What’s so cool about working at InteraXon is the constant access to new and exciting research in thought-controlled computing and neuroscience. Twice a month, it’s our pleasure to bring you the highlights. This week: monkeys sense textures through virtual limbs, neurons sport their sweet spots, and YouTube meets brain-computer interfacing.
1/ Monkeys Feel Virtual Textures Through Brain Controlled ‘Limbs’
Researchers at the Duke University Centre for Neuroengineering have successfully demonstrated a two-way interaction between a primate brain and an avatar body using a “brain-machine-brain interface” (BMBI). In this demo, two monkeys were fitted with tiny electrode implants that enabled them to control a virtual hand while receiving tactile information from the various objects they ‘felt’ on the screen. Each monkey could sweep the virtual limb over the targets, which they experienced to be either rough or fine by way of low or high frequency vibrations sent directly to the tactile cortex, bypassing the physical hands.
Pretty awesome, eh? What’s even more amazing is that project leader Professor Miguel Nicolelis and his team aim to create a “new sensory channel” for people with paralysis. The idea is that individuals with afflictions like quadriplegia might one day be able to sense the tactile nature of objects or terrains without receiving that sensory information through their actual appendages.
Read the original study here.
2/ New Study Shows That Neurons Work Best When “In Tune”
This month, a team of researchers at UCLA published a breakthrough paper in the journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. It shows that, depending on variables of distance and rhythm, synapses are strongest if they resonate in very specific parts of our neurons. Lead by Mayank R. Mehta and Arvind Kumar, the study outlines how certain frequencies can strengthen or weaken the “tuning” of our neurons, thus impacting our ability to form memories and learn.
Feel free to read more here.
3/ Lab Reconstructs Visual Experiences From Brain Activity
In late September, researchers at UC Berkeley’s Gallant Lab published an amazing study on their reconstruction of people’s visual experiences from brain activity. Using a process called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Professor Jack Gallant and his colleagues were able to devise encoding models that could describe how visual stimulants evoked nuanced and ever-changing brain activity in an observer. Using these models, the lab was able to decode the information stored in a person’s visual cortex after watching hours of footage, successfully recreating a series of movie images they had just taken in.
Watch the results yourself on YouTube.
