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A scan of the skull of a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish has led to the discovery of the oldest example of a well-preserved vertebrate brain, shining a new light on the early evolution of bony fish.

The fossil of the skull belonging to the extinct Coccocephalus wildi was found in a coal mine in England more than a century ago, according to researchers of the study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

The fossil is the only known specimen of the fish species so scientists from the University of Michigan in the US and the University of Birmingham in the UK used the nondestructive imaging technique of computed tomography (CT) scanning to look inside its skull and examine its internal bodily structure.

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Science Asylum video on Schrodinger Equation:

Continue reading “Everything — Yes, Everything — is a SPRING! (Pretty much)” »

When we look at a rainbow, we see a full spectrum of light. Every colour we could imagine. Except one – magenta. Where is it? Well, officially magenta doesn’t exist. There is no wavelength of light for magenta, meaning the human brain literally makes it up, but how? Video by Archie Crofton Narrated by Lotte Rice Commissioned by Paul Ivan Harris Follow BBC Reel on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The built-in ion sensory technology mildly excites the taste buds on your tongue like they’ve never been stimulated before! The immediate results are enhanced flavor, heightened taste, and improved aftertaste. SpoonTEK science combines the power of advanced electronics with tongue sensory and the brain for an amazing eating experience. It’s not just any spoon—it’s the only spoon you will need to take your taste to the next level.

Neural decoding models attempt to identify the current mental state of an individual from recordings of their neural activity¹. In recent years, neural decoders have been developed to identify numerous different types of mental activity from many neuroimaging modalities. These decoders were first developed to decode visual^2,3 and semantic^4,5,6,7 information from the brain, while more recent examples of neural decoders have been developed to decode a diverse set of activities, including, but not limited to, affective states⁸, visual imagery during sleep⁹, and story meaning¹⁰.

Neural decoding models have been developed that make use of many different types of neuroimaging techniques including, but not limited to, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electrocortiography (ECoG), electroencephalogram (EEG), and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Depending on the type of neuroimaging technique the neural decoder uses different types of mental processes may be decoded. For example, fMRI provides a recording of activity throughout the entire brain with a very high spatial resolution, allowing a neural decoder the ability to decode mental states involving sub-cortical brain regions¹¹. However, this comes at the cost of poor time resolution, which prevents decoding of mental activity over very short time scales.

Do we make conscious decisions? Or are all of our actions predetermined? And if we don’t have free will, are we responsible for what we do? Modern neurotechnology is now allowing scientists to study brain activity neuron by neuron to try to determine how and when our brains decide to act. In this program, experts probe the latest research and explore the question of just how much agency we have in the world, and how the answer impacts our ethics, our behavior, and our society.

This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

Continue reading “The Question of Free Will” »

Transhumanism is the idea that technology and evidence-based science can and should be used to augment and improve humans in order to overcome the limitations that evolution has left us with. As the name suggests, it stems from humanism, but it adds an optimism that cognitive and physical improvement is both possible and desirable.

On the face of it, the idea that humans should be permitted to use technology to live healthier and happier lives does not sound dangerous, or even contentious. But it does provoke strong opposition: in 2004, Francis Fukuyama called transhumanism “the world’s most dangerous idea”. The force of that claim is somewhat undermined when you consider how wildly wrong his previous big idea turned out to be: in 1992 he declared that because the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, history had come to an end. Nevertheless, Fukuyama is not alone in fearing transhumanism.

Some people object to transhumanism because they think we should strive to be “natural”, and to be content with what evolution – or their god — have given us. But of course the definition of what is “natural” changes over time. Nature didn’t endow us with spectacles, and few people now argue they should be banned. Now we have cochlear implants, and many people feel that their smartphones are extensions of themselves. In the future we will have the option of raising our IQ with smart drugs or with gene therapy, and these will be hotly debated.

Nerve cells require vast amounts of energy and oxygen which they receive through the bloodstream. This results in nerve tissue being densely intertwined with numerous blood vessels. However, what prevents neurons and vascular cells from interfering with each other during growth? Researchers from the Universities of Heidelberg and Bonn, in collaboration with international partners, have uncovered a mechanism that ensures this coordination. The findings have recently been published in the journal Neuron.

Nerve cells are highly energy-intensive, requiring a large amount of fuel. Approximately 20% of the calories we consume through food are dedicated to our brain, as the generation of voltage pulses (action potentials) and transmission between neurons is incredibly energy-demanding. For this reason, nerve tissue is usually crisscrossed by numerous blood vessels. They ensure a supply of nutrients and oxygen.

During embryonic development, a large number of vessels sprout in the brain and spinal cord, but also in the retina of the eye. Additionally, masses of neurons are formed there, which network with each other and with structures such as muscles and organs. Both processes have to be considerate of each other so as not to get in each other’s way. “We have identified a new mechanism that ensures this,” explains Prof. Dr. Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar, member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Transdisciplinary Research Area Life & Health at the University of Bonn.

Neuroscientists have successfully increased the motivation to exert mental effort by using a weak alternating electrical current sent through electrodes attached to the scalp to synchronize brain waves. The findings, published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, help to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the willingness to engage in mental effort, suggesting that midfrontal theta oscillations play a key role.

“For a long time research has mainly focussed on which brain mechanisms underlie mental processes, but in the recent years it has become clear that engaging in mental activities needs to be understood as an active decision process where humans are willing to perform demanding mental tasks only if they are ‘worth it.’ The goal of our research was to get a better understanding of the brain mechanisms causally determining our motivation to engage in demanding mental activities,” explained study author Alexander Soutschek, a research group leader at the psychology department of the University of Munich.

For their study, the researchers utilized transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), a non-invasive neurostimulation technique that applies low-amplitude electrical current to the scalp through electrodes. The current modulates the neural activity in the brain regions under the electrodes, potentially enhancing or suppressing specific cognitive processes.