Are these the evidence of intelligent life out there?
Monday, October 19, 2015
Look Up Between the Swan and the Lyre: Is Someone Watching Us?
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Human Brains May Deal with Moment-to-Moment Emotional Awareness via Quantum Cognition
The human brain as a probability statement generator may rely on this model to avoid the fear of the reality that it may not exist in the next moment. Moment-to-moment emotional awareness requires the "courage" to continue to take that risk while permitting our feelings to become conscious without "freaking out." A theory of Quantum Cognition may provide a reasonable explanation of how we do that:
Quantum cognition: a new theoretical approach to psychology
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Mind Games: First Demonstration of Non-Invasive Human Brain-to-Brain Communication
Playing 20 Questions with the Mind: Collaborative Problem Solving by Humans Using a Brain-to-Brain Interface
- Published: September 23, 2015
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137303
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Washington Post Tabloid Journalism Challenged by Doctors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/02/24/lay-off-the-mega-doses-of-vitamin-d/
Physicians responding to an article sensationalizing criticism of prescribing large doses of vitamin D to correct inadequate serum levels take on the media giant. Read the article and the comments section for an example of doctors calling out tabloid journalism designed to "frighten an already terrified citizenry."
Physicians responding to an article sensationalizing criticism of prescribing large doses of vitamin D to correct inadequate serum levels take on the media giant. Read the article and the comments section for an example of doctors calling out tabloid journalism designed to "frighten an already terrified citizenry."
Friday, March 13, 2015
Drug Restores Memory in Early Alzheimer's Disease
http://dgnews.docguide.com/drug-restores-brain-function-memory-early-alzheimers-disease?overlay=2&nl_ref=newsletter&pk_campaign=newsletter
Drug Restores Memory in Early Alzheimer's Disease
BALTIMORE, Md -- March 11, 2015 -- A novel therapeutic approach for an existing drug reverses a condition in elderly patients who are at high risk for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published this week in NeuroImage: Clinical.
Levetiracetam, commonly used to treat epilepsy, calms hyperactivity in the brain of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).
Hippocampal over-activity is well-documented in patients with aMCI and its occurrence predicts further cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer's dementia.
“What we've shown is that very low doses of the atypical antiepileptic levetiracetam reduces this over-activity,” said Michela Gallagher, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. “At the same time, it improves memory performance on a task that depends on the hippocampus.”
The team studied 84 subjects; 17 of them were normal healthy participants and the rest had symptoms of aMCI. Everyone was aged older than 55 years. Patients were randomised to varying doses of levetiracetam or placebo.
The researchers found that low doses of the drug improved memory performance and normalised the over-activity detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that measures brain activity during a memory task.
“What we want to discover now, is whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer's dementia,” said Dr. Gallagher.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University
Hippocampal over-activity is well-documented in patients with aMCI and its occurrence predicts further cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer's dementia.
“What we've shown is that very low doses of the atypical antiepileptic levetiracetam reduces this over-activity,” said Michela Gallagher, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. “At the same time, it improves memory performance on a task that depends on the hippto varying doses of levetiracetam or placebo.
The researchers found that low doses of the drug improved memory performance and normalised the over-activity detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that measures brain activity during a memory task.
“What we want to discover now, is whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer's dementia,” said Dr. Gallagher.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Neuroscience of Leaders Who "Work Well With Others"
From my perspective, one of the most troublesome problems of the human species blocking the next evolutionary leap is the apparent reduction in empathy, compassion and the ability to "put oneself
in another's shoes."
During the past decade, the discovery of the "controversial" mirror-neurons in chimps, the potential of non-invasive, magnetic brain stimulation, and the promise of empathy- enhancing substances such as oxytocin appear to be encouraging breakthroughs.
However, despite these and other physiological advances, the growing stress of living in a dangerously competitive world continues to ignite the flames of fear-based aggression among nations, cultures, races, businesses, families, groups and individuals.
Moreover, I find it difficult to ignore the willful, self-serving fanning of those flames by powerful governments, industries, politicians and corporations and individuals who profit in many ways from the fear of difference that seems to be rampant on the planet.
