choice theories and neuropsychological studies. Where do neuroeconomics and neuromarketing (and media theory and sociology) intersect?

Tags: neuroeconomics neuromarketing bioinformatics

Religion on the brain

2006-04-23T02:04:00.000-07:00

Via Omni Brain: The right and left brain according to the Bible, a bizarre sample from a site that makes up metaphors from the Bible to explain hemispheric brain functioning (plus AI from the Bible). Need I comment?

There's also Christian content in this podcast (yes, another podcast, I ought to start another blog just for them) about neuroethics in neuromarketing, but it's a light touch of moralizing with a distinction between Christians and non-, and Dr. Cranston has megacredentials - there's logic. Listen to "Neuromarketing": Unethical Advertising?

To those who call the resultant advertising "coercion," I respond by pointing out that to hold this is to assume that the consumer is a bungling, mindless individual, who will be swayed by whatever new and sophisticated advertisement comes along. This is insulting. People aren't, and won't be, this vulnerable to the power of suggestion.

...Since there is no convincing evidence that it is ethically wrong and further research in this area may prove very helpful to many hurting people, the argument could be made that we actually have an obligation to pursue this technology.

Tags: neuroethics neuromarketing religion AI podcast

The Neurocritic in fine form

2006-04-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

The Neurocritic started the day annoyed by a New Scientist story so bad it's a candidate for BAD Neuro-Journalism. Highly amusing.

Hours later that grain of sand produced a pearl: a detailed deconstruction of some cogsci neuroimaging research on self-awareness. It's a must-read for the learning experience as well as the humour. Comes complete with Eminem quote and link to Neuron.

Tags: cogsci fMRI criticism

The blogularity

2006-04-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

Technorati released a blogosphere status report and after reading that it's "60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago" and other factoids I looked at an accompanying chart and it struck me - there's surely going be a blog singularity.

See for yourself:

New blogs include unknown numbers directories don't try to track because they're not human-tended (raising the question "what is a real blog?"). Technorati refers to them as noise. Splogs and splings as well as blogjects and spimes. They're getting smarter, and expanding rapidly, while at the same time there's more and better analysis about what constitutes a good blog, content trends, information sources, market data, blogger profiles, etc.

Yada yada yada then the question arises - how will I as a human blogger fare with strong AI sentient blogs?

Blogu. The best blog there could ever be. Unimaginably witty and informative. Cool and cute and credible. Will the ultimate blog end all blogs?

A blogu would provide *links* for all those words like spime and splog but I as a quirky lazy humanoid now just say look them up. Ha! Does that make me charmingly irreplacable? No?

Would I matter as a blogger? Would a blogu even blogroll me?

How will the blogularity affect my blogularity?

Ah, modern anxieties.

Tags: blogularity singularity blogosphere blogs

Gerhard Werner

2006-04-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

Dr. Gerhard Werner is a neuroscientist who began his career in the 1940s and is still teaching and publishing provocative material at eighty-five years of age. From his paper, Perspectives on the Neuroscience of Cognition and Consciousness:

Dare I ask an impertinent question: "What is consciousness without the world?" Could it be contingent on levels of interactivity, rather than exclusively the capacity of a brain in isolation?

Werner surveys the development of the fields of Computational, Cognitive and Theoretical Neuroscience with a critical view. He offers breadth and insight from an interdisciplinary career and suggests historical directions in cybernetics left some promising alternative theories undeveloped.

Also available on PDF is The Siren Call of Metaphor: Subverting the Proper Task of System Neuroscience, published in the Journal of Integrative Neuroscience.

Like many writers, he's interested in comments and discussion - discuss AI with one of the developers of the "Digital Brain." If only he kept a blog, too.

Tags: neuroscience PDF consciousness cognition theoretical neuroscience AI

Hard Science, Hard Choices podcasts

2006-04-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

More Science and the City neuroethics podcasts - these are collected as A Slippery Slope: Facts, Ethics and Policy Guiding Neuroscience Today from Library of Congress videos.

On May 10-11, 2005, Columbia University medical ethicist Ruth Fischbach and neuroscientist Gerald Fischbach brought together 28 experts in brain research, treatment, and ethics to discuss the latest findings and potential pitfalls in the fields of neuroimaging, neurotechnology, and neuropharmacology. Sponsored by the Dana Foundation, Columbia University, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Library of Congress, the symposium "Hard Science, Hard Choices" was held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Topics include neuroimaging, neuroscience and the law, neurotechnologies (including the DBS "brain pacemaker" recently making headlines), genetics, and the transhumanist issue of cognitive enhancement.

Podcasts and more info at NYAS, or browse through all the Library of Congress webcasts.

Tags: podcast webcast neuroscience neuroethics neurotech transhumanism

Neuro wardrobe

2006-04-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

"Add to your neuro wardrobe ensemble with both the Brain Cap (above) and the Nervous System T-Shirt (shown at left). Only available in X-Large. Flip up the brim and expose the words, 'Think, think, think...'"

