In the Senate, the measure has been almost unanimously elected officials voted Wednesday, March 27 the bill championed by the UMP to not pay money to family benefits to families whose children have been placed in care. The aid would be allocated to the general council and the parents do perceive that more than 35%. The school allowance would, she paid the service of Children’s Aid.

The Socialists have voted with their colleagues of the UMP, going against the advice of the government. For Dominique Bertinotti, Minister of Family, is a snub. But this is not the only one to oppose the bill. Several organizations – including the National Union of Family Associations (UNAF), ATD Fourth World, the Apprentices Auteuil, Secours Populaire, the National Union of doctors maternal and infant ANAS (National Association of Social Work Assistants) – issued a statement against this bill.

Jean-Christophe Caner, CEO Auteuil infancy, denounces “a Machiavellian view of families in difficulty”: “The investment objective is to allow children to return home as soon as possible,” insists he says.



How did you welcomed the Senate vote?

Jean-Christophe Caner: Arms me fall, we are extremely surprised by this vote. For us, it was a movement in the mood and we hoped that it would not go further. The massive nature of the vote in the Senate is a bad news for families free.

It was hoped that reason would prevail over demagoguery. This hue and cry of the poor. Instead of allowing people to get out, they are pressed with a measure like that. The most damaged families which are hard hit by the crisis and precarious is stigmatized. This is of extreme violence.

The senators defended the measure saying that whoever is responsible for the child (in this case, the General Council) should be one that gets the money allowances …

This goes completely against the law of 2007, which reminds very precisely the objective of the investment is to allow children to return home as soon as possible. The law reiterates that the placement is the last alternative.

One of the reasons why a child is placed today, it is the socio-economic status of parents. Some families do not find the means to educate their children properly, because they are not placed or poorly housed, because the precarious situation in which they live makes a maximum rate of anxiety, which often degenerates on psychiatric illness. When living conditions are extremely poor family, children are considered by the administration or by the judge as “at risk” in their home environment.

The principle of investment is to take children from their families at a given time to allow parents to head out of the water, to find a solution to their problems and then adults can return to their position parents. When you’re a single mother with four children in a hotel room, not seeing you remove family allowances that your situation will get better and we will help you find appropriate parental posture.

The bill also seeks to deprive parents of allowances in case of abuse. Is this the best way for you?

Today, juvenile judges, when they have to decide on an investment, already have the option of requesting that family benefits are paid for all or part of the General Board. It’s just a possibility, in the case of children who could be in danger in their family because of the behavior of adults, whether intra family violence or sexual abuse. But these cases represent a small part, about 20% of investments. In other cases, what constitutes the investment decision is the precarious situation of the family. So we have people who are victims of social injustice in some way, and they added a layer of removing them “child benefit”.

If the bill passes, the family will retain a maximum of 35% of allowances, whatever the reason. The burden of proof is reversed, and it is assumed that any family or educational problem is the fault of the parents. I would like the legislature to make me see a parent who has no problem with her children. I just want my life to meet one.

This proposal have been advanced in the past?

It is a sea serpent that resurfaces from time to time, with a simplistic reasoning ignores the reality. It’s really this idea of ??absolute responsibility of parents on children’s behavior or educational difficulties. As if it was easy to educate a young person today.

There is also confusion in the minds of many men and women politicians in this country among the children who are the subject of measures to protect children and offenders. It is a semantic mush. It reflects a society that is afraid of its young and does not like his poor.

Senators also brandish financial argument to help councils to fulfill their mission …

This is nothing at all beside the cost of the investment. Basically, the average price for a day of placement of a child is around 270-280 euros per day for about 300 days a year. A family with two children affects 1524 euros per year allowance. This is a drop in finance general advice.

In contrast, 1,524 euros when you’re in the social minima, it’s huge. Especially the parents still have fixed costs. A child comes home on the weekends and during holidays. We try to maintain family ties in the spirit of the 2007 law. Ensure that this child has a sleeping area, parents also provide clothing, toiletries, etc..

This measure is actually a Machiavellian view of struggling families and a condescending look that reflects an extreme disregard for the poorest people.

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The presence of breast implants cause a late detection of breast cancer and may have an impact on the survival of women with cervical cancer, according to a study published Wednesday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The authors of the study that combines the results of twelve studies conducted primarily in the United States and Canada on women with breast cancer, however, remain very cautious, noting in particular the existence of bias in some of the work selected .

Among the possible explanations, the researchers note that the implants, whether silicone or saline-filled, may interfere with the interpretation of mammograms because they are often radiopaque, causing the possibility of false results negative due to lack of visibility.

