Clipmarks | pokkets's 'brain' clips

Why you should go with your gut feeling

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:39:17 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: To uncover this ability, Pessiglione and colleague Chris Frith, of University College London, tested 20 volunteers with a simple game based on winning and losing small amounts of money.

On a computer screen, the volunteers watched an animated abstract pattern which for a couple of tenths of a second included one of three symbols part way through. Unbeknownst to the subjects, the symbols indicated whether they would lose or gain £1 or break even if they accepted the gamble.

Surprisingly, subjects got better at predicting whether they would win or not, eventually plateauing at slightly above chance, strong evidence that volunteers do not consciously notice the symbols but are affected by them nonetheless.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Next time you’re at a blackjack table trying to decide whether to hold or hit, just trust your gut. New research shows that our brains pick up on subliminal signals – a dealer’s tell, for instance – when making risky decisions.

“When you think that you are referring to your intuition, actually you just learn an association between subliminal signals in your context and the outcome of your actions,” says Mathias Pessiglione, a neuroscientist at the Centre for Neuroimaging Research in Paris, France, who led the study.

Doctors and gamblers may be used to trusting their instincts in make-or-break situations, but scientists have had a tough time proving that the brain can learn subconsciously.

Under a functional-MRI brain scanner, the researchers found that the subjects appeared to be basing their subconscious choices on activity in an area of their brains involved in conscious risk-taking – the striatum.

Tags: brain, intuition, sub conscious learning

Robot controlled by own biological brain

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:06:18 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They used rat neurones. Maybe we'll discover what rats have been thinking, or how the nature of thinking varies from species to species, if and what significant 'character' differences there are. We may even find rats have the potential to be much smarter than we thought they were.
The neurons act in response to stimuli. Maybe the best way to describe them is 'curious'
It can be fairly certain there will be no official testing with human neurones, but there will be testing. I also wonder if the instinct for self preservation goes that deep - Sounds like the kind of thing that would interest the military.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A robot that controls itself with its own biological brain of cultured neurones, has been designed by UK researchers.

The neurone-powered robot, called Gordon, was unveiled

at the University of Reading

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," says Professor Kevin Warwick, head of cybernetics

Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurones.

Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other in an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine

the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit and communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

Stress and brain plasticity

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:13:55 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Stress contributes to performance, if one knows how to move with it.
another path for drugs that will enhance our capabilities...

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Stress Hormone Found To Regulate Brain Neurotransmission

one of the stress hormones regulates brain neurotransmission on the short and long term and enables neuronal connections to adapt.

When we are subjected to a stress, our adrenal glands secrete hormones that affect our entire body. One of these hormones, cortisol

The researchers have shown that in one part of the brain, the hippocampus, corticosterone (the equivalent of human cortisol in laboratory rats) modifies the intensity of transmissions made by excitatory synapses

this hormone increases the mobility of receptors found on the surface of neurons, thus allowing synaptic connections to adapt more effectively to the demands of brain activity.

In addition, briefly exposing neurons to corticosterone increases synaptic plasticity

in the case of prolonged stress (corticosterone stimulation over several hours), synaptic plasticity is reduced.

these newly discovered mechanisms opens up numerous possibilities for future research

Tags: neuroscience, brain plasticity

Scanning the brain in real time

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:29:35 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Learning to control your own mind. There have been three ways to affect the brain.(for argument's sake) the psychiatrist's couch, the knife, and with medication. Now with the improved MRI technology we can look inside our brain in real time, and affect the way we think.
The video wont clip but video lasts for 3min56sec and can be seen following the top link, or is 13.6MB download from the link in the clip (The 'desktop' link works, itunes seems only to be a download from the site)

Clip Source: www.ted.com

Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity -- thoughts, emotions, pain -- while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel.

