The fine dopamine line between creativity and schizophrenia | Sc New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia. High creative skills have been shown to be somewhat more common in people who have mental illness in the family. Creativity is also linked to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Certain psychological traits, such as the ability to make unusual pr bizarre associations are also shared by schizophrenics and healthy, highly creative people. And now the correlation between creativity and mental health has scientific backing. "The study shows that highly creative people who did well on the divergent tests had a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people," says Dr Ullén.
Dreamtime astronomers understood meteors › News in Science (ABC Science) News in Science Tuesday, 15 March 2011 Stuart GaryABC Early astronomers A new study has found Aboriginal dreamtime stories were linking meteorites to impact craters and the origins of life, thousands of years before modern science. While the night skies play important roles in many traditional cultures around the world, Duane Hamacher from Sydney's Macquarie University says the Arrernte and Luritja people of central Australia have an unusually strong focus on meteors, meteorites and impact craters. Writing in a paper published on the pre-press website arXiv.org, Hamacher examined Arrernte and Luritja dreamtime stories collected by early European explorers, missionaries and scientists travelling through Alice Springs and Hermannsburg (Ntaria). Hamacher says the Arrernte and Luritja knew about the nightly and yearly movements of stars. "You wouldn't expect to know that without some scientific training." Bringing life to Earth Rainbow serpents and fire devils
The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments Psychology is the study of the human mind and mental processes in relation to human behaviors - human nature. Due to its subject matter, psychology is not considered a 'hard' science, even though psychologists do experiment and publish their findings in respected journals. Some of the experiments psychologists have conducted over the years reveal things about the way we humans think and behave that we might not want to embrace, but which can at least help keep us humble. That's something. 1. The Robbers Cave Experiment is a classic social psychology experiment conducted with two groups of 11-year old boys at a state park in Oklahoma, and demonstrates just how easily an exclusive group identity is adopted and how quickly the group can degenerate into prejudice and antagonism toward outsiders. Researcher Muzafer Sherif actually conducted a series of 3 experiments. 2. The prisoners rebelled on the second day, and the reaction of the guards was swift and brutal. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
The neuroscientific study of hallucinogens Recently, an important and landmark paper was published in PLoS ONE (hooray open access!) titled, "Investigating the Mechanisms of Hallucinogen-Induced Visions Using 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA): A Randomized Controlled Trial in Humans". It sounds daunting, but trust me, it's a very cool, approachable study. Now, in the spirit of full-disclosure, the lead author Dr. Matthew Baggott (hereafter referred to as "Matt"), is a friend of mine from grad school and he's been kind enough to grant me a very thorough interview for this post. The interview is quite long, so I'll give a brief overview of the research and some of Matt's comments, but I've posted the entire interview at the bottom of this post. At the bottom of this post you will also find an hour-long YouTube interview with Matt about his research as part of "Dr. That said, my real-life association with Matt is not biasing my opening statement; his paper is truly landmark for many reasons. I think you hit the nail on the head.
EGGS FOR YOU... Assalam o alaikum....... Do like eggs???? -- Regards, Rent-a-Goat in Action! Clearing Brush the Way Nature Intended It Photo: Rent-a-Ruminent LLC We've written many times about goats being used to replace lawnmowers and to clear brush (for example, in Arizona, in North-Carolina, and even at Google's Mountainview HQ). Well, we can now add to that list the Seattle-based Rent-a-Ruminant company. More before & after pics below. Why Goats? Goats have many advantages:They have a low impact on the environment due to their cloven hooves.They are natural climbers and love steep slopes and uneven terrain.They can go where machinery and other modes of brush removal are not allowed to go.They are cost effective in many situations.They are walking fertilizer factories.People love the goats! Also, "Goats are becoming very popular with construction companies. See also: What is Yahoo!
Brainwave/Cymatic Frequency Listing This is a listing of frequencies that various parties have claimed can affect the human mind or body in some way. The following sorts of frequencies are included : Brainwave Frequencies - These are frequencies associated with various mental states. Using brainwave entrainment, you can coax your brainwaves to a certain frequency, and in doing so, achieve the mental state associated with that frequency. "Healing" Frequencies - These are frequencies that various parties claim could be used to heal illnesses of different kinds, or stimulate some region of the body (chakras). The original page that I began building this compiled information from is (*archived copy*) The information in green is from this original page. If you want to redistribute this, please include the Bibliography page as well -- the original sources deserve their reference. Disclaimer : I wouldn't take everything you read on this list for granted. Sincerely,
50 Tips to Maximize Productivity Here are commonsense yet practical tips on how we can maximize productivity in our daily lives. Try out some of these for yourself and discover which ones work best for you. 1. Write a list of the main tasks you want to complete throughout the day. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Now stop reading tips on how to maximize productivity and start actually doing things.
Scientists Can Read Minds with Brain Scans By scanning your brain, scientists can tell what memory you are recalling. Scientists have made impressive gains recently when it comes to reading minds. For instance, through brain scans, researchers can tell what number a person has just seen, figure out what letters a person wants to type, and determine where people were standing within virtual reality environments. To see if they could discern even more complex information during mind-reading, scientists more recently had 10 volunteers watch three films, each seven-seconds long and featuring a different actress in a fairly similar everyday scenario on a typical urban street. For instance, in one movie, a woman rifled through her purse to find an envelope she then dropped into a mailbox, while in another, an actress finished her cup of coffee, which she then dropped into a trashcan. Participants watched the films 15 times. In these experiments, the researchers exposed volunteers to movies roughly an hour before scanning took place.
Federal Grants | FederalGrants.com Colour my world Colour does not exist. Not out in the world at any rate. All that exists in the world is a smooth continuum of light of different wavelengths. Colour is a construction of our brains. A lot is known about how the brain does this, beginning with complicated circuits in the retina itself. Colour discrimination begins with the absorption of light of different wavelengths. Colour information only arises by comparing the responses of multiple cone cells. The L/M system evolved much more recently, due to a gene duplication that occurred in the lineage of Old World primates, probably around 40 million years ago. All of this raises an important question – how are the inputs to these different cone cells compared? This has been known for quite a long time now. The new study by Field and colleagues worked out in breathtaking detail the circuitry of the retina at a cellular level. A remarkable experiment performed a few years ago dramatically illustrates this principle.
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