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MindMods CogSciTech Biofeedback & Neurofeedbac
The latest research, products and news on biofeedback, Light & Sound Mind Machines, consciousness, neuroscience & neurotechnology.
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Articles
Thinking up beautiful music
2008-06-12 18:17:12
. By Andrew Webb Technology reporter, BBC News Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London have developed technology to translate thoughts into musical notes. The Brain Computer Interface for Music requires electrodes to be attached to the head. They pick up electrical impulses from the brain which are passed through an electroencephalography (EEG) machine and analysed. The man behind the project, Dr Mick Grierson, demonstrated the system to BBC News. When musical notes flash the scientist stares at the display while thinking of a note he wants to play. When the same note appears it unconsciously triggers a change in his brain activity - a change registered by the computer he was plugged into. "After a while it will make a decision about which note I am thinking about and it tries to play it," he said. Dr Grierson has run trials in which 6 out of 8 notes played were the same as those being thought of....
 
G-Tec's thought control hat
2008-06-12 18:13:45
From Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/16/g-tecs-thought-control-hat/ (http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/16/g-tecs-thought-control-hat/)...
 
The Science of Sarcasm
2008-06-05 07:08:03
From the New York Times: There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus. What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin’s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, “Nice weather we’re having.”...
 
Young Chimps are Better than Adults in Numerical Memory Task?
2007-12-03 11:46:12
Sana Inoue and Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University showed a computer screen grid of nine numbers to six chimpanzees. The chimps were previously trained to recognize the ascending nature of the numbers. They were also shown to nine college students. When subjects touched one of the numbers, all of the others vanished. They then had to touch the squares in the order of the numbers that used to be there. When the numbers flashed for just four-tenths of a second or less, one of the chimps beat all of the college students. Here's the press release from 'Current Biology', a publication of Cell Press: Young chimps top adult humans in numerical memory Young chimpanzees have an “extraordinary” ability to remember numerals that is superior to that of human adults, researchers report in the December 4th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. “There are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,” said Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University. “No one can imagine that chimpanzees—young chimpanzees at the age of five—have a better performance in a memory task than humans. Here we show for the first time that young chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical recollection—better than that of human adults tested in the same apparatus, following the same procedure.” Chimpanzee memory has been extensively studied, the researchers said. The general assumption is that, as with many other cognitive functions, it is inferior to that of humans. However, some data have suggested that, in some circumstances, chimpanzee memory may indeed be superior to human memory. In the current study, the researchers tested three pairs of mother and infant chimpanzees (all of which had already learned the ascending order of Arabic numerals from 1 to 9) against university students in a memory task of numera...
 
A Young Person's Guide to Brainwave Music
2007-11-21 14:22:21
This is a great article from the now defunct Canadian magazine 'HorizonZero'. The zine was a multimedia web magazine about digital art and culture in Canada. This article is from issue 15 published in 2004 - but this is the first time I've seen it. This article was written by Andrew Brouse. You can check out the other issues at http://www.horizonzero.ca (http://www.horizonzero.ca) http://regen.eyetap.org (http://regen.eyetap.org) Using hardware from Thought Technology [www.thoughttechnology.com (http://www.thoughttechnology.com) and the PD interactive programming environment, [www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software (http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software) the brainwaves of the audience-performers are channelled into the creation of an interactive sonic and visual environment, wher...
 
Regular posting to resume
2007-10-17 12:31:13
I just wanted to drop a big note apologizing for the lack of updates to the blog - I have a lot of catching up to do. We were busy moving into our new office and finishing construction. I'll try to post any news that we may have missed during the past two weeks. Thanks! Gary @ Mind Modulations...
 
