Neuroscientists unlock shared brain codes between people

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) ? A team of neuroscientists at Dartmouth College has shown that different individuals' brains use the same, common neural code to recognize complex visual images.

Their paper is published in the October 20, 2011, issue of the journal Neuron. The paper's lead author is James Haxby, the Evans Family Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Haxby is also the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth and a professor in the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento in Italy. Swaroop Guntupalli, a graduate student in Haxby's laboratory, developed software for the project's methods and ran the tests of their validity.

Haxby developed a new method called hyperalignment to create this common code and the parameters that transform an individual's brain activity patterns into the code.

The parameters are a set of numbers that act like a combination that unlocks that individual's brain's code, Haxby said, allowing activity patterns in that person's brain to be decoded -- specifying the visual images that evoked those patterns ?- by comparing them to patterns in other people's brains.

"For example, patterns of brain activity evoked by viewing a movie can be decoded to identify precisely which part of the movie an individual was watching by comparing his or her brain activity to the brain activity of other people watching the same movie," said Haxby.

When someone looks at the world, visual images are encoded into patterns of brain activity that capture all of the subtleties that make it possible to recognize an unlimited variety of objects, animals, and actions.

"Although the goal of this work was to find the common code, these methods can now be used to see how brain codes vary across individuals because of differences in visual experience due to training, such as that for air traffic controllers or radiologists, to cultural background, or to factors such as genetics and clinical disorders," he said.

Because of variability in brain anatomy, brain decoding had required separate analysis of each individual. Although detailed analysis of an individual could break that person's brain code, it didn't say anything about the brain code for a different person. In the paper, Haxby shows that all individuals use a common code for visual recognition, making it possible to identify specific patterns of brain activity for a wide range of visual images that are the same in all brains.

As a result of their research, the team showed that a pattern of brain activity in one individual can be decoded by finding the picture or movie that evoked the same pattern in other individuals.

Participants in the study watched the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark while their patterns of brain activity were measured using fMRI. In two separate experiments, they viewed still images of seven categories of faces and objects (male and female human faces, monkey faces, dog faces, shoes, chairs and houses) or six animal species (squirrel monkeys, ring-tailed lemurs, mallards, yellow-throated warblers, ladybugs and luna moths). Analysis of the brain activity patterns evoked by the movie produced the common code. Once the brain patterns were in the common code, including responses that were not evoked by the movie, distinct patterns were detected that were common across individuals and specific for fine distinctions, such as monkey versus dog faces, and squirrel monkeys versus lemurs.

This work is part of a five-year collaboration with signal processing scientists at Princeton University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Dartmouth College. The original article was written by Latarsha Gatlin.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. James V. Haxby, J. Swaroop Guntupalli, Andrew C. Connolly, Yaroslav O. Halchenko, Bryan R. Conroy, M. Ida Gobbini, Michael Hanke, Peter J. Ramadge. A Common, High-Dimensional Model of the Representational Space in Human Ventral Temporal Cortex. Neuron, Volume 72, Issue 2, 20 October 2011, Pages 404-416 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.08.026

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020122311.htm

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'Swell Season' Exclusive Clip: 'Once' More

Musicians Glen Hansard and Mark?ta Irglov?'s incredible talent and chemistry was impossible to ignore in their fantastic, Oscar-winning "Once." Despite the title of their 2006 musical film, Hansard and Irglova's presence in the public eye was not a one-time affair, thankfully. The Swell Season duo make their triumphant big-screen return in a new documentary titled, [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/10/21/swell-season-exclusive-clip-once-more/

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EU launches its first satellite navigation system

In this photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia's Soyuz VS01 rocket sits on its launching pad, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in the space base of Kourou, French Guiana . The Russian Federal Space Agency and Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, will launch tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, the Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in South America, carrying two Galileo navigation satellites in its maiden flight. (AP Photo/ESA, S. Corvaja) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

In this photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia's Soyuz VS01 rocket sits on its launching pad, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in the space base of Kourou, French Guiana . The Russian Federal Space Agency and Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, will launch tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, the Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in South America, carrying two Galileo navigation satellites in its maiden flight. (AP Photo/ESA, S. Corvaja) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

