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Brain signals contain the code for your next move
Is it possible to tap into the signalling in the brain to figure out where you will go next? Hiroshi Ito, a researcher at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), can now say yes. Ito has just published a description of how this happens in this week's edition of Nature.
Ito and his colleagues, including his supervisors, 2014 Nobel Laureates May-Britt and Edvard Moser, sampled a specific neural pathway to figure out if it is the location of the mechanism that enables animals to code their plan to get from one place to another. Their study confirms that this pathway, the medial prefrontal cortex via a thalamic nucleus to the hippocampus, does.
The code that predicts behavior
The researchers designed a study that would help them better understand how this signalling pathway works. They trained rats to run in an alternating fashion in a continuous T-maze that actually looks more like the infinity sign with a wide waist, or stem.
"We learned that the differential strength of firing of specific neurons accurately predicts the trajectory the animal will chose," Ito said.
While the rats ran the maze, electrophysiological recordings were made from prefrontal cortex, thalamus and hippocampus. The researchers analysed the activity of neurons while the rat was on the stem of the maze, where it had to decide whether to go left or right at the upcoming junction.
The decision pathway
Researchers know there are pathways from the prefrontal cortex via the thalamus to the CA1 area of the hippocampus. However, there is no link to the CA3 area immediately adjacent to CA1 (which is also in the hippocampus). Given this, the researchers first checked to see if they could detect a difference in the coding between the two areas that would reflect the trajectory the rat would subsequently choose. There was a clear difference. The CA1 showed far more coding for any upcoming choice than the CA3.
The code was visible in the intensity of firing, although not in which cell fired, or where. To understand how this works, think of a choir all singing the same song, but where different voices are louder at the same point in the song during different performances. The words, melody, and singers are the same, but the change in the volume of each voice changes the performance. Since they are familiar with "the choir," the researchers looked for the conductor, which they found in the frontal cortex.
Researchers have known that the code for trajectory choice could be found in CA1. The researchers at the Kavli Institute showed that a similar code is present in nucleus reuniens (NR) in the thalamus as well as anterior cingulate (AC) and prelimbic cortex (PC), both in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The researchers continued to find out where the signals arise, and tested the contribution of the mPFC-NR pathway. The researchers were able to establish that without the input from mPFC through NR, the CA1 also loses its code for upcoming choice of trajectory. They were able to confirm this by blocking signalling in the NR, using two different approaches. This shows that the code needs mPFC and NR, much like a choir needs its conductor.
"Planning our movement to a desired location requires more than a map of where we are," Professor May-Britt Moser says. "We must have a sense of both where we are at the moment, and where we want to go at the same time. It seems that the cells involved in navigation use both internal and external clues to pinpoint exact locations, and on top of the firing pattern there is a code of differential firing intensity that contains information on the next move."
Moser explains that this intensity pattern appears to be under the guidance of the prefrontal cortex, a brain area known in primates for decision making and executive function.
"We believe these findings collectively suggest that the new pathway in charge of intended movement is crucial for animals to choose their actions to a desired place in a map," Moser said. "The data also provide evidence for a role of the thalamus in long-range communication between cortical regions."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150527134044.htm
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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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