Tootfinder

A study of ~1,500 US workers finds AI use can reduce burnout but also cause "AI brain fry", a mental fatigue from using AI tools beyond one's cognitive capacity (Harvard Business Review)
https://hbr.org/2026/03/when-using-ai-leads-to-brain-fry

When Using AI Leads to “Brain Fry”
As firms increasingly incentivize employees to build and oversee complex teams of agents—for example, by measuring and rewarding token consumption as a proxy for performance—people are finding themselves pushed to their cognitive limits. Participants in a recent study described a “buzzing” feeling or a mental fog with difficulty focusing, slower decision-making, and headaches. The authors call this phenomenon “AI brain fry,” defined as mental fatigue from excessive use or oversight…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

⚡ Newly identified brain circuit and cells link prior experiences to appetite
#brain

Newly identified brain circuit and cells link prior experiences to appetite
Our past experiences shape how much we eat and where and what we choose to eat. Using preclinical models, researchers from Mass General Brigham and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have identified brain cells that translate contextual information into appetite control.

#Shitpost #Shitposting #ShamelesslyStolenFromSomewhereElseOnTheInternetHonestlyICantKeepTrackOfThisStuffAnymore

Chinese company #Gestala, founded and led by Phoenix Peng, aims to achieve whole-brain reading, writing, and modulation through phased-array #ultrasound https://www.gestala.com

格式塔科技 (Gestala) - 超声波脑机接口 | Ultrasound BCI & Neuromodulation
格式塔科技 (Gestala) 是全球领先的超声波脑机接口公司，专注超声神经调控与功能性超声成像。Gestala pioneers Ultrasound BCI, Neuromodulation, and Functional Ultrasound Imaging (fUS) for better brain health.

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

The 49ers are flawed. Can Kyle Shanahan's brain be the difference? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6952661/2026/01/08/49ers-playoffs-kyle-shanahan-christian-mccaffrey/

This is you brain on Doom?
Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through #Doom
#games
https://www.

Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through Doom
: What hath science wrought?

Lego unveils the Smart Play platform, with a brick powered by a custom chip that connects to compatible minifigures and tags for interactive lights and sounds (Jeremy White/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/lego-smart-brick-new-digital-brain/

Lego’s Smart Brick Gives the Iconic Analog Toy a New Digital Brain
The new sensor-packed Smart Play Brick will land this spring as part of a special Star Wars collection. The update adds interactive lights and sound to the Lego experience—including the Minifigs.

mmmm ok maybe I do need to start taking my anti intrusive night time thoughts meds again. the intrusive thoughts that they were originally prescribed for stopped so I haven't taken them in months but now I seem to have acquired new ones. mainly just my brain repeatedly shouting about how gross and ugly I am

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 54480 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

@… draw for me a vivid photograph of a middle aged man having a transparent head revealing a mechanical brain that is lit up in different colours. Beside him there is a robot cat with lit blue eyes. Tje background is an empty room

Lovely piece found in my #lrb backlog about handwriting, the brain and the “line that is not stupid”
Anne Carson · Beware the man whose handwriting sways like a reed in the wind #psychology #amreading

Random 4:30am thoughts on “letting sounds be sounds”…
When one’s attention shifts from “what is making this sound?” to “how is this sound unfolding in time?” the brain engages musical processing pathways like temporal prediction, pattern extraction, motor simulation, affective resonance, etc.
This is why the same sound can be alleged background noise one moment and highly musical the next. Nothing external changes, but the listening stance does. You’re perceiving structure in the…

What it's like to have a brain implant for 5 years https://www.wired.com/story/synchron-brain-computer-interface-five-years-als/ (archived at

What It’s Like to Have a Brain Implant for 5 Years
No one has had a Synchron brain-computer interface longer than Rodney Gorham. He's still finding new ways to use it.

I spent way too much time writing up this Terms of Service for my website.
By viewing this website, you agree that I have permission to inject words, images, and other content into your brain. 1400 words - 7 minutes
https://felix.dognebula.com/art/terms-of-service.html…

"I've been using OmniOutliner for 20 years, and it's truly the best (and most trusted) system I've found to stop trying to use my brain as a filing cabinet."
— Phil Alden Robinson, Director and Screenwriter (whose films include Field of Dreams, Sneakers, and The Sum of All Fears)
https://en.w…

Hm, Doom läuft inzwischen auf Zahnbürsten und nun lernen pythonprogrammierte Gehirnzellen das Spielen von Doom in einer Wochen. Hey, was soll schief gehen, Skynet hat auch mal klein angefangen ;) :D
Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week: https://www.

