Former Philippine president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino made her first public appearance on Saturday since she was diagnosed to have colon cancer last March 24, saying she was overwhelmed by people praying for her recovery.
Mrs Aquino, clad in pink dress, was seen walking on her own when she showed up at the Pink Sister Convent in Quezon City to hear Mass, according to GMA News Flash Report.
After the Mass, the former president recalled that in 1985 she prayed at the Pink Sister Convent before deciding to challenge then dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a snap election in 1986.
Mrs Aquino thanked her countrymen for praying for her recovery, saying she was overwhelmed.
“I thanked everybody who has been praying for me and as I said earlier I am just amazed that people whom I don’t even know have taken the trouble to write me or send me a message that they are praying for me," Mrs Aquino told reporters before leaving the convent around 7 p.m.
“I am truly blessed.
"Mrs Aquino said she is glad that she is still alive. “Ninoy (former senator Benigno Aquino Jr) had to die before people prayed for him and here I am still alive," she said adding that she has been responding well to chemotherapy.
A humble housewife propelled to politics by the assassination of her husband, an opposition leader, in 1983, Aquino led a peaceful uprising in 1986 that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and became a harbinger of nonviolent protests around the world.
After stepping down in 1992, she has remained active in social and political causes. Most recently, she has been attending rallies calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption. - GMANews.TV
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Brain Computer Interface
A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. In one-way BCIs, computers either accept commands from the brain or send signals to it (for example, to restore vision) but not both. Two-way BCIs would allow brains and external devices to exchange information in both directions but have yet to be successfully implanted in animals or humans.
In this definition, the word brain means the brain or nervous system of an organic life form rather than the mind. Computer means any processing or computational device, from simple circuits to silicon chips (including hypothetical future technologies such as quantum computing).
Research on BCIs began in the 1970s, but it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the first working experimental implants in humans appeared. Following years of animal experimentation, early working implants in humans now exist, designed to restore damaged hearing, sight and movement. The common thread throughout the research is the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, which often adapts to BCIs, treating prostheses controlled by implants as natural limbs. With recent advances in technology and knowledge, pioneering researchers could now conceivably attempt to produce BCIs that augment human functions rather than simply restoring them, previously only the realm of science fiction.
In this definition, the word brain means the brain or nervous system of an organic life form rather than the mind. Computer means any processing or computational device, from simple circuits to silicon chips (including hypothetical future technologies such as quantum computing).
Research on BCIs began in the 1970s, but it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the first working experimental implants in humans appeared. Following years of animal experimentation, early working implants in humans now exist, designed to restore damaged hearing, sight and movement. The common thread throughout the research is the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, which often adapts to BCIs, treating prostheses controlled by implants as natural limbs. With recent advances in technology and knowledge, pioneering researchers could now conceivably attempt to produce BCIs that augment human functions rather than simply restoring them, previously only the realm of science fiction.
Cultured Neuronal Network
A cultured neuronal network is a cell culture comprised of brain cells which is connected to an I/O interface. Recently, the term neural networks has become associated with algorithms designed to accomplish certain tasks with great efficiency. However, research is also conducted on living neuronal networks growing on microelectrode arrays (for electrophysiological observations) or glass plates (for optical and staining methods).
Neurochip
A neurochip is a chip (integrated circuit/microprocessor) that is designed for the interaction with neuronal cells.
It is made of silicon that is doped in such a way, that it contains EOSFETs (electrolyte-oxide-semiconductor FET) that can sense the electrical activity of the neurons (action potentials) in the above-standing physiological electrolyte solution. It also contains capacitors for the electrical stimulation of these cells.
It is made of silicon that is doped in such a way, that it contains EOSFETs (electrolyte-oxide-semiconductor FET) that can sense the electrical activity of the neurons (action potentials) in the above-standing physiological electrolyte solution. It also contains capacitors for the electrical stimulation of these cells.
Brain
In animals, the brain is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. In mammals, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, equilibrioception (balance), sense of taste, and olfaction (smell).
While all vertebrates have a brain, most invertebrates have either a centralized brain or collections of individual ganglia. Some animals such as cnidarians and echinoderms do not have a centralized brain, instead have a decentralized nervous system, while animals such as sponges lack both a brain and nervous system entirely.
Brains can be extremely complex. For example, the human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons, each linked to as many as 10,000 other neurons.
The brain is the central information-processing organ of the body. It innervates the head through cranial nerves, and it communicates with the spinal cord, which innervates the body through spinal nerves. Nervous fibers transmitting signals from the brain are called efferent fibers. The fibers transmitting signals to the brain are called afferent fibers (or sensory fibers). Nerves can be afferent, efferent or mixed (i.e., containing both types of fibers).
The brain is the site of reason and intelligence, which include such components as cognition, perception, attention, memory and emotion. The brain is also responsible for control of posture and movements. It makes possible cognitive, motor and other forms of learning. The brain can perform a variety of functions automatically, without the need for conscious awareness, such as coordination of sensory systems (eg. sensory gating and multisensory integration), walking, and homeostatic body functions such as blood pressure, fluid balance, and body temperature.
