All articles tagged with #meg
New NYU MEG study shows bilinguals rely on a single, shared neural grammar engine for English and Spanish—even when transforming pseudowords—demonstrating grammar as a universal, reusable computation rather than separate language-specific rulebooks and reshaping how we understand language learning and brain organization.
A magnetoencephalography study of twelve highly trained Buddhist monks comparing Samatha (focused attention) and Vipassana (open monitoring) shows meditation reshapes brain dynamics beyond simple gamma increases: after removing non-rhythmic background noise, rhythmic gamma activity declines during both styles and brain signals become more complex and less tied to recent activity. Vipassana nudges the brain toward a critical state and flexible awareness, while Samatha remains more ordered. Hours of practice may align meditative states with resting patterns; a machine-learning classifier could distinguish meditating from resting states. Limitations include small sample size and no control group.
A Brown University-led study using noninvasive magnetoencephalography (MEG) tracked resting brain activity in 85 individuals with mild cognitive impairment and found that those who later developed Alzheimer's showed beta-wave bursts that were shorter, weaker, and less frequent, suggesting a potential early biomarker for progression up to about 2.5 years before diagnosis.
A study by the Max Planck Institute reveals that brain wave timing influences how we perceive speech, with more probable sounds and words being recognized during less excitable brain wave phases. This finding supports the role of neural timing in language comprehension and has significant implications for predictive coding theories in speech perception.