I wrote a paragraph about an imaginary neuroscience beach barbeque but am trying to cut down on snarkiness, so deleted it. Keyword: neuronerdliness.

Brain Mart may not be Chanel but they do have an extensive array of brain related products, including novelties. Much potential fun with the brain mold. Neuronerdliness is good!

Neuroscience podcasts from Science and the City

2006-04-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Tom Wolfe (The Bonfire of the Vanities) interviews Michael Gazzaniga (The Ethical Brain) in a podcast titled Ethics in the Age of Neuroscience.

Produced by the Dana Foundation and the New York Academy of Science, it's the first in a series of podcasts from Science and the City. But more than MP3, it's also available indexed into a 37 part series of video clips/slides and thumbnails, and the titles and notes are searchable (though it isn't fully transcribed). There are four web pages of accompanying information about Wolfe, Gazzaniga and the issues they discuss. Nicely done.

Science and the City also offers an enhanced podcast about neuroaesthetics titled Synesthesia and the Universal Principles of Art:

V.S. Ramachandran discusses the neurological underpinnings of why we enjoy creating and looking at art, and the phenomenon of synesthesia, a blending of the senses that he believes might result from a sort of neurological cross-wiring between sections of the brain.

And among their regular podcasts there's In Search of Memory:

The new memoir of Nobel-prize winning neurobiologist Eric Kandel is an expansive history of neuroscience, as well as the tale of a great intellectual life that survived the Nazi occupation of Vienna, and McCarthy era restrictions on science in the US.

All podcasts here; keep current with RSS. (Got a blog? Get a feed. It's a must.)

Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience symposium videos

2006-04-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

The Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of California Berkeley held its inaugural symposium on October 7, 2005. It's now available on video. Buy a DVD for just $5 or watch individual talks online (MPEG or Real Video) free. They include:

Horace Barlow, Cambridge University: The Roles of Theory, Commonsense, and Guesswork in Neuroscience
Dan Kersten, University of Minnesota: Human Object Perception: Theory, Psychophysics & Imaging
Sue Becker, McMaster University: The role of the hippocampus in memory, contextual gating, stress and depression
Florentin Worgotter, University of Goettingen: Learning in Neurons and Robots
Panel Discussion: The Role and Future Prospects for Math/Computational Theories in Neuroscience
David Heeger, New York University: What fMRI Can Tell Us about How Visual Cortex Works
Kevan Martin, ETH/UNI Zurich: Canonical Circuits for Neocortex
Terry Sejnowski, Salk Institute: Dendritic Darwinism
Jeff Hawkins, Numenta: Prospects and Problems of Cortical Theory

The new centre's mission and research is described as:

Theoretical neuroscience: a sub-discipline within neuroscience which attempts to use mathematical and physical principles to understand the nature of coding, dynamics, circuitry and plasticity in nervous systems.

It is often said that "neuroscience is data-rich yet theory-poor." Our aim is to supply useful algorithms and theoretical ideas to neuroscience in order

to provide new forms of analysis for neural data (spike trains, EEG, MRI),
to provide theories and specific models which integrate diverse observations and suggest new experimental approaches.

Specific issues and phenomena we are interested in include hierarchical organization and feedback, plasticity, mechanisms of memory, the roles of spike-timing and oscillations, sparse coding, the computation of the thalamo-cortical system and the cortical microcircuit, and the connection between systems-, cellular- and molecular-level neuroscience.

Methodologically, we use ideas from coding theory and probabilistic machine learning insofar as they relate to known neural phenomena and mechanisms in networks, cells and molecules.

I'm sure we'll see some interesting research emerge.

Seed science writing contest

2006-04-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

Via Cyberspace Rendezvous:

Seed is pleased to announce the First Annual Seed Science Writing Contest. This call to action is intended to inspire writers to think critically about the state of science in America.

Amidst emerging competitive threats from abroad (China and India in particular) and heated debates over intelligent design, stem cells and climate change: What is the future of science in America? What should the US do to preserve and build upon its role as a leader in scientific innovation?

Deadline is June 30, 2006, maximum word count 2,000. No entry fee. Grand prize is publication of winning essay in Seed magazine (who also publish ScienceBlogs including the estimable Cognitive Daily), and $1,000 cash.

Open to US citizens 18 and older.

Canadians, of course, are also welcome to ponder "the future of science in America" then write in their blogs. Or, apply for the CSWA science writing scholarship for the Banff Centre, who assure us that understanding science "requires expertise no greater than that required for understanding hockey strategy." What about figure skating physics? Skating science whiz Mira Leung is the future.

"Brain fingerprinting" smudged

2006-04-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Best animated GIF ever! Comes with the caption "How it works" from an article about brain fingerprinting a.k.a. brain mapping in India. Because obviously investigators can reach down from the sky into the brain, smush a hand around, and emerge with a criminal memory. It's just like that. (I love how bouncy the brain is, too.)

