Autism and Neuropsychology, by Marisa Marzillo Autism is a lifelong disorder that has become the discussion of many media outlets; it is a disorder that causes abnormal neurological development. It seems that lately autism prevalence is increasing, which is causing a demand for professionals to investigate on what causes autism. Autism disorder is characterized by different behavior including social impairments, difficulty in communication, and restrictive patterns of behavior. What I find interesting about autism is that there it solely diagnosed by behavioral activity. In an article Elizabeth Lynch (2010) described autism as a “lifelong developmental disability that affects the way an individual relates to others. One explanation for the link between autism and brain development is mirror neurons. A theory that I found interesting was one that pointed out the autism is more common in males. Being educated on what the cause of autism is will help people to be more aware one of the symptoms and how to get their children help.
Neuroscientists reveal magicians' secrets - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - NBCNews.com NEW YORK — There is a place for magic in science. Five years ago, on a trip to Las Vegas, neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde realized that a partnership was in order with a profession that has an older and more intuitive understanding of how the human brain works. Magicians, it seems, have an advantage over neuroscientists. "Scientists have only studied cognitive illusions for a few decades. She and Macknik, her husband, use illusions as a tool to study how the brain works. After their epiphany in Las Vegas, where they were preparing for a conference on consciousness, the duo, who both direct laboratories at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, teamed up with magicians to learn just how they harness the foibles of our brains. The psychological concepts behind illusions are generally better understood, but they treat the brain as something of a black box, without the insight into brain activity or anatomy that neuroscience can offer, they write.
Unraveling the mystery of why we give, or don't By Judy Keen, USA TODAY SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Generous impulses often are described in fundraising appeals, conversation and greeting cards as coming "from the heart." In fact, the origins of giving probably are deep in the brain's circuitry. Exactly how the complicated workings of the brain stimulate or suppress giving and how families, co-workers and values affect generosity remain a mystery despite years of study. With a $5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Notre Dame created the Science of Generosity Initiative in 2009. Project director Christian Smith, a Notre Dame sociology professor, hopes to unravel the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that make people generous — or not: Why do some people give blood? The explanations, he says, will provide insights into "the cogs and wheels that form people's thinking and desires: feelings, relationships, social networks." Feeling the 'warm glow' There are some well-established theories about generosity. A link to parenting?
Study Reveals How Magic Works Scientists are figuring out how magicians fool our brains in research that also helps uncover how our mind actually works. A great deal of what scientists now understand about how the human visual system works stems from research into our susceptibility to optical illusions. "It made sense to look at magicians to advance knowledge of human cognition, since magicians have been working on figuring out how certain principles of psychology work for hundreds of years," said researcher Gustav Kuhn at the University of Durham in England, a cognitive psychologist who has also performed magic the past couple decades. "Magicians really have this ability to distort your perceptions, to get people to perceive things that never happened, just like a visual illusion," he added. The researchers looked into a magic trick called the "vanishing ball," in which a ball apparently disappears in midair. It's done by faking a throw while keeping the ball secretly palmed in the magician's hand.