In this photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia's Soyuz VS01 rocket sits on its launching pad, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in the space base of Kourou, French Guiana . The Russian Federal Space Agency and Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, will launch tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, the Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in South America, carrying two Galileo navigation satellites in its maiden flight. (AP Photo/ESA, S. Corvaja) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

In this photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia's Soyuz VS01 rocket sits on its launching pad, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in the space base of Kourou, French Guiana. The Russian Federal Space Agency and Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, will launch tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, the Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in South America, carrying two Galileo navigation satellites in its maiden flight. (AP Photo/ESA, S. Corvaja) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

(AP) ? A Russian rocket launched the first two satellites of the European Union's Galileo navigation system Friday after years of delay in an ambitious bid to rival the ubiquitous American GPS network.

The launch of the Soyuz from French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, marks the maiden voyage of the Russian rocket outside the former Soviet Union, with European and Russian authorities cheering at liftoff in relief after the launch was pushed back by a day.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said it is the first time that two teams work together on the launch of the Soyuz.

"We have been able to combine the best spacial activity aspects of both governments, that of France and that of Russia," he said. "I am convinced that will yield us good results."

The Galileo system has become for some a symbol of EU infighting, inefficiency and delay. Now, officials are hoping it will kick off a trans-Atlantic competition with the American GPS network.

Antonio Tajani, the EU's industry and enterprise commissioner, even linked it to Sunday's crucial summit of EU leaders struggling to put their financial house in order. "Europe shows that she is capable of managing a big project just days from the European economic summit," he said.

The rocket is expected to place into orbit the Galileo IOV-1 PFM and FM2 satellites during a nearly four-hour mission. The two satellites will be released in opposite directions.

The mission was delayed for 24 hours because of a leaky valve, and there was much relief at EU headquarters Friday that the project finally was off into space. The first part of the launch was successful, with the rocket expected to travel over Asia, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the commercial arm of the European Space Agency.

GPS has become the global consumer standard in satellite navigation over the past decade, reducing the need for awkward oversized maps and arguments with back seat drivers about whether to turn left or right.

Laurent Wauquiez, France's higher education minister and former deputy minister for European affairs, said Europe should not depend on a U.S. military-based GPS system that could be shut down at any time for security reasons.

"It means overnight we could lose our autonomy," he said. "There is an issue of sovereignty. We must not neglect this aspect even in a period of globalization."

The EU wants Galileo to dominate the future with a system that is more precise and more reliable than GPS, while controlled by civil authorities. It foresees applications ranging from precision seeding on farmland to pinpoint positioning for search-and-rescue missions. On top of that, the EU hopes it will reap a financial windfall.

"If Europe wants to be competitive and independent in the future, the EU needs to have its own satellite navigation system to also create new economic opportunities", said Herbert Reul, head of the EU parliament's industry, research and energy committee.

There are still several more years to wait, but the satellite launch is a major step in getting Galileo on track. It will start operating in 2014 as a free consumer navigation service, with more specialized services to be rolled out until 2020, when it should be fully operational.

After the initial launch, two satellites will go up every quarter as of the end of 2012 until all 30 satellites are up.

The EU hopes its economic impact will stand at about euro90 billion ($125 billion) in industrial revenues and public benefits over the next two decades.

The idea for the program first rallied support in the late 1990s, and its development has been pushed back with delays ever since. When it became clear in 2008 that private investors weren't lining up to finance Galileo, the EU decided taxpayers would underwrite most of the program.

The European Commission said development and deployment since 2003 is estimated at well over euro5 billion ($6.8 billion). Maintaining and completing the system is expected to cost euro1 billion ($1.35 billion) a year.

Critics have said the cost overruns were much higher.

"Far from celebrating," officials "who have supported Galileo should be making a public apology to taxpayers for this shocking waste of time, effort and resources," EU legislator Marta Andreasen of the anti-Euro UKIP party said.

