While humans have been known to experience synesthesia by using hallucinogenic drugs or after brain injury, German scientists have been able to re-wire fruit fly larvae to perceive blue light as smelling like bananas. Although normal larvae would retreat from light, these larvae were thus attracted to it:

The work involves activating single receptor neurons out of 28 olfactory neurons. All the olfactory neurons were capable of producing a protein that is activated by light. The researchers had to choose which one to make light-sensitive.

They found they could either activate cells which would normally register repulsive odors and make the flies go away, or they could activate cells that respond to attractive odors like banana, marzipan or glue. Those odors are all present in rotting fruit, which attracts fruit flies.

The neurons send an electrical signal if they are stimulated with blue light, giving the fly larvae the impression that it has smelled something. As shown in the photo, the larvae went toward the light. The point is to study how the neural network operates, the researchers say.

There are certain instances where synesthesia could potentially be beneficial – this list of famous synesthetes seems to indicate it’s especially common (relatively speaking) among musicians.

This video has gone viral, but it’s worth linking here. The expression on eight-month old Jonathan’s face when he hears for the first time, due to a Cochlear implant, is priceless. A reminder of how technology enhances our lives – and a promise of what’s to come.

(Via Neatorama)

Currently, Furber and his team are testing a version that includes a mere 50 “neurons” that can navigate a simple virtual environment described as “Pac-Man-like.”

Furber has big plans for the computer once it is completed:

That’s good enough for Furber, who wants to start teaching his brain-like computer about the world as soon as possible. His first goal is to teach it how to control a robotic arm, before working towards a design to control a humanoid. A robot controller with even a dash of brain-like properties should be much better at tasks like image recognition, navigation and decision-making, says Furber.

“Robots offer a natural, sensory environment for testing brain-like computers,” says Furber. “You can instantly tell if it is being useful.”

Processors for the project are currently being manufactured in Taiwan, and Furber intends to have a 10,000 chip version of the machine operational before the end of the year.

(Via PopSci)

The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.

I’m not quite sure why the professor claims that 2.5 petabytes is equivalent to one million gigabytes – unless I’m mistaken, it should be equivalent to about 2.6 million gigs.

Of course the nature of memory is fluid. Most memories degrade with time – become “fuzzy” – or can disappear altogether. On the other hand, occasionally we can be reminded of an event that took place in our pasts and recall a vivid memory that we’d “forgotten.”

Putting the estimated capacity of the brain in terms of petabytes, a measure of digital information, is a bit problematic, since the human brain is analog (although there is some debate on this point). Furthermore, Dr. Reber notes that we have no way to accurately measure the size of memories, so putting a number on the brain’s memory capacity doesn’t necessarily tell us a great deal.

(Via Neatorama)

My grandfather suffered from age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), which causes loss of vision over time. By the time he passed away in his late 70s, he was almost blind. ARMD progresses from the “inside” of your visual field to the outside, so those affected are unable to see that which they are looking at directly. In some ways, the effects are the opposite of an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which causes sufferers to lose peripheral vision first, creating a “tunnel vision” effect once the disease is sufficiently advanced.

Because I have a relative that suffered from ARMD, I’m at a 50 percent risk of developing the condition sometime in my life – as do my father, brother, aunts and uncles.

Based on my grandfather’s experience, macular degeneration can be especially frustrating because, although otherwise in good shape both mentally and physically, it becomes difficult or impossible to read, drive, easily watch television or recognize faces. I’m sure other progressive diseases that lead to vision loss are similarly frustrating.

In part because I have a personal stake in seeing treatments and workarounds developed for diseases like ARMD, I was glad to hear that Australian researchers have developed a retinal implant for people with ARMD and RP that will enable them to at least recognize faces and read large-type print:

The device, which is currently undergoing testing, consists of a miniature camera mounted on glasses that captures visual input, transforming it into electrical signals that directly stimulate surviving neurons in the retina. The implant will enable recipients to perceive points of light in the visual field that the brain can then reconstruct into an image.

The research team will next focus on development of a commercial implant that can be placed in the back of the eye and “respond to wireless transmission of vision.”

(Source: ScienceBlog / Image: Bionic Vision Australia)

Rats given Ritalin were able to more quickly learn that a combination of signals–a flash of light and sound–meant they could get a sugar water reward. But if the rats were also given a drug to block one type of dopamine receptor, the effect was lost. Treated animals also focused more intently on the task at hand, engaging in less unrelated behavior. Another drug, designed to block a second type of dopamine receptor, blocked Ritalin’s ability to enhance focus.

Researchers say this study will help them to develop more targeted drugs with fewer side effects. It also provides additional evidence for what many college students already know – taking a cognitive enhancement drug can help them perform much better than they would unaided.

This video of someone controlling Second Life through a brain-computer interface looks like fun, but surely it’s no brain controlled pinball.

(Via Edge of Tomorrow)

If you’re interested in learning more about what goes on behind-the-scenes at the Blue Brain Project, an effort to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, this short documentary is a good start. It features interviews with project leader Henry Markram explaining more about the project and shows how his team is going about its important work.

This video is only a taste of director Noah Hutton’s “10-year-in-the-making” film, although I’m not sure if that means the finished documentary will be released a decade from now, a time Markram has predicted that he and his team will ultimately be successful in their mission.

(Via BoingBoing)

The “wet computer” incorporates several recently discovered properties of chemical systems that can be hijacked to engineer computing power.

The team’s approach mimics some of the actions of neurons in the brain.

The 1.8m-euro (£1.6m) project will run for three years, funded by an EU emerging technologies programme.

The programme has identified biologically-inspired computing as particularly important, having recently funded several such projects.

What distinguishes the current project is that it will make use of stable “cells” featuring a coating that forms spontaneously, similar to the walls of our own cells, and uses chemistry to accomplish the signal processing similar to that of our own neurons.

The goal is not to make a better computer than conventional ones, said project collaborator Klaus-Peter Zauner of the University of Southampton, but rather to be able to compute in new environments.

The Daily Mail features a very in-depth feature story about the work of Henry Markram and the Blue Brain Project, an effort to “reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.” Markram and team, who have already been able to simulate the workings of “about 10,000 neurons,” firmly believe that they will be able to develop a copy of a rat’s brain within the decade:

‘We will do it by 2018,’ says the professor confidently. ‘We need a lot of money, but I am getting it. There are few scientists in the world with the resources I have at my disposal.’

There is, inevitably, scepticism. But even Markram’s critics mostly accept that he is on to something and, most importantly, that he has the money.

Tens of millions of euros are flooding into his laboratory at the Brain Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne – paymasters include the Swiss government, the EU and private backers, including the computer giant IBM. Artificial minds are, it seems, big business.

The human brain is the most complex object in the universe. But Markram insists that the latest supercomputers will soon have its measure.

Although Markram has plenty of resources, he estimates he’ll need a custom-built “billion dollar machine” to simulate a human brain.