University of Pennsylvania Clinical psychologist, Dr. Mary Riggs Cohen, and her former patient, Jacob Heinz, share their thoughts about what it means to live with the silent disability called ASPERGER SYNDROME (ALSO CALLED HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISM), a neurological disorder of the brain. Jacob Heinz was jailed in 2006 in a Bensalem, Pennsylvania Police Department sting operation via myspace.com where officers posed as a 13 year old girl and had sexual conversations. Given the skyrocketing autism epidemic bedeviling the United States, are adult men and women with asperger syndrome more likely to commit sexual crimes than others?University of Pennsylvania Clinical psychologist, Dr. Mary Riggs Cohen, and her former... more
In the summer of 2007, a team of Stanford graduate students dropped a mouse into a plastic basin. The mouse sniffed the floor curiously. It didn’t seem to care that a fiber-optic cable was threaded through its skull. Nor did it seem to mind that the right half of its motor cortex had been reprogrammed.
One of the students flipped a switch and intense blue light shone through the cable into the mouse’s brain, illuminating it with an eerie glow. Instantly, the mouse began running in counterclockwise circles as though hell-bent on winning a murine Olympics.
Then the light went off, and the mouse stopped. Sniffed. Stood up on its hind legs and looked directly at the students as if to ask, “Why the hell did I just do that?” And the students whooped and cheered like this was the most important thing they’d ever seen.
Because it was the most important thing they’d ever seen. They’d shown that a beam of light could control brain activity with great precision. The mouse didn’t lose its memory, have a seizure, or die. It ran in a circle. Specifically, a counterclockwise circle.In the summer of 2007, a team of Stanford graduate students dropped a mouse into a... more
Researchers have found a pharmaceutical way to clear some of the cognitive fog that results from a sleepless night. In a new study using lab mice, researchers corrected the memory problems in sleep-deprived mice through a drug that suppressed levels of a certain enzyme in a brain region called the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory and learning.
The study, published in Nature, helps tease out the specific effects of sleep deprivation on the brain. Says lead researcher Christopher Vecsey: “One of the main problems is that sleep deprivation does a lot of things to the brain, and it’s easy to get caught in a mish-mash of different effects” [Nature News].
In the experiment, two groups of mice were either allowed to rest over a five-hour period or were constantly disturbed by handling. The sleep-deprived group demonstrated particular problems when it came to performing a basic retrieval test, which they had learned before [BBC News]. When the researchers examined the brains of the sleep-deprived mice, they found that these mice made more of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4). In turn, the surplus of PDE4 caused a shortfall of a compound called cAMP, which is involved in forming new memories in a brain area called the hippocampus [WebMD]. When the researchers gave sleep-deprived mice a drug that stops PDE4 from working, the mice aced their memory tests.
While the study appears to point the way toward drugs that could help out sleep-deprived humans, overworked and overstressed people shouldn’t be clamoring for a prescription, says sleep specialist Neil Stanley, who wasn’t involved in the research. “We are always going to need drugs for people with serious disorders, but we don’t want to end up medicalising lifestyles. We need to go back to basics and think about the way we as a society lead our lives, and the impact this has on our sleep, rather than looking for a cure” [BBC News].Researchers have found a pharmaceutical way to clear some of the cognitive fog that... more
It sounds like a scene from an insect version of Total Recall: Using genetically engineered fruit flies and laser beams, researchers have found a way to embed false, fearful memories in the flies.
Researchers first tested normal flies in a chamber where a jets of air on either side brought two different odors into the container. The researchers delivered an electric shock each time a fly strayed into a particular odour stream, which taught the flies to prefer the other one: the flies learned to move in the direction of the shock-related odour 30 per cent less often [New Scientist].
Next, the researchers created a strain of genetically engineered flies with certain neurons that would be activated by a laser blast. Lead researcher Gero Miesenböck explains that with this technique, called optogenetics, researchers can use light to activate particular cell types that have been genetically engineered to express a light-responsive protein. When laser pulses hit the brain, cells expressing the light-sensitive protein activate. “It’s like sending a radio signal to a city but only those houses with a radios set to the right frequency will get the signal,” says Miesenböck [Nature News].
The flies were then put back in the chamber with the two jets of air, and every time they wandered into one of the odor streams, the laser was fired. Many of the flies were unaffected, but a select group quickly learned to avoid the odor stream associated with the laser pulse. Miesenböck says these flies feared that smell as if they had been conditioned to associate an electric shock with it. “Stimulating just these neurons gives the flies a memory of an unpleasant event that never happened,” he says [New Scientist].
