Pascal learning Theatre

fascinating videolectures on different brain analysis methods.

A pure MUST

Start here...

Gamma en Microsaccades: beware

Is gamma activity caused by microsaccades ? That is what Yuval et al think (cfr article in Neuron). The induced gamma-band EEG response (iGBR) recorded on the scalp is widely assumed to reflect synchronous neural oscillation associated with object representation, attention, memory, and consciousness. The most commonly reported EEG iGBR is a broadband transient increase in power at the gamma range ∼200–300 ms following stimulus onset. A conspicuous feature of this iGBR is the trial-to-trial poststimulus latency variability, which has been insufficiently addressed. Here, we show, using single-trial analysis of concomitant EEG and eye tracking, that this iGBR is tightly time locked to the onset of involuntary miniature eye movements and reflects a saccadic “spike potential.” The time course of the iGBR is related to an increase in the rate of saccades following a period of poststimulus saccadic inhibition. Thus, whereas neuronal gamma-band oscillations were shown conclusively with other methods, the broadband transient iGBR recorded by scalp EEG reflects properties of miniature saccade dynamics rather than neuronal oscillations.

M&M: Music Movies and Emotions

MUSIC Maestro please...... Interesting link for people who care for movies and emotions. Watch the Scary Mary Poppins if You are in for a Mismatch and see what music can do with your emotions.

"Emotions are bridges that span the void between our expectations and twisted perceptions of reality"

Thanks to Betty for initiating this one.

Of Mouse and Men

Now, why is this reminding me of a certain experiment with self stimulating rats, handles and cages ?

Microcircuits

From circuits to Neurons and back

Some interesting books glueing together synapses, math, neurons and circuits.

ESANN 2009

Join us here.

Submission of papers	21 November 2008
Notification of acceptance	17 January 2009
ESANN conference	22 - 24 April 2009

Proceedings and journal special issue

The proceedings will include all communications presented to the conference (tutorials, oral and posters), and will be available on-site.

Extended versions of selected papers will be published in the Neurocomputing journal (Elsevier).

Location

The ESANN'2009 conference will be held in Bruges (also called the "Venice of the North"), one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Europe. Bruges can be reached by train from Brussels in less than one hour. The town of Bruges is worldwide known, and famous for its architectural style, its canals, and its pleasant atmosphere.

The conference will be organized in a hotel located near the center (walking distance) of the town. There is no obligation for the participants to stay in this hotel. See "hotels" for details.

Kaos scillatooooo o o o o ooor

Not really neuroscience but well.. nearly as funny.

Thanks Chris for showing this (look at Chris's video and turn your sound system on)

Kaossilator

Honey, have you seen my eyes ?

For many blind or partially sighted people, implants that stimulate healthy nerve cells connected to their retinas could help restore some normal vision. Researchers have been working on such implants since the 1980s but with only limited success. A major hurdle is making an implant that can stay in the eye for years without declining in performance or causing inflammation.

Read on.....

Most Expensive keyboard in the world

ART LEBEDEV OPTIMUS MAXIMUS KEYBOARD 113 OLEDS - BLACK Each key is a little screen that can display images , video etc.. Nice for Neurophysiological millionaires : a key for ongoing P50, sleep EEG, ... Dream on....

Chaos in Crete

An interesting conference with entries on neurophysiolgy and biosignals. Read the proceedings abstracts and papers of the 2008 conference here

Open Mindedness starts here

Mission in Time Space

Coming soon in a Second Life movie theatre in a galaxy not far from Yours..

Nature Video is proud to present five short films, on the future of physics. The films comprise conversations with Nobel Prize winning physicists George Smoot, David Gross, Gerardus ‘t Hooft, John Hall and William Phillips, covering dark matter, dark energy, the Large Hadron Collider, space-time and quantum computing. Recorded at the 2008 Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, students willingly don the role of interviewers and make the most of this one off question time! Two of the five films will be premiered at a special screening in Second Life and you are cordially invited to attend. The screening will take place on 2 October 2008 at 10am PST, 1pm EST and 6pm London time. RSVP is required, please email us at Missions in Space-Time. Instructions are available on how to create an account in Second Life here. Subsequently, each of the five films will be serialized, each week, on iTunes and nature.com starting with the first on 3 October 2008.

Neuroinformatics Support Tools

A toolset from Riken.

SSVEP: Steady State VEP's in BCI

The RIKEN way of BCI. It allows a very large scale of commands to be transmitted and decoded extending the BCI functionality. read it here....

Information Flow in the Brain

EEG activity propagation after finger movement in alpha (above) and beta (below) bands The movie shows the dynamics of transmissions during voluntary finger movement experiment [4]. The time scale covers period from 5 seconds before the movement to 3 seconds after the movement. The beta decrease and the surround effect are visible.

