Brain replays control decision-making process

Replaying recent events in the hippocampus of the brain has more to do with active decision-making process than with creating long-term memories, according to a new study.

Conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota Medical School, the study of rats navigating a maze found that replays occurring in the hippocampus were not necessarily recent or frequent paths through the maze, as would be expected if the event was being added to memory.

On the other hand, the replays often were paths that the rats had rarely taken or, in some cases, had never taken, as if the rats were trying to build maps to help them make better navigation decisions.

Dr. Anoopum Gupta, and his colleagues said that their findings suggest replays in the hippocampus are not merely passive echoes of past events, but part of a complex, active process of decision-making.

"Our work provides clues into how animals construct a complete, fully navigable representation of their environment, even if they’ve only partially explored that environment. The cognitive maps created in this way may allow animals to plan novel routes or shortcuts. As we learn more about the neural mechanisms that enable animals to flexibly navigate through the world, we hope to apply those lessons to research in robotics that could improve autonomous navigation systems," said Gupta.

The team used electrode ‘hats’ to record brain activity of rats as they navigated a maze. In particular, they monitored certain neurons, called place cells, which fire in response to physical locations.

That enabled the researchers to identify where an event that was being replayed was located based on which place cells were firing.

During an experiment, a rat might be in one portion of the maze, while the firing of place cells in the hippocampus indicated that the rat was replaying information about a different location.

On a task with two behavioral sequences, A and B, the researchers found that the animals would replay sequence B more often though they spent most of their time running sequence A.

This meant that the rats were most likely to replay the path they had experienced less often, which indicated that replay is not just a function of helping an animal remember what it has experienced most frequently or most recently, but an important function in helping it map its whole environment.

During the replay process, the research team also was able to observe the animal making connections between paths that it had never physically traveled before.

This further suggested that replay plays a role in helping an animal learn and maintain the entire map of its environment and make connections within it.

The rats were not just reviewing recent experience to move it to long-term memory.

The study was published in the journal Neuron.

Want to test the theory, try solving some of these mazes, created by Yonatan Frimer
The maze entrances and exits are marked by arrows.


Maze of the statue of david, by Yonatan Frimer

Maze Portrait Of Michalangelo's David

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Maze cartoon - Team Of monkeys maze
maze art - inkblot mazes

Maze portrait of Madonna, by Yonatan Frimer

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Maze cartoon - Team Of monkeys maze
maze art - inkblot mazes


Maze portrait of Lilly Allen, by Yonatan Frimer

Maze of Lily Allen

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maze art - inkblot mazes


Freemason Monkeys -
Illuminati's building a wall - Maze

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Maze cartoon - Team Of monkeys maze
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Monkeys For Justice - Team Of Monkeys Judicial Panel

Monkey Judges Maze:
"Trained to dispense justice in even the most difficult legal cases"
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Maze cartoon - Team Of monkeys maze
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Maze Portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk By Yonatan Frimer

Kemal Mustafa Ataturk - Maze

Famous Quote by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Peace in the World, Peace at Home

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Team Of Monkeys - Maze Cartoons
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Home finale for three Vols By: Wes Rucker

Home finale for three Vols By: Wes Rucker (source article)

KNOXVILLE -- What was intended to be a simple video e-mail message to the University of Tennessee turned into cut-down comedy hour.

UT senior basketball players Wayne Chism, Bobby Maze and J.P. Prince were asked merely to speak into the camera, thank students for their support this season and encourage them to attend senior night festivities before tonight's game against Arkansas.

Part of the senior night promotion includes free headbands to students, many of whom plan to wear them awkwardly high atop their heads in a tribute to Chism's self-described "yarmulke."

But the cameraman made a mistake. He didn't give the players a script.

"Come get your free headband," Chism said. "We're all going to wear one."

Tennessee's Wayne Chism (4) shoots past Florida's Alex Tyus (23) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, in Knoxville, Tenn. Chism is a senior this year. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

"Umm ... I'm not," Prince interrupted. "You couldn't pay me to wear one."

"Just because your head's too big," Maze responded. "We'd need a slingshot to get one on your big ol' head."

"My head's smaller than either of your nostrils," Prince shot back. "Your nasal strip would be bigger than my headband. When you sneeze, everyone in this arena gets wet."

Without blinking, Maze then wondered aloud whether students should get Prince's acne medication to go along with their Chism headbands.

Not to be outdone, Chism simply offered, "Y'all both ugly."

