Brain Explorer How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness This month, we feature videos of a Greater Good presentation by Rick Hanson, the best-selling author and trailblazing psychologist. In this excerpt from his talk, Dr. Hanson explains how we can take advantage of the brain’s natural “plasticity”—it’s ability to change shape over time. gobyg There’s this great line by Ani Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibet: “We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” It’s true. In recent years, though, we have started to better understand the neural bases of states like happiness, gratitude, resilience, love, compassion, and so forth. Ultimately, what this can mean is that with proper practice, we can increasingly trick our neural machinery to cultivate positive states of mind. But in order to understand how, you need to understand three important facts about the brain. Fact one: As the brain changes, the mind changes, for better or worse. Fact two: As the mind changes, the brain changes. 1. 2. 3.
Brain Fitness And Memory Programs, Brain Training - CogniFit - StumbleUpon International Network for Neuroaesthetics Neuroaesthetics is a new field of research emerging at the intersection of psychological aesthetics, neuroscience and human evolution. The main objective of neuroaesthetics is to characterize the neurobiological foundations and evolutionary history of the cognitive and affective processes involved in aesthetic experiences and artistic and other creative activities. Although there have been attempts to determine the neural mechanisms of aesthetic experiences since the eighteenth century, contemporary neuroaesthetics was set into motion at the end of the 20th century by Semir Zeki and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran’s influential theoretical perspectives on visual neuroaesthetics. It is a fact that all humans like, prefer, or find beauty in some form of visual representation, music, dance, literature, theater, landscape, and so on. Finally, neuroaesthetics is also interested in the evolutionary history of the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experiences. Like this: Like Loading...
Neurological Control - Neurotransmitters Neurotransmitter Molecules Neurotransmitters can be broadly split into two groups – the ‘classical’, small molecule neurotransmitters and the relatively larger neuropeptide neurotransmitters. Within the category of small molecule neurotransmitters, the biogenic amines (dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin and histamine) are often referred to as a discrete group because of their similarity in terms of their chemical properties. Click on the links in the table above to read more about some of the important neurotransmitters. Serotonin Although the CNS contains less than 2% of the total serotonin in the body, serotonin plays a very important role in a range of brain functions. Within the brain, serotonin is localised mainly in nerve pathways emerging from the raphe nuclei, a group of nuclei at the centre of the reticular formation in the Midbrain, pons and medulla. Noradrenaline Find out more about noradrenaline and serotonin Dopamine Acetylcholine Neurotransmitter Receptors Serotoning receptors
Thoughts on Neuroplasticity I recently read a fascinating book, The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. He describes case histories and research indicating that the brain is far more malleable than we once thought. We used to think each function was localized to a small area of the brain and if you lost that area of brain tissue the function was gone forever. We once thought you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks. Now we know better. Learning a new skill actually changes the structure and function of the brain, even into old age. One of the more intriguing experiments he describes was in monkeys. Researchers hypothesized that the monkeys had “learned” that one arm didn’t work in the period right after the surgery when the spinal cord was still in spinal shock, and then never re-learned that they could use it when the shock passed. Patients with phantom limb pain often have the illusion that the phantom limb is unable to move. Much of chronic pain is learned behavior.
Cranial Nerves Can't remember the names of the cranial nerves? Here is a handy-dandy mnemonic for you: On Old Olympus Towering Top AFamous Vocal German Viewed Some Hops. The bold letters stand for: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory, hypoglossal. Still can't remember the cranial nerves? Neurolaw An example of an fMRI brain scan. fMRI outputs (yellow) are overlaid on the average brain anatomy (gray) averaged from several humans. Similar images are used in a variety of applications, now including law. Neurolaw is an emerging field of interdisciplinary study that explores the effects of discoveries in neuroscience on legal rules and standards. Drawing from neuroscience, philosophy, social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and criminology, neurolaw practitioners seek to address not only the descriptive and predictive issues of how neuroscience is and will be used in the legal system, but also the normative issues of how neuroscience should and should not be used. The most prominent questions that have emerged from this exploration are as follows: To what extent can a tumor or brain injury alleviate criminal punishment? New insights into the psychology and cognition of the brain have been made available by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). History[edit] Nootropics[edit]
BRAINMETA.COM - NEUROSCIENCE, CONSCIOUSNESS, BRAIN, MIND, MIND-BRAIN, NEUROINFORMATICS, BRAIN MAPS, BRAIN ATLASES For neuroscientist the eye is a window to mind's workings (12/6/2007) Sabine Kastner likes to show people that the difference between Darth Vader and Yoda is largely a matter of perception. "Put these glasses on," she says, offering a pair of goggles with two different-colored lenses, "then look at the screen and tell me what you see." A glance at her laptop reveals the visage of Vader, the dark-helmeted nemesis of Jedi Knights from the "Star Wars" films, on the screen. But tell her so, and Kastner then asks, "Are you sure you don't see anything else?" As though succumbing to a Jedi mind trick, the viewer's brain suddenly morphs Vader's helmet into the wizened face of the elfin creature Yoda -- an image that was always there, but only visible to the left eye. Vader, drawn with a different color that penetrates the goggles' right lens, was the image the brain initially "chose" to see, the one that won out in the conflict for perception and awareness that goes on constantly within the mind. A new approach to old questions An eye on the problem Post Comments:
The brain&s silent majority - 2009 FALL When you have no clue, call it glue. “Glia,” the Greek word for glue, was the name the pathologist Rudolph Virchow gave, back in 1856, to the gelatinous substance that forms the bulk of the brain. And it stuck. These days, scientists use it to denote the matter that accounts for 90 percent of the brain’s cells and more than half its volume — but, like the late comic Rodney Dangerfield, “can’t get no respect.” “When the brain is injured, the neighborhood astrocytes go into a completely altered state.” We now know they’re doing much more. Certainly, it’s no stretch to imagine that knowing what glial cells do, and how they do it, could help explain brain disorders and how to cure them. From time to time, Ben Barres brings a brain in to his office. Barres says, “When you think about cells in the brain, pretty much the first thing you think about is neurons.” The guardian angels of the synapses Most neurobiologists are too polite to tell you that neurons, although talented, are slobs.
Brain Basics: Know Your Brain Introduction The brain is the most complex part of the human body. This three-pound organ is the seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior. Lying in its bony shell and washed by protective fluid, the brain is the source of all the qualities that define our humanity. The brain is the crown jewel of the human body. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been fascinated by the brain, but until recently they viewed the brain as nearly incomprehensible. This fact sheet is a basic introduction to the human brain. Image 1 The Architecture of the Brain The brain is like a committee of experts. The hindbrain includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem, and a wrinkled ball of tissue called the cerebellum (1). When people see pictures of the brain it is usually the cerebrum that they notice. The cerebrum is split into two halves (hemispheres) by a deep fissure. The Geography of Thought The Cerebral Cortex Image 5
Neuronal Circuits Able To Rewire On the Fly To Sharpen Senses (12/19/2007) Researchers from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), a joint project of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, have for the first time described a mechanism called "dynamic connectivity," in which neuronal circuits are rewired "on the fly" allowing stimuli to be more keenly sensed. The process is described in a paper in the January 2008 issue of Nature Neuroscience, and available online at This new, biologically inspired algorithm for analyzing the brain at work allows scientists to explain why when we notice a scent, the brain can quickly sort through input and determine exactly what that smell is. "If you think of the brain like a computer, then the connections between neurons are like the software that the brain is running. When a stimulus such as an odor is encountered, many neurons start to fire. When many neurons fire at the same time, the signals can be difficult for the brain to interpret. Comments:
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