Seeing movement: Why the world in our head stays still when we move our eyes. Scientists from Germany discovered new functions of brain regions that are responsible for seeing movement. When observing a fly buzzing around the room, we should have the impression that it is not the fly, but rather the space that lies behind it that is moving.
After all, the fly is always fixed in our central point of view. But how does the brain convey the impression of a fly in motion in a motionless field? With the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scientists from the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen have identified two areas of the brain that compare the movements of the eye with the visual movements cast onto the retina so as to correctly perceive objects in motion. The two areas of the brain that are particularly good at reacting to external movements, even during eye movements, are known as V3A and V6. More information: Elvira Fischer, Heinrich H.
Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain, researchers say. Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells. Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit. Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification ("folding" of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes. The article appears in the online edition of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of neural tissue. "The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration," said Luders. SyNAPSE: a cognitive computing project from IBM Research - United States. Neuroscience News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - io9. I just read a book by psychologist and neurologist, Michael Gazzaniga, noted for extensive research into split brain patients and cognitive neuroscience, and he pointed to research that suggests that humans have been growing steadily less violent over the last 50,000 or so years. Which is to say that in our tribal days of hunting and gathering, we tended to have very frequent clan feuds with various members of extended families. There was a great deal of reprisal killing to even the score with other clans or clans and families that schismed from your clan and families. The number of deaths involved were small but very, very frequent.
There was always this constant monthly or yearly grind of evening the score with opposing clans. Think of the violence of gang killings in regions of poverty in the cities and rural areas, that's actually a revival of how things used to be in ancient days—constant, endless feuding over the most trivial of things. Agriculture changed this. Brain scans find why some people 'black out' after drinking - and why others remember it all to gloat the next morning. Alcohol 'switches' off brain region that encodes memory - and some are more vulnerable than othersNot necessarily because people drink more By Rob Waugh Published: 15:19 GMT, 16 March 2012 | Updated: 15:19 GMT, 16 March 2012 People who wake up after an evening's drinking and find the details are a little fuzzy might be reassured by a new study.
People who suffer memory loss don't always do so because they drink more than others - certain brains are just prone to losing memories when under the influence, according to a new study using MRI brain scanners. Around 40 per cent of students will suffer memory loss while at college. Alcohol seems to act as a chemical 'switch' in a brain region which 'encodes' memories - and some are more vulnerable that others.
The Hangover: Researchers found that alcoholic blackouts aren't necessarily due to drinking more than others - some people have a chemical 'switch' that makes them forget. The 100 colours of the Brainbow : Neurophilosophy. Researchers from Harvard University have developed a remarkable genetic technique that enabled them to visualize complete neuronal circuits in unprecedented detail, by using multiple distinct colours to label individual neurons. The technique, called Brainbow, works in much the same way as a television uses the three primary colours to generate all the colour hues. With multiple combinations of up to four differently coloured fluorescent proteins, a palette of approximately 100 labels has been produced.
To develop Brainbow, the researchers used the Cre/loxP site-specific recombination system, a sophisticated method which is commonly used to generate mutant (or “knockout“) mice lacking a specific gene. The cre gene encodes a viral enzyme that recognizes a specific 34-base pair DNA sequence called loxP, which is usually present in pairs that are located close together on the chromosome. When a Cre molecule binds to it’s target sequence, one of two things can happen. Reference: Neuroscientists identify how the brain works to select what we (want to) see. If you are looking for a particular object — say a yellow pencil — on a cluttered desk, how does your brain work to visually locate it? For the first time, a team led by Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientists has identified how different neural regions communicate to determine what to visually pay attention to and what to ignore. This finding is a major discovery for visual cognition and will guide future research into visual and attention deficit disorders.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, used various brain imaging techniques to show exactly how the visual cortex and parietal cortex send direct information to each other through white matter connections in order to specifically pick out the information that you want to see. "We have demonstrated that attention is a process in which there is one-to-one mapping between the first place visual information comes from the eyes into the brain and beyond to other parts of the brain," said Adam S. A unique on-off switch for hormone production.
After we sense a threat, our brain center responsible for responding goes into gear, setting off a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Dr. Gil Levkowitz and his team in the Molecular Cell Biology Department have now revealed a new kind of ON-OFF switch in the brain for regulating the production of a main biochemical signal from the brain that stimulates cortisol release in the body.
