tagged w/ brain science
-
Researchers are discovering what a healthy brain is supposed to look like, via brain imaging.Researchers are discovering what a healthy brain is supposed to look like, via brain... more
-
-
A new study by Marcus Arvan, PhD, appearing in the peer-reviewed research journal, Neuroethics, confirms and extends upon the results of an earlier study linking socially conservative views to three anti-social personality traits: Machiavellianism (deception), narcissism (overinflated sense of self-worth) and psychopathy (absence of guilt or remorse). Arvan’s two studies together suggest that socially conservative views are between 5 to 30 times more likely to be related to anti-social traits than socially liberal views.
Arvan’s earlier study (“Bad News for Conservatives? Moral Judgments and the Dark Triad Personality Traits: A Correlational Study,” published in Neuroethics) found these three anti-social traits to be related to conservative views on the death penalty, gay marriage, free markets, the right to go to war against UN resolutions and detention of suspected terrorists without trial. The study found no significant relationships for liberal judgments. Because Arvan utilized very stringent statistical tests, the statistical probability that his results were incorrect is less than 1 in 100,000.
Arvan’s new study (“A Lot More Bad News for Conservatives, and a Little Bit of Bad News for Liberals? A Follow-up Study”) replicates his findings for 15 additional moral issues, while also addressing several concerns raised in the popular press about his earlier study. Arvan’s new study found 22 significant relationships between the same three anti-social traits and socially conservative views on the following issues:
Preventing illegal immigration.
Deporting illegal immigrants.
Building a fence along the US-Mexican border.
Making English the official US language.
Not providing public schooling to the children of illegal immigrants.
Teaching “intelligent design” in public schools.
The use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (including waterboarding) against suspected terrorists.
Defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Obeying UN rules.
Climate change.
Environmentalism.
Once again, because Arvan utilized very stringent statistical tests, the statistical probability that these results were incorrect is less than 1 in 100,000. In contrast, Arvan's new study found only one significant relationship between anti-social traits and liberal judgments when using the same stringent statistical tests (where the probability of false results is less than 1 in 100,000). When using far less stringent statistical tests (where the probability of error is much higher, roughly 5 in 100), Arvan’s new study found six additional relationships between anti-social traits and liberal views on:
Climate change.
Environmentalism.
The US ought to work within UN rules.
The government ought to pursue its own interests in foreign affairs.
However, because these relationships for liberal views only emerged at much lower statistical levels, there is a significant probability (roughly 5 in 100) that some of these relationships are false positives.
Arvan’s two studies have now found 33 significant relationships between socially conservative views and anti-social traits across 27 different moral issues – or more than one relationship per moral issue examined. In comparison, Arvan's two studies have only found one significant relationship for liberal views across the same 27 moral issues at the same level of significance and seven relationships for liberal views at much lower levels of statistical significance. Arvan’s two studies therefore indicate that socially conservative views are between 5 to 30 times more likely to be related to anti-social personality traits than liberal views.
Here is a full abstract of the results of Arvan’s new study:
Abstract: In a recent study appearing in Neuroethics, I reported observing eleven significant correlations between the “Dark Triad” personality traits – Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy – and “conservative” judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey. Surprisingly, I observed no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and “liberal” judgments. In order to determine whether these results were an artifact of the particular issues I selected, I ran a follow-up study testing the Dark Triad against conservative and liberal judgments on fifteen additional moral issues. The new issues examined include illegal immigration, abortion, the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools, the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the war on terrorism, laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and environmentalism. 1154 participants (680 male, 472 female; median age 29), recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk, completed three surveys: a 15-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), the 28-item Short Dark Triad personality inventory, and a five-item demographic survey. The results strongly reinforce my earlier findings. Twenty-two significant correlations were observed between “conservative” judgments and the Dark Triad (all of which were significant past a Bonferonni-corrected significance threshold of p=.0008), compared to seven significant correlations between Dark Triad and “liberal” judgments (only one of which was significant past p=.0008). This article concludes by developing a novel research proposal for determining whether the results of my two studies are “bad news” for conservatives or liberals.A new study by Marcus Arvan, PhD, appearing in the peer-reviewed research journal,... more
-
-
The brains of people tripping on magic mushrooms have given the best picture yet of how psychedelic drugs work and British scientists say the findings suggest such drugs could be used to treat depression.
Two separate studies into the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, showed that contrary to scientists' expectations, it does not increase but rather suppresses activity in areas of the brain that are also dampened with other anti-depressant treatments.
