(credit: Deanna Barch) One of the unfortunate realities of science is that small data sets often produce unreliable results, as any minor, random fluctuations can have a large impact. One solution to this issue has been building ever-larger data sets, where these fluctuations tend to be small compared to any actual effects. One of the […]
Enlarge / Two formerly paralyzed individuals go for a stroll in Lausanne, Switzerland. (credit: EPFL) Spinal cord injuries are life-altering, as they prevent the transmission of nerve impulses past the point of injury. That means no sensory inputs make it to the brain, and no signals from the brain make it to the muscles normally […]
Enlarge / The protein that allows us to sense touch is big and complicated. (credit: PDB) Today’s Nobel Prize is in Physiology or Medicine, which often means biology these days. And 2021 is not an exception, as two researchers have won for their discoveries regarding how humans detect their immediate environment through the sense of […]
Mike Davies, director of Intel’s Neuromorphic Computing Lab, explains the company’s efforts in this area. And with the launch of a new neuromorphic chip this week, he talked Ars through the updates. Despite their name, neural networks are only distantly related to the sorts of things you’d find in a brain. While their organization and […]
Enlarge / A computer game that induces mice to experience hallucination-like events could be a key to understanding the neurobiological roots of psychosis, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. (credit: J. Kuhl) People suffering from psychotic episodes often experience both visual and aural hallucinations, due in part to […]