In the genetic engineering process, the scientists had tweaked different neurons in different groups of flies. The contingent that did react to the laser all had 12 particular light-sensitive neurons, according to the study published in the journal Cell. Those 12 brain cells may be the root of associative learning, researchers say–at least in flies.It sounds like a scene from an insect version of Total Recall: Using genetically... more
New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought -- with the help of electrodes, a computer and Internet connection.
Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control (just by thinking) devices such as computers, robots, rehabilitation technology and virtual reality environments.
This experiment goes a step further and was conducted by Dr Christopher James from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. The aim was to expand the current limits of this technology and show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible.
Dr James comments: "Whilst BCI is no longer a new thing and person to person communication via the nervous system was shown previously in work by Professor Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading, here we show, for the first time, true brain to brain interfacing. We have yet to grasp the full implications of this but there are various scenarios where B2B could be of benefit such as helping people with severe debilitating muscle wasting diseases, or with the so-called 'locked-in' syndrome, to communicate and it also has applications for gaming."
His experiment had one person using BCI to transmit thoughts, translated as a series of binary digits, over the internet to another person whose computer receives the digits and transmits them to the second user's brain through flashing an LED lamp.
While attached to an EEG amplifier, the first person would generate and transmit a series of binary digits, imagining moving their left arm for zero and their right arm for one. The second person was also attached to an EEG amplifier and their PC would pick up the stream of binary digits and flash an LED lamp at two different frequencies, one for zero and the other one for one. The pattern of the flashing LEDs is too subtle to be picked by the second person, but it is picked up by electrodes measuring the visual cortex of the recipient.
The encoded information is then extracted from the brain activity of the second user and the PC can decipher whether a zero or a one was transmitted. This shows true brain-to-brain activity.
Dr James is part of the University of Southampton's Brain-Computer Interfacing Research Programme, which brings together biomedical engineering and the clinical sciences and provides a cohesive scientific basis for rehabilitation research and management. Projects are driven by clinical problems, using cutting-edge signal processing research to produce an investigative tool for advancing knowledge of neurophysiological mechanisms, as well as providing a practical therapeutic system to be used outside a specialised BCI laboratory.New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible... more
It wasn’t quite as dramatic as a slow-motion movie action sequence or a slo-mo instant reply, but researchers have successfully slowed down people’s manipulation of a computer joystick by boosting one type of brain wave. The researchers generated a small electrical current in the brains of 14 healthy volunteers using scalp electrodes. The current increased the activity of normal beta waves [New Scientist], and slowed the volunteers’ reaction times by 10 percent. The study, published in Current Biology, has implications for Parkinson’s Disease, in which patients have trouble with voluntary motions.
Brain waves are generated naturally when groups of neurons fire in a certain rhythm. Lead researcher Peter Brown explains that the low-frequency beta waves were already known to play a role in movement. “Different parts of the brain work together and generate certain frequencies,” he explained, “and the movement areas of the brain come together in beta activity. That activity is suppressed just prior to and during movement, so we think the body gets rid of it to prepare to make a new movement” [BBC News].
In the study, the volunteers used a joystick to move a cursor to a target on a computer screen. When they performed the task in the midst of a beta wave boost, their fastest reaction times slowed by 10 percent. Researchers say they were surprised to get such a large effect.
That proof that the beta waves directly affect human movement support a theory of how Parkinson’s limits patients’ motions. Neuroscientist John Stein pioneered the theory of what he refers to as a “beta straitjacket” — a pattern of brain activity that prevents Parkinson’s disease patients from making voluntary movements. “The theory is that… in Parkinson’s disease when people try to move they cannot suppress beta [brain waves] and therefore cannot move” [BBC News], he said. Potential Parkinson’s therapies could try to suppress beta waves in patients, he says.
Doctors have already had success in treating Parkinson’s patients with deep brain stimulation, in which an implanted device acts as a “brain pacemaker” and emits regular pulses of electricity. The latest study differs from previous work by using an oscillating current that more closely mimics normal brain waves, as opposed to constant brain stimulation found in other studies [Popular Science].It wasn’t quite as dramatic as a slow-motion movie action sequence or a slo-mo... more
In populating the growing brain, neural stem cells must strike a delicate balance between two key processes – proliferation, in which the cells multiply to provide plenty of starting materials – and differentiation, in which those materials evolve into functioning neurons.
If the stem cells proliferate too much, they could grow out of control and produce a tumor. If they proliferate too little, there may not be enough cells to become the billions of neurons of the brain. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have now found that this critical balance rests in large part on a single gene, called GSK-3.
The finding suggests that GSK-3 controls the signals that determine how many neurons actually end up composing the brain. It also has important implications for patients with neuropsychiatric illness, as links have recently been drawn between GSK-3 and schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.
