I woke at 2am and it's now 3am and my brain is still swirling. Unlike my usual insomnia routine, I am choosing to read my masto feed in the hope that my brain changes direction and settles down. Good luck to anyone else awake and struggling to sleep.
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'`,…
A study in Nature Health finds that microplastics and nanoplastics
were at a higher level in brain tumour samples from living patients
than in healthy human brain samples from cadavers,
with a correlation between microplastic surface area and tumour proliferation. https://go.nature.com/4cuBK4I…
"You wouldn't normally buy this pile of dogshit, but what if we mixed all this dogshit together with shit from other animals and put a pretty bow on it and called it a cupcake? Would you buy it then?"
https://beige.party/@maxleibman/116507984376346134
Not the usual stuff I post.
Brain-Computer-Interface: zunehmender Einsatz, Risiken, lückenhafte Rechtslage
BCIs können helfen, motorische Fähigkeiten und Kommunikation wieder zu ermöglichen. Das Potenzial ist enorm, Rechtslage und Ethik noch weitgehend ungeklärt.
It's a week since my last #PostScarcitySoftware entry. The version of eval/apply copied from `0.0.6` still doesn't compile, let alone work. There are reasons. I've been ill — my brain really is fucked — and I've had urgent outdoor work.
There is progress. I am cleaning up bits of old cruft as I go. But I don't think copying the old code was a good decision. I…
A shoutout to the systems engineers that made Microsoft Windows so fragile, that a single file browser (explorer.exe) freezing causes my Edge downloads to pause, and closing the frozen file browser closes all my file browsers.
My ADHD brain needed those open file browsers so I could keep track of all my in-progress tasks. How do I resume now? Yeah, I suppose I could come up with a better system than that.
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'`,…
For those who have been hearing of a Fly Brain being uploaded, the work you've been hearing of is impressive, yet as always the pop science media has warped what happened a bit:
„The Fly Brain Breakthrough Is Real. The “First Brain Upload” Narrative Is Not.”
https://…
how many times can an 8yo scream directly into your ear before your brain melts?
(study shortcomings include the tiny sample size of 1)
Sweet jesus, I think the brain worms have worked on this one beyond remedy. The whole thing is toast.
Massachusetts-based brain implant company Axoft raised a $55M Series A and says it tested its device in a Shanghai patient, with plans for more trials in China (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…
(YouTube, 2025) The surprising way the brain is wired https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9939jVJIZYo "What if vast areas of the brain contribute to many different functions and its connectivity is far more intricate than we once believed?"
Once more I have woken up with Killing Joke rattling around my brain.
Nine tenths of the law that is sick
Is possession
Life expressed in matter is a blasphemy
Success defined by acquisition stinks
So busy trying to make a living I forget about living, yes, I do
So busy trying to make a living, I forget about life
En la mani del #1deMayo un compañero me ha hablado de este artículo sobre la salud del uso de la #ia en el entorno laboral. No lo he leído aún pero me ha dicho que es muy interesante lo que plantea
EyeBrain: Left and Right Brain Lateralization Activity Classification Through Pupil Diameter and Fixation Duration
Ko Watanabe, Pooja Pol, Nicolas Gro{\ss}mann, Shoya Ishimaru, Andreas Dengel
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.23562 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.23562 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.23562
arXiv:2604.23562v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The relationship between brain lateralization and cognitive functions is well-documented. The left hemisphere primarily handles tasks such as language and arithmetic, while the right hemisphere is involved in creative activities like drawing and music perception. Eye-tracking technology has shown the potential to reveal cognitive states by measuring ocular metrics such as pupil diameter and fixation duration. However, the ability to distinguish lateralized brain activity using these ocular metrics remains underexplored. Here, we demonstrate that pupil diameter and fixation duration can effectively classify left and right brain hemisphere activities. We obtained a considerably high classification performance, with an F1 score of 0.894. The results suggest that ocular metrics are robust indicators of lateralized brain activity and can be applied in cognitive monitoring and neurorehabilitation. Our future work expands on this by integrating these methods into real-time applications EyeBrain, potentially broadening their use across various cognitive and neurological domains.
