Send It

We all have from time to time to send large files that are to big for Email. A very usefull (and free) site is this: SENDUIT

Use it: You will like it. Simple and fast !

(and free)

Pay attention !!

How does the brain organize its work? And how does it heed what it needs to heed? Theories of brain organization focus on two distinct but complementary principles of brain organization: modularity, the existence of brain regions with specialized functions, and network connectivity, the integration of information from various brain regions that results in organized behavior. In the study under review here, the modular and network models appear to play specialized roles in directing the attention of monkeys seeking certain visual targets through either "top-down" or "bottom-up" attentional strategies. Modules versus networks In the modules-versus-network debate, modularity is probably the simpler brain model to understand. Clinical observation of individuals with brain damage, as well as brain-imaging studies (functional MRIs, or fMRIs) of healthy individuals, demonstrate that certain brain regions control specific cognitive processes, such as the ability to produce speech. For instance, in patients with nonfluent aphasia, which creates a selective inability to speak, comprehension of spoken language remains intact. In 1861 Paul Broca observed that damage to the left frontal lobe in an autopsied brain had produced nonfluent aphasia. Modern brain-imaging studies of patients with strokes to this area (now known as "Broca's area") confirmed Broca's theory. Moreover, fMRIs of healthy individuals reveal that the left frontal lobe is activated when subjects generate speech. Of course, that some brain areas specialize in certain functions does not exclude the possibility that those areas are also part of larger networks of brain regions communicating with one another. Although the modular model may accurately describe many cognitive functions, it is insufficient to explain complex cognitive processes that cannot be localized to isolated brain regions. It is unlikely that our ability to get the gist of a conversation, for instance, is the work of a single specialized brain module. Such complex behavior more likely arises from interactions between brain regions through network connectivity. In his 1995 book Memory in the Cerebral Cortex: An Empirical Approach to Neural Networks in the Human and Nonhuman Primate, UCLA neurologist Joaquin Fuster began an argument he extended in his 2002 work Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition. According to Fuster, new studies of brain networks have led to a "revolution in contemporary neuroscience." He contends that the empirical shift from a reductionist modular model to a holistic network model offers promise of accomplishing our long-term goal of resolving the mind-brain question. Fuster's conception of a network model of brain function includes several key notions: (1) Cognitive information is represented in wide, overlapping and interactive brain networks. (2) Such networks develop on a core of organized modules of elementary sensory and motor functions, to which they remain connected. (3) The cognitive code is a relational code, based on connectivity between discrete brain regions. (4) The code's diversity and specificity derive from the myriad possible combinations of those brain regions. (5) Any brain region can be part of many networks and thus of many percepts, memories, items of experience or personal knowledge. (6) A given brain network can serve several cognitive functions. (7) Cognitive functions consist of functional interactions within and between brain networks.

Read more on Mind Matters in Scientific American Blog

RU being served ?

RU Cafe

Maybe or at first sight this post has not much to do with brain science or neuroscientific signal analysis but it does point to a very natural source of serotonine. And we all know that neuroscientific blogaddicts should have a refill of that stuff at regular intervals. Should You happen to cruise Shangai and be in need of serotonine then by all means (this could be a medical emergency) go visit RU cafe: do a source analysis and find the best chocolat mouse in whole of China !! D E L I C I O U S (capital 64). And why you are at it try the unique rainbow soup and other dishes in this fantastic place: home for neuroscientists while touring Shangai. And say hello to Suzan and Greg from Georges.

read more here...

Brain Avatar Music ?

Some people pour music out of every brain. When they link brainwaves and let the music it generates sparkle and reflect as sound waves in liquid and light resonances something quite interesting could "see the light". Real time brain music ? Maestro... please.

See what happening on 1 st and 2 nd Nov 2007 between Braunschweig Brussels , Durban, Bangkok, Hang Zhouang and New York.

So better finetune Your brain to that event and surf here...

