Will We Ever Be Able to Edit or Delete Memories?

Impossible even to broach this subject without reference to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which an unkempt Jim Carrey enlists a legitimate if shoddily run medical firm to erase the memory of his ex-girlfriend. If that film had a message, it was almost certainly not “erasing memories is good,” but that is…Read more...
Tags: Psychology, Science, Biology, Memory, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Recall, Jim Carrey, Forgetting, Men In Black, Long Term Memory, Physiology, Emotion And Memory, Jason Chan, Engram, Traumatic Memories

Take an Intellectual Odyssey with a Free MIT Course on Douglas Hofstadter’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

In 1979, mathematician Kurt Gödel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer J.S. Bach walked into a book title, and you may well know the rest. Douglas R. Hofstadter won a Pulitzer Prize for Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, his first book, thenceforth (and henceforth) known as GEB. The extraordinary work is not a treatise on mathematics, art, or music, but an essay on cognition through an exploration of all three — and of formal systems, recursion, self-reference, artificial intelligence, e...
Tags: Psychology, Facebook, Math, Music, College, Neuroscience, Mit, Creativity, Philosophy, Computer Science, Lewis Carroll, Bach, GEB, Escher, Josh Jones, J S Bach

Elon Musk's Neuralink wants to embed microchips in people's skulls and get robots to perform brain surgery

Elon Musk. Win McNamee/Getty Images Neuralink is one of Elon Musk's strange and futuristic portfolio of companies. Neuralink developing neural interface technology - a.k.a. putting microchips into people's brains. The technology could help study and treat neurological disorders. Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories. Elon Musk is known for his high-profile companies like Tesla and SpaceX, but the billionaire also has a handful of unusual ventures. One them, he say...
Tags: Google, Spacex, Elon Musk, Science, Trends, Neuroscience, Tech, Tesla, Artificial Intelligence, World Health Organization, Ai, Jackson, Google Ventures, Pong, University Of California, Wall Street Journal

Interoception: how to improve your "gut feeling"

Our surroundings contain far more information than our conscious minds can process.Our non-conscious minds are constantly gathering information and identifying patterns.By being interoceptively attuned — that is, aware of the inner state of the body — we can tap into what our non-conscious mind is trying to tell us.The following is an adapted excerpt from the book The Extended Mind. It is reprinted with permission of the author.If you'd like to make smarter choices and sounder decisions — and w...
Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Innovation, University Of Southern California, Antonio Damasio, Lewicki, Annie Murphy Paul, Damasio, Pawel Lewicki

MedRhythms raises $25M to get patients back in tune after a stroke

MedRhythms secured $25 million in Series B funding to advance its digital therapy platform aimed at measuring and improving someone’s ability to walk after they have experienced a neurologic injury or disease. Morningside Ventures and Advantage Capital co-led the round, with participation from existing investor Werth Family Investment Associates, to give the Portland, Maine-based company $31 million in funding to date. Company co-founder and CEO Brian Harris was a neurologic music fellow at Spau...
Tags: Health, Startups, TC, Boston, Funding, Neuroscience, Tech, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Portland, Fda, Parkinson's Disease, Telemedicine, Morningside Ventures, HARRIS, U S Food and Drug Administration

How Apple and Nike have branded your brain

Powerful branding can not only change how you feel about a company, it can actually change how your brain is wired."We love to think of ourselves as rational. That's not how it works," says UPenn professor Americus Reed II about our habits (both conscious and subconscious) of paying more for items based primarily on the brand name. Effective marketing causes the consumer to link brands like Apple and Nike with their own identity, and that strong attachment goes deeper than receipts.Using MRI, pr...
Tags: Apple, Money, Marketing, Samsung, Neuroscience, Nike, Empathy, Brain, Innovation, Branding, Michael Platt, Americus Reed II, Apple Meanwhile Apple

The neuroscience of branding

Effective branding can not only change how you feel about a company, it can actually change how your brain is wired.Our new series "Your Brain on Money," created in partnership with Million Stories, recently explored the surprising ways brands can affect our behavior.Brands aren't going away. But you can make smarter decisions by slowing down and asking yourself why you're making a particular purchase. How Apple and Nike have branded your brain | Your Brain on Money | Big ...
Tags: Apple, Microsoft, John Sculley, Samsung, Neuroscience, Nike, Brain, Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, Mind, Branding, Platt, Daniel Kahneman, Kahneman, Michael Platt, Pearl Tobacco

The neuroscience of human consciousness [podcast]

