New approach puts brain scans on the witness stand in trademark disputes
Feb 2023, phys.org
Talking to brains instead of people. (Something about this reminds me of the perennial line by business owners who resist organized worker unions because they prefer "a direct relationship with their workers".)
The standard according to trademark law is whether a "reasonable person" would find two trademarks similar, but it doesn't define what similar means. "Asking the brain, not a person, could reduce -- if not eliminate -- inconsistencies." (They use fMRI).
via University of California - Berkeley: Zhihao Zhang et al, From scanner to court: A neuroscientifically informed "reasonable person" test of trademark infringement, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo1095
Image credit: Gamma Ray Burst GRB 221009A nicknamed the BOAT - Brightest Of All Time - NASA Swift - 2023
Brain-inspired computing system based on skyrmions 'reads' handwriting
Feb 2023, phys.org
The researchers trained the device using more than 13,000 images of handwritten digits from 0 to 9. They converted the images into magnetic input signals, and tuned the device so that the output voltage signals accurately represented the correct digit.
(Skyrmions are miniature magnetic whirlpools.)
via RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science: Tomoyuki Yokouchi et al, Pattern recognition with neuromorphic computing using magnetic field–induced dynamics of skyrmions, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5652
Electrodes grown in the brain: Paving the way for future therapies for neurological disorders
Feb 2023, phys.org
Like it's not a big deal:
Successfully grown electrodes in living tissue using the body's molecules as triggers."For several decades, we have tried to create electronics that mimic biology. Now we let biology create the electronics for us,"The body's endogenous molecules are enough to trigger the formation of electrodes. There is no need for genetic modification or external signals, such as light or electrical energy, which has been necessary in previous experiments. The Swedish researchers are the first in the world to succeed in this.
via Linköping, Lund and Gothenburg Universities in Sweden: Xenofon Strakosas et al, Metabolite-induced in vivo fabrication of substrate-free organic bioelectronics, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adc9998
Post Script:
A place to exercise your brain? Introducing mental health gyms
Feb 2023, BBC News
At Inception, Mr McCullar has designed boot camps and circuit training featuring equipment to help the brain relax: infrared saunas, zero-gravity chairs, flotation therapy tanks and neurofeedback therapy.
Post Post Script
Study examines how our native language shapes our brain wiring
Mar 2023, phys.org
With the help of magnetic resonance tomography, they looked deep into the brains of native German and Arabic speakers and discovered differences in the wiring of the language regions in the brain."Arabic native speakers showed a stronger connectivity between the left and right hemispheres than German native speakers," explained Alfred Anwander, last author of the study that was recently published in the journal NeuroImage. "This strengthening was also found between semantic language regions and may be related to the relatively complex semantic and phonological processing in Arabic."As the researchers discovered, native German speakers showed stronger connectivity in the left hemisphere language network. They argue that their findings may be related to the complex syntactic processing of German, which is due to the free word order and greater dependency distance of sentence elements.
via Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig: Xuehu Wei et al, Native language differences in the structural connectome of the human brain, NeuroImage (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119955
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