A tiny piece of a mouse’s brain has just given scientists a massive breakthrough in understanding how our brains work. This isn’t just any piece; it’s a speck smaller than a grain of sand from the mouse’s visual cortex. Inside this tiny speck, there are 84, 000 neurons connected by about half a billion synapses. That’s roughly 5. 4 kilometers of neuronal wiring! Thi...
Eye-tracking technology is a hot topic in the worlds of virtual reality, neuroscience, and psychology. It's crucial for making VR experiences more immersive and for helping researchers understand how we process information. However, creating an eye-tracking system that is both accurate and speedy is no easy task. Current methods, like glint tracking, have their limit...
Imagine being able to move a robotic arm just by thinking about it. That's exactly what a man who was paralyzed by a stroke achieved. This wasn't a short-lived experiment, but a seven-month journey using a brain-computer interface (BCI) enhanced with AI. The BCI worked by picking up signals from the brain when the man imagined moving his body. The AI part of the sys...
Every two years, a unique event brings together people from all corners of the globe. This event is not a sporting competition or a scientific conference. It's an art competition. The theme? Neuroscience. The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience hosts this international art competition. It's open to anyone who has been touched by neuroscience in some way. This coul...
Electric fish, specifically Gymnotus omarorum, are proving to be super useful in understanding how our brains work. These fish live in murky waters and use electric fields to navigate and communicate. This makes them perfect for studying how the brain processes information and controls movements. The brain works in cycles, taking in information from our senses and t...
ErbB4, a key player in the brain, is part of a larger family of receptors that are crucial for many bodily functions. But it's not the star of the show. It's the neuregulin 1 (NRG1) that activates ErbB4, and together they form the NRG1-ErbB4 signaling pathway. Think of the NRG1 as a messenger, it is crucial for many life activities. This signaling pathway is like ...