[HN Gopher] A new doorway to the brain
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       A new doorway to the brain
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 95 points
       Date   : 2022-10-12 14:40 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nautil.us)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nautil.us)
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | Rhythms of the Brain - Gyorgy Buzsaki
       | 
       | https://neurophysics.ucsd.edu/courses/physics_171/Buzsaki%20...
       | 
       | Enjoy.
        
         | lawrenceyan wrote:
         | Wow, I'm surprised this was published in 2006.
        
       | spacecity1971 wrote:
       | As a dental professional working with oral/maxillofacial surgery
       | teams, I can't wait for fMRI quality imaging in a portable
       | affordable device. First to market with such systems will make a
       | fortune.
        
         | abrichr wrote:
         | Does https://hyperfine.io/ fit the bill?
        
           | spacecity1971 wrote:
           | No, but it's a step closer. CBCT is the standard right now,
           | but it has limitations like poor bone density measurement and
           | no dynamic imaging.
        
         | petercooper wrote:
         | Just because I'm curious, what benefits would fMRI provide to
         | oral surgery?
        
           | spacecity1971 wrote:
           | An fMRI quality imaging system would allow dynamic planning
           | for a full arch implant retained prosthesis, for example.
        
             | phren0logy wrote:
             | But wouldn't a standard structural/anatomical MRI work
             | better than fMRI for that purpose?
        
               | spacecity1971 wrote:
               | I guess fMRI isn't really a good analog. What is needed
               | is an MRI quality video sequence showing movement.
               | Dynamic planning would allow occlusal schemes to be
               | designed more accurately, therefore avoiding many common
               | issues with full arch rehab, for example.
        
           | alvarezbjm-hn wrote:
           | None. You can't have any metal beside the MRI scanner, the
           | strong magnetic field turns it into projectiles.
        
         | jcims wrote:
         | Having just had a wisdom tooth extracted, something that can
         | help them locate nerves for targeted local anesthesia would be
         | nice. In both this and a crown procedure I had done ten years
         | ago the needle hit a nerve bundle and it felt like my face was
         | getting tazed lol.
        
       | sfink wrote:
       | I appreciate that the article is written to be readable to a wide
       | audience. But:
       | 
       | > But ultrafast ultrasound is exponentially faster, more
       | powerful, and more spatially sensitive than standard ultrasound:
       | It can produce many thousands of detailed high-resolution images
       | per second.
       | 
       | is there any way to stop this weird mutation of the meaning of
       | the word "exponentially"? Probably not, I guess. I trip over it
       | when reading: "Hmm... so it's exponential in... oh, dammit, they
       | just mean 'way faster'."
        
         | jcuenod wrote:
         | I find the same thing with "its an order of magnitude xxx-er"
        
         | Turing_Machine wrote:
         | I think you're fighting a losing battle here, sorry to say.
         | This sort of thing has been going on for a while.
         | 
         | "Terrific" hasn't meant "inspiring terror" for a very long
         | time.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | We're still going to need a word for "exponentially" though,
           | and it would help if that word contained "exponent."
           | "Terrific" is an unnecessary word in English, just because we
           | have a ton of words for things that inspire fear.
           | 
           | "Exponentially" being used to mean "a lot" is bad not because
           | it's a new usage, but because "exponentially" is being
           | demoted to a word that has a bunch (a shitload, a fuckton,
           | lots, plenty, too many) synonyms when in its accurate usage
           | it's a word with few or none. You're losing meaning when you
           | make a thing more complicated to say.
           | 
           | Of course, this sort of usage happens a lot, too, but it's
           | always because some people are using a technical-sounding
           | word to substitute for a common word in order to give the
           | impression of expertise.*
           | 
           | -----
           | 
           | * as opposed to when technicians steal a common word and make
           | it a very specific technical term, which also happens all the
           | time.
        
           | ggm wrote:
           | Decimate this comment thread!
        
         | kogus wrote:
         | I mean, exponents can be fractions. Maybe it's x^1.2 faster? I
         | think it is funny when advertisements claim that something is
         | "a fraction of the price". You could literally raise prices and
         | run such an ad, and be technically correct. 3/2 is a fraction,
         | after all.
        
           | yarg wrote:
           | x^1.2 is a polynomial (1.2^x is exponential).
        
         | ktpsns wrote:
         | This e^n times! If there is no _n_ , there is no exp!
        
         | nh23423fefe wrote:
         | meh, literally. exponentially is just an intensifier applied to
         | a comparative.
         | 
         | its never really unclear which is which. two objects is
         | comparison, one object is process, as in, lily pads filled the
         | pond exponentially. Which modifies filled not a comparative.
        
           | sfink wrote:
           | See, I guess I'm just on the opposite end of the pedantry
           | scale from you, because I'm now sitting here trying to
           | imagine what a literal meh would look like or taste like.
           | 
           | > exponentially is just an intensifier applied to a
           | comparative.
           | 
           | That is how it is misused, yes. Used correctly, it refers to
           | a class of functions that take a varying quantity as input.
           | cf linearly, quadratically.
           | 
           | > ...lily pads filled the pond exponentially. Which modifies
           | filled not a comparative.
           | 
           | I don't have a problem with that example. Well, I would
           | prefer it to be "lily pads multiplied exponentially to fill
           | the pond", but that's not much of a jump.
           | 
           | The verb "filled" suggests the input: time. "ultrafast
           | ultrasound is exponentially faster [than traditional
           | ultrasound]" does not. Is it exponential in the amount of
           | power you apply? The duration of a reading? The number of
           | goats you sacrifice?
        
       | jacobsimon wrote:
       | Love the progress in brain imaging. Similar to fMRI, this seems
       | to be focused on identifying blood flow to different areas which
       | seems useful for a lot of diagnostic/medical purposes. I'm
       | personally doubtful that the use cases at the end of the article
       | like brain-computer interfaces are well-suited to the technology
       | though, since it can't measure neural activity as directly as
       | electrodes.
       | 
       | One thing it doesn't discuss is the latency of the observed
       | signals relative to brain activity -- in MRI there is a 5-6
       | second delay due to the time it takes for brain activity to
       | translate into blood flow and oxygen signals, whereas electrical
       | activity is in real time.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tricky wrote:
       | My favorite somewhat related research is using focused high
       | energy ultrasound with microbubbles to open the blood-brain
       | barrier enough to allow therapeutics to pass through. Ultrasound
       | is an old technique that sort of went out of style but it truly
       | is lot of fun.
        
         | zygy wrote:
         | Any good publications to learn about this?
        
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