We’ve all felt that creepy sensation when you could swear there’s someone right behind you even though you are, in fact, alone. The sensation is known as “feeling of a presence” or FoP, and it’s been reported all around the world. Although it can be experienced by people with healthy neurological functions, FoP is more prevalent in people with certain neurological or mental health problems. Neuroscientists in Switzerland studying the phenomenon believe that they have pinpointed three areas in the brain responsible for FoP – and they built a robot to simulate the creepy feeling.

The researchers first studied the brains of 12 patients with conditions like brain tumors, epilepsy, migraine, and stroke. The patients all reported experiencing FoP regularly. They observed the subjects’ brains as they experienced the phenomenon and identified three damaged areas believed to be responsible for the weird feeling: the temporoparietal, insular, and frontoparietal cortex. They were then able to give healthy people that same bizarre “feeling of a presence,” an experience that left two participants so weirded out they just walked out on the experiment.

The scientists recreated the FoP by analyzing the sensations experienced by the subjects having actual FoP episodes. They noticed that if the person having the experience was seated, they would perceive the “presence” as also being seated. The researchers discovered that the feeling of an unknown presence actually originates from the brain’s confusion over the signals of the person’s own body movements. The affected person’s brain doesn’t realize that these movements are coming from their body, so they attribute the odd sensation to another presence being in the room.

Armed with this knowledge, the researchers created a machine that would purposely confuse a person’s sensorimotor signals – the signals your body sends to your brain when you move. Subjects were blindfolded and then directed to push a lever. In the first part of the experiment, pressing on the lever caused an object behind the subject to poke him or her in the back. This was confusing because it felt like subjects were reaching forward but their movements were being felt from behind.

But in the second part of the experiment, researchers messed with the subjects a little more. This time, the poking was delayed by a second or two. Although the subjects knew logically that they were causing the poking sensation, the delay made it seem like someone else was responsible. It was because the expected reaction to the subjects’ action was mismatched, causing a kind of temporary disconnect in which subjects reported feeling like there was someone else in the room with them, poking them in the back. The researchers explained that the same temporary confusion occurs in otherwise-healthy people from time to time, which explains why we sometimes just get that creepy-crawly feeling like we’re not alone in an empty room.

The post Sorry, Paranormalists: There’s a Reason You Sense Ghosts first appeared on Gajitz.

The Walk Again Project is an multi-national effort that does neurological research to help paralysis victims walk again. In the past, the project has pioneered mind-control research into the field of neuroprosthesis. It hopes to unveil some of its most cutting-edge technology in Brazil at the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup kickoff ceremony.

Leading the project is Duke University scientist Miguel Nicolesis. He ushered in a new kind of prosthetic technology when he helped create the world’s first mind-controlled arm. It used a chip with ultra-thin tendrils called microwires that picked up electrical impulses given by the brain. This technology allowed researchers to determine neurological algorithms that would indicate patterns related to movement. Years later, it’s being used to create a way that may allow a teenage candidate to perform the ceremonial kickoff at the 2012 World Cup.

The teen would wear an exoskeleton that sends and receives neurological information. It contains braces steadied by gyroscopes and German-made sensors that relay feeling to the wearer. It would be powered by a battery worn by the candidate in a backpack. The ideas from ‘Iron Man’ no longer seem so far-fetched.

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We could all use a little more concentration. As businesses like Lumosity capitalize on our need for cognitive improvement, it’s only logical (pun intended) that someone come up with a more physical invention that achieves the same goals. Designer Alejo Bernal’s new toy-based invention hopes to do so while adding some whimsy to a potentially heavy issue.

Bernal’s idea is a biofeedback control-based game of sorts, with an emphasis on concentration. It’s a toy car that can be moved by thinking. The user wears an electroencephalography (EEG) headset that measures the electrical activity between neurons in the brain. “As you try to focus, the increased light intensity of the vehicle indicates the level of attention you have reached,” Bernal explained to Dezeen. “Once the maximum level is achieved and retained for seven seconds, the vehicle starts moving forward.”

An important benefit of this new attention tool is for those with attention disorders. Therapy for things like ADD and ADHD are typically software-based and rely on digital feedback, when patients have historically responded better to physical response. Fluctuating light levels help visualize the amount of concentration being used. Light bulbs have now become more than just a metaphor for intelligence.

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What was previously accomplished between two rats has now been done with humans. While that doesn’t sound like much of a feat, consider the fact that the accomplishment is brain-to-brain interfacing. A facet of computation neuroscience, this type of communication involves controlling another’s movements purely through thought. Researchers Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco replaced the rats in this experiment.

For the experiment, Rao and Stocco linked themselves via Skype from opposite ends of campus at the University of Washington. While Rao wore an electrode-covered skull cap connected to an EEG machine (the ‘output’ channel), Stocco wore a swim cap that was connected to a transcranial magnetic stimulation machine (the ‘input’ channel).

Both viewed the same video game feed. On Rao’s end, a command was to be completed with the keyboard’s spacebar. Instead of physically pressing the button, however, he merely thought of the action. Across campus, a sensor in the swim cap worn by Stocco stimulated his motor cortex, causing his hand to move in accordance with the Skype signal sent by Rao. The researchers hope two-way communication will eventually be possible, with theoretical applications of helping the disabled or landing a plane through an incapacitated pilot.

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According to a YouTube video from fantastic science goofballs AsapScience, music is “the combination of audio frequencies and intricate patterns floating through the air and clashing in your ear.” This is the first step in a distilled, yet entertaining, explanation of why music makes us happy.

“The Scientific Power of Music” uses everyday objects, sketches and animation to inform the viewer of the neurological links between music and mood. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter behind the positive feelings music gives us and is released when an enjoyable tune is heard. The brain actively seeks these relationships, seeing them as a necessary function through the reward factor – the same cognition behind drug use. Like its subject, this video is easy on your mind.

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