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David McGavock

Scientific Understanding of Consciousness - 0 views

willcov.com/bio-consciousness

understanding consciousness experts writers summary

shared by David McGavock on 02 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • During the past 20 years or so, biological sciences have advanced to the point that scientists have begun researching biological mechanisms of brain function and suggesting some reasonably well-founded hypotheses for consciousness. Leading the way in these pioneering efforts, in my judgment, have been:   Gerald Edelman with his hypothesis of the Dynamic Core, Antonio Damasio with his concepts of  Protoself, Core Self, Autobiographical Self, Core Consciousness and Extended Consciousness, Joseph LeDoux and his emphasis on the intricacies of synapses and the emotional brain,
  • Rudolfo Llinás and his researches into ~40 Hz oscillations and synchronization, György Buzsáki with his discussion and exploration of neural mechanisms related to oscillation and synchronization in the neocortex and hippocampus for perception and memory, Joaquín Fuster, the world’s preeminent expert on the frontal lobes, and his concept of the "perception-action cycle," Susan Greenfield's notion of "neuronal gestalts" as a way of conceptualizing a highly variable aggregation of neurons that is temporarily recruited around a triggering epicenter. I use the neuronal gestalts idea in my way of visualizing the functionality of the dynamic core of the thalamocortical system, Eric Kandel who has explored short-term and long-term memory,
  • The late Francis Crick with his collaborator Christof Koch who have pursued the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC), Michael Gazzaniga with the concept of the left hemisphere ‘interpreter’ unifying consciousness experience, Edmund Rolls and Gustavo Deco with their mathematical models of brain function using information theory approaches for biologically plausible neurodynamical modeling of cognitive phenomena corroborated by brain imaging studies, David LaBerge with his discussion of the thalamocortical circuit and attention, Alan Baddeley who continues to refine his model for working memory, Philosopher John Searle who endorses the idea that consciousness is an emergent property of neural networks.
  • David McGavock on 02 Mar 14
     
    "My objective in this website has been to bring together salient features of these assorted interpretations by science experts into a synthesis of my own understanding of consciousness. I consider these statements and interpretations to be a framework on which to build a fuller understanding as further data, concepts and insights develop from ongoing research."
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

Scientists capture the first image of memories being made - 0 views

www.eurekalert.org/...mu-sct061809.php

brain memory protein translation long-term memory proteins synapse synaptic connection learning synaptic plasticity post-synaptic cell neurons

shared by Tero Toivanen on 21 Jun 09 - Cached
  • A new study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro), McGill University and University of California, Los Angeles has captured an image for the first time of a mechanism, specifically protein translation, which underlies long-term memory formation. The finding provides the first visual evidence that when a new memory is formed new proteins are made locally at the synapse - the connection between nerve cells - increasing the strength of the synaptic connection and reinforcing the memory. The study published in Science, is important for understanding how memory traces are created and the ability to monitor it in real time will allow a detailed understanding of how memories are formed.
  • research has focused on synapses which are the main site of exchange and storage in the brain.
  • They form a vast but also constantly fluctuating network of connections whose ability to change and adapt, called synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory.
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  • Using a translational reporter, a fluorescent protein that can be easily detected and tracked, we directly visualized the increased local translation, or protein synthesis, during memory formation.
  • Importantly, this translation was synapse-specific and it required activation of the post-synaptic cell, showing that this step required cooperation between the pre and post-synaptic compartments, the parts of the two neurons that meet at the synapse.
  • This study provides evidence that a mechanism that mediates this gene expression during neuronal plasticity involves regulated translation of localized mRNA at stimulated synapses.
  • Tero Toivanen on 21 Jun 09
     
    A new study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro), McGill University and University of California, Los Angeles has captured an image for the first time of a mechanism, specifically protein translation, which underlies long-term memory formation.
Tero Toivanen

