Skip to main content

Home/ SciByte/ Group items tagged Dreams

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mars Base

Could scientists peek into your dreams? (w/ video) - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2013-04-scientists-peek.html

scibyte89 Dreams

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • small new study suggests
  • Visual experiences you have when dreaming are detectable by the same type of brain activity that occurs when looking at actual images when you're awake
  • The scientists created decoding computer programs based on brain activity measured while wide-awake study participants looked at certain images
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • right after being awakened from the early stages of sleep, the researchers asked the subjects to describe the dream they were having
  • used functional MRI to monitor brain activity of the participants and polysomnography to record the physical changes that occur during sleep
  • compared evidence of brain activity when participants were awake and looking at real images to the brain activity they saw when participants were dreaming
  • the study shows it may be possible to use brain activity patterns to understand something about what a person is dreaming about
  • current approach requires the data of image viewing and sleep within the same [person
  • methods being developed for aligning brain patterns across people
  • there are practical applications to the research
  • evidence suggesting that the pattern of spontaneous brain activity is relevant to health issues
  • researchers chose to awaken the subjects in light sleep rather than in deeper "rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep solely to make the research easier to do
  • it takes at least an hour to reach first REM stage, it would be difficult to get sleep and dream data from multiple participants
  • why it is so hard to remember a dream minutes after waking up
  • thinks it is because particular neurotransmitters or brain regions involved in memory are not active during sleep
  • During sleep and dreaming, part of the brain—the higher visual cortex—is working as if seeing images
  • one expert said the results are intriguing, he was cautious
  • previous disappointments relating brain activity to complex visual experience
  • like to see this replicated
Mars Base

Dream contents deciphered by computer | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...ontents_deciphered_by_computer

scibyte89 Dreams

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Experiments with mice have revealed aspects of sleep and dreaming, such as how the experiences contribute to forming memories
  • researchers recorded brain activity in three adult male volunteers during the early stages of sleep
  • After the subjects had dozed off, they were repeatedly awakened and asked for detailed reports on what they had seen while sleeping
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • After gathering at least 200 such reports from the three men, the researchers used a lexical database to group the dreamed objects in coarse categories, such as street, furniture and girl
  • On average, the computer could pick which of two objects had appeared in a dream 70 percent of the time
  • Computer algorithms sorted through
  • patterns of brain activity, linking particular patterns with objects
  • The study bolsters the notion that the vivid imagery of dreams, no matter how fantastic, is as real as waking life,
  • from the brain’s perspective
Mars Base

Study identifies how muscles are paralyzed during sleep - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2012-07-muscles-paralyzed.html

SleepDisorder GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
  • During REM sleep — the deep sleep where most recalled dreams occur — your eyes continue to move but the rest of the body's muscles are stopped
  • In a series of experiments
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • neuroscientists
  • found that the neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine caused REM sleep paralysis in rats by "switching off" the specialized cells in the brain that allow muscles to be active
  • reversed earlier beliefs that glycine was a lone inhibitor of these motor neurons.
  • By identifying the neurotransmitters and receptors involved in sleep-related paralysis, this study points us to possible molecular targets for developing treatments for sleep-related motor disorders
  • Previous research suggested neurotransmitter receptors called ionotropic GABAA/glycine receptors in the motor neurons caused REM sleep paralysis
  • when the researchers blocked these receptors, REM sleep paralysis still occurred.
  • to prevent REM sleep paralysis, they had to block both the ionotropic receptors and metabotropic GABAB receptors, a different receptor system
  • when the motor cells were cut off from all sources of GABA and glycine, the paralysis did not occur
  • suggest the two neurotransmitters must both be present together to maintain motor control during sleep
  • finding could be especially helpful for those with REM sleep disorder, a disease that causes people to act out their dreams
Mars Base

