Clipmarks | taksmaster's 'neuroscience' clips

Origin of Deja Vu Pinpointed

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:51:48 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for “episodic” memories—information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart.

The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients, said MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa. The study is detailed today in the online version of the journal Science.

Like a computer logging its programs’ activities, the dentate gyrus notes a situation’s pattern—it’s visual, audio, smell, time and other cues for the body’s future reference. So what happens when its abilities are jammed?

Déjà vu is a memory problem, Tonegawa explained, occurring when our brains struggle to tell the difference between two extremely similar situations.

Tags: science, neuroscience, brain, mind, research, memory

Moving Your Eyes Improves Memory, Research Suggests

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:09:29 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

If you’re looking for a quick memory fix, move your eyes from side-to-side for 30 seconds, researchers say.

Horizontal eye movements are thought to cause the two hemispheres of the brain to interact more with one another, and communication between brain hemispheres is important for retrieving certain types of memories.

Previous studies have suggested that horizontal eye movements improve how well people recall specific words they have just seen. But Andrew Parker and his colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University in England wanted to know whether such eye movements might also help people recognize words they have just seen.

Recognition memory differs from recall memory in that people trying to recognize words tend to make false memory errors called source monitoring errors. This occurs when they recognize words but attribute their familiarity to the wrong source—they might think they just read the words, when they had actually heard them in a conversation earlier that day

Tags: memory, brain, neuroscience, science, eyes, research

Growing an Artificial Brain

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:08:09 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

This unprecedented piece of hardware consists of about 10,000 computer chips that act like real nerve cells. To simulate a natural brain, part of the cerebral cortex of young rats was painstakingly replicated in the computer, cell by cell, together with the branched tree-like structure of the synapses.

A project this ambitious would have been ridiculed a few years ago. "Today we have the computers we need," says biologist Henry Markram, 44, the project's director. "And we know enough to begin."

A network of artificial nerves is growing in a Swiss supercomputer -- meant to simulate a natural brain, cell-for-cell. The researchers at work on "Blue Brain" promise new insights into the sources of human consciousness.

The machine is beautiful as it wakes up -- nerve cells flicker on the screen in soft pastel tones, electrical charges flash through a maze of synapses. The brain, just after being switched on, seems a little sleepy, but gentle bursts of current bring it fully to life.

Tags: science, technology, neuroscience, brain, computers, artificial intelligence

Brain Improvement to Spark Fitness Boom

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:24:15 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: www.neurosciencemarketing.com

Marketers, start your engines… a new fitness boom is about to begin.

The article reports on work being done at the University of Illinois, UCLA, Columbia University, and other locations to establish the relationship between physical exercise and improved brain fitness.

Last week, in a landmark paper, researchers announced that they had coaxed the human brain into growing new nerve cells, a process that for decades had been thought impossible, simply by putting subjects on a three-month aerobic-workout regimen. Other scientists have found that vigorous exercise can cause older nerve cells to form dense, interconnected webs that make the brain run faster and more efficiently.

Every time a bicep or quad contracts and releases, it sends out chemicals, including a protein called IGF-1 that travels through the bloodstream, across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain itself. There, IGF-1 takes on the role of foreman in the body’s neurotransmitter factory.

Tags: science, neuroscience, health, exercise, fitness

The Boy With The Incredible Brain

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:54:40 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: video.google.com

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This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few ... all » savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (2005) «

Tags: pi, savant, autism, neuroscience

Human 2.0 - Creating Gods

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:12:29 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster
clipper's remarks: Documentary about the upcoming technological singularity.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

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Tags: science, technology, future, neuroscience, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, singularity, quantum mechanics

Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:16:28 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Instant Expert: Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of our 50^th anniversary celebrations we asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas.

In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a universal theory of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for example - we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of us.

Delve into those visions of the future by author in the story list of this special report, or navigate forecasts by topic here:

Life: Ageing, alien life, consciousness, ecology, embryology, environment, evolution, genetics, health, humans, language, neuroscience, oceans, psychology, sex and social science.

Space and technology: Artificial intelligence, communications, computing, cosmology, space and technology.

Physical sciences: Chemistry, energy, materials, maths and physics.

more...

Tags: science, future, space, technology, biology, singularity, evolution, genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence

Zapping sleepers’ brains boosts memory

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:27:39 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Applying a gentle electric current to the brain during sleep can significantly boost memory, researchers report.

A small new study showed that half an hour of this brain stimulation improved students’ performance at a verbal memory task by about 8%. The approach enhances memory by creating a form of electrical current in the brain seen in deep sleep, the researchers suggest.

Jan Born at the University of Luebeck in Germany, and colleagues, recruited 13 healthy medical students for the study and gave them a list of word associations, such as “bird” and “air”, to learn late in the evening. Afterwards, researchers placed two electrodes on the forehead and one behind each ear of the volunteers and let them sleep.

The students’ various sleep stages were monitored using an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. When the students entered a period of light sleep, Born’s team started to apply a gentle current in one-second-long pulses, every second, for about 30 minutes. The EEG readings revealed that this current had put students into a deeper state of sleep.

The next morning, the students performed about 8% better on the word memory test than when they underwent the same type of memory experiment without brain stimulation.

Nerve firing

Born believes this memory boost was due to the pattern of the applied current mimicking that seen in naturally occurring deep sleep, where memory consolidation is thought to take place.

Strong brain currents in this stage of sleep probably cause more intense nerve firing, he says, which might enhance activity in the brain’s memory centre, the hippocampus.

Some researchers are sceptical of Born's "mimicking deep sleep" theory, however. Felipe Fregni at the Harvard Center for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation in Boston, US, says that he and other scientists have shown that brain stimulation with non-sleep-type currents can produce similar memory enhancements.

Tags: science, neuroscience, sleep, memory, research