It makes as much sense as calling such a process brain "fingerprinting" (which has nothing to do with memories, it's about identifying individual biometrics, which is why there's also DNA fingerprinting) when you're doing nothing of the kind. Perhaps in another form there are biometrics involving the concept of fingerprinting brains (no doubt there are, and retina scanning is close) but EEG to test for memories isn't that.

Brain fingerprinting involves measuring the MERMER paradigm EEG response during interrogation and although it has been used in some criminal cases in the US (without much success; Jimmy Ray Slaughter's capital execution appeal based on brain fingerprinting was denied), it has been soundly criticized.

"Note the repeated use of the adverb 'scientifically' -- a mannerism much in evidence among marketing copywriters, and charlatans," was one reaction to Dr. Farwell's claims. Methodology was another issue.

Brain fingerprinting was developed with the FBI and made its way to India's justice system for a terrorism trial. The fact it's now being used in sexual assault cases is alarming considering that the developer's own web site warns:

In what kinds of cases does Brain Fingerprinting testing not apply?

There are several types of cases where this technology does not apply. For example, in a disappearance, all the authorities may know is that someone disappeared. They may not know if any crime has been committed. Another situation where Brain Fingerprinting testing is not applicable is when everyone agrees on what happened, but there is disagreement as to the intent of the parties. For example, in a sexual assault case the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator may agree exactly on what happened, but disagree on whether or not it was consensual.

The Forensic Science Laboratories in Mumbai have apparently not visited the web site (or their in-box to write me back). Perhaps their system came from another supplier; you can even build your own from open source. ~~However, India signed a contract with Brain Fingerprinting in 2004.~~ [This was alleged by a few web sites, not good sources, and the manufacturer denies sales in India, and informs me that a competitor in India is the source.] I wonder if they know the name was changed to brain mapping? At least in popular usage in India.

PBS produced a special on brain fingerprinting; (take a test and watch a video clip). But nobody seems to be looking at its use in India since the US introduced the technology. It's being misused, applied to the wrong cases, even though the source of the technology publicly warns against its use in sexual assault trials.

Even in appropriate cases: "The technique, however, can't be used on the mentally ill, heavy alcoholics and 'might fail on a habitual criminal.'"

That sure rules out a lot of cases, doesn't it?

And here in Psychophysiology: "...tests of deception detection based on P300 amplitude as a recognition index may be readily defeated with simple countermeasures that can be easily learned."

Lots more disputes, academic discussion on Farwell's article Using brain MERMER testing to detect knowledge despite efforts to conceal in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, listed here. Also, an article from the BBC on its use in the legal system in the UK. All very negative.

Then why is India using it? (And why is someone soliciting for donations to train 5000 brain fingerprinting technicians in Colorado?) There's also a procedure using sodium pentathol in interrogations, as mentioned in Deception Blog. Both of these techniques were developed - and debunked - in the US.

Clearly India's methods of investigation need as much re-examination as their rape laws. Are they benefitting from modernizations, or have they been deceived?

"Brain-mapping" criminals in India

2006-04-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your query. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards,
Mumbai Police

With that, then, I pause my search. Since finding the news via OmniBrain I've been reading more about the rape conviction of Abhishek Kasliwal in India due in part to "brain-mapping" lie detection purported by the government to have 99.99% efficiency. In North America, the UK and elsewhere neuroscience has been applying fMRI neuroimaging to lie detection in experiments but it hasn't faced the courts yet, and controversy abounds.

In India EEG is being applied to a range of high profile criminal cases. It was given to a Bollywood starlet accused of murdering a man who attacked her after offering a major film role and marriage. It's now been used to convict a rapist; Khaliwal apparently failed the test, though I have no test to point at, just a few sentences repeated in English-language Indian newsmedia about how the "brain-mapping" helped convict him.

The case: a 52-year-old woman picked up on the street by a man in a Mercedes and raped in the parking lot of a major carpet business owned by the accused's family - he's a somewhat famous rich kid, a powerful figure in a caste society while she's (possibly) a prostitute - witnessed by five people including his family's own security guard. One witness described bruises on the woman's neck, a broken hand, scratches, difficulty walking. The hospital medical report confirms she was forcibly raped. Whether or not he gave her money at some point is irrelevant. Prostitutes are victimized too. They're a favourite target of serial killers. In this case, the media can't say she's a prostitute, just that she was picked up in a red light district and offered alcohol and she "accepted a ride" but the prosecution is careful not to say she was working. If they did, they'd probably lose the case, looking at public sentiment around the question of whether or not she was a prostitute, so forensics must be strong. They found physical evidence in his car, they had her medical report, and his, which turned up scratches on his arms and hands. They don't mention DNA fingerprinting.

However, with all that plus a positive ID in a police lineup they also conducted EEG and polygraph tests. "Brain-mapping."