This finding, which was recently published in Neuron, may be relevant to research into a number of stress-related neurological disorders. This signal is corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH). CRH is manufactured and stored in special neurons in the hypothalamus. Within this small brain region the danger is sensed, the information processed and the orders to go into stress-response mode are sent out. As soon as the CRH-containing neurons have depleted their supply of the hormone, they are already receiving the directive to produce more. Together with Drs. An Off Switch for Pain. Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor. The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic?
Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily represents a valuable tool for probing the neurobiology of pain. (Nature Methods, 19.02.2012) The system developed by the LMU team, led by Dirk Trauner, who is Professor of Chemical Biology and Genetics, is a chemical compound they call QAQ. One half of QAQ closely resembles one of the active analogs of lidocaine, a well-known local anesthetic used by dentists. Neuroreceptors are proteins that span the outer membrane of nerve cells. Furthermore, the lidocaine-like end of QAQ binds to this site only if the molecule is in an extended conformation.
Contact: Prof. One-minute lessons on changing your brain: Reminders of why attention choreography is so important. NEURONS V FREE WILL. Our Top 12 of 2012. No. 4: The notion of free will is under attack again, this time from the advance of neuroscience. Anthony Gottlieb explains... From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, March/April 2012 On the evening of October 10th 1769, in one of his typically curt dismissals of a philosophical problem, Dr Johnson silenced Boswell, who wanted to talk about fate and free will, by exclaiming: “Sir...we know our will is free, and there’s an end on’t.”
Nearly two and a half centuries later, free will and responsibility are debated as much as ever, and the issue is taking some new twists. Every age finds a fresh reason to doubt the reality of human freedom. The ancient Greeks worried about Ananke, the primeval force of necessity or compulsion, and her children, the Fates, who steered human lives. Really? In part, this backlash against the brain results from the conviction that today’s technologies for investigating it have been hyped.
Illustration by Arthur Chiverton. The Neuroscience of Looking on the Bright Side. Ask a bride before walking down the aisle “How likely are you to get divorced?” And most will respond “Not a chance!” Tell her that the average divorce rate is close to 50 percent, and ask again. Would she change her mind? Unlikely. Psychologists have documented human optimism for decades. To answer these questions we have investigated optimism by using a recent, burgeoning approach in neuroscience: Describing neural activity related to complex behavior with the simple concept of “prediction errors.”
The concept of prediction errors was initially put forward in research on artificial intelligence. How have neuroscientists employed the idea of prediction errors to study brain activity? Interestingly, similar patterns of brain activity seem to be at play when participants gamble for money and when they engage in complex social interactions. Prediction errors also appear to be involved in another common human social behavior, when we find out whether another person likes us or not.
The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right. Explanation: How Brain Training Can Make You Significantly Smarter. The science behind memory glitches. Deja vu Each lived moment usually feels unique. But about two-thirds of us occasionally experience the fleeting sensation that life is on repeat. It's as if we've been in exactly the same place having exactly the same experience before, even though we know that's an impossibility. Known as deja vu (literally "already seen"), an early explanation was that the feeling arises from a delayed signal arriving from one of the eyes after a scene has already been processed by the brain.
However, that idea was seemingly refuted by the case of a blind man who experienced deja vu. Modern theories focus on the memory process of familiarity, as distinct from knowing – like when you recognise a face but can't quite place it. Other clues come from people with temporal lobe epilepsy who experience deja vu before or during a seizure, and from dementia patients and others with "chronic deja vu", who feel every waking moment has already happened. Flashbulb memories Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon Memory episodes. The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right. Gray Matter Linked to Decision-Making Process. A novel mechanism regulating stress is identified. Neuroscience researchers from Tufts have demonstrated, for the first time, that the physiological response to stress depends on neurosteroids acting on specific receptors in the brain, and they have been able to block that response in mice.
This breakthrough suggests that these critical receptors may be drug therapy targets for control of the stress-response pathway. This finding may pave the way for new approaches to manage a wide range of neurological disorders involving stress. The stress-control pathway, more technically known as the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, determines the levels of cortisol and other stress hormones in the human body.