Mcgovern Institute video - 1 views

web.mit.edu/...video.shtml

McGovern Institute brain research MIT neuroscience brain disorders

shared by Tero Toivanen on 23 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 23 Dec 09
     
    The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT is led by a team of world-renowned neuroscientists committed to meeting two great challenges of modern science: understanding how the brain works and discovering new ways to prevent and treat brain disorders.
Tero Toivanen

Low Pessimism Protects Against Stroke: The Health and Social Support (HeSSup) Prospecti... - 2 views

stroke.ahajournals.org/...187

pessimism optimism stroke brain research

shared by Tero Toivanen on 07 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 07 Jan 10
     
    It's good for your life and health to be optimist.
  • Ruth Howard on 11 Jan 10
     
    It' s a slightly different perspective that I' m enjoying at this time but I appreciate it may only be true for some-I' ve just begun to understand what "faith" means tho I' m not religious-still! (I feel some empathy now as to why people are) I feel much more inclined to just sit still and connect inside with the Source of me-any meditation or spiritual practice can lead me there or creativity,music too,nature! But to deliberately connect to the part of us all that is connected and knows/is All. From that place I' ve understood that theres noone to be, nowhere to go, nothing to do as we are all there already as we are all IT! So of course daily I forget this but this insight has gifted me much more optimism as I can assume that whatever I really ask for/intend/desire is already in the big melting pot that we can Life/God. That is ' faith' Ive realised now- to ask and know intimately that it' s already a given and to STOP Worrying and completely ignore the naysayers etc. It' s really trusting that I' m connected to it all and I am not separate. I' m beginning to observe quite distinctly the thoughts that separate me from what I want/intend. Particularly in relation to my fellow beings! But then I turn to the place that is connected and I feel so good! and just thinking of the situation from that place and holding that good feeling in relation and giving it over (the problem) really helps! I know several spiritual teachers have said "give it over to me". I' m starting to understand it really is that simple. Trying hard and worrying just create such muck and mire! This may be part of the surrender letting go and letting God that others speak of also? I reckon it would be interesting to see where how people get there faith/trust in life that creates the underlying optimism. What gives that to them? I remember as a child I had it naturally I often got what I asked for and intended and there was an abundance of flow and optimism. No resistance. Fear and doubt come later
Tero Toivanen

Understanding alcohol's damaging effects on the brain - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-06-alcohol-effects-brain.html

understanding alcohol effects brain damaging research alcoholism pharmacological neurons

shared by Tero Toivanen on 18 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 18 Jun 11
     
    "In particular, evidence is emerging that supports characteristic, discrete alcohol binding sites on protein targets."
David McGavock

The Top 10 Challenges for Brain Science in 2013 - Forbes - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...nges-for-brain-science-in-2013

shared by David McGavock on 31 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • 1. Figure out what fMRI can truly tell us about our brains. 
  • There’s little question fMRI is valuable, but too many disparate forces are out there spinning brain scans in too many ways. Perhaps one solution, or start of a solution, is a summit hosted by a credible, well-respected institute or organization to gather the best of the best minds in the field to establish a game plan moving forward.
  • 2. Determine what role, if any, neuroscience should play in the courtroom.
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  • . Continue crafting a constructive consilience between disciplines.
  • Neuroscience, behavioral science, evolutionary biology, economics, engineering, and even the humanities have all come to the proverbial table in the last few years
  • Produce more applicable knowledge and less curious meanderings.
  • 7. Join forces with more public health sources to engender broader awareness of critical issues. 
  • Try to fight the urge to spin off more headline pablum like “Brain Porn.”
  • How about we spend more time trying to solve the problems and less time concocting clever catch phrases?
  • Shine the light on how far the forces of marketing have exploited brain science advances (this is a genuine public service).
  • I am an unwavering advocate of making sure people understand how the forces of marketing are using the field to sell more products.
  • Again, what is truly “solid applicable knowledge” is frequently debatable (see #1 above), but every year the field–and by that I mean the interdisciplinary field (#3)–has more to offer the public.
  • 8. Put the brakes on “building a brain” — we already have plenty of them.
  • in my opinion we have enough to do with respect to figuring our how our organic brain works without spending massive resources on trying to recreate one.
  • 9. Turn the corner from “what’s wrong with our brains” to “what we can really do about it.” 
David McGavock

