First 3D Map of the Brain’s Connections

About This page includes information about the aims and scope of BMC Bioinformatics, editorial policies, open access and article-processing charges, the peer review process and other information. For details of how to prepare and submit a manuscript through the online submission system, please see the instructions for authors. Scope World War III may have already begun: U.S. empire vs. Russia, China and North Korea (NaturalNews) Military historians have said that the world stumbled into World War I, while it ran headlong into World War II. How will World War III begin? It may have started already. A few geopolitical observers think World War III began when the United States and much of the West launched military campaigns against militant Islam. Both President Bush and President Obama have warned the American people that the fight against radical Islam would take years to prosecute.

The Science of Dreams and Why We Have Nightmares by Maria Popova The psychology of our built-in nocturnal therapy. “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind,” Freud argued in his influential treatise The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900. “The earth is heavy and opaque without dreams,” Anaïs Nin wrote in her diary in 1940. “In the olden days, people believed that our dreams were full of clues about the future,” Alain de Botton told a little kid who wanted to know about dreaming. Possibility of selectively erasing unwanted memories The human brain is exquisitely adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that can trigger myriad associations -- some good, some not so good. For recovering addicts and individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), unwanted memories can be devastating. Former meth addicts, for instance, report intense drug cravings triggered by associations with cigarettes, money, even gum (used to relieve dry mouth), pushing them back into the addiction they so desperately want to leave. Now, for the first time, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been able to erase dangerous drug-associated memories in mice and rats without affecting other more benign memories.

9 Key Components of the Shift to Higher Consciousness This article originally appeared in WakingTimes.com. Facing considerable political, economic, social and ecological crises, the human race is desperate for a transformation and a new direction. Business as usual ensures that we are doomed to run a course of half-conscious self-destruction, as man-made catastrophes multiply and stress mounts in every aspect of life. We must overthrow our ignorance, as it has become a fearful master, goading us into war, pollution, waste and exploitation. The social problems and entrenched patterns at the source of global issues are too vast and complex to be solved at the personal level, yet, paradoxically, the personal transformation of the individual offers a lonesome opportunity to avert the catastrophes we are engineering for ourselves. The shift.

US changes nuclear strategy to first strike: Analyst A US-made nuclear weapon (file photo) The United States has changed its military doctrine in favor of using nuclear weapons for preemptive purposes, an analyst writes for Press TV. “US war doctrine has been changed. US nuclear weapons are no longer restricted to a retaliatory force, but have been elevated to the role of preemptive nuclear attack,” Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column for Press TV website. The analyst’s article comes against the backdrop of ongoing tensions between Russia and the US over Ukraine.

Why Time Slows Down When We’re Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation by Maria Popova “Time perception matters because it is the experience of time that roots us in our mental reality.” Given my soft spot for famous diaries, it should come as no surprise that I keep one myself. Perhaps the greatest gift of the practice has been the daily habit of reading what I had written on that day a year earlier; not only is it a remarkable tool of introspection and self-awareness, but it also illustrates that our memory “is never a precise duplicate of the original [but] a continuing act of creation” and how flawed our perception of time is — almost everything that occurred a year ago appears as having taken place either significantly further in the past (“a different lifetime,” I’d often marvel at this time-illusion) or significantly more recently (“this feels like just last month!”). Discus chronologicus, a depiction of time by German engraver Christoph Weigel, published in the early 1720s; from Cartographies of Time. (Click for details)

Why some memories last and others fade We are more likely to form lasting memories when there is coordinated activity between two specific brain regions, MRI scans show. “When memories are supported by greater coordination between different parts of the brain, it’s a sign that they are going to last longer,” says Lila Davachi, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science at New York University. It is commonly understood that the key to memory consolidation—the cementing of an experience or information in our brain—is signaling from the brain’s hippocampus across different cortical areas. Moreover, it has been hypothesized, but never proven, that the greater the distribution of signaling, the stronger the memory takes hold in our brain.

Who is the Court of Protection really protecting? Posted by Ellee on Oct 25, 2009 in Alzheimer's, News | 41 comments They say you judge a nation by the way it looks after its elderly and vulnerable population. So who can defend this very disturbing report in today’s Mail on Sunday which claims that the Court of Protection is seizing the assets of thousands of elderly and mentally impaired people and turning control of their lives over to the State – against the wishes of their relatives. The Court of Protection was set up two years ago to act in the interests of people suffering from Alzheimer’s or other mental incapacity. It takes over control of people’s finances, which means appointed “deputies” must get authorisation to pay expenses such as rent and household bills on their behalf.

CIA and FBI Work with Fascists in Ukraine as ‘War in Europe’ Unfolds ‘Andriy Parubiy, the National Security and Defense Council boss of the junta in Kyiv, announced on Sunday the Ukrainian military will expand the “active stage of the operation in towns where extremists and terrorists are carrying out illegal activities.” The renewed effort to assert control and defeat anti-junta activists and paramilitaries in Donetsk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivk and other towns in eastern Ukraine coincides with news the CIA and FBI will work with the regime to put down popular uprisings against the government in Kyiv. On Monday, coup Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the failure of police in Odessa, where violence claimed the lives of dozens of people over the last few days, has resulted in the formation of “Kiev-1,” a paramilitary comprised of “civil activists” who previously worked with the fascist Right Sector and Svoboda to overthrow Ukraine’s elected president in February.’ Read more …

The Science Behind Intuition Almost every Radical Remission cancer survivor I’ve studied used their intuition to help make decisions related to their healing process. Research on intuition and following your ‘gut’ instinct may explain why. Scientists have discovered that humans appear to have two, very different “operating systems.” System 1 is our quick, instinctual, and often subconscious way of operating – it is controlled by our right brain and by other parts of our brain that have been around since prehistoric times, known as the “limbic” and reptilian” parts of our brain. System 2 is our slower, more analytical, and conscious way of operating – it is controlled by our left brain and by newer parts of our brain that have only developed since prehistoric times (also known as the “neocortex”). Researchers have found that intuition is part of System 1, which is why it comes on so rapidly and often does not make rational sense to us.

Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss Side Effect How they can cause memory loss: Benzodiazepines dampen activity in key parts of the brain, including those involved in the transfer of events from short-term to long-term memory. Indeed, benzodiazepines are used in anesthesia for this very reason. When they're added to the anesthesiologist's cocktail of meds, patients rarely remember any unpleasantness from a procedure. Midazolam (Versed) has particularly marked amnesic properties. Alternatives: Benzodiazepines should be prescribed only rarely in older adults, in my judgment, and then only for short periods of time.

Google Implements “Right to be Forgotten” and Begins Censoring History The so-called “right to be forgotten” is nothing more than a method of deleting unfavorable incidents from one’s past. Google has approved roughly 100,000 requests and deleted the offending entries from search results. That is 100,000 pieces of history that will no longer show up in search results. Covert chemical warfare/and a time bomb in Ukraine Jon RappoportActivist Post In the entirely justified blow-up over the poisonous effects of Monsanto’s Roundup, recent history has been pushed to the side. There are, of course, other companies and other poisons (herbicides, pesticides). For example, read this from “Transport and Trade,” published by the Pesticide Action Network: “…US [companies] shipped nearly 1.7 billion pounds of pesticide products to other countries from 2001-2003… “more than 32 tons per hour… “Nearly 28 million pounds of these pesticides are banned for use in the US.”