neurons – Techdirt (original) (raw)
Stories filed under: "neurons"
DailyDirt: Figuring Out Forgetfulness
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Few people wouldn’t want the ability to remember facts with ease. The skill of memorizing vast amounts of information could be useful for so many tasks, but unfortunately, while there are a variety of techniques to help with impressive memory tricks, there’s no magic bullet for general learning. Here are just a few interesting studies on memory that could be worth remembering later.
- We know now that memories are stored in specific neurons because genetically engineered mice with light-activated neurons can be made to recall (or forget) when those neurons are activated (or removed). The ethics of “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” technology might be a serious discussion soon. [url]
- Marijuana is well-known to have side effects that impair memory functions, but the mechanism hasn’t been studied extensively until recently. THC doesn’t have much effect on neurons, but instead affects astroglia cells — interfering with how neurons communicate with each other. [url]
- The formation of long-term memories in our brains seems to occur during sleep, transferring from the hippocampus to the neocortex. The communication between these two areas of the brain will be important to study for finding out more about memory storage processes, and we’ve only started to discover how memories work. [url]
- Memory foraging is just one way to think about how our brains recall memories. People tend to remember things in clusters, and knowing this could lead to better ways for people to learn or recall items — or to build virtual brains that more closely mimic how human brains actually work. [url]
If you have some more free time, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Filed Under: astroglia cells, brain, fmri, memory, memory foraging, neurons, sleep, thc
DailyDirt: Creating Virtual And Artificial Brains
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
We’re a long way away from creating an artificial intelligence from scratch that can perform general tasks. But plenty of researchers are learning some interesting things about AI while they build massively parallel computers or grow microbrains from little clumps of cells. Here are just a few projects where some synthetic brains are being hand-built by people.
- One *million* [/Dr. Evil voice] ARM processor cores are being hooked together to create a parallel computer called SpiNNaker that will try to simulate the human brain. Given that the human brain has about 100 billion neurons with 1,000 trillion connections between them all, this project is less than 1% of the way towards a full brain simulation. [url]
- Growing a brain in a petri dish from rat neurons might be an interesting approach to building a brain de novo. So far, researchers have created a network of about 60 rat neurons which seem to be able to sustain activity for about 12 seconds. [url]
- Folks from IBM are working on cognitive computing like the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project with some DARPA funding to re-create a billion artificial neurons. Trying to beat the power efficiency of the human brain isn’t an easy task. [url]
- To discover more interesting bot-related content, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
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Filed Under: artificial intelligence, brains, cognitive computing, microbrains, neurons, parallel computers, spinnaker, synapse
Companies: darpa, ibm
DailyDirt: Brains Are Like Cracked Eggs On A Hot Skillet?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The question of how brains can think is a fascinating field of study — since the question is largely unanswered still. But there are bits of information here and there that folks are piecing together to try to make sense of it all. Here are just some quick links about how some brains function (or don’t function).
- Just about everyone suffers from several common cognitive errors… And now you know, and knowing is half the battle. [url]
- Researchers can mess with the memories of rats — making memories fade faster or last longer. But injecting a memory-enhancing virus into a human brain doesn’t sound too appealing. [url]
- Researchers in Germany have found a single “giant” neuron in the brain of locusts that seems to collect all olfactory input — a discovery that could lead to a better understanding of how biological neural nets work. Mammal brains could possibly have similar neural structures, but there’s obviously a big difference between the brains of insects and mammals… [url]
- To discover more interesting articles on the human mind, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: brains, memory, neural net, neurons