Brain Technologies

• [New] In the coming years, expect brain-computer interface technology to help control robotic arms with extreme precision and help fully conscious patients who cannot speak or move to overcome their physical limitations.
• The current system of payment for addiction services in the U.S. marginalizes people with addiction, is unpredictable, and does not follow the mechanisms and evidence-based requirements in place for other medical treatment.
• Many countries in Europe had suspended use of AstraZeneca's vaccine over concerns it could be linked to blood clots, including rare reports of clots that block sinuses that drain blood from the brain.
• Older and Younger Residents | North Dakota's population could continue to grow older and see a Gen Z brain drain as young people leave rural areas for urban ones.
• Six teams will receive funding as part of the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology program to develop technology for two-way communication between human brains and machines without requiring surgery.
• Prolonged high dose use of the hormone drug cyproterone acetate is associated with an increased risk of developing a brain tumour, finds a study of over 250,000 women in France published by The BMJ today.
• A team of scientists at University College London are exploring whether a drug used to treat brain bleeds could be repurposed to help patients suffering from an eye condition commonly associated with multiple sclerosis (MS).
• Seven technology areas including AI; quantum computing; integrated circuits; brain sciences; biotech; health care and deep earth, sea, space and polar explorations will get priority funding for research and development.
• Upgrading networks, including towers, for 5G - which promises an age of self-driving cars and brain surgery performed at a distance - will soak up some US$ 890 billion between 2020 and 2025.
• Many scientists envision the next frontier as brain-computer-interface (BCI), direct neural connections that leverage the electrical activity in brains captured via EEG signals.
• Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an antibody that, in mice, removes amyloid plaques from brain tissue and blood vessels without increasing risk of brain bleeds.
• While there have been improvements in treatment options available to individuals with metastatic breast cancer, there is no cure and every year, in the United States, approximately 42,000 women will die from breast cancer.
• Over the coming years, deep-learning software will increasingly find its way into applications for smartphones, where it is already used, for example, to detect malware or translate text in images.
• A deeper understanding of the connection between brain injury, Purkinje cell development and circuitry could allow for opportunities to explore better targeting of pharmacological approaches.
• The annual spending on R&D will dedicate mainly to key technology sector that China aims to boost including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cloud computing, brain science, semiconductors, genetic research and biotechnology.
• The steady growth of the AI technology market in the world will be driven by the integration of smart applications in areas such as robotics, the creation and development of cognitive, neuromorphic, quantum, and large-scale computing systems.
• Upgrading networks, including towers, for 5G - which promises an age of self-driving cars and brain surgery performed at a distance - will soak up some $890 billion between 2020 and 2025.
• China will implement a series of forward-looking and strategic major national sci-tech projects in frontier fields of artificial intelligence, quantum information, integrated circuits, life and health, brain science, gene technologies and clinical medicine.
• GPT-3 has 0.1% as many connections as a human brain, which - if you kind of extrapolate the current doubling rate of model size - implies that we are going to be training models with an approximate synaptic complexity of a human brain by like 2022 or 2023, which is not very far away.
• The innovation, detailed in Nature Computational Science, will make it possible for many more researchers around the world to carry out research on large-scale brain simulation, including the investigation of neurological disorders.
• Initiatives like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology effort and Elon Musk's Neuralink will make it even easier to shape brain functions and pass information directly to and from a brain.
• The Center for Brain Health Equity will leverage data to map the impact of dementia at the county and zip-code levels to better understand the inequities of brain health in communities of color.

Last updated: 18 April 2021