Tag Archives: neuroscience

My friend Jack suffers from the most terrible migraines. But he has an unusual solution. When his migraine starts, he lays down and gently straps a vibrator to the top of his forehead. He swears that it offers instant relief from the pain. Though unconventional, Jack’s idea has historic roots. …

Activity trackers have come a long way. No longer mere step-counters, they can monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen level, and skin temperature, and can even detect whether you suffer from sleep apnea. Now, there’s a new wearable for your brain—and I’ve been testing it out for the past two …

There is no one experience of “aura.” For some, it starts with white glitter at the edge of their vision like half-seen falling stars; others find faces distorted or words suddenly difficult to form. Science journals collect unusual cases, like Oliver Sacks’ account of waking to find his nurse had …

This image could be hung in a gallery, but it started life as a tiny chunk of a woman’s brain. In 2014, a woman undergoing surgery for epilepsy had a tiny chunk of her cerebral cortex removed. This cubic millimeter of tissue has allowed Harvard and Google researchers to produce …

A second person will soon receive Neuralink’s experimental brain implant, according to Elon Musk, the company’s cofounder. In a video update on Wednesday, Musk said the surgery is planned to take place in “the next week or so.” The company is making changes to the surgical procedure and placement of …

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. György Buzsáki first started tinkering with waves when he was in high school. In his childhood home in Hungary, he built a radio receiver, tuned it to various electromagnetic frequencies, and used a radio transmitter to chat with strangers from …

In 2016, Noland Arbaugh suffered a spinal cord injury while swimming in a lake. The details are fuzzy, but what he remembers is rushing toward the water with his friends, diving in, and hitting his head on something—or someone. He floated to the surface, unable to move. Doctors later confirmed …

Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink revealed that it experienced a problem with its brain implant after the device was installed in its initial participant, 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh. After the January 28 procedure, Musk was quick to announce on X that Arbaugh was “recovering well” and that “initial results show promising …

At a tech forum in Beijing last week, a Chinese company unveiled a “homegrown” brain-computer interface that allowed a monkey to seemingly control a robotic arm just by thinking about it. In a video shown at the event, a monkey with its hands restrained uses the interface to move a …

Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink has chosen the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, as the initial study site to test its Telepathy device. The first participant in Neuralink’s study, Noah Arbaugh, underwent a successful procedure at the institute in January to get the device implanted. Known as a brain-computer …