Amazing Video of a Brain Perceiving the External World

redletterdave points out work from Japanese researchers who produced an incredible visualization of how a brain perceives its environment. Studying zebrafish larvae, the scientists were able to observe neuronal signals in real time as the zebrafish saw and identified is prey, a paramecium. The results are illustrated in a brief video posted to YouTube, and in a longer video abstract hosted at Current Biology. (Direct download). The work is important because it demonstrates direct mapping of external stimuli to internal neuron activity in the optic tectum.

Comments

after filming the giant squid too!

[X0563511]

Japan is on a roll! Keep it coming!

Re:after filming the giant squid too!

[Anonymous Coward]

They do love their cameras. I guess it makes sense that they would photograph their "food".

Once we can film human thoughts

[cribera]

I guess it will help to interpret them more accurately, huge advances in brain-machine interfaces will come?

Re:Once we can film human thoughts

[X0563511]

Machine learning will be incredibly important, since each user's pathways will be different. Not to mention brain plasticity means they are subject to change.

Re:Once we can film human thoughts

[lightknight]

Possibly. Or justice will take on a new, and probably insane role -> peeking into a suspect's mind to reveal what they think about various things.

Except that that would be an extremely naive approach, as one may entertain billions of thoughts, but only act on a handful of them. However, given the low quality of 'social' justice I've seen up until now, I'd much prefer to be dead before they put any kind of system like that into play. The rampant stupidity of trying to explain to a court with a senile ("What are you kids doing on my lawn?") judge, a delinquent psychologist ("Of course this machine works!"), and a pure evil (Son of Satan, needs a 100% conviction record to move into higher politics) attorney general would probably cause me to have repeated grand mal seizures just from being in their presence.

I'm not saying I wouldn't trust these people to be left alone with a pair of scissors without hurting someone, but I wouldn't trust these people with a pair of scissors. Reading any amount of human history (go ahead, read the books, visit a library or read about it on the internet) would argue that these people will lead the inquisitions, which will kill millions, if not billions, of innocent people. It's shame to think we will be blessed with the kinds of people who, through a defect not their own, will be incapable of understanding why many of the people under their 'righteous' rule will probably commit suicide just to get away from them.

Re:Once we can film human thoughts

[Anonymous Coward]

There isn't a need for machine learning any more than a new tool needs to have machine learning to be useful to humans.

The brain/neurons could just learn to rewire themselves to suit the interface. You get better at controlling stuff with practice, and you retain the skill with regular usage. No need for machine learning.

Maybe the more expensive BCIs would work with more people and have some machine learning ;).

Brain cells

[buchner.johannes]

Here is a video of a researcher that sliced the brain so you can see the individual neurons, and trace their connections (~1000 connections per neuron). He flies through those connections in the recovered mapping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNyDSx14yIQ

Re: Brain cells

[Anonymous Coward]

Kill the spammer

Who's brain was it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Abby Somebody... Abby Who?... Abby Normal

so basically thunder

[decora]

is like the earth thinking

more likely we will become gigantic couch blobs

[decora]

since the exact mechanism of addiction will be discovered down to the last neuron, corporations can then exploit that information to guarantee addiction to whatever digital product they manufacture. id imagine it will be some kind of cross between the following

1. Home shopping network
2. Online gambling
3. MMO gaming
4. Pornography

Re:more likely we will become gigantic couch blobs

[Dishevel]

Steve figured all that shit out before he died.

Re:more likely we will become gigantic couch blobs

[citizenr]

since the exact mechanism of addiction will be discovered down to the last neuron, corporations can then exploit that information to guarantee addiction to whatever digital product they manufacture. id imagine it will be some kind of cross between the following

1. Home shopping network
2. Online gambling
3. MMO gaming
4. Pornography

nah, it will be Nature Fresh brand milk

Re:more likely we will become gigantic couch blobs

[Sulphur]

Steve figured all that shit out before he died.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/image/1008w/h/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/comic-riffs/StandingArt/BORSjobs.png?uuid=cuxS4psaEeG_E2Y-wvX7KA

Re:Sign of the times.

[PPH]

Or three hours ahead of yesterday's news.

I wonder what a brain scan of a Slashdotter perceiving old news would look like.

Meanwhile the Paramecium was thinking:

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile, the Paramecium was thinking "Oh No!!!" and he did that without ANY neurons

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

zebrafish larvae have brains?

W. Grey Walter's "Toposcope"

[dpbsmith]

This is reminiscent of the "toposcope," built In the 1940s by late W. Grey Walter. It was a 22-channel EEG, or perhaps one should say EES for electroencephaloscope, which displayed a map of the brain's electrical activity in real time... if I recall correctly, on 22 "magic eye" tubes, allowing the special propagation of brain waves to be visualized.

Re:Can't use - don't have optic rectum

[wherrera]

Kidding right? That's Tectum, and in humans it is a structure in the midbrain (the human midbrain, part of the brainstem, is shaped a lot like the zebrafish organ in the video, by the way) that processes vision in a mostly pre-conscious way. So,in the zebrafish, we probably have to say that the tectum signaling in that video may not be the fish thinking, in the same way we do, at least. Google for blindsight.