Human Forms and Body Parts Trigger Strong Reactions in the Brain

December 19, 2024

Blackrock Neurotech shared groundbreaking research published in PNAS using Blackrock Neurotech’s Utah Array technology to record, for the first time ever, how individual neurons in the human visual cortex process and respond to images of bodies and body parts. In a remarkable advancement for neuroscience, researchers at KU Leuven implanted our 96-electrode Utah Arrays in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex of two patients, allowing unprecedented access to the brain’s ‘body recognition center.’

Key findings:
– Discovered specific neurons that show strong preference for human bodies over other visual stimuli – with response times as fast as 100-150 milliseconds
– Revealed how neural populations encode different body parts – showing that individual neurons can respond to multiple body parts simultaneously
– Demonstrated how the brain maintains recognition even with abstract representations like stick figures – proving the remarkable flexibility of our visual system
– Captured neural responses at the individual cell level, providing data that bridges the gap between human brain imaging and previous animal studies

What makes this particularly exciting is that these recordings came from conscious, awake humans performing visual tasks, offering a direct window into how our brains process what we see in real-time. This research represents another significant milestone in understanding human visual processing and showcases how Blackrock Neurotech’s technology continues to enable breakthrough neuroscience discoveries.

Congratulations to the brilliant team of researchers who made this breakthrough possible! Proud to see our Utah Array contributing to the expansion of human knowledge and advancing neuroscience research.

Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/gKHgmZCt