How can the study of the human brain help us unravel the mysteries of life? Going a step further, how can having a better understanding of the brain help us to combat debilitating diseases or treat mental illnesses? On this episode of The Oxford Comment, we focused on human consciousness and how studying the neurological basis for human cognition can lead not only to better health but a better understanding of human culture, language, and society as well.We are joined today by Dr John Parrington...
Tags: Books, Featured, Neuroscience, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, Mental Illness, Multimedia, Editor's Picks, Seth, Science & Medicine, The Oxford Comment, Human Brain, Audio & Podcasts, Neuroscience of Consciousness, Anil Seth, John Parrington

The science of ‘herd mentality’

What can monkeys teach us about stock market bubbles? It turns out that monkeys make decisions much like investors on the trading floor—they develop a herd mentality, mimicking the behavior of others until overinflation and the eventual pop."This tendency to follow the herd emerges from our social brain networks," explains Michael Platt, professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. This network allows us to learn and adapt based on information from those around us. But these lear...
Tags: Decision Making, Science, Money, Finance, Neuroscience, Brain, Innovation, Platt, Michael Platt, University of Pennsylvania This network

Smart technology (probably) isn’t making you dumber

A new paper in Nature Human Behaviour states that technology is not making us dumber. The authors believe smart technology changes how we engage our biological cognitive abilities.While fears are likely overblown, technology addiction and memory problems still need to be addressed.It seems that every major scientific or technological advancement is immediately labeled "dangerous" by critics. The printing press was going to destroy our memory. Pasteur's groundbreaking work was followed by an ant...
Tags: Psychology, Technology, London, Social Media, Neuroscience, Society, Innovation, Derek, Reliance, Pasteur, Big Problems, Lorenzo Cecutti, Anthony Chemero, Chemero

Does the term “neurodiversity” do more harm than good?

There's been a recent push to label those with abnormal neuropsychological behaviors as "neurodiverse" rather than "autistic" or "dyslexic."This is an attempt to both remove the stigma attached to these abnormalities and also to call into question whether there is any such thing as a normal brain.The problem with getting rid of neuropsychological labels, however, is that it risks ignoring those individuals with developmental issues who need help. "Neurodiversity" is an umbrella term that encom...
Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Mental Health, Brain, Innovation, Oxford, Neurodiversity, Jonny Thomson, Natasha Connell

What Neuroscience Reveals As The Key To Bringing More Empathy To Leadership

When it comes to leadership, there are certain topics that inevitably come up regardless of what industry you operate in. Over the past month, one of the topics I’ve been addressing with leaders is the importance of empathy in leadership, which is why it’s the focus of this edition of ... Click to continue reading
Tags: Leadership, Relationships, Trust, Communication, Neuroscience, Empathy, Perception, Recent Posts, Credibility, Leadership Biz Cafe

Do you get pseudo-hallucinations? Test yourself here

Consider the statements below. What do they describe? A trip on psychedelics? A dream? I felt I could reach through the screen to get to another place. Lasers became entire fans of light sweeping around, and then it felt as if the screen began to expand. I saw old stone buildings … like a castle … I was flying above it.In reality, they are statements that different people reported after viewing the “Ganzflicker" on their computers – an intense full-screen, red-and-black flicker that anyone can...
Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Brain, Innovation, Mind, Senses, Ganzflicker

Researchers Made a Free Online Calculator for Dementia Risk

Researchers in Canada have created an easily accessible tool for people worried about the possibility of cognitive decline as they grow older. The online calculator is supposed to estimate the general risk of dementia for the average person 55 and older and is based on research published this month.Read more...
Tags: Science, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Canada, Dementia, Alzheimers Disease, Learning Disabilities, Cognitive Disorders, Branches Of Biology, Health Medical Pharma, Psychiatric Diagnosis, Aging Associated Diseases, Prevention Of Dementia, Vascular Dementia

The science of sex, love, attraction, and obsession

How love makes us feel can only be defined on an individual basis, but what it does to the body, specifically the brain, is now less abstract thanks to science.One of the problems with early-stage attraction, according to anthropologist Helen Fisher, is that it activates parts of the brain that are linked to drive, craving, obsession, and motivation, while other regions that deal with decision-making shut down. Dr. Fisher, professor Ted Fischer, and psychiatrist Gail Saltz explain the different...
Tags: Sex, Relationships, Love, Trust, Neuroscience, Brain, Sociology, Innovation, Fisher, Helen Fisher, Gail Saltz, Ted Fischer

David Eagleman: ‘The working of the brain resembles drug dealers in Albuquerque’

