Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryNeuroscience

Brain under water 3D render, subconscious mental life and brainstorm idea.
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post
Author
News
Date
March 18, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Consciousness Experiments Confirm Each Research Group’s Theories

News
March 18, 2022
5
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Human consciousness is by far the biggest mystery in the universe. We can be pretty sure that a researcher bold enough to claim to have found simple answer is mistaken. A recent study out of Tel Aviv University dramatically illustrates the problems we face. The researchers, focusing on the methods of study (methodological choices) that consciousness researchers from various schools of thought chose, found that a computer program could predict their results with 80% accuracy. That wasn’t supposed to happen: “The big question is how consciousness is born out of activity in the brain, or what distinguishes between conscious processing and unconscious processing,” Prof Mudrik explains. “For example, if I see a red rose, my visual system processes the information Read More ›

concept-of-modern-technical-equipment-to-scanning-damaged-brain-stockpack-adobe-stock
Concept of modern technical equipment to scanning damaged brain
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post
Author
News
Date
March 18, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Confirmed: “Secret” Tunnels Connect Our Skulls and Brains

The newly confirmed skull tunnels produce immune system cells and funnel them to the brain in case of inflammation or damage
News
March 18, 2022
3
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Neuroscientists usesd to think that immune system cells were carried in the bloodstream from, say, big leg bones in order to address brain inflammation following a stroke, injury, or disorder. It turns out that the brain gets neutrophils from much closer to home, right under the scalp. That’s what one group discovered when looking for the cells in the tibia (the larger of the shinbones in the leg) in mice: They found that the skull contributed significantly more neutrophils to the brain in the event of stroke and meningitis than the tibia. But that raised a new question – how were the neutrophils being delivered? “We started examining the skull very carefully, looking at it from all angles, trying to Read More ›

extreme-magnification-jumping-spider-portrait-front-view-stockpack-adobe-stock
Extreme magnification - Jumping spider portrait, front view
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 11, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Spiders Are Smart; Be Glad They Are Small

Recent research has shed light on the intriguing strategies that spiders use to deceive other spiders — and prey in general
Denyse O'Leary
March 11, 2022
6
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Spiders, like octopuses, have eight legs. But they share something else as well — like octopuses, once we got around to studying them, they turned out to be much smarter than expected. What makes spiders even more unusual is that they are smart with very small brains: “There is this general idea that probably spiders are too small, that you need some kind of a critical mass of brain tissue to be able to perform complex behaviors,” says arachnologist and evolutionary biologist Dimitar Dimitrov of the University Museum of Bergen in Norway. “But I think spiders are one case where this general idea is challenged. Some small things are actually capable of doing very complex stuff.” Behaviors that can be Read More ›

frog eyes mud
Frog hiding in the mud
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post
Author
News
Date
March 8, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Science Writer: Explain-Away-the-Mind Book Doesn’t Succeed

In a departure from an all-too familiar approach to science writing, Philip Ball offers constructive criticism of the “nothing but”approach to the mind
News
March 8, 2022
5
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

At eminent science journal Nature, science writer Philip Ball reviews a book offering to explain how the mind arose from the mud. And he departs from the script. The book is Journey of the Mind: How Thinking Emerged from Chaos by neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. One would expect a conventional science writer to announce that this new book is an important contribution to the quest to naturalize the human mind — to show that the mind is a mere adaptation that enabled the tailless ape to survive the savannah. Such a belief needn’t be true (and isn’t); it’s intended as a placeholder for a better-founded purely naturalist belief. Yet Ball looks at the claims made in Journey of Read More ›

texture-of-multi-colored-sweet-marshmallows-marshmallows-candy-for-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Texture of multi-colored sweet marshmallows. Marshmallows candy for background.
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post
Author
News
Date
March 1, 2022
Categorized
Education, Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Can Waiting for a Marshmallow Predict a Child’s Future?

Believing so was all the rage in recent decades but later research didn’t back up the idea
News
March 1, 2022
8
Education, Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

You’ve maybe heard of Stanford University’s “marshmallow experiment,” right? A child’s future can be predicted, we were told by psychologist Walter Mischel (1930–2018), by whether the child can delay gratification: Walter Mischel’s pioneering research at Bing in the late 1960s and early 1970s famously explored what enabled preschool-aged children to forgo immediate gratification in exchange for a larger but delayed reward… This research identified some of the key cognitive skills, strategies, plans and mindsets that enable self-control. If the children focused on the “hot” qualities of the temptations (e.g., “The marshmallows are sweet, chewy, yummy”), they soon rang the bell to bring the researcher back. If they focused on their abstract “cool” features (“The marshmallows are puffy and round like Read More ›

astronaut-on-rock-surface-with-space-background-elements-of-this-image-furnished-by-nasa-stockpack-adobe-stock
Astronaut on rock surface with space background. Elements of this image furnished by NASA
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post
Author
News
Date
February 26, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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After Months in Space, Astronauts’ Brains Are “Rewired”

