Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity

June 26, 2013

Weizmann Institute scientists discover that spontaneously emerging brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity.

The day-after effect of brain activation: The brain image at the back presents spontaneous resting state patterns before an fMRI-based neurofeedback training session. The front brain image presents spontaneous resting state patterns a day after the training session, illustrating the long-term trace of the training. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

This research suggests a number of future possibilities for exploring the brain. For example, spontaneously emerging brain patterns could be used as a “mapping tool” for unearthing cognitive events from an individual’s recent past.

Or, on a wider scale, each person’s unique spontaneously emerging activity patterns might eventually reveal a sort of personal profile — highlighting each individual’s abilities, shortcomings, biases, learning skills, etc.

via Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity | KurzweilAI.

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Biometric Brainwaves, Your Unique Signature

European scientists are developing security systems that uniquely identify people through the pattern of electrical activity in their brain.

This latest and most unique entry into the field of biometrics was developed by researchers at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece. It makes use of the EEG (electroencephalograph) which measures the fluctations in brain activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. It is the voltage difference between different parts of the brain that produces the traces known as EEG, the so-called brainwaves.

Each person has a unique pattern of neural pathway which determines their brain activity. This makes the EEG biometric system hard to forge and therefore desirable for use in high security systems.

via Biometric Brainwaves, Your Unique Signature.

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Controlling Monkey Brains and Behavior With Light

Posted on July 26, 2012

By Neuroscience NewsElectrophysiology, Featured, Neuroethics

Researchers reporting online on July 26 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have for the first time shown that they can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically activate particular brain cells. The findings represent a key advance for optogenetics, a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain activity and behavior. Based on the discovery, the researchers say that similar light-based mind control could likely also be made to work in humans for therapeutic ends.

“We are the first to show that optogenetics can alter the behavior of monkeys,” says Wim Vanduffel of Massachusetts General Hospital and KU Leuven Medical School. “This opens the door to use of optogenetics at a large scale in primate research and to start developing optogenetic-based therapies for humans.”

In optogenetics, neurons are made to respond to light through the insertion of light-sensitive genes derived from particular microbial organisms.

http://neurosciencenews.com/controlling-monkey-brains-and-behavior-with-light-optogenetics-research/

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Neural stimulation with optical radiation

Neural stimulation with optical radiation.

Laser Photon Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 October 16.

Claus-Peter Richter,^1,3,* Agnella Izzo Matic,^1,2 Jonathon D. Wells,⁴ E. Duco Jansen,⁵ and Joseph T. Walsh, Jr.²

Published in final edited form as:

Laser Photon Rev. 2011 January 1; 5(1): 68–80.

Published online 2010 June 7. doi: 10.1002/lpor.200900044

PMCID: PMC3472451

NIHMSID: NIHMS404629

Introduction

Pulsed mid-infrared lasers have been suggested as a method for neural stimulation [1–3]. The use of lasers has several appealing features when compared to electrical stimulation: no direct contact is necessary between the stimulating source and the tissue, fine spatial resolution of stimulation can be achieved, no stimulation artifact is generated to deter simultaneous recording of electrical responses from the neurons, and there is no electrochemical junction between the stimulation source and the tissue. Furthermore, at many of the radiation wavelengths used for infrared neural stimulation (INS), the radiation can be easily coupled to an optical fiber. Limitations of INS relate to the laser–tissue interaction. Irradiation of tissue with infrared wavelengths will result in a transient temperature increase, which can cause thermal tissue damage. Although it was possible to stimulate auditory neurons through thin bony structures in the cochlea, thick absorbing or scattering layers above the target structure may prevent neural stimulation.

2. Optical stimulation of neurons

…Neural stimulation may also occur via a photochemical reaction, which is initiated by the absorption of the radiation energy…

Photochemical neural activation can also involve the addition of a “caged” molecule that is released upon irradiation. Caged molecules are molecules that were rendered inert by chemically modifying the structure of a bioactive molecule. Irradiation transforms and/or cleaves the caged molecule to restore the biological activity, which is commonly referred to as “photorelease” or “uncaging” [22]. The resulting active molecules can be agonists or antagonists. Thus, photolysis of caged compounds is a method for using light to switch biological processes on or off…

…The authors suggested that the primary mechanism of stimulation was a thermal effect from the laser. Furthermore, they demonstrated that all of the laser-stimulated neurons were sensitive to capsaicin, which binds to a temperature-sensitive ion channel…

3. Neural stimulation with a pulsed infrared laser

3.1. Stimulation of peripheral nerves

…The upper limit for the repetition rate that ensures nondamaging laser stimulation in peripheral nerves occurred near 5 Hz. The maximum duration for constant low repetition rate stimulation (2 Hz) was approximately 4 min with adequate tissue hydration [50]. Note, these results differ from the findings for the auditory nerve (see below for details)..

3.2. Stimulation of Cranial nerves

3.3. Stimulation of the central auditory system in vivo

Lee et al. [68] have demonstrated that neurons of the central auditory system can be stimulated via INS.