The passing of time in dreams - A study using Lucid Dreams
2007-09-19 08:16:48
The following is a study used lucid dreamers to determine the subjective measurement of time in dreams - by Daniel Erlacher and Michael Schredl from Germany. Time required for motor activity in lucid dreams Daniel Erlacher - Institute for Sport and Sport Science, University of Heidelberg, Germany Michael Schredl - Sleep laboratory, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany Summary The present study investigated the relationship between the required time for specific tasks (counting and performing squats) in lucid dreams and in the waking state. Five proficient lucid dreamers (26-34 years old, M = 29.8, SD = 3.0; one woman and four men) participated in this study. The results showed that the time needed for counting in a lucid dream is comparable to the time needed for counting in wakefulness, but motor activities required more time in lucid dreams than in the waking state. Introduction The relationship between subjectively estimated time in dreams and real time has intrigued scientists for centuries (cf. Hall, 1981). Maury (1861) reported a long and intense dream about the French revolution which ended with the dreamer in the guillotine and the sleeper waking up with a piece of his wooden bed top having fallen on his neck. Because of the logical line of dream action, Maury (1861) hypothesized that the dream was generated backwards by the arousing stimulus. Nowadays, the hypothesis is widely accepted that the subjectively experienced time in dreams corresponds with the actual time (overview: Schredl, 2000). This relationship was first experimentally demonstrated by Dement and Kleitman (1957). In this study, the participants were awakened in a random order either after 5 or 15 minutes of REM sleep. After awakening, participants were asked to estimate whether the elapsed sleep interval was 5 or 15 minutes. From 111 awakenings, 83 % judgments were correct. Furthermore, the elapsed time of the REM period correlated with the le...
 
An article on Lucid Dreaming from the New York Times
2007-09-19 06:56:20
This was from yesterday's New York Times - an article called 'Living Your Dreams, in a Manner of Speaking'. It talks a little about the concept of lucid dreaming, but also focuses on a new movie being written and directed by Jake Paltrow called "The Good Night". Living Your Dreams, in a Manner of Speaking Established sleep researchers say lucid dreaming is occasionally reported by subjects, though it is difficult to validate scientifically. “Yes, lucid dreaming exists,” said Dr. Rodney Radtke, the medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Duke University. “Yes, people certainly can, within their dream, realize ‘this is just a dream’ and continue to participate.” “Do I believe that someone could potentially alter or interact with their dreams in such a way that they could change the dream? Yes,” he said. “Do I think that you could essentially design a dream — ‘Oh, I want to go to Honolulu and have this big hunk hit on me’? It’s a bit of a stretch. But I can’t say it can’t happen.” He added: “Only in New York or California do they worry about this stuff.” Stephen LaBerge, a psychophysiologist and the founder of the Lucidity Institute (lucidity.com), conducts lucid dream research and teaches people to do it. “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” Dr. LaBerge said. “Fly. Dream sex. That’s what everybody likes to do. There’s also the possibility of creative problem-solving, overcoming nightmares and anxieties, learning more about yourself.” A student at Stanford University, where Dr. LaBerge conducted much of his research, wrote in The Stanford Daily: “In one of my earliest experiences with lucidity, I announced to an auditorium full of people that I was their god (wasn’t I?). When they did not respond deferentially, I used telekinesis to send one of them flying a...
 
Video: Interesting Experiment - Richard Dawkins on the God Machine
2007-09-19 05:58:08
Michael Persinger is a neuropsychologist at Canada's Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. His theory is that the sensation described as having a religious experience is merely a side effect of our bicameral brain's feverish activities. He has attempted to create experiments to show that when the right hemisphere of the brain is stimulated in the cerebral region presumed to control notions of self, and then the left hemisphere is called upon to make sense of this nonexistent entity, the mind generates what is felt as a 'sensed presence.' Many of Persinger's studies detail the reactions that people have when their temporal lobes are stimulated with complex magnetic fields. Some of the subjects experience a 'sens...
 
Video: Split Brain Behavioral Experiments
2007-09-19 05:41:12
The patient in the video had his corpus callosum removed in order to stop his seizures due to epilepsy. The procedure prevented the hemispheres from communicating with one another in any way and caused a sort of 'split consciousness'. To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. Here's what happens as a result:...
 