Brain mapping more often refers to neuroanatomical studies. In the sense they're using the term in India, it began as an investigative aid using neuroimaging in connection with a terrorist attack some years back and now the Forensic Sciences Laboratories use it often. Unfortunately I haven't found out exactly how, what questions they're using in the interrogations, etc., and P300, EEG and ERP were the only technical terms I found. This article from 2004 is vague. This is the most specific info I found: "[Kasliwal] was attached to 32 electrodes and shown pictures and words associated with the crime. His brain responses were noted down during this brain mapping test."

I do predict that now it's hit the blogosphere, some may be alarmed at this judicious use of a primitive technology (dates back to 1965, which in neuroscience terms is prehistoric) while they're debating much more refined applications. That's really another issue. What I would like to point out here is that the police have compiled a massive amount of evidence against a rapist and used the scan as just one more factor - it wasn't the determinant, and the case shouldn't fall if the technology should fail. Let's not call for the Kasliwal's release when so much points to jail. Should it be used in general? Human rights in India are what's really at stake in this case. If neuroscience helps convinct a criminal in a case in which dozens of people are attacking the victim instead (she deserved it for multiple reasons, according to many of the all-male voices in the Indian media) of the criminal, I'm glad. This is a political battle and if science works in favour of the victim, doubly victimized in a misogynist society, that's positive.

But - what of the rights of the accused? Is there an infringement?

I share what I've found; visit what I've linked in del.icio.us and add your own tagged "kasliwal_case" - I'm looking to find more about EEG in lie detection. Not more comments about how it wasn't really rape because she was a prostitute. If the EEG helps prove it was, as one more piece in a solid array of evidence in an strong case fighting a very biased scenario, then great.

But would I rest a capital case on EEG lie detection? I doubt it, but bring on the evidence. There's data mining to do in India. I look forward to what is found tomorrow.

AI technical talks

2006-04-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Some of the available videos produced for the Tech Talks collection at Google Video, from hour long presentations to Google research and development staff (including Q&As):

Opportunities For Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine by Prof. Russ Altman, director of the Center for Biomedical Computation at Stanford University, and the PharmGKB online pharmacogenomics database

Scalable Learning and Inference in Hierarchical Models of the Neocortex - computational neuroscience
Hacking the brain by predicting the future and inverting the un-invertible by Bill Softky
Knowledge Representation and the Semantic Web, High End Computing and Scientific Visualization at NASA
Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life
weRobot: Robotics and Community for Learning and Exploration

And more. It's Web 3.0.

Neurofitness games

2006-03-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

Via OmniBrain: PositScience offers a video game touted to improve cognitive skills, called the Brain Fitness Program. It tests auditory recognition speed then improves your score through memorization practice. It claims to reverse aging. I have a moisturizer that does that too; I should be 12 by now.

But in seriousness, numerous studies extoll the benefits of keeping sharp, especially for seniors (none say you can reverse age, but there are benefits, such as preventing and treating depression).

There's a free Check Your Brain Speed sample test, and since I'm inclined to take tests like Which Star Trek Species R U, I'm not going to turn down a chance to test my "brain speed."

Results reveal that I'm an Android or Hologram, but I'm embarrassed to tell you how "old" my "brain speed" is. I am, however, quick enough to know the results are graded that way to make me want to buy the game.

Nintendo offers Brain Age, a neurofitness video game that seems to have a bit more to it:

Brain Age is inspired by the research of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the impact of performing certain reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain.

Brain Age presents quick mental activities that help keep your DS brain in shape. Activities include quickly solving simple math problems, counting people going in and out of a house simultaneously, drawing pictures on the Touch Screen, reading classic literature out loud, and more.

Mixing Memory: Motivated Reasoning II: Are Political Partisans Irrational?

2006-03-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

Mixing Memory: Motivated Reasoning II: Are Political Partisans Irrational?

A detailed, expert debunking of neuromarketing in politics; sure to engage "the thinking part of your brain."

Welcome to the Future: CNN

2006-03-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

CNN will air a special report on March 25 titled Welcome to the Future: The Future is in Your Grasp, which looks at progress in a number of areas including health, entertainment and technology. Among the research they're highlighting is the BrainGate Neural Interface, under development by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc.

A small chip implanted in the motor cortex enables thought to control computers, and the goal is to one day help disabled users regain control of limb movement. The first test subject, who was given an implant in 2001, said, "Within the first three days I was able to control the cursor pretty much. When I think back on it, it's kind of a trip to think that my brain signals was controlling a mouse, changing channels on my TV, adjusting the volume, opening e-mails."

Researcher Dr. Leigh Hochberg said, "I'm very hopeful that these technologies will be able to help people with paralysis in the future; to make communication occur more easily, to allow people to control their environment more directly and, I hope, to one day to be able to move again."

Read more about CNN's program, and watch some video highlights, here.

The winner is...

2006-03-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm truly impressed! 50 inspired and inspiring new neurowords were entered in the contest by 30 people. Ranging from jokiness to snarkiness to serious descriptions of science, I think a lot of them are destined to enter the lexicon. Now that you've invented them, you'll use them, right?

Ultimately, that's what determined the winner.