Neurofeedback Gets the Test. Brain Waves: The field of neurotechnology, the focus of this blog, encompasses advances in brain science (neurons), information technology (bits) and bioengineering (genes). Up for discussion and analysis: the political, econo « New Neurotech Legislative Initiative in Early Development | Main | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT - Must See 20 Minute Video » December 16, 2009 Neurofeedback Gets the Test Posted by Zack Lynch Yesterday's Washington Post highlighted a wide scale eeg-based neurofeedback trial being conducted by the NIMH for ADHD. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Mental Health Issues Thanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. › Neurotech 2010: Translational Researchers Highlight Innovation › The Neuro Revolution in China Progressing › Speakers for Neurotech 2010 - Boston, May 19-20 › Giving the Brain a Voice: NIO Public Policy Tour in DC tomorrow › McGovern Institue for Brain Research at MIT Goes Web 2.0 › The Neurodiagnostics Report 2010: Brain Imaging, Biomarkers and NeuroInformatics › Neuropharma FDA Approvals Down in 2009 › Tel Aviv Neurotech Cluster Thrives
Chapter 12: Attention and Consciousness Attention involves top-down (voluntary) goal-directed processes and bottom-up (reflexive), stimulus-driven mechanisms. They influence the way information is processed in the brain and can occur early during sensory processing. Balint's syndrome is a visual attention and awareness deficit. Someone who has this syndrome can only perceive one object at a time. Theoretical Models of AttentionAttention is defined as the ability to attend to somethings while ignoring others. There are three principle goals:To understand how attention enables and influences the detection, perception and encoding of stimulus events as well as the generation of actions based on the stimuli.To describe the computational processes and mechanisms that enable these effects.To uncover how these mechanisms are implemented in the brain's neuronal circuits and neural systems. Herman von Helmholt He did an experiment that looked at covert attention. E.C. Donald Broadbent Michael Posner Reflexive Attention Anne Tresiman
Hunting Alzheimer’s Early Signs - Science in 2011 Todd Heisler/The New York Times FAMILY DISEASE Carlos Alberto Villegas is looked after by his wife, Blanca Nelly Betancur. He is one of the many members of a Colombian clan who have a genetic mutation that leads them to develop dementia. Scientists now know Alzheimer’s attacks the brain long before people exhibit or cognitive decline. If drugs could be given sooner, tailored to specific biological changes, or biomarkers, in the brain, treatment, or even prevention, might be more successful. “We’re trying to go earlier and earlier in the course of the disease,” said Neil Buckholtz, chief of the Dementias of Aging branch at the National Institute on Aging. Several research projects are expecting to make strides next year. One involves the world’s largest family to experience Alzheimer’s disease, an extended clan of about 5,000 people in Colombia, many of whom have inherited a genetic mutation that guarantees they will develop , usually in their 40s. While Dr. The team, also led by Dr.
brainSCANr How Our Brains Make Memories Sitting at a sidewalk café in Montreal on a sunny morning, Karim Nader recalls the day eight years earlier when two planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He lights a cigarette and waves his hands in the air to sketch the scene. At the time of the attack, Nader was a postdoctoral researcher at New York University. He flipped the radio on while getting ready to go to work and heard the banter of the morning disc jockeys turn panicky as they related the events unfolding in Lower Manhattan. Nader ran to the roof of his apartment building, where he had a view of the towers less than two miles away. In the following days, Nader recalls, he passed through subway stations where walls were covered with notes and photographs left by people searching desperately for missing loved ones. Like millions of people, Nader has vivid and emotional memories of the September 11, 2001, attacks and their aftermath. Nader believes he may have an explanation for such quirks of memory.
Magnetic manipulation of the sense of morality : Neurophilosophy WHEN making moral judgements, we rely on our ability to make inferences about the beliefs and intentions of others. With this so-called “theory of mind”, we can meaningfully interpret their behaviour, and decide whether it is right or wrong. The legal system also places great emphasis on one’s intentions: a “guilty act” only produces criminal liability when it is proven to have been performed in combination with a “guilty mind”, and this, too, depends on the ability to make reasoned moral judgements. MIT researchers now show that this moral compass can be very easily skewed. Liane Lee Young of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and her colleagues asked participants to make moral judgements about different variations of a number of scenarios. These scenarios differ in the beliefs underlying Grace’s actions and in their outcome. Whether or not these findings extend to real world judgements remains to be seen. Young, L., et al. (2010). Saxe, R. & Kanwisher, N. (2003).
Increased Interstitial White Matter Neuron Density in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of People with Schizophrenia To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Figure 1 Neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN)–positive neurons (A) below grey matter (grey matter/white matter border represented by dotted line). Figure 2 Density of neuronal nuclear antigen + immunopositive interstitial white matter (neurons/mm2) in (A) superficial white matter and (B) deep white matter in control subjects (squares) and schizophrenic cases (triangles). Figure 3 Superficial neuronal nuclear antigen immunopositive interstitial white matter neuron (IWMN) density (neurons/mm2) negatively correlates with gray matter somatostatin (SST) expression in control subjects and schizophrenia cases (control, squares; schizophrenia, triangles). qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Figure 4 Representative in situ hybridization images showing somatostatin (SST) mRNA signals in control (A, C) and schizophrenia (B, D) subjects. Figure 5 Figure 6 Background