Direct Transfert Function: DTF Tutorial

Estimating the progression of flow of information in the human brain by analysing the multivariate signals from multiple simulaneous time series from often high density EEG channels is no trivial task. However it is very important that we do not fall asleep on this one. By following this tutorial, chances are You will stay awake and let the new information be the source of an activating learning experience. After all, that's what are brains are for.

START HERE

German Neuroscience Portal

The global scale of neuroinformatics offers unprecedented opportunities for scientific collaborations between and among experimental and theoretical neuroscientists. To fully harvest these possibilities, coordinated activities are required to improve key ingredients of neuroscience: data access, data storage, and data analysis, together with supporting activities for teaching and training. There is a statement paper in pdf (cfr read on) read on........

EEG.pl

After 70 years of clinical applications of electroencephalography, visual analysis still remains the only accepted method. Application of signal processing methods in clinical electroencephalography is explicitly discouraged [1]. Clinical neuroscience faces a tremendous inter-subject variability. Given also the variety of methods--and their flavors--applied for the analysis of EEG/MEG, a coherent progress may be achieved only via comparison of the same algorithms on large amount of datasets from different laboratories. Our story begins in 1994, when the matching pursuit algorithm was proposed by mathematicians [2]. Authors provided a free implementation, which made possible instant applications to EEG. After a decade, it led to a thesis about the methodological unification of visual and computer EEG analysis [3]. From the very beginning, we shared our implementations of the algorithm and other relevant software. Around 2001, when the idea of creating Polish neuroinformatics network was put forward by prof. Andrzej Wróbel, we created EEG.pl: "an open repository for software, publications and datasets related to the analysis of brain potentials". Unfortunately, sole availability of complete algorithms with source code does not imply the dissemination of methodology within the main target audience of clinical neurophysiologists. Therefore, signalml.org hosts a large project of an open system for EEG display and analysis, which offers access to the advanced methods of signal processing in a commercial-grade, user-friendly environment. It features an open interface for incorporating advanced signal processing methods, while the inherent incompatibility of various digital EEG formats is addressed via the SignalML metadescription [4]. On the low level, it provides the first user friendly interface to the matching pursuit decomposition of signals. Higher level functions, implemented via the interface to the Matlab(R) code, include automatic detection of artifacts and sleep stages in polysomnographic recordings.

Blue Brain

The Blue Brain Project

Henry Markram^1*

1 Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Simulation-based research has become possible and has replaced experiments in several sciences when critical mass is reached in experimental data and computing power. In life science in general, and in neuroscience in particular, both data and computing requirements are however extreme. The Blue Brain Project is pioneering a strategy to build a facility that can absorb biological data and drive the computing needs that would support simulation-based research for brain research. The first challenge in the project was to database, reconstruct, simulate, visualize and analyze a neocortical column of a 2 week old somatosensory rat cortex at cellular level precision. The facility now allows the building of the neocortical column (and any detailed neural models) according to biological specifications and is designed to allow continual refinement of the biological accuracy. The process of building the model column has exposed fundamental principles of circuit design and operation that were not known before and the models can be used to replicate experiments and explore in silico far beyond the technological limitations imposed on experiments in order to make predictions for future experiments. The next phase of the project aims to allow biological refinement down to the molecular level and to expand the facility to allow whole-brain simulation-based research. The rapid increase in computational power and increased volume and quality of data representations of biological processes will allow progressively deeper exploration of the complexity of the brain and more detailed hypothesis testing. We conclude that simulation-based research is a viable new approach to understanding the structure, function and dysfunctions of the brain.

Put some ART in WEKA

WEKA is a fantastic data mining tool but lacked functionality to use it in ERP reserach. This is going to change soon thanks to Jindrich Ciniburk and Václav Souhrada . Introduction: The process of preprocessing, processing and classification of EEG/ERP signals is a very complex task, for which various software tools are used. However, some methods are used frequently in different stages of the task solution. Thus we decided to use advantages of software WEKA, which represents very powerful framework with strict rules. It also contains a great amount of methods such as wavelet transformation, Bayes classificators in many versions, artificial neural networks, decision trees etc. However WEKA software does not include some algorithms and data structures important for EEG/ERP research and signal processing. At first we designed a new way how WEKA could handle relational data, because complex data obtained by EEG devices need to be organized in 1:N relationship at least (see Figure 1). This proposal includes design of a new data file format and also new methods for data preprocessing and preparation to enable their usage within standard methods included in WEKA. This part is based on SQL queries; it means that it is not necessary to store data only into files. WEKA and our plug-in can read data directly from database. Read here