How Did Consciousness Evolve? - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...485558

research Consciousness Evolution

shared by David McGavock on 12 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • consciousness, is rarely studied in the context of evolution.
  • What is the adaptive value of consciousness? When did it evolve and what animals have it?
  • Attention Schema Theory (AST),
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  • suggests that consciousness arises as a solution to one of the most fundamental problems facing any nervous system: Too much information constantly flows in to be fully processed. The brain evolved increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for deeply processing a few select signals at the expense of others,
  • The next evolutionary advance was a centralized controller for attention that could coordinate among all senses. In many animals, that central controller is a brain area called the tectum
  • It coordinates something called overt attention
  • The tectum is a beautiful piece of engineering. To control the head and the eyes efficiently, it constructs something called an internal model, a feature well known to engineers. An internal model is a simulation that keeps track of whatever is being controlled and allows for predictions and planning.
  • With the evolution of reptiles around 350 to 300 million years ago, a new brain structure began to emerge – the wulst
  • our version is usually called the cerebral cortex and has expanded enormously
  • The cortex is like an upgraded tectum
  • The most important difference between the cortex and the tectum may be the kind of attention they control
  • tectum is the master of overt attention—pointing the sensory apparatus toward anything important
  • cortex ups the ante with something called covert attention
  • Your cortex can shift covert attention from the text in front of you to a nearby person, to the sounds in your backyard, to a thought or a memory. Covert attention is the virtual movement of deep processing from one item to another.
  • the cortex must model something much more abstract.
  • it does so by constructing an attention schema
  • a constantly updated set of information that describes what covert attention is doing moment-by-moment and what its consequences are
  • The attention schema is therefore strategically vague. It depicts covert attention in a physically incoherent way, as a non-physical essence. And this, according to the theory, is the origin of consciousness. We say we have consciousness because deep in the brain, something quite primitive is computing that semi-magical self-description.
  • In the AST, the attention schema first evolved as a model of one’s own covert attention. But once the basic mechanism was in place, according to the theory, it was further adapted to model the attentional states of others, to allow for social prediction
  • theory of mind, the ability to understand the possible contents of someone else’s mind.
  • Language is perhaps the most recent big leap in the evolution of consciousness. Nobody knows when human language first evolved. Certainly we had it by 70 thousand years ago when people began to disperse around the world, since all dispersed groups have a sophisticated language.
  • Maybe partly because of language and culture, humans have a hair-trigger tendency to attribute consciousness to everything around us.
  • Justin Barrett called it the Hyperactive Agency Detection Device, or HADD
  • David McGavock on 12 Jun 16
     
    The Attention Schema Theory (AST), developed over the past five years, may be able to answer those questions. The theory suggests that consciousness arises as a solution to one of the most fundamental problems facing any nervous system: Too much information constantly flows in to be fully processed. The brain evolved increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for deeply processing a few select signals at the expense of others, and in the AST, consciousness is the ultimate result of that evolutionary sequence. If the theory is right-and that has yet to be determined-then consciousness evolved gradually over the past half billion years and is present in a range of vertebrate species.
Tero Toivanen

