Neuroscience Research Titbits -- 210530

A new digital app has shown to be successful in detecting one key symptom associated with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) in young children. The appk, which combines gaze tracking computer vision and machine learning to determine whether the child was looking more often at the human in the video, or objects, could be an inexpensive new tool to help with the diagnosis of autism. -- Source: Duke University

Going to sleep and waking one hour earlier than usual was associated with a 23% decreased risk of developing depressive disorders. -- Source: University of Colorado

Intermittent fasting improves long-term memory retention and promotes hippocampal neurogenesis. The findings could help to slow cognitive decline in older adults. -- Source: King’s College London

Research has found a link between depressive symptoms and rapid kidney function decline in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). -- Source: American Society of Nephrology

Physical intervention plans that included exoskeleton-assisted walking may help people with spinal cord injury evacuate more efficiently and improved the consistency of their stool thereby improve the bowel function. -- Source: Kessler Foundation

Simple dietary changes and adopting lifestyle alterations, including improved sleep schedules, taking probiotics, and exercising, can reduce signs of biological aging by three years in just eight weeks, a new study reports. -- Source: Impact Journals

People with myopia (near-sightedness) more likely to experience poorer sleep quality than people with normal vision. -- Source: Flinders University

Functional connectivity was reduced within and between several brain networks resulting in poor cognitive and mental health issues in children raised in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Researchers say a positive home and school environment can mitigate some of the effects. -- Source: Elsevier

Applying AI technology, researchers teach a robot to make appropriate reactive human facial expressions. Scientists say this could help build trust between humans and the humanoid robots they interact with  in locations from nursing homes to warehouses and factories. -- Source: Columbia University

A new deep learning algorithm is superior to human experts in distinguishing between retinal ganglion cells in healthy patients and in those with glaucoma. The AI system could potentially help improve the diagnosis of both eye and brain diseases.-- Source: Duke University

Researchers are raising their concerns about AI biases associated with medical devices and algorithms used to analyze health risks. If left unchecked, they say, the technologies could continue to perpetuate sex, gender, and race biases that could exacerbate health care disparities.-- Source: Stanford

A new brain-computer interface could help thousands of people with neurodegenerative disorders and spinal cord injuries the ability to regain communication skills. The BCI, in combination with a machine learning algorithm, can generate words on a screen, based on a person thinking about writing the word.-- Source: NIH

Combining brain imaging data with machine learning, researchers make new discoveries about how the brain controls the hand. The findings could lead to the development of more advanced neuroprosthetics.-- Source: University of East Anglia

A newly developed artificial intelligence algorithm can accurately detect sarcasm in comments written on social media platforms. -- Source: University of Central Florida

Using naturalistic driving data and machine learning techniques, researchers have developed highly accurate algorithms for detecting mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older drivers. -- Source: Columbia University

Google AI algorithm masters ancient game of Go

Deep-learning software defeats human professional for first time.

A computer has beaten a human professional for the first time at Go — an ancient board game that has long been viewed as one of the greatest challenges for artificial intelligence (AI).

The best human players of chess, draughts and backgammon have all been outplayed by computers. But a hefty handicap was needed for computers to win at Go. Now Google’s London-based AI company, DeepMind, claims that its machine has mastered the game.

DeepMind’s program AlphaGo beat Fan Hui, the European Go champion, five times out of five in tournament conditions, the firm reveals in research published in Nature on 27 January1. It also defeated its silicon-based rivals, winning 99.8% of games against the current best programs. The program has yet to play the Go equivalent of a world champion, but a match against South Korean professional Lee Sedol, considered by many to be the world’s strongest player, is scheduled for March. “We’re pretty confident,” says DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis.

“This is a really big result, it’s huge,” says Rémi Coulom, a programmer in Lille, France, who designed a commercial Go program called Crazy Stone. He had thought computer mastery of the game was a decade away.

Read the story published in Nature

Educate yourself on AI: Seven books to get you started

From drones to self-driving cars to caring robots, artificial intelligence is becoming woven into our lives at a rapidly accelerating pace. With its roots back to Alan Turing in the 1950's, artificial intelligence today has become increasingly sophisticated—where machines were once used to perform simple tasks, they are increasingly being designed with more human-like traits.

If you know little about artificial intelligence and need to get up to speed, here are seven books that can help you get some important evolving field.

1. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005) by Raymond Kurzweil

2. Designing Sociable Robots (2002) by Cynthia Breazeal

3. Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy (2015) by David A. Mindell

4. The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind (2006) by Marvin Minsky

5. Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology (1992) by Steven Levy

6. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) by Nick Bostrom

7. Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era (2013) by James Barrat

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Deep Machine Learning libraries and frameworks

At the end of 2015, all eyes were on the year’s accomplishments, as well as forecasting technology trends of 2016 and beyond. One particular field that has frequently been in the spotlight during the last year is deep learning, an increasingly popular branch of machine learning, which looks to continue to advance further and infiltrate into an increasing number of industries and sectors. Here are a list of Deep Learning libraries and frameworks that will gain momentum in 2016.

1. Theano is a python library for defining and evaluating mathematical expressions with numerical arrays. It makes it easy to write deep learning algorithms in python. On the top of the Theano many more libraries are built.

· Keras is a minimalist, highly modular neural network library in the spirit of Torch, written in Python, that uses Theano under the hood for optimized tensor manipulation on GPU and CPU.

· Pylearn2 is a library that wraps a lot of models and training algorithms such as Stochastic Gradient Descent that are commonly used in Deep Learning. Its functional libraries are built on top of Theano

· Lasagne is a lightweight library to build and train neural networks in Theano. It is governed by simplicity, transparency, modularity, pragmatism , focus and restraint principles.

· Blocks a framework that helps you build neural network models on top of Theano.

Know the rest 29 items

IBM, U. of Michigan Creating Chatty Computer

How would you like to have a conversation with your computer to plan your vacation or to do your taxes, or literally hold a discussion with your car about the best way to get home through traffic? Well, if a new project from IBM and the University of Michigan goes as planned, that may not be so far off.

Sure, it is possible to "talk" to PCs, cars, smartphones and other devices today, but the interaction is limited to rote question and answering. What the University of Michigan and IBM have in mind is the ability to hold real conversations with these systems "on human terms," the university said.

The University of Michigan and IBM have launched a $4.5 million collaboration to develop a new class of conversational technologies that will enable people to interact more naturally and effectively with computers. The multiyear partnership is expected to usher in the next frontier of artificial intelligence (AI)-based dialog management that will transform human-machine communication.

Indeed, in an effort known as Project Sapphire, IBM and the University of Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab will develop a cognitive system that functions as an academic advisor for undergraduate computer science and engineering majors at the university. The system will enable researchers to explore how smart machines interact with people in goal-driven dialogues.

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From AI To Robotics, 2016 Will Be The Year When The Machines Start Taking Over

For the past century, the price and performance of computing has been on an exponential curve. And, as futurist Ray Kurzweil observed, once any technology becomes an information technology, its development follows the same curve, so we are seeing exponential advances in technologies such as sensors, networks, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The convergence of these technologies is making amazing things possible.

2015 was the tipping point in the global adoption of the Internet, digital medical devices, blockchain, gene editing, drones, and solar energy. 2016 will be the beginning of an even bigger revolution, one that will change the way we live, let us visit new worlds, and lead us into a jobless future. Yes, with every good there is a bad; wonderful things will become possible, but with them we will also create new problems for mankind.

Here are six of the technologies that will make this happen, and the good they will do.

1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Robots
3. Self Driving Cars
4. Virtual reality and holodecks
5. Internet of Things
6. Space

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