4. Possible mechanisms for optical stimulation of neurons

Although some regimes of optical stimulation occur via photochemical interaction (see earlier sections), it is unlikely that pulsed, mid-infrared lasers, such as the FEL, Ho:YAG, or Aculight diode lasers, evoke neural responses via a photochemical reaction. The individual photon energies emitted by these lasers are significantly lower than the energies required to move an electron to an excited state, as is needed for a photochemical reaction.

 

Read More at:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3472451/

How to ‘take over’ a brain – CNN.com

How to ‘take over’ a brain – CNN.com.

By Leonard Mlodinow, Special to CNN

updated 11:14 AM EST, Mon January 7, 2013

The hottest field in science this past decade has been neuroscience. That explosion in research, and our understanding of the human brain, was largely fueled by a new technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that became widely available in the 1990s. Well look out! Another technology-based neuroscience revolution is in the making, this one perhaps even bigger. The term to watch for in 2013 is “optogenetics.” It’s not a sexy term, but it is a very sexy technology.

The heritage of optogenetics goes way back to 1979, when Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA with James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, suggested that neuroscientists should seek to learn how to take control of specific cells in the brain.  …

Crick speculated that light could be the tool to use. That turned out to be true: Optogenetics involves inserting fiber-optics tools into an animal’s brain, in order to control the target neurons using pulses of light as a trigger. …

In order for the method to work, the neurons have to be re-engineered so that they react to the light. That was made possible by the amazing discovery of a kind of protein that can be used to turn neurons on and off in response to light.

The exotic light-sensitive protein is not present in normal neurons, so scientists designed a way to insert it. That is accomplished through a type of gene engineering called “transfection” that employs “vectors” such as viruses to infect the target neuron, and, once there, to insert genetic material that will cause the neuron to manufacture the light-sensitive protein.

Put it all together, and you have that sci-fi-sounding technology: genetically-engineered neurons that you can turn on and off at will, inside the brain of a living and freely-moving animal.

It is the combined use of optics and genetics that give optogenetics its name, but it’s not the “how” that makes optogenetics exciting, it is the “what.” Scientists didn’t really develop it to “take over” a creature’s brain. They developed it, like fMRI, to learn about the brain, and how the brain works, in this case by studying the effect of stimulating specific types of neurons.

Read More at : http://us.cnn.com/2013/01/06/opinion/mlodinow-science-frontier/index.html?iref=obinsite

Hacking the Human Brain: The Next Domain of Warfare

This new battlespace is not just about influencing hearts and minds. It’s about involuntarily penetrating and coercing the mind.

By Chloe Diggins and Clint Arizmendi

12.11.12

It’s been fashionable in military circles to talk about cyberspace as a “fifth domain” for warfare, along with land, space, air and sea. But there’s a sixth and arguably more important warfighting domain emerging: the human brain.

This new battlespace is not just about influencing hearts and minds with people seeking information. It’s about involuntarily penetrating, shaping, and coercing the mind in the ultimate realization of Clausewitz’s definition of war: compelling an adversary to submit to one’s will. And the most powerful tool in this war is brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, which connect the human brain to devices.

…

Recently, security expert Barnaby Jack demonstrated the vulnerability of biotechnological systems by highlighting how easily pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) could be hacked, raising fears about the susceptibility of even life-saving biotechnological implants. This vulnerability could easily be extended to biotechnologies that connect directly to the brain, such as vagus nerve stimulation or deep-brain stimulation.

Outside the body, recent experiments have proven that the brain can control and maneuver quadcopter drones and metal exoskeletons. How long before we harness the power of mind-controlled weaponized drones – or use BCIs to enhance the power, efficiency, and sheer lethality of our soldiers?

Given that military research arms such as the United States’ DARPA are investing in understanding complex neural processes and enhanced threat detection through BCI scan for P300 responses, it seems the marriage between neuroscience and military systems will fundamentally alter the future of conflict.

And it is here that military researchers need to harden the systems that enable military application of BCIs. We need to prevent BCIs from being disrupted or manipulated, and safeguard against the ability of the enemy to hack an individual’s brain.

The possibilities for damage, destruction, and chaos are very real. This could include manipulating a soldier’s BCI during conflict so that s/he were forced to pull the gun trigger on friendlies, install malicious code in his own secure computer system, call in inaccurate coordinates for an air strike, or divulge state secrets to the enemy seemingly voluntarily. Whether an insider has fallen victim to BCI hacking and exploits a system from within, or an external threat is compelled to initiate a physical attack on hard and soft targets, the results would present major complications: in attribution, effectiveness of kinetic operations, and stability of geopolitical relations.

Like every other domain of warfare, the mind as the sixth domain is neither isolated nor removed from other domains; coordinated attacks across all domains will continue to be the norm. It’s just that military and defense thinkers now need to account for the subtleties of the human mind … and our increasing reliance upon the brain-computer interface.

Read more at:  http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/12/the-next-warfare-domain-is-your-brain/