NEWRON: Vol V, Issue V

[Natan Davidovics]

NeuroEngineering Weekly Review Of News

 

Our NEWRON staff was hard at work this week at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in sunny San Diego, covering every lecture (793), poster (10,590), and surfing locale (76) [ed. actual values estimated with unimpressive accuracy] to bring you the latest from around the world. Especially cool is a new company called Backyard Brains, who I had a chance to meet with, that can have you recording action potentials and making cockroaches dance for under $100.

 

-Thanks to Dr. Thakor for submitting articles

 

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

 

 

Backyard Brains aims to bring cerebral education to schools

http://www.concentratemedia.com/innovationnews/backyardbrainsannarbor0071.aspx

The brain might seem like one big mystery to some folks, but it's pretty simple to Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo. The neuroscientists and co-founders of Backyard Brains are taking advantage of this, creating cheap kits than can show grade-school students how the brain works in real time. The duo teach how the brain works in local schools, and about a year ago decided there had to be an easier (and cheaper) way to do this while reaching more people. So they decided to take on a $100 laptop-style project focusing on creating a kit to show how the brain's neurons work with simple parts purchased at a local RadioShack.
Watch on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE8OulBp9EY&feature=player_embedded#!

Novel 'Brush Optrode' Improves Brain Imaging

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/205261.php

One of the main techniques for measuring and monitoring mental activity, called functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), can often be impaired because a person's hair gets in the way. But now, thanks to a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at Arlington, a novel device called a "brush optrode" is providing increased sensitivity with fiber tips designed to thread through hair to enhance scalp contact.

Directing attention via machine

http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57790/

Using a novel brain-machine interface linking neurons with a visual display, researchers reveal how humans pay attention to some things and ignore the wealth of distracting information surrounding them. The tool, described this week in Nature, may someday provide assistance to people with neurological impairments such as locked-in syndrome. "This is the first I know of recording populations of individual neurons during an attention task [in humans]. It's really consistent with our thinking about the way attentional mechanisms work."