Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

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Debate: Will brain-computer interfaces replace smartphones and other “mediating” devices?

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The Fifth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion: where mind meets machine (The National):

The Fifth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion will make that con­nec­tion clos­er and seam­less, and will feel unmedi­at­ed. The smart device onto which we tap and into which we speak will dis­ap­pear. Brain-com­put­er inter­faces will replace them…Can we con­nect our brains – and our minds – to machines? The short answer is yes, and we have done so for some time. The longer answer is more com­pli­cat­ed, but more interesting.

[Read more…] about Debate: Will brain-com­put­er inter­faces replace smart­phones and oth­er “medi­at­ing” devices?

Four guidelines for smart use of smartphones

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These days, you can’t go any­where with­out hear­ing about how tech­nol­o­gy is ruin­ing every­thing, includ­ing our hap­pi­ness. There is some truth to this, but it’s not the whole story.

Tech­nol­o­gy can be bad for us—for exam­ple, when social media gives us FOMO (fear of miss­ing out) or traps us in fil­ter bub­bles that pre­vent us from see­ing mul­ti­ple points of view on impor­tant issues. As a soci­ety, we are increas­ing­ly con­cerned that tech­nolo­gies like smart­phones and social media result in more social com­par­i­son, bul­ly­ing, and loneliness—all stum­bling blocks to hap­pi­ness. Tech­nol­o­gy seems to be bad for our hap­pi­ness when it inter­feres with the men­tal, social, emo­tion­al, and behav­ioral process­es that con­tribute to well-being.

But we often fail to real­ize (and dis­cuss) the ways that tech­nol­o­gy can also sup­port hap­pi­ness and well-being—for exam­ple [Read more…] about Four guide­lines for smart use of smartphones

Q&A: What does the Facebook acquisition of CTRL-Labs mean for Neurotechnology and Augmented & Virtual Reality?

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While sit­ting at din­ner with an unsus­pect­ing friend, my phone blew up with odd­ly-late mes­sages from fel­low neu­rotech­nol­o­gy com­rades. CTRL-Labs announced their impend­ing acqui­si­tion by Face­book and inte­gra­tion into Face­book Real­i­ty Labs (respon­si­ble for Ocu­lus et al.), for enough mon­ey to buy my guilt-induc­ing­ly-expen­sive New York cof­fee for a mea­ger 550,000 years. Woah—so very many ques­tions. I fig­ured I’d share [Read more…] about Q&A: What does the Face­book acqui­si­tion of CTRL-Labs mean for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy and Aug­ment­ed & Vir­tu­al Reality?

Virtual reality games and related neurotechnologies spark a new generation of dementia & cognitive tests

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The Sea Hero Quest vir­tu­al real­i­ty game is played on a Sam­sung Gear VR head­set. Source: Glitch­ers Ltd.

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The Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty Game Gath­er­ing Data for Demen­tia Researchers (Bloomberg):

“Nav­i­gat­ing an ice-walled lake or scour­ing a swamp for a hid­den mon­ster may sound like a fun premise for a vir­tu­al-real­i­ty video game. But there’s a seri­ous pur­pose behind the new game Sea Hero Quest VR: help­ing neu­ro­sci­en­tists design a new test for demen­tia. [Read more…] about Vir­tu­al real­i­ty games and relat­ed neu­rotech­nolo­gies spark a new gen­er­a­tion of demen­tia & cog­ni­tive tests

E‑Newsletter: Neuroimaging + machine learning can predict, with 96% accuracy, whether high-risk 6‑month-old babies will develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by age 2

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Researchers use brain imag­ing and machine learn­ing to pre­dict which high-risk infants will devel­op autism. Cred­it: Car­oli­na Insti­tute for Devel­op­men­tal Disabilities.

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ June e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, promis­ing assess­ments, ther­a­pies and brain health mon­i­tor­ing tools…and some fun opti­cal illusions 🙂

New research

New tools

New thinking

Upcoming Events

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Final­ly, you may want to Test your Brain and Mind with these 9 Clas­sic Opti­cal Illu­sions 🙂

 

Have a great summer!

The Sharp­Brains Team

The dual challenge ahead of Facebook’s Typing-by-Brain project: 1) develop the neurotechnology, 2) develop the science

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Direc­tor of Typ­ing-by-Brain Project Dis­cuss­es How Face­book Will Get Inside Your Head (IEEE Spectrum):

“When Facebook’s Mark Chevil­let describes the company’s new “typ­ing by brain” ini­tia­tive, he has a way of keep­ing it from sound­ing total­ly crazy [Read more…] about The dual chal­lenge ahead of Facebook’s Typ­ing-by-Brain project: 1) devel­op the neu­rotech­nol­o­gy, 2) devel­op the science