A peak in to the Memory with fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) looks more and more like a window into the mind. In a study published online today in Nature, researchers at Vanderbilt University report that from fMRI data alone, they could distinguish which of two images subjects were holding in their memory--even several seconds after the images were removed. The study also pinpointed, for the first time, where in the brain visual working memory is maintained.

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More chip cores can mean slower supercomputing

The worldwide attempt to increase the speed of supercomputers merely by increasing the number of processor cores on individual chips unexpectedly worsens performance for many complex applications, Sandia simulations have found.

A Sandia team simulated key algorithms for deriving knowledge from large data sets. The simulations show a significant increase in speed going from two to four multicores, but an insignificant increase from four to eight multicores. Exceeding eight multicores causes a decrease in speed. Sixteen multicores perform barely as well as two, and after that, a steep decline is registered as more cores are added.

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Study Finds Color Boosts Brain Performance

According to a new study, the brain performance of people is unconsciously enhanced by different colors depending upon the nature of the task. In their study, University of British Columbia researchers set out to resolve a long running debate among advertisers about which color, red or blue, stimulates the brain more.

Marketing professor Juliet Zhu says both colors stimulate the brain, but it depends upon the nature of the activity. "If the task is calling for attention to details, then red color will help in particular. But if the task is more creative in nature, then (a) blue color will help," she said. Zhu and colleagues followed 600 participants between 2007 and 2008, tracking their performance on six cognitive tests on a computer that required either detail orientation or creativity.

While exposed to tasks on a red screen, Zhu says the volunteers in one group were asked to memorize a list of words and then recall them twenty minutes later. "What we found was that those in the red color background condition were able to make more accurate recalls than those in the blue background conditions," he said. Zhu says the color red enhanced the detail-oriented skills of the volunteers by 31 percent.She says people using blue computer screens to perform creative works scored two times higher on a scale measuring creativity than people who performed the activities on red screens.

The study on color and brain performance is published this week in the journal Science "Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances"

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TED 2009

The annual conference TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)  for 2009 has started. This conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. See the conference program and watch talks online at http://conferences.ted.com/TED2009/

Study shows what makes locusts swarm

A brain chemical that lifts people out of depression can transform solitary grasshoppers into swarming desert locusts, a finding that could one day help prevent the devastating plagues, University of Cambridge researchers said.

Increases of serotonin, the nerve-signalling chemical targeted by many antidepressants, appears to spark the behaviour changes needed to turn the normally harmless insects into bugs that gang up to munch crops, they said.

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The Glucose-Monitoring Tattoo

Scientists at Draper Laboratory, in Cambridge, MA, are developing a nanosensor that could be injected into the skin, much like tattoo dye, to monitor an individual's blood-sugar level. As the glucose level increases, the "tattoo" would fluoresce under an infrared light, telling a diabetic whether or not she needs an insulin shot following a meal. The researchers will soon begin animal tests of the glucose-specific sensor.

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Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008

Here's list of innovations in 2008 from Wired.com:

10. Flexible Displays
9. Edible Chips
8. Speedo LZR
7. Flash Memory (FDD)
6. GPS
5. The Memristor
4. Video-Capable SLRs
3. USB 3.0
2. Android
1. Apple's App Store

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Scientists develop software that can map dreams

Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.

While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technique could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds.

"It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualize what people see directly from the brain activity," the private institute said in a statement.

"By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams."

When people look at an object, the eye's retina recognises an image that is converted into electrical signals which go into the brain's visual cortex. The team, led by chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, succeeded in catching the signals and then reconstructing what people see.

In their experiment, the researchers showed people the six letters in the word "neuron" and then succeeded in reconstructing the letters on a computer screen by measuring their brain activity.

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IBM seeks to simulate brain

IBM Research and five universities have partnered to create low-power-consumption and compact-sized computing systems that they expect will simulate and emulate the brain’s abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction, and cognition.


IBM’s proposal, “Cognitive computing via synaptronics and supercomputing,” (C2S2) outlines research to be conducted over the next nine months in areas including synaptronics, material science, neuromorphic circuitry, supercomputing simulations, and virtual environments.

Encouraging the effort, IBM and its collaborators have been awarded $4.9 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the first phase of DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) initiative.

Initial C2S2 research will focus on demonstrating nanoscale, low-power synapse-like devices and on "uncovering the functional microcircuits of the brain," IBM said, noting that the long-term mission of C2S2 is to demonstrate low-power, compact cognitive computers that approach mammalian-scale intelligence.

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First superconducting transistor promises PC revolution

The world's first superconducting transistor, a long-standing goal for applied physicists, could lead to dramatically faster microchips. Andrea Caviglia and his colleagues at the University of Geneva in Switzerland grew a single crystal containing two metal oxides, strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate, as separate segments. At the interface of these materials, the team found a layer of free electrons called an electron gas (Science, vol 317, p 1196). At 0.3 kelvin - just above absolute zero - these electrons flow without resistance and so create a superconductor. Now the same group says it can switch this superconductivity on and off by applying a voltage to the interface. The result is a superconducting version of the field effect transistor (FET) - a mainstay of digital electronics.

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