I've been seeing more and more regular tech headlines that when I read em, my brain thinks, *what in the FUCK could I have just possibly READ just now*. So, then I bookmark em, so I can look at em like, yknow, probably never

"But should we be surprised by this chaos? As senior editor Jack Mirkinson writes, “The president is a congenital liar who loses a little more brain function with each passing day.” Perhaps there’s another reason we’re now at war, however: Israel has been longing for one. And “that has the potential to erode both the US-Israeli relationship and Israel’s already shaky standing with the American people,” Mirkinson notes."
#USPolitics

Interesting
#ai

Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week
Neuron-powered computer chips can now be easily programmed to play a first-person shooter game, bringing biological computers a step closer to useful applications

"President with the most brain scans." 😞

Flying drones with your eyes: the brain scientist developing Israel's future battlefield tech https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/skgser7wwg Another area her department explores is sensory substitution. "Can people learn to 'see' with sound?" she asks.

Flying drones with your eyes: the brain scientist developing Israel’s future battlefield tech
Once classified, Dr. Alona Barnea now reveals how Israel’s Defense Ministry is testing mind-controlled drones, AI ‘digital twins’ of commanders and silent brain-based communication, technologies that until recently sounded like science fiction

Visual Function Profiles via Multi-Path Aggregation Reveal Neuron-Level Responses in the Drosophila Brain
Jiangping Xie, Ruohan Ren, Xiao Zhou, Ao Zheng, Jiasong Zhu, Wenyu Jiang, Ziran Zhao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06934

✨ Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-noninvasive-approach-boosting-brain-lymphatic.html

Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
Scientists from Monash University are partnering with colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., to develop a new, high-tech approach for treating ischemic stroke by enhancing removal of toxic waste products from the brain.

I think the word that David Frum should lead with the first 2 minutes in https://youtu.be/6zzK5K1ig-Y?si=2-J2Qlimh23VfPHS , " Facts vs. Clicks: How Algorithms Reward Extremism | The David Frum Show x Galaxy Brain " is fascism or dictatorship. Why doesn't he do this? Domin…

A new study suggests that #dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain.
Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive,
disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue.
When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned.
This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in …

Scientists found a way to restore brain blood flow in dementia
A new study suggests that dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain. Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive, disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue. When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned. This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in dementia.

whyyyy does my brain want me to extend my hoarding 😂

Ĉu pensado dependas de lingvo? Aperas pli da atestaĵo ke la respondo estas ne.
(angle):
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-polyglot-neuroscientist-resolving-how-the-brain-parses-language-20251205/

The Polyglot Neuroscientist Resolving How the Brain Parses Language | Quanta Magazine
Is language core to thought, or a separate process? For 15 years, the neuroscientist Ev Fedorenko has gathered evidence of a language network in the human brain — and has found some similarities to LLMs.

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

Study Finds 40% of fMRI Brain Scans Misread Neural Activity
https://ground.news/article/study-finds-40-of-fmri-brain-scans-misread-neural-activity_7aa5a7

A few months after handing in my thesis and receiving my Master of Science degree in 2022, ChatGPT was released. Essentially, nothing about how I solve problems has changed since then, but I had to continuously observe the brain drain around me. It's weird how the majority of people suddenly treat anything an LLM spits out as truth while I stick to good old search engines (with the additional hurdle of now having to filter LLM garbage from my search results).

Behind the Blog: Using Your Brain https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-using-your-brain/

I think I should first write notes on paper and _then_ evaluate buying an e-ink tablet, but my brain wants to skip the first step

#Birds #birdwatching The reason for superiority: https://neurosciencenews.com/birdwatch

Expertise Protects Against Cognitive Decline - Neuroscience News
Neuroscience News provides research news for neuroscience, neurology, psychology, AI, brain science, mental health, robotics and cognitive sciences.