Christopher deCharms is working on a way to use fMRI scans to show brain activity -- in real time. Full bio and more links »

Download this talk

Video to desktop (Zipped MP4)
Video to iTunes (MP4)

Boredom a sickness or a creative tool?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:07:57 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "In experiments in the 1970s, psychiatrists showed that participants completing word-association tasks quickly tired of the job once obvious answers were given; granted more time, they began trying much more creative solutions"

"In a recent paper in The Cambridge Journal of Education, Teresa Belton and Esther Priyadharshini of East Anglia University in England reviewed decades of research and theory on boredom, and concluded that it’s time that boredom “be recognized as a legitimate human emotion that can be central to learning and creativity.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

You’re Checked Out, but Your Brain Is Tuned In

Scientists know plenty about boredom, too, though more as a result of poring through thickets of meaningless data than from studying the mental state itself. Much of the research on the topic has focused on the bad company it tends to keep, from depression and overeating to smoking and drug use.

Yet boredom is more than a mere flagging of interest or a precursor to mischief. Some experts say that people tune things out for good reasons, and that over time boredom becomes a tool for sorting information — an increasingly sensitive spam filter.

it is far from a passive neural shrug. Using brain-imaging technology, neuroscientists have found that the brain is highly active when disengaged, consuming only about 5 percent less energy in its resting “default state” than when involved in routine tasks

as if the boredom “had the power to exert pressure on individuals to stretch their inventive capacity,”

Tags: neuroscience

Granddaughter has Brain Surgery

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:52:05 GMT

clipped by: Imnclady
clipper's remarks: July 17, 2008...my granddaughter had brain surgery to rid her of seizures that she has been having for the last 4 years...they got so bad she wasn't able to go to school. Her medication could not keep them under control.
It all started out as what everyone though was a cold or the flu...she contracted viral encephalitis , they don't know how or why.
All I could think of to do at the time was ask everyone to pray for her and that's how the story ended up on MySpace...
Except for one seizure last Tuesday, she seems to be doing well...

Clip Source: blog.myspace.com

Survivor Dreams

Hannah’s Brain Surgery
Current mood: quiet
Category: empty Life

Surgery taking place in Chapel Hill, NC (UNC)

Hannah was taken into surgery at 1:40 pm...

I've been making things with Hannah's pictures like the one below...to thank everyone for their prayers.

I know Hannah appreciates all the prayers for her and I told her this morning just what I was doing.

She said " Thank you grandma, I love you." and was out the door...

I've been numb ever since...I don't even feel like calling anyone right now.

( to be continued )

Hannah is out of surgery, doctors say everthing went well.

She is taken to the ICU and her mother has not seen her yet.

We still have a while to go before we can relax, but I know with your prayers she will be well.

Thanks again from the bottom of my heart, to all for your friendship and prayers.

(to be continued)

Everthing seems to be working, though they have her drugged fairly well and she isn't talking.

Aerial surveys 'underestimate' ferals

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:51:17 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Feral animals such as cats ,foxes, pigs, and goats, can cause an incredible amount of damage to natural species and an environment that has not evolved defenses against them. Feral pigs can root up the ground, eat ground-nesting animal and endangered plants, and foul water. They need the numbers so they can find out how many animals are causing a problem, so they can decide how many need to be culled to reduce it.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

Aerial surveys could be seriously underestimating the number of destructive feral animals on the loose, say Australian researchers.

They recommend a change in the way these are normally counted to ensure better protection of nature reserves.

Dr Peter Fleming and John Tracey of the NSW Department of Primary Industries in Orange report their findings in the current issue of the journal Wildlife Research Management and Conservation.

Fleming says counting what are often moving targets from a moving helicopter is hard enough to start with.

But, he says, memory is fallible and so it's easy to make mistakes and the longer counting goes on

the evidence is that there is a tendency to underestimate

Fleming says aerial surveyors could be more accurate if they made better use of the way the brain works.

Humans, and some high-level primates, inherently recognise instantaneously groups of 1 to 4 without counting, he says.

He says a method of counting, called subtising, uses this fact.

