With his eyes closed and electrodes connecting his brain to a tablet computer, a man with tetraplegia describes the warm, silky fur of a cat beneath his fingertips. Another participant reports feeling the smooth, cool surface of an apple and the rough texture of a terry cloth towel – all through a hand that hasn’t … Read more
When you’re looking at your phone, your visual neurons talk directly to your frontal cortex, creating a bridge between perception and higher cognition. This key finding from a landmark seven-year experiment challenges our understanding of consciousness, suggesting neither of two dominant theories fully explains how our sense of awareness arises. A team of over 200 … Read more
The arms race between deepfake creators and detectors has reached a critical turning point. Researchers have discovered that modern deepfakes can now replicate something previously thought impossible: a realistic human heartbeat. Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute and Humboldt University of Berlin found that current deepfake videos inadvertently mimic the subtle skin color fluctuations caused by … Read more
A simple blood test may soon catch brain cancers months before symptoms appear, thanks to artificial intelligence that detects previously invisible tumor signals. Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a liquid biopsy technique that identifies brain cancers with unprecedented accuracy, potentially transforming how these deadly tumors are diagnosed. Brain cancer detection has long frustrated physicians. Most … Read more
The worlds of quantum mechanics and neural networks have collided in a new system that’s setting benchmarks for solving previously intractable optimization problems. A multi-university team led by Shantanu Chakrabartty at Washington University in St. Louis has introduced NeuroSA, a neuromorphic architecture that leverages quantum tunneling mechanisms to reliably discover optimal solutions to complex mathematical … Read more
In a significant development for spinal cord injury treatment, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have created a neural decoder that bridges the communication gap between brain and spine, potentially opening new avenues for rehabilitation. The research team, led by Ismael Seáñez, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at WashU, demonstrated that brain activity can … Read more
A new investigation has uncovered surprising risks associated with spiritual and meditative practices, revealing that certain techniques and personal experiences can trigger unexpected mental phenomena with potentially profound consequences. Researchers from a multinational team have mapped out the complex landscape of what they call “emergent phenomenology” (EP) — sudden, unusual mental or physical experiences that … Read more
In a development that could reshape AI efficiency, researchers at ETH Zurich have created an algorithm enabling smaller language models to match the performance of systems 40 times their size, potentially solving one of AI’s most persistent challenges. The method, called SIFT (Selecting Informative data for Fine-Tuning), targets the fundamental problem of uncertainty in large … Read more
Despite rapid advances in artificial intelligence, humans still maintain a significant edge when it comes to understanding social interactions, according to new research from Johns Hopkins University that reveals fundamental limitations in AI’s ability to interpret human behavior. The study, presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations, found that even the most sophisticated AI … Read more
The hidden financial tsunami of dementia will crash across America with unprecedented force this year, reaching $781 billion in total economic burden, according to new research from the University of Southern California. This staggering figure, revealed yesterday in the first of planned annual estimates from a multidisciplinary USC-led team, goes far beyond traditional accounting of … Read more
A data-driven look at neuroscience and AI, for investors, policymakers, and innovators.