It's a great time in the history of humanity to still have a brain.
Chimeric brain models can help bridge the gap between animal studies and human neurological disorders
May 2025, phys.org
Scientists create models by transplanting human brain cells culled from stem cells into the brains of animals such as mice, thereby creating a mix of human and animal brain cells in the same brain. This environment is closer to the complexity of a living human brain than what can be simulated in a petri dish study.
via Rutgers University: Ava V. Papetti et al, Chimeric brain models: Unlocking insights into human neural development, aging, diseases, and cell therapies, Neuron (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.03.036
Image credit: AI Art - Smiling Doctor w Huge Mechanical Brain - 2025
Biological Computer: Human Brain Cells on a Chip
Jun 2025, IEEE Spectrum
In a development straight out of science fiction, Australian startup Cortical Labs has released what it calls the world’s first code-deployable biological computer. The CL1, which debuted in March, fuses human brain cells on a silicon chip to process information via sub-millisecond electrical feedback loops.
Check the specs: https://corticallabs.com/cl1.html
Scientists detect light passing through entire human head, opening new doors for brain imaging
Jun 2025, phys.org
In case you didn't catch that - light passing through entire human head
The press article doesn't mention the method so I just copy from the main:
A pulsed laser is projected against the side of the head above the ear. Diametrically opposite the source, a demagnifying tapered fiber bundle is placed in close proximity to the scalp and redirects light to a photomultiplier tube. The PMT operates in photon counting mode, such that the detection of a photon produces an electrical pulse that can be synchronized with the laser emission to produce a photon ToF distribution using a time-correlated single-photon counting module.
University of Glasgow: Jack Radford et al, Photon transport through the entire adult human head, Neurophotonics (2025). DOI: 10.1117/1.NPh.12.2.025014
Brain-computer interface shows promise for decoding inner speech in real time
Aug 2025, phys.org
It's so good that it picks up the stuff you didn't mean to say out loud ...
The BCI was also able to pick up what some inner speech participants were never instructed to say, such as numbers when the participants were asked to tally the pink circles on the screen.The team also demonstrated a password-controlled mechanism that would prevent the BCI from decoding inner speech unless temporarily unlocked with a chosen keyword.
via Stanford University: Inner speech in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprostheses, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.015.