Sleepiness can make you sound drunk

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:29:14 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I'm not sure so much that the sleepy are unaware, as they don't care that they slur. Speaking clearly can take energy and concentration. When overtired, the brain refuses to go to that much trouble. Speaking can often be an afterthought.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jennifer Viegas

A lack of sleep alters the brain to such a degree that a person sounds drunk when they speak, according to a US study.

Sleep-deprived speakers gradually lose their ability to articulate, but think they sound fine

Bystanders might describe this type of speech as "tired-sounding" or "slurred," but experts studying the phenomenon say those descriptions aren't quite accurate.

The research, lead by Professor Suzanne Boyce from the University of Cincinnati was recently presented at the Acoustics08 meeting in Paris.

"The differences we pick up are much less extreme, but they go in the same direction

We'd call it 'faintly blurred,' rather than 'slurred,' speech."

Boyce and her team theorised that the differences between the speech of people lacking sleep and those who had a good night's rest would be comparable to the differences between conversational and "clear" speakers.

Boyce explained that "people lose awareness of how clearly they are speaking when they are tired."

Keep Your Mind’s Eye on Cybernetics

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:01:48 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Clip Source: www.jumpthecurve.net

Imagine sitting in your home and being able to control a device in a different room, a different city or even a different country by thought alone. Sounds impossible doesn’t it? Well, accordingly to this fascinating article from Popular Mechanics, advances in the field of cybernetics are occurring so rapidly that such things may be possible in the not-too-distant future.

Consider this: a monkey in North Carolina can already send a signal to Japan (where it controls a robot) faster than it can send a message from its brain to its own muscles. One immediate practical application of this technology may occur in the field of surgery whereby a surgeon could control a small robotic device faster and more precisely than she could move her hand. In a field like brain surgery such a distinction could make a big difference.

consider how such mind-machine devices may change how we perceive and interact with our environment in the future

just “think” your bot to do it

Tags: cybernetics, mind-machine interface

Chance discovery sheds light on S.I.D.S.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:19:26 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Cot death, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome has been a mystery, and a number of causes have studied. It has also been suggested that there may be more than one cause. While the study was on mice, they hope it will lead to more clues in the search for causes in humans, and help identify babies at risk

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

An imbalance of a key brain chemical could be the cause of cot death, after a chance discovery by researchers in Italy.

The team, based at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, found that an out of balance self-regulating system controlling the nerve-signalling chemical serotonin in the brainstem, caused sudden death in mice.

Writing in the journal Science, they hope their experiment will help doctors pinpoint human babies at high risk of cot death, also known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

While the researchers say it is unlikely the molecular mechanism is the same in humans, they believe their findings may one day help identify babies at greatest risk.

"Ultimately, we hope it will give new ideas to doctors about how to diagnose babies at risk for SIDS," says Dr Enrica Audero

Genetically engineered mice whose self-regulating serotonin system was turned off did not die, showing it was worse to have a malfunctioning system than no system at all, the study says.

10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:34:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Although the brain-computer metaphor has served cognitive psychology well, research in cognitive neuroscience has revealed many important differences between brains and computers. Appreciating these differences may be crucial to understanding the mechanisms of neural information processing, and ultimately for the creation of artificial intelligence. Below, I review the most important of these differences (and the consequences to cognitive psychology of failing to recognize them): similar ground is covered in this excellent (though lengthy) lecture.

Difference # 1: Brains are analogue; computers are digital

Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memory

Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serial

Difference # 4: Processing speed is not fixed in the brain; there is no system clock

Difference # 5 - Short-term memory is not like RAM

Difference # 6: No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mind

Tags: computers, brains, metaphors

Good cholesterol may protect memory

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:28:30 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: There is good and bad cholesterol. They sum it up by saying, what is good for the heart, is good for the brain.
Certain changes in lifestyle can have a positive impact on raising HDL levels:
Aerobic exercise, Weight loss, Smoking cessation.
Removing trans fatty acids from the diet
One to two drinks of alcohol a day - HDL transports cholesterol to the liver and cholesterol is known to have a protective effect on the cell membrane. It is likely that this reflects the liver's need for more cholesterol to protect itself from the alcohol. Adding monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to the diet, and reducing or eliminating saturated fats. Adding soluble fiber to diet. Oats are a prime source. Taking Omega 3 fatty acids such as in tuna, or sardines, or suppliments. Limiting intake of dietary fat to 30–35% of total calories
Taking Niacin aka Vitamin B3

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Low levels of so-called good cholesterol during middle age may increase the risk of memory loss and dementia, European researchers say.

