All posts tagged: Circuits

A single workout can rewire your brain’s memory circuits

A single workout can rewire your brain’s memory circuits

Published by Jenni Sidey

A brief period of exercise may do more for your brain than you expect. New research led by the University of Iowa shows that even a single workout can rapidly shift how your brain processes memory. The findings offer the first direct look at how exercise changes electrical activity in the human brain tied to learning and recall. For years, scientists believed exercise improved memory, but they lacked direct proof from human brain activity. This study changes that. By recording signals inside the brain, researchers captured real-time changes in neural patterns after physical activity. What they saw suggests your brain becomes more connected and active in key memory networks almost immediately after exercise. A Rare Look Inside the Human Brain Studying brain activity at this level is difficult. Most research relies on imaging tools that track blood flow, not actual electrical signals. These methods show trends but miss the fast bursts of activity that happen in milliseconds. Paradigm, electrode coverage and ripple detection. (CREDIT: Brain Communications) To overcome this, the research team worked with 14 …

Scientists use machine learning to control specific brain circuits

Scientists use machine learning to control specific brain circuits

Published by José Betancourt

A team of researchers in Japan has developed an artificial intelligence tool called YORU that can identify specific animal behaviors in real time and immediately interact with the animals’ brain circuits. This open-source software, described in a study published in Science Advances, allows biologists to study social interactions with greater speed and precision than previously possible. By treating complex actions as distinct visual objects, the system enables computers to “watch” behaviors like courtship or food sharing and respond within milliseconds. Biologists have struggled for years to automate the analysis of how animals interact. Social behaviors such as courtship or aggression involve dynamic movements where individuals often touch or obscure one another from the camera’s view. Previous software solutions typically relied on a method called pose estimation. This technique tracks specific body points like a joint, a knee, or a wing tip across many video frames to calculate movement. These older methods often fail when animals get too close to one another. When two insects overlap, the computer frequently loses track of which leg belongs to …

New AI system helps scientists understand complex systems that change over time

New AI system helps scientists understand complex systems that change over time

Published by Jenni Sidey

Duke University engineers are using artificial intelligence to do something scientists have chased for centuries; turn messy, real-world motion into simple rules you can write down. The work comes from Boyuan Chen, director of the General Robotics Lab, and his team, including lead author Sam Moore, a PhD candidate. They reported the results in the journal npj Complexity. Their new AI framework studies time-series data, meaning measurements taken over time, and then produces compact equations that describe how a system changes. It targets the kinds of problems that show up everywhere, from weather patterns and electrical circuits to mechanical devices and biological signals. The goal is not just prediction. It is understanding. “Scientific discovery has always depended on finding simplified representations of complicated processes,” said Chen, the Dickinson Family Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke. “We increasingly have the raw data needed to understand complex systems, but not the tools to turn that information into the kinds of simplified rules scientists rely on. Bridging that gap is essential.” Automated global analysis …