"Neurologism: a word created by prefixing "neuro" to almost any normal word" was the first entry in the contest, and the gold standard. As soon as I read it I laughed and said to myself, damn, it's going to be tough to beat that.

It was. My mind was open though, I was a fair judge, so I was torn between neurologism and several other outstanding words. I didn't decide until today when I saw it used on other blogs. That did it – a word that not only defined the entire concept behind the contest but was instantly adopted by all who read it? Yep. That's a winner.

Congratulations, Neil H.!

And congratulations to everyone who coined a neurologism – your imagination keeps language alive.

BAW wraps up

2006-03-19T19:30:00.001-08:00

Brain Awareness Week concludes today, and with that I'll post the final neurosong. It's actually a whole set of them - the Neuro Nation Mix by DJ Statikfire, a Chicago DJ who specializes in "industrial/gabber/electro and tech house/electro/synth" music. It's a good way to end the week since one of the songs in the mix is actually about neuroscience (instead of just a title): the cyberpunk/transhumanist concept of "neural ascention."

The neuroword contest has been such a smashing success it's going to be tough to pick a winner. If you have any last minute inspirations, post them now - contest ends at midnight PST. I'll announce the winner Monday evening.

Brain art

2006-03-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

I found some spectacular photographs of the brain, taken by "neurollero" Mark Miller. "Brains are gorgeous at the right magnification," he notes. View his Flickr slideshow by clicking on the image:

Today's neurosong is Neural - Noise, a kickass tune from a French band.

More on neurowords

2006-03-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

Neuromarketing is not that new, so reading a story in EurekAlert about "a groundbreaking new study" that is supposedly "the first to use fMRI to assess consumer perceptions" is a little disappointing. Neurowords aren't spreading through the lexicon so quickly.

OneLook Dictionary Search turns up a long list of neurowords (thanks Shawn!) that do appear in dictionaries online. Others, including neuromarketing, are bound to appear soon. Aspies activists will probably lobby to get "neurotypical" in the Oxford English Dictionary (the ultimate authority on neologism acceptance). Others will appear in time, and in more flexible dictionaries first, as they're noticed. I intend to bring them to the attention of some of those editors - the neuroword contest is bringing in many that ought to be popularized.

But names don't need dictionaries. Business names, titles and intarweb pseudonyms are entirely creative entities, the more unique the better.

NeuroInsights compiled a list of neurotechnology businesses and found 65 of them were prefixed with neuro. (Zack Lynch blogged about it, with links to all the companies, here in Brain Waves.) Neurologix, Neuronetrix, Neuronyx, and NeuroMetrix illustrate a subcategory of neurowords - mix "neuro" with an "x" for a truly shiny high tech name.

Elsewhere online you can find a lot of blogs, books, and journals named with neurowords. Among my RSS feeds, I've got 17 sources.

But aside from adding instant meaning to a descriptive name, neurowords are quite practical. As neuroinformatics develop, subcategorizing into more and more neurowords is useful. In my del.icio.us tags I have 13 categories created from them (and intend to add more at the end of the contest). As a neuroinformaniac I need to be able to sort with as much specificity as possible. The fact neurowords can be creative and amusing too, is just a bonus.

***

Brain Awareness Week, yay - today's neurosong is punk rock. The Undead - Hitler's Brain. Science fiction and myth popularized the idea that Hitler's brain was saved, and functioning, in a jar, leading to many similar stories and satire like the celebrity heads in Futurama. Irregular Webcomic once held a contest to caption a sequence of photos involving Hitler's brain in a jar; funny results are here. (Hint: winning entry involves a goldfish.)

Neurocontroversy

2006-03-16T21:45:00.000-08:00

My neuroword contest has brought many clever, creative entries from people like an artificial intelligence developer, neuroethicist, neuroinformatics developer, and some just described as neuroscientists. But one member of that subset has a problem with the idea instead.

"Academia owes nothing to 'pop-science,'" says Sean in a comment at Brain Waves in response to Zack Lynch blogging about the contest. "We should really appreciate what we have and preserve the integrity of the field of neuroscience."

I'm disappointed Sean won't be entering his word "neuroisms" but even more that he fails to see the value in them.

In my original post I mentioned a "grand" neuroword called Neuromancer. It's writer William Gibson's neuroword, title of one of the most influential novels - not just sci fi novels - of all time. Many of today's Ph.D grads grew up dreaming of his cyberspace and neural interface concepts. The entire net is indebted to technology that developed from his creative visions and the words he coined to describe them (like "cyberspace") and science continues to experiment with future apps. Concepts like recording dreams, described in the story The Winter Market from Burning Chrome, inspire imagination and ultimately research. Aldous Huxley described virtual reality "feelies" in Brave New World decades ago and technology still hasn't caught up to his vision, but we're certainly on our way. I blogged about one development yesterday. Huxley also influenced bioethics and psychopharmacology. Soma and moksha were prescient, and cloning impacts academia and pop culture alike.

