ESA: Astrophysicist Anthony Marston one of the minds behind ESA Science

Excellence and perseverance - astrophysicist Anthony Marston is one of the brilliant minds behind ESA Science

Brain Computer Interfaces: Melding Man and Machine

Controlling computers and other electronic gadgets with just a thought seems like technology that would decades before it becomes a reality but scientists are already developing computer chips that can connect to a computer system.

Brain computer interface technology is a way for a human brain to connect to an external computer system to control electronic devices like computer cursors or robotic arms.

An electrode chip can be implanted into the brain to capture the electric signals from the brain.

The computer will then translate these electric signals to the appropriate actions by applying signal processing algorithms.

The first ever human to be implanted with BCI chip was Matthew Nagle back in June 22, 2004.

Nagle was a tetraplegic who was paralyzed from the waist down after being stabbed. John Donaghue, a Brown University professor and his team implanted an electrode in Nagle's brain that has allowed him to open his e-mail, control a computer mouse and draw on the screen.

He could also send commands to an external prosthetic hand. The device was removed from him after a year.

The brain implant system or BrainGate uses a neural interface with a wired connection running out of the metal nub embedded in the skull. A new team, called BrainGate 2 is working on a wireless interface that would use the same sensors imbedded in the brain as the original BrainGate but would use a laser to transmit the data from the brain.

BrainGate 2 is collaboration among engineers and doctors from Brown, Harvard, and Sanford.

While the BrainGate system uses implanted electrodes, another team from the University of Maryland is looking at a brain cap that will perform the same functions as the implanted electrode but without the invasive procedure.

"We are on track to develop, test and make available to the public- within the next few years -- a safe, reliable, noninvasive brain computer interface that can bring life-changing technology to millions of people whose ability to move has been diminished due to paralysis, stroke or other injury or illness," said Associate Professor of Kinesiology Jose Contreras-Vidal of the university's School of Public Health.

Prosopagnosia: A Podcast from Oliver Sacks

A NEUROLOGIST’S NOTEBOOK is about prosopagnosia, or the inability to recognise faces and places. The writer describes his own difficulties recognising and remembering faces. He also has the same difficulty with places and often becomes lost when he strays from familiar routes.

At the age of seventy-seven, despite a lifetime of trying to compensate, he has no less trouble with faces and places than when he was younger. He is particularly thrown when seeing a person out of context, even if he was with that person five minutes before.

The writer gives several examples of his inability to recognize familiar people out of context, including his therapist and his assistant. After learning that his brother suffered from the same problem, the writer came to believe that they both had a specific trait, a so-called prosopagnosia, probably with a distinctive genetic basis.

He mentions several other people who have the same trait, including Jane Goodall and the artist Chuck Close. Face recognition is crucially important for humans, and the vast majority of us are able to identify thousands of faces individually, or to easily pick out familiar faces in a crowd.

People with prosopagnosia need to be resourceful and /or inventive in finding strategies for circumventing their deficits: recognising people by an unusual nose or beard, or by their spectacles, or a certain type of clothing.

The Notebook describes research done on the way the brain recognises facesand tells about the work of Christopher Pallis, Charles Gross, Olivier Pascalis, Isabel Gauthier, and other scientists. Above all, the recognition of faces depends not only on the ability to parse the visual aspects of the face—its particular features and their over-all configuration—and compare them with others, but also on the ability to summon the memories, experiences, and feelings associated with that face.

The recognition of specific places or faces goes with a particular feeling, a sense of association and meaning. He also briefly discusses déjà vu and Capgras syndrome and considers the difference between acquired prosopagnosia—through trauma, stroke or Alzheimer’s —and congenital prosopagnosia.

The writer discusses the work of Ken Nakayama and Brad Duchaine, who have explored the neural basis of face and place recognition. They have also studied the psychological effects and social consequences of developmental prosopagnosia. Severe congenital prosopagnosia is estimated to affect two to two and a half per cent of the population—six to eight million people in the United States alone.

A Podcast with Oliver Sacks : The New Yorker

When a Parent's Love Comes With Conditions - NYTimes.com

Mind - When a Parent's Love Comes With Conditions - NYTimes.com

Jo Frost of 'Supernanny,' in her book of the same name (Hyperion, 2005), says, 'The best rewards are attention, praise and love,' and these should be held back 'when the child behaves badly until she says she is sorry,' at which point the love is turned back on.

Conditional parenting isn't limited to old-school authoritarians. Some people who wouldn't dream of spanking choose instead to discipline their young children by forcibly isolating them, a tactic we prefer to call 'time out.' Conversely,' positive reinforcement' teaches children that they are loved, and lovable, only when they do whatever we decide is a 'good job.'

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