A normal video wouldn't have seemed appropriate, given the circuitous routes UT's seniors have taken to arrive at this point.

Chism, a four-star prospect and Pearl's first high-profile recruiting commitment to the Vols, is the only man left from the star-studded 2007 signing class. Tyler Smith, a Tennessee native who transferred to UT and became an All-Southeastern Conference forward and team captain, was on track to be honored tonight before getting dismissed from the program in January.

"I don't even know how to answer that question right now," Chism said regarding the losses of Smith and former classmates Duke Crews, Ramar Smith, Josh Tabb and Marques Johnson. "It's crazy, though. I mean, I came in with a lot of people, and through the times we've been here a lot of people have came and gone. Being the one left on senior night is kind of disappointing, but I know the guys are out there doing something better with their lives.

"They're still my brothers, and I still love and care about them."

Some left Chism's class, but others arrived, too.

Prince -- also a Tennessean -- transferred to UT in time to play three mostly successful seasons for the Vols.

Maze, a former Baltimore-area high school star, arrived last year after two seasons at Oklahoma and Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.

"Everybody's got a story, but all that matters is that we came to Tennessee, we became a family and we won a lot of big basketball games," Maze said. "And those of us still here are going to leave with our heads held high."

Prince and Chism said they'd rather focus on Arkansas than get too caught up in senior night emotions.

"It's my last time playing here, but I don't want to make more out of it than it is right now," Prince said. "I've had some great times here, and we've won a lot of games in front of a lot of a great fans, and I'm going to miss it one day. But stuff like that won't hit me until years from now.

"I don't want to think about it too much right now, but you just want to leave the place better than when you came here, and I think we've done a good job of that. I'm proud of what we've done."

Chism opened up a little bit more than Prince.

"I kind of thought about it yesterday," Chism said. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'm just about to play my last home game.' It came pretty fast, so I was like, 'Wow.' But not excited."

After a slight nudge, the quirky big man said he's already seen the fruits of his UT labor.

"When you look back, you'd see all the orange seats were kind of empty back then, and you'd only see some people there at the games," said Chism, who has played more games than any Vol in history and is on track to graduate in May with a double major. "It was like, is it a D-II school or what? It's supposed to be a D-I school, it turned around when Coach Pearl got here -- and our first signees for him -- and then a lot of things changed from there. That gym became packed every game. Every game started being sold out because of the way Coach Pearl has turned this team around, and he's still doing it.

"I'm very proud. Back when I was in high school, people always said, 'Man, you shouldn't go to Tennessee.' Now when I go back home, everybody's a Tennessee fan."

Maze was the most openly emotional of the trio. That's not surprising, considering the point guard came to UT with a less-than-stellar reputation off the floor but is on pace to leave in May as a two-year starter who graduated and made the honor roll with a 3.5 senior-year GPA.

"This place means everything to me," Maze said. "Tennessee gave me a chance to change my identity and what people thought about me. When I was at Oklahoma, I was young and immature and got into a little bit of trouble and made some bad decisions. But since I've been here, there's been a total change. I haven't been in any off-the-court issues. I haven't been in any trouble. I'm going to graduate. I've changed my whole life around.

"I think of my two years here as a blessing; a changing point in life, a transition from a boy into a man. I will remember that my whole life."

But tonight ends the seniors' home careers only. They potentially have several more weeks to play.

"Nobody can ever take away that we beat the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation my senior year ... but we're not done yet," Maze said. "I want to come back here one day and be able to show my children hopefully a picture of my team and me, and I can tell them, 'Look what I was a part of.'

"Hopefully we can earn a big banner for this place, too."

Other contacts for Wes Rucker are www.twitter.com/wesrucker and www.facebook.com/tfpvolsbeat.

Click to see some other cool mazes

Communist Maze:

Maze of Team of Monkeys AAA - Jumper Cables

From the album:

"Wall Photos"

Team Of Monkeys Jumper Cables
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Buffalo NY to build the largest Ice Maze EVER.

BuffaloNews.com Live video

Ice blocks arriving for world record ice maze

By Phil Fairbanks

News Staff Reporter

We don't need no stinking Super Bowl trophy.

Or for that matter, a Stanley Cup.

No, we will build the world's largest ice maze instead. And then have Guinness World Records Ltd. make it all official.

On the steps of HSBC Center, dozens of volunteers are unloading and stacking 300-pound blocks of ice with the hope that, come Friday, they can boast of total and absolute supremacy in the world of outdoor ice mazes.