EEG visualisation

Visualisation of multichannel EEG data is no trivial task. One tries to maximize the information gain obtained from multichannel time series without cluttering the screen with useless details. A nice trial can and some clear ideas can be found here. A typical data-driven visualization of electroencephalography (EEG) coherence is a graph layout, with vertices representing electrodes and edges representing significant coherences between electrode signals. A drawback of this layout is its visual clutter for multichannel EEG. To reduce clutter, we introduce the concept of functional unit (FU) as a data-driven region of interest (ROI). An FU is a spatially connected set of electrodes recording pairwise significantly coherent signals, represented in the coherence graph by a spatially connected clique. To detect FUs, we developed a maximal clique based method, which is very time consuming, and a much more efficient watershed-based greedy method, thus making interactive visualization of multichannel EEG coherence possible. An example is shown in the figure below. Brain responses were collected from three subjects using an EEG cap with 119 scalp electrodes. During a so-called P300 experiment, each participant was instructed to count and report the number of (rare) target tones of 2000 Hz, alternated with standard tones of 1000 Hz which were to be ignored. To each electrode a cell is associated and all cells belonging to an FU have a corresponding color. Lines connect FU centers if the inter-FU coherence exceeds a significance threshold. The color of a line depends on the inter-FU coherence. Shown are FU maps for target stimuli data, with FUs larger than 5 cells, for the 1-3Hz EEG frequency band (top row) and for 13-20Hz (bottom row), for three datasets. Read on

Brain Food

All video's and abstracts from this conference are at your disposal.

Multichannel EEG: Gyorgi Buzsaki

How does the brain orchestrate perceptions, thoughts and actions from the electrical and biochemical dynamics of its neurons? Brain organization exhibits distinct patterns at several levels of scale, ranging from the synapses, to local circuits, and to interacting systems. Addressing these challenging issues requires methods with sufficiently high temporal and spatial resolution of neuronal activity in both local and global networks. Although numerous methods, such as macroscopic and microscopic imaging, molecular biological tools and pharmacological manipulations, are available to study brain activity, in the end all these indirect observations should be converted back into a common currency—the format of neuronal spike trains—to understand the brain’s control of behavior. Specific behaviors emerge from the interaction of neurons and neuronal pools. Studying these processes requires simultaneous monitoring of the activity of large numbers of individual neurons in multiple brain regions. A major goal therefore is to record from statistically representative samples of identified neurons from several local areas while minimally interfering with brain activity.

Micro-machined silicon electrode arrays can record from large numbers of neurons and monitor local neural circuits in behaving animals. Synaptic interactions can be identified, which can serve to segregate excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Current methods allow for recoding neurons as far as 100 µm or more form the soma and thick apical dendrites. In such volume of tissue hundreds or thousands of neurons reside. Isolation and identification of multiple neurons from a single recording site is not possible because all aspects of spikes (duration, amplitude, rise time, decay time) can vary dramatically in different states and behaviors. The use of two or more recording sites allows for the triangulation of distances because the amplitude of the recorded spike is a function of the distance between the neuron and the electrode. Often, this task is accomplished with four or eight closely spaced recording sites. Despite the numerous neuron clustering algorithms developed in various laboratories, in current practice only a small percentage of the available population (typically 5-15 neurons per electrode) can be reliably separated. The remaining neurons are either silent or too small in amplitude, thus preventing reliable separation. Ideally, every part of a probe surface placed in the brain should have monitoring sites. Current industrial technology presently uses almost ten times smaller line features than what is possible at academic institutions. Thus, it is not an unrealistic goal to record from nearly all neurons in a small volume of the brain in behaving animals. Hardware and modeling strategies for increasing neuron yield will be discussed.

Regularly spaced recording sites also allow for the monitoring of extracellular current flow with high spatial resolution and this mesoscopic signal can be used to determine the operation modes of local networks. Recording from representatively large portion of the network also allows for studying behavior-dependent synaptic modification among members of the network.

Blue Brain : sheds gamma light..

Blue brain is producing gamma waves. Now that is fascinating, is it not ?? Silicon coming alive ? First glance on the new breed of artificial brains. Times are really exciting. Surf to this blog (neurostimulant) or this conference.

When Fermion meets Boson

Just when we thought that clinical neurophysiology and neurosciences were complicated, this theory: "Supersymmetry" hits the Blog. Hopefully, the people in Geneva will soon be able to restart their Collider toy (LHC) (has been stopped for technical reasons) and show us the existence of these particles related to breaking of supersymmetry, a phenomenon that for the moment can only be understood from complicated grid calculations and models. read more .....

When Fermion meets Boson

Just when we thought that neurophysiology was complicated this message hit the blog. Supersymmetry ! Hopefully will be demonstrated at geneva when they succeed in restarting their LHC (has stopped recently). fascinating theory.