According to the study, women with breast implants had an increased risk of 26% subject to a late diagnosis of their breast cancer. About their risk of dying from this cancer was 38% higher than that run by women with implants not, but this result is based on only five of the twelve selected studies.

Despite the limitations of their work, the researchers located in Canada notes that “the evidence accumulates,” even if “further studies are needed to determine the long-term effects” on survival after breast cancer or delay diagnosis.

The solution could be to use the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), but the effectiveness of this approach remains to be demonstrated, the researchers said. No study has demonstrated to date an increased risk of developing breast cancer in the breast implants.

created nearly seven years ago by the American Jack Dorsey and a bunch of engineers in San Francisco, Twitter has become an online leading almost a media per se. At last count the institute ComScore, in December 2012, this platform “microblogging” (from “SMS messages”) totaled nearly 190 million unique visitors. Close to 141 million Americans regularly use Twitter.

In France, according to Médiamétrie, more than 11% of users who regularly use this tool. Twitter is the only social network to compete in audience, with giant Facebook and its billion members.

> Read: Twitter ordered to comply with French law

The principle of the platform is simple: a user who has a Twitter account can post texts whose length does not exceed 140 characters, but also photos and videos.

Unlike Facebook users who have “friends” who have Twitter “followers” of “followers” who subscribe to their RSS information or images. It receives the SMS messages that users that follows. But on Twitter, no need to personally know someone to subscribe to its RSS: You can follow either Lady Gaga – the singer has just been dethroned …

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A group of scientists Uruguay, in partnership with the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo sheep, announced Wednesday, April 24 birth of genetically modified sheep phosphorescent. “Gene transfer of this species was not available in Latin America and the successful positioning of Uruguay at the highest international scientific standards,” welcomed the Institute of Animal Reproduction Uruguay (IRAUy) and the Pasteur Institute in a statement .

Born in October 2012 at the IRAUy, animals developed normally, without showing differences with their non-transgenic counterparts, said Alejo Menchaca, president of the Institute. Their only visible specificity is to be phosphorescent when placed under ultra-violet light, due to the introduction into their DNA gene of a jellyfish.

The operation does not end in itself, if it is to verify the effectiveness of the method of introducing a foreign gene into the DNA of these animals. “This is a very effective technique for all those who are born are positive. Now we can work with another gene, which will be of greatest interest to produce a specific protein,” continued Alejo Menchaca.

Research study such as the ability to take a gene responsible for the production of a protein missing in some human diseases (such as insulin in the case of diabetics), to incorporate into the genome of a sheep, which in birth occur in the milk. It would then be possible to isolate the protein to make it easier than current methods, according to researchers from drugs.

A transgenic cow producing human proteins in their milk was established in Argentina in 2011, and there are also genetically modified goats in Brazil, which produce proteins for human use.

On February 13, the High Authority for Health (HAS) published its recommendations on medical management of type 2 diabetes. Their prudence, coupled with economic considerations, was welcomed. But what strikes their reading, the low level of evidence on which they are based.

This is not a real paradox: in this disease so widespread, “is sorely lacking in studies comparing different strategies,” admits Hector Falcoff, Professor of General Practice, who co-chaired the Working Group of the HAS. This vacuum leaves wide open the debate on strategies for the most effective and safe treatment, at an acceptable cost.

Burden of a double weight weighted company, an overloaded diet and sedentary mass, type 2 diabetes affects nearly three million people in France. Its incidence increases of more than 5% per year. “The fight against this disease is a battle far from being won,” said André Grimaldi, diabetologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris).

HARMFUL EFFECTS OF DRUGS

Modern medicine has many treatments to lower blood sugar in diabetics. Their story shows undeniable progress, but also repeated authorizations placed on the market of newer medications errors. Sold too early and too widely, they were finally removed from the world market (rosiglitazone, rimonabant against obesity) or suspended in France (pioglitazone) because of their harmful effects.

The current account panoply of ancient molecules insulin, sulfonylureas and metformin. And newer: incretins, an innovative mode of action, which stimulate insulin secretion without causing hypoglycemia or promote weight gain.

The 2000s are those of the major studies on the importance of treating the blood sugar of diabetics. Thunder in the clear sky, the Accord study was stopped prematurely in 2008: it showed an increased risk of patients treated intensively by severe hypoglycaemia repeated death.