(if you are not into music check the roulette)

Brain Avatar Concert & Resonance Experiment November 1st - 9PM Musicians in Hang Zhou, Bangkok, Durban, Brussels, New York, and Braunschweig will each begin a solo concert, transmitting the music real-time to each city. During the concerts, brain activities of each musician will be recorded by the "Brain Avatar" which, created by Martin Schoene, is the first analogue visualization of real-time brain activity. The brainwaves, in their direct form as sound are projected as resonance in water and light. Emerging shapes and processes allow for visualization of mental states and movement of thought. November 2nd - 5PM FREE In the second part of this world concert, the musicians will play together in realtime. Their brainwaves are connected - a "Global Avatar" is composed from six solo Avatars. A new kind of merger ...

Free Brainscan for everybody

GET YOUR FREE BRAINSCAN HERE...

Just type in Your name (not mine please)

The clouds are the limit ?

Dennis Gannon, a computer scientist at Indiana University in Bloomington, knows all about bringing huge amounts of computer power to bear on complex scientific problems. He has at his disposal, for the purpose, Big Red, one of the world’s largest supercomputers, right there on the campus. But when Jong Youl Choi, a graduate student computer scientist at the university, approached him with a bioinformatics program that he had written, Gannon suggested they run it on Amazon’s EC2 Beta program, as translating it for Big Red would be too time-consuming. Last year, the Seattle-based e-commerce firm introduced a ‘cloud-computing’ option that provides access to an ever-expandable ‘cloud’ of powerful computer servers. Gannon and Choi set up three virtual computers and uploaded their program, which seeks matches for an unknown protein sequence from a massive national database. The job took about 15 minutes and cost them less than US$2.00. “It was easy,” Gannon says. Read on .....

Our amusing musical brain

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks Knopf/Picador: 2007. 400 pp. $26/£17.99 This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin Atlantic: 2007. 320 pp. £17.99 Think of a favourite piece of music — a pop song or classical piece that you’ve heard hundreds of times. Think about how it starts. When you can hear the tune in your head, sing, hum or whistle it (unless you’re in a library, in which case you might want to try this later). According to experiments done by Daniel Levitin and Perry Cook in the early 1990s, even if you have had no musical training, your rendition of the tune will probably be very close to the original in tempo, and — perhaps more surprisingly — also quite accurate in absolute pitch. Why should our brains be able to perform such a feat? Of what use are our musical powers and passions? And what can they tell us about how the brain works, or how — sometimes spectacularly — it doesn’t? Oliver Sacks, continuing in the tradition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, addresses these questions by offering a collection of ‘tales’ in Musicophilia, illustrating yet more ways in which our brains can take us by surprise. In This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin presents a more systematic account of what cognitive neuroscience has to say about how we process and respond to music. Both authors make the case.....read on

Bruno's Brain

I came to neurology while as a SciFi addict youngster reading a book called Donovan's Brain (Curt Siodmak) long before it got famous and became a scenario for a Hollywood movie. Nowadays my career could have a new turn trying to understaand the wonderfull brain of a mathematician. Fortunately I have a good manual to guide me on the discovery journey. Find it here. With a smile and wholehartedly dedicated to a wonderfull and generous friend , a beautifull mind called Bruno.

Buid Yourself a Cylon

If You are unfamiliar with Battlestar Galactica You might find this book very interesting. If , on the contrary You do know who Adama is - as you should-- then You might feel a bit "worried". GOOD !! reason the more to read this fascinating book. Remember the Cylons are robots with a plan....so read it now to learn to know your future opponents even better. But please ......do not tell them You read this here. They are kind a...eradicals.. This book presents practical design guidelines for the creation of non-numeric, autonomous cognitive machines, examining in detail component parts, realization principles and providing real-world examples for designers, researchers and advanced students in the field. Haikonen starts with an introduction to the topic of cognitive machines before moving on to examine associative neural networks, including a look at the limitations of traditional neural associators. Following this, basic circuit assemblies are described, as a building block for systems introduced later in the book. The next chapter presents perceptory processes required to understand the cognitive system, leading to a discussion of motion perception, setting out how motors and moving parts can be interfaced with the associative neural system in order that fluent motion based on perceived affordances can be achieved without numeric computations. The final chapters focus on the increasingly complex issues related to cognitive machines, such as the concept of machine emotions and ‘natural’ language in robot brains. The last chapter explains how all of these component parts are related to conscious machines.