Canadians, do you think, like Canadaland's Stephen Marche, that Canadian nationalism is a 1960s - Waffle, I guess - phenomenon?
"I just don't think of that period [post-WWI] as being hyper-nationalistic. I think of nationalism as born in 1965 from Margaret Atwood's brain."
As a historian, I know that left nationalism in the 60s was an important phenomenon, but the notion that some might think that Canadian nationalism was born then hurts my brain.

#1314 Jay Baruchel's CanCon Manifesto
“ If you think the world is better with Canada in it then you have to accept that certain things have to happen for that to continue.” -Jay Baruchel

Partner: I get Pink Floyd and The Who confused.
Me: But… how!? They don’t sound anything alike. They’re both British, but… how?
Partner: I know they’re totally different, but in middle school there was this kid who always wore either a Pink Floyd shirt or a The Who shirt, so ever since then my brain confuses the two.
Me: Brains are weird.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #Early
Wargirl:
🎵 Lost Inside My Brain
#Wargirl
https://wargirl.bandcamp.com/track/lost-inside-my-brain
https://open.spotify.com/track/3fZ2aU9vLCHYYpzj7hp9s0

I’ve been seen.

🛑 Hesitation is costly in sports but essential to life – neuroscientists identified its brain circuitry
https://theconversation.com/hesitation-is-costly-in-sports-but-essential-to-life-neuroscientists-iden…

Hesitation is costly in sports but essential to life – neuroscientists identified its brain circuitry
There are specific parts of the brain that trigger hesitation in times of uncertainty.

Brain-aligning of semantic vectors improves neural decoding of visual stimuli #BCI

Saw somebody use the acronym "SAHM" to mean "stay at home mom" but my brain immediately goes "store AH into... memory?" (like a cousin of LAHF)

Nasal spray as noninvasive brain tumor treatment developed by researchers
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5663293-nasal-drops-fight-deadly-brain-cancer-research/

I've been bothered by Gluteus Medius. I've tried "activation exercises"—if you have a name for them, I did them. All I got in reply was "You wish!" 🤬
There is an awkward silence in the hip now. The hip is making new noises now. Which makes the internal dialogue weird:
"Hey, brain!"
"What do you want hip?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
*silence*
"Hey, brain?"
"What do you want …

“Brain Drain” or Temporary Wartime Realities? How the Number and Quality of Applicants to Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions Have Changed Since the Start of the Full-Scale Invasion: https://benborges.xyz/2026/02/19/brain-drain-or-temporary-wartime.html

You try and help. You try and make things a little better in whatever small way you can. You think, “hey, maybe at least there will be some respite now… maybe things can start to get better” and, just as your foolish little brain starts to believe it, the fuckers who fuck everything up for everyone but themselves – and somehow are never held to account for any of it – go and fuck things up even further. It’s fucking depressing. I mean I don’t know how we’re not all just fucking depressed eve…

Q&A with Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak on building a general-purpose brain for robots, standing out among big tech's robotics efforts, the path to AGI, and more (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/skild-ai-ceo-robotics-brain-davos

Skild AI's CEO on building one brain for every robot
My full Sources Live interview with Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak from Davos.

Bloomberg: Brain tech startup Science Corp. Raises $230 million to treat blindness https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-05/brain-tech-startup-science-corp-raises-230-million-to-treat-blindness (archived …

The Austrian German term for managers who push bullshit like this is "dem hams ins Hirn gschissn", which translates as "someone shat into their brain".
(This about the thinly veiled workplace surveillance stuff [they call it "bonus system" or some shit] Meta is pushing on their employees.)

🎧 Earbuds can be used to monitor brain health
#sensors

Earbuds can be used to monitor brain health
An international research team has uncovered the next frontier in monitoring brain health, and the key is in technology that millions of people are already using every day—earbuds. The world-first study found that commercially available earbuds have the capability to detect and classify brain activity, simply by measuring subtle changes in users' hearing. The team used acoustic sensors in earphones to assess cognitive load—the mental effort that shapes learning, task performance and early c…