“FOUND ON SOME COMMON SENSE”

In its recommendations, the HAS in notes. “For most patients, HAS fixed as a reasonable target average blood sugar for the last two months to 7% glycated hemoglobin,” notes André Grimaldi. But this must be individualized according to specific criteria. Diabetic early disease, it is . It is higher in elderly patients with comorbidities or complications.

“We finally sort of logic” more blood sugar is low, the better “,” rejoices Vincent Fox, president of the National College of generalist teachers (ESC). “We found a little common sense, adds Marie-Hélène Sure, GP, vice president of MG France union. Standards of previous recommendations, unattainable, we forced them to climb a drug with molecules mispriced. There was also pressure specialists and patients to prescribe these new drugs. “

Notably, the glycemic target of 7% is one of the few points consensual. Of the 46 recommendations of the HAS, only four have an “intermediate level of evidence” (“Grade B”). “In the absence of studies,” the rest is the result of an “expert agreement.”

“EARNINGS REPORT / RISK”

For Vincent Renard, “would have had HAS explicitly write:” These proposals are not validated and should be checked “The 2006 recommendations were taking risks. The benefit / risk ratio of glitazones was already questionable. The result showed that it was harmful in some patients. ” He insists: “Rather than continuing to repay drug benefit / risk unknown, it would be better spending money on research to identify drug strategies.”

HAS instead metformin first line treatment: it is a second consensus. The result is more uncertain. Experts are cautious: “Other treatments [incretins] should be reserved for situations where the recommended first-line treatment can not be prescribed.”

“As patients, we are very interested in new molecules, said Claude Sokolowsky, representing the French Diabetes Association (AFD) in the Working Group of the HAS But the tide is turning:. AFD receives many calls from concerned patients. “

“RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMPROMISE AND CAUTION”

Diabetologist at the Hotel-Dieu (Paris), Etienne Larger is one of the “experts do not wish to endorse the recommendation of good practice.” “It seems difficult, he said, to ask that they bring new drugs before they can be recommended, evidence of morbidity and mortality than older molecules recommended [metformin, sulphonylureas] n ‘ have not been able to provide. “

“In 2012, Europeans and Americans have preferred to say” there are so many treatments and individual situations that we do not have a sufficient level of evidence to go beyond advocating customization. This is the key to everything “” said Jacques Bringer, diabetologist at the University Hospital of Montpellier. For the former president of the French Society of diabetes, HAS issued “recommendations transition, compromise and caution to patients, experts and agencies. Had to also admit that we can not prescribe the mild medication four to ten times more expensive. ” But recoil on their safety, as shown in this study published February 25 in JAMA Internal Medicine. It reveals a doubling of the risk of pancreatitis in diabetic incretin (Januvia or Byetta), compared with patients in other hypoglycemic agents.

Certainty: “Diabetics have a higher risk of coronary events two to three times a risk of stroke times two, and a risk of arteritis of the lower limbs multiplied by five to six” says André Grimaldi. “Hyperglycemia alters the arterial wall that undergoes accelerated aging.”

SURGERY BARIATIQUE

However, treating the blood sugar is not enough. This is the great paradox of diabetes: “There is little evidence that reducing hyperglycemia only cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are reduced,” admitted Jacques Bringer. “We can never show more in clinical trials, says André Grimaldi. It is unethical to leave patients with high blood sugar.”

Treat hyperglycemia is essential effect against the “microvascular” complications of diabetes. “By reducing the glucose g / liter is reduced by 30% with the retina and kidney, neuropathy and arteritis of the lower limbs,” insists Andrew Grimaldi. But 40% of new dialysis patients are diabetics. “For ten years, finally seeing diabetics reduce their cardiovascular risk, he enthuses. This progress is due to the support of their cholesterol with statins and their hypertension with antihypertensive drugs, and the flow of their blood platelet inhibitors. ” “No offense to the pulmonologist Philippe Even [denouncing the over-prescription of statins], I prefer to prescribe a statin rather than similar incretin in a diabetic with high cardiovascular risk, said Vincent Fox. The level of evidence is here, very solid. “

Rest the new treatment of diabetes: the bariatique surgery. Reserved for severe obesity, the operation is to restrict the stomach capacity and / or to create a bypass digestive system. It shows on diabetes preventive and curative effects that surprise even experts. The SOS study shows that after fifteen years the onset of diabetes was reduced by 83% in surgical patients.

