Functional 3D Brain Tissue Successfully Grown From Stem Cells The ultimate goal of stem cell research is to create functional replica tissues and organs for use as replacements in times of injury or disease, or for use in the development of drugs and other therapeutic techniques. Getting tissues to grow in the lab in three dimensions has been challenging across the board, but this is especially problematic for structures in the nervous system. Beyond getting the neurons to grow at all, they must be connected in a very particular manner in order to function. A major step forward has been taken on this front by a team from RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan, who state in Cell Reports that they have successfully grown 3D functional brain tissue that has even grown with proper patterning. The brain tissues were grown from human embryonic stem cells, and growth factors were added in series throughout development. Read this next: Richard Dawkins Reads Hate Mail From “Fans”
Designer Psychologies: Moving beyond neurotypicality Designer psychologies, or customized cognitive processing modalities, describes the potential for future individuals to selectively alter the specific and unique ways in which they take in, analyze and perceive the world. Cognitive modalities are the psychological frameworks that allow for person-to-person variances in subjectivity, including such things as emotional responses, social engagement, aesthetics and prioritization. The day is coming when we'll be able to decide for ourselves how it is exactly that we want to process our world. Most of us have the so-called neurotypical cognitive response. We know, however, mostly through our interactions with those outside of the cognitive norm, that neurotypicality is not the be-all and end-all of psychological experience. Indeed, autism is a great example of this. Society benefits from neurodiversity. From neurotypicality to neurodiversity Okay, so why do we need to reach outside the bounds of neurotypicality? The processing mind A. B. C.
Brain Facts and Figures These data were obtained from several textbooks. All numbers are for humans unless otherwise indicated. Brain % brain of total body weight (150 pound human) = 2% Average brain width = 140 mm Average brain length = 167 mm Average brain height = 93 mm Intracranial contents by volume (1,700 ml, 100%): brain = 1,400 ml (80%); blood = 150 ml (10%); cerebrospinal fluid = 150 ml (10%) (from Rengachary, S.S. and Ellenbogen, R.G., editors, Principles of Neurosurgery, Edinburgh: Elsevier Mosby, 2005) Average number of neurons in the brain = 86 billion (Frederico Azevedo et al., Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain. Ratio of glial cells to neurons in the brain = 1:1 Reference) (For more information about the number of neurons in the brain, see R.W. Number of neocortical neurons (females) = 19.3 billion (Pakkenberg, B. et al., Aging and the human neocortex, Exp. Total surface area of the cerebral cortex = 2,500 cm2 (2.5 ft2; A.
Artificial Neurons Can Communicate in the Same Way as Human Neurons Synopsis This artificial neuron contain no ‘living’ parts, but is capable of mimicking the function of a human nerve cell and communicate in the same way as our own neurons do. Summary To date, the primary technique for neuronal stimulation in human cells is based on electrical stimulation. 9 Ways Humanity Could Bring About Its Own Destruction It all started with David Chalmer's various thought experiments concerning qualia and something called philosophical zombies: A p-zombie is essentially a creature that in all ways appears to be conscious, but isn't really conscious. Chalmers proposed a thought experiment where the inputs an outputs of a growing number of neurons in a person's skull are gradually routed into a growing collection of artificial neurons. The person is given a switch that allows them a to switch back and forth between their natural neurons and the synthetic ones. The person can then try switching back and forth at any level of replacement. Chalmers asks will the person at any point notice any change in their experience of sensations as they keep pressing this switch? If this would happen, if a person's qualia change, then Chalmers says we've overlooked something and consciousness is not being copied or duplicated.
How Staying Mentally Fit Can Make a Difference | Optimum Performance Studio Your brain isn’t a muscle, but you can treat it like one Many people focus on physical fitness, but few know that brain fitness is also something you can work on. In fact, you can exercise your brain as often as you would your arms or abs--and the results can be positive and empowering. It’s helpful to think of your brain as you would a muscle. This is based on your brain’s innate neuroplasticity, or its ability to grow and change in response to new challenges. The science behind brain training Scientists once believed that your mental abilities were fixed in adulthood. The most popular of these brain training products is made by the San Francisco-based Lumosity, which employs a team of in-house neuroscientists with degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley. Realizing that brains need more sophisticated programs and guidance to grow and change, Lumosity’s scientists work with an experienced team of game designers. Promising studies on the effects of brain training
A paralyzed woman flies a fighter jet with her mind Back in February of 2012, a paralyzed 55 year old mother Mrs. Jan Schuermaan participated in an experiment led by a team of researchers at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. The team of researchers implanted electrode grids with tiny contact points originally meant to control her arm and hand movements. With a simple computer algorithm, signals gathered from individual neurons were grouped into patterns. “Within a week of the surgery, Ms. After 2 years since the surgical implants of the electrode grids, Mrs. The project of DARPA was to control a Multirole fighter called F-35 (picture below) in a simulator purely by her mind. Surprisingly, Mrs.
25 years later: Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" It has been 25 years since Donna Haraway published her seminal essay, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century."While largely intended as metaphorical discourse, a number of feminists and futurists, including myself, were inspired by a more literal and technoprogressive interpretation of Haraway's message. The piece was a major influence on my conception of postgenderist theory, inspiring such articles as "Overcoming Gender" and "Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary" (PDF) (the latter of which I co-authored with James Hughes). In "A Cyborg Manifesto," Haraway issued a challenge to feminists to engage in a politics beyond naturalism and essentialism. From another angle, "A Cyborg Manifesto" can be interpreted as a critique of ecofeminism.
Scientists 'reactivate' Alzheimer's patients' memories Scientists in America are hopeful of a breakthrough in curing Alzheimer's, following a study that shows a way of bringing back the lost memories of dementia patients. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have erased and successfully reactivated memories in rats, offering hope that the same can be achieved with humans. The study, published next month, is the first to show the ability to selectively remove a memory and then reactivate it. This is done by stimulating nerves in the brain at frequencies that are known to weaken and strengthen the connections between nerve cells, called synapses. Roberto Malinow, a professor of neurosciences and senior author of the study, said: "We can form a memory, erase that memory and we can reactivate it, at will, by applying a stimulus that selectively strengthens or weakens synaptic connections. Photo / Thinkstock - Independent
We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction - Ross Andersen Unthinkable as it may be, humanity, every last person, could someday be wiped from the face of the Earth. We have learned to worry about asteroids and supervolcanoes, but the more-likely scenario, according to Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy at Oxford, is that we humans will destroy ourselves. Bostrom, who directs Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, has argued over the course of several papers that human extinction risks are poorly understood and, worse still, severely underestimated by society. Some of these existential risks are fairly well known, especially the natural ones. But others are obscure or even exotic. Despite his concerns about the risks posed to humans by technological progress, Bostrom is no luddite. Some have argued that we ought to be directing our resources toward humanity's existing problems, rather than future existential risks, because many of the latter are highly improbable. Of course there are also existential risks that are not extinction risks.
Tiny Scallop-Like Robots Designed To Deliver Drugs Through The Bloodstream To Treat Diseases - Futurism Synopsis Researchers in Germany have developed a "scallop-inspired" tiny robot small enough to travel through the bloodstream, and it doesn't require an engine or batteries Summary The idea for the new robot was inspired by the scallop, which moves around by opening and closing a pair of shells. The robot moves through a non-Newtonian fluid by performing what looks like horizontal jumping jacksThe tiny bots can be printed on a 3D printer, and many of them could be directed at once with a single magnetThe team doesn’t have any particular applications in mind for their robots, but it’s clear that they could be used to send medication to single spot, such as to kill tumors