Changing Your Brainwaves Using Auditory Binaural Beats - For Free
2007-09-16 11:56:33
There has been a surge of interest in binaural beats during recent years, and a number of software only products that utilize this technology have become quite popular. What are they? A binaural beat is generated from two tones. Each tone is of a slightly different pitch. One tone is presented to the left ear, and the other to the right. The two tones combine into a single tone sensed by your brain. This single tone pulse is the stimulating when entraining with binaural beats. Binaural beats are probably the most well-known stimulus used for entrainment. They have been shown to work, but other entrainment techniques are more effective. Our machines produce binaural beats and dual binaural beats. They also include other audio entrainment methods in addition to these. I've personally found the that frequency following effect of binaural beats is quite modest, but they do actually work and have an effect on brainwaves that can be shown with EEG. Here's a bit of history from Gnaural's web page, which we'll discuss in a moment. In 1839, German experimenter Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered that playing two tones simultaneously, one in each ear, induced the perception of a "beat frequency" when the tones were of slightly differing frequency (generally less than 100 Hz apart). What was interesting about Dove's discovery was the fact that there was no acoustic mixing of the tones. The perceived beats existed solely within the auditory system. SBaGen (http://www.uazu.net/sbagen/) is a free binaural tone generator that has been out for quite some time now. It works great, but there is a better out now called Gnaural2 (http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/). here (http://pantheon.yale.edu/%7Ebbl2/GnauralJavaApplet_signed.html) You can download Soundscapes and Gnaural Example files for Gnaural here (http://pantheon.yale.edu/%7Ebbl2/GnauralExampleFiles.html) You can even use them with the online Java Applet version. A ton of links after the jump......
 
Buzz Aldrin plays BrainBall at Wired's NextFest
2007-09-16 10:36:09
NextFest (http://wirednextfest.com/inform/event_overview.php) is Wired Magazine's (http://www.wired.com) four-day festival of innovative products and technologies. We blogged about MindBall last year, which is the commercialized version of Brainball. BrainBall is a game created by Interactive Institute. Players of the game have EEG sensors connected to their forehead with a strap. The electrodes in the strap read the players' brainwaves. Brainball is a game that goes against the conventional competitive concept, and also reinvents the relationship between man and machine. Instead of activity and adrenalin, it is passivity and calmness that mark the truly successful Brainball player. Brainball is unique amongst machines since it is not controlled by the player's rational and s...
 
Is Remote Viewing Real? What is the Evidence?
2007-09-13 10:51:31
There are sites on the net that claim to teach the ability, there's an International Remote Viewing Association (http://www.irva.org/) that even has conferences (http://irvaconference.org/) (there's one starting on October 19th, apparently), the US government has funded research in it (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/stargate.htm) (in the 1970's), we've even had customers buy our mind machines to help them with remote viewing and claim great success. I've never had any type of experiences that are anything like remote viewing - and I'm not sure that I believe that it is even possible - but I'm open to the idea. Star Gate'. (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/stargate.htm) They began the program in 1970 (then called SCANATE - good thing they changed the name to something that sounded cooler) at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Ca. This program continued in different forms using both soldiers and civilians who were believed to posess natural psychic abilities for over 24 years. The remote viewing program was shut down by the CIA in 1994 because they were convinced that remote viewing was of no practical value to the intelligence community. What is a sketpic supposed to believe? (That's a trick question) There is so much controversy surrounding the people in these programs, the programs themselves, the data from the programs, etc etc etc - that there really isn't anything to go off of. Unfortunately there have been no peer reviewed studies that prove that remote viewing is a reality. darn. Research the links below and see what you think. An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning (http://www.stat.ucdavis.edu/~utts/air2.html) - by Profressor Jessica Utts of UCDavis Critique of the PEAR Remote Viewing Experiments (http://www.tricksterbook.com/ArticlesOnline/PEARCritique.htm) - by Jessica Utts, Betty Markwick and George P. Hansen The STAR GATE Program (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/stargate.htm) - From th...
 
Quick Neurotransmitter Refresher
2007-09-13 09:21:55
What are they and how do they work? Of course everyone reading this already knows :) But it helps to have a quick reminder to refresh our memory every once in a while. Having a basic understanding about these special chemicals in our brain and how they work helps us to understand memory, learning, behavior, addiction, how drugs work, and emotions. First we'll quickly go over some of the most important neurotransmitters. Acetylcholine: The first neurotransmitter to be identified. It allows nerve cells to communicate with each other. Noradrenalin (Norephinephrine): Acts as a stress hormone and affects the parts of our brain where attention and responding actions are controlled. It is what is behind the fight-or-flight response. Dopamine: Plays an important role in motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention, motor activity, cognition and learning. Endorphin: Helps modulate pain ("natural opiates"), cardiac, gastric and vascular function. Serotonin: Believed to help regulate anger, aggression, mood, sleep, appetite, sexuality and body temperature. GABA: One of the most abundant neurotransmitters. It is an inhibitory neurotransmitter - inhibiting all sorts of activating systems. Glutamate: Heightens sensitivity to other neurotransmitters. An excitatory neurotransmitter involved in cognitive functions like learning and memory. So... Neurons pass messages along themselves using electrical impulses, but they use neurotransmitters to pass messages to other neurons. Neurotransmitters are released from synaptic vesicles, flow across gaps between neurons called synapses and then bind with a receptor on the target neuron. How about a slideshow?...
 
