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Tero Toivanen

Interactive Movie - How the human brain works - New Scientist - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...brain-interactive

brain lobes cortex Basal ganglia Thalamus Hippocampus Cerebellum Brain stem Amygdala interactive image scientist

shared by Tero Toivanen on 05 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 05 Jul 09
     
    Interactive image of brain and it's functions.
Tero Toivanen

Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour - 2 views

www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_4719.asp

brain science alzheimers anatomy interactive education biology HumanBody

shared by Tero Toivanen on 28 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 28 Aug 10
     
    An Interactive Tour Inside the Brain.
Tero Toivanen

Cognitive Daily: A quick eye-exercise can improve your performance on memory tests (but... - 0 views

scienceblogs.com/...ick_eye-exercise_can_impro.php

memory memorization eye movement

shared by Tero Toivanen on 23 May 09 - Cached
  • If you're taking a test of rote memorization, like words from a list, move your eyes from side to side for about 30 seconds before you start.
  • It may be that this quick activity helps facilitate interaction between the brain hemispheres.
  • any activity that encourages communication between the hemispheres is likely to increase recall.
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  • people who have poorer interactions between the hemispheres should benefit more than others. Who has less interactions between hemispheres? People who are strongly right-handed.
  • Strongly right-handed students remembered significantly more words if they moved their eyes compared to keeping their eyes still. Non-strongly-right-handed students (including left-handers) remembered the same number of words regardless of whether they moved their eyes before the test.
  • strongly right-handed students had significantly fewer false alarms after they moved their eyes back and forth. But for non-strongly-right-handed people, the reverse occurred; moving their eyes caused them to falsely remember more words. So overall, while the eye-saccade exercise helped right-handers, for lefties and for those who didn't have a strongly dominant hand, the exercise actually harmed their performance.
  • You might think that only side-to-side movement would improve performance, but Lyle's team found that moving your eyes up and down caused the same effect.
  • researchers say that other studies have shown that any eye movements increase bilateral activity in the frontal eye field, so it's still possible that hemispheric connectivity can explain the improved performance after eye movements.
  • So why doesn't the exercise work the same way for left-handers? Left handers (and ambidextrous individuals) already have a high level of hemispheric connectivity. Lyle's team speculates that there might be such a thing as too much connectivity, which results in a decrease in performance.
  • Tero Toivanen on 23 May 09
     
    Several studies have confirmed this bizarre proposition: If you're taking a test of rote memorization, like words from a list, move your eyes from side to side for about 30 seconds before you start.
Tero Toivanen

Social Media's Effect on Learning - Digits - WSJ - 1 views

blogs.wsj.com/...cial-medias-effect-on-learning

social media brain research interaction learning stimulate activity

shared by Tero Toivanen on 16 Mar 10 - Cached
Ruth Howard liked it
  • Tero Toivanen on 16 Mar 10
     
    Researchers are figuring out how the interaction Social Media spurs can stimulate brain activity.
David McGavock

Wired for Success - 0 views

www.bannerhealth.com/..._Wired+for+Success.htm

shared by David McGavock on 01 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • David McGavock on 01 Jan 13
     
    "The New Directions Institute's Wired for Success® program is a four-hour workshop for parents, caregivers and interested community members. This workshop is fun-filled, with hands-on experiences that show caregivers how critical their role can be in stimulating a child's development. Participants will explore brain development based on S.T.E.P.S.®, the NDI curriculum concentrating on Security, Touch, Eyes (vision), Play and Sound modules. Participants learn how to encourage a child's learning through parent-child interactions in these areas. "
David McGavock

What is intelligence ? | BrainFacts.org Blog - 0 views

blog.brainfacts.org/...what-is-intelligence

shared by David McGavock on 31 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • What do we mean when we say someone is intelligent and is there any scientific basis for defining intelligence? These questions have been at the center of a more than century-old debate in psychology.
  • Although it may be practical for people to think of intelligence as something that exists, whether science should consider intelligence and how it would define it remains very controversial.
  • A recent study published by Hampshire et al.1 from the University of Western Ontario has looked into the brain areas that are activated by tasks that are typically used to test for intelligence. In doing so they hoped to determine if brain areas related to cognitive demands are activated altogether as demands increase during intelligence tests of various kinds, or if some areas were activated during tests for a specific intelligence domain and not for others.
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  • The study is interesting because it provides three candidate intelligence factors (instead of 1) that have been built not from intuition about what tasks do but based on the set of brain areas that might contribute to those tasks. However don’t get too excited, the methods used have severe limitations and we are still only at the hypothesis level. We do not know how these areas contribute to performance in intelligence tests and we do not know why they are activated and how they interact together to create the behavior.
  • David McGavock on 31 Dec 12
     
