When demoing our RoboRoach to the public, people (often parents) ask us, “It’s amazing you can temporarily control the movement of a cockroach, but can you expand this device to control my 5-year old child / husband?” We listen to our customers and the public, as many of our products come from innocuous suggestions.  From […]

One of the first ways neuroscientists were able to measure the “speed” of neural computation was via reaction time. A typical human reaction time, in which you push a button after seeing a light, is ~150-200 ms. With our new EMG SpikerBox, students can now measure the electrical activity of their muscles during movements. Thus, […]

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of something you saw under a microscope to share with friends, family and colleagues? If so, then you’ll know it’s almost impossible to do! Well… not anymore! Backyard Brains is offering a beta-version of our smartphone microscope code-named “The RoachScope”. Our new scope is designed with a […]

While we have enjoyed learning about insect neuroscience during the past few years of our adventure, many teachers have asked us: “Do we have to use bugs?” or “Will this work on humans?” Recording from individual neurons or bundles of nerves requires invasive electrodes, so we are limited to insect preparations for neural activity. But…your […]

Hola SpikerHeads! Come by our vendor booth if you are at the Society for Neuroscience meeting! We will be showing off some new products, notably, our EMG SpikerBox for humans! Have you ever recorded your own muscle action potentials? Now you can, live and direct at SfN. Say hello, relax, and do some experiments with […]

During experiments on the giant axons of the Longfin Inshore Squid (loligo pealei) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA; we were fascinated by the fast color-changing nature of the squid’s skin. Squids (like many other cephalopods) can quickly control pigmented cells called chromatophores to reflect light. The Longfin Inshore has […]

Aprende neurociencia con El SpikerBox. Arma el Tuyo y Llévatelo. ¿Te intriga saber cómo funciona tu cerebro?, ¿Te has preguntado alguna vez cómo suenan y cómo se ven realmente las señales neuronales?, ¿Te gusta hacer experimentos? Bueno, ¡este es tu día de suerte! El objetivo de este taller es convertirte en todo un neurocientífico! Aprenderás las habilidades […]

Science Teacher Joshua Hanna, of Malcolm Price Laboratory School, a high school affiliated with the University of Northern Iowa, recently sent us this video his students made (with zero input from us) after learning some neuroscience with our gear this Spring. We became rather emotional watching it; the video was finished the last day of […]

Han esperado…y esperado…y esperado…y finalmente ha llegado, gracias a la ayuda de Daniel Silva, Bioquímico de la Universidad Católica, el sitio está 95% en español! Ahora, estudiantes por toda América Latina pueden unirse a la Revolución Neuronal. Tan solo nos falta subtitular los videos y crear las figuras. Avísanos si encuentras algún error. You have waited, […]

We are pleased to announce that our manuscript formally describing the SpikerBox development, four experiments, and some classroom deployments, was released yesterday in PLoS ONE. Notably, this journal does not charge to view articles, so people anywhere around the world can download, read, use, and critique the work free of charge. How is this possible? […]

If you’ve followed us over the past couple years, you’ll know we have been slowly working on a MicroManipulator to allow you to do more precise neural recordings instead of just “blindly” inserting electrodes in a cockroach leg, cricket, or earthworm. We’ve had prototypes of manipulators for about as long as we’ve been in existence, […]

We are proud to have run many workshops in the Midwest, but co-founder Tim has longed to bring spikes to the Texas plains he recalls from his early years (he graduated from high school in El Paso and went to college in Austin). Thus, it was with great delight when Emily Verla Bovino, artist-in-residence with […]