Learning

What's really going on inside your head when you make a decision, make a mistake, or have a few drinks? In this segment, Ira and guests talk about new research involving the field of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. The technique allows researchers to monitor the blood flow through parts of the brain as it responds to stimuli, allowing researchers to monitor which parts of the brain are active and which are resting. Though the technique is being eagerly explored in a variety of fields, fMRI has received criticism from some brain experts as being the modern-day equivalent of phrenology. We'll hear about the technique, and what it can tell researchers about the inner workings of the human brain.

People who had written about a situation in which they were not in control were more likely to draw non-existent connections between the coincidences, the researchers found.

Granger's original objective was to see if links could be established that allowed economists to use current economic data to forecast changes in the economy in the near future. But first author Steven L. Bressler, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, suspected the technique might help reveal if one brain area was passing data to or influencing another brain area.

So the shift to public display, a shift to expected social interaction, changed the way the students learned and the effort they put into their education. If that’s not an incentive to experiment with and use social software I don’t know what is. Social software isn’t just a new way to work, it changes the effort we put into that work. Now there is a sound byte for social media consultants.

语义网（Semantic Web）是其中之一，它最重要的洞见，是学习资源可标准化描述。

一张图片到底是科学的还是色情的，由解读来决定，并不由物质载体本身。

推荐系统包含三种类型的数据：资源的描述、个人的描述，具体的评估或排序的信息。

Most of the brain's wiring is established during the first few years of life. At birth it was only about a quarter of its eventual adult size. But by age 2, it has reached three-fourths of adult size! And by 5, the brain will be very close to adult size and volume.

Surprisingly, the brain of a 2-year-old has trillions of connections — double the number that an adult has! The brain grows connections in response to all kinds of input in order to adapt and survive. Over time, certain connections are used again and again while others fall by the wayside

Watching black and white television as a child may explain why older people are less likely to dream in colour than younger people, according to new study reported in New Scientist.

"One theory is that individual senses have separate areas of the brain dedicated to them," said Mark Wallace, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator. "In this view, information is processed initially on a sense-by-sense basis and doesn't come together until much later. However, this view has recently been challenged by studies showing that processing in the visual area of the brain, for example, can be influenced by hearing and touch."

such as the amygdala, which is specialized in the memory of emotions.

The American research, which looked at brain scans of more than 1800 people, comes after Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council released draft guidelines warning that more than two drinks a day posed a health risk.

Their MRI scans revealed brain volume of moderate drinkers was almost 1% smaller than teetotallers while those who had 14 or more drinks a week suffered 1.2% shrinkage.

For middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet could be a boost to the brain, a new study suggests.

Multitasking is part of daily life. But humans remember and learn differently when their attention is divided. Russel Poldrack, a UCLA psychology professor, speaks with Lynn Neary about what occurs in the brain during multitasking.

The situation is much the same in primates and rodents, where new neurons only appear in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb. In contrast, fish, reptiles and birds renew the neurons throughout their entire network and throughout their entire lives.

我们正在进入一个专业余（Pro-Am）时代，每个人都因为技术和工具的增强而提升了多领域的参与能力，并且能够逼近专业水平。从社会范畴来看，业余参与者和专业人士之间的边界变得越来越模糊，这种变迁将导致很多社会结构的变化。例如，无数看似业余的创作，可以透过连接形成美妙的作品，以及更多的可能性。