Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
US MILITARY RESEARCHERS announced today they have awarded $40 million (€30 million) toward developing a new kind of brain implant that may help restore memories in wounded soldiers and civilians.
The work represents a major scientific leap forward, but experts said many hurdles remain before it can be shown to work in people, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said.
The hope is that some day, a wireless, implantable device will bridge gaps in the injured brain and make it easier to remember basic events, places, and context — known as declarative memories.
This kind of recall can be lost in traumatic brain injury, which has affected 270,00 US military service people since 2000.
“Our vision is to develop neuroprosthetics for memory recovery in patients living with brain injury and dysfunction,” said Justin Sanchez, programme manager of the Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program at DARPA. He added:
Those service members have paid the ultimate price in service of our nation, so it our great responsibility to try to come up with new and innovative — not only scientific but medical — approaches that can help repay some of that debt.
DARPA said it was carefully weighing the ethics of such experiments, and is consulting with a panel of neuroscience experts about potential pitfalls associated with the research.
“It is risky, which is very typical of DARPA,” said Geoffrey Ling, director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office.
First tests on epilepsy patients
The work is part of a four-year program that supports President Barack Obama’s Brain Initiative, a $100 million effort.
The latest DARPA awards give up to $22.5 million to a team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, up to $15 million the University of California, Los Angeles, and $2.5 million to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Medtronic, the medical device technology company, was to contribute with a “cost-sharing effort,” said Sanchez, but details on that were not immediately available.
Any new neuroprosthetic device will be first tested on patients with epilepsy who have also suffered memory loss as a result of their condition and who are already implanted with electrodes as part of their treatment, researchers said.
If it works for those patients, “then we will have gained extremely valuable information on how to restore normal memory function in patients with traumatic brain injury or Alzheimer’s disease,” said Michael Kahana, director of Penn’s Computational Memory lab.
A statement from UCLA said scientists will be looking at how to “intervene with sophisticated electrical stimulation to help restore memory function.”
What type of memories will be restored?
As an example of the kind of memory that researchers aim to restore, Sanchez cited a simple trip to the store, for which a person would need to remember the name of the store, where it is located, perhaps the phone number or the name of the owner.
Such facts can be difficult to recall when a person has a traumatic brain injury.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day we would like to find solutions for the emotional, social and economic aspects of those injuries,” said Sanchez, adding:
This concept and this vision? Easier said than done.
There are huge technological challenges and scientific challenges that must be overcome to deliver these kinds of therapies back to our injured military personnel.
In response to concerns that the US military might be seeking to alter or remove the recall of soldiers in combat, Sanchez said DARPA is not doing any research in the area of erasing memories.
MORE IN SCIENCE
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Perhaps it is time that JIMMY and the rest cut the cost of membership and there own salaries
Has he disclosed his salary and the value of his add ons ect what does it come to over the year
Jimmy, you are a bit of an eejit if you don’t know the effects of a pay cut!
Mind you, most of your members are reasonably well paid in secure pensionable jobs, not like the rest of us.
The government over employed in the public sector in the boom years to artificially inflate the figures, reality is a hard pill to swallow but a necessary one for the survival and recovery of the country.
30% of teachers are now part time casual workers on very low money.
Jimmy give us a break…sure the amount you and your trade union buddies earn nearly comes to the 1 billion mark!!
You employee. Us employer. You don’t make demands.
Vincent if u live a democracy (we don’t). It’s your right (privilege is a better word, right aren’t rights if they can take them away from u, are they?)
Anyways workers have the privilege to contest changes, yes?
I agree though no union leader/ TD should be on more than 3 times the industrial wage, as they have lost touch with those they are there to represent.
Jack o Connor recent outburst at those who disagree with him, is an example
Contest changes indeed, but if a company is haemorrhaging money, the company must act. Likewise the state must act in this case. Otherwise long term everyone pays more through increased taxation. Then again, selfless acts aren’t too common in Ireland today.
