Scientists Create Speech From Brain Signals
Policy
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April 26, 2019 | Science
Chris Bolden, a Ph.D. candidate researching drug addiction, was thrilled with the outcome of two Arkansas congressional delegation staff meetings as part of an American Association for the Advancement of Science workshop on the role of science in public policy-making. The capstone meeting with a staffer for Rep. French Hill (R–AR) resulted in an invite to serve on an Arkansas regional advisory board on the state's methamphetamine epidemic, a focus of Bolden's research.
April 25, 2019 | Science
The prospect of Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, has loomed long and large over researchers, but the effects on funding, so far, have been speculative. Now, a European funding agency has made a pre-emptive strike in advance of Brexit, changing a policy that directly impacts grants in the United Kingdom.
April 23, 2019 | National Institutes of Health
The NIH is seeking applications for its BRAIN Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00) program. The program aims to enhance diversity in the neuroscience workforce and maintain a strong cohort of new and talented, NIH-supported, independent investigators from diverse backgrounds in BRAIN Initiative research areas. The application deadline is June 12, 2019.
Science in the News
April 24, 2019 | New York Times
Scientists are reporting that they have developed a virtual prosthetic voice, a system that decodes the brain’s vocal intentions and translates them into mostly understandable speech, with no need to move a muscle, even those in the mouth.
April 23, 2019 | Nature
Joseph Parker has wanted to know what makes rove beetles tick since he was seven years old. The entomologist has spent decades collecting and observing the insects, some of which live among ants and feed on their larvae. But without tools for studying the genetic and brain mechanisms behind the beetles’ behaviour, Parker focused his PhD research on Drosophila fruit flies — an established model organism.
April 23, 2019 | The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Although efficiency and robustness are often regarded as having a trade-off relationship, the human brain usually exhibits both attributes when it performs complex cognitive functions. A KAIST research team has identified the intrinsic control architecture of brain networks. The control properties will contribute to providing a fundamental basis for the exogenous control of brain networks and, therefore, has broad implications in cognitive and clinical neuroscience.
April 22, 2019 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Williams Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 babies born in the United States, produces a range of symptoms including cognitive impairments, cardiovascular problems, and extreme friendliness, or hypersociability. In a study of mice, MIT neuroscientists have garnered new insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie this hypersociability.
