NEWRON Vol V, Issue VII

[Natan Davidovics]

NeuroEngineering Weekly Review Of News

 

The first human ever has been implanted with an electrode in the balance center of their inner ear (the vestibular system).  This is a pretty big step forward in the really cool field of balance prosthetics.  As an added bonus, pretty soon when you see someone walking down the street looking wobbly, you will be able to safely assume that they don't have an inner ear balance problem and that they are, in fact, an alcoholic.

 

Interesting NeuroEngineering links:

Hopkins Neuroengineering web site: http://neuroengineering.bme.jhu.edu
New job blog: http://neuroengjobs.blogspot.com/
Blog for administrative questions: http://neuroengineering.blogspot.com
NEWRON on the web!: http://neuroengineering.bme.jhu.edu/Home/newron

Enjoy,
Natan Davidovics
NEWRON Publishing Corporation

 

Engineers to Implant Antivertigo Device

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/engineers-to-implant-antivertigo-device/?utm_source=techalert

A surgeon will attempt to fight debilitating vertigo by rewiring the body's balance center. Jay Rubinstein, a surgeon and biomedical engineer at the University of Washington, in Seattle, will insert a "vestibular prosthesis" inside his patient's head, weaving electrode arrays into the depths of the inner ear. He hopes that pulses from these electrodes will stop vomit-inducing dizziness caused by Ménière's disease.

Fruit Fly Nervous System Provides New Solution
To Fundamental Computer Network Problem

http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2011/January/jan13_fruitflynetwork.shtml

The fruit fly has evolved a method for arranging the tiny, hair-like structures it uses to feel and hear the world that's so efficient a team of scientists in Israel and at Carnegie Mellon University says it could be used to more effectively deploy wireless sensor networks and other distributed computing applications.

MoNETA: A Mind Made from Memristors

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors

why should you believe us when we say we finally have the technology that will lead to a true artificial intelligence? Because of MoNETA, the brain on a chip. MoNETA (Modular Neural Exploring Traveling Agent) is the software we're designing at Boston University's department of cognitive and neural systems, which will run on a brain-inspired microprocessor under development at HP Labs in California. It will function according to the principles that distinguish us mammals most profoundly from our fast but witless machines. MoNETA (the goddess of memory—cute, huh?) will do things no computer ever has. It will perceive its surroundings, decide which information is useful, integrate that information into the emerging structure of its reality, and in some applications, formulate plans that will ensure its survival.