"Psychedelics are thought of as 'mind-expanding' drugs so it has commonly been assumed that they work by increasing brain activity," said David Nutt of Imperial College London, who gave a briefing about the studies on Monday. "But, surprisingly, we found that psilocybin actually caused activity to decrease in areas that have the densest connections with other areas." These so-called "hub" regions of the brain are known to play a role in constraining our experience of the world and keeping it orderly, he said. "We now know that deactivating these regions leads to a state in which the world is experienced as strange." In the first study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, 30 volunteers had psilocybin infused into their blood while they were inside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which measure changes in brain activity. It found activity decreased in "hub" regions and many volunteers described a feeling of the cogs being loosened and their sense of self being altered.
The second study, due to be published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, involved 10 volunteers and found that psilocybin enhanced their recollections of personal memories. Robin Carhart Harris from Imperial's department of medicine, who worked on both studies, said the results suggest psilocybin could be useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Nutt cautioned that the new research was very preliminary and involved only small numbers of people.
"We're not saying go out there and eat magic mushrooms," he said. "But...this drug has such a fundamental impact on the brain that it's got to be meaningful -- it's got to be telling us something about how the brain works. So we should be studying it and optimizing it if there's a therapeutic benefit."
The key areas of the brain identified -- one called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and another called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) -- are the subject of debate among neuroscientists, but the PCC is thought by many to have a role in consciousness and self-identity.
The mPFC is known to be hyperactive in depression, and the researchers pointed out that other key treatments for depression including medicines like Prozac, as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and deep brain stimulation, also appear to suppress mPFC activity. Psilocybin's dampening action on this area may make it a useful and potentially long-acting antidepressant, Carhart-Harris said. The studies also showed that psilocybin reduced blood flow in the hypothalamus - a part of the brain where people who suffer from a condition known as cluster headaches often have increased blood flow. This could explain why some cluster headache sufferers have said their symptoms improved after taking the psychedelic drug, the researcher said.
The studies, which are among only a handful conducted into psychedelic substances since the 1960s and 1970s, revive a promising field of study into mind-altering drugs which some experts say can offer powerful and sustained mood improvement and relief from anxiety. Other experts echoed Nott's caution: "These findings are very interesting from the research viewpoint, but a great deal more work would be needed before most psychiatrists would think that psilocybin was a safe, effective and acceptable adjunct to psychotherapy," said Nick Craddock, a psychiatry professor from Cardiff University.
Kevin Healy, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' faculty of medical psychotherapy said it was interesting research "but we are clearly nowhere near seeing psilocybin used regularly and widely in psychotherapy practice."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46105129/ns/health-mental_health/t/magic-mushrooms-point-new-depression-drugs/#.Tx7UYG9SQsc
http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx90/RobMarley420/DSCF0033.jpgThe brains of people tripping on magic mushrooms have given the best picture yet of... more
-
-
Know a woman going through "the change"?
Change is the nature of all life, so why does the transition from child-bearing to life-mainifesting woman seem to catch us all off guard time and time again? Today, we cruise into balance with Mia Lundin, a R.N.C., N.P on Planet www.FemaleBrainGoneInsane.com In her 18 years as a nurse practitioner, Lundin has successfully balanced thousands of women to enable them to regain control over their emotional and physical health. She uses the very effective combination of bio-identical hormones and nutritional supplements (including targeted amino acid therapy) to rebalance the brain chemistry of her patients. Her reputation and fresh perspective on attaining emotional and physical balance through bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has attracted patients from all over the world. She is devoted to educating patients on the intricate relationship between nutrition, hormones and brain chemistry. She is a sought after speaker in public forums on subjects such as hormones, moods and behavior, and has lectured internationally to health care professionals in Geneva, Switzerland, and Paris.
http://tammytymeproduktions.podbean.com/2010/08/24/cruising-into-harmonal-balance-with-mia-lundin/Know a woman going through "the change"?
Change is the nature of all... more
-
-
A leading anti-psychotic drug temporarily reduces the size of a brain region that controls movement and coordination, causing distressing side effects such as shaking, drooling and restless leg syndrome.
Just two hours after injection with haloperidol, an anti-psychotic commonly prescribed to treat schizophrenia, healthy volunteers experienced impaired motor abilities that coincided with diminished grey-matter volume in the striatum1 — a brain region that mediates movement.
"We've seen changes in the brain before, but to see significant re-modelling of the striatum within a couple of hours is staggering," says Clare Parish at the Howard Florey Institute for brain research in Melbourne, Australia, who was not involved in the study. "Our viewpoint was that only chemical changes would happen in such a short time."