The “very new and very unexpected” changes in fluid flow and shape can last for months after a return to Earth
News
February 26, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

The effects of long-term space travel on humans are only beginning to be understood: In a new study, a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, researchers have explored how cosmonauts’ brains change after traveling to space and back. And they showed how the brain adapts to spaceflight, finding that the brain is almost “rewired,” and both fluid shifts and shape changes occur. These changes can last for months after a person returns to Earth, the researchers found. The strange brain changes that the team observed were “very new and very unexpected,” study lead Floris Wuyts, a researcher at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, told Space.com. Chelsea Gohd, “Cosmonaut brains are ‘rewired’ by space Read More ›

federleicht-stockpack-adobe-stock
Federleicht
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post
Author
News
Date
February 26, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience
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Our Sense of Touch: So Sharp It Spans a Single Fingerprint Ridge

Each of tens of thousands of sensory neurons is tuned in to a tiny surface area of the skin
News
February 26, 2022
2
Neuroscience

If you’ve ever wondered why your sense of touch, even on the dead surface of the skin, seems so acute, researchers looked into that and shared their findings last year: Sensory neurons in the finger can detect touch on the scale of a single fingerprint ridge, according to new research published in Journal of Neuroscience. The hand contains tens of thousands of sensory neurons. Each neuron tunes in to a small surface area on the skin — a receptive field — and detects touch, vibration, pressure, and other tactile stimuli. The human hand possesses a refined sense of touch, but the exact sensitivity of a single sensory neuron has not been studied before. Society for Neuroscience, “Fingerprints Enhance Our Sense Read More ›

audio-waveform-abstract-technology-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Audio waveform abstract technology background
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post
Author
News
Date
February 25, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Researchers: Ultrasound Can Control Neurons, Bypassing Implants

A Salk team is researching it, not just to control mice but to control cells now controlled by pacemakers, insulin pumps, electrodes, and other therapies
News
February 25, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Light has been used to turn cells on and off for over a decade. The process, called optogenetics, can be therapeutic but because light can’t get through tissues, the light source must be embedded in the skin or beneath the skull. A new method, sonogenetics, which means using sound instead of light to control cells, may show promise in regulating pacemakers and insulin pumps, among other things: In a new study published today (February 9) in Nature Communications, researchers report they’ve found a way to use ultrasound to noninvasively activate mouse neurons, both in culture and in the brains of living animals. The technique, which the authors call sonogenetics, elicits electrical activity in a subset of brain cells that have Read More ›

super-macro-shot-tiny-fruit-flies-on-the-top-of-a-banana-skin-stockpack-adobe-stock
Super macro shot tiny fruit flies on the top of a banana skin
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post
Author
News
Date
February 25, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Single Neurons Perform Complex Math — Even in Fruit Flies

The fly wants something simple — to avoid getting swatted or eaten, for example — but that requires some algebra
News
February 25, 2022
4
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

We may not think of our neurons as performing complex calculations but they must do so in order to determine where sound is coming from or where a moving object is headed. For a long while, how they do it has been a mystery. Recently, researchers at the Max Planck Institute reported that they have “discovered the biophysical basis by which a specific type of neuron in fruit flies can multiply two incoming signals,” the “algebra of neurons”: We easily recognize objects and the direction in which they move. The brain calculates this information based on local changes in light intensity detected by our retina. The calculations occur at the level of individual neurons. But what does it mean when Read More ›

nerve-cell-3d-neurons-stockpack-adobe-stock
Nerve Cell. 3D. Neurons
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 18, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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When a Tiny Brain Is Actually an Advantage

Small size — which includes having a small brain — hones the gnat ogre’s remarkable neurological abilities
Denyse O'Leary
February 18, 2022
5
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

The University of Minnesota, pointing to a just-published research paper, asks us to contemplate a remarkable piece of flight engineering on the part of a rather frightening fly: For those of us who occasionally trip over a curb or bump into a door frame, it’s hard to imagine an organism with a brain smaller than the period at the end of this sentence deftly maneuvering around obstacles while chasing fast-moving prey on the wing… The research, carried out by Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido, Mary Sumner, and Trevor Wardill of the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences, and Sam Fabian of the Imperial College London Department of Bioengineering, focuses on the aerial feats of a miniature robber fly known as a gnat Read More ›

unique-stone-stand-out-from-the-crowd-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
unique stone stand out from the crowd concept -
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post
Author
News
Date
February 14, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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How Does Dualism Understand Personal Identity?

