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An MIT team led by Institute Professor Ann Graybiel has found groups of neurons in the primate brain that code time with extreme precision.

The neurons are located in the prefrontal cortex and the striatum, both of which play important roles in learning, movement and thought control.

The research team trained two macaque monkeys to perform a simple eye-movement task. After receiving the "go" signal, the monkeys were free to perform the task at their own speed. The researchers found neurons that consistently fired at specific times -- 100 milliseconds, 110 milliseconds, 150 milliseconds and so on -- after the "go" signal.

The brain first perceives changes in visual input (local motion) in the primary visual cortex. The local motion signals are then integrated in the later visual processing stages and interpreted as global motion in the higher-level processes. But when subjects in a recent experiment using moving dots were asked to detect global motion (the overall direction of the dots moving together), the results show that their learning relied on more local motion processes (the movement of dots in small areas) than global motion areas.

show that the improvement in detection of global motion is not due to learning of the global motion but to learning of local motion of the moving dots in the test.

Their discovery reveals a critical period during which a LIM homeodomain transcription factor known as Lhx2 decides over the progenitors' regional destiny: Once the window of opportunity closes, their fate is sealed.

Our task involved both reading and speaking, and we found that aspects of word identity, grammar and pronunciation are all computed within Broca's area.

Измерения ТМС показали: в результате упражнений моторная зона пальцев тренируемой руки стремительно росла. Уже к концу первой недели она увеличилась в разы (рис. А).

По-видимому, главной составляющей расширения моторных зон у основной группы служила фокусировка на задаче и сознательный контроль движений.

Моторные области людей, выполнявших упражнения в уме, походили по размеру на соответствующие участки тех, кто по-настоящему занимался на клавиатуре (рис. С). Мысленная тренировка привела к реальной натренированности — к изменению нейрофизиологических свойств ткани мозга.

Some already exist specifically for neural data analysis and simulation, such as PyMVPA2 and Brian3 respectively.

One advantage of nanoscale electrodes is that they can register and stimulate the tiniest components of the brain.

A Harvard Medical School study last year found that one blindsight patient could maneuver down a hallway filled with obstacles, even though the subject could not actually see. Schwiedrzik said the new research may help blindsight patients gain conscious awareness of what their minds can see, and he suggested that new research should address whether the brains in blindsight patients and people with normal vision process the information the same way.

On the other hand, Shane observes that people who are working on the program of Friendly AI do not expect to have made significant progress in the same timescale: By the early 2020’s, there will be no practical theory of Friendly AI.