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One of those things about claims of “AGI” is that to really build a human-like intelligence we’d have to simulate a human brain as whole because 1. it’s the only thing we know that produces human intelligence and 2. no one knows how it actually works.
Because of (2) it’s irrelevant what anyone says about LLMs or any other technology (with the exception of simulating a whole brain)—you can’t know if a technology is intelligent like a human because we don’t know what that means or how that works.
Fun thing, it turns out it’s impossible to simulate a whole brain with the resolution required (basically quantum physics level), and you’d have to emulate a chemical and physical environment for the brain as well (it will also need a body etc.).
You’d also have to simulate other humans with brains from which the brain can learn; but to simulate those you’d have simulate evolving humans from single-cell organisms first etc etc ad infinitum
Would getting a Neuralink Blindsight brain implant for restoring vision be worth it? #BCI
Many years ago, a friend said he was following “The S Diet”. It was very simple and memorable:
——
No Sweets or Seconds, except on Saturday and Sunday.
——
Simple… easy… and it actually worked for me as a way to help maintain or reduce weight (along with some mild level of exercise).
My challenge is that in the intervening years, my brain fought that and changed it to:
——
No Sweets or Seconds, except on days ending in ‘y’.
——
🤣🤦♂️
Un-doin…
Thx Paul for a very informative and inspired Brain Inspired.
#neuroscience
I need to rewire my brain for my hobbies, I think. Too often I'll sit down to research something and I never run out of things to read. Meanwhile the project doesn't progress and I end up postponing it to another day (where I'll often have to start over because I forgot where I was). Brought to you by researching PiStorm and self-hosting.
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
Two days in R-studio has made my brain an utter mess. Doing extra work on the side at night feels more heavy than ever. But sooon - I see a vaccation in the horizon
It probably says a lot about how my brain works that last night, I overheard a commercial featuring "I Saw the Sun" by Ace of Base, and immediately of Roger from American Dad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsrrf7P8Y_E
Meta FAIR: KI-Zwilling für menschliche Neuronen
TRImodal Brain Encoder in zweiter Version veröffentlicht. Meta FAIR kann damit vorhersagen, wie das menschliche Gehirn reagiert.
https://www.heis…
The “neural fingerprint” of psychedelics was spotted among hundreds of brain scans of people on LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline and ayahuasca,
pointing to a shared impact on the brain’s behaviour.
The finding emerged from a major study that combined 11 brain imaging datasets from around the world
in an effort to build a reliable picture of how the substances temporarily rewire the brain.
Dr Danilo Bzdok and his colleagues analysed more than 500 brain scans from 267 p…
Triple Configuration of Brain Networks Based on Recurrent Neural Networks: The Synergistic Effects of Exogenous Stimuli, Task Demands, and Spontaneous Activity
Binghao Yang, Guangzong Chen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.23525 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.23525 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.23525
arXiv:2604.23525v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The foundation of cognitive flexibility and higher-order intelligence lies in the functional structure and activity of brain networks, which can be dynamically configured by both external environments and internal states. However, decoding these dynamics from high-dimensional neural data remains a challenge. In this study, we propose a computational framework using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) with neural dynamic constraints to model source-localized resting-state EEG data from $114$ participants. We aim to clarify the "triple brain network configurations" driven by exogenous and endogenous factors, including external stimuli, information processing tasks, and spontaneous activities. Our model identifies the parietal network as a critical hub supporting these multiple configuration patterns. Furthermore, we reveal that the anterior and posterior parietal regions exhibit distinct functional specializations under different stimulus modalities. By formalizing a triple configuration framework, this work separates latent factors of brain dynamics and underscores the computational significance of parietal regions in orchestrating higher-order intelligence.
