Web Links

  1. Neuroscience for Kids (don’t be put off by the name!) has a review of the resting and action potentials and an animation of their electrical recording.
    A YouTube animation of the sodium-potassium pump is an instructive illustration of how the mechanism works.
     
  2. The Schwann Cell and Action Potential is a visually appealing animation of myelination and how it speeds conduction.
     
  3. The video The Origin of the Brain describes how (and why) neurons and synapses evolved and ends with a very nice demonstration of how simple circuits can “remember” and make “decisions.”
     
  4. The Symphony Inside Your Brain describes the Human Connectome Project and features a rotating scan of the major pathways of one hemisphere.
    Osaka University’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory site offers videos of several of its life-like androids.
    The American Association for Artificial Intelligence site covers a wide variety of topics, from robots to cognitive science to ethical and social issues. On YouTube you can hear NETtalk speak after “hearing a 5-year-old’s speech, then after receiving corrective feedback about its first 10,000 words.
    Read the original news articles about the Human Brain Project, the Brain Initiative, and BigBrain and the Brain Observatory.