Human Thought Can Control This Robot

See on Scoop.it - Psychology Update

The Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment project created a robot controlled by human thought, using magnetic resonance imaging.

Researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brain of a student as he imagined each individual limb. Scientists mapped out his brain wave patterns, and translated them into commands to make the robot move. The student was then able to control the robot’s movement entirely by thinking about moving.

See on mashable.com

via Tumblr Human Thought Can Control This Robot

Scientists Decode an Unborn Baby’s DNA. Is It Cause for Celebration — or Alarm?

See on Scoop.it - Psychology Update

Suspended in the blood of a pregnant woman — along with some added information from a dad-to-be’s saliva — lurks enough fetal DNA to map out an unborn baby’s entire genetic blueprint.

See on healthland.time.com

via Tumblr Scientists Decode an Unborn Baby’s DNA. Is It Cause for Celebration — or Alarm?

New Study Demystifies Neuroscience's Most Celebrated Case

See on Scoop.it - Psychology Update

It’s easy enough to understand the ghastly accident that befell poor Phineas Gage in Cavendish, Vermont on Sept. 13, 1848: the 25-year-old railroad worker was using an iron rod to tamp down blasting powder when the stuff exploded, sending the 43-inch-long, 13-pound rod through his left cheek and out the top of his head.

What’s not so easy to understand is why Gage survived the accident—or the precise reason for the dramatic change in his personality afterward.

See on huffingtonpost.com

via Tumblr New Study Demystifies Neuroscience's Most Celebrated Case

Prenatal Exposure to Insecticide Chlorpyrifos Linked to Alterations in Brain Structure and Cognition

See on Scoop.it - Psychology Update

Even low to moderate levels of exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos during pregnancy may lead to long-term, potentially irreversible changes in the brain structure of the child, according to a new brain imaging study by researchers from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Duke University Medical Center, Emory University, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The changes in brain structure are consistent with cognitive deficits found in children exposed to this chemical.

See on mailman.columbia.edu

via Tumblr Prenatal Exposure to Insecticide Chlorpyrifos Linked to Alterations in Brain Structure and Cognition