An afternoon nap markedly boosts the brain’s learning capacity If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don’t roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour’s nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter. Students who napped (green column) did markedly better in memorizing tests than their no-nap counterparts. Conversely, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become, according to the findings. “Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap,” said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies. In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided into two groups — nap and no-nap.
SNNS - Stuttgart Neural Network Simulator The "Stuttgart Neural Network Simulator" from the University of Stuttgart, Germany supports many types of networks and training algorithms, as well as sophisticated graphical visualization tools under X11. It has been ported to many flavors of UNIX. It is available for ftp from ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de [129.69.211.2] in directory /pub/SNNS as SNNSv4.1.tar.gz (1.4 MB, Source code) and SNNSv4.1.Manual.ps.gz (1 MB, Documentation). It may be best to first have a look at the file SNNSv4.1.Readme. Download Files (local site)Original distribution siteProblem Links www.algorist.com Brain Structures and Their Functions The nervous system is your body's decision and communication center. The central nervous system (CNS) is made of the brain and the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is made of nerves. Together they control every part of your daily life, from breathing and blinking to helping you memorize facts for a test. Nerves reach from your brain to your face, ears, eyes, nose, and spinal cord... and from the spinal cord to the rest of your body. Sensory nerves gather information from the environment, send that info to the spinal cord, which then speed the message to the brain. The brain is made of three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. The Cerebrum: The cerebrum or cortex is the largest part of the human brain, associated with higher brain function such as thought and action. What do each of these lobes do? Note that the cerebral cortex is highly wrinkled. Nerve cells make up the gray surface of the cerebrum which is a little thicker than your thumb.
The Brain's Dark Energy Imagine you are almost dozing in a lounge chair outside, with a magazine on your lap. Suddenly, a fly lands on your arm. You grab the magazine and swat at the insect. What was going on in your brain after the fly landed? And what was going on just before? Many neuroscientists have long assumed that much of the neural activity inside your head when at rest matches your subdued, somnolent mood. It turns out that when your mind is at rest—when you are daydreaming quietly in a chair, say, asleep in a bed or anesthetized for surgery—dispersed brain areas are chattering away to one another. Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content
Is the Internet Warping Our Brains? - Technology Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, says Sparrow. For instance, for years people in the educational community have known that rote learning—that is, forcing children to memorize facts and dates—is a poor way to educate. If that's the case, allowing computers to do some of the memorizing for us might be a way to focus more on the more philosophical aspects of learning. "Perhaps those who teach in any context, be they college professors, doctors or business leaders, will become increasingly focused on imparting greater understanding of ideas and ways of thinking, and less focused on memorization," Sparrow told Time. Of course, while you might think that this research suggests people on the internet are using less of their brains than those not online, you'd be wrong.
Brain mechanism recruited to reduce noise during challenging tasks New research reveals a sophisticated brain mechanism that is critical for filtering out irrelevant signals during demanding cognitive tasks. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 26 issue of the journal Neuron, also provides some insight into how disruption of key inhibitory pathways may contribute to schizophrenia. "The ability to keep track of information and one's actions from moment to moment is necessary to accomplish even the simple tasks of everyday life," explains senior study author, Dr. Helen Barbas from Boston University and School of Medicine. "Equally important is the ability to focus on relevant information and ignore noise." Dr. "The primate dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) are brain regions that focus attention on relevant signals and suppress noise in cognitive tasks. The authors conclude that ACC pathways may help reduce noise by stimulating inhibitory neurons in DLPFC. Source: Cell Press
How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs The Brain-Information about the Brain 1 Introduction “I think, therefore I am.” —René Descartes, 17th-century philosopher Few of us question the crucial importance of the brain. It is vital to our existence. Our brains enable us to think, as René Descartes so skillfully pointed out nearly 400 years ago. The brain makes up only 2 percent of our body weight, but it consumes 20 percent of the oxygen we breathe and 20 percent of the energy we consume. Scientists have worked for many years to unravel the complex workings of the brain. Despite these and other significant advances in the field of brain research, most of the processes responsible for the integrated functioning of billions of brain cells remain a mystery. An essential aspect of any scientific research is communicating results to the public in a way that is easily understood. To correctly interpret the information transmitted through these venues, we need a better understanding of basic concepts related to the brain. 2 Myths and Realities about the Brain Figure 1.
Neuroscience of Music - How Music Enhances Learning - Neuroplasticity Neuroscience research into the neuroscience of music shows that musicians’ brains may be primed to distinguish meaningful sensory information from noise. This ability seems to enhance other cognitive abilities such as learning, language, memory and neuroplasticity of various brain areas. Scientific review of how music training primes nervous system and boosts learning Those ubiquitous wires connecting listeners to you-name-the-sounds from invisible MP3 players, whether of Bach, Miles Davis or, more likely today, Lady Gaga, only hint at music’s effect on the soul throughout the ages. Now a data-driven review by Northwestern University researchers that will be published July 20 in Nature Reviews Neuroscience pulls together converging research from the scientific literature linking musical training to learning that spills over to skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion. Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel Source: Northwestern University
Welcome to the Possibilium 5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness Much of the brain is still mysterious to modern science, possibly because modern science itself is using brains to analyze it. There are probably secrets the brain simply doesn't want us to know. But by no means should that stop us from tinkering around in there, using somewhat questionable and possibly dangerous techniques to make our brains do what we want. We can't vouch for any of these, either their effectiveness or safety. All we can say is that they sound awesome, since apparently you can make your brain... #5. So you just picked up the night shift at your local McDonald's, you have class every morning at 8am and you have no idea how you're going to make it through the day without looking like a guy straight out of Dawn of the Dead, minus the blood... hopefully. "SLEEEEEEEEEP... uh... What if we told you there was a way to sleep for little more than two hours a day, and still feel more refreshed than taking a 12-hour siesta on a bed made entirely out of baby kitten fur? Holy Shit!
What cannabis actually does to your brain - io9 Chances are they would've ended up brainless morons with or without the pot. It's quite frankly not strong enough of a narcotic to destroy one's life such as you describe. It's very dependent on the user's persona. @Tadashii: Are you also for alcohol and tobacco prohibition? Those ruin more lives every year then marijuana has ever. Wow- Tadashii, pot is not meth or cocaine. Yes, its a chemical that can intoxicate and has been embraced by, and been the cause of some lazy folks, underachievers, and Grateful Dead fans not amounting to much. Pot is like anything else- tobacco, alcohol, vicodin, valium, caffeine, etc. Cannabis has great promise for any treatment that requires appetite stimulant (such as cancer, HIV, etc), and has also been found to act as an anti-inflammatory or nausea reliever, Don't just stamp marijuana "evil". Do you enjoy any caffeinated sodas, cigarettes, or the occasional alcoholic beverage? Yes I am against alcohol too and I agree that it's worse than pot.
Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color When Ingrid Carey says she feels colors, she does not mean she sees red, or feels blue, or is green with envy. She really does feel them. She can also taste them, and hear them, and smell them. The 20-year-old junior at the University of Maine has synesthesia, a rare neurological condition in which two or more of the senses entwine. The letter "N" is sienna brown; "J" is light green; the number "8" is orange; and July is bluish-green. The pain from a shin split throbs in hues of orange and yellow, purple and red, Carey told LiveScience. Colors in Carey's world have properties that most of us would never dream of: red is solid, powerful and consistent, while yellow is pliable, brilliant and intense. Scientific acceptance Long dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations or a sign of mental illness, synesthesia has grudgingly come to be accepted by scientists in recent years as an actual phenomenon with a real neurological basis. The cause remains a mystery, however. Technology lags