My brain glitches every time I see some politician, CEO, journalist, artist, etc. posting on Twitter and being quoted by news outlets who, surprise, also are on Twitter. Look, I can only speak for my tiny person, but joining Twitter and getting comfortable on it 16 years ago wasn't any harder than joining Mastodon or Bluesky
1. If you are on X because otherwise you'll lose some of that sweet cash revenue, well, fuck you
2. If you are on X because of the above person, well,…

EPA Repeals Regulations for Mercury and Toxic Air Pollutants From Power Plants
Environmental and health groups said the change will make people sicker and supports a dying industry
https://www.thenewlede.org/2026/02/epa-rep…

EPA repeals Biden-era coal rules aimed at limiting brain-harming pollution
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed Biden-era regulations that forced power plants to cut harmful pollutants including brain-damaging mercury and particulate matter, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Friday.

"The effectiveness of sensory substitution technology is tied to a fundamental principle that parallels Newton's: that perceptual qualities we experience are not tied to any particular sensory channel but are generated by the brain." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/…

🤯 Specific brain signals rapidly eliminate body fat in mice
#fat

Specific brain signals rapidly eliminate body fat in mice
Researchers at WashU Medicine have identified a potent pathway that begins in the brain and leads to loss of all body fat without reducing food intake. The study is reported in Nature Metabolism.

Fascinating article in @…:
https://www.thetransmitter.org/defining-ce

From genes to dynamics: Examining brain cell types in action may reveal the logic of brain function
Defining brain cell types is no longer a matter of classification alone, but of embedding their genetic identities within the dynamical organization of population activity.

The brain is a pattern-forming organ.
Music is what happens when pattern is attended to as pattern.
Let sounds be sounds long enough, and they may become music.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Deepinder Goyal, who stepped down as Zomato's CEO, raised $54M at a $190M valuation for Temple, which aims to make high-performance wearables for elite athletes (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/27/after-zoma…

After Zomato, Deepinder Goyal returns with a $54M brain-monitoring bet | TechCrunch
Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal's new wearable startup Temple has raised $54 million in a friends-and-family round at a post-money valuation of about $190 million.

The 'secret connections' of the brain: a connectomic reserve for neuroplasticity? #neuroscience

Apropos of nothing, a scientifically proven way to help your brain deal with stressful situations is to play Tetris.

Donald Trump has been branded a "certified lunatic"
following his most strange warning yet to Canada
as tensions continue to escalate,
with some online claiming
the president's brain has been
'eaten away by dementia'
in fresh health concerns.

Donald Trump's brain 'completely eaten away by dementia' as he issues strange Canada warning
Donald Trump issued a striking warning to Canada, suggesting China could ban ice hockey if Canada pursues its strategic partnership with Beijing amid escalating trade tensions

(IEEE Spectrum) 11 Amazing engineering events in 2026: Brain chip helps blind people see https://spectrum.ieee.org/new-technology-2026 on Elon Musk and Neuralink Blindsight: "some experts worry he is overpromising on the quality of the brain-computer interface";

New Technology in 2026: Brain Chips and Space Missions
11 new technologies coming in 2026 may bring life-changing impacts to users. How might they change your life?

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

🦥 Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
#diet …

Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
As the brain ages, cells in the central nervous system experience metabolic dysfunction and increased oxidative damage. These cellular issues impair the ability to maintain the myelin sheath (the protective covering around nerve fibers), which leads to age-related white matter degradation.

Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech (Emily Mullin/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-brain-computer-interf…

Sam Altman’s New Brain Venture, Merge Labs, Will Spin Out of a Nonprofit
Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Angeles nonprofit.

Northwestern University: Wireless device 'speaks' to the brain with light (in mice) https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/12/wireless-device-speaks-to-the-brain-with-light "Implant could restore lost senses, provide sensory …

Wireless device ‘speaks’ to the brain with light
In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain — bypassing the body’s natural sensory pathways.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 63448 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

Bloomberg: #FDA push for 10-hour fake brain surgery trial raises ethical concerns #BCI

😵‍💫 Targeted ultrasound can shape the brain's reward-seeking mechanisms
#ultrasound

Targeted ultrasound can shape the brain's reward-seeking mechanisms
The nucleus accumbens is a tiny element of the human brain triggered when we experience something enjoyable, and used to help us learn behaviors that lead to rewards. A new study has shown for the first time that its influence on human behavior can be altered using transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS).

