Brain implant reduces seizures

I've always had a passion for medical devices. This particular device is implanted in the brain and is made by Neuropace, a startup company in Mountain View, CA. The Neuropace system is called the Responsive Neurostimulator and the company will probably pursue FDA approval next year. Sounds very interesting. It's great to see advances in medical device technology. Soon, we'll have implantable devices for many conditions where electrical shocks and jolts will effectively manage conditions. Who needs drugs if you can be treated with electricity? You can read more about this device on Technology Review.

How the brain invents the mind

How do you differentiate the brain and the mind? Watch this great MIT video. First, Susan Hockfield (MIT President) starts this presentation by speaking about the economy and sustainable energy. Then professor Rebecca Saxe outlines her research investigating the neural basis for a Theory of Mind -- how the human mind seems geared to “glean what others are thinking and feeling.”

From her work with children and adults, Saxe has determined that there’s a very specific region of the brain -- the right temporal-parietal junction -- dedicated to thinking about how others think. This area lights up in the fMRI scanner when people read stories involving another person’s beliefs and moral judgments, but not when they digest other kinds of written material. The RTPJ develops this special function slowly (young children don’t have it), and Saxe has discovered that she can interfere with this region’s activities, altering her subjects’ sense of what constitutes morally permissible behavior. She’s exploring whether these distinct neural networks develop differently in children with autism, with the hope of finding therapies that might someday help treat the disorder.

MIT on Brain Disorders

Watch this video as Professors Susan Hockfield (MIT President and Professor of Neuroscience) and Mriganka Sur (Newton Professor in Neuroscience
Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences) discuss brain disorders.