The Future of the Brain: Essays by the World's Leading Neuroscientists
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0691173311
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Including a chapter by 2014 Nobel laureates May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser
An unprecedented look at the quest to unravel the mysteries of the human brain, The Future of the Brain takes readers to the absolute frontiers of science. Original essays by leading researchers such as Christof Koch, George Church, Olaf Sporns, and May-Britt and Edvard Moser describe the spectacular technological advances that will enable us to map the more than eighty-five billion neurons in the brain, as well as the challenges that lie ahead in understanding the anticipated deluge of data and the prospects for building working simulations of the human brain. A must-read for anyone trying to understand ambitious new research programs such as the Obama administration's BRAIN Initiative and the European Union's Human Brain Project, The Future of the Brain sheds light on the breathtaking implications of brain science for medicine, psychiatry, and even human consciousness itself.
Contributors include: Misha Ahrens, Ned Block, Matteo Carandini, George Church, John Donoghue, Chris Eliasmith, Simon Fisher, Mike Hawrylycz, Sean Hill, Christof Koch, Leah Krubitzer, Michel Maharbiz, Kevin Mitchell, Edvard Moser, May-Britt Moser, David Poeppel, Krishna Shenoy, Olaf Sporns, Anthony Zador.
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread — The Lessons from a New Science
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not A Disease
Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain
Hallucination: Philosophy and Psychology
Confusing tangle of neural activity, these sets of neurons appear to be tightly communicating, with a purpose that hopefully will be discovered in the future. It is now possible, in principle, to investigate entire sensorimotor transformations and learning processes across the whole brain, from sensory input to behavior. This is especially important because certain brain functions cannot easily be decomposed into constituents and need to be studied at the whole-brain level. Take, for example, a.
Semiconductor technology, or CMOS for short. A second technology leveraged below is that of piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity has a long and distinguished history and technical literature. In short, certain crystals, when stretched, will produce an electrical voltage. These same crystals will also compress when a voltage is applied to the material. The same materials are also mechanically very low loss; that is, if given a mechanical compression or stretched and released, they will vibrate.
Neuroimaging techniques such as MRI, EEG, and fMRI. Accurate parcellation of fMRI imaging activity into component areas of the brain is an important consideration in deciphering its connectivity, and it takes us back to our original discussion of anatomy. Modern imaging techniques have enabled parcellation of localized areas of cortex and have been accomplished by using diffusion tractography and functional imaging to measure connectivity patterns and define cortical areas based on these.
Misunderstanding? Even on some basic concepts, there is already considerable confusion in the general public. Consider the basic concept of brain death—the total and irreversible loss of all brain function—and the recent case of a thirteen-year-old girl, Jahi McMath, who died on December 12, 2013. Her parents had taken her to Oakland Children’s Hospital for surgery to remove her tonsils to help her sleep apnea. Things went tragically wrong (although exactly why is not known). She suffered severe.
Are prone to failure. This is where engineering can now come to the rescue. Thanks to nano- and microscale fabrication techniques it is now possible to craft electrodes so that they record not just at their tip but at hundreds of recording sites along the electrode’s shaft; they can be much smaller and more flexible. And electronics with vast processing power can be reduced to the size of a small matchbox that can be implanted under the skin. Thanks to advances in wireless transmission,.