Selective aphasia in a brain damaged bilingual patient : Neurophilosophy - 0 views

scienceblogs.com/...damageed_bilungual_patient.php

brain bilingual Arabic Hebrew CT scan frontal lobe parietal lobe crationomy hemorrhage

shared by Tero Toivanen on 11 Jul 09 - Cached
  • A unique case study published in the open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions sheds some light on this matter. The study, by Raphiq Ibrahim, a neurologist at the University of Haifa, describes a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew speaker who incurred brain damage following a viral infection. Consequently, the patient experienced severe deficits in Hebrew but not in Arabic. The findings support the view that specific components of a first and second language are represented by different substrates in the brain.
  • A native Arabic speaker, he learned Hebrew at an early age (4th grade) and later used it competently both professionally and academically.
  • A CT scan showed that he had suffered a massive hemorrhage in the left temporal lobe, which was compressing the tissue on both sides of the central sulcus, the prominent gfissure which separates the frontal and parietal lobes.
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  • A craniotomy was performed to relieve the pressure, and afterwards another scan showed moderate hemorrhage and herpes encephalitis in the left temporal lobe, and another hemorrhage beneath the outer membrane (the dura) lying over the right frontal lobe.
  • During his 2 month stay there, he developed epileptic seizures which originated in the left temporal lobe, and amnestic aphasia (an inability to name objects or to recognize their written or spoken names). 
  • After the rehabilitation period, a series of linguistic tests was administered to determine the extent of his speech deficits. M.H. exhibited deficits in both languages, but the most severe deficits were seen only in Hebrew. In this language he had a severe difficulty in recalling words and names, so that his speech was non-fluent and interrupted by frequent pauses. He had difficulty understanding others' spoken Hebrew, and also had great difficulty reading and writing Hebrew. In Arabic, his native language, all of these abilities were affected only mildy.
  • The results support a neurolinguistic model in which the brain of bilinguals contains a semantic system (which represents word meanings) which is common to both languages and which is connected to independent lexical systems (which encode the vocabulary of each language). The findings further suggest that the second language (in this case, Hebrew) is represented by an independent subsystem which does not represent the first language (Arabic) and is more succeptible to brain damage.
  • Tero Toivanen on 11 Jul 09
     
    A unique case study published in the open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions sheds some light on this matter. The study, by Raphiq Ibrahim, a neurologist at the University of Haifa, describes a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew speaker who incurred brain damage following a viral infection. Consequently, the patient experienced severe deficits in Hebrew but not in Arabic. The findings support the view that specific components of a first and second language are represented by different substrates in the brain.
Tero Toivanen

Music and Intelligence | Boost Your IQ - 0 views

boostyouriq.co.cc/music-and-intelligence

music brain intelligence training musical training research higher brain functions abstract reasoning skills math science

shared by Tero Toivanen on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Studies indicate that early exposure to musical training helps a child’s brain reach its potential by generating neural connections utilized in abstract reasoning.
  • The reasoning skills required for a test in spatial reasoning are the same ones children use when they listen to music. Children use these reasoning skills to order the notes in their brain to form the melodies. Also, some concepts of math must be understood in order to understand music. Experts speculate that listening to music exercises the same parts of the brain that handle mathematics, logic, and higher level reasoning.
  • In 1997 a study involving three groups of preschoolers was conducted to determine the effect of music versus computer training on early childhood development.
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  • The group that received the piano/keyboard training scored 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than either of the other two groups. These results suggest that music enhances certain higher brain functions, particularly abstract reasoning skills, required in math and science.
  • The use of music in training four and five year old children yielded the highest improvement in the ability to name body parts.
  • Although the three experimental groups displayed an increase in their ability to name body parts the music group exhibited the highest degree of improvement.
  • First grade students received extensive Kodaly training for seven months.
  • At the end of seven months the experimental group had higher reading scores than the control group, which did not receive any special treatment. Not only did the seven month instruction increase reading scores, but continued musical training proved to be beneficial. The experimental group continued to show higher reading scores with continued training.
  • Students who were involved in arts education achieved higher SAT scores. The longer students were involved in arts education, the higher the increase in SAT scores. This study also correlated arts education with higher scores in standardized tests, reading, English, history, citizenship, and geography.
  • The results indicated that students with a relatively lower socioeconomic status, that were exposed to arts education, had an advantage over those students without any arts education which was proportionally equal to the students with a relatively higher socioeconomic status and exposure to arts education.
  • Music exposure affects older students as well. Three groups of college students were exposed to either Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos, K448, a relaxation tape, or silence. The group exposed to the Mozart piece was the only group to achieve an increase on the spatial IQ test. Further studies revealed that neither dance music nor taped short stories produced an increase in spatial IQ similar to the Mozart piece. The increase in spatial IQ appears to be related to some unique aspects of the Mozart piece rather than music in general.
  • Music may not only be related to intelligence by its stimulation of the brain, but it may also increase intelligence by the type of attitudes, interests, and discipline it fosters in children.
  • Tero Toivanen on 22 Jun 09
     