“EDUCATION FOR HEALTH”

“The bariatique surgery may also regress or disappear already present diabetes, says Arnaud Basdevant, head of the Department Endocrinology-Diabetology-Nutrition-prevention at the Pitié-Salpêtrière. After a gastric bypass, the effects of diabetes can be so rapid and significant need to quickly reduce the doses of diabetes, sometimes even stop them. ” A retrospective study published February 6, 2013 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, shows a 65% reduction of diabetic complications in patients operated after five years. Ongoing work to assess this surgery in diabetics without major excess weight. “Pending the outcome, no question to derogate HAS indications, except in exceptional cases discussed by hyper-specialized teams. Bariatric surgery is not without risk,” insists Arnaud Basdevant. In France, 30,442 obese patients were operated in 2011, of which 11% are diabetic, says Medicare.

“Because these HAS recommendations focus on drug treatment, should not forget that health education, physical activity and diet are central to the management,” concludes Vincent Fox.

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The experiment began at the same time as the Vendée Globe, explains Marc, 42 years, school carer. I saw it as a sign, the beginning of a great personal adventure “Antoine, 20, a student in math, added:.” For me, it’s the same, I’m here to reach the limits of my body and participate the space odyssey. “But here, no rocket or space station. Just a hospital and a team in white coats.” For my part, says Bruno, 29 years old, I’m here to rest because, in life, I moonlights … and money too. 18 000 euros, it’s worth it. ”

Although, to get it, you have to go three times twenty-one days lying, upside down, under the continuous eye cameras in a hospital room yellow, with a TV, an Internet connection, a ban visits and a roommate chosen by others.

PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES

We at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (Medes) in Toulouse. The twelve volunteers Bedrest experience (experience of prolonged bed rest), which was held in late 2012 to just come up. They kid around a meal. Some faces are marked. “These so-called bedrest experiments are very demanding because they simulate the effects of weightlessness on the body, says Marie-Pierre Bareille, project manager. During their stay in space, astronauts undergo profound physiological changes, including changes in the cardiovascular system or if severe bone and muscle loss that limit flight time. ” In the 1970s, Americans have studied these phenomena by sending some fellow floating in the Skylab space station for one to three months. They noted that flight and astronauts lost a large amount of nitrogen and calcium in the urine.

“That’s when we remembered the experiments conducted in the 1940s by Donald Whedon and where prolonged alitements engendered a loss of calcium, similar to that observed in astronauts,” continues Stéphane Blanc, CNRS, following aspects of the nutrition and metabolism of Bedrest experience. From there, the researchers coated astronauts on inclined backward to alter the distribution of fluids in the body beds. It appeared that an angle of 6 degrees backward allowed, according to the astronauts, reproduce the sensations of weightlessness.

ALL TO HEAD DOWN

In this position, the blood rushes to the brain and blushed cheeks. The first sensations, unpleasant, changing quickly to major headaches. “But these symptoms pass within a few hours, said Arnaud Beck, doctor Medes and coordinator of the study. Because the body expels urine what he perceives as an excess of body fluids.” Result: the early bedrests, volunteers lose about 2 pounds. “Then you get used to, says Vladyslav, 29, translator, who continued to work and even learned to knit during confinement.’s Position is just inconvenient.” It must indeed learn to eat, shower or urinating upside down. Not easy.

“As a precaution, we have installed cameras in the rooms, showers or toilets to make sure that nobody looks up … takes Arnaud Beck. But we never have problems because volunteers are highly motivated. ” They have also been selected on this criterion. Before getting their sesame to bed rest, he indeed had their pass a battery of psychological tests used to form pairs, which for 35 days with 21 elongated, share the same room. “It does not look like much, but this is where the play experience,” said Arnaud Beck. For avoid early dropouts.

“And because these experiments are used to test measures to counteract the negative effects of weightlessness,” continues Marie-Pierre Bareille. For example, here it is evaluating the effectiveness of protein supplements and very specific exercises performed with a vibrating platform. However, to determine the individual effect of these cons-measures, it is necessary that the volunteers willing to live three sessions in bed, without an activity, with exercises to perform and last when, in addition to the exercises, additional protein is absorbed. In addition, if the results are comparable, everything except the cons-measures must be identical from one session to another in bed.