___

Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Kerwin Alcide in Kourou, French Guiana, contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-10-21-EU-Satellite-Navigation/id-acaefa132bca4db8ad7bf08332ecf1a2

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After low-key start, Romney talks of winning Iowa

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney signs an autograph for Jeanne Dietrich, of Omaha, Neb., before speaking at an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney follows a campaign staffer after eating lunch before speaking at an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during an economic roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, in Treynor, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

(AP) ? Sensing an opening, Mitt Romney suddenly is talking about winning Iowa. The former Massachusetts governor had been focusing elsewhere and hadn't been to Iowa in two months. But now he's ramping up his efforts in the state little more than 10 weeks before its presidential caucuses that lead off the GOP nomination contests. And, with the volatile race here anyone's for the taking, he's hoping for an outright victory.

"I will be here again and again, campaigning here. I'd love to win Iowa. Any of us would," Romney said, answering a voter's question at a campaign event at Morningside College in Sioux City.

At his next stop, in rural Treynor, east of Council Bluffs, Romney exuded confidence when he told his audience: "There's a good shot I might become the next president of the United States. It's not a sure thing, but it's a good shot."

His daylong trip through the most conservative part of the state came as polls show him at the top of the GOP field in the wake of a series of strong debate performances.

Until now, Romney has had a relatively low-key presence in Iowa. He lost here in 2008 when he tried to convince voters he was a strong cultural conservative. But he couldn't sway influential evangelical conservatives ? they are concentrated heavily in the western part of the state and play an important role in the GOP caucuses ? to overlook their skepticism of his Mormon faith and his reversals on abortion and gay rights.

This time, Romney has been talking almost exclusively to business leaders about the economy in hopes of picking up support across the GOP's ideological spectrum. He's counting on his rivals, seen as more conservative, to divide the support of pastors, Christian home-school activists and evangelicals in general. They have not rallied around any one of his opponents as they did Mike Huckabee four years ago.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann both are making big plays for their support while others also are wooing them, including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, businessman Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Most if not all of them will attend an event in Des Moines on Saturday, hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group dominated by evangelical conservatives, though Romney is sitting it out.

Still, with the Jan. 3 caucuses coming into focus, Romney has decided to dig into the still wide-open race.

Most state lawmakers remain on the sidelines, along with top GOP officials. Sen. Chuck Grassley, for instance, said Wednesday he plans not to endorse a candidate before the caucuses.

There are risks. Should the former Massachusetts governor play hard in Iowa only to lose again, he'll be weakened.

In recent weeks, Romney's staff has started growing, though it remains lean by 2008 standards, when he blanketed the state's 99 counties with staffers, spent $10 million on TV and made dozens of visits.

This year, his handful of caucus organizers has been in close touch with his past supporters and birddogged county party organizations. They are building niche support groups with small business owners and the state's thriving agribusiness sector.

He's spent most of this year campaigning in New Hampshire and other states as he tried to lower any expectations that he will win in Iowa. He's spent no money on advertising in the state, and he made only his third trip this year on Thursday.

It came a week after a Perry supporter called Romney's religion a cult and just days after Perry and Romney tangled over illegal immigration, with the Texas governor recalling a 5-year-old episode in which illegal immigrations had been working on Romney's lawn.

But such issues ? as well as other hot-button cultural issues like gay marriage and abortion ? were absent or only came up briefly at his events Thursday. That could be because Romney typically holds his Iowa events in places of business where the focus is on the economy.

In Sioux City, Romney faced a friendly audience that questioned him primarily on jobs and economic issues.

Drawing a contrast to Perry at one point, Romney noted that he vetoed, as governor of Massachusetts, legislation like that which Perry signed in Texas allowing children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition. And he alluded to the attack he used against Perry in the debate, when he claimed that many of the jobs created in Texas went to illegal immigrants. His answers drew applause.

In Treynor, Romney bantered about the price of corn and types of cattle with a carefully assembled group of local business and community leaders. The discussion covered farming, education, clean coal, Israel and, of course, ethanol, critical to the local economy.

"I'm a friend of ethanol and at the same time I don't want to say that I'm going to be proposing new legislation to provide new subsidies," Romney said, walking a careful line of fiscal responsibility in front of an audience that's heavily invested in the ethanol industry.

"I think that time is now completed and we'll move on to encourage the availability for the American people to purchase ethanol on a choice basis," he said.

At an event at the Chamber of Commerce in Council Bluffs, a woman asked Romney how he planned to counter "misinformation" about his Mormon faith.

