Archives for 2012

Qualcomm is Building a Digital Human Brain

February 14, 2012 | by

During the President’s Lecture Series at San Diego State University two weeks ago, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said that the company is building a digital human brain. Stating that the brain isn’t programmed but rather taught, Jacobs emphasized that the company’s work was meant to help humanity through the “digital sixth sense” — the merging of the cyber and real worlds.

He described the process of discovery this way:

The team actually started out by building a retina and they came to me and said: ‘Look, it responds to these optical illusions the same way a human does.’ They put another layer of cells behind that [and] it started to find features. They put another layer, it started to find corners or oriented lines or something. Another layer, it started to find patterns.

Jacobs is talking about Brain Corporation, a small research company that is developing novel algorithms based on the functionality of the nervous system, with applications in visual perception, motor control, and autonomous navigation. The intention is to equip consumer devices, such as mobile phones or household robots, with artificial nervous systems. Qualcomm funds Brain Corporation research and hosts the company on its campus in San Diego, California.

Scientists at Brain Corporation are re-creating in the computer the shapes of every one of the billions of nerve cells that make up our brains, the component parts of intricate neural circuits that allow us to move, see and hear, to feel and to think. With this new tool, researchers are beginning to decipher the secrets of the brain’s architecture, which may one day enable us to build smart technologies that surpass the capabilities of anything we have today.

This video is based on a paper published by neuroscientist Hermann Cuntz, and colleagues in the online journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Study: One Rule to Grow Them All: A General Theory of Neuronal Branching and Its Practical Application

Source: KPBS.org

Study Suggests that Alzheimer’s Disease Spreads Through the Brain

February 13, 2012 | by

Scientists have long debated whether Alzheimer’s disease starts in separate regions of the brain independently and at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads. Data from researchers at Columbia University Medical Center supports the latter model, showing that abnormal tau protein — a key feature observed in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease — propagates along anatomically connected networks, between connected and vulnerable neurons. The study was published earlier this month in the online journal PLoS ONE [1].

Neural network in human brainImage credit: Neurons network in human brain via Shutterstock

Eating Behavior May Be Influenced By Dining Companions

February 10, 2012 | by

A new study published in the online journal PLoS ONE demonstrates that diners mimic the eating patterns of their dining companions, matching them bite-for-bite [1]. The researchers studied pairs of young women who did not know one another, and found that they influenced each other with regard to eating patterns. Particularly within the first ten minutes of dining together, the women tended to mimic each other, taking bites of food within five seconds of one another.

Women eating saladImage credit: Women eating salad via Shutterstock

Portable “Life and Activity Monitor” Records Vital Signs

February 9, 2012 | by

Scientific research and studies that will advance the understanding of medicine often require patients to undergo vital statistic monitoring, including measurement and recording of heart rate, activity level, and respirations. However, monitoring such vital statistics has historically required that study participants agree to frequent office visits, or else wear large and cumbersome monitoring devices.

Researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California at San Diego have designed a miniature vital statistics monitor that is not only small — it’s about two inches wide — and inexpensive to make, but is also capable of monitoring vitals from inside a pocket.

Life and activity monitor

From Oregon State University’s press release:

“When this technology becomes more miniaturized and so low-cost that it could almost be disposable, it will see more widespread adoption,” said Patrick Chiang, an assistant professor of computer engineering at Oregon State University. “It’s already been used in one clinical research study on the effects of micronutrients on aging, and monitoring of this type should have an important future role in medicine.”

Vital statistics monitors like this one may make large-scale medical studies easier on participants and less expensive for labs to run, speeding the pace of health discovery and innovation.

Source: Oregon State University

Study Identifies Likely Mechanism Underlying Resveratrol Activity

February 8, 2012 | by

National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy.

These findings may help settle the debate regarding resveratrol’s biochemistry and pave the way for resveratrol-based medicines. The chemical has received significant interest from pharmaceutical companies for its potential to combat diabetes, inflammation, and cancer. The study appears in the February 3rd issue of the journal Cell [1].

Resveratrol