How Your Brain Retunes Noise into Meaningful Dialogue
How many times have you gone to karaoke or heard someone sing along with a song on the radio only to sing the wrong lyrics? Don’t be ashamed, it’s more common than you think. When I first heard Elton John’s Tiny Dancer, without knowing the song’s title, I wondered about the lyric ‘hold me closer, Tony Danza’.
Decoding at the Speed of Synapse
No matter how many times it’s asserted, our brains are not computers. It’s not uncommon to compare the brain to the currently favored technology. Our brains have been compared to many different inventions throughout history, from clockworks to telephone switchboards. Our understanding of the brain has grown, and there are parallels between a brain and a computer. Both can learn and adapt, have short term and long term storage, and can be modified (known as neuroplasticity in the brain).
Brain-Sensing Technology Used to Help Sufferers of Paralysis Communicate
A team from Stanford University has been hard at work developing a new brain-to computer hook-up which allows people suffering from paralysis to type via direct brain control. There are millions of sufferers of paralysis across the US, and the goal of this research is to restore function to people with paralysis, thus providing a vital communication link.
Monitoring the Brain Outside the Lab
New, state of the art equipment for monitoring neural response is being developed by scientists and engineers from the University of California, San Diego. The researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering and the Institute for Neural Computation are developing a brain monitoring system that monitors 64-channels and is wearable. The team is headed by Tim Mullen and Mike Yu Chi.
Graphene Laser Forms a Brain-Like Processor That Can Think, Recognize, and Remember
The human brain is a wondrous thing. It can process many different types of complex information nearly instantaneously. In a sense, your brain is the best computer out there—although today’s most powerful computers based on silicon chips can complete mathematical operations far faster than the average human, they are unable to or clumsy at performing certain tasks that our brains can do with ease.
Bionic Fingertip Gives Amputees the Feels
Touch, one of the most formidable and sophisticated of the five senses, has the ability to allow humans to connect with things on a deeper level and enjoy a sense of empowerment from the sensation. This, unfortunately, leaves behind millions of amputees around the world from experiencing the same, a failure to communicate kinesthetically.
Storing Digital Data on DNA
What’s inside a computer? The more curious of us have taken apart our favorite gadget. A quick peek and you will see the integrated silicon chips of the motherboard, a power supply, some data ports, and the hard drive. We all cherish our computer’s CPU and RAM, they provide the speed and processing power. And what descent into madness would there be without internet connectivity through a router port or Wi-Fi card? But the most treasured part of the computer is the hard drive.
First Prosthesis with Direct Connection to Bone, Nerves and Muscles
For people who have lost a limb, prosthetic arms and legs provide a means of gaining independence and feeling that they can achieve tasks on their own. Traditionally though, these prosthetics have been somewhat uncomfortable and clunky; the external electrodes can be affected by nearly devices and there is a lack of fine dexterity. Many amputees report that one of the main reasons for not wearing their prosthesis is because of problems related to the discomfort around the socket.