Do Dolphins Speak Whale in Their Sleep? - ScienceNOW - 2 views

news.sciencemag.org/...hins-speak-whale-in-their.html

scibyte30 dolphins sleep

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers discovered the dolphins' midnight melodies by accident
  • Every day, as music and sounds of the sea play in the background, they show off their swimming, jumping, and ball-catching skills for an adoring audience and squawk and whistle just like dolphins should
  • But at night, they make strange noises that researchers believe are imitations of humpback whale songs included in the performance soundtrack
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • Ethologist
  • and her colleagues had hung underwater microphones in the tank because little is known about what dolphins sound like at night
  • One night, they suddenly heard 25 new sounds (see below) that the dolphins had never made before
  • dolphins are known for mimicry
  • researchers examined their complex daytime environment to determine
  • zeroed in on the new soundtrack that Planète Sauvage was playing during performances
  • included music, sea gulls' calls, the dolphins' own whistles, and humpback whale calls
  • researchers used a computer program to compare auditory recordings of the whale
  • showed that the two sounds were very similar
  • the dolphins had been captive their entire lives, they couldn't have picked them up from real whales
  • the team asked 20 human volunteers to listen to humpback whale sounds and wild dolphin sounds
  • researchers played the nighttime vocalizations and asked the volunteers whether the sounds came from a whale or a dolphin
  • About 76% of the time, the volunteers classified the imitations as sounds from real whales
  • Because the dolphins didn't make these noises during the show, the finding suggests that they waited to practice the sounds hours later.
  • the shows prime the animals to learn and remember information
  • find out whether the dolphins are asleep and dreaming when they mimic
  • dreams help dolphins etch new information into their memories, just like in humans
  • capture electroencephalogram recordings of the dolphins' brains at night
  • a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom who studies animal vocalization, says that the idea that dolphins might delay their rehearsals for hours is intriguin
  • isn't convinced from the small number of recordings that the researchers obtained that the dolphins were imitating whales
  • dolphins make so many different sounds that it's difficult to pin down one as an imitation of a particular source
  • songbirds rehearse their imitations of other noises at night, so he thinks it's not unlikely that dolphins might do the same.
Mars Base

Could People Hibernate? Lemurs Give Clues - News Watch - 0 views

newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/...le-hibernate-lemurs-give-clues

scibyte101 hibernate

shared by Mars Base on 05 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs are the only primates that can hibernate
  • lemurs are unique in that they can go the entire hibernation period—up to eight months—without fully sleeping
  • hibernation doesn’t necessarily mean sleep
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • hibernation simply refers to the seasonal bodily changes that occur in some animals—slower heart rates, decreased oxygen intake, and a reduced ability to regulate body temperature
  • during hibernation, a lemur’s breathing can slow to one inhalation every 20 minutes, and its heart rate drops from a normal 200 beats per minute to just 4 beats per minute
  • lemurs can hibernate, surviving three-quarters of a year without deep sleep,
  • The longest a human has ever been recorded going without sleep is allegedly 18 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes
  • severely sleep-deprived humans have a tendency to fall asleep for seconds at a time, it’s hard to prove such claims without brain monitoring
  • rapid eye movement (REM) sleep—which is when we dream
  • non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is vital. When you fall into bed after pulling an all-nighter
  • deep, non-REM sleep that you want
  • when lemurs hibernate, scientists speculate that they experience only REM sleep. Though no one can prove whether lemurs actually dream
  • primates exhibit all the telltale signs of a full night’s REM sleep such as increased brain activity, rapid eye movements, and muscle paralysis
  • A 1989 study by sleep scientist
  • demonstrated the lethal consequences of sleep deprivation
  • When the researcher kept ten rats awake, depriving them of non-REM sleep, they developed skin lesions, lost weight, and experienced an erosion of their gastrointestinal tracts.
  • After 32 days, all of the rats were dead
  • If you completely deprive animals of [non-REM] sleep, then they die
  • yet the lemurs that hibernate appear to be able to go for months without sleep…and they’re not dying
  • Lemurs in captivity often don’t hibernate
  • Some of [the lemurs hibernated] 40 feet off the ground in the middle of the forest in coastal Madagascar
  • team visited the primates in their natural habitat—Madagascar
  • By placing the lemurs in special nesting boxes and attaching EEGs to their tiny foreheads while they hibernated, Krystal was able to record their vital signs
  • found that when it was warm outside, close to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius), the primates would only hibernate in REM sleep.
Mars Base

