There's a lot of off the wall products being announced this morning, but the most interesting by far is the USB Memory Stick by IWantOneOfThose.com (IWOOT). With the Memory Stick you can "download and upload memory fragments via a temporal lobe sensor and store them on the USB Memory Stick." Up to ten years of memories can be stored on the stick which can then be backed up to computer for long term storage and future retrieval. You can even e-mail memories to family and […]

Both LiveScience.com and New Scientist are reporting today that a team of Italian and German neuroscientists working in conjunction with mobile chip maker Infineon have created a "neuro-chip," a hybrid microchip that interfaces living neurons with traditional silicon circuitry. In addition to providing new insights into the brain's inner workings, the groundbreaking work could one day lead to organic computers that use living brain cells for memory or to the creation of prosthetic devices for treating neurological disorders. […]

A team of neuroscientists and bioengineers from MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Biomedical Engineering have been able to partially restore the vision of rodents whose visual neural pathways had been severed by injecting them with a tiny, biodegradable substrate on which brain cells were able to regrow and reconnect. The research marks the first time that nanotechnology has been used to heal a damaged brain region and restore lost functionality. The results could lead to major advancements in the […]

Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology working in conjunction with the Department of Neurology at Berlin's Charite hospital have developed a neural interface capable of intercepting neural impulses in the brain and using them to control a cursor and write sentences on a computer. The system, aptly dubbed the Brain Computer Interface, will be on display at CeBIT which opens tomorrow in Hanover, Germany. […]

A recent study carried out by researchers from the University College London in the United Kingdom has concluded that the brain is more successful at storing memories when it has been "primed" in advance to consider the meaning of what is to be stored. Neuroscientists already knew that neural activity during and immediately after an event occurred was an important factor in the success of memory storage, but this new research illustrates that one's frame of mind prior to the event may be just […]

According to a study published recently in Nature, neurons firing synchronously help to focus the brain's attention on certain tasks and lead to quicker response times. When neurons fire independently their electrical output is nothing but noise, and no coherent signal is discernible in the static. When even a few neurons fire synchronously, their individual signals reinforce one another, and a tone arises from the background noise. The study, a collaboration between Robert Desimone, from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and […]

According to NewScientist.com, a recent study has concluded that the conscious mind is fine for making simple decisions, but for complex, important choices you are best off to "sleep on it" and let your unconscious mind mull it over and make the decision for you. Over thinking a critical decision with many factors often yields an unsatisfactory choice since the conscious mind does not appear to be able to consider all of the factors or weigh those it does consider properly. On the […]

In an effort to explore the relationship between brain activity and consciousness, Stanford University nueroscientist Bill Newsome is currently seeking regulatory approval to implant an electrode into his own brain. Engadget has a summary of an interview MIT Technology Review did recently with Newsome in which he explains his obsession with determining how brain functions give rise to consciousness and why the limitations of studying animals have driven him to propose this extraordinary experiment. […]

Neuroscientists from the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT have discovered that after completing a task, a rat's brain will mentally replay recent events, but in reverse order. They believe this process plays a key role in learning and memory and may explain why taking frequent breaks when studying is more effective for learning new material than cramming for extended periods of time. Their work could yield a better understanding of amnesia, Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders and lead to […]

Lifting an arm, picking up your foot, wiggling your fingers - most of us can do these things without giving them a second thought. Once your brain has set the movement in motion how do you know (without looking) that the appendage responded appropriately? It turns out that you can't really tell. NewScientist.com is reporting today that researchers from the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Sydney, Australia used a simple test to determine that the same signal your brain sends to initiate […]