EXPERIENCE OF 3 MILLION

Selected times for medical examinations, menus, nothing is left to chance: “The meals are prepared alitements all at once, upstream, so that each dish has exactly the same nutritional qualities,” continues Arnaud Beck. Two dietitians follow the daily feeding volunteers and adapt portions actual energy needs of the guests, that is to say those measured by calorimetry at the beginning of the experiment. “Frankly, I do not know how they are made but I did not stop being hungry, Antoine slides pointing to the piece of bread, precisely cut and weighed, which corresponds to the ration. I lost 7 pounds in 21 days. ”

“And to complicate matters, as we do not have 12 or MRI scanners available, we have to stagger the arrival of volunteers to meet the strict sense the protocol,” said Arnaud Beck. Result: no volunteers eat the same thing at the same time … or does the same samples. Organizational puzzle that involves 30 people full time and explains the high cost of these experiments: 3 million for it. “In Europe, other bedrests are made, as in Cologne, says Marie-Pierre Bareille. They have varying durations, for different purposes, but all are followed by international teams.” Under the current Bedrest, 9 teams and six nationalities follow metabolic changes, muscle or bone volunteers. To date, no-measure against fails to counteract the deleterious effects of weightlessness.

Swiss researchers could not have found a better way to attract attention to their study published in the latest issue of the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Stefanie Krauth, PhD student of 27 years, the first author of the publication, indeed chose to entitle “thorough analysis of a piece of shit: distribution of Schistosoma mansoni and hookworm eggs in human stool.” A title promised to remain in the annals!

Everything is said in the introduction to this article, for which 222 participants residing in a rural area of ??C?te d’Ivoire have agreed to collect their stools for parasitological analysis. The authors also published a cartoon showing a person squatting defecating and go up to indicate the color of the mud. The weight of words, shock figures. “On the ground, this illustration was crucial to explain to participants how to collect a stool sample. Through this design, we indicated that we needed for our study of the whole” sausage “, not just a little bit, “said Jürg Utzinger, the Swiss Tropical Institute and Public Health Basel, who led the study. The researchers then cut each seat four to analyze similar samples.

‘S COMMENTS “referred”

Their study was to analyze the distribution and conservation within a block of excrement, flatworms responsible for intestinal schistosomiasis parasite that affects over 200 million people worldwide, but also to round behind hookworm, disease hot spots of the globe affecting nearly 740 million people.

Jürg Utzinger agreed to declassify the emails responsible for reviewing, transmitting the comments of anonymous referees of these experts who review the manuscripts sent for review. “A referee wanted to change what the second part of the title, but not the first,” says the researcher. Another wrote: “The use of the word” shit “is perhaps a little easier, but if it draws attention to a neglected tropical disease, so be it!”

Today, Marina Kusko, director of the periodical, is pleased to see this article posted on many science blogs. In an e-mail to authors, she said that the review should nonetheless remain vigilant about the terms used in the titles of manuscripts that will soon, fearing that the Swiss example can give ideas to research teams in need of advertising.

To return to the study, it may not be necessary to summarize its title, the authors recommend homogenize stool samples for a standard suspension that allows a more reliable count of the parasite Schistosoma mansoni eggs, and store samples on ice or a damp cloth to slow the decay of hookworm eggs before analysis – a factor of underestimation in epidemiology.

According to the authors, these simple measures could have implications for individual diagnosis, interpretation of epidemiological fieldwork data and evaluating programs to control these parasites.

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The Greek Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo in northern Syria is still no news Wednesday, April 24 the two bishops removed, says a priest of the diocese after a Christian Association reported their release.

“We have no new information. We can not say they were freed,” said the priest Ghassan Ward. “We have had no contact with” Bishop Yuhanna Ibrahim of Aleppo Syriac Orthodox bishop, and Bishop Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox bishop of the same city, he says, indicating that efforts for their release continued. “We are very worried.”

On Tuesday, the Christian Association L’Oeuvre d’Orient had indicated that two Orthodox bishops abducted were released Monday, citing his sources in Syria said in a statement.

The association is headquartered in Paris and helps churches in trouble in the Middle East, added that the two bishops “are in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Elijah Aleppo”. The two prelates were abducted Monday Kafr Dael, near Aleppo, while conducting a humanitarian operation, according to sources of the dioceses concerned.

According to a report by the World Health Organization published in 2011, each Terran more than 15 years on average consumes the equivalent of liters of pure alcohol per year. No wonder that, in criminal cases, defendants, victims and witnesses – or all three categories at the same time – are often under the influence of drink at the time of the tragedy. During the trial, they are restricted. However, the former have a ready excuse for not much remember where they were or what they did, the latter may no longer be there to express, and much depends on the third. But what is the testimony of a person soaked? The spectrum of the miscarriage of justice he walks pockets full of jugs?

Having found that almost no research had been devoted to the influence of alcohol on memory and the reliability of eyewitnesses, a Swedish team from the University of Gothenburg has embarked on the task. His findings were published in the January issue of a highly specialized journal, The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context.