New EEG System Develops Visual Images from Brain Activity
2007-09-07 06:46:06
Found on Neurofeedback on the Brain Blog (http://neurofeedback.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/5/3197992.html) here (http://brainpaint.com/gallery1/index.html) More on Bill Scott's EEG biofeedback system here (http://www.brainpaint.com/)...
 
Researchers use fMRI to Determine Brain Activation Location during Placebo Effect
2007-09-07 06:38:15
From NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12487035) here (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12487035) to listen to an audio recording of Wagner discussion the team's findings....
 
Free Access to a Variety of Neuroscience and Neurology Journals From Sage Pub.
2007-09-07 06:18:30
Free access to: Journal of Biological Rhythms here (https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register?registration=FTN72663) (requires registration)...
 
Ambient Corporation's New Human-Computer Interface called Audeo Intercepts Words When 'Thought'
2007-09-07 05:57:36
A company called Ambient (http://www.theaudeo.com/) has developed a device that intercepts signals sent to the voice box from the brain via a sensor laden neck band. They claim to be able to decode these signals and match them to a pre-recorded series of words - even when the words are voiced out-loud. Theses 'words' can then be used to control things via a computer. They are currently using this system to direct a motorized wheelchair, allowing a paralysed person to navigate without moving or speaking out-loud. Ambient is developing the technology with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to help people with neurological problems operate computers and other electronic equip...
 
What is Brain Plasticity?
2007-09-04 06:57:28
Discussion on brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, has increased during the past several years. What is it and why should we be concerned about it? Our brains can migrate activity associated with specific functions to a different location as a result of neuroplasticity. This is an extremely important ability to have after a brain injury or even after normal experience (such as aging). Neuroplasticity allows the brain to re-wire itself as a response to changes in the environment. It is also what is behind the learning process and memory formation. Plasticity consists of laying out preferred pathways within the brain for circulating important information and is the brain's ability to adapt. Neuroplasticity from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity) Here is a link (http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/sundayedition_20070430_2176.mp3) to a great audio interview from CBC radio with Dr. Norman Doidge. He is the author of "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science"....
 
High School Student's Biofeedback Research Project Accepted at Conference
2007-09-03 07:17:55
Nancy Leo, a senior at Arizona's Hamilton High School, had her science fair research project selected as one of 18 projects to be presented at the Sixth World Congress on Stress in Austria (http://www.icms.com.au/stress2007/). here (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/96499)...
 
The Dana Guide to Brain Health Free Online
2007-09-01 04:53:37
The DANA Foundation has decided to make their book "The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Practical Family Reference from Medical Experts" section on brain disorders freely available online. Amazon.com: (http://www.amazon.com/Dana-Guide-Brain-Health-Practical/dp/1932594108/sr=8-2/qid=1163520801/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0198729-2864725?ie=UTF8 s=books) With contributions from over one hundred of the most prominent scientists and clinicians in the United States, The Dana Guide to Brain Health is an extensive and wholly accessible manual on the workings of the human brain. This richly illustrated volume contains a wealth of facts and advice, on simple yet effective ways to take care of our brains; the intimate connection between brain health and body health; brain development from the prenatal period through adulthood; and how we learn, remember, and imagine. The brain is far too important to be excluded any longer from our daily health concerns. The Dana Guide to Brain Health remedies this oversight with a clearly written, definitive map to our brains that reveals how we can take care of them in order to sustain a long and rich life. The browseable/searchable copy of the book can be found here (http://dana.org/brainhealth/default.aspx). I found this on Mind Hacks (http://mindhacks.com/)...
 