    A recent study published by Hampshire et al.1 from the University of Western Ontario has looked into the brain areas that are activated by tasks that are typically used to test for intelligence. In doing so they hoped to determine if brain areas related to cognitive demands are activated altogether as demands increase during intelligence tests of various kinds, or if some areas were activated during tests for a specific intelligence domain and not for others.
Tero Toivanen

YouTube - Health Matters: Behavior and Our Brain - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

youtube Sejnowski learning adaptation interaction brain human abilities environment brain change brain imaging music critical periods neurons fetus brain disorders genes evolution language distincion behavior addiction dopamine stimulus ratification intui

shared by Tero Toivanen on 19 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 19 Jul 09
     
    In an interview Ph.D. Terrence Sejnowski from Salk Institute for biological studies explains about many things about brains and behavior.
Tero Toivanen

AK's Rambling Thoughts: Nerve Cells and Glial Cells: Redefining the Foundation of Intel... - 0 views

artksthoughts.blogspot.com/...nd-glial-cells-redefining.html

brain Glial Cells neuron action potential axon synapse network microglia macroglia astrocytes oligodendrocytes ependymal cells radial glia

shared by Tero Toivanen on 25 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Glia are generally divided into two broad classes, microglia and macroglia. Microglia are part of the immune system, specialized macrophages, and probably don't participate in information handling. Macroglia are present in both the peripheral and central nervous systems, in different types.
  • Traditionally, there were four types of glia in the CNS: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells, and radial glia. Of these, the one type that's most important to the developing revolution in our ideas are those cells called astrocytes.2 It turns out that there are at least two types of cell (at least) subsumed under this name.24, 25, 31, 32 One, which retains the name of astrocyte, takes up neurotransmitters released by neurons (and glial cells), aids in osmoregulation,10 controls circulation in the brain,1, 31 and generally appears to provide support for the neurons and other types of glia.
  • Although both NG2-glia and astrocytes extend processes to nodes of Ranvier in white matter ([refs]) and synapses in grey matter, their geometric relationship to these neuronal elements is different. Thus, although astrocytes and NG2-glia bear a superficial resemblance, they are distinguished by their different process arborizations. This will reflect fundamental differences in the way these two glial cell populations interact with other elements in the neural network.
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  • Both types of glia are closely integrated with the nervous system, receiving information from action potentials via synapses22 (which, only a few years ago were thought to be limited to neurons), and returning control of neuron activity through release of neurotransmitters and other modulators. Both, then, demonstrate the potential for considerable intelligent activity, contributing to the overall intelligence of the brain.
  • Astrocytes probably (IMO) are limited, or mostly so, to maintaining the supplies of energy and necessary metabolites. They receive action potentials,3, 6 which allows them to closely and quickly monitor general activity and increase circulation in response, even before the neurons and NG2-glia have reduced their supply of ATP.21 They appear to be linked in a network among themselves,2, 5 allowing them to communicate their needs without interfering with the higher-level calculations of the brain.
  • NG2-glia appear to have several functions, but one of the most exciting things about them is that they seem to be able to fire action potentials.33 Their cell membranes, like those of the dendrites of neurons, have all the necessary channels and receptors to perform real-time electrical calculations in the same way as neural dendrites. They have also demonstrated the ability to learn through long term potentiation.
  • Dividing NG2-glia also retain the ability to fire action potentials, as well as receiving synaptic inputs from neurons.23 Presumably, they continue to perform their full function, including retaining any elements of long term potentiation or depression contained in their synapses.
  • Oligodendrocytes are responsible for the insulation of the axons, wrapping around approximately 1 mm of each of up to 50 axons within their reach, and forming the myelin sheath.
  • Although the precise type of neuron formed by maturing cells hasn't been determined, the very fact that cells of this type can change into neurons is very important. We actually don't know whether the cells that do this maturation are the same as those that perform neuron-like activities, there appear to be two separate types of NG2-glia, spiking and non-spiking.26 It may very well be that the "spiking" type have actually differentiated, while the "non-spiking" type may be doing the maturing. Of course, very few differentiated cell types remain capable of division, as even the "spiking" type do.
  • What's important about both dendrites and NG2-glia isn't so much their ability to propagate action potentials, as that their entire cell membranes are capable of "intelligent" manipulation of the voltage across it.
  • While there are many ion channels involved in controlling the voltage across the cell membrane, the only type we really need to worry about for action potentials is voltage-gated sodium channels. These are channels that sometimes allow sodium ions to pass through the cell membrane, which they will do because the concentration of sodium ions outside the cell is very much higher than inside. When and how much they open depends, among other things, on the voltage across the membrane.
  • A normal neuron will have a voltage of around -60 to -80mV (millivolts), in a direction that tends to push the sodium ions (which are positive) into the cell (the same direction as the concentration is pushing). When the voltage falls to around -55mV, the primary type of gate will open for a millisecond or so, after which it will close and rest for several milliseconds. It won't be able to open again until the voltage is somewhere between -55 and around -10mV. Meanwhile, the sodium current has caused the voltage to swing past zero to around +20mV.
  • When one part of the cell membrane is "depolarized" in this fashion, the voltage near it is also depressed. Thus, if the voltage is at zero at one point, it might be at -20mV 10 microns (μm) away, and -40mV 20μm away, and -60mV 30μm, and so on. Notice that somewhere between 20μm and 30μm, it has passed the threshold for the ion channels, which means that they are open, allowing a current that drives the voltage further down. This will produce a wave of voltage drop along the membrane, which is what the action potential is.
  • After the action potential has passed, and the gates have closed (see above), the voltage is recovered by diffusion of ions towards and away from the membrane, the opening of other gates (primarily potassium), and a set of pumps that push the ions back to their resting state. These pumps are mostly powered by the sodium gradient, except for the sodium/potassium pump that maintains it, which is powered by ATP.
  • the vast majority of calculation that goes into human intelligence takes place at the level of the network of dendrites and NG2-glia, with the whole system of axons, dendrites, and action potentials only carrying a tiny subset of the total information over long distances. This is especially important considering that the human brain has a much higher proportion of glial matter than our relatives.
  • This, in turn, suggests that our overall approach to understanding the brain has been far too axon centric, there needs to be a shift to a more membrane-centric approach to understanding how the brain creates intelligence.
  • Tero Toivanen on 25 Jun 09
     
