Via NextNature

“The shrinking size of electronics allows for the implantation of increasingly sophisticated electronic devices in the human body, paving the way for new prosthetics and brain-machine interfaces – think of the speculative phone tooth, conductive body paint or the brain-twitter interface. But so far a big challenge has been how to deliver power to electronic components embedded within the body.

While currently applied devices, such as cochlea or retinal implants, rely on inductive coupling, which means the power source needs to be centimeters away, engineers at Brown University have now developed an implantable neural sensing chip that is powered via a radio source that can be up to a meter away. The technology is similar to the equipment used to power and read information from radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.

So far, the technology has only been tested to measure neural activity in moths, but of course “the real challenges and application potential emerge in work with primates.” says Arto Nurmikko, professor of engineering at Brown University. Another small step in the diminishing of the border between people and products.”

More on TechReview

“…students who were asked about their intentions to vote in upcoming elections became more likely to vote than students who were not asked.”

“There are times when Americans’ attitude toward health-care reform seems a bit like St. Augustine’s take on chastity: Give it to us, Lord, but not yet”

James Surowiecki points out the psychological underpinings of the current health care debate.

Status-Quo bias, Loss aversion, endowment effect…lots of lizzard brain needs to be mastered to get this right.

“…the new study – published in this week’s JAMA, a study by Nora Volkow et al. shows that untreated adults (to rule out the effects of medication) had lower dopamine transporter and receptor activity in key brain regions when compared to typical controls. The results seem fairly robust and confirm what we would predict from our current model of ADHD. So yes, Tom Cruise, ADHD is a problem with brain chemistry.”

Having suffered from ADD, as well as having grown up in a generation in which knowledge of its presence has been popularized, sensationalized, over (and under) medicated, I am still interested in new information regarding this condition.

Dr. Novella gives a good rundown on where the science stands on this disorder (and it is a brian disorder) here.