Brian. Agreed, it’s the method they are using which is unjust
But if a company is failing due to leadership issues it will make no difference what the workers scarf ice to keep it afloat, as the steering group of the company will repeat errors, or bow to external pressures again & again
Also to get everybody on board true leadership must be shown for example a 10% cut for staff, should be mirrored with a 20% cut for Mgt, want to drive change u must live that change, only thing FG are driving is this country off a fiscal cliff!
Why do all union chiefs have beards are are from north Dublin?
#Vincent Dolan, just because a person is an employee doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. Look at how Foxconn treat their workers, that’s what all employers want, that’s the way we are going in both private and public sectors. Less of the public/private division and more workers standing together.
It’s not rocket science Jimmy. It means that we shouldn’t have to borrow as much over the next few years. Still need to reduce the budget defecit.
What annoys me is the fact that most TD,S are claiming 60 grand per year in Unvouched Tax Free expenses and everyone seems to think its acceptable while the same gombeen men tell us they must slash peoples incomes !!!!!
I fully accept that I am going to have to take a significant pay cut. However, for every €1,000 I’m cut I will pay €420 less in income tax, about €100 less USC, over €100 less pension contributions to the government – over €600. The €400 less I’ll bring home will reduce discretionary spending – loss of another €80 in VAT. Down to €300 now. If 100 like me are in the same boat then that’s €30,000 less spent in the economy – 1 job gone as a result.
Savings of €1 billion in the pay bill does not mean €1 billion less in the deficit
Yep, we should obviously just give everybody in the PS a payrise of 1000 euros thus resulting in an increase in the tax take, and solving all our economic problems in one fell swoop.
Very good point from unite. Cuts in some ways are justified but there are many questions.
How much of the savings of 1 bn are to come from
People earning less than 50 k pa, 50 to 70 k, 70k to 90k, etc.?
What prices under the governments control will be reduced or held steady?
How much will be spent on stimulating growth?
When will the burden of income tax on the lower paid be reduced to cover the cost of other taxes, such as property, water, waste,
What is the tax strategy for the next 5 years (e.g. Will vat return to 21% max and when?) also when will corporations start to pay a reasonable share of the taxes?
‘How much will be spent on growth’…when the government reduce their wage bill, there is no extra money to be spent, just less money to borrow. Try to have some knowledge of the subject before entering into the debate.
It has already been said that any savings will go to pay the illegal gambling debt. Which part of this do people not understand? Jack and Jimmy would do better to get Begg to withdraw his outrageous support for the property tax.
Brian, you should read the comment again and you will see that there is no contradiction in what I say. Furthermore, the government is committed to spending some of the proceeds of the sale of assets on growth stimulation. I am happy I know enough about the situation to enter a debate with anyone open minded on the subject.
“Participants in the talks have not been told why the cuts are so necessary”
Where have the unions been for the past 5 years?
We’re broke!!!
David, Ireland is not broke, quite a wealthy country in fact
You’re right, we’re minted. All this talk of borrowing from the IMF is mere waffle.
How so? Please enlighten us.
JIMMY you should know better than anyone you’re members have nothing left to give simple word every union official used to know but seem to have forgot No
Your.
Punctuation, grammar and spelling fail
A 10% cut would take a minimum of €50 out of 290,000 workers weekly pay which is subsequently taken out of the economy with less income tax received by the government and less income to be spent on goods and services from Irish companies by the workers and therefore less vat received. Another sensible plan please
I was simply using this as example Anto, not a plan, but lets here your plan?
Brian look up stats surrounding wealth per country, disregard those countries who are major oil producers, then u might be surprised, plus ur mixing up wealth extracted by a Govt, not available wealth in a country, these are the details TDs use to confuse you, just look a little deeper!
Because all the money used to pay those wages just falls out of the sky, doesn’t it. Clueless.
Good old Jimmy. He never changes his tune.
So Jimmy believes no need to balance the budget.
We can simply keep borrowing money for ever. We can keep spending more money than we take in as taxes.
What a great idea, sure our lenders will not be rude enough to ask for repayment.
Jimmy has not changed much since his days in the Socailist Workers Party.
I would say these questions have been devised by the likes of Michael Taft, the UNITE economist who has articles on this site now and again. He is most certainly not in the SWP.
have your say