The H.G. Wells Award for Outstanding Contributions to Transhumanism for 2006 was awarded to Charles Stross, a science fiction writer and scientist, for his insightful vision of the singularity in his novels. [Free ebook here.] Artificial intelligence technology owes much to neuroscience and vice versa - and often where they overlap is in the arts.

A neuroword (or "neurologism: a word created by prefixing "neuro" to almost any normal word") can inspire thinkers in new directions, including of course scientists but anyone who reads them. And words are the writers' domain.

A few other contest entries describing innovative applications, sciences borne of neurowords:

"Neurovisual: visual input originating from internal neuroimplants rather than from the eye."

"Neuromanticism: the discipline that investigates neural correlates of love."

"Neurodigitization: the process of translating data and information about a nervous system into a sequence of discrete symbols from a finite set."

"Neuroceutical: A side-effect free neuropharmaceutical."

Limiting expression to nothing but the word neuroscience would be death instead of synergy. And what was that about academic science looking to pop science creativity?

***

Brain Awareness Week cascades on, and today's neurosong is another kind of pop science, music made by a robot. From Traditional Robot Music Vol. 2, this is Neuron-Nest - March of the Bot Posse.

Contribute to science by entering your neuroword in the contest. Thanks for all the neurotastic entries to date!

BAW - Day 3

2006-03-15T17:50:00.000-08:00

On the first day of Brain Awareness Week I introduced different concepts of neurosongs. The ones I'm posting merely have brain-related titles/artist names (today's, klao DNA - Synaptic Frequency, is made by a robot. It's from Traditional Robot Music, which is, along with Vol. 2, free for download). But another possibile definition included sound used as a weapon. I said I wasn't going to write about that.

Then I read Positive Technology Journal on this article in Top Tech News about controlling movement and balance with sound and electrodes.

The technique, called galvanic vestibular stimulation, sends sound through a headset which affects the inner ear and electricity to the brain through electrodes attached to the head. It controls balance; as they play a VR video car racing game, players feel as though they are moving through the course. But more, movement of the body can be triggered – subjects move against their will.

The best commercial promise for GVS still appears to be its use for enhancing video games. Next-generation gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360 and ever-evolving PC graphics cards are setting the bar for visual realism higher and higher. If developers can someday enhance stunning visuals with equally stunning sensations, ultrarealistic games that take advantage of GVS might shake up the industry.

But even the use of GVS in gaming raises an interesting ethical dilemma, McLean said. Could the technology, she asked, enhance gamers' experience of violence to the degree that it blurs or even completely evaporates the line between fantasy and reality? If that's the case, McLean added, GVS could be seen as a tool that ultimately promotes violent behavior.

It also could be a tool that provides a virtual experience unlike any other. If GVS delivers on its game-enhancement potential, developers and marketers might hold the remote in their hands, easily holding a captive audience of enthralled gamers in their sway.

The researchers stress that GVS should be used in a medical setting because of the danger in "zapping" if not performed by a trained professional, but one of their tests was a game and the application is obvious. Others include controlling movements of prisoners.

The truth is that GVS in its current stage is far from the control freak's ultimate weapon. Boston University's Collins dismissed the possibility of using the technology to move humans completely against their will because, he said, "Our central nervous system, through volitional commands, could largely override the effects produced by GVS."

Perhaps it's not ready now, but we should be prepared for it or similar systems and consider how to use them. The future may not lie with restraining prisoners, it could be Nintendo game violence come to life.

***

Enter the neuroword contest!

BAW - Day 2

2006-03-14T23:48:00.000-08:00

Brain Awareness Week continues, with today's neurosong: Kiln - Neuron.

Like the neuroword neurosong? Those are both neologisms I coined. With the proliferation of relatively new terms like neuroethics, neuroaesthetics, neuromarketing, neuroeconomics, neurophilosophy, and many more, it's easy to get swept up in the neurohype and be a little creative. For me it started with a sci fi series I wrote and titled Neuropunk. When I discovered the name was already in use (it's also a bad title because it's too similar to cyberpunk and that grand neuroword, William Gibson's Neuromancer) I came up with a bunch more and haven't stopped since.

To celebrate Brain Awareness Week I invite you to try your hand at neuroword neologisms. I'm hosting a contest: leave a comment with your original neuroword, definition and email address and at the end of the week the best will win a special set of 52 brain teaser puzzles on playing cards. Puzzles are great for neurofitness (Faith Popcorn coined that one) and fun besides.

Think one up, and enter!

[Contest is now over. The winner is...]

[And the other winner is...]

BAW - Day 1

2006-03-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Brain Awareness Week!

Organized annually by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives with partners such as the Society for Neuroscience, BAW raises, well, awareness of, yes, the brain. (Here's a public service announcement to share.)

As anyone who already has some awareness can attest, that can encompass a LOT of things. So much so that as I sit down to write I find myself with option paralysis.

