The link between neuroengineering, art, science & social context... Hi all, just been looking at how 'Neuroengineering', connects with the arts; purely on a simple search level...
Wishing all well. marc Some discoveries below: The Expanding Mind. by Pete Estep. The technological progress that revolutionized computing, electronics, and robotics in the 20th century will transform our bodies and enhance our brains in the 21st. Scarcely a decade has passed since scientists painstakingly sequenced the first bacterial genome, yet today automated human genome sequencing is becoming routine, heralding a new era of medicine. Replacement tissues and even organs can now be grown from a patient’s own cells and used without risk of immune rejection. Genetic therapies for a plethora of debilitating conditions are on the horizon; brain and body imaging technologies allow early discovery of potentially harmful pathologies. But as these developments have unfolded, another area of research has simultaneously matured to rival them in its dramatic potential to help people. It’s called neuroengineering. http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/the_expanding_mind/ --------------------- The NeuroEngineering Lab. The NeuroEngineering Lab is part of the Bioengineering Research Group One of the major scientific challenges of our days is to understand how information is represented by neurons in the brain. Although there has been spectacular progress in the last decades, we are still far to comprehend, for example, how visual inputs are processed to create conscious percepts and how these percepts can create new memories. http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/engineering/research/bioengineering/neuroengineering-lab --------------------- Art installation replicates epilepsy. Can the movement of an audience through a mechanical forest help to calm down cultured nerve cells in a remote laboratory? An art and science collaboration between UWA’s SymbioticA and a neuro-engineering laboratory in the US that investigates treatment for epilepsy has won an Honorary Mention for hybrid and transdisciplinary projects in Prix Ars Electronica (PAE) for doing just that. PAE is one of the most important awards for creativity and innovation in the field of digital media, with artists from more than 70 countries participating. Silent Barrage, recently on show at Exit Art Gallery in New York, is the work of SymbioticA’s Guy Ben-Ary, fellow WA artist Phil Gamblen, and scientists from Steve Potter’s Laboratory for Neuro-engineering at Georgia Technical College, Atlanta. http://tinyurl.com/37ge4xs --------------------- MEART: the semi-living artist. Here, we and others describe an unusual neurorobotic project, a merging of art and science called MEART, the semi-living artist.We built a pneumatically actuated robotic arm to create drawings, as controlled by a living network of neurons from rat cortex grown on a multielectrode array (MEA). Such embodied cultured networks formed a real-time closed-loop system which could now behave and receive electrical stimulation as feedback on its behavior.We used MEART and simulated embodiments, or animats, to study the network mechanisms that produce adaptive, goal-directed behavior. This approach to neural interfacing will help instruct the design of other hybrid neuralrobotic systems we call hybrots. The interfacing technologies and algorithms developed have potential applications in responsive deep brain stimulation systems and for motor prosthetics using sensory components. In a broader context, MEART educates the public about neuroscience, neural interfaces, and robotics. It has paved the way for critical discussions on the future of bio-art and of biotechnology. http://frontiersin.org/neuroscience/neurorobotics/paper/10.3389/neuro.12/005.2007/ --------------------- A Neuron's Obsession Hints at Biology of Thought Brain Cells Are Discovered That Only Respond to Certain Celebrities; One May Worship Homer Simpson but Ignore Madonna Researchers have discovered that in the vast neural network of the brain, some cells are, to use a technical term, celebrity groupies. Probing deep into human brains, a team of scientists discovered a neuron roused only by Ronald Reagan, another cell smitten by the actress Halle Berry and a third devoted solely to Mother Teresa. Testing other single human neurons, they located a brain cell that would rather watch an episode of "The Simpsons" than Madonna. In one sense, these findings are merely noise. They arise from rare recordings of electrical activity in brain cells, collected by neuroscientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, during a decade of experiments with patients awaiting brain surgery for severe epilepsy. These tingles of electricity, however, gave the researchers the opportunity to locate neurons that help link our perceptions, memories and self-awareness. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125503611739074321.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