Their goal?

To build a nearly half-mile-long maze of ice with an open center shaped to look like a buffalo and filled with sparkling ice sculptures.

It will be, weather permitting, a puzzle big and beautiful enough to break the current record held by our cold-weather nemesis to the north.

Think of it. What better sequel to Team USA's win over Canada in Olympic hockey than stealing away Toronto's world record?

"The Guinness rep will fly in Thursday, and we'll have the coronation Friday," said an optimistic Jeff Empric of Roaming Buffaloes, one of the groups organizing the record-shattering event.

Coronation? In Buffalo?

It's all part of the first Buffalo Powder Keg Winter Festival, and the world's largest ice maze is just one of the attractions.

The two-day festival, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, is an attempt to exploit Buffalo's harsh winters, not apologize for them.

"This seemed like something that could boost Buffalo," said Ted Nitterauer of Clarence, one of the 20 or so volunteers who showed up Monday to move blocks of ice.

While the maze takes center stage, there is more to the event, including a transportation first: tubing down the Seneca Street off-ramp from the Skyway. The ramp will be closed Friday as workers prepare it for the tubing.

And if that's not enough, there will be a snowman-building contest on the plaza of HSBC Center, broom ball tournaments in a parking lot near Pearl Street Grill and Brewery and open snow tennis along Main Street.

The festival also coincides with the annual Buffalo Pond Hockey Tournament on man-made rinks at nearby Erie Basin Marina.

Of course, all of that may pale in comparison to the Great Ice Maze, the only attraction so big that it may set a new global standard for mazes.

The ice blocks, all 2,200 of them, will continue arriving over the next few days, carried by 16 tractor-trailers making their way, first from an ice-making plant in the Bronx and, more recently, a warehouse outside Rochester.

"I think we started making them the day after New Year's," said Raymond Tortorice of Arctic Glacier, the company hired to produce and deliver the ice blocks.

The first of those blocks was put in place Saturday, and by Monday afternoon, the first walls of the maze were starting to take shape.

By Thursday night, Empric is predicting an ice creation so big, it will surpass the current record holder, the 2005 Pontiac Ice Maze and its 1,940 blocks of ice in Toronto.

If there's one wild card, it's the weather.

A few days of above-freezing weather is not a big deal, said Tortorice, as long as it dips below freezing each night.

For Empric, the biggest headache Monday was not the temperature but the rain.

"It's going to be a time constraint," he said, as the wet stuff alternated between rain and sleet. "It's going to pinch our windows [of opportunity]."

He noted that volunteers are always needed and welcome. They can simply show up at the HSBC Center plaza to help out.

The two-day festival will include a beer tent, music stage and pancake breakfast for those who prefer the indoors. It starts at 8 a.m. Saturday and ends at 6 p.m. Sunday.

pfairbanks@buffnews.com

Superplexus ultimate 3D puzzle drives me crazy just looking at it

If you’re looking for a puzzle game that makes Rubik’s cube seem easy, this is for you brainiac. The Superplexus is a 36 inch diameter sphere that holds a 300 foot long maze track around which you have to guide a wooden marble. Sure that sounds like fun, but you can imagine the frustration. The first frustration will be the price. $30,000. The true puzzle here is how you will come up with the money and why you would want to spend thirty grand on this thing.




Want some easier puzzles, check out these mazes

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Maze Comic: Team Of Monkeys . com
Maze Art: Ink Blot Mazes . com




For more mazes, check out some of these websites and don't get too lost!
Maze Comic: Team Of Monkeys . com
Maze Art: Ink Blot Mazes . com
Click on the mazes to view larger:




For more mazes, check out some of these websites and don't get too lost!
Maze Comic: Team Of Monkeys . com
Maze Art: Ink Blot Mazes . com

'Intelligent' oil droplet navigates chemical maze by Colin Barras

'Intelligent' oil droplet navigates chemical maze by Colin Barras

There's some humbling news from the chemical world for anyone who has ever found themselves lost in a garden maze. A simple droplet of organic solvent can find its way through a complicated labyrinth with nothing more to go on than a slight pH difference.

Bartosz Grzybowski's team at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, used a common polymer to fashion a two-dimensional labyrinth some 2 centimetres on each side. They then flooded the maze with strongly alkaline potassium hydroxide solution, before placing a hydrochloric acid-soaked chunk of gel at the maze exit.

