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| Total Unique Visitors: 221689 |
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| 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....
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| 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/)...
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| 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.”...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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:...
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| 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......
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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?...
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| 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...
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| 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"....
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| 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/)...
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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....
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| 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...
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| 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....
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| 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)...
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| 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 ...
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| 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....
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| 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....
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| 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:...
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| 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....
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| 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 ...
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| 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:...
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| 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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