DARPA

DARPA paving the way for a future brain-based Internet

by

___

DARPA Wants Brain Inter­faces for Able-Bod­ied Warfight­ers (IEEE Spectrum):

“Until now, the neu­ro­science pro­grams at DARPA, the mad sci­ence wing of the Depart­ment of Defense, have focused on tech­nolo­gies for warfight­ers who have returned home with dis­abil­i­ties of the body or brain. For exam­ple, pro­grams have fund­ed research on pros­thet­ic limbs that are wired into the ner­vous sys­tem and brain implants that could treat post-trau­mat­ic stress disorder.

But the way the mil­i­tary fights wars is chang­ing, and so must DARPA’s pri­or­i­ties [Read more…] about DARPA paving the way for a future brain-based Internet

DARPA invests in nonsurgical neurotechnologies for eventual use in healthy human subjects

by

___

Non­sur­gi­cal Neur­al Inter­faces Could Sig­nif­i­cant­ly Expand Use of Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy (DARPA News):

“Over the past two decades, the inter­na­tion­al bio­med­ical research com­mu­ni­ty has demon­strat­ed increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed ways to allow a per­son­’s brain to com­mu­ni­cate with a device, allow­ing break­throughs aimed at improv­ing qual­i­ty of life, such as access to com­put­ers and the inter­net, and more recent­ly con­trol of a pros­thet­ic limb.

The state of the art in brain-sys­tem com­mu­ni­ca­tions has employed inva­sive tech­niques that allow pre­cise, high-qual­i­ty con­nec­tions to spe­cif­ic neu­rons or groups of neu­rons. These tech­niques have helped patients with brain injury and oth­er ill­ness­es. How­ev­er, these tech­niques are not appro­pri­ate for able-bod­ied peo­ple. DARPA now seeks to achieve high lev­els of brain-sys­tem com­mu­ni­ca­tions with­out surgery, in its new pro­gram, Next-Gen­er­a­tion Non­sur­gi­cal Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy (N3). [Read more…] about DARPA invests in non­sur­gi­cal neu­rotech­nolo­gies for even­tu­al use in healthy human subjects

For invasive cognitive enhancement to work, firms will need to validate both the “neuro” and the “tech”

by

—

A Hard­ware Update for the Human Brain (The Wall Street Journal):

“The field that gave Emi­ly her life back is known as neu­rotech­nol­o­gy, or sim­ply neurotech—a mar­riage of neu­rol­o­gy, neu­ro­science, neu­ro­surgery and the kind of hard­ware that goes into smart­phones. Today, most neu­rotech com­pa­nies are focused on med­ical appli­ca­tions, which [Read more…] about For inva­sive cog­ni­tive enhance­ment to work, firms will need to val­i­date both the “neu­ro” and the “tech”

May e‑newsletter: MIT Solve launches Brain Health Challenge, asking “How can every person improve their brain health and mental resilience?”

by

—–

Time for Sharp­Brains’ May e‑newsletter, high­light­ing what’s new in brain health and men­tal per­for­mance, and fea­tur­ing a very rel­e­vant MIT ini­tia­tive and a thought-pro­vok­ing study on the “Cog­ni­tive Divide.”

New thinking

 

New research

 

New tools

 

Have a great month of June and, for those based in the US, a great Memo­r­i­al Day weekend,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

Eight research teams working with DARPA to discover best ways to activate neuroplasticity and accelerate learning

by

DARPA Funds Brain-Stim­u­la­tion Research to Speed Learn­ing (DoD news):

“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is work­ing with sev­en U.S. uni­ver­si­ties and ele­ments of the Air Force and Army on research that seeks to stim­u­late the brain in a non-inva­sive way to speed up learning.

DARPA announced the Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing, or TNT, pro­gram [Read more…] about Eight research teams work­ing with DARPA to dis­cov­er best ways to acti­vate neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and accel­er­ate learning

Next: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) meet brain scanning and human enhancement

by

—

Face­book, Apple and the Com­ing Aug­ment­ed Real­i­ty Land Grab (Vari­ety):

“Two new reports sug­gest that two of Sil­i­con Valley’s biggest com­pa­nies are secret­ly work­ing on aug­ment­ed real­i­ty (AR) tech­nol­o­gy. It may take some time before Apple is going to reveal its efforts in the space, but Face­book may give us a glance at its AR research as ear­ly as next month [Read more…] about Next: Aug­ment­ed Real­i­ty (AR) and Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty (VR) meet brain scan­ning and human enhancement