New Study Uses Biofeedback to Predict a Gamer's Gameplay
2007-08-31 07:14:00
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (http://www.bme.hu/en/) are using GSR Biofeedback (Galvonic Skin Response, or skin conductance) in a study where they've shown that a gamer's actions can be predicted up to two seconds before they occur. Laufer says There are quite a few situations in life where there would be a need to provide a support for making a good decision at a good time. I have military applications (pilots) in mind, but surely we can find others as well. He also sees it being used in video games Another application I have in mind could be called a frustration game This type of game could detect when a player was going to act and change gameplay to throw off the player. This t...
 
MorrisonDance - A dance performance using BrainMaster Neurofeedback
2007-08-29 15:16:44
MorrisonDance, a dance troupe founded by choreographer Sarah Morrison, teamed up with a team of engineers from NASA's Glenn Research Center to create a performance featuring live brainwaves of dancers using the BrainMaster. This is actually from September 2005 - but just in case you missed it: (like I did!)...
 
Video: Ken Wilbur enters into various meditative states during a EEG Neurofeedback session
2007-08-29 14:53:28
You may have already seen this, but it is new to me. Ken Wilbur narrates a video of his own experience using neurofeedback while navigating various meditative states. From YouTube: 'We asked Ken to do a short 10-minute commentary on these various meditative states and the corresponding brain-wave patterns that are shown on the EEG machine in the video. Ken enters four meditative states (nirvikalpa closed eyes, nirvikalpa open eyes, sahaj, and mantra-savikalpa), each of which has a very distinctive brain-wave pattern. In his commentary, Ken emphasizes that the patterns shown on this machine may or may not be typical, but they do emphasize that profound consciousness states can be evoked at will, and these show immedi...
 
MindMods CogSciTech Consciousness Paper Posting #2
2007-08-28 06:42:12
This paper is called "Consciousness Redux" and is something of a history of theoretical positions on the function of consciousness. It was written by George Mandler of the University of California University College London. Consciousness Redux George Mandler University of California, San Diego and University College London Copyright (C) 1993 George Mandler I start with a review of 20 years of proposals on the functions of consciousness. I then present a minimal number of functions that consciouness subserves, as well as as some remaining puzzles about its psychology. In the process I stress a psychologist's functional approach, asking what consciousness is for. The result is an attempt to place conscious processes within the usual flow of human information processing....
 
Is Consciousness Definable? Video from PBS
2007-08-27 17:49:55
PBS's Closer to Truth featuring Christof Koch, Leslie Brothers, Joseph E. Bogen Stuart Hameroff try to answer this question. These four scientists have the same question but give four different answers. (http://www.mindmodulations.com/mindmods//images/blogimages//Morning_Consciousness.jpg) Is Consciousness Definable? One problem is that there are too many definitions! And getting these four guests to agree on what consciousness is and what causes it, is a fun but hopeless task that is revelatory at the same time. These four leading brain scientists couldn't even agree on at what level a simple "memory" was stored, whether as a gross "brain circuit," at the synapse between nerve cells, or in the microstructure of the nerve cells as some sort of quantum effect. But why should it be any different now? Philosophers have debated the "mind-body problem" and the existence of "free will" for thousands of years. However, never before have we been in a position to examine the brain with such precision. Even as we begin to understand the deep science that underlies our cognitive processes, there is no letup in arguments whether we are anything other than automata, just reacting to stimuli -- vastly more complex than a bacterium to be sure -- but fundamentally little different. Although this spirited and highly qualified group manages to disagree on just about everything, in the midst, they give off a tremendous amount of information about the key issues involving the understanding of consciousness today: Are our "minds" just the artificial integration of multiple brain systems? Are our feelings of self, that unique personal sense of mental "qualia" (e.g., does the color "red" look the same to you as it does to me?) anything other an "epiphenomenon," seemingly real but in reality an illusion? How do firings of neurons, or ultimately vibrations of atoms, emerge up into human self-awareness? Psychiatrist/author Leslie Brothers firmly believes that there is someth...
 
Using fMRI for NeuroFeedback
2007-08-26 06:28:30
A company called Omneuron aims to use MR Imaging for neurofeedback purposes, although they aren't calling it neurofeedback. The company is using fMRI (real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging) to measure blood flow to different parts of the brain and use it to teach sufferers of chronic pain, depression, addiction and other psychological conditions to see which parts of the brain are activated while performing different tasks. It is essentially neurofeedback using fMRI instead of EEG. Another company called No Lie MRI is trying to sell similar technology to companies and agencies in the government as a replacement to the polygraph....
 