The Italian neurosurgeon
#Sergio #Canavero has been preparing for a surgery that might never happen.
His idea?
⚠️Swap a sick person’s head—or perhaps just the brain—onto a younger, healthier body.
Canavero caused a stir in 2017 when he announced that a team he advised in China had exchanged head…

Job titles of the future: Head-transplant surgeon
Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has a dream to extend life by swapping someone’s head (or at least their brain) onto a new body.

"We're just going to run a physical simulation of a human brain to achieve AGI"
"Won't the brain die instantly if it's without a body and oxygen supply etc?"
"Well, we'll just also simulate a body."
"Won't the body die instantly if it's in a vacuum?
"Fine, we'll just simulate an atmosphere too."
"Won't the body die if it's without food and light and gravity and stimulation?"
"Fine, we'll just simulate all the physical processes on the Earth."
"Won't the Earth just freeze instantly without the Sun being there?"
"Fine, we'll just simulate the sun, too."
"Will the solar system work properly if there's only the sun? What about gravitational influences of other mass in the galaxy, what about cosmic rays?"
"Fine, we'll just simulate the whole universe, too."

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Boston-based Neurable, which builds an OS for brain-computer interfaces, raised a $35M Series A led by Spectrum Moonshot Fund, bringing its total raised to $65M (Brock E.W. Turner/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/12/19/neurable-r…

Exclusive: Neurable raises $35M for brain-computer interface AI
The company plans to kick off another raise next year, despite having 18 months of runway.

The unusual electronic and optical properties of #perovskites have long been touted as useful for improving solar cells and television screens,
but these materials have never quite hit the big time.
Existing approaches have hoovered up all the investment and attention, and perovskites remain confined to specialist applications.
Now researchers at Empa, ETH Zurich and the Politecnico…

Perovskite nanocrystal computer components inspired by brain cells
Researchers at Empa, ETH Zurich and the Politecnico di Milano are developing a new type of computer component that is more powerful and easier to manufacture than its predecessors. Inspired by the human brain, it is designed to process large amounts of data fast and in an energy-efficient way.

#Cortigent reports positive 6-year findings for brain implant for providing artificial vision https://www.massdevice.com/vivani-cortigent-positive-findings-brain-implant/<…

Cortigent reports positive 6-year findings for brain implant for providing artificial vision
Vivani Medical subsidiary Cortigent announced the results of a study evaluating its Orion visual cortical prosthesis system.

#Ultrasound gives the brain a nudge in the right direction https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/ultrasound-gives-the-brain-a-nudge-in-the-right-d…

Ultrasound gives the brain a nudge in the right direction | Radboud University
Neuroscientist Soha Farboud of the Donders Institute at Radboud University has succeeded in adjusting activity in specific brain areas using a new technique.

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

🦇 Humans show bat-like skills using mouth-click echolocation
(... and where is the bat-man?)
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-humans-skills-mouth-click-echolocation.html

Humans show bat-like skills using mouth-click echolocation
It may sound like a scene from "Nosferatu," but research from the University of East Anglia shows that humans can use bat-like echolocation skills to judge the distance of objects. The new study reveals that, just like bats navigating in the dark, humans too can rely on the echoes of mouth clicks to gauge how far away objects are. While humans may not match the precision of these nocturnal navigators, the study, published in Experimental Brain Research, shows that with simple tools like mouth c…

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space https://news.mit.edu/2026/to-flexibly-organize-thought-the-brain-makes-use-of-space-0120

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space
MIT researchers tested their theory of spatial computing, which holds that the brain recruits and controls ad hoc groups of neurons for cognitive tasks by applying brain waves to patches of the cortex.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

😵 Diesel exhaust particles disrupt the function of brain's immune cells, study shows
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-diesel-exhaust-particles-disrupt-function.html

Diesel exhaust particles disrupt the function of brain's immune cells, study shows
Diesel exhaust particles can disturb the function of human brain immune cells, known as microglia, according to a recent study led by the University of Eastern Finland. The findings, published in Environment International, shed light on how traffic-related air pollution could contribute to brain inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.

