virtual reality

Dr. Vivek Jayaraman and colleagues at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus discovered that the ellipsoid body located in the middle of a fly's brain acts like a compass to help navigate flight even in darkness. By placing the flies into a small virtual reality arena and having the flies walk on a rotating ball, they could study the activity of neurons within the ellipsoid body while the animal was moving. These videos show how the fly experiment was done: Check out the news release for more information about this neat study.
USING an inventive new method in which mice run through a virtual reality environment based on the video game Quake, researchers from Princeton University have made the first direct measurements of the cellular activity associated with spatial navigation. The method will allow for investigations of the neural circuitry underlying navigation, and should lead to a better understanding of how spatial information is encoded at the cellular level. In mice, spatial navigation involves at least four different cell types located in the hippocampus and surrounding regions. Place cells increase…
SECOND LIFE is an online "virtual world" which enables users to create a customised avatar, or digital persona, with which they can interact with each other. It has become incredibly popular since its launch just over 6 years ago, with millions of "residents" now using it regularly to meet others, socialize and even to have virtual sex. Second Life is now filled with virtual communities and institutions - it has businesses and universities, and its own virtual economy. Now, imagine a futuristic version of Second Life, in which avatars can transfer sensations to the bodies of their users.…
Notables from my morning feedscan: The vision folks at Barrow study "Where's Waldo?" to figure out search strategies. A virtual-reality helmet claims to to feed all five senses. Interesting if true. Winner best-and-worsrt headline writing in a press release: Prawnography shows captive bred prawns lack lust And in second place, running, um, close behind: Scatological clues lead to an intimate view, which actually looks at some pretty interesting group dynamics in lemurs during their annual birthing time, when babies are at risk of being murdered. Neurotopia continues a good series on the…