Scientists use Pac-Man, Electric Shocks and Neuroimaging to study Fear in the Brain
2007-08-26 05:57:22
Scientists from 'Wellcome Trust' claim to have identified for the first time what happens in our brain in the face of an approaching fear. They measured activity in the brain using fMRI while a subject played a game similar to Pac-Man and received an electric-shocks when they were caught by the video game predator. They found that activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (behind the eyebrows) increased when the enemy was in the distance - this part of the brain is active when one is planning how to respond to a threat. As the video game enemy approached, predominant activity shifted to the periaqueductal grey - the part of the brain responsible for flight or fight and preparing for reaction to pain. The title of their study is 'Free Will Takes Flight', as it shows that we act more on impulse when a threat increases. Abstract can be found here (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX039785.html) Article in Science Magazine can be found here (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;317/5841/1079)...
 
Scientists Mimic Out-Of-Body Experience using Technology
2007-08-24 11:06:46
Prof. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues from the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at EPFL in Switzerland have been doing research on the neural-correlates of out-of-body-experiences since at least 2002. This new study is very unusual, as they claim to be able to produce an out-of-body-experience when the user of special goggles is shown a projected image of themselves while being poked with a stick. Out-of-body experiences are most common in people who endure intense meditation practices, experience sleep paralysis, and following certain types of head injuries. Research such as this strives to discover exactly how the brain creates the out-of-body-experience sensation. It is arguable whether these experiencies ...
 
How Mushrooms can Help Save the World - An Interview with Paul Stamets
2007-08-22 20:14:27
Paul Stamets is a well-known mycologist from the Pacific Northwest. He has some interesting theories about consciousness that are discussed in this interview. Specifically - that mushrooms are conscious and that their mycelial network is something like a neural net. PersonalLifeMedia.com (PersonalLifeMedia.com) What is fungal intelligence? Paul Staments, the “Mycelium Messenger” reveals the great ecological purpose of mycelium – earth’s new internet. Beginning with his magic mushroom, psychedelic work covered with a DEA License and evolving into a much more robust work that his “mother is happy about” – this interview will prepare you to see a whole new world the next time you walk into the forest. Hear stories from Paul’s new book, “Mycelium running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World” and listen to a deep discussion on mushroom consciousness with the man behind this 21st century manual for healing the earth. You’ll understand why mycelium solutions bring new opportunities to detoxifying and purifying polluted water, toxic spills and other ecological issues of today. Paul is appearing in Leonardo DiCaprio new film, the “11th hour.” He has also discovered four new species of mushrooms and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation and in "fungal bioremediation." He is indeed a magic man....
 
MindMods CogSciTech Consciousness Paper Posting #1
2007-08-22 16:59:08
We're going to try and post an interesting paper on consciousness at least once a week. There are debates among those philosophers and scientists who study consciousness about pretty much every aspect of consciousness - especially about what consciousness actually is. Many of these are surprisingly easy to read, given the nature of their arguments. This first paper called 'Being Conscious of Ourselves' was written by David M. Rosenthal and published in The Monist issue 82, 2 (April 2004) in a special issue on self-consciousness. BEING CONSCIOUS OF OURSELVES Abstract: I argue that we can explain how we are conscious of ourselves by appeal to essentially indexical thoughts we have about ourselves, in particular about our own current mental states. I show that being conscious of ourselves in that way doesn't require that we are aware of ourselves in some privileged way that's antecedent to the higher-order thoughts we have about our own mental states. The account successfull...
 
Neuroscientists find another way to erase long term memories
2007-08-22 11:41:46
A study in June that was revealed in the Journal of Psychiatric Research used an 'amnesia' drug to 'dampen' the memories of trauma victims. The drug they used was called propranolol - a drug normally used to treat hypertension, but causes memory problems. A new study published in Science by neuroscientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehobot, Israel, uses a protein to wipe out long-term memories in rats. Yadin Dudai and Reut Shema are trying to show that memories can last for years or even a lifetime, but they are constantly maintained by an active process that can be disrupted. First they trained rats to avoid the sweet smell of sacharin by giving them a chemical that made them sick whenever they were exposed to it. They quickly learned to avoid it. They then injected the rat cortex with a protein called ZIP. ZIP silences an enzyme called PKM-zeta, which is believed to be the key to perpetuating long-term memory. After the injection, the rats lost their mem...
 
