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Researchers track short-term memory in near real time
University of Oregon researchers have tapped the rhythm of memories as they occur in near real time in the human brain.
Using electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes attached to the scalps of 25 student subjects, the team led by psychology doctoral student David E. Anderson captured synchronized neural activity while they held a simple oriented bar located within a circle in short-term memory.
The team, by monitoring these alpha rhythms, was able to decode the precise angle of the bar the subjects were locking onto and use that brain activity to predict which individuals could store memories with the highest quality or precision.
The findings are detailed in the May 28 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. A color image illustrating how the item in memory was tracked by rhythmic brain activity in the alpha frequency band (8 to 12 beats per second) is on the journal’s cover page to showcase the research.
Although past research has decoded thoughts via brain activity, standard approaches are expensive and limited in their ability to track fast-moving mental representations, said Edward Awh, a professor in the UO’s Department of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience. The new findings show that EEG measures of synchronized neural activity can precisely track the contents of memory at almost the speed of thought, he said.
“These findings provide strong evidence that these electrical oscillations in the alpha frequency band play a key role in a person’s ability to store a limited number of items in working memory,” Awh said. “By identifying particular rhythms that are important to memory, we’re getting closer to understanding the low-level building blocks of this really limited cognitive ability. If this rhythm is what allows people to hold things in mind, then understanding how that rhythm is generated — and what restricts the number of things that can be represented — may provide insights into the basic capacity limits of the mind.”
Past work, mainly using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has established that brain activity can track the content of memory. EEG, however, provides a much less expensive approach and can track mental activity with much a higher temporal resolution of about one-tenth of a second compared to about five seconds with fMRI.
“With EEG we get a fine-grained measure of the precise contents of memory, while benefiting from the superior temporal resolution of electrophysiological measures,” Awh said. “This EEG approach is a powerful new tool for tracking and decoding mental representations with high temporal resolution. It should provide us with new insights into how rhythmic brain activity supports core memory processes.”
Original press release: uoregon.edu
Source: http://neurogadget.com/2014/06/19/researchers-track-short-term-memory-near-real-time/10446
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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