Therefore, today's going to be a bit of a cop-out while I ponder what to do. A few cool links. Here are four neuroscience wikis:

Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Wiki
Neurotransmitter.net Wiki
Artificial Intelligence Wiki: AIWiki
NA-MIC (National Alliance for Medical Imaging Computing) Wiki

And! And! A neurosong. What's a neurosong? I'm not referring to music that affects brain waves, which is a sub-science in itself and runs the gamut from sound used as a weapon by the military to new age warblings that claim to cure cancer along with insomnia for just $19.99 per CD. Nor are they songs that use sounds from the brain (I'm still waiting to hear someone use this sample of action potentials in a trigeminal ganglion cell in a dance remix.) These are simply songs with titles and/or artist names related to the brain.

Neuroactive is a Finnish EBM/future pop band who've released titles like Morphology. Their web site is down or I'd link it; also, this song is available for free download (I'm not pirating) but I can't find that link again either so here it is, available for seven days:

Neuroactive - Contempt [Hardmix]

I'll be posting neurosongs every day this week, and am going to host a BAW contest (with a prize!) so tune in tomorrow for more.

Computational linguistics saving lives

2006-03-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

Grzegorz Kondrak of the University of Alberta has developed a way to use computational linguistics data in an AI system that spots drug names that are too much alike.

The FDA is using his system to evaluate new drug names by comparing them to existing ones. By ensuring more unique drug names medical errors due to confusing similar-sounding and similar-looking names can be reduced. In the USA that's as many as 162,500 deaths a year that could be prevented.

Kondrak originally developed the software to find similarities in words for language history comparisons, and says it was criticized as having no practical application at the time. A recent article in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine proves otherwise.

A noble scientist, he adds that he makes his research openly available.

"If anyone asks for it, I just give it to them," Kondrak said. "I was a funded researcher, and I look at it as my responsibility to share what I've learned and what I've done."

"When you do basic research sometimes you don't know how it might become of use, but if this software helps to reduce even just 10 per cent of prescription errors in the U.S. that translates into helping a lot of people, and it's very satisfying to contribute to that."

BrainEthics: Im-Gen videos now up

2006-03-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

Brain Ethics announced good news - the 2006 International Imaging Genetics Conference videos are now online. "Buy some chips and a cola and put yourself in front of a double-screen projector (one with the video and one with the PDF) and enjoy!" Cool. Last year's coverage of this emerging area of neuroimaging was great.

No schizophrenia?

2006-03-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

2 NAMES, 1 DISEASE: Does schizophrenia=psychotic bipolar disorder? in Current Psychiatry suggests that schizophrenia is actually severe bipolar I psychosis and not a separate diagnosis. A comprehensive review references questions going back many years, and argues that incorrect diagnosis has many implications. For the patient they include "less likely to receive a mood stabilizer or antidepressant...symptoms worsen, more likely to receive neuroleptics for life, increasing risk for severe and permanent side effects, and greater stigma with schizophrenia."

Three disorders—schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and psychotic bipolar disorder—have been evoked to account for the variance in severity in psychotic patients, but psychotic bipolar disorder expresses the entire spectrum. We concur with others that psychotic bipolar disorder includes patient populations typically diagnosed as having schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. In other words, there is no schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

It's worth considering, but I'd like to read reaction to this idea. Starting with your comments?

Transhumanist webcomic

2006-02-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

From Irregular Webcomic.

Drug advertising opposed

2006-02-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

A Health Council Canada report called Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs in Canada: What are the Public Health Implications? details research on pharmamarketing and its impact on health care.

In Canada only two forms of advertising are permitted, through a loophole: educational or "help-seeking" ads, and simple logo branding in "reminder" ads. Even that, concludes UBC's Barbara Mintzes, should be curtailed and instead "Canadians need independent, publicly financed information and education on drugs and other treatments."

Bob Nakagawa of the Health Council says drug advertising can cause "avoidable harm by stimulating unnecessary and inappropriate medicine use while often failing to provide balanced appraisals of the medicine's value," which influenced the Council's position in their recent recommendations.

No official response yet from the new government.

Dyslexia

2006-02-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

Unsurprising headline of the day: "Dyslexic children exhibit a different pattern of brain activity while reading."

But the UW study the article describes did more than examine that. It tracked changes from treatment, illustrating the brain's ability to normalize over time. Also:

"Most people think dyslexia is a reading disorder, but it is also a spelling and writing problem," said Virginia Berninger. "Our results show that all dyslexics in the 9- to 12-year-old range have spelling problems and children who cannot spell cannot express their ideas in writing."

Bio-molecular computers

2006-02-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

Israeli researchers have developed a bio-molecular computer that uses chemical reactions between two enzymes to produce binary. One potential application is control of drug delivery in the body. Read more.

Is it measured in voxels?