New Biofeedback Game called BioBox - Tetris with Biofeedback
2007-08-21 19:05:47
A game studio called Frozen North Productions (http://www.frozennorth.net/index.htm) in Canada has created an off-shoot of Tetris that they call Biobox. Their Biofeedback version of Tetris uses pulse rate to determine the speed of the following blocks. Like many biofeedback games, the object is to relax while playing - and the incentive is ease-of-play. Frozen North Productions (http://www.frozennorth.net/index.htm) will be selling the game online soon....
 
Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness 11th Annual Meeting in Vegas
2007-08-21 18:36:30
The theme for ASSC 11 this year was The Magic of Consciousness. This year ASSC has a number of magicians who "were hand-picked because of their specific interest in the cognitive principles underlying the magic. Among the performers were James Randi, Johnny Thompson, Mac Kind and Teller (of Penn and Teller)....
 
10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain from Discover Magazine
2007-08-18 00:56:03
Discover Magazine published an article two weeks ago about what we do not know about how we think. The list makes a good reminder of how we're early pioneers of the frontier of the brain... and everyone loves a good top 10 list....
 
Neuromatrix from Morphonix - A Neuroscience Game for Kids
2007-08-18 00:26:11
This looks like a great new game for teaching children how their own brains work. The game is called NeuroMatrix from Morphonix. In the game you play a secret agent infiltrating a top-secret neuroscience research facility. Morphonix released another game that teaches kids about their brains called Journey into the Brain. Here's a video trailer from Morphonix:...
 
Using beams of light to activate sets of cells in the brain
2007-08-16 08:52:15
New experiments in light stimulation are helping scientists learn more about neural systems. Optical excitation using fiber optics can be used to stimulate specific areas of the brain and is an alternative to electrode stimulation. Electrode stimulation is unable to target single types of neurons and instead activates the firing of all neurons in one neural area. This new technology may allow us to uncover what roles specific neurons play. Light stimulation every 200 milliseconds generates electrical activity in an area of the brain associated with depression....
 
Seeing the Brain in a New Light
2007-08-16 08:51:21
Here is another article on using focused beams of light to stimulate neurons from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The illustration, which comes from a painting by Duke University student Yifan Xu, conceptually illustrates a beam of light shining into the olfactory bulb activating a mitral cell. HHMI investigator Michael Ehlers and colleagues report they have developed mice that express channelrhodopsin-2, a light-gated cation channel from the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, in neurons of the central nervous system. This enables researchers to trigger neural activity with high spatial and temporal precision—a powerful tool for those striving to map functional circuits in the brain. Researchers have devised a clever way to activate neurons in a living mouse by shining light on the surface of the animal's brain. The “light switch” that turns neurons on is actually a light-sensitive protein that is produced by algae. When this protein is genetically ...
 
ADHD May Be Linked To Low Dopamine Brain Activity
2007-08-14 16:55:28
A new study (Aug 2007) published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/) shows a direct correlation between ADHD and low dopamine activity in the brain. This could shed light on what seems to be large numbers of ADHD suffers among ex-methamphetamine users. Article follows:...
 
Conversations on Consciousness from the Guardian
2007-08-13 13:26:11
The last three links are interviews of Francis Crick by Sue Blackmore. Imagine sitting by a California swimming pool surrounded by flowers and hummingbirds and trying to interview the great biologist Francis Crick (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html), writes Sue Blackmore. If it sounds peaceful, it wasn't. At the age of 78 and in failing health, Francis was more than a match for me. "Now let me say why I think all that's nonsense," he said at one point, and "You ask that only because you're interested in Buddhism". But what a treat it was to be able to delve into his theories of consciousness and discover the reasons why he thinks we'll one day find the neural basis for consciousness. My partner, Adam Hart-Davis (http://www.adam-hart-davis.org/), enjoyed the visit too. When we arrived at the door Francis greeted us warmly and then dismissed Adam instantly "You can go to the kitchen with Odile (http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituar...
 
 
 
 
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