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Help! I've been thinking so much about decentralized platforms and open protocols lately that my brain has become completely decentralized itself. 🙃
Time to go touch some grass.
#Fediverse #Mastodon
How US schools' overreliance on YouTube for educational content encourages students to drift into endless video scrolling on school-issued devices (Shalini Ramachandran/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/youtube-…
Lucid dreaming shows that the human brain can go into a state of vivid mental imagery. If and once we can effectively tap into that, sound-guided mental imagery will restore veridical vision to the blind https://www.artificialvision.com/literature.htm
multi-trillion dollar company showing off their multi-trillion dollar PhD-level galaxy brain technology
(YouTube) China's government-backed BCI push could bring brain-computer tech to the masses within 3 to 5 years #BCI
How Kosovo's tech industry, driven by local companies like business outsource provider SPEEEX, is helping cut youth unemployment and changing Pristina's skyline (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-30/…
If you compare the challenges that a Neuralink Blindsight brain implant for restoring vision still has to overcome with the challenges for The vOICe (sound-guided mental imagery)... https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm Supporting independent and open science
No! No no brain, no brain. no brain. Toot toot toot toot [unintelligible] like-like-like-like YeAH toot. boost. toot. boost. toot. toot toot toot toot like-like-like-like mastodon no brain. mastodon no brain. boost-toot-boost-toot. never! never! never! brain. boost toot boost toot. Never think!
https://
A geometry aware framework enhances noninvasive mapping of whole human brain dynamics
Song Wang, Kexin Lou, Chen Wei, Zhiyuan Sheng, Jiahao Tang, Kaining Peng, Xinke Shen, Shuhao Mei, Liang Chen, Dongfeng Gu, Quanying Liu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25592 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.25592 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.25592
arXiv:2604.25592v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Non-invasive electrophysiology lacks methods that accurately reconstruct whole-brain spatiotemporal dynamics while incorporating individual cortical geometry, leaving current electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography source imaging limited by simplistic or biologically implausible priors. Here, we show that embedding participant-specific Geometric Basis Functions (GBFs), eigenmodes derived from each individual's cortical surface, provides a powerful anatomic constraint that resolves the inverse problem and improves reconstruction fidelity. The method reconstructs neural sources as linear combinations of geometric basis functions, thereby aligning source estimates with the geometric organization of neural dynamics. We validate GBF across the Meta-Source Benchmark, task-evoked data, resting-state networks, intracranial stimulation, and epilepsy data. The results demonstrate that GBF yields high localization accuracy and captures fast spatiotemporal dynamics consistent with anatomical pathways. These findings suggest that both spontaneous and evoked whole-brain activity can be described by hundreds of geometric modes, providing a compact yet accurate representation of neural sources. By linking cortical geometry to electrophysiological dynamics, GBF offers a versatile source imaging tool for both scientific and clinical applications.
toXiv_bot_toot
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'`,…
Trying to draft a kind of "graphical abstract" on visual prosthesis BCI options... brain implants with electrodes, ultrasound with optogenetics or nanoparticles, and noninvasive visual-to-auditory sensory substitution. Suggestions for improvement? #neuroscience
It's not that The vOICe vision BCI is so good, it's that invasive BCIs for (restoring) vision are far worse than often claimed. The human brain is not plug-and-play. https://chatgpt.com/share/69f448a9-de04-83eb-9720-98a2f66ca7e5
ARVO Foundation: 2026 Oberdorfer awardee recognized for outstanding research in low vision rehabilitation https://www.arvo.org/news/2026-oberdorfer-awardee Gislin Dagnelie, Argus II retinal implant, ICVP brain implant (intracortical visual prosthesis)
Audio long read: Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains? #aphantasia are offering brain scient…
Chinese brain-computer interface startup Gestala raised $21.6M co-led by Guosheng Capital and Dalton Venture at a $100M to $200M valuation, per CEO Phoenix Peng (Kate Park/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/11/bci-startu…
Integrative neurocybernetic modeling in the era of large-scale neuroscience
Il Memming Park, Ayesha Vermani, Gonzalo G. de Polavieja, Juan \'Alvaro Gallego, Kathleen Esfahany, Shreya Saxena, Michael Orger, Auke Ijspeert, Matthew Dowling, Daniel McNamee, Srinivas C. Turaga, Zachary Mainen, Joseph J. Paton, Alfonso Renart
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.23903 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.23903 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.23903
arXiv:2604.23903v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Large-scale neuroscience is generating rich datasets across animals, brain areas and behavioral contexts, yet our modeling efforts remains fragmented across isolated experiments. We argue that understanding behavior requires integrative neurocybernetic models: understandable dynamical models that capture the closed-loop coupling of brain, body and environment, treat the brain as a controller pursuing latent objectives, represent structured variation across scales, and scale to heterogeneous datasets. Such models shift the goal from predicting neural recordings in isolation to inferring the organizing principles that govern neural and behavioral dynamics. We outline a practical route toward this goal by combining nonlinear state-space models and meta-dynamical extensions with scalable inference, knowledge distillation, mixed open- and closed-loop training, and connectomics-informed architectures. By pooling complementary constraints from recordings, behavior, perturbations and anatomy, integrative neurocybernetic models can provide statistical amplification, few-shot generalization, and mechanistic insight into shared dynamical structure, individual variation, and the control objectives that govern behavior. This agenda offers a model-centric path from fragmented data to a mechanistic science of how brains produce behavior.
toXiv_bot_toot
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 121755 edges.
Tags: Biol…
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'`,…
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
https://networks.skewed.de/net/fly_hemibrain
Ridiculogram:
By linking up visual and auditory processing in the human brain, The vOICe vision BCI can act as both a fully noninvasive visual prosthesis for the totally blind and as a research vehicle for macroscopic neuroscience https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm
Low-level "visual" perception with visual-to-auditory sensory substitution is at least on par with brain implants for restoring vision. It's the higher-level visual perception where there remain many open questions. Much more scientific effort should go into that. #BCI #blindness
The vOICe vision BCI app for Android crossed the 600,000 cumulative installs mark from Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vOICe.vOICe Compare this to the number of Neuralink Blindsight brain implants in humans to date (spoiler: zero).
AI at Meta: TRIBE v2 (Trimodal Brain Encoder), an #AI model of the human #brain, predicting neural responses to sight, sound and language https://aidemos.atmeta.com/tribev2/
Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks (in mice) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10426-6 "communication between distant brain regions that is mediated by plastic networks of gap junction-coupled astrocytes";
To ChatGPT: Elon Musk focuses on scalable technologies, also for the upcoming Neuralink Blindsight brain implant for the blind. At some point these implants will start to fail in patients. Will Neuralink's handling of failing brain implants prove scalable? https://chatgpt.com/share/69c85655-c24
Brain implants for restoring vision to the blind need to stimulate large numbers of neurons with electrodes, many times per second. So... https://bioniclab.substack.com/p/what-happens-to-blood-flow-when-you The stimulation paradox: Activating neurons starves them of…
Brain-computer interfaces in healthcare: building the picks and shovels company while the giants fight over gold #BCI
Vision restoration: From prostheses to genetic-based brain-machine interfaces https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/handbook/abs/pii/B9780443222122000173 "Classically, visual prostheses were made of electrode arrays", in Handbook of …
Brain-wide distributed processing underlying natural vision and audition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.26.727967v1 "prefrontal cortex coordinated brain dynamics through synergistic interactions independently of sensory modality and previous sensory e…
Seeing and imagining are handled by the same brain cells https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2026/05/12/seeing-and-imagining-are-handled-by-the-same-brain-cells/
"Researchers make advances in understanding how human brains ar…
#Paradromics: From brain implants to neuroprosthetics | Making sense of brain-computer interface terminology https://www.paradromics.com/insights/from-brain-implants-to-neuropr…