Amid the push to digitise the UK health service, a study has sounded a note of caution about entrusting important patient appointments to chatbots.
Inside Interoception: The hidden sense of how you feel inside
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of science and technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. Your brain lives in the dark space of your skull. Yet it knows when the wind lifts the hairs on your skin, when your heart is […]
Why “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now
Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball. The idea is to try to treat the disease—which can cause vision loss—by regenerating healthy nerves in the eye. But […]
Patient information exposed in breach, says Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk has become the latest pharma group to be targeted by a cyberattack, confirming a breach exposed some patient data.
Digital platforms for ethics review: a mini review
This mini review examines the emerging use of digital platforms for ethics review (DPER) and the extent to which research ethics committees (RECs) are prepared for digital transformation and operational autonomy. Drawing on a structured analysis of peer-reviewed studies published between 2013 and 2024, the review synthesises the existing research on DPER and examines reported […]
Feasibility of weekly patient-reported symptom monitoring using patients’ own smartphones in outpatient cancer chemotherapy: the SMART-PRO study
Electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) systems using the Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) can improve symptom monitoring, but the feasibility of implementing such systems with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach in routine oncology practice, particularly among older adults, is not well established. We conducted a single-arm prospective observational study in […]
Towards Data-free and Training-free Compression for Speech Foundation Models Using Parameter Clustering
arXiv:2606.11836v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: This paper presents a novel data-free and training-free compression approach for speech foundation models using channelwise clustering via k-means. More fine-grained, mixed sparsity pruning by layer-level varying number of parameter clusters is also explored. Experiments conducted on the LibriSpeech dataset suggest that when operating with pruning sparsity of 50% on […]
Phase model analysis of the effect of M-current on neural synchrony in hippocampal networks
arXiv:2606.12684v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Neural assemblies, transiently coordinated groups of neurons, observed in the hippocampus are thought to underlie the formation of episodic memories. Acetylcholine (ACh), a neuromodulator, that is received by the hippocampus, plays a critical role in memory and learning. A well supported hypothesis suggests that high levels of ACh during active […]
Proprioceptive-visual correspondence enables self-other distinction in humanoid robots
arXiv:2606.13222v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Distinguishing self from others is a prerequisite for social intelligence, yet humanoid robots that increasingly share workspaces with humans still lack this ability. Here we show that a humanoid robot can learn self-other distinction from proprioceptive-visual correspondence, without any identity labels or kinematic models. Once established, this distinction bootstraps a […]
Deployment-Centered Evaluation: Predicting Query-Level Rejection Risk in a Clinical LLM System
arXiv:2606.12702v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly integrated into clinical systems, making it essential to evaluate the real-world utility of these systems. However, static benchmarks tend to measure correctness rather than user acceptance, aggregate performance across queries, and require densely annotated datasets — leading to major blind spots for evaluating clinical […]
Real-Time Execution with Autoregressive Policies
arXiv:2606.13355v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Real-time execution, enabled by asynchronous inference that ensures both smooth action trajectories and fast reactivity, is critical for realistic deployments of large-scale Vision-Language-Action models. However, recent work on real-time execution primarily focuses on variants of diffusion policies, even though it is more critical for autoregressive policies given their slower rollout […]
Predictions for and lack of maximal information transmission in the neuromuscular junction
arXiv:2606.12712v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: A key question in theoretical biology is how effectively biological systems preserve information about their inputs while operating under physical and functional constraints. We examine that question at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) by studying how neurotransmitter concentration is transformed into current at both cholinergic and glutamatergic NMJs. An information maximization […]