What is Artificial Intelligence?

A prototype brain implant that uses light to change the behavior of neurons in the brain is currently being developed by the researchers at Medtronic.

They based the device to the emerging science of opto-genetic neuro-modulation where brain cells are genetically engineered to respond to light.

According to Medtronic, the aim of developing such brain implant is to understand more how electrical therapies are used to treat Parkinson's and other disorders. They said that they will use their findings to improve their electrical stimulators. But they also hope to use optical therapy directly as treatments.

While academic scientist are on the process of developing new apparatus to bring light to the brain, Medtronic is working on optogenetically based brain implant for commercial use. Their module which has the size and shape of a small USB flash drive has a power management unit, a wireless data links, a microcontroller, and an optical stimulator. And it uses fiber-optic wire to target light from a green or blue LED at target neurons in the brain.

Medtronic plans to use the device for in-house research on the effects of DBS and advertise it to neuroscience researchers.

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The left brain indicates a normal state while the right brain indicates general intelligence correlated to IQ scores.

Recently, a study about mapping the human brain has been published in the the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A team of neuro-scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Iowa, the University of Southern California (USC), and the Autonomous University of Madrid collaborate to have successfully mapped the brain to measure general intelligence.

According to Ralph Adolphs, one of the authors, "general intelligence is also referred to as the Spearman's g-factor" but the underlying concepts are quite vague.

Using brain imaging techniques, the team examined a uniquely wide range of data set of 241 brain-lesion patients who all took the IQ tests.

Then, the scientists mapped the area of each patient's lesion in their brains, and correlated them with the patient's IQ score to produce a map of the brain regions that affect general intelligence.

During the examinations, the researchers were amazed to find out that, instead of living in a single structure, general intelligence is distinguished by a network of regions across both sides of the brain.

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NTU new supercomputer uses water-cooled technology to save on enery usage

New supercomputers nowadays compete each other not only in terms of speed and accuracy of memory data but also of efficiency in using energy.

A new supercomputer is well-anticipated to be released at the High Performance Computing (HPC) Center inside the campus of Nanyang Technology University or NTU to sustain the increasing international research profile and capacity of the university.

NTU's new supercomputer is prototyped on the first IBM System x iDataplex group in ASEAN and controlled by the Intel® Xeon® chip 5500 series. It decreases electricity consumption as it automatically regulates recognized energy usage levels and specified processing speeds.

This new supercomputer HPC system optimizes performance with an exceptional water-cooled technology, an IBM's Rear Door Heat eXchanger for the iDataplex Rack. This technology reduces the necessity for in-house computer air conditioners, allowing for room temperature processing.

After a laboratory trial, the result is a lessening in electrical utilization and saving more than 30% when compared with the typical accuracy cooling system available in most supercomputers.

NTU's new supercomputer is ranked 6th as most energy-efficient in the world on x86 computer architecture, and ranked 29th as the most energy-efficient system on the list of Green500 at 274.64 Mflops (millions of floating point operations per second) per watt.

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a new IT tool that automatically regulates administration of anesthesia to patients undergoing surgery

A new artificial intelligent system has been recently launched to regulate specific administration of anesthesia during a surgery.

Before the advent of artificial intelligent system, surgeons and anesthesiologists have no accurate way of knowing the how long or how effective is a kind of anesthesia to a patient during critical operations. They mainly rely on physical reactions of the patient to pain, thus immediately increasing dosage of anesthesia.

In Canary Islands, a team of research scientists from the Anesthesia Control Group at the University of La Laguna (ULL) developed a new IT tool that constantly monitors the level of hypnosis or unconsciousness of the patient while being operated.

With a team of anesthetists from the University Hospital of the Canary Islands, Juan Albino Méndez, lead author and researcher, spearheaded this project which regulates doses of anesthesia in operating theaters via a computer.

This artificial intelligent system uses sensors and a computer monitor to keep track of the patient's EEG and bi-spectral index (BIS), a parameter that measures hypnotic states without units.

The program relies on a detection algorithm that automatically controls a pump to inject anesthesia to the patient whenever needed.

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Left brain after the first trial; Right brain after 10 minutes of practice controlling movement of cursor through imagination

The human brain signals has been a subject of curiosity and exploration. And in a recent study, it showed that by just thinking about controlling the movement of a computer cursor, brain neurons populate to make it happen in real life.

As published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Washington observed the brain signals in its surface while using imagination to control the movements of computer cursor. The activity was proven with the brain-computer interface connecting the brain through tiny electrodes.

The team of experts studied eight patients awaiting surgery for epilepsy at two hospitals in Seattle. They were placed with electrodes connected to their brains' surface during the week of observation prior to the scheduled surgery.

They asked these patients to imagine moving their arms while brain activities were recorded. Then, they asked the patients to imagine moving a computer cursor towards a target object in the computer screen. And after just 10 minutes of doing so, they actually enjoyed controlling the movement of the computer cursor like it was something they do physically.

Now, this findings also provide marks on which brain signals to tap to aid in the treatment of brain-related diseases like epilepsy.

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