    Studies indicate that early exposure to musical training helps a child's brain reach its potential by generating neural connections utilized in abstract reasoning.
Tero Toivanen

YouTube - Man without a memory - Clive Wearing [BBC - Time: Daytime] - 3 views

www.youtube.com/watch

youtube neuropsychology memory present moment

shared by Tero Toivanen on 03 Jan 10 - Cached
Ruth Howard liked it
  • Tero Toivanen on 03 Jan 10
     
    Man who don't have memory and is constantly living in the present moment.
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  • Ruth Howard on 04 Jan 10
     
    I love that ' bump up against' people and ideas counter to those which we' ve previously aligned-that' s kind of how I see aging gracefully-being able to see many more and others viewpoints-otherwise aging can seem like becoming caricatures of ourselves-we so believe our own thoughts (beliefs are after all only our much/most repeated thoughts!) and there' s no room for anyone or anything else! Mmmmmm yeah but now to live it!
  • Tero Toivanen on 04 Jan 10
     
    My mother had a stroke and now she has big problems to communicate. She understands allmost everything, but have great problems to express herself speaking. Aging is not easy thing if you have problems with your health.
  • Ruth Howard on 05 Jan 10
     
    Truly! It' s alot slower to align with our preferences for sure when sick. I sincerely recommend www.bruno-groening.org as a resource The Bruno Groning Circle of Friends-all volunteers!. It' s a type of Faith healing that I recognise as quite remarkable. It has strong old world Germanic Christian vibe and/but dont let that put you off the ' healing stream' which is very easy to teach to yourself/your mother and available to all regardless of religious affliations.
  • Tero Toivanen on 05 Jan 10
     
    Thak you for the link : )
Tero Toivanen

Sign language study shows multiple brain regions wired for language - 1 views

www.eurekalert.org/...uor-sls042910.php

sign language study language brain University of Rochester language capabilities

shared by Tero Toivanen on 30 Apr 10 - Cached
  • A new study from the University of Rochester finds that there is no single advanced area of the human brain that gives it language capabilities above and beyond those of any other animal species.
  • Instead, humans rely on several regions of the brain, each designed to accomplish different primitive tasks, in order to make sense of a sentence.
  • "We're using and adapting the machinery we already have in our brains," said study coauthor Aaron Newman. "Obviously we're doing something different [from other animals], because we're able to learn language unlike any other species. But it's not because some little black box evolved specially in our brain that does only language, and nothing else."
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  • The team of brain and cognitive scientists
  • published their findings in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
  • The study found that there are, in fact, distinct regions of the brain that are used to process the two types of sentences: those in which word order determined the relationships between the sentence elements, and those in which inflection was providing the information.
  • In fact, Newman said, in trying to understand different types of grammar, humans draw on regions of the brain that are designed to accomplish primitive tasks that relate to the type of sentence they are trying to interpret. For instance, a word order sentence draws on parts of the frontal cortex that give humans the ability to put information into sequences, while an inflectional sentence draws on parts of the temporal lobe that specialize in dividing information into its constituent parts, the study demonstrated.
  • Tero Toivanen on 30 Apr 10
     
    A new study from the University of Rochester finds that there is no single advanced area of the human brain that gives it language capabilities above and beyond those of any other animal species.
Tero Toivanen

