Bayesian brain theory suggests that the brain employs generative models to understand the external world.

Over time, the two branches interact recurrently to build a scene representation from moving fixations.

Temporal sequence processing is fundamental in brain cognitive functions.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In Mary Shelley's, a mad scientist creates a monstrous creature with severed body parts. In certain film adaptations, a dismembered head is tacked onto the malformed body. Then, with the help of a lightning storm, a new life is born. From the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, modern organ transplantation has often been linked to the horrors of Frankenstein .

New research reinforces that it's a mind-altering, dynamic state that promotes focus, learning, and well-being. If you've ever considered practicing meditation, you might believe you should relax, breathe, and empty your mind of distracting thoughts. Novices tend to think of meditation as the brain at rest, but a new international study concludes that this ancient practice is quite the opposite: Meditation is a state of heightened cerebral activity that profoundly alters brain dynamics. Researchers from the University of Montreal and Italy's National Research Council recruited 12 monks of the Thai Forest Tradition at Santacittārāma, a Buddhist monastery outside Rome. In a laboratory in Chieti-Pescara, scientists analyzed the brain activity of these meditation practitioners using magnetoencephalography (MEG), technology capable of recording with great precision the brain's electrical signals.

The backpropagation of error algorithm (BP) is impossible to implement in a real brain. The recent success of deep networks in machine learning and AI, however, has inspired proposals for understanding how the brain might learn across multiple layers, and hence how it might approximate BP. As of yet, none of these proposals have been rigorously evaluated on tasks where BP-guided deep learning has proved critical, or in architectures more structured than simple fully-connected networks. Here we present results on scaling up biologically motivated models of deep learning on datasets which need deep networks with appropriate architectures to achieve good performance. We present results on the MNIST, CIFAR-10, and ImageNet datasets and explore variants of target-propagation (TP) and feedback alignment (FA) algorithms, and explore performance in both fully-and locally-connected architectures. We also introduce weight-transport-free variants of difference target propagation (DTP) modified to remove backpropagation from the penultimate layer. Many of these algorithms perform well for MNIST, but for CIFAR and ImageNet we find that TP and FA variants perform significantly worse than BP, especially for networks composed of locally connected units, opening questions about whether new architectures and algorithms are required to scale these approaches. Our results and implementation details help establish baselines for biologically motivated deep learning schemes going forward.

As the world's largest companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into large language models, San Francisco-based Logical Intelligence is trying something different in pursuit of AI that can mimic the human brain. If you ask Yann LeCun, Silicon Valley has a groupthink problem. Since leaving Meta in November, the researcher and AI luminary has taken aim at the orthodox view that large language models (LLMs) will get us to artificial general intelligence (AGI), the threshold where computers match or exceed human smarts. Everyone, he declared in a recent interview, has been "LLM-pilled." On January 21, San Francisco-based startup Logical Intelligence appointed LeCun to its board .

Gestala is the latest company to emerge from China's burgeoning brain-computer interface industry. It plans to access the brain with noninvasive ultrasound technology. China's brain-computer interface industry is growing fast, and the newest company to emerge from the country is aiming to access the brain without the use of invasive implants . Gestala, newly founded in Chengdu with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong, plans to use ultrasound technology to stimulate--and eventually read from--the brain, according to CEO and cofounder Phoenix Peng. It's the second company to launch in recent weeks with the aim of tapping into the brain with ultrasound.

Tom Homan pushes Border Patrol out of Minneapolis in sweeping shake-up as Trump's'little Napoleon' Greg Bovino faces humiliating exit Insiders reveal the REAL misstep that got Kristi Noem humiliatingly sidelined by Trump... and the weak excuse she's peddling to try and save her own skin Insidious secret life of promiscuous neurosurgeon found dead in his $2.5m mansion'He has no loyalty': The bitter secret fallout between One Direction star Harry Styles and his former bandmates - as insiders reveal for the first time what really happened at Liam Payne's funeral The $1 supplement that will protect you from winter viruses... including new'super flu' Is Angelina Jolie quitting America? Private struggles emerge... as actress weighs major lifestyle that threatens to rupture her family Young single mother's selfless final act after finding out she had just weeks to live Seven dead in private jet crash as audio reveals voice said'Let there be light' seconds before tragedy at snowy Maine airport Gisele Bundchen relaxes with new husband and baby on boat after ex Tom Brady admits divorce'took a lot out of me' Defiant Trump dismisses Alzheimer's fears as he struggles to recall name of disease in interview America's best and worst states to retire revealed - and why Florida is no longer the obvious winner I'm a neurologist... here are three simple tricks to help you kick any bad habit Furious family hit out at Kate Hudson's'abominable' Oscar nomination amid toxic feud NFL's'scripted' conspiracy theory resurfaces as fans find five-month old post hinting at Super Bowl 60 matchup I'm a neurologist... here are three simple tricks to help you kick any bad habit Some bad habits are small. But over time, they add up, and suddenly you're wondering how you ended up here. Now, a neurologist says three simple tricks can help break the cycles that quietly take over our lives. Dr Arif Khan, a pediatric neurologist, outlined'cue shift,' the'one-step rule' and'reward rewrite' as practical tools to stop negative patterns in their tracks.

Grandparents who play with, read to, and look after their grandkids score better on cognitive tests. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. From physical fitness to doing puzzles to going out with friends, there's a laundry list of advice out there to help protect our brains from cognitive decline as we age . Taking care of grandchildren may also help brain health, according to new research from the American Psychological Association published today in the journal . "Many grandparents provide regular care for their grandchildren--care that supports families and society more broadly," Flavia Chereches, a study co-author and Ph.D. candidate at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said in a statement.