Both neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and theology professor Joshua Harris acknowledge weaknesses in their philosophies’ understanding of personal identity
News
February 14, 2022
15
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

In “The Body and the Soul” podcast, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviews theology professor Joshua Farris on how a sense of personal identity is preserved (or not) in Aristotelian vs. Cartesian philosophy (both are dualist philosophies; they do not think that the mind is merely a product of the brain). Along the way, Michael Egnor talks about the remarkable way that neuroscience affirms a dualist view. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Mind-Matters-News-Joshua-Farris-Episode-2-rev1.mp3 A partial transcript and notes follow: Michael Egnor: Had it not been for neuroscience, which led me to a Thomist view, I would probably be a Cartesian because I do agree that there’s a great deal to say for it. Although my sense of Cartesianism is that the closer we get to Berkeley and Read More ›

model-of-the-human-brain-the-concept-of-medical-health-intellectual-capabilities-the-study-of-the-activity-of-the-cerebral-cortex-psyche-and-consciousness-stockpack-adobe-stock
model of the human brain, the concept of medical health, intellectual capabilities, the study of the activity of the cerebral cortex, psyche and consciousness
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post
Author
News
Date
February 10, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Researchers Locate 440 Genes That Develop Each Brain Differently

Large-scale MRI and genetic datasets are helping us understand the common variants of the genes that help build the human cerebral cortex
News
February 10, 2022
3
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

To map regions of the brain to specific genes, researchers at the University of California – San Diego did genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the regional cortical surface area and thickness of 39,898 adults and 9,136 children. That is, they scanned complete sets of DNA (genomes), looking for genetic variations. They were especially interested in variations that might be associated with a problem like autism, epilepsy, or dementia. By and large, construction of the human brain is determined by heredity, though factors like environmental exposures also play a role, particularly during sensitive periods of neurodevelopment during childhood. Large-scale MRI and genetic datasets have increasingly illuminated the common genetic variants that help build the human cerebral cortex — the outer, layered Read More ›

xray spine
x-ray image of spine
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post
Author
News
Date
February 9, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Man With Severed Spinal Cord Walks Again, Thanks to AI Implant

Most of us would have said that Michael Rocatti, whose spinal cord was severed in a motorcycle accident in 2017, would never walk again. But he did.
News
February 9, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Rocatti had lost all feeling and motion in his legs after the motorbike crash. But thanks to electrodes implanted in their spines in experimental surgery in Lausanne, Switzerland, he and two other young men (29–41) were able to “to stand, walk, ride a bike and even kick their legs in a swimming pool” again. (Guardian) He is slow and unsteady but he is walking. The implant provides a bridge between the brain and the nerves that are severed from it: When prompted, the device sends activity-specific pulses of electricity to various nerves that were cut off from the central nervous system, allowing the Rocatti and other paralyzed people to send the appropriate stimulation and instructions to their legs. Rocatti and Read More ›

cute-little-baby-looking-into-the-camera-stockpack-adobe-stock
Cute little baby looking into the camera
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post
Author
News
Date
February 8, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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The Mystery of How Newborns Know Things Gets Deeper

But learning more about it may help us understand autism spectrum disorders better
News
February 8, 2022
8
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Neuroscientist Giorgio Vallortigara ponders the mystery of how exactly babies quickly recognize things when they are born — like human faces — that they simply cannot have learned. We might call it “imprinting” or “instinct” but that’s just a classification, not an explanation. The author of Born Knowing (MIT Press, 2021) decided to start with chicks. That’s a bit simpler. Psychology students know, of course, that newly hatched chicks seem to know that they should follow their mother and do what she does. But what specific cues enable them to identify their mother? It turns out, according to his and colleagues’ research, that they are looking for specific geometrical patterns: Chicks need to actively explore and learn about their environment Read More ›

bienenkreis-stockpack-adobe-stock
Bienenkreis
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 3, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Can Insects Be Conscious? Let’s Look At Bees First

Consciousness does not seem to reside in the neocortex so complex behavior in bees has raised the question for biologists and philosophers alike
Denyse O'Leary
February 3, 2022
7
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Honeybee scientist Andrew Barron and philosopher Colin Klein, both then at Macquarie University in Australia, argue that bees have some form of consciousness. Let’s look at what they have to say: According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine, Barron broached the question of bee consciousness with Klein, who was highly skeptical at first. But Barron pointed out that at least one key theory holds that …the core of human consciousness is not our impressive neocortex, but our much more primitive midbrain. This simple structure synthesizes sensory data into a unified, egocentric point of view that lets us navigate our world. Insects, Barron and Klein now argue, have midbrain-like structures, including a “central complex,” that seem to allow bugs to similarly Read More ›

illustration-of-synapse-and-neuron-on-a-blue-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Illustration of synapse and neuron on a blue background.
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post
Author
News
Date
February 3, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Neuroscientists: The Hard Problem of Consciousness Isn’t So Hard!