The study, involving about 3700 British men and women, was published in the American Heart Association's journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

It found that low levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol were linked to declining memory by age 61.

Experts predict increasing numbers of people worldwide will develop Alzheimer's in the coming decades as populations in many countries grow older.

Scientists are trying to identify risk factors that may appear years before the onset of dementia to help find ways to prevent or postpone it.

"Considering the way the population is ageing - the 65-plus age group being the fastest-growing age group - we are facing a dementia time bomb," says Dr Archana Singh-Manoux of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research and the University College London

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:04:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Robots are not human, but humans aren’t the only things that have emotions,” she said. “The question for robots is not, Will they ever have human emotions? Dogs don’t have human emotions, either, but we all agree they have genuine emotions. The question is, what are the emotions that are genuine for the robot?”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

There is ongoing debate about what constitutes life. Synthetic bacteria for example, are created by man and yet also alive. Some go so far as to say that robot “emotions” may already have occurred—that current robots have not only displayed emotions, but in some ways have experienced them.

“We’re all machines,” says Rodney Brooks author of “Flesh and Machines,” and former director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, “Robots are made of different sorts of components than we are — we are made of biomaterials; they are silicon and steel — but in principle, even human emotions are mechanistic.” A robot’s level of a feeling like sadness could be set as a number in computer code, he said. But isn’t a human’s level of sadness basically a number, too, just a number of the amounts of various neurochemicals circulating in the brain? Why should a robot’s numbers be any less authentic than a human’s?

Tags: robotics, intelligence, life

Magnet puts tongue in the drivers seat

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:27:26 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The nerve in the tongue is directly connected to the brain, and is one of the things that is least likely to be damaged in spinal cord injuries.
Considering the way people can talk, it is likely to be as, or more maneuverable than the hands.
The phrase 'Actions speak louder than words' could take on a whole new meaning.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Maggie Fox

US researchers have developed a device that uses a tiny magnet that can help disabled people become more independent using just the tip of their tongue.

The magnet, the size of a grain of rice, is implanted under the tongue and lets the user direct the movement of a cursor across a computer screen or a powered wheelchair around a room.

The team from Georgia Institute of Technology reported on their device to a meeting of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America in Washington DC.

"We chose the tongue to operate the system because unlike hands and feet, which are controlled by the brain through the spinal cord, the tongue is directly connected to the brain by a cranial nerve that generally escapes damage in severe spinal cord injuries or neuromuscular diseases," says Professor Maysam Ghovanloo, who helped direct the work.

"Tongue movements are also fast, accurate and do not require much thinking, concentration or effort."

Targeting epilepsy at the source

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:50:23 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

People who suffer epileptic seizures could be treated using drug-infused polymer implants in their brain, according to an Australian researcher.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Nanobionics in Wollongong this week, Professor Mark Cook, of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, says tests on rats shows the polymer implants reduce the frequency, length and severity of seizures.

Cook, who is also attached to the University of Melbourne's Department of Neurology, says by delivering drugs close to the source of the seizure in the brain the amount of drug used is reduced and side effects are therefore kept to a minimum.

Cook told the conference that epilepsy is the second-most common neurological illness with 1% of sufferers having recurrent seizures.

But he says, the toxicity and dose levels of most epilepsy drugs creates major issues for users, with 31% of patients reporting adverse side effects from the drugs, with50% of those being clinically significant.