New technology to edit voices like text

Technology developed by Princeton University computer scientists may do for audio recordings of the human voice what word processing software did for the written word and Adobe Photoshop did for images.


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From Passwords to Passthoughts: Logging In to Your Devices With Your Mind

A password, a fingerprint, or an iris scan—these are ways to verify that we are who we say we are, allowing us to log in to our devices or enter a high security area. But if we are to move beyond touch screens and keyboards, our methods of authentication will have to change too. That has pushed engineers to find new ways to verify our identities, and to do it directly from the source: the brain.

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Franka: A Robot Arm That’s Safe, Low Cost, and Can Replicate Itself

The robot, also called Franka Emika—“It’s like first and last name,” the developer Sami Haddadin explains—is not the only one ever designed to operate alongside human workers. Indeed, this type of system, known as a collaborative robot, or cobot, is one of the fastest growing segments in the robotics market, with global sales expected to jump from US $100 million in 2016 to over $3.3 billion in just five years, according to one estimate. It’s designed to be easy to set up and program, which is nice. But what makes it special is that, unlike typical factory robots, which are so dangerous they are often put inside cages, this arm can operate right next to people, assisting them with tasks without posing a risk.

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New brain imaging method identifies common brain disorders

New chemical allows for measuring the density of synapses in the entire brain in vivo for the first time, using a PET scan. The technique may provide insights into the diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of disorders, including epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Now a Yale led team of researchers has developed a way to measure the density of synapses in the brain using a PET (positron emission tomography) scan. They used this new imaging technique on baboons and humans, then applied mathematical tools to quantify synaptic density, and confirmed that the new method served as a marker for synaptic density. The method revealed synaptic loss in three patients with epilepsy compared to healthy individuals.

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Human Intelligence Through Brain Scans

Researchers at Yale led a study that demonstrate fluid intelligence (defined by abstract reasoning) can be measured by the functional connectivity of 268 specific brain regions. Emily Finn, co-author of this study, said, “The more certain regions are talking to one another, the better you’re able to process information quickly and make inferences.” Mostly, fluid intelligence had to do with the connections between the frontal and parietal lobes. The stronger and swifter the communication between these two regions, the better one’s score in the abstract thinking test.Earlier, same researchers have demonstrated that a person’s brain activity appears to be as unique as his or her fingerprints. Using brain imaging data, researcher were able to identify individuals.

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Playing action video games can boost learning

In the a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bavelier and her team first used a pattern discrimination task to compare action video game players’ visual performance with that of individuals who do not play action video games.

The action-gamers outperformed the non-action gamers. The key to the action-gamers success, the researchers found, was that their brains used a better template for the task at hand.

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Artificial Retina

Physicists developed an interface to the optical nerve using graphene for an optical prostheses.

Graphene is viewed as a kind of "miracle solution": It is thin, transparent and has a tensile strength greater than that of steel. In addition, it conducts electricity better than copper. Since it comprises only a single layer of carbon atoms it is considered two-dimensional.

 In 2010 the scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for their ground-breaking work on this material.

In October 2013, the "Graphene" project was selected alongside the "Human Brain Project" as a Flagship Project of the EU FET Initiative (Future and Emerging Technologies).

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First Tests of Thought-Controlled Aircraft Successful

Pilots of the future could be able to control their aircraft by merely thinking commands. Scientists of the Technische Universität München and the TU Berlin have now demonstrated the feasibility of flying via brain control – with astonishing accuracy.
(Photo : Courtesy A. Heddergott/TU München ) 

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Mapping brain activity with molecular precision

A new technique allows neuroscientists to precisely track neural communication in the brain over time, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with a specialized molecular MRI contrast agent.

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3D printer creates realistic neurosurgical models for training

A new multi-material 3D printer was used to create realistic, low-cost model of the skull for use by students in practicing neurosurgical techniques. The model uses a variety of materials that simulate the various consistencies and densities of human tissues encountered during neurosurgery.

Neurosurgery is a difficult discipline to master. Trainees may spend as many as 10 years after graduation from medical school developing and honing their surgical skills before they can be designated as proficient in their specialty. The greater the number and variety of neurosurgical training sessions, the better the training experience.