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100606/full/news.2010.281.htmlA leading anti-psychotic drug temporarily reduces the size of a brain region that... more
-
-
At a conference last weekend, researchers reported positive results on the effectiveness of MDMA in relieving PTSD and talked about psilocybin in reducing stress in late-stage cancer patients
SAN JOSE, California—Michael Bledsoe’s story begins like that of many other Iraqi war veterans. In 2007, he was chasing insurgents through Anbar province when a roadside bomb exploded, breaking Bledsoe’s back and both his feet. A former Army Ranger working as a securitycontractor, Bledsoe soon knew his high-paying military career was over.
Back home, Bledsoe (not his real name) felt angry almost constantly. Nightmares haunted him. He withdrew and became isolated. “It was a serious sense of loss,” he says. His psychiatrist quickly diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Despite months of talk therapy, the nightmares continued, and Bledsoe grew desperate. Then “something almost miraculous” happened, he says. An online search brought him to a unique study of the banned drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), well known as the street drug ecstasy.
Read full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/04/26/can-the-peace-drug-help-clean-up-the-war-mess/At a conference last weekend, researchers reported positive results on the... more
-
-
-
-
eva2
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
James Kent attempts to tie a knot in the meme of autonomous elves and other DMT entities...
Hey Clifford, a friend recently pointed me to your article on DMT, Moses and Aliens. Since you asked people to voice their opinion I shall. I have studied this issue very closely for the past fifteen years, and though I have not published the results of all my research I would like to share with you some of the conclusions I’ve made about DMT and the dramatic phenomena it produces.
In short, I do not believe DMT is a gateway to an alternate dimension, nor does it induce contact with autonomous elves and alien entities. Yes, DMT produces a vivid other-worldly landscape when ingested, often including elves, aliens, insects, snakes, jaguars, etc. This is true for the majority of people who try it. Some people do not have such vivid responses, but many do. Although this may appear at first glance to be “shocking,” it is actually no more shocking then the fact that most people dream at night, or that most people see geometric patterns (pressure phosphenes) when they close their eyes and press against their eyeballs. But the difference between pressure phosphenes and DMT is that DMT is illegal and very hard to come by, so most people never have the opportunity to experience it. If we could all hold our breath for a minute and produce vivid hallucinations of alien landscapes it would seem quite mundane, no more than a mere curiosity of the human condition. However, since this particular alien landscape is produced by a specific rare substance (DMT), people seem to think it is akin to unlocking the mysteries of the universe when they actually get their hands on it.
Now don’t get me wrong, DMT is stunning in its effect, no doubt. But, like anything, when you do it many times the magic tends to wear off and reveal itself for what it is; an exotic aberration of the brain’s perceptual mechanics. To illustrate this point I would like to offer the following observations:
Read the full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/04/07/have-we-cracked-the-dmt-puzzle/James Kent attempts to tie a knot in the meme of autonomous elves and other DMT... more
-
-
The mysterious Charles Bonnet Syndrome causes complex and realistic hallucinations in sufferers' peripheral vision:
It had been many years since I had last seen Don, one of my favourite college lecturers, so I was delighted to bump into him at a conference. Back in the old college days he had been something of a Sean Connery look-a-like and was much admired by the girl students, so it was a shock to see him now carrying a white stick and being accompanied by a (rather attractive) girl helper. He informed me that he had recently become registered as blind, yet it was apparent that he could still see to a limited extent. He explained that he had some usable peripheral eyesight but that his central area of vision was seriously affected; it transpired that he was suffering from “macular degeneration”.
...“Visions? What do you mean, Don?” I asked, totally nonplussed. He outlined several forms of hallucination that were plaguing him. The first one to manifest was what Don described as looking like “a ball of string or basketwork, a globular shape with an aperture on one side”. He would see this image as if projected onto walls or other surfaces. He could sometimes make out a small face inside the aperture, and on the occasions this became particularly evident the basket-like effect would adjust around it like a bizarre head-dress. A similar effect was the occurrence of a “pool of pale grey light” which would often appear a few yards in front of him when he was walking along. Faces would also appear within this strange pool of light.
Read the full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/03/18/eye-spirits/The mysterious Charles Bonnet Syndrome causes complex and realistic hallucinations in... more
-
-
Since ancient times, a strong and pervasive belief in the efficacy of prayer–for the living and the dead–reinforces the notion that consciousness is not limited to the physical body. Not only do traditions throughout the world share a belief that prayers may in some way help (or invoke help from) deceased ancestors, many cultures throughout history have believed that prayer can bring about changes in the physical circumstances of the living.
