Lifeboat Foundation

In order to understand what another person thinks and how he or she will behave, people must adopt someone else’s perspective. This ability is referred to as “theory of mind.” Until recently, researchers were at odds concerning the age at which children are able to do such perspective-taking. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS), University College London, and the Social Neuroscience Lab Berlin shed new light on this question in a study now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the study, four-year-olds seem to be able to understand what others think. The study reports that this unique ability emerges around four years of age because of the maturation of a specific brain network that enables this. Younger children are capable of predicting others’ behavior based on what they think, but the study shows that this prediction of behavior relies on a different brain network. The brain seems to have two separate systems to take another person’s perspective, and these mature at different rates.

The researchers investigated these relations in a sample of three- to four-year-old children with the help of a video clips that show a cat chasing a mouse. The cat watches the mouse hiding in one of two boxes. While the cat is away, the mouse sneaks over to the other box, unnoticed by the cat. Thus, when the cat returns, it should still believe that the mouse is in the first location.

This month, an international team put all of those ingredients together, turning theory into reality.

The three labs, scattered across Padova, Italy, Zurich, Switzerland, and Southampton, England, collaborated to create a fully self-controlled, hybrid artificial-biological neural network that communicated using biological principles, but over the internet.

The three-neuron network, linked through artificial synapses that emulate the real thing, was able to reproduce a classic neuroscience experiment that’s considered the basis of learning and memory in the brain. In other words, artificial neuron and synapse “chips” have progressed to the point where they can actually use a biological neuron intermediary to form a circuit that, at least partially, behaves like the real thing.

We need to figure out the ethical implications before they arrive.

Scientists have found that an area of our brain, known as the Default Mode Network, is responsible for our ego and the subsequent psychological disorders that stem from it.

What do you think?

In science fiction stories, research can accidentally create superintelligent animal species. As the ability to alter animals’ brains grows, some say we should be wary of fiction becoming reality.

Long known as the director of movement, the cerebellum may also coordinate social and cognitive abilities, including those central to autism.

Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 3928 ( 2019 ) Cite this article.

Brain Computer Interface (BCI)

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a technology that agree to communicate between a human-brain with an external technology. The term can be referred to an interface that takes signals from the brain to an external piece of hardware that sends signals to the brain. There are different brain-computer interface technologies developed, through different methods and for diversified purposes, including in virtual reality technology.

Benefits of Brain Computer Interface

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In the era of modern world, medicals advances are evident everywhere. Recently, a team of doctors, researchers and scientists have collaborated to create an electronic biosensor which can be incorporated inside a brain to measure or determine the pH, temperature, flow rates and pressure of the brain. Moreover, it dissolves when no longer needed without the need of any surgical procedure. It is widely applicable in Neuroscience field as brain trauma and injuries kill around 50,000 people per year in the USA alone. These kinds of injuries often cause the brain to swell, which constricts the flow of blood and oxygen, and can lead to permanent damage. So surgeons need reliable ways of monitoring the pressure inside their patients’ head. Earlier, sensors that existed were usually large, heavy and solid, thus had to be removed once the patient recovered. But bioresorbable wireless brain sensors are light, handy and could be easily inserted inside the brain to monitor intracranial pressure and temperature. Once the implantable device is not needed, it is absorbed by the body, eliminating the need of surgically removing the device.

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Wireless brain sensors are devices that help monitoring the temperature, detecting the intracranial pressure, and record brain signaling in the form of brain waves. The essential aim of this wireless brain sensor is of securing the person from emergency situations. The devices are primarily used for patients experiencing conditions such as sleep disorders, traumatic brain injury, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological conditions. These devices aid in observing and monitoring the neurological deviations and provide support for improving the cognitive functionalities. Accessibility of these sensors is easy from a remote area through wireless connectivity and be integrated with smart phones, tablets and computers, consequently be monitored intermittently from a homecare environment, making the device more cost-efficient.