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The human (and non-human) primate brain is remarkable in recognizing objects when the view is nearly blocked. This skill let our ancient ancestors find food and avoid danger. It continues to be critical to making sense of our surroundings. UW Medicine scientists are conducting research to discover ways that the brain operates when figuring out shapes, from those that are completely visible to those that are mostly hidden. Although computers can beat the world's best chess players, scientists have not yet designed artificial intelligence that performs as well as the average person in distinguishing shapes that are semi-obscured. Studies of signals generated by the brain are helping to fill in the picture of what goes on when looking at, then trying to recognize, shapes. Such research is also showing why attempts have failed to mechanically replicate the ability of humans and primates to identify partially hidden objects. The most recent results of this work are published ...

The brain is protected by the near-impermeable blood brain barrier, a fortress which protects the brain but which also prevents the treatment of brain diseases, including brain tumours. Dr Zaynah Maherally and team at the University of Portsmouth have developed a model that mimics the blood brain barrier, which could pave the way for better, more efficient and reliable tests of drugs to treat brain diseases. ,p>The model, the result of slow painstaking research started in 2007, is published in the  FASEB Journal . Dr Maherally said: "The blood brain barrier is strikingly complex and notoriously difficult for scientists to breach. Its role, to protect the brain, makes it difficult for most drugs to make their way into the brain to treat brain tumours. "It is a dynamic structural, physiological and biochemical fortification that, in essence, protects the brain by providing multiple layers of armour, stopping molecules from entering the brain. It's highly select...