One of the genes associated with schizophrenia appears to use GSK-3 as an intermediary to exert its effects on nerve cells. In addition, lithium, a popular treatment for bipolar disorder, acts, in part, by shutting down GSK-3. “I don’t believe anyone would have imagined that deleting GSK-3 would have such dramatic effects on neural stem cells,” said senior study author William D. Snider, M.D., professor of neurology and cell and molecular physiology, and director of the UNC Neuroscience Center. “People will have to think carefully about whether giving a drug like lithium to children could have negative effects on the underlying structure of the nervous system.”
In a study appearing online October 4th in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Snider and his colleagues created a mouse model in which both forms of the GSK-3 gene – designated alpha and beta – had been deleted. They decided to go after GSK-3 – which stands for glycogen synthase kinase 3 – because it is one of the most studied kinases or signaling molecules in all of biology.
The researchers used a “conditional knock-out” strategy to remove GSK-3 at a specific time in the development of the mouse embryo, when a type of cell called a radial progenitor cell had just been formed.
As the brain develops, neural stem cells evolve through three different stages -- neural epithelial cells, radial progenitor cells and intermediate neural precursors. The radial progenitor cells are especially important because they are thought to provide the majority of the neurons of the developing brain but also differentiate themselves to give rise to all the cellular elements of the brain. The researchers discovered that deleting GSK-3 during this second phase of development caused the radial progenitor cells to be locked in a constant state of proliferation.
“It was really quite striking,” said Snider. “Without GSK-3, these neural stem cells just keep dividing and dividing and dividing. The entire developing brain fills up with these neural stem cells that never turn into mature neurons.”
GSK-3 is known to coordinate signals for proliferation and differentiation within nerve cells through multiple “signaling pathways.” Thus, the researchers looked to see what effect deleting the molecule had on some of these pathways. They found that every one of the pathways that they studied went awry.
Snider and his colleagues now want to see if adding GSK-3 back to their genetically engineered mice can convert the proliferating stem cells into neurons, possibly resulting in three to four times as many neurons in the mutants as normal.
“I find that quite interesting because I can’t think of any other manipulation that potentially would enable you to simply dial up and down the number of neurons that are generated in the brain,” said Snider.
Funding for the studies led at UNC came from the National Institutes of Health. Study co-authors from Snider’s laboratory at UNC include lead author Woo-Yang Kim, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate; Xinshuo Wang, graduateIn populating the growing brain, neural stem cells must strike a delicate balance... more
While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life, little is known about its relationship to ordinary belief at the level of the brain. Nor is it known whether religious believers and nonbelievers differ in how they evaluate statements of fact. Our lab previously has used functional neuroimaging to study belief as a general mode of cognition [1], and others have looked specifically at religious belief [2]. However, no research has compared these two states of mind directly.
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure signal changes in the brains of thirty subjects—fifteen committed Christians and fifteen nonbelievers—as they evaluated the truth and falsity of religious and nonreligious propositions.
While religious and nonreligious thinking differentially engage broad regions of the frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobes, the difference between belief and disbelief appears to be content-independent. Our study compares religious thinking with ordinary cognition and, as such, constitutes a step toward developing a neuropsychology of religion. However, these findings may also further our understanding of how the brain accepts statements of all kinds to be valid descriptions of the world.While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life,... more
Peter Katz and MindSign Neuromarketing use an fMRI brain scanner to see how just how scary his film POPSKULL is.Peter Katz and MindSign Neuromarketing use an fMRI brain scanner to see how just how... more
Earlier this year we were amazed when University of California researchers controlled a beetle via electrical implants. The video available at the time of the original report showed beetles tethered in place while electrical stimuli was applied via the chip. New video of free flight is has now been posted. Although the motion is rather sporadic, it is obvious that simple commands to start flight, stop flight, and turn left or right are having their intended effect. Check out this cyborg action after the break. Is DARPA one step closer to unleashing legions of insect warriors on unsuspecting masses?Earlier this year we were amazed when University of California researchers controlled... more
The emerging field of neuromarketing is untangling the knots that bind specific brain activity to stimulation, emotions and decision-making. By rendering the results in full-color graphics, it yields numerous potential business applications.
The team at San Diego-based MindSign Neuromarketing is dedicating itself to brain imagery research, the results of which are having an impact ranging from the movie theater to the therapist’s couch.The emerging field of neuromarketing is untangling the knots that bind specific brain... more
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience... more
In a bizarre parasitic death sentence, a fungus turns carpenter ants into the walking dead and gets them to die in a spot that's perfect for the fungus to grow and reproduce.
Scientists have no clue how the fungus takes control of the brains of ants so effectively. But a new study in the September issue of the American Naturalist reveals an incredible set of strategies that ensue.