After about 40 seconds they placed a droplet of mineral oil containing hexyldecanoic acid at the maze entrance. The oil, which cannot mix with the potassium hydroxide solution, sits on the surface. But it remains still only for a matter of seconds – it soon begins tearing around the maze at speeds of up to 10 millimetres per second, sniffing out the shortest path to the acid-soaked gel, and solving the maze in the process.

"In the movie files you can see the droplet makes decisions," says Grzybowski. "It goes left along the wrong path, decides there's something fishy with that and so it reverses. It looks almost alive."

Primitive intelligence

But while Grzybowski says the droplet displays behaviour that might be called "primitive intelligence", there's a simple chemical mechanism at work.

The droplet leaches its acid into the surrounding solution, losing hydrogen ions in a process known as deprotonation – a process that affects the surface tension of the droplet itself.

"But to the front and rear of the droplet [the surrounding solution] has a different pH," he says, because of diffusion from the acid-soaked gel at the maze exit. Those tiny pH differences affect the amount of deprotonation that happens at the front and rear of the droplet, and this asymmetry sets up a surface tension gradient that forces the droplet into motion. "I would say the droplet is self-propellant," he says.

Grzybowski's team thinks that the behaviour could have implications for cancer treatments. They would like to develop micelles – aggregates of molecules such as balls of lipids – that can navigate pH gradients in the body. "A good reason for that is cancer is more acidic than the rest of the body," Grzybowski says.

Slime mystery

But the chemical behaviour could also offer an explanation for the apparently intelligent behaviour of the slime mould Physarum polycephalum, which 10 years ago was shown to possess similar maze-solving abilities by Toshiyuki Nakagaki, now at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

"The [new] finding is interesting since it gives an insight of possible physical mechanisms for Physarum to find a path in the maze," Nakagaki says.

Journal reference: Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja9076793

Some cool mazes for you to enjoy after reading this article....

Hallucamazenic Maze-A-Delic - Ink On Paper, Winter 2006,

by Yonatan Frimer


www.TeamOfMonkeys.com
Your source for mazes.

Maze Kong - Ink on Paper

Maze of the Statue of Liberty - 2009

Maze of Liberty - 2009 - Yonatan Frimer

Which maze of the statue of liberty do you like better. The psychedelic one or the line art one? Answer with care down bellow in the comments. Thanks

Psychedelic Liberty Maze

Maze of the Statue of Liberty

Marketing and Dog Walking Monkeys - Team Of Monkeys Comics By Yonatan Frimer

Dog Walking Monkeys - Team Of Monkeys Comic Mazes

Dog Walking Monkeys - Team Of Monkeys Maze Comics
STOM Research K-9 Division.

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Team Of Monkeys Maze Comics
Ink Blot Mazes - Maze Art


Maze of Team Of Monkeys Putting Up Billboard

Maze of Team Of Monkeys Putting Up Billboard
Team Of Monkeys Advertising Experiment, Marketing Research

For more cool mazes By Yonatan Frimer, check out:
Team Of Monkeys Maze Comics
Ink Blot Mazes - Maze Art

Mazes of a Maze Artist

Self Portrait Maze - Yonatan Frimer

Airport Ground Crew: Team Of Monkeys Maze Comic , By Yonatan Frimer

Maze of Team Of Monkeys Ground Crew

For 1250x1250 jpeg of this maze, click the image.
For 1000x1000 jpeg of this maze, click here

Caption for this cartoon maze:Airport Ground Crew:
"Aside from flying your aircraft, our monkeys can also tow your airplane to the gate or hangar. ORDER YOURS TODAY! Operators are standing by. Financing available!
Bad Credit? No Credit? No problem."

Follow this link for more Team Of Monkeys Mazes
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Maze of "Kung fu monkeys turn tables on trainer" Created by Yonatan Frimer

Maze of Team Of Monkeys Kung fu Fighting

Maze of Team Of Monkeys Kung Fu Fighting


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Team Of Monkeys . com - Cartoon Mazes
Ink Blot Mazes - Maze Art


This maze was made after reading this very interesting story, found here:
http://www.ananova.com/News/story/sm_3602542.html

Kung fu monkeys turn tables on trainer

A Chinese man who trained monkeys martial arts to entertain shoppers was shocked when they turned the tables on him.

Lo Wung's taekwondo monkeys have become a regular feature outside a shopping centre in Enshi, Hubei province, where they were trained to show off their martial arts skills on each other.

