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Clinical studies testing the safety and efficacy of 40Hz sensory stimulation to treat Alzheimer's disease have found the therapy was well tolerated, produced no serious adverse effects and was associated with some significant neurological and behavioral benefits. Tsai's lab discovered exposing mice to light flickering or sound clicking at the gamma-band brain rhythm frequency of 40Hz produced improvements in learning and memory; reduced brain atrophy, neuron and synapse loss; and showed lower levels of hallmark Alzheimer's proteins amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau. In the Phase 1 study, volunteers filled out a questionnaire. Meanwhile, measurements taken with EEG scalp electrodes clustered...

What if you could communicate with another person only using your mind? The concept might sound far-fetched, but a team of neuroscientists and robotics engineers have inched the possibility of brain-to-brain communication away from the science fiction of Star Trek’s Vulcan mind meld and closer to reality. In a recent study published in PLOS ONE, the international team of researchers from Starlab Barcelona in Spain and Strasbourg, France-based Axilum Robotics facilitated computer-mediated brain-to-brain transmissions of simple salutations like “hola” and “ciao” between participants 5,000 miles away from one another. The researchers used electroencephalogram (EEG) and image-guided transcranial magnetic simulation (TMS)...

Why pilot a plane with your hands and feet when you can do it with your brain? Thought-controlled flight could be arriving soon, according to the EU-funded “BrainFlight” project. A team of scientists from the Institute for Flight System Dynamics and the Berlin Institute of Technology says it has translated brain impulses into control commands, enabling pilots in a plane simulator to achieve a range of remarkably precise maneuvers without touching the controls or pedals. Wearing a cap with lots of cables attached, pilots in the simulator were able to land a plane simply by looking at the screen and...

Speak, Fido: Device Promises Dog Translations A dog may be man's best friend, but if people ever figure out what dogs are really thinking, will the friendship sour? That's a risk that a few inventors in Europe are willing to take: They've received funding to develop "No More Woof," an electronic device that promises to analyze dogs' brain waves and translate a few of their thoughts into rudimentary English. It's still a work in progress, but once No More Woof is ready for the market, it will join a wide range of other scientific efforts aimed at "breaking the language...

BRAIN-CONTROLLED PROSTHETICS IN FUTUREFeb 12, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby Michael J. RossResearchers are making tremendous progress in developing artificial limbs that can be controlled by the brain activity of people wearing those limbs. These devices utilize what is known as a "brain-computer interface" (BCI), of which there are two varieties: An individual's neuronal activity measurements can be detected using "single-unit recording", in which each electrode is implanted adjacent to an individual brain cell. Alternatively, the brain activity can be measured using electroencephalography (EEG), in which electrodes are attached to the patient's scalp, to measure aggregate signals. It is expected that within...