"A religious test shouldn't be applied to people who are running for public office," Romney said, to applause. "I am shaped by the Judeo-Christian values which I have and hope that those will hold me in good stead, as they have so far."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-20-US-Romney-Iowa-Push/id-0a69e0407751490fa13b9cb3b466c757

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BranchOut Launches Tool For Recruiters To Source Job Candidates On Facebook

RecruiterConnectBranchOut, a professional social network for Facebook, is announcing the launch of RecruiterConnect, a tool for recruiters and hiring managers to source job candidates on Facebook and build private talent networks. BranchOut says that RecruiterConnect is also the first enterprise software product available on the Facebook platform. Launched in July 2010, BranchOut is sort of like a LinkedIn for Facebook because it allows you to network and find jobs through your friends on the social network. BranchOut's Facebook app lets you search for companies and then shows you all your friends who either work there or know somebody who does. The application basically unlocks the massive amounts of career data about your social graph on the world's largest social network.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8AeX0daYuWY/

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HTC: We're reviewing Ice Cream Sandwich and determining our plans

Samsung was awarded a precious head start in its upgrade path to Android 4.0, but how will its competition respond? HTC may have one of the most difficult jobs ahead, since it has integrated its Sense UI so deeply into the core Android user experience, but that doesn't mean the OEM isn't determining the best road it should take to get to the land of Ice Cream Sandwiches. The company released an official statement following this evening's announcement to confirm that it's looking over the update's new features and functionality, figuring out how to make it happen without forcing sacrifices to the usability and performance of each HTC product. We'll be interested to see what it comes up with, as many of the UI elements popular in Sense appear to now be a part of the stock ICS functionality. The company was careful not to commit to the new Android, nor did it give any particular timeframe or roadmap in the process. Check out the full statement below:

We are excited about the latest update for Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and are currently reviewing its features and functionality to determine our upgrade plans. Our goal for Android updates is to give every customer an improved user experience, which means balancing each phone's unique hardware, HTC Sense experience and the Android kernel. While our goal is to upgrade as many of our recent devices as possible, we are committed to maintaining every phone's performance and usability first. Please stay tuned for more updates on specific device upgrade plans.

HTC: We're reviewing Ice Cream Sandwich and determining our plans originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YAQALAKZmG4/

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Bear feasts at candy store in Tenn. mountains

(AP) ? A bear has feasted on pecan logs, caramel apples and other treats at a candy store in the Smoky Mountains resort town Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Employees reporting for work found the bear Wednesday morning at the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen, where the animal apparently had knocked a hole in a glass front door to enter, according to The Mountain Press (http://bit.ly/orYRBH ).

Police propped open several back doors and made loud noises, and the bear ran into the woods.

The animal had spread candy on the floor, and wrappers and packaging were strewn throughout a back storeroom. Pecan logs had been chewed and chunks were missing out of caramel apples.

Bob Miller of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park said bears are active this time of year, searching for food before hibernation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2011-10-20-US-ODD-Bear-In-Candy-Store/id-551c1517aad740db9efb1add16082552

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Rick Santorum Rails Against Saturday Night Live Debate, Gay Bar Skit


Saturday Night Live went political last weekend with a faux Republican debate, seating the candidates - as was the case in the last real debate - in order of poll numbers.

Only bottom-feeder Rick Santorum was banished to a local gay bar instead of the debate table where contenders Herman Cain, Mitt Romney et al., were seated.

Needless to say, that did not go over well with the homophobe.

The cuts to SNL's faux Santorum (played by Andy Samberg) were funny due to his expressions, but more so due to their infrequency. Dude is just irrelevant now.

Andy Samberg as Rick Santorum

The decision to stick Rick in a gay bar of all places no doubt stems from his views on the LGBT community and the fact that he recently got so pissed at Google.

Santorum, in response, feels like he's being singled out for having strong views on "traditional marriage" a.k.a. despising homosexuals and all they stand for.

Really, though, what make the skit was Rick's declining importance. The lack of attention they paid Samberg reflected his 1-3 percent poll average brilliantly.

Santorum's comeback is posted below you care what he has to say, which you likely don't. That's the point. Time to back up the bus and head home, man.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/rick-santorum-rails-against-saturday-night-live-debate-gay-bar-s/

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