    Our traditional idea of how the brain works is based on the neuron: it fires action potentials, which travel along the axon and, when the reach the synapses, the receiving neuron performs a calculation that results in the decision when (or whether) to fire its own action potential. Thus, the brain, from a thinking point of view, is viewed as a network of neurons each performing its own calculation. This view, which I'm going to call the axon-centric view, is simplistic in many ways, and two recent papers add to it, pointing up the ways in which the glial cells of the brain participate in ongoing calculation as well as performing their more traditional support functions.
Tero Toivanen

Memory Improved 20% by Nature Walk « PsyBlog - 0 views

www.spring.org.uk/...improved-20-by-nature-walk.php

psyblog Memory Improved Nature Walk

shared by Tero Toivanen on 23 May 09 - Cached
  • Marc G. Berman and colleagues at the University of Michigan wanted to test the effect of a walk’s scenery on cognitive function (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008; PDF).
  • In the first of two studies participants were given a 35 minute task involving repeating loads of random numbers back to the experimenter, but in reverse order.
  • The results showed that people’s performance on the test improved by almost 20% after wandering amongst the trees. By comparison those subjected to a busy street did not reliably improve on the test.
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  • In the second study participants weren’t even allowed to leave the lab but instead some stared at pictures of natural scenes while others looked at urban environments. The improvements weren’t quite as impressive as the first study, but, once again, the trees and fields beat the roads and lampposts.
  • These results replicated a previous study by Berto (2005) who found that just viewing pictures of natural scenes had a restorative effect on cognitive function.
  • So just as we might have predicted nature is a kind of natural cognitive enhancer, helping our brain let off steam so it can cruise back up to full functioning.
  • When our minds need refreshing and if natural scenery is accessible, we should take the opportunity. If not then just looking at pictures of nature is a reasonable second best.
  • Tero Toivanen on 23 May 09
     
    New study finds that short-term memory is improved 20% by walking in nature, or even just by looking at an image of a natural scene.
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