Map of Synapse May Help Understand Basis of Many Diseases - NYTimes.com - 3 views

www.nytimes.com/...21brain.html

synapse map brain research neuroscience neurons science

shared by Tero Toivanen on 22 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • The research team, led by Seth Grant of the Sanger Institute near Cambridge, England, compiled the first exact inventory of all the protein components of the synaptic information-processing machinery. No fewer than 1,461 proteins are involved in this biological machinery, they report in the current issue of Nature Neuroscience.
  • Each neuron in the human brain makes an average 1,000 or so connections with other neurons. There are 100 billion neurons, so the brain probably contains 100 trillion synapses, its most critical working part.
  • The 1,461 genes that specify these synaptic proteins constitute more than 7 percent of the human genome’s 20,000 protein-coding genes, an indication of the synapse’s complexity and importance.
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  • Dr. Grant believes that the proteins are probably linked together to form several biological machines that process the information and change the physical properties of the neuron as a way of laying down a memory.
  • The new catalog of synaptic proteins “should open a major new window in mental disease,” said Jeffrey Noebels, an expert on the genetics of epilepsy at the Baylor College of Medicine. “We can go in there and systematically look for disease pathways and therefore druggable targets.”
  • Tero Toivanen on 22 Dec 10
     
    The research team, led by Seth Grant of the Sanger Institute near Cambridge, England, compiled the first exact inventory of all the protein components of the synaptic information-processing machinery. No fewer than 1,461 proteins are involved in this biological machinery
  • Ruth Howard on 26 Dec 10
     
    Seeing mental health as a druggable target is psychotic...
Tero Toivanen

NIMH · Our brains are made of the same stuff, despite DNA differences - 0 views

www.nimh.nih.gov/...-despite-dna-differences.shtml

nimh brains dna differences gene prefrontal cortex schizophrenia autism research study genetic variation neuroscience neurons

shared by Tero Toivanen on 30 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • “Having at our fingertips detailed information about when and where specific gene products are expressed in the brain brings new hope for understanding how this process can go awry in schizophrenia, autism and other brain disorders,” said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
  • Among key findings in the prefrontal cortex:Individual genetic variations are profoundly linked to expression patterns. The most similarity across individuals is detected early in development and again as we approach the end of life.Different types of related genes are expressed during prenatal development, infancy, and childhood, so that each of these stages shows a relatively distinct transcriptional identity. Three-fourths of genes reverse their direction of expression after birth, with most switching from on to off.Expression of genes involved in cell division declines prenatally and in infancy, while expression of genes important for making synapses, or connections between brain cells, increases. In contrast, genes required for neuronal projections decline after birth – likely as unused connections are pruned.By the time we reach our 50s, overall gene expression begins to increase, mirroring the sharp reversal of fetal expression changes that occur in infancy.Genetic variation in the genome as a whole showed no effect on variation in the transcriptome as a whole, despite how genetically distant individuals might be. Hence, human cortexes have a consistent molecular architecture, despite our diversity.
  • Among key findings:Over 90 percent of the genes expressed in the brain are differentially regulated across brain regions and/or over developmental time periods. There are also widespread differences across region and time periods in the combination of a gene’s exons that are expressed.Timing and location are far more influential in regulating gene expression than gender, ethnicity or individual variation.Among 29 modules of co-expressed genes identified, each had distinct expression patterns and represented different biological processes. Genetic variation in some of the most well-connected genes in these modules, called hub genes, has previously been linked to mental disorders, including schizophrenia and depression.Telltale similarities in expression profiles with genes previously implicated in schizophrenia and autism are providing leads to discovery of other genes potentially involved in those disorders.Sex differences in the risk for certain mental disorders may be traceable to transcriptional mechanisms. More than three-fourths of 159 genes expressed differentially between the sexes were male-biased, most prenatally. Some genes found to have such sex-biased expression had previously been associated with disorders that affect males more than females, such as schizophrenia, Williams syndrome, and autism.
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  • Our brains are all made of the same stuff. Despite individual and ethnic genetic diversity, our prefrontal cortex shows a consistent molecular architecture.
  • Males show more sex-biased gene expression. More genes differentially expressed (DEX) between the sexes were found in males than females, especially prenatally. Some genes found to have such sex-biased expression had previously been associated with disorders that affect males more than females, such as schizophrenia, Williams syndrome, and autism.
  • Tero Toivanen on 30 Oct 11
     
