brain – Tales from the bits

IBM’s SyNAPSE project

George Bagropoulos — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 15:30:18 +0000

Neurosynaptic chips are the building blocks for cognitive systems. The Von Neumann architecture served us good so far but is inadequate to solve the problems of the future. We do not just need computers to process big data, we need computer to help us understand the information. Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha, in August 2011, demonstrated a new silicon neurosynaptic chip that allows for computing systems that emulate the brain’s computing efficiency, size and power usage. All this is part of the SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) project.

IBM has also built a new programming language and a new software ecosystem that supports the full software development lifecycle. The new generation of applications will mimic the brain’s abilities for perception, action and cognition.

The new chips will allow the creation of many interesting applications including autonomous robots. I am wondering how far IBM is for creating the first artificial life with self -awareness.

Aerobic exercise grows brain cells

George Bagropoulos — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:16:14 +0000

From Physorg.com: A study on mice showed that even a few days of running or jogging stimulates the brain to grow new cells in a part of the brain involved in memory and recall. The study was done by neuroscientists from University of Cambridge in the UK and the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore in the US.

Running mice grew an average of 6,000 new brain cells per cubic millimeter in the dentate gyrus part of the hippocampus. Exercise keeps the brain healthy by increasing synaptic plasticity and by stimulating the brain to produce new cells(neurogenisis=neuro+genisis[birth]).

Blue Brain project

George Bagropoulos — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:18:36 +0000

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to reverse engineer the brain, to explore how it functions and to serve as a tool for neuroscientists and medical researchers. The project is hosted at the Ecole Polytechnique’s Brain Mind Institute in Lausanne.

Professor Henry Markam is the project director. He has announced that his team will develop the world’s first artificial conscious and intelligent mind within a decade. Project investors include the Swiss government, IBM, and the European Union.

Markam’s strategy is to take apart actual brains cell by cell, dissecting the brain at the cellular level, analyse the billions of connections between the cells (neurons), and then plot these connections into a supercomputer (IBM Blue Gene). The computer is able to simulate the workings of about 10,000 neurones. This is about to a single rat’s neocortical column. The difference between the brain of a mouse and the brain of a human is basically just volume – humans have many more neocortical columns and thus neurons than mice.

In a few years we will know if he succeded or not.

Can an old brain learn?

George Bagropoulos — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:48:02 +0000

From New York Times:

Research shows that longheld views have been prove wrong. For example it is not correct that 40 percent of brain cells are lost when the brain ages.

Adults retain the ability to learn. The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.

My personal note:

I have collected in my blog some evidence and scientific papers proving that our brain retains the ability to learn and adapt. I believe that if we imagine our brain as a muscle we can understand the problems arising. If you do not exercise then you ask for trouble both physical and mental.

B2B=BrainToBrain Communication

George Bagropoulos — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:56:00 +0000

Dr. Cristopher James from the University of Southampton achieved for the first time Brain-to-brain communication.
For his experiment one person using Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) transmitted thoughts, as a series of binary digits, over the internet to another person. The second person was attached also to an EEG. The PC would pick up the stream of binary digits and flash a LED lamp at two different frequencies, one for zero and one for one. The pattern of the flashing LEDS is too subtle to be picked up by the second person, but it is picked up by electrodes measuring the visual cortex of the recipient.

Here is Dr James’ BCI experiment to watch.

As Dr. James said, B2B can be beneficial to people with severe debilitating muscle wasting diseases or with “locked-in” syndrome.

Brain Computer Interface

George Bagropoulos — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Brain computer interface (BCI) can provide a way to help many people suffering from serious illnesses or injuries. In my previous post I mentioned some of the potential dangers of using BCI to monitor brain activity and reveal thoughts. This post adds to the positive aspect of BCI. It is a video from Stanford’s Neural Prosthetic Systems Laboratory. Krishna Shenoy explains how to create a BCI that will enable paralyzed patients to control prosthetic arms and computer cursors. In the video, Shenoy describes how his team of Stanford researchers has built a system that achieves typing at 15 words-per-minute, just by “thinking about it”. In the experiments are using monkeys because their brains are similar to humans.
I am sure that in the near future we will see more BCI devices that will greatly enhance the life of those that have serious kinetic or communication problems.

Brain waves and Software Engineering

George Bagropoulos — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Brain is one of the last frontiers standing. Only recently scientists have the technology to begin recording and documenting brain activity accurately. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is a field that has great to offer in mankind if treated with caution. In my opinion there are many implications involving the ability to “read” and interpret brainwaves. We humans have many thoughts but not all of them will become actions. We must respect and protect our final private place, our brain.

This may sound like science fiction but the tools already exist to monitor and interpret brain activity. As stated by Alois Schlogl and Clemens Brunner in their article at October 2008 issue of Computer magazine, BCI’s purpose is to identify the user’s intention by analyzing only brain activity. In the article is presented the BIOSIG library which is a free and open source library of biomedical processing tools.

