Brain

Firing Neurons | Cell Dance 2010, Public Outreach Video Winner

http://youtu.be/GIGqp6_PG6k

Inside My Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiucGKthV6E

How brains see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oNHukxz5rI

A Virus Called Fear - Documentary Short Movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-VLHNpwju0

Split brain behavioral experiments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo

Jumping Genes in Brain Evolution, Health and Disease

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=44876

http://danapress.typepad.com/weblog/2013/11/neuroscience-2013-meet-the-experts.html

http://danapress.typepad.com/weblog/2013/11/the-thinking-behind-what-drives-creativity-at-neuroscience-2013.html

Sleep to protect your brain

http://www.psypost.org/2014/01/sleep-to-protect-your-brain-21922

Molecule discovered that protects the brain from cannabis intoxication

http://www.psypost.org/2014/01/molecule-discovered-that-protects-the-brain-from-cannabis-intoxication-21934

‘THE MIND-BENDERS: LSD AND THE HALLUCINOGENS’: DRUG SCARE FILM FROM THE SWINGING SIXTIES

HTTP://DANGEROUSMINDS.NET/COMMENTS/THE_MIND_BENDERS_LSD_AND_THE_HALLUCINOGENS_DRUG_SCARE_FILM_FROM_THE

Neuroscience Research Techniques

It's no secret that we love a good story. Even in an age of nonstop TV, Internet, and movies at our fingertips, the printed page remains popular. Research from neuroscientists at Emory University in Georgia have uncovered one of the reasons that we're so hooked on books: they let us look at the world from another person's perspective. In a new study published in the journal Brain Connectivity, researchers followed 21 undergraduates over 19 days as they read Robert Harris' 2005 novel "Pompeii". The first five days of the study consisted of baseline measurements on fMRI. They were instructed to read approximately 30 pages each evening and got brain scans the following morning while they were in a non-reading, resting state. Over the course of the experiment, the study participants showed an increase in connectivity in the left temporal cortex and the central sulcus on the morning after they had done the readings. These areas of the brain are responsible for understanding emotion and motor sensations, respectively, the researