Mind Meld...

Credit: Getty Images

Topics: Internet, Neuroscience, Research, Star Trek

We humans have evolved a rich repertoire of communication, from gesture to sophisticated languages. All of these forms of communication link otherwise separate individuals in such a way that they can share and express their singular experiences and work together collaboratively. In a new study, technology replaces language as a means of communicating by directly linking the activity of human brains. Electrical activity from the brains of a pair of human subjects was transmitted to the brain of a third individual in the form of magnetic signals, which conveyed an instruction to perform a task in a particular manner. This study opens the door to extraordinary new means of human collaboration while, at the same time, blurring fundamental notions about individual identity and autonomy in disconcerting ways.

Direct brain-to-brain communication has been a subject of intense interest for many years, driven by motives as diverse as futurist enthusiasm and military exigency. In his book Beyond Boundaries one of the leaders in the field, Miguel Nicolelis, described the merging of human brain activity as the future of humanity, the next stage in our species’ evolution. (Nicolelis serves on Scientific American’s board of advisers.) He has already conducted a study in which he linked together the brains of several rats using complex implanted electrodes known as brain-to-brain interfaces. Nicolelis and his co-authors described this achievement as the first “organic computer” with living brains tethered together as if they were so many microprocessors. The animals in this network learned to synchronize the electrical activity of their nerve cells to the same extent as those in a single brain. The networked brains were tested for things such as their ability to discriminate between two different patterns of electrical stimuli, and they routinely outperformed individual animals.

If networked rat brains are “smarter” than a single animal, imagine the capabilities of a biological supercomputer of networked human brains. Such a network could enable people to work across language barriers. It could provide those whose ability to communicate is impaired with a new means of doing so. Moreover, if the rat study is correct, networking human brains might enhance performance. Could such a network be a faster, more efficient and smarter way of working together?

Scientists Demonstrate Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans
Robert Martone, Scientific American

Transparency...

Does the brain behave like a spin glass? (Courtesy: Shutterstock / Phonlamai Photo)

Topics: Biology, Biophysics, Neuroscience, Particle Physics

Spin-glass-like states that occur in models of neural networks can provide important insights into states of low and high brain activity that have been observed in mammals. That is the claim of a team of theoretical biophysicists in Spain who are the first to show that disordered states in neurological networks could have a functional role in living brains.

In familiar magnetic materials such as ferromagnets, the interaction between individual spin magnetic moments causes all of the spins to point in the same direction of magnetization. In spin-glass states, the interaction between spins does not allow individual spins to point in the same direction as their neighbours. This leads to "frustration", whereby no direction of magnetization exists and the spins point in random directions.

Brains are not magnetic systems and their working cells – neurons – do not resemble magnetic moments, but mathematically they behave in a similar manner. This is because neurons also have a binary variable – firing or not firing – which is similar to the up or down quantum states of spin. Neurons are also linked by synapses in a way that is similar to how magnetic spins interact with each other. As a result, a neural network in which all of the neurons are firing (or not firing) is similar to a magnetic material in which all of the spins are all pointing up (or down).

Physics World: Spin glass provides insight into brain activity, Michael Allen

Quantum Brain...

davidope for Quanta Magazine

Topics: Biology, Neuroscience, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics

Note: With the exception of the historical links below, I don't have anything related to physics and Thanksgiving. Enjoy the food and links. Travel safe.

The mere mention of “quantum consciousness” makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition. Matthew Fisher, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, raised eyebrows late last year when he published a paper in Annals of Physics proposing that the nuclear spins of phosphorus atoms could serve as rudimentary “qubits” in the brain — which would essentially enable the brain to function like a quantum computer.

As recently as 10 years ago, Fisher’s hypothesis would have been dismissed by many as nonsense. Physicists have been burned by this sort of thing before, most notably in 1989, when Roger Penrose proposed that mysterious protein structures called “microtubules” played a role in human consciousness by exploiting quantum effects. Few researchers believe such a hypothesis plausible. Patricia Churchland, a neurophilosopher at the University of California, San Diego, memorably opined that one might as well invoke “pixie dust in the synapses” to explain human cognition.

Quanta Magazine: A New Spin on the Quantum Brain, Jennifer Ouellette

Completely unrelated to anything but the day:

Manataka American Indian Council on Thanksgiving
What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale
Gale Tourey Toensing

The Brain on Math...

Image Source: Carnegie Mellon Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Science

Topics: Computer Science, Education, Mathematics, Neuroscience, STEM

Brain Activity Patterns Reveal Distinct Stages of Thinking That Can Be Used To Improve How Students Learn Mathematical Concepts

A new Carnegie Mellon University neuroimaging study reveals the mental stages people go through as they are solving challenging math problems.

Published in Psychological Science, researchers combined two analytical strategies to use functional MRI (fMRI) to identify patterns of brain activity that aligned with four distinct stages of problem-solving.

"How students were solving these kinds of problems was a total mystery to us until we applied these techniques," said John Anderson, the R.K. Mellon University Professor of Psychology and Computer Science and lead researcher on the study. "Now, when students are sitting there thinking hard, we can tell what they are thinking each second."

Carnegie Mellon: Watching the Brain Do Math, Shilo Rea