Recent research has revealed that Brain wave patterns can predict blunders. Neuroscientist Ole Jensen, Ali Mazaheri and colleagues Institute at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the Donders Institute in the Netherlands, has found a distinct electric signature in the brain which predicts that an error is about to be made.
By analyzing the recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) data, the research team found that about a second an error were committed, brain waves in two regions were stronger than when the subjects correctly refrained from hitting the button. In the back of the head (the occipital region), alpha wave activity was about 25 percent stronger, and in the middle region, the sensorimotor cortex, there was a corresponding increase in the brain’s mu wave activity.

“The alpha and mu rhythms are what happen when the brain runs on idle,” Mazaheri explained. “Say you’re sitting in a room and you close your eyes. That causes a huge alpha rhythm to rev up in the back of your head. But the second you open your eyes, it drops dramatically, because now you’re looking at things and your neurons have visual input to process.”

Wireless EKG can help identify errors before they happen. If the technology is limited on these areas then it is used for something serving the common good. If the technology is used to monitor brain activity and spot “deviant” activity then we are not far from a thought police as described by George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In my opinion is in our hands to produce a manifest that will clearly state that Computer professionals and Software engineers should not consent into the use of this technology in general population but only on specific beneficial situations. (Air traffic control)

Brain Scanners, Fingercams Take Computer Interfaces Beyond Multitouch

George Bagropoulos — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:28:00 +0000

From Wired News by Priya Ganapati.
The first step towards a revolution on how humans interact with computers has started with the multitouch displays. Multitouch displays are screens that are sensitive to the pressure of more than one finger. The future of human-computer interfaces may involve using neurotransmitters to help translate thoughts into computing actions, through face detection, eye tracking, speech recognition, and haptics technology that uses the sense of touch to communicate with the user. “Computing of today is primarily designed for seated individuals doing office work in the developed world,” says Scot Klemmer, a co-director of Stanford University’s Human Computer Interaction Group. “If you flip any one of those bits–look at mobile users, or users outside of the developed world, or social computing instead of individual computing–then the future is wide open.”

At Drexel University’s RePlay Lab, they are trying to measure the level of neurotransmitters in a subject’s brain to create games where mere thought controls gameplay. The lab created a 3-D game called Lazybrains that connects a neuro-monitoring device and a gaming engine.The system uses the Functional Near-Infrared Imaging Device, which shines infrared light into a user’s forehead and records the amount of light that is transmitted back to detect changes and deduce information about the amount of oxygen in the user’s blood. Concentration sends more oxygen to the frontal lobe, meaning a gamer’s concentration can be used to manipulate the height of platforms in the game.

Advancements in human computer interaction will also come from users looking to improve their personal experience by hacking, mashing and modifying devices, says Klemmer.

The keyboard and the mouse aren’t going to disappear completely. For word processing, the keyboard remains the most efficient method of input, say researchers.

Want to Enhance Your Brain Power?

George Bagropoulos — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:48:00 +0000

Researchers at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, MD, are studying how applying gentle electrical current to the scalp can improve learning.
The transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), in which an electrical current is passed directly to the brain through the scalp and skull, uses a nine-volt battery which delivers a gentle 2 to 2.5 milliamps of current spread over a 20 to 50 square millimeter area of the scalp for up to 15 minutes.
Researchers found that direct current stimulation could improve memory in participants asked to learn and then recall a list of 12 words.
(Singer, 2008)

Reference
Emily Singer (2008) Want to Enhance Your Brain Power? Technology Review. Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21007/

Melding Mind and Machine

George Bagropoulos — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:11:00 +0000

Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) could someday help people with severe paralysis move their limbs, walk, and use a computer.
A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. (Wikipedia,2008)
Paralysis is caused by a break in the neural pathway between the cognitive part of the brain, where the intention to make a movement is generated, and the muscles that do the moving. So an artificial system that senses the neural signals generated in the brain, analyzes what the brain is trying to do, and then moves the limbs mechanically can bypass the roadblock in the pathway and restore normal functioning.
An artificial system senses and analyzes neural signals, and then translates those signals into movement. This method has two problems challenging to solve:
1. Acquiring signals, the design of the actual physical interface that taps into the brain’s neural signals. Poking electrodes into the brain is a surgical procedure that risks infection as well as injury. The ideal would be to sense the signals noninvasively, through electrodes placed on the scalp. Such an approach can yield poor signal-to-noise ratio. Another avenue of research involves experimentation with an electrocorticographic method that positions a small electrode array on the cerebral cortex, yielding signals that suffer a lot less attenuation than EEG signals while manifesting a higher signal-to-noise ratio.
2. Minimizing power consumption. Using as little power as possible to minimize the heating of tissue and to prolong battery life is another important goal. One possible approach is minimizing the bandwidth occupied by the data being transmitted from the implanted device to the outside world.
(Riezenman,2008)

In my opinion as research continues in the field of BMI more techniques will evolve that will make this approach easy enough to implement and support thus giving hope to many people.

Reference
MICHAEL J. RIEZENMAN (2008). Melding Mind and Machine. Available at: http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a3558587d56e8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=institute_level1_article&TheCat=2201&article=tionline/legacy/inst2008/jun08/featuretechnology.xml&

Wikipedia (2008). Brain-computer interface. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface