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#neuroscience

80 posts49 participants7 posts today
The vOICe vision BCI 🧠🇪🇺

Hippocampal plasticity and navigational skills in blindness intechopen.com/online-first/12 "We discuss how cross-modal plasticity repurposes the visual cortex for navigation, the role of sensory substitution devices in facilitating spatial learning, and behavioral performance in navigation tasks." #neuroscience

www.intechopen.comHippocampal Plasticity and Navigational Skills in Blindness<p id="p1">Navigation is a fundamental cognitive ability that relies on the hippocampus, a brain region that is known for its role in spatial representation and memory. In individuals with congenital blindness, the absence of visual input leads to significant neuroplastic adaptations that support alternative navigation strategies. This review examines the structural and functional modifications of the hippocampus in individuals who are blind and explores the broader neural mechanisms underlying their spatial abilities. We discuss how cross-modal plasticity repurposes the visual cortex for navigation, the role of sensory substitution devices in facilitating spatial learning, and behavioral performance in navigation tasks. Additionally, we highlight the implications of these findings for assistive technologies and brain-machine interfaces designed to enhance mobility in blind individuals. By synthesizing recent research, this review provides insights into the remarkable adaptability of the brain in response to sensory loss and underscores the importance of understanding neural plasticity for developing effective navigation aids.</p>
Fabrizio Musacchio

Efforts to reduce animal experiments are important and should be pursued. But despite progress in , , and models, I’m not convinced we’re there yet — especially in , where and systemic matter. However, I do think we should stay committed and aim for reduction by all available means. I recently came across this article, which gives a good overview of the current state of the field:

🌍 genengnews.com/topics/translat

GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News · Why We Still Need Animal Research in a World of AI and OrganoidsBy Jason Shepherd, PhD
Joseph Meyer

Pattern Recognition

Daniel Dennett, Douglas Hofstadter, and Stanislas Dehaene have all written about the human brain and our vision relying on the geometric shapes of faces, and maybe other body parts and clothing styles, to recognize people we know from various angles and distances. In other words, we do not rely on what could be a nearly infinite number of exact images stored like photographs in the mind. Dennett and Hofstadter also wrote of artificial intelligence (AI) robotic systems equipped with video cameras relying on a similar approach to recognize cubes, pyramids, and cylinders in a room. I am impressed with technology when it works well and just remembered a similar experience as a do-it-yourselfer. There is, or was, an online appliance parts store with a user interface that first asked the shopper the category (e.g., washer, dryer) of the appliance and the brand. Then it asked just a couple more questions about the primary material of the part (e.g., metal, plastic) and its longest dimension. With just that information, the vendor’s system was able to present a short list with photographs of parts that fit the description. In my case, I was able to purchase a new latch for a dryer door. Brilliant design.

#Neuroscience #Cognition #Brain #AI
#DoItYourself #Repair

The vOICe vision BCI 🧠🇪🇺

Vibrotactile speech cues are associated with enhanced auditory processing in middle and superior temporal gyri nature.com/articles/s41598-025 "Our results support a #metamodal theory"; #fNIRS #neuroscience

NatureVibrotactile speech cues are associated with enhanced auditory processing in middle and superior temporal gyri - Scientific ReportsCombined auditory and tactile stimuli have been found to enhance speech-in-noise perception both in individuals with normal hearing and in those with hearing loss. While behavioral benefits of audio-tactile enhancements in speech understanding have been repeatedly demonstrated, the impact of vibrotactile cues on cortical auditory speech processing remains unknown. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a dense montage setup, we first identified a region-of-interest highly sensitive to auditory-only speech-in-quiet. In the same region, we then assessed the change in activity ('audio-tactile gains’) when presenting speech-in-noise together with a single-channel vibratory signal to the fingertip, congruent with the speech envelope’s rate of change. In data from 21 participants with normal hearing, audio-tactile speech elicited on average 20% greater hemodynamic oxygenation changes than auditory-only speech-in-noise within bilateral middle and superior temporal gyri. However, audio-tactile gains did not exceed the sum of the unisensory responses, providing no conclusive evidence of true multisensory integration. Our results support a metamodal theory for the processing of temporal speech features in the middle and superior temporal gyri, providing the first evidence of audio-tactile speech processing in auditory areas using fNIRS. Top-down modulations from somatosensory areas or attention networks likely contributed to the observed audio-tactile gains through temporal entrainment with the speech envelope’s rate of change. Further research is needed to understand the neural responses in concordance with their behavioral relevance for speech perception, offering future directions for developing tactile aids for individuals with hearing impairments.
michael

#Obituary
#StevenRose
Neuroscientist, author, political activist and advocate for social responsibility in science

I had forgotten all about him but yes I did read The Making of Memory way back in the 90s. Also think he contributed to the various short-lived science supplements of the Guardian, such as Online.

obit by Georgina Ferry

theguardian.com/science/2025/j #science #neuroscience

The Guardian · Steven Rose obituaryBy Georgina Ferry
Continued thread
EBRAINS AISBL

A particular eye-catcher: the exhibition designed by the Cécile and Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain Research in the foyer of the lecture hall with historical exhibits from brain research. Video presentations on the digital research platform EBRAINS and the Jülich exascale computer JUPITER show what the future of neuroscience, supercomputing and AI could look like.

#HFA#Wissenschaftsabend#AI
Continued thread
Ben Waber

Next was "How Emotions are Made" by Lisa Barrett. This is best thought of two books - the first, up to chapter 8, is a revelatory look at the category error we've made around understanding emotions, revealing through a wide variety of experiments and research how emotions are constructed in real time as an act of categorization - they don't "exist" anywhere in the body. The less said about the rest the better

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/re (4/5) #neuroscience #psychology

bookwyrm.socialBen Waber's review of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain - BookWyrmSocial Reading and Reviewing
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