The carpenter ants nest high in the canopy of a forest in Thailand, and they trek to the forest floor to forage. The fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, prefers to end up on the undersides leaves sprouting from the northwest side of plants that grow on the forest floor, the new study showed. That's where temperature, humidity and sunlight are ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce and infect more ants.
Once infected by the fungus, an ant is compelled to climb down from the canopy to the low leaves, where it clamps down with its mandibles just before it dies.
"The fungus accurately manipulates the infected ants into dying where the parasite prefers to be, by making the ants travel a long way during the last hours of their lives," said study leader David P. Hughes of Harvard University.
After the ant dies, the fungus continues to grow inside it. By dissecting victims, Hughes and colleagues found that the parasite converts the ant's innards into sugars that help the fungus grow. But it leaves the muscles controlling the mandibles intact to make sure the ant keeps its death grip on the leaf.
The fungus also preserves the ant's outer shell, growing into cracks and crevices to reinforce weak spots, thereby fashioning a protective coating that keeps microbes and other fungi out.
"The fungus has evolved a suite of novel strategies to retain possession of its precious resource," Hughes said.In a bizarre parasitic death sentence, a fungus turns carpenter ants into the walking... more
Ever wonder why your dog seems to be a bit smarter than your child? Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, says that, according to a study he has conducted with various breeds of dogs, the average dog is as developmentally intelligent as the average 2-year-old human child. Studies that include modified tests for children have been used to gauge the relative intelligence of dogs of later and the animals may actually be a little more intelligent than many people have thought. According to the article in Live Science, Coren collected data from 200 dog obedience schools in Canada and the United States and found that the smartest canines averaged in intelligence with a 2-and-a-half-year-old child.
On average dogs can learn approximately 165 words. The more intelligent dogs can acquire a vocabulary awareness of around 250 words. In math skills, dogs are aware of numerical differences up to five digits and can calculate the difference. The word and math skills are equivalent to that of a child of 2 to 2.5 years of age.
Yet, as far as socialization is concerned, dogs are as intelligent as the average teenager. Coren says their socialization is "complex" and their concerns center around being "interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing." (If one is surprised to hear these findings, it should be noted that Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of the popular radio talk show "Loveline," relates in his book The Mirror Effect that the mind of a teenager is much like the mind of and infant child, going through radical changes in growth, chemical composition, and overall cognitive development.)
"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Stanley Coren said. He will present the findings of his studies at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."Ever wonder why your dog seems to be a bit smarter than your child? Stanley Coren, a... more
Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī कुण्डलिनी) Sanskrit, literally "coiled". In Indian yoga, a "corporeal energy"[1] - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine,[2][3][4] hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent power'. Kundalini is considered a part of the subtle body along with chakras (energy centres) and nadis (channels). Each chakra is said to contain special characteristics [5]. The overall concept has many points in common with Chinese acupuncture.Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī कुण्डलिनी) Sanskrit, literally... more
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE TRAILER. THIS IS WHAT A PERSON'S BRAIN LOOKS LIKE WHILE WATCHING THE TRAILER FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. This video shows the reaction--of the axial, sagittal planes--of a subject's brain while watching the trailer for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
*Red means activating.THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE TRAILER. THIS IS WHAT A... more
NeuroCranial Restructuring is a new procedure that involves manipulating the skull in order to provide a variety of healthy and cosmetic benefits. In this pod we visit the clinic of Dr. Dean Howell, the doctor who invented the procedure. We follow three patients as they go through NCR treatment and witness the effects of this alternative medicine cure-all.NeuroCranial Restructuring is a new procedure that involves manipulating the skull in... more
A 64-year-old woman informed doctors at Geneva University Hospital about a third arm coming from her body.
Only a few days after suffering a stroke, the woman began to see her new 'arm' and use it to her advantage. Amazingly she has been able to stop itches but cannot penetrate solid objects.
A detailed examination by the woman's neurologist, Asaid Khateb, showed that the vision was a rare case of supernumerary phantom limb (SPL).
Doctors have never recorded such a case of a person being able to feel, see and consciously move a non-existing limb. The findings are published in the Annals of Neurology.A 64-year-old woman informed doctors at Geneva University Hospital about a third arm... more
A designer has created a "sexy" range of prosthetic limbs that he says will be high-performance fashion statements.
Hans Alexander Huseklepp calls his designs 'immaculate' and says they could revolutionize the fake limb market. It's a state of the art system that connects the central nervous system to the limb and allows more movement than a normal human arm.
And they don't try to look like real arms, but sexy robot sci-fi ones instead.A designer has created a "sexy" range of prosthetic limbs that he says will... more