If prayer affects things in the physical world, its effects should be measurable, and scienceshould be able to investigate it. There is a very scattered literature on this, but when you bring it all together as Larry Dossey has done in his recent book, Healing Words (HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), you see there is quite a large number of interesting experiments with challenging results. Out of 131 controlled experiments on prayer-based healing, more than half showed statistically significant benefits. One of the best known is a double blind study of 393 patients in the coronary unit at San Francisco General Hospital. In this experiment, 192 patients, chosen at random, were prayed for by home prayer groups, the others were not. The prayed-for patients recovered better than the controls, and fewer died. In order to make sense of these data on the efficacy of prayer, science will have to change its underlying assumptions about the nature of causality. Currently, the standard view is still purely mechanistic–notwithstanding all the recent talk about chaos and complexity theory. When applied to the life sciences, chaos and complexity theory–even with the help of highly sophisticated computer modeling–still explain the world in terms of mechanical causes involving known physical and chemical processes.
The data from empirical studies of prayer, as well as from the large literature reporting psi research in telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, seriously challenge the mechanistic view. Some other causal agent besides the mechanics of electrochemical interactions is required to make sense of the observed phenomena.
Read the full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/03/11/prayer-a-challenge-for-science-2/Since ancient times, a strong and pervasive belief in the efficacy of prayer–for... more
-
-
In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body.
The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient’s brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal.
“It’s not that placebos or inert substances help,” said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. “It’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.”
Read the full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/02/19/placebos-is-mind-more-important-than-matter/In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence... more
-
-
MOST neuroscientists, philosophers of the mind and science journalists feel the time is near when we will be able to explain the mystery of human consciousness in terms of the activity of the brain. There is, however, a vocal minority of neurosceptics who contest this orthodoxy. Among them are those who focus on claims neuroscience makes about the preciseness of correlations between indirectly observed neural activity and different mental functions, states or experiences.
Read the full article for free at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/02/23/can-you-find-consciousness-in-the-brain/MOST neuroscientists, philosophers of the mind and science journalists feel the time... more
-
-
A British charity is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate LSD, one of the world’s best-known “recreational” drugs, for medicinal use.
The Beckley Foundation, which numbers Professor Colin Blakemore, former head of the Medical Research Council, among its scientific advisers, is helping fund and lobby for a series of clinical trials to study the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on the human brain.
Read the full article on how LSD can help treat a plethora of different ailments:
http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/02/16/lsd-for-the-nhs/A British charity is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate LSD, one of the world’s... more
-
-
This new, far more sensitive, method, known as multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), effectively works like a form of AI. The program will learn to link some mental event with a particular pattern of brain activity, and then make predictions about how new brain data relates to mental states, based on these prior lessons. It is these predictions that now allow neuroscientists potentially to read minds.
The main early successes were in the tricky, subtle field of studying how brain activity generates consciousness. If competing images are presented to each eye, using a technique called binocular rivalry, we consciously perceive only one image at a time, even though our eyes are viewing both images. Geraint Rees and colleagues at University College London demonstrated via MVPA that the pattern of primary visual cortex activity has little to with our conscious image, but instead reflects the raw input from the eyes. To uncover brain regions that actually do reflect consciousness, they found, you have to center on later, more complex visual regions. Standard brain-imaging analysis methods simply lacked the power to detect such results.
More intriguingly, Geraint Rees and his colleague John-Dylan Haynes followed up these findings by using MVPA centered on the primary visual cortex to decode the orientation of lines, even though the volunteer was completely unaware of this visual detail. Again, these results paint a picture of our primary visual cortex as little more than the brain’s copy of what our eyes see, with the information being divided up to be processed in more interesting, conscious ways in later visual brain regions.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-mechanics-of-mind-reaThis new, far more sensitive, method, known as multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA),... more
-
-
Brain Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor discusses how her stroke inspired her both as a brain scientist and as an intellectual. She discusses the science of the brain and even brings out a human brain to visualize her point (Yes, an actual human brain). Her powerful and artistic words are both moving and intellectually stimulating. This is another older video, came out in March of '08. It was too good to pass up. DISCUSS!
Source: TED.com
-Shallowside887Brain Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor discusses how her stroke inspired her both as a... more
-
-
Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built... more
-
-
By just thinking about walking, a monkey made a robot walk. The monkey was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan. Researchers hope it will lead to better artificial limbs among other cyborg related projects.
My question, though, is this taking us one step closer to monkey and robot world domination?By just thinking about walking, a monkey made a robot walk. The monkey was in North... more
-
