How Our Brains Make Memories Sitting at a sidewalk café in Montreal on a sunny morning, Karim Nader recalls the day eight years earlier when two planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He lights a cigarette and waves his hands in the air to sketch the scene. At the time of the attack, Nader was a postdoctoral researcher at New York University. He flipped the radio on while getting ready to go to work and heard the banter of the morning disc jockeys turn panicky as they related the events unfolding in Lower Manhattan. Nader ran to the roof of his apartment building, where he had a view of the towers less than two miles away. He stood there, stunned, as they burned and fell, thinking to himself, “No way, man. In the following days, Nader recalls, he passed through subway stations where walls were covered with notes and photographs left by people searching desperately for missing loved ones. Nader believes he may have an explanation for such quirks of memory.
Bibliothèque Magnetic manipulation of the sense of morality : Neurophilosophy WHEN making moral judgements, we rely on our ability to make inferences about the beliefs and intentions of others. With this so-called “theory of mind”, we can meaningfully interpret their behaviour, and decide whether it is right or wrong. The legal system also places great emphasis on one’s intentions: a “guilty act” only produces criminal liability when it is proven to have been performed in combination with a “guilty mind”, and this, too, depends on the ability to make reasoned moral judgements. MIT researchers now show that this moral compass can be very easily skewed. Liane Lee Young of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and her colleagues asked participants to make moral judgements about different variations of a number of scenarios. These scenarios differ in the beliefs underlying Grace’s actions and in their outcome. Whether or not these findings extend to real world judgements remains to be seen. Young, L., et al. (2010). Saxe, R. & Kanwisher, N. (2003).
GenBank Home Increased Interstitial White Matter Neuron Density in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of People with Schizophrenia To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Figure 1 Neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN)–positive neurons (A) below grey matter (grey matter/white matter border represented by dotted line). In superficial white matter from (B) control and (C) schizophrenia subjects. Figure 2 Density of neuronal nuclear antigen + immunopositive interstitial white matter (neurons/mm2) in (A) superficial white matter and (B) deep white matter in control subjects (squares) and schizophrenic cases (triangles). Figure 3 Superficial neuronal nuclear antigen immunopositive interstitial white matter neuron (IWMN) density (neurons/mm2) negatively correlates with gray matter somatostatin (SST) expression in control subjects and schizophrenia cases (control, squares; schizophrenia, triangles). qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Somatostatin (SST) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) expression in IWMN cells.
Du Big Data au service de la recherche scientifique La Maison Blanche a annoncé qu’elle allait consacrer 200 millions de dollars pour créer des outils capables d’analyses de très gros volumes de données afin ainsi d’améliorer la recherche scientifique aux Etats-Unis. Les technologies de stockage et d’analyse de grands volumes de données sont désormais désignées par le terme de « Big Data ». L’administration américaine souhaite donc exploiter ces solutions et en concevoir de nouvelles au service de la science. Objectifs : exploiter les données et former les chercheurs « L’initiative que nous lançons aujourd’hui promet de transformer notre capacité à utiliser le Big Data pour la découverte scientifique, la recherche environnementale et biomédicale, l’éducation et la sécurité nationale » commente John Holdren, directeur du bureau des sciences et technologies à la Maison Blanche. Dans le cadre des investissements d’avenir, un appel à projets dans le Big Data a été lancé en France.
Chapter 12: Attention and Consciousness Attention involves top-down (voluntary) goal-directed processes and bottom-up (reflexive), stimulus-driven mechanisms. They influence the way information is processed in the brain and can occur early during sensory processing. Balint's syndrome is a visual attention and awareness deficit. Herman von Helmholt He did an experiment that looked at covert attention. E.C. He looked at the cocktail effect, which is the idea that in a noisy environment people cal focus on a single conversation. Donald Broadbent He came up with the model of selective attention, which states that there is a gating mechanism that determines what information is passed on for higher analysis. Michael Posner He came up with the spatial cuing paradigm. Reflexive Attention reflexive cuing: attention to an external stimuli. Anne Tresiman She did an experiment that focused on the visual search paradigm. Attention to Features and Objects. Neurophysiology Steven Hillyard looked and auditory selective attention. Neuroimaging
Ouverture des données massives scientifiques. Quels risques, quels bénéfices ? - Vendredi 6 décembre 2013, 10h à 18h, ISCC Ouverture des données massives scientifiques. Quels risques, quels bénéfices ? Vendredi 6 décembre 2013, 10h à 18h, ISCC Contexte Début 2013, le CNRS a confié à Marc Lipinski une mission sur la thématique Sciences et Citoyens qui s’inscrit dans une tradition ancienne de l’organisme. De plus longue date encore, les amateurs ont participé à la collecte et à l’analyse de spécimens et de données à caractère scientifique. Programme 9h – Accueil 9h30 – Introduction Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay, chargée de recherche CNRS, Institut des sciences de la communication du CNRS (ISCC), chercheuse invitée à la London School of Economics, Department of Media and Communications 2013-2015 Marc Lipinski, directeur de recherche CNRS 10h – Table ronde : Big data scientifiques, quid novi ? Compte-rendu de la table ronde (rtf) 12h30 – Déjeuner libre 13h45 – Table ronde : Pour ou contre ? 15h45 – Pause 16h15 – Table ronde : Dataviz, pour quel buzz ? 18h15 – Fin de la journée Informations pratiques Contact Anne Demonceaux