Lawmakers Vote to Rename NASA Dryden After Neil Armstrong | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rmstrong-nasa-center-name.html

scibyte84

shared by Mars Base on 27 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to rename a NASA flight research center after the late Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon
  • was approved unanimously in the House, calls for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California to be renamed the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.
  • also renames the surrounding Western Aeronautical Test Range after Hugh L. Dryden to continue honoring the aeronautical engineer.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Dryden was the visionary behind NASA's X-15 rocket plane and the Apollo program. Neil Armstrong was the one who flew the spacecraft Dryden envisioned
  • This is at least the third time since 2007 that the House of Representatives has tried to rename the NASA center after Armstrong
  • the bill now passed in the House, it will be referred on to the Senate for consideration
  • Dryden recommended to President John F. Kennedy that the goal of putting a man on the moon within 10 years was achievable and something the American people could rally behind
  • Neil Armstrong, flying with his Apollo 11 crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, accomplished Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon
  • Armstrong died Aug. 25 at age 82 following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures
  • Dryden was not able to see his dream become reality, as he died in 1965
  • honor both men's legacies by naming the Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong and the surrounding Test Range after Hugh Dryden
Mars Base

Neil Armstrong, 1st man on the moon, dies at 82 - 0 views

phys.org/...l-armstrong-1st-moon-dies.html

scibyte60 NeilArmstrong

shared by Mars Base on 25 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • "I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."
  • At the time of the flight's 40th anniversary, Armstrong again was low-key, telling a gathering that the space race was "the ultimate peaceful competition: USA versus U.S.S.R. It did allow both sides to take the high road, with the objectives of science and learning and exploration."
  • In all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and the last moon mission in 1972
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, on a farm in Ohio
  • He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver's license
  • enrolled in Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in Korea
  • He became a test pilot with what evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.
  • accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962
  • backup commander for the historic Apollo 8 mission at Christmastime in 1968
  • In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong's parents
  • People were pulling grass out of their front yard."
  • Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
  • In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
  • remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a farm, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.
  • "I can honestly say—and it's a big surprise to me—that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said
  • His family's statement
  • "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
Mars Base

Regrowing human body parts: The dream comes within reach - NBC News.com - 0 views

www.nbcnews.com/...s-just-over-horizon-6C10984423

scibyte108 ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 05 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Sometime in the next few decades, humans may be able to regrow a finger here, a toe there – and maybe even fresh patches of beating heart tissue
  • Human hearts are among the most promising targets
  • A decade ago
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • demonstrated that zebrafish had the ability to repair a badly damaged heart, thanks to a particular protein that regulates the regenerative process
  • That trick could work for humans as well as fish
  • this month, researchers from the Gladstone Institutes showed that they could turn human scar tissue into electrically conductive tissue in a lab dish by fiddling with just a few key genes
  • Among the hurdles that lie ahead: taking that technique out of the lab and applying it to living human hearts
  • humans already have demonstrated some ability to regenerate body parts
  • very young children can fill out the tips of chopped off fingers and toes
  • the salamander, which can regrow a whole arm below the joint
  • Young mice are able to regenerate toes, too
  • been studying mouse toes to understand how a similar regrowth mechanism can be reactivated or imitated in adult humans
  • In 2010, his lab showed it was possible to enhance the regenerative response in adult mice
  • researchers are cautious about predicting how studies of animal regeneration will be applied to humans
  • it's dangerous to say, 'Yes, we expect to regenerate a limb
  • the field is reaching a turning point
1 - 15 of 15
Showing 20▼ items per page