In addition to being implicated in the types of emotional and psychological stress that can lead to major depression, disorders of the stress-control pathway are also associated with obesity, premenstrual syndrome, postpartum depression, Cushing’s syndrome (hypercortisolism) and diseases including epilepsy and osteoporosis. BU wizards find success in unconscious neurofeedback learning, announce plans for secret lair. 6 People Who Gained Amazing Skills from Brain Injuries. #3. Man Survives Stroke, Becomes Graphic Artist Ken Walters' story begins with a ridiculous run of bad luck that started in 1986, when he got into an accident that broke his back.
That left him bedridden and in pain for an entire year, and unable to walk ever again. Later, he was actually kicked out of his new house by the government -- then charged 5,000 pounds (nearly $8,000 in 2011 dollars). Photos.comWe're just sayin'. Walters didn't know it at the time, but a blood clot in the fleshy innards of his skull would change his life -- for the better.
Weirdest of all, he didn't even notice he was doing it until the nurse asked him what he was drawing. Via Imagekind.comWhat you just heard was the sound of several thousand desktop wallpapers changing. The floodgates opened from there. Walters, who was an engineer before he was paralyzed, started to draw like a maniac.
Via Neonga.com It took off from there. But Walters' biggest break came when video game maker Electronic Arts saw his gallery. Win of the Week: Keywords vs. Mental Imagery, Science vs. Emotion. Take a look at the two ads below. Imagine you're a middle-aged man or woman who's interested in sharpening your memory and increasing your brain power. You go to Google and type in "brain games. " Which ad do you click on? Of course, the ad YOU click on may not be the same ad the majority of people click on. So perhaps a better question is: Which ad do you think would generate almost twice as many clicks?
And THAT is not an easy question to answer. On the one hand, you've got a matter-of-fact keyword-rich ad. Alright, made your decision? The winning ad is ad number two. So why did the new ad win? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The bottom line: The new ad wins because it abandons a keyword-heavy approach in favor of strong visuals and emotional language. Question: Have you been relying on facts and keywords to write your PPC ads? And, of course, if you'd rather not write new PPC ads yourself, you can always call on the BoostCTR writers. 6 People Who Gained Amazing Skills from Brain Injuries. McHugh's mania only got more pronounced. He'd finish a painting and then have to start another, then follow that up with a poem, then maybe sculpt himself a little something, then write, then paint, then do it all the hell over again.
The man who previously couldn't string two words together on a piece of paper began to fill notebooks with poems and make sculptures like they were going out of style. And like Michelangelo on speed, the dude used his own walls to paint murals on, covering every inch of his house with his art, floors and ceilings included. Via Wirralart.com"Honey, could you take the out the trash and -- You have GOT to stop this! " McHugh sent letters out to doctors -- written in verse, of course -- so they could come look at him.
Via Tommymchugh.comThough, hey, if life gives you visions of freaky skinless couples with extra faces on their backs, why not share them with the world? How willpower works - Health & wellness. Personality Reflects Size of Respective Brain Area. Twenty years of fMRI. Brains Lacking Connections Function Normally. The Split Brain Revisited. Culture Vaults : Resonant Frequencies and the Human Brain. Without language, numbers make no sense - health - 07 February 2011. Quantum minds: Why we think like quarks - life - 05 September 2011. 69. Addiction Is Not A Disease Of The Brain : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture. Kant's View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self. Want To Watch Your Dreams on YouTube? Scientists Take The First Step. Analysis Of Neurotech Industry - News Markets.
The brain’s silent majority - 2009 FALL. 'Teleportation' of rats sheds light on how the memory is organized. Why We Sleep. Chinks in the brain circuitry make some more vulnerable to anxiety. Trends in Neurosciences. Near-death Experiences Explained. Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep (But Were Too Afraid To Ask) | A Blog Around The Clock. New neurons help us to remember fear. The benefits of meditation. A brief history of the brain - life - 26 September 2011. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection of Human Astrocytes Disrupts Blood–Brain Barrier Integrity by a Gap Junction-Dependent Mechanism. Biotech Breakthrough: Monkeys can feel virtual objects using a brain implant. Being depressed disconnects the brain's "hate circuit"
This thimble-sized microscope could revolutionize neuroscience research stories - io9. The Curious Case of Phineas Gage : Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog. Phineas Gage: The man with a hole in his head. Brain Surgery Using Sound Waves. UCLA researchers discover rhythmic secrets of the brain.