Damasio and Seth tell Nautilus that materialist explanations will eventually crack consciousness, as they have cracked everything else
News
February 3, 2022
5
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Recently, thinkmag Nautilus brought together neuroscientists Antonio Damasio and Anil Seth to argue that the “Hard Problem of Consciousness.” is not so hard after all. Antonio Damasio, author of Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious (Penguin Random House, 2021), has argued that intelligence is everywhere in life forms and that even viruses have “some fraction of” intelligence. Anil Seth is the author of Being You: A new science of consciousness (2021). He is convinced that the Hard Problem, so named by philosopher David Chalmers, is “magical thinking” and that “there is much to be done in a straightforward materialist understanding of how the brain relates to conscious experience.” For the purposes of their discussion with Kristin French, consciousness is defined Read More ›

live-house-fly-stockpack-adobe-stock
live house fly
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 2, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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How Do Insects Use Their Very Small Brains To Think Clearly?

How do they engage in complex behaviour with only 100.000 to a million neurons?
Denyse O'Leary
February 2, 2022
6
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

If we had a skeleton that was outside, not inside, our body — and six legs — we might find it easier to understand how insects think. But only a bit easier. Despite complex behavior, insects are working with 100,000 to maybe a million neurons, compared to our, maybe, 86 billion — but insects make the most of what they have. Consider, for example, the dragonfly. How does it manage to deal with all the issues that a fighter pilot must address, while catching prey? One adaptation is specialized neurons: Dragonflies (order Odonata) and hoverflies (order Diptera) are among insect flyers equipped with special neurons for targeting with optic flow. “The ability of insects to successfully pursue targets in clutter Read More ›

lego-mindstom-ev3-fll-robotics-competitions-for-kid-stockpack-unsplash
LEGO MINDSTOM EV3 - FLL ROBOTICS COMPETITIONS for kid.
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post
Author
News
Date
February 1, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Robotics
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A Lego Toy That Solves Mazes May Bring New Hope to Amputees

Organic materials that enable computer chips to work like neurons could improve the usability of prostheses
News
February 1, 2022
8
Neuroscience, Robotics

A Lego toy robot with an organic brain, programmed to solve mazes, promises better prostheses: In the winter of 1997 Carver Mead lectured on an unusual topic for a computer scientist: the nervous systems of animals, such as the humble fly. Mead, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, described his earlier idea for an electronic problem-solving system inspired by nerve cells, a technique he had dubbed “neuromorphic” computing. A quarter-century later, researchers have designed a carbon-based neuromorphic computing device—essentially an organic robot brain—that can learn to navigate a maze. Saugat Bolakhe, “Lego Robot with an Organic ‘Brain’ Learns to Navigate a Maze” at Scientific American (January 28, 2022) The difference between a regular materials-only computer chip made of Read More ›

woman-sleep-on-the-bed-turns-off-the-alarm-clock-wake-up-at-the-morning-selective-focus-stockpack-adobe-stock
Woman sleep on the bed turns off the alarm clock wake up at the morning, Selective focus.
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
January 31, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Peer Review, Science
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Get Your 8 (or 5?) Hours of Sleep

Data misrepresentation may win you big gigs, but it makes a bad name for scientists
Gary Smith
January 31, 2022
7
Neuroscience, Peer Review, Science

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has become famous for his book and a TED talk promoting the importance of sleep for health and performance. He even got a job at Google as a “sleep scientist.” Walker has a receptive audience because he is entertaining and his arguments make sense. In one of his books, Walker used a graph similar to the figure below to show that a study done by other researchers had found that adolescent athletes who sleep more are less likely to be injured. The figure is compelling, but there are several potential problems. The hours-of-sleep data were based on 112 responses to an online Read More ›

american-staffordshire-terrier-dog-with-little-kitten-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
American staffordshire terrier dog with little kitten
Type
post
Author
News
Date
January 2, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience
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Claim: A single brain region preserves our sense of self

No. We live in a strange world but it is not so strange as all that.
News
January 2, 2022
1
Neuroscience

Neuroscientist Robert Martone tells us, A new study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience(SCAN), explores how a specific brain region helps knit together memories of the present and future self. Injury to that area leads to an impaired sense of identity. The region—called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)—may produce a fundamental model of our self and place it in mental time. In doing so, this study suggests, it may be the source of our sense of self. Robert Martone, “How Our Brain Preserves Our Sense of Self” at Scientific American Paper. This is nonsense, of course. A kitten has a sense of self if you try holding on to its tail. But so does a fly Read More ›