Consequently, my wish for the next advance in brain research would be the development of methods to permit populations to scientifically evaluate the brains of candidates before electing them to powerful positions of authority.
In such a brave, new world, strength of leadership might include such characteristics as better control of impulsivity, a capacity to tolerate and understand the complexity of reality without false simplifications, better deductive reasoning and higher quality decision-making abilities. And although "even paranoids may have real enemies," leaders should possess an enhanced capacity for actual empathy and compassion as well as an ability to quickly analyze risk and act decisively when necessary.
And while I'm dreaming, I should recommend development of a Gross National Happiness statistic to be added to the material indices we watch so carefully. It might produce data with which we could really evaluate the value of our leaders.
During the past decade, the discovery of the "controversial" mirror-neurons in chimps, the potential of non-invasive, magnetic brain stimulation, and the promise of empathy- enhancing substances such as oxytocin appear to be encouraging breakthroughs.
However, despite these and other physiological advances, the growing stress of living in a dangerously competitive world continues to ignite the flames of fear-based aggression among nations, cultures, races, businesses, families, groups and individuals.
Moreover, I find it difficult to ignore the willful, self-serving fanning of those flames by powerful governments, industries, politicians and corporations and individuals who profit in many ways from the fear of difference that seems to be rampant on the planet.
Consequently, my wish for the next advance in brain research would be the development of methods to permit populations to scientifically evaluate the brains of candidates before electing them to powerful positions of authority.
In such a brave, new world, strength of leadership might include such characteristics as better control of impulsivity, a capacity to tolerate and understand the complexity of reality without false simplifications, better deductive reasoning and higher quality decision-making abilities. And although "even paranoids may have real enemies," leaders should possess an enhanced capacity for actual empathy and compassion as well as an ability to quickly analyze risk and act decisively when necessary.
And while I'm dreaming, I should recommend development of a Gross National Happiness statistic to be added to the material indices we watch so carefully. It might produce data with which we could really evaluate the value of our leaders.
Hidden Agendas in American News
More Evidence about the need for skepticism when watching news programs on TV.
Suboptimal facial expression primes in textual media messages: Evidence for the affective congruency effect
Original Research Article- Pages 64-77
- Citing articles (0)
Abstract
The effectiveness of suboptimal affective primes in real media applications has remained debatable. We investigated the effects of suboptimally (at 10-ms exposure) presented facial expression primes on emotional responses to, and cognitive evaluations of, textual (business news) messages ranging from slightly unpleasant to slightly pleasant among 33 participants. Facial expression primes were presented repeatedly on a simulated small screen of a mobile device during a news reading task. Facial electromyography (EMG) recordings were used as physiological indices of positive and negative emotions. Our results showed affective congruency effects between news messages and facial expression primes: joyful facial expressions, compared to angry primes or no priming, elicited higher positive affect evaluations and more positive facial EMG responses, as well as higher interest, when embedded in affectively more positive news. On the other hand, the mere presence of suboptimal primes was detrimental to the perceived trustworthiness of news. These results suggest that embedding suboptimal facial expression primes into textual media messages may exert an influence on affectively congruent messages; at the same time, our results highlight the potential hazards and difficulties of utilizing such primes.
Do You Choose Your Thoughts?
NAC
http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=81739
Increased Coupling of Intrinsic Networks in Remitted Depressed Youth Predicts Rumination and Cognitive Control
Rachel H. Jacobs and
Lisanne M. Jenkins, et. al.
Published: August 27, 2014DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104366
"The authors have chosen to investigate a common symptom in most individuals who experience depression as well as those who suffer from many other psychiatric conditions. Moreover, the capacity to choose what one wishes to think about without the mood-changing interruptions of invasive rumination and obsession may be less common than previously considered in many individuals with or without a psychiatric diagnosis.
Anecdotally, my experience with N-Acetyl Cysteine in psychiatric patients (as well as personal-development clients with rumination and obsession who carry no official psychiatric diagnosis) suggests a potentially significant beneficial effect. It would appear that the authors have established an evaluation paradigm with which this finding might be tested.
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