Media Publicity
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Success Gets into Your Head—and Changes It
Read Full Article on Harvard Business ReviewNeuroscientists have long understood that the brain can rewire itself in response to experience—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. But until recently, they didn’t know what causes gray matter to become plastic, to begin changing. Breakthrough research by a team at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has documented one type of environmental feedback that triggers plasticity: success. Equally important and somewhat surprising: Its opposite, failure, has no impact.
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Device Turns Thoughts into Speech
iStockPhotoRead Full Article on Discovery NewsScientists have successfully tested a system that translates brain waves into speech, raising the prospect that people left mute by stroke, Lou Gehrig's disease and other afflictions will one day be able to communicate by synthetic voice.
The system was tested on a 26-year-old man left paralyzed by a brain stem stroke, but with his consciousness and cognitive abilities intact. The condition is known as “locked-in syndrome.” In this condition, communication by eye movement or other limited motion is possible, but extremely cumbersome.
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Machine Translates Thoughts into Speech in Real Time
Guenther, F.Read Full Article on PHYSORGBy implanting an electrode into the brain of a person with locked-in syndrome, scientists have demonstrated how to wirelessly transmit neural signals to a speech synthesizer. The "thought-to-speech" process takes about 50 milliseconds - the same amount of time for a non-paralyzed, neurologically intact person to speak their thoughts. The study marks the first successful demonstration of a permanently installed, wireless implant for real-time control of an external device.
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Details Of Brain-Implanted Speech Synthesizer For Locked-In Syndrome Revealed In New Paper
Eric Ramsey via BostoniaRead Full Article on POPSCIFive years after a 1999 car crash left Eric Ramsey a victim of locked-in syndrome--essentially a conscious mind trapped inside a completely unresponsive body, unable even to blink--he soon found himself on the cutting edge brain research. In an attempt to allow Ramsey to communicate with the outside world, scientists implanted a device in his brain linking it directly to a speech synthesizer. After years of practice, Ramsey could generate vowel sounds just by thinking of them.
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The Cat Brain Cliff Notes
Sally AdeeRead Full Article on IEEE SpectrumTwo leading scientists are embroiled in a controversy about a cat brain simulation. At first blush, the topic might seem silly. But the stakes are higher than the tired cat fight jokes would lead you to think. This argument has larger implications for the future of AI research, and particularly for a field called computational neuroscience. The controversy has called into question not only the legitimacy of one researcher's work, but of all brain simulation work. I think it's important to untangle the assumptions and accusations in clear, non-specialized language.