But one quick-thinking monkey saw his chance when Lo slipped - and caught him with a perfect flying kung fu kick to the head. The rest then joined in the affray.

Hu Luang, 32, who caught the incident on camera, said: "I saw one punch him in the eye - he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose.

"They were leaping and jumping all over the place - it was better than a Bruce Lee film."

At one point the monkey trainer grabbed a staff to hit the monkeys, only to find himself facing a stick-brandishing monkey that cracked him over the head.

Lo only managed to get the monkeys under control by tangling them up in the rope that had been used to stop them running off.

For more mazes by Yonatan Frimer, check out:
Team Of Monkeys . com - Cartoon Mazes
Ink Blot Mazes - Maze Art

Pac Man and Robots in Mazes

Micromouse Finishes Maze in Record Time, Cares Nothing For Your Foolish "Cheese"

Meet Tetra, officially the fastest mouse on four wheels. Stuart Little's got nothing on this guy.

Tetra's completion of an "expert class" maze in 4.7 seconds shatters last year's best by more than a second in a half, which in micromouse terms basically makes it the love child of Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps. But what makes him so good? For that we'll have to turn to this jauntily scored interview with David Otten, a 22-year veteran of micromouse competitions. Because apparently people have been racing robotic mice around mazes since at least 1987 and NO ONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT IT.
[Robots Dreams via BotJunkie]

Check out some cool mazes at http://www.inkblotmazes.com

AC-MAN Championship Edition

Published by:
Current Version: 1.0.0 released 2009-12-10
Price: 2.99
Category: Games :: Action

App Description

------------------------------
Limited time only! Opening celebration Sale!
Special limited time sales for 5 days.
------------------------------

PAC-MAN Championship Edition takes competitive eating to a whole new level!

This thrilling update to Pac-Man, developed under supervision of the original Pac-Man creator, was released to Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. The game has garnered acclamations from the gaming press and gamers new-and-old alike.

Developed by the PAC-MAN C.E. team, the game has been designed specifically for the touch interface of the iPhone and iPod touch, pumped full of extra mazes, modes, and beginner-friendly features.

Featuring addictive time-limit play, mesmerizing maze-regeneration, and back-and-forth ghost-chasing action. The higher your score the faster the game gets so stay on your toes!

Do you have what it takes to be the dot-chompin' champion?


Championship Mode
Aim to achieve the highest possible score within a limited playing time (3 to 5 minutes). Try to record the top score for each maze. 5 courses. (Total 15 courses after purchase of expansion pack)

Mission Mode
Clear a wide variety of assigned mission, each explained before mission starts. Play time is limited to roughly 1 minute, retry of mission is quick and easy. Beginners can naturally improve their PAC-skills by advancing through the missions. 20 missions. (Total 120 missions after purchase of expansion pack)

Challenge Mode (expansion pack only)
Mode combining the features of mission and challenge modes. Total 15 courses.

App Screen Shots (click to enlarge)




John Lennon Psychedelic Maze Portrait


Team Of Monkeys
H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Shots

Team Of Monkeys Maze Cartoons. Mazes by Yonatan Frimer

Maze of a Tower Crane Being Operated by a Team of Monkeys.
For more monkey mazes, visit team of monkeys .com and ink blot mazes .com

Tower Crane Being Operated by a Team of Monkeys.

Maze Comic, Team Of Monkeys Riding a Forklift Maze

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Monkey Maze Driving a Bus

Bus Driving Monkey Maze Cartoon

Wheelie on a motorcycle being driven by a wild team of monkeys.

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The Latest mazes from Yonatan Frimer

John Lennon Psychedelic Maze Portrait

Imagine All The Mazes

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Like a Rolling Maze - Bob Dylan

Like a Rolling Maze - Bob Dylan

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Gene Simmons KISS and Maze Up

Gene Simmons KISS and Maze Up

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Psychedelic Liberty Maze

Maze of the Statue of Liberty



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Monkeys Maze Driving a Bus

Bus Driving Monkeys Maze Cartoon


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Surfin' Monkeys Maze Cartoon



Team Of Monkeys Maze Cartoon - Microscope.

Team Of Monkeys Maze Cartoon - Microscope.

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Billboard Maze By Yonatan Frimer



Maze Rushmore


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Team Of Monkeys
H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Shots


Scrooge McMaze



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Mazen - David


Maze-O-Lantern


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Purple Maze - Jimi Hendrix


Panda Maze



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Maze of Heart


Gorilla Maze



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Torah Maze



Kicked in the maze


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