Hope for PTSD

Formation and extinction of aversive memories in the mammalian brain are insufficiently understood at the cellular and molecular levels. Using the novel metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) agonist AMN082, we demonstrate that mGluR7 activation facilitates the extinction of aversive memories in two different amygdala-dependent tasks. Conversely, mGluR7 knockdown using short interfering RNA attenuated the extinction of learned aversion. mGluR7 activation also blocked the acquisition of Pavlovian fear learning and its electrophysiological correlate long-term potentiation in the amygdala. The finding that mGluR7 critically regulates extinction, in addition to acquisition of aversive memories, demonstrates that this receptor may be relevant for the manifestation and treatment of anxiety disorders.

Read here

BCI: Road into the future

Brain-computer interface (BCI) research deals with establishing communication pathways between the brain and external devices where such pathways do not otherwise exist. Throughout the world, such research is surprisingly extensive and expanding. BCI research is rapidly approaching a level of first-generation medical practice for use by individuals whose neural pathways are damaged, and use of BCI technologies is accelerating rapidly in nonmedical arenas of commerce as well, particularly in the gaming, automotive, and robotics industries. The technologies used for BCI purposes are cutting-edge, enabling, and synergistic in many interrelated arenas, including signal processing, neural tissue engineering, multiscale modeling, systems integration, and robotics.

This WTEC study gathered information on worldwide status and trends in BCI research to disseminate to government decisionmakers and the research community. The study reviewed and assessed the state of the art in sensor technology, the biotic-abiotic interface and biocompatibility, data analysis and modeling, hardware implementation, systems engineering, functional electrical stimulation, noninvasive communication systems, and cognitive and emotional neuroprostheses in academic research and industry. The study also compared the distinctly different foci, range, and investment levels of BCI research programs in the United States, Canada, China, Europe, and Japan.

read more

After I Robot we have iplant

Put your iplant "here" Start feeling good.

Running on Dopamine

ReMind Your Brain

LOW RESOLUTION BRAIN ELECTROMAGNETIC TOMOGRAPHY (LORETA / sLORETA), by R.D. Pascual-Marqui

LOW RESOLUTION BRAIN ELECTROMAGNETIC TOMOGRAPHY (LORETA / sLORETA), by R.D. Pascual-Marqui

LHC: Day 1 of the next Universe

A benchmark day in fundamental physics. To be honoured.

EPIC XV

Go there !

LHC

It may not be neuroscience but as one of the most scientific images of our (and future) times this little spider deserves a mention in this as well as all other blogs all over the world. Enter the magnificent realm of the Large Hadron Collider (on your own hazard).

Neuronal Music

Not what You would call a celestial symphonical masterpiece but still very interesting. Computer-generated music based on electrical recordings of brain activity during wakefulness or sleep. Those are taken from multiunit recordings of 8 neurons in cerebral cortex (Destexhe et al., J Neurosci, 1999). A given neuron was associated to a fixed tone, and every time this neuron fires, a note is emitted. The "melody" produced gives an idea about the distributed firing activity of those neurons..

EEG hardware not expensive

Get it in the PRC. 24-32 ch. 2400 USD. Laptop not included. It does not come cheaper then that (or does it..?)

DNA computing

Be amazed !! Be enchanted !! Be ready !

Brain Blog

Worth a visit. Lot's of interesting stuff and ongoing discussions.

FBM lab geneva

Makers of Cartool

Brain Topography

Has been relaunched. An interesting edition on emotion and ERP processing (free pdf).

The color Chrome

Click to get it:

Loreta on a Mac ?

It is possible but: read what a commentator said about it. The virtual window systems that allow you to run Windows XP etc in a window on a Mac tend to use only one CPU or processor at a time. They also impose some significant additional penalties on access to memory, filesystems, etc. If you want to run Windows on systems ordinarily running OS/X, then you should consider setting up Apple's BootCamp (free software) that allows you to choose to run either OS/X or Windows (but not both at the same time) whenever you boot your machine - providing full access to CPUs / processors, memory, filesystems, etc - without any virtualization for the best possible performance. On the other hand, if you want to use Mac specific tools while running LORETA you might consider using Parallels or VMware - though your raw compute power will suffer - and you may need more memory if your application is memory intensive - as are most 3D volume imaging packages.

Take a note: use a.nnotate 4 Teamwork

As a research team we often have lots of metings to organise and lots of documents to supervise. One often uses mailists and streams of emails but things can easily get cloggeed in time and obscured as far as versions and supplementary corrections or annotations are added by different parties.

That is where a website/service as A.nnotate can come in handy.

Try it ( and it gives You a free pdf converter).

Neurotraces

An interesting website dedicated to neurophysiology (as we like them). Lot's og good technical stuff (Scilab based) and practical tutorials.

Congratulations !

Free Matlab:-> Scilab