    Our brains are all made of the same stuff. Despite individual and ethnic genetic diversity, our prefrontal cortex shows a consistent molecular architecture. 
Tero Toivanen

Use It or Lose It: The Principles of Brain Plasticity - 3 views

articles.mercola.com/...brain-plasticity.aspx

brain plasticity research learning neurons memory Use It or Lose It Brain Gym nutrition

shared by Tero Toivanen on 09 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • You probably haven't realizd it, but as you acquire an ability – for example, the ability to read – you have actually created a system in the brain that does not exist, that's not in place, in the non-reader. It [the ability; the brain system that controls the ability] actually evolves in you as it has been acquired through experience or learning.
  • "There are some very useful exercises at www.BrainHQ.com that are free, and using them can give a person a better understanding of how exercising your brain can drive it in a rejuvenating direction. Using exercises at BrainHQ, most people, of any age, can drive sharp improvements in brain speed and accuracy, and thereby rewire the brain so that it again represents information in detail," he says.
  • Children operating in the 10th to 20th percentile of academic performance are commonly able to improve their scores to the middle or average level with 20-30 hours of intensive computer-based training. "That's a big difference for the child," he says. "It carries most children who are near the bottom of the class, on the average, to be somewhere in the middle or above average in the class. And that gives struggling children a chance to really succeed and in many cases excel in school."
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  • Careful controlled studies in seniors have also been reported in scientific journals. After 40 hours of computer-based training, the average improvement in cognitive performance across the board was 14 years. On average, if you were 70 years old when you underwent the training after 40 hours of brain training, your cognitive abilities operated like that of a 56-year old. Equally strong or even greater effects were seen in 40 to 50 year olds using the program. Individuals who worked on the BrainHQ exercises at home did just as well as those who completed training in a clinic or research center.
  • Ideally, it would be wise to invest at least 20 minutes a day. But no more than five to seven minutes is to be spent on a specific task. When you spend longer amounts of time on a task, the benefits weaken. According to Dr. Merzenich, the primary benefits occur in the first five or six minutes of the task.
  • Find ways to engage yourself in new learning
  • "When it matters to you, you are going to drive changes in your brain," he explains. "That's something always to keep in mind. If what you're doing seems senseless, meaningless, if it does not matter to you, then you're gaining less from it."
  • Get 15-30 minutes of physical exercise each day,
  • Spend about five minutes every day working on the refinement of a specific, small domain of your physical body.
  • You can typically improve yourself to the highest practical or possible level in anywhere between five to a dozen brief sessions of seven or eight minutes each. Again, having a sense of purpose is crucial.
  • Stay socially engaged.
  • Practice "mindfulness,"
  • Foods have an immense impact on your brain, and eating whole foods as described in my nutrition plan will best support your mental and physical health.
  • The medical literature is also showing that coconut oil can be of particular benefit for brain health, and anecdotal evidence suggests it could be very beneficial in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels
  • Take a high-quality animal-based omega-3 fat.
  • Avoid processed foods and sugars, especially fructose
  • Avoid grains
  • Avoid artificial sweeteners
  • Avoid soy
  • Men who ate tofu at least twice weekly had more cognitive impairment, compared with those who rarely or never ate the soybean curd, and their cognitive test results were about equivalent to what they would have been if they were five years older than their current age.
  • Tero Toivanen on 09 Dec 12
     
    "It was once thought that any brain function lost was irretrievable. Today, research into what's referred to as "brain plasticity" has proven that this is not the case. On the contrary, your brain continues to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity."
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