2006-02-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

A Cup of Neuropsychology? is an archive by Anthony H. Risser, Ph.D spanning years of his professional life as a consulting neuropsychologist. It's a body of work encompassing articles such as Repress Yourself - Repression as a good thing (New York Times, 23 February 2003) and The effect of spam on e-mail use (Pew Foundation, 22 October 2003) alongside links to web seminars, subscriber access journal articles, radio and more. He maintains the excellent BrainBlog up to the minute, but these older files store valuable information as well. Get out a tea cup (or more appropriately a large mug) and settle back for a while to imbibe some fascinating info.

Cinebrain

2006-02-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you're a tumbleweed blowing along the dusty streets of blog ghost towns, you roll into a saloon full of characters.

Visual enough? It's an appropriate trailer for Cinebrain, a weblog on brain sciences and cinema written by Sina Ohadinia and Ross Saunders. Although it's been fallow since 2004 there are two years worth of archives to gobble up like so much buttered popcorn.

I'm not sure where else you'd find a review of Spiderman 2 with this kind of focus: "One of the highlights of drama in this movie is his DEPERSONALISATION experience, which resembles some sort of nervous breakdown, and leads to his loss of spider powers and force him to abandon his Spiderman character for a while to play his rather ordinary, cliched character of ADD/crazy/disorganised/nice scientist (who of course, most of the time is an expert in physics or mathematics!) and is also a journalist and photographer, another two professions known for the high rate of ADD prevalency among them)."

Stay for the credits.

Neuroweaponry

2006-02-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Hacking the Enemy, from Cyborg Democracy, highlights US military developments and goals in non-chemical weapons that affect the brains of the enemy.

Tangentially related, here are some 2D images that can cause seizures.

Neuromarketing then and now

2006-02-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

In 2004, the New York Times published If Your Brain Has A Buy Button, What Pushes It?, on neuromarketing. In it they mention an interesting fMRI study about Coke and Pepsi - when subjects didn't know which was which, preference was expressed equally between the drinks and an area in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex responded. When told they were drinking "the real thing," a Coke slogan, regions in the hippocampus and another part of the prefrontal cortex lit up as well, and three out of four subjects chose Coke, suggesting ad memories processed in the additional regions influenced their choice. A dramatic idea, and people were abuzz.

In 2006, many more studies have been conducted but what we've really learned is that the data may be overhyped. Martin Skov is skeptical:

Our knowledge of how the brain's preference system works is simply too rudimentary...Even if some ad actually elicits a high response in the reward system this activity may not, simply, correlate with a clear-cut preference for the ad. The reason is that the reward system is composed of several different structures which may interact and compete for the final verdict.

As well, the activation of mirror neurons may be a misleading path to follow since a connection between empathy and preference has not been established.

Nor are there behavioural links to the "Halle Berry neuron" and recognition patterns for familiar faces. In a lab you can correlate a single simple image viewed with no distraction to specific brain activity, but in real world settings it may have no bearing. If we watch a soft drink TV ad with pop star endorsement, is the activity in our brains due to memories of the image, the audio track, or related gossip from a tabloid? Or maybe it's due not to the celebrity but the drink's packaging, its flavour, a display ad in the supermarket? Or an association with a friend who offered us one the day before? Which of these factors - and many more - would influence us to buy? There are too many cognitive variables to draw a direct conclusion, as the recent debunking of the Superbowl ad study demonstrates.

Not yet, anyway. Then comes the question of how to apply that knowledge. But two years ago in the NYT article, one researcher proposed an ironic idea:

Dr. Sam McClure, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton and a co-author of the soft drink study, suggested that neuromarketing might someday even be used to protect vulnerable brains.

The prefrontal cortex, which helps mediate consumer choice, develops late in children and is impaired in older people, groups that are highly susceptible to advertising, he said. Young children are often sucked in by advertisements for sugary foods, while the elderly can fall victim to buying fake insurance policies.

"If brain imaging studies clearly showed those vulnerabilities, laws could be passed to protect people from advertising," Dr. McClure said.

Kurzweil lecture

2006-02-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

MIT World has released a streaming 35:00 Ray Kurzweil lecture titled Innovation Everywhere—How the Acceleration of “GNR” (genetics, nanotechnology, robotics) Will Create a Flat and Equitable World.

Say goodbye to cancer and heart disease within 15 years, and hello to living way past 80. And try to survive until the year 2029, which according to Kurzweil’s mathematical models, represents “25 turns of the screw in terms of doubling the power of information technology in every aspect of our lives.” We’ll see reverse engineering of the human brain, and computers that “will combine the subtlety and pattern recognition of human intelligence with the speed, memory and knowledge sharing of machine intelligence.” The marriage of nanotechnology and AI will bring us “a killer app”-- nanobots that can keep us healthy from the inside. These will also enable “full immersion virtual reality from within nervous systems” and expand human intelligence, facilitating “brain to brain communication. As for human conflict, Kurzweil sees an end to starvation and energy concerns, but doesn’t quite complete his utopia. New technologies may be used in anti-social ways, say, by a bioterrorist. “I’m less optimistic we can avoid all painful issues; we certainly did not do that in the 20th century,” concludes Kurzweil.