I've been spending some time redesigning the website for the Neurotechnology Industry Organization including a new logo. Hope everyone enjoys it.

The Neuro-Journalism Mill is a relatively new blog dedicated to sifting the wheat from the chaff in popular media reporting about news related to the brain. In Wheat, they highlight articles and newstories that make a superior effort to "get it right". By "getting it right" they do not mean just getting the basic facts correct - they mean covering brain science with a high degree of integrity, sensitivity, and sophistication so that the reader is genuinely informed. To be considered Chaff, the article must demonstrate one (or more than one) of the following flaws: (1) seriously misrepresents the original science (2) covers research of dubious value (3) wildly extrapolates the reported findings (4) presents an overly simplistic interpretation of a complex finding. Right now, the chaff outweighs, wheat 10 to 1. Recent wheat grades go to these articles appearing in the popular press: The gregarious brain; Duped: can brain scans uncover lies?; and Neural Diversity.

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology has just put a massive 134 chapter textbook online covering everything from neurotransmitters to functional imaging in psychiatry, all with free access. (Pointer, Neuroethics and Law, MindHacks).

The National Science Foundation has established the Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI). The EFRI office is launching a new funding opportunity for interdisciplinary teams (engineers and neuroscientists) in the following area Cognitive Optimization and Prediction: From Neural Systems to Neurotechnology.

This is an incredible story of hope reported in Nature this week which describes how neuroscientists implanted electrodes in the brain of a 38-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for more than six years following a serious assault. By electrically stimulating a brain region called the central thalamus, they were able to help him name objects on request, make precise hand gestures, and chew food without the aid of a feeding tube. The thalamus is involved in motor control, arousal and in relaying sensory signals — from the visual systems, for example — to the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain involved in consciousness.

"The work challenges the existing practice of early treatment discontinuation for this patient population and also changes the approach to assessment and evaluation of the minimally-conscious state patient," said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, one of the study's authors. Joseph T. Giacino, Ph.D., of the New Jersey Neursoscience Institute, in Edison, a co-author, said that "prior to the use of deep brain stimulation, the patient's communication ability was inconsistent, including only slight eye or finger movements. Now, he regularly uses words and gestures and responds to questions quickly."