The neuroscientist, broadcaster and author on the evolution of the brain, the mystery of consciousnesss, and why the next generation will be much smarter than usDavid Eagleman, 50, is an American neuroscientist, bestselling author and presenter of the BBC series The Brain, as well as co-founder and chief executive officer of Neosensory, which develops devices for sensory substitution. His area of speciality is brain plasticity, and that is the subject of his new book, Livewired, which examines h...
Tags: Books, Elon Musk, Science, Technology, Neuroscience, Bbc, Medical Research, Culture, Albuquerque, David Eagleman, Eagleman, Science and nature books, Neosensory, Silicon Valley Everything

Scientists Create an Interactive Map of the 13 Emotions Evoked by Music: Joy, Sadness, Desire, Annoyance, and More

Most of our playlists today are filled with music about emotions: usually love, of course, but also excitement, defiance, anger, devastation, and a host of others besides. We listen to these songs in order to appreciate the musicianship that went into them, but also to indulge in their emotions for ourselves. As for what exactly evokes these feelings within us, lyrics only do part of the job, and perhaps a small part at that. In search of a more rigorous conception of which sonic qualities trig...
Tags: Facebook, Music, Science, College, China, Neuroscience, United States, Ed Sheeran, Berkeley, Seoul, UC Berkeley, Al Green, Vivaldi, Hitchcock, Anwar, Greater Good Science Center

Consciousness: The 'ghost in the machine', or nothing special?

As individuals, we feel that we know what consciousness is because we experience it daily. It's that intimate sense of personal awareness we carry around with us, and the accompanying feeling of ownership and control over our thoughts, emotions and memories.But science has not yet reached a consensus on the nature of consciousness – which has important implications for our belief in free will and our approach to the study of the human mind. Beliefs about consciousness can be roughly divided int...
Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Mit, Brain, Innovation, Consciousness, Mind, Cardiff University, Alex Byrne, Peter Halligan Hon, David A Oakley

The Movement to Protect Your Mind From Brain-Computer Technologies

Recording memories, reading thoughts, and manipulating what another person sees through a device in their brain may seem like science fiction plots about a distant and troubled future. But a team of multi-disciplinary researchers say the first steps to inventing these technologies have already arrived. Through a…Read more...
Tags: Elon Musk, Science, Obama, Articles, Neuroscience, Parkinson, Weill Cornell, Neurotechnology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Brain Implant, Jack Gallant, Emerging Technologies, Neuralink, Computational Neuroscience, Rafael Yuste

De-Mystifying Mindfulness: A Free Online Course by Leiden University

From Chris Goto-Jones–now Dean of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria–comes a free course which was named ‘one of the best online courses of all time’ in 2020. The course description for De-Mystifying Mindfulness reads: Interest in meditation, mindfulness, and contemplation has grown exponentially in recent years. Rather than being seen as mystical practices from ancient Buddhism or esoteric philosophy, they are increasingly seen as technologies rooted in...
Tags: Health, Facebook, College, Neuroscience, Netherlands, Online Courses, Bill Murray, Ucla, University of Victoria, Leiden University, Meet Life, Chris Goto Jones, Honours Academy

CorrActions raises $2.7M to help avoid errors in human-machine interactions

CorrActions, a noninvasive neuroscience startup that uses sensor data to evaluate a user’s cognitive state due to drowsiness, alcohol, fatigue and other issues, today announced that it has raised a $2.7 million seed round. Early-stage fund VentureIsrael, seed fund Operator Partners and the Israeli Innovation Authority are backing the company, which is based out of OurCrowd’s Labs/02 incubator. The idea here is to use touch sensors wherever humans may interact with machines, be that in a fighter ...
Tags: Startups, TC, Fatigue, Neuroscience, Tech, Smartphones, Fda, Symptoms, CSO, Hochman, Recent Funding, Operator Partners, Israeli Innovation Authority, CorrActions, VentureIsrael, Eldad Hochman

Research reveals why some find the sound of others eating so irritating

Scans show some brains have a stronger link between the part that processes sound and that which controls the mouth and throatScientists have shed light on why everyday sounds such as chewing, drinking and breathing can be so maddening to some people that it drives them to despair.While the familiar munching and slurping of the dinner table are innocuous enough to most, those with misophonia – literally a hatred of sound – can find them profoundly irritating, to the point that they become disgus...
Tags: Science, Neuroscience, UK News