Autism and Neuropsychology, by Marisa Marzillo Autism is a lifelong disorder that has become the discussion of many media outlets; it is a disorder that causes abnormal neurological development. It seems that lately autism prevalence is increasing, which is causing a demand for professionals to investigate on what causes autism. Autism disorder is characterized by different behavior including social impairments, difficulty in communication, and restrictive patterns of behavior. Individuals living with autism don’t have a lower IQ than most people, but it is common that they have weak social interaction. What I find interesting about autism is that there it solely diagnosed by behavioral activity. In an article Elizabeth Lynch (2010) described autism as a “lifelong developmental disability that affects the way an individual relates to others. One explanation for the link between autism and brain development is mirror neurons. A theory that I found interesting was one that pointed out the autism is more common in males. References
Un logiciel anti-spam inspire un vaccin gratuit contre le SIDA Une équipe de chercheurs en collaboration avec Microsoft a élaboré une plateforme de recherche mutualisant le Big Data et le crowdfunding pour accélérer la recherche contre le SIDA. Fondé par une équipe de chercheurs des universités de Stanford, Harvard et du MIT et développé par plusieurs entrepreneurs de la Silicon Valley, The Immunity Project cherche à rendre accessible à tous un vaccin contre le SIDA et mobilise les leviers offerts par le crowdsourcing. Les initiateurs de ce projet espèrent lever près de 482.000 dollars afin de lancer la première phase de développement et pouvoir à long terme distribuer gratuitement et massivement ce vaccin d’ici 2016. Accélérer le développement du vaccin grâce au Big Data Ce projet qui vient de rejoindre l’incubateur star californien, Y Combinator, souhaite identifier les facteurs immunitaires rendant certains patients naturellement résistants au virus et extraire ces mécanismes pour les transmettre aux personnes déjà contaminées.
Phantoms in the Brain The writings of Oliver Sacks and others have shown us that we can learn much about ourselves by looking closely at the deficits shown by people with neurological problems. V.S. Ramachandran has seen countless patients suffering from anosognosia, phantom limb pain, blindsight, and other disorders, and he brings a remarkable mixture of clinical intuition and research savvy to bear on their problems. He is one of the few scientists who are able and willing to explore the personal, subjective ramifications of his work; he rehumanizes an often too-sterile field and captures the spirit of wonder so essential for true discovery. Phantoms in the Brain is equal parts medical mystery, scientific adventure, and philosophical speculation. Watch the full documentary now (playlist - 1 hour, 39 minutes)
2013/06/21 > BE Etats-Unis 336 > Big Data - Partie 2 : Le quatrième paradigme de la science Sciences et technologies de l'information et de la communication Big Data - Partie 2 : Le quatrième paradigme de la science La Science est probablement le domaine dans lequel le Big Data aura entraîné le plus de bouleversements. Les projets de recherche scientifique mettent aujourd'hui en jeu des quantités gigantesques de données. L'accélérateur européen de particules LHC (Large Hadron Collider) produit chaque jour 40.000 Go de données. La bibliothèque médicale PubMed [1] contient plus de 22 millions de publications accessibles gratuitement en ligne, et 40.000 à 50.000 de plus viennent s'y ajouter chaque mois. Un nouveau paradigme : Le livre de Tony Hey " The fourth paradigm : Data-intensive scientific discovery " [2] raconte comment le Big Data a fait entrer la science dans une nouvelle ère. => 1. => 2. => 3. => 4. Quelques exemples : => Dans la génomique : => En astrophysique : A lire également :
How Alcohol Affects the Brain General Effects of Alcohol on the Brain Alcohol can affect several parts of the brain, but in general, alcohol contracts brain tissue and depresses the central nervous system. Also, alcohol destroys brain cells and unlike many other types of cells in the body, brain cells do not regenerate. Excessive drinking over a prolonged period of time can cause serious problems with cognition and memory. When alcohol reaches the brain, it interferes with communication between nerve cells, by interacting with the receptors on some cells. The alcohol suppresses excitatory nerve pathway activity and increases inhibitory nerve pathway activity. Chemical Effects of Alcohol on the Brain To understand how alcohol interferes with brain function, it is necessary to know a little bit about normal brain function. The gap between cells where neurotransmitters are active is called the synapse. When alcohol is introduced to the synapse, the normal neurotransmission may be affected. The cerebral cortex and alcohol
Parler aux animaux grâce aux Big Data Et si vous parliez la même langue qu’un animal ? Le rêve pourrait bientôt devenir réalité grâce aux Big Data. Aujourd’hui, des logiciels permettent déjà de traduire des sifflements de dauphins et donnent des indices sur la communication de certains primates. Une information que nous rapportait the New Scientist dans un article publié le 26 mars dernier. Il aura fallu attendre le mois d’août 2013 pour enfin comprendre un dauphin. Denise Herzing, directrice du Wild Dolphin Project, nageait paisiblement lorsqu'elle a reçu un message traduit des sifflements du cétacé avec lequel elle se baignait : « Sargassum », autrement dit le nom d'une algue que la chercheuse tentait de faire identifier par le dauphin dans le cadre de ses expériences. « C’est un moment très excitant pour la science » affirme Brenda Mc Cowan, chercheuse à l'Université de Californie - Davis. « Il fallait recourir à l’analyse informatique de données, ce n’était pas quelque chose qu'un homme pouvait voir. »