We have already, in this chronicle of the unlikely science, referred to a 1970 study in which researchers in the . had taken a few volunteers in a journey into the cooked to explore the reality of the famous black hole after drinking. Their Swedish heirs were inspired by the same protocol, moderation and more.

They recruited 123 people through a classified ad, which they divided into three groups. The first is to stay sober as a point of comparison. With a cocktail vodka and orange (who said that science was austere?), The second was brought to a small grams of alcohol per liter of blood while the third pushed up to g / l.

At this level, which is not yet that of severe intoxication, the behavior begins to change, however. We become extroverted, cheerful, talkative but also some difficulty in concentrating, reason or perceive details. Recall that in Sweden it is forbidden to drive with a blood alcohol level greater than g / l (against a limit of g / l in France).

After the drink, guinea pigs, located in a cozy living room, watched a video of almost five minutes showing a realistic fiction in which two men kidnapped a woman at a bus stop. The scene was filmed from the perspective of a witness and the face of the main abductor appeared in close-up for a total of thirty-six seconds.

A week later, the 123 volunteers came back to … an identification parade. They had proposed a set of eight pictures of men (containing or not the principal offense) and each guinea pig was whether the kidnapper was or was not one of these “suspects”.

Result: no significant difference between the three groups. Note that although this is not significant, as bouncer … was also the alcoholic! This challenges the idea that we can rely on the testimony of a person steeped in alcohol. The researchers believe that their guinea pigs did not drink enough to suffer amnesia and alcohol myopia.

No doubt he will significantly increase the dose next time, in order to hear: “Your Honor, I am positive it is this pink elephant who robbed the jewelry.”

Journalist and blogger

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(PHOTO: MARC CHAUMEIL)

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Two rats separated by a continent but connected by electrodes implanted in their brains rats were able to communicate and work together to accomplish a simple task, announced Thursday, February 28 researchers in a study with the first “supercortex”.

Using this single electronic link, the first rat, housed in a research institute in Brazil, could send brain signals to guide its congener, located in a . laboratory, and thus help to obtain a reward.

COMPUTER “ORGANIC”

The Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, behind this feat, it would be theoretically possible to combine multiple and animal brains to create an “organic” a new kind of computer. And the findings may also benefit patients with paralysis or (“locked-in syndrome”) locked-in syndrome, provides the researcher. “We have established a functional link between two brains. We created a supercerveau with two brains,” he summarized.

The team of Dr. Nicolelis led first rats to solve a simple problem: press a lever when a small lamp lit above to get some water. They then implanted them ultra-fine electrodes in the region of the cortex controlling the information related to the movement and thus connecting the two brain rats.

The first rat experience normally realized. And when pressing the right lever, brain activity was encoded into electrical impulses transmitted in real time the brain buddy.

70% ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Rat “decoder”, he had no visual clue to know which lever to press to get his reward and had to rely entirely on the signals from his partner to guide their choice. Rats and guided by this brain connection got up to 70% of success in tests, says the study, published in the British journal Nature Scientific Reports.



“The couple of animals together to accomplish the task. But what the second rat received, these are not thoughts or images,” says Miguel Nicolelis. It receives signals, it incorporates in its visual and tactile diagrams. “The second rat learns to recognize the signals that describe a decision by the first rat. Creates an association between this structure and the decision,” says the researcher.

BRAIN NETWORK

Better yet, this process works in both directions, because in case of an error the second rat, the first modified signals it emitted to make them stronger and sharper. And after such adjustments, the decoder took the right decision more often, the study said.

This means “that could create a brain network formed by several brain interact together” says Miguel Nicolelis, stating clearly that such an experience would apply only to rats or monkeys, not humans.



“If you connect multiple animal brains, you can probably create a biological computer that is not a Turing machine, that is to say a machine that does not work using an algorithm” a series of predetermined instructions, as is the case with our conventional computers, he said.

BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE

According to him, such a machine would rely instead on “a mode decision based on probabilities” and could solve problems that are beyond the capabilities of a single brain. How the rat “decoder” manages to capture the signals from its congener and use in his own brain, however, remains mysterious, recognizes the researcher.

Here a decade, Miguel Nicolelis became famous by allowing laboratory monkeys to operate a robotic arm by his own brain impulses. Next challenge for the expert Medical Center Duke University (USA) and the International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal (Brazil): a paraplegic patient kicks off the next Cup World Cup in Brazil in 2014, with an artificial leg controlled by a brain-machine interface.