A paralyzed man just had cells from inside his nose transplanted into his spine. Now the man walks, albeit still using a frame. To dissect exactly how this procedure appears to have worked we need to understand precisely what was done during his incredible surgery, and what it is about these peculiar cells that enables neurons to reconnect.
The most powerful brain implants being built today can record fast electric signals using conductive arrays while permitting light to pass out through them for high-resolution imaging . To take it up a notch, they also can let light in for optogenetic control directly under the implant. Two new studies just published in Nature Communications have the details.
As the technology that underpins virtual reality develops and the experiences become increasingly more real, I’ve been pondering a particularly morbid thought: When will we have the first VR-induced death? Will a realistic rocket launcher blast in Team Fortress 2 or VR version of Silent Hill give you a heart attack? Will a a VR experience be so realistic that you get so swept up in the moment that you run into a wall or jump out a window?
2014’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser for their discovery of the brain’s ‘inner GPS’ system. The prize revolves around their discovery of place cells and grid cells in the brain that appear to create a cognitive map of every room or space that you’ve ever explored. As you move around a room or space, a very specific place cell fires — and when you visit the same place again in the future, the same place cell fires every time.
DARPA, on the back of the US government’s BRAIN program, has begun the development of tiny electronic implants that interface directly with your nervous system and can directly control and regulate many different diseases and chronic conditions, such as arthritis, PTSD, inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease), and depression. The program, called ElectRx (pronounced ‘electrics’), ultimately aims to replace medication with “closed-loop” neural implants, which constantly assess the state of your health, and then provide the necessary nerve stimulation to keep your various organs and biological systems functioning properly.
Scientists at IBM Research have created by far the most advanced neuromorphic (brain-like) computer chip to date. The chip, called TrueNorth, consists of 1 million programmable neurons 256 million programmable synapses spread out across 4096 individual neurosynaptic cores. Yes, IBM is now a big step closer to building a brain on a chip.
Is that ringing ears bad enough that you would implant a simulator in your neck just to be free of it? For thousands of Americans, the answer seems to be yes. A series of clinical trials for an implant made by company called Microtransponder has demonstrated that their new nerve cuff electrode device is up to the job. The question that remains is how does it work, exactly?
A new paper discusses the efficiency of neuronal computing and the ways in which we might better model the brain’s function in future hardware. In some significant ways, we’re clearly on the right track already.