Renewed work toward a visual prosthesis (brain implant) in the #LGN instead of visual cortex https://nin.nl/news/first-ever-recording-of-a-crucial-visual-structure-in-the…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

🐭 High-speed imaging tracks live brain cell activity in awake mice
#brain

High-speed imaging tracks live brain cell activity in awake mice
A research team from the School of Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has achieved a breakthrough in brain imaging by developing the world's first technology to capture high-resolution images of the brains of awake experimental mice in a nearly noninvasive manner.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Fuzzing the brain: automated stress testing for the safety of ML-driven neurostimulation https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1741-2552/ae4927 Curiously, the paper does not mention known risks such as seizures like those that already happened with the Dobelle and Orion…

Nature: OpenAI's brain implant would use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up? #ultrasound

OpenAI’s brain implant would use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up?
Spin-out Merge Labs aims to rival Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink. But researchers say the technology is still at an early stage.

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

Brain-computer interface commercialization https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-025-01811-9 "This article analyzes two rehabilitative BCIs—the Argus II retinal prosthesis by Second Sight and the ARC-IM spinal cord stimulation system by Onward Medical";

Brain-computer interface commercialization - Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have emerged as powerful tools to restore neurological function lost due to injury or degeneration. Despite scientific adv

New clinical trial: Sensory substitution and brain plasticity following vision loss (#SenSubMRI) https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07450677 using AI Sight and BrainPort.
"The AI Sight is…

Control of cortical population activity with patterned microstimulation #BCI

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 63448 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

Neurons receive precisely tailored teaching signals as we learn (well, as mice learn) https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/02/25/neurons-learn/ "the brain can deliver neuron-specific feedback during learning";

Neurons receive precisely tailored teaching signals as we learn - MIT McGovern Institute
When we learn a new skill, the brain has to decide—cell by cell—what to change. New research from MIT suggests it can do that with surprising precision, sending targeted feedback to individual neurons so each one can adjust its activity in the right direction. The finding echoes a key idea from modern artificial intelligence. Many […]

[hype alert] Brain chip implant: visually impaired Korean YouTuber applies for Musk's clinical trial https://www.mk.co.kr/en/culture/11976079 Kim Hansol (OneshotHansol) on YouTube

Brain Chip Implant: Visually Impaired Korean YouTuber Applies for Musk’s Clinical Trial - MK
Oneshot Hansol, a visually impaired YouTuber (32, real name Kim Hansol), has applied to take part in a clinical trial run by Neuralink, the company led by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.On February 7..

WIRED: Sam Altman’s new brain venture, Merge Labs, will spin out of a nonprofit, Forest Neurotech https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-brain-computer-interface-merge-labs-spin-out-nonprofit-forest-neurotech/ Focus on usin…

Sam Altman’s New Brain Venture, Merge Labs, Will Spin Out of a Nonprofit
Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Angeles nonprofit.

Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave U.S. behind https://www.statnews.com/2025/12/17/research-cuts-fuel-scientific-brain-drain-american-science-shattered/ "A large part of what we loved about the United States i…

Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave U.S. behind
“A large part of what we loved about the United States is no longer there”: Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave the U.S. behind.

Calibrated simulations for dynamic focusing of ultrasound through the temporal window #ultrasound

Calibrated simulations for dynamic focusing of ultrasound through the temporal window
Focused ultrasound can be delivered through the temporal window to modulate heterogeneously located brain areas. Acoustic simulations allow for safety assessments when dynamically targeting brain structures, but the mismatch between simulation and measured focal pressure can vary across the steerable range due to mechanically inaccurate assumptions made about the skull and transducer. Here, we describe efficient methods for simulation-measurement calibration using axisymmetric projections and s…

Editorial: The explosive growth of brain-computer interface technology in clinical trials in China: technological leap forward? https://journals.lww.com/jagr/fulltext/2025/12000/the_explosive_growth_of_brain_computer_interface.1.aspx…

The hoopla around Elon Musk's Neuralink Blindsight brain implant is reminiscent of the media storm around the Dobelle brain implant back in 2002, at the time making global front-page headlines on CNN and elsewhere https://edition.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/06/13/bionic.eye/

(YouTube) Your brain is a dream machine | Anil Seth on the neuroscience of active inference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYUoS0GkGCs That's what sensory substitution for the blind is tapping into: we see with the brain, not the eyes (Paul Bach-y-Rita).