Blind man has sight partly restored after pioneering treatment

Man regains ability to recognise objects in first example of successful optogenetic therapy in humansA blind man has had his sight partly restored after a form of gene therapy that uses pulses of light to control the activity of nerve cells – the first successful demonstration of so-called optogenetic therapy in humans.The 58-year-old man, from Brittany in northern France, was said to be “very excited” after regaining the ability to recognise, count, locate and touch different objects with the t...
Tags: Health, Science, France, Neuroscience, Society, Disability, Medical Research, Blindness and visual impairment, Brittany

New brain-computer interface writes up to 90 characters per minute with your thoughts

A recent article in Nature showed some remarkable advances in brain-computer interfacing. From the abstract: Here we developed an intracortical BCI that decodes attempted handwriting movements from neural activity in the motor cortex and translates it to text in real time, using a recurrent neural network decoding approach. — Read the rest
Tags: Post, News, Neuroscience, Neurology, Typing, Brain Implants, Neuralink, Neuroprosthetics, Neuroimplants, Brain-computer Interfaces, Text Finds A Way, Neural Implants, Brain-machine Interfaces, Brain-to-text

‘It’s almost like placing an IV’: Brain monitoring electrode receives FDA 510(k) clearance

An FDA pathway that’s greased the gears for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs has paved the way for something else: a new take on electroencephalography (EEG), the established brain-monitoring technique in which metallic electrodes are placed on the scalp to measure the brain’s electrical activity.  On May 17, DC-based startup iCE Neurosystems announced a version of FDA approval for a subcutaneous electrode called iCE-SG, designed to monitor the brain’s electrical activity from beneath the sk...
Tags: Health, TC, Neuroscience, Tech, Fda, Biotech, Medical Device, Columbia, Eeg, Electroencephalography, New England Journal of Medicine, EUA, Columbia University Medical Center, Waziri, Software Platform, Alan Waziri

Like 'A Part of Their Body': People Adapt to an Extra Thumb in Fascinating Experiment

An experiment in which 36 people were fitted with a robotic third thumb has demonstrated the brain’s uncanny ability to adapt and leverage an entirely new body part, and in ways the researchers are still trying to understand.Read more...
Tags: Science, Biology, Neuroscience, Brain, Neuroplasticity, Biomedical Engineering, Human Brain, Prosthesis, Cognitive Neuroscience, Dani Clode, Biological Engineering, Branches Of Biology, Technology Internet, Health Medical Pharma, Tamar Makin, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Scientists use light-controlled brain implants to change the social behavior of mice

Optogenetics is a technique that uses light to switch on and off neurons in the brain that have been previously genetically engineered to be light-sensitive. Now, Northwestern University neurobiologist Genia Kozorovitskiy and her colleagues have used optogenetics to control the social behavior of mice. — Read the rest
Tags: Post, News, Neuroscience, Northwestern University, Optogenetics, Genia Kozorovitskiy

Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study

UK study of 25,000 people finds even moderate drinking is linked to lower grey matter densityThere is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for the brain, with even “moderate” drinking adversely affecting nearly every part of it, a study of more than 25,000 people in the UK has found.The study, which is still to be peer-reviewed, suggests that the more alcohol consumed, the lower the brain volume. In effect, the more you drink, the worse off your brain. Continue reading...
Tags: Health, UK, Alcohol, Neuroscience, UK News, Medical Research

How to Take the Perfect Nap, According to Cognitive Scientist Sara Mednick

Napping is serious business, despite the fact that when some of us think of naps, we think about preschool. We’ve been taught to think of naps as something to outgrow. Yet as we age into adulthood, so many of us find it hard to get enough sleep. Millions currently suffer from sleep deprivation, whose effects range from memory loss to, well… death, if we credit the dire warnings of neuroscientist Matthew Walker. “Sleep,” Walker says, “is a non-negotiable biological necessity.” In light of...
Tags: Health, Facebook, College, Neuroscience, Salk Institute, UCI, Walker, Josh Jones, Weil, Sara Mednick, Matthew Walker, Durham NC Follow, University of California Irvine UCI, Mednick

Paralysed man uses ‘mindwriting’ brain computer to compose sentences

Man, known as T5, was able to write 18 words a minute with more than 94% accuracy on individual letters A man who was paralysed from the neck down in an accident more than a decade ago has written sentences using a computer system that turns imagined handwriting into words.It is the first time scientists have created sentences from brain activity linked to handwriting and paves the way for more sophisticated devices to help paralysed people communicate faster and more clearly. Continue reading....
Tags: Health, Science, Neuroscience, Society, World news, US news, Medical Research