[Mne_analysis] psychocomputational analysis toolkit in Python?

[Etienne Robillard]

Hello Phillip.

Thank you for your reply and thoughts about the fascinating subject of 
ultrasonic neuromodulation of the CNS via mobile devices. :-)

Project STREET WISE is a experimental project to disclose the evidences 
and proofs of the technical capacity of modern mobile devices to 
neuromodulate the cerebral cortex with ultrasounds.

Project PURPLE KUSH is a subproject to design and build a functional 
psychocomputational analysis toolkit in Python to audit real-time 
neuroimaging data from ultrasonic side channels specifically.

I want to focus on investigating the roles and effects of ultrasounds on 
human behavior for now. In particular I want to understand how precisely 
ultrasounds may compromise or stimulate the cerebral cortex, 
hypothalamus, and pineal gland.

I have set up a website for people interested by this research project: 
https://www.projectstreetwise.org

I'm also sending a copy of this mail to Dr. Eric Racine, the Research 
Unit Director of the IRCM in Montreal, in order to warrant a public 
investigation about the potential neuroethical and public health 
implications of ultrasonic neuromodulation of the central nervous system 
via mobile devices.

Regards,

Etienne.


Le 2018-03-09 à 06:33, Phillip Alday a écrit :
> On 08/03/18 19:20, Etienne Robillard wrote:
>> OK I got it, thank you! :)
>>
>> Essentially, I want to develop a psychocomputational analysis toolkit in
>> Python for studying real-time neuroimaging data (of cortical activity)
>> from low-intensity, focused ultrasounds (LIFU) and possibly emulate a
>> functional brain-to-brain coupling system on my 32-bit computer as a
>> proof-of-concept to demonstrate the vulnerability of the human cochlear
>> pathway to become a target of sophisticated ultrasonic side-channel
>> attacks from mobile devices.
> MNE-Python does provide a lot of tools that are useful for the usual
> signal-processing techniques used in processing electrophysiological
> data, take a look at the API documentation and example gallery ....
>
> That said,
>
> -  "brain-to-brain coupling" sounds horribly vague and more of a fashion
> statement. See e.g.
> blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2015/10/17/what-would-real-brain-to-brain-communication-look-like/
> for some commentary. The suggestion there to "just use language" has
> recently shown up in a more serious Current Biology paper on oscillatory
> patterns in classroom settings (Dikker et al., 2017).
>
> - I have serious doubts about the biological feasibility of your
> proposal ranging from "dog whistles don't summon humans" to "most adults
> in developed countries have mild hearing loss and can't hear very high
> pitched sounds because their cochlea no longer respond to them". It
> sounds like you were inspired by something like *Snowcrash* and the idea
> of perceptual input that can crash the human "computer". While every
> sufficiently complex computational device has inputs (see *Gödel,
> Escher, Bach* for a longer, philosophical discussion of this) that will
> "break" it in some sense, it is not clear that such inputs can even
> reach the "core" computations of the brain (whether you define that as
> consciousness or something else) or if problematic input is implicitly
> dumped along the perceptual pathways. Moreover, "break" can also mean
> something as trivial "not be properly processed", which in a brain
> setting could mean "not (consciously) perceived". The halting problem is
> solvable in the real world: *every* program realized on a physical
> computer will terminate at some point, even if that point is just the
> heat death of the universe.
>
> - If you want to simply use sound as non-lethal attack ... well, there
> is a lot of research into that as part of broader research into
> "non-lethal weapons".
>
> - I'm not sure why you want to emphasize that you have a 32-bit
> computer. Are you worried about real-time constraints? Even then, many
> other aspects of your computing architecture will make a much bigger
> difference. My RPi3 has a 64-bit processor but for many tasks it is
> decidedly less powerful than the 32-bit computer I used in high school.
>
> - Finally, there are serious ethical issues in your proposed project.
> You definitely need to have an ethics board involved. You goal is quite
> literally an attack on the lowest levels of the human brain.
>
> Phillip
>
>> Etienne
>>
>>
>> Le 2018-03-08 à 10:31, Christopher Mullins a écrit :
>>>> Would it be possible to emulate a minimally functional
>>> brain-to-brain coupling system entirely in Python?
>>>
>>> I don't know what that would entail, but the links I shared have a
>>> mailing list and a very responsive gitter, both of which would be
>>> great places to ask about that!  (You're welcome to ask here of
>>> course, but this being the general python mailing list, it's a shot in
>>> the dark.)  Good luck!
>>>
>>> Chris

-- 
Etienne Robillard
tkadm30 at yandex.com
https://www.isotoperesearch.ca/

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