The Cerebellum controls balance and movement. Without it, movements would not be coordinated.
Diagram showing the lobes of the human cerebral cortex and the cerebellum.
Many functions are controlled by coordinated activity of the brain and spinal cord. Moreover, some behaviours such as simple reflexes and basic locomotion, can be executed under spinal cord control alone.
The brain undergoes transitions from wakefulness to sleep (and subtypes of these states). These state transitions are crucially important for proper brain functioning. (For example, it is believed that sleep is important for knowledge consolidation, as the neurons appear to organize the day's stimuli during deep sleep by randomly firing off the most recently used neuron pathways; additionally, without sleep, normal subjects are observed to develop symptoms resembling mental illness, even auditory hallucinations). Every brain state is associated with characteristic brain waves.
Neurons are electrically active brain cells that process information, whereas Glial cells perform supporting function. In addition to being electrically active, neurons constantly synthesize neurotransmitters. Neurons modify their properties (guided by gene expression) under the influence of their input signals. This plasticity underlies learning and adaptation. It is notable that some unused neuron pathways (constructions which have become physically isolated from other cells) may continue to exist long after the memory is absent from consciousness, possibly developing the subconscious.
While all vertebrates have a brain, most invertebrates have either a centralized brain or collections of individual ganglia. Some animals such as cnidarians and echinoderms do not have a centralized brain, instead have a decentralized nervous system, while animals such as sponges lack both a brain and nervous system entirely.
Brains can be extremely complex. For example, the human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons, each linked to as many as 10,000 other neurons.
The brain is the central information-processing organ of the body. It innervates the head through cranial nerves, and it communicates with the spinal cord, which innervates the body through spinal nerves. Nervous fibers transmitting signals from the brain are called efferent fibers. The fibers transmitting signals to the brain are called afferent fibers (or sensory fibers). Nerves can be afferent, efferent or mixed (i.e., containing both types of fibers).
The brain is the site of reason and intelligence, which include such components as cognition, perception, attention, memory and emotion. The brain is also responsible for control of posture and movements. It makes possible cognitive, motor and other forms of learning. The brain can perform a variety of functions automatically, without the need for conscious awareness, such as coordination of sensory systems (eg. sensory gating and multisensory integration), walking, and homeostatic body functions such as blood pressure, fluid balance, and body temperature.
The Cerebellum controls balance and movement. Without it, movements would not be coordinated.
Diagram showing the lobes of the human cerebral cortex and the cerebellum.
Many functions are controlled by coordinated activity of the brain and spinal cord. Moreover, some behaviours such as simple reflexes and basic locomotion, can be executed under spinal cord control alone.
The brain undergoes transitions from wakefulness to sleep (and subtypes of these states). These state transitions are crucially important for proper brain functioning. (For example, it is believed that sleep is important for knowledge consolidation, as the neurons appear to organize the day's stimuli during deep sleep by randomly firing off the most recently used neuron pathways; additionally, without sleep, normal subjects are observed to develop symptoms resembling mental illness, even auditory hallucinations). Every brain state is associated with characteristic brain waves.
Neurons are electrically active brain cells that process information, whereas Glial cells perform supporting function. In addition to being electrically active, neurons constantly synthesize neurotransmitters. Neurons modify their properties (guided by gene expression) under the influence of their input signals. This plasticity underlies learning and adaptation. It is notable that some unused neuron pathways (constructions which have become physically isolated from other cells) may continue to exist long after the memory is absent from consciousness, possibly developing the subconscious.
Nervous System
The nervous system is a highly specialized network whose principal components are nerves called neurons. Neurons are interconnected to each other in complex arrangements, and have the property of conducting, using electrochemical signals, a great variety of stimuli both within the nervous tissue as well as from and towards most of the other tissues. Thus, neurons coordinate multiple functions in organisms. Nervous systems are found in many multicellular animals but differ greatly in complexity between species.
Mind
Mind collectively refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination; mind is the stream of consciousness. It includes all of the brain's conscious processes. This denotation sometimes includes, in certain contexts, the working of the human unconscious or the conscious thoughts of animals. "Mind" is often used to refer especially to the thought processes of reason.
There are many theories of the mind and its function. The earliest recorded works on the mind are by Zarathushtra, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara and other ancient Greek, Indian and Islamic philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, based in theology, concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the supposed supernatural, divine or god-given essence of the person. Modern theories, based on scientific understanding of the brain, theorise that the mind is a phenomenon of the brain and is synonymous with consciousness.
The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the individual mind.
There are many theories of the mind and its function. The earliest recorded works on the mind are by Zarathushtra, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara and other ancient Greek, Indian and Islamic philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, based in theology, concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the supposed supernatural, divine or god-given essence of the person. Modern theories, based on scientific understanding of the brain, theorise that the mind is a phenomenon of the brain and is synonymous with consciousness.
The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the individual mind.
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