Neuromath

A website about mathematical modelling of neuronal electrical activity. They organise a meeting in Rome (december 2007). This is the web site of COST Action BM0601: Advanced Methods For The Estimation Of Human Brain Activity And Connectivity.

The main objective of the NEUROMATH Action is to increase the knowledge on the mathematical methods able to estimate the cortical activity and connectivity in the human brain from non invasive neuroelectric and hemodynamic measurements. NEUROMATH is a COST Action in which scientists are called to harmonize their computational tools in order to offer a comprehensive approach to the problem of the estimation of brain activity and connectivity for sensory and cognitive behavioural tasks. NEUROMATH also offers to the young COST neuroscientists, mathematicians, physics, and engineers a comprehensive review of such methods as well as regular training courses and associated didactic material on this topic. The NEUROMATH Action includes selected laboratories from the following COST countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom.

Time Frequency Analysis

A frequently used tool in EEG and ERP recordings and analysis. for those who want in debt knowledge. Time Frequency Signal Analysis and Processing covers fundamental concepts, principles and techniques, treatment of specialised and advanced topics, methods and applications, including results of recent research. This book deals with the modern methodologies, key techniques and concepts that form the core of new technologies used in IT, multimedia, telecommunications as well as most fields of engineering, science and technology. It focuses on advanced techniques and methods that allow a refined extraction and processing of information, allowing efficient and effective decision making that would not be possible with classical techniques. The Author, fellow of IEEE for Pioneering contributions to time-frequency analysis and signal processing education, is an expert in the field, having written over 300 papers on the subject over a period pf 25 years. This is a REAL book, not a mere collection of specialised papers, making it essential reading for researchers and practitioners in the field of signal processing.

Brain Topography in Giessen germany

If You are subscribed to this years conference in GieBen --prounounce {Giessen}--You will be in the next picture. Esther Alonso and Ernesto Palmero from ANT will be as they present important work on the "inverse solution" by means of a new algorithm: swLoreta developed by them and implemented in the new version of ASA and ASALab.

The conference is headed by Prof SKrandies a world authority in the field. An overview of his publications here. WARNING: this list is indeed IMPRESSIVE !!!

Last years conference proceedings (english) here.

A wavelet Tutorial (german): finden sie hier.

Cognitrace

ANT's clinical psychophysiology package. I wrote a general introduction for it. You can download it for free or order it in print (more expensive).

NIRS BCI

Neuroengineering

A new discipline: neuroengineering. A new mag.

BCI and Covariate shift

An annoying problem in BCI is that data tend to shift from statistical distribution between the phase of training versus testing. Masashi Sugiyama and coauthors from Germany might have come up with a solution and make BCI training more robust. Read the pdf here Masashi Sugiyama1 , Benjamin Blankertz2 , Matthias Krauledat2, 3 , Guido Dornhege2 and Klaus-Robert Müller2, 3 (1) Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan (2) Fraunhofer FIRST.IDA, Berlin, Germany (3) Department of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Abstract A common assumption in supervised learning is that the input points in the training set follow the same probability distribution as the input points used for testing. However, this assumption is not satisfied, for example, when the outside of training region is extrapolated. The situation where the training input points and test input points follow different distributions is called the covariate shift. Under the covariate shift, standard machine learning techniques such as empirical risk minimization or cross-validation do not work well since their unbiasedness is no longer maintained. In this paper, we propose a new method called importance-weighted cross-validation, which is still unbiased even under the covariate shift. The usefulness of our proposed method is successfully tested on toy data and furthermore demonstrated in the brain-computer interface, where strong non-stationarity effects can be seen between calibration and feedback sessions.