However, the researchers say, it’s difficult to find suitable simulation models that offer accuracy and realism for neurosurgical training while keeping training costs down.

Three-dimensional printers have been used to create models of normal and pathological human tissues and organs for physician training and patient instruction for some time.  Until recently, however, only one material could be used in the creation of models, which is of little value for hands-on training.

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Does your brain see things you don’t?

A new study indicates that our brains perceive objects in everyday life that we may not be consciously aware of.

Study participants’ brainwaves captured using EEG indicated that even if a person never consciously recognized the shapes on the outside of the image, their brains still processed those shapes to the level of understanding their meaning.

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A Brain-Machine Interface for Control of Medically-Induced Comma

Researchers have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) that monitors a patient’s brain activity with EEG and adjusts the anesthetic infusion rate to precisely control the level of brain activation in a medically induced coma or for general anesthesia, according to a study published online in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

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Neuroscientists plant false memories in the brain

he phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.

In a step toward understanding how these faulty memories arise, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice. They also found that many of the neurological traces of these memories are identical in nature to those of authentic memories.

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Chips that mimic the brain

Novel microchips imitate the brain’s information processing in real time. Neuroinformatics researchers from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich together with colleagues from the EU and US demonstrate how complex cognitive abilities can be incorporated into electronic systems made with so-called neuromorphic chips: They show how to assemble and configure these electronic systems to function in a way similar to an actual brain.

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A fatigue detection device for drivers based on eye tracking

An EPFL student, Peugeot Citroën, has developed a video analysis algorithm able to estimate the level of a driver’s fatigue based on the degree of eyelid closure and has built a prototype to test it in real driving conditions.

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Scientists read dreams

Brain scans during sleep can decode visual content of dream.  Researchers led by Yukiyasu Kamitani of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan used functional neuroimaging to scan the brains of three people as they slept, simultaneously recording their brain waves using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers woke the participants whenever they detected the pattern of brain waves associated with sleep onset, asked them what they had just dreamed about, and then asked them to go back to sleep. The researchers extracted key words from the participants’ verbal reports, and picked 20 categories that appeared most frequently in their dream reports.

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Brain Implant Detects, Responds to Epilepsy

Next year, medical researchers will test in patients a one-of-a-kind brain implant that can sense electrical activity in the brain while simultaneously emitting electric pulses, says device developer Medtronic.

Deep-brain stimulators are mainly used to regulate the movement problems associated with Parkinson's and other diseases, but they are also used in Europe and Canada to treat epilepsy and are being used experimentally to treat severe depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But doctors must use trial and error to determine the best parameters for the electrical stimulation programmed into each patient's chip.

The smarter brain stimulator is an improved version of Medtronic's existing deep-brain stimulator device, which has already been implanted in more than 80,000 people around the world. Medtronic has added an extra chip so that it can detect electrical activity and respond automatically to changes in the brain. 

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Brain scans may help personalize treatments

A new study indicates that brain scans of patients with social anxiety disorder can help predict whether they will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.

Social anxiety is usually treated with either cognitive behavioral therapy or medications. However, it is currently impossible to predict which treatment will work best for a particular patient. The team of researchers from MIT, Boston University (BU) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) found that the effectiveness of therapy could be predicted by measuring patients’ brain activity as they looked at photos of faces, before the therapy sessions began.

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MRI scanners affect concentration and visuospatial awareness

Standard head movements made while exposed to one of the three electromagnetic fields produced by a heavy duty MRI scanner seem to temporarily lower concentration and visuospatial awareness, shows an experimental study published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The effects were particularly noticeable in tasks requiring high levels of working memory, which may have implications for surgeons and other healthcare staff working within the vicinity of an MRI scanner, the research indicates.

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Software Detects Motion that the Human Eye Can't See

A new set of software algorithms can amplify aspects of a video and reveal what is normally undetectable to human eyesight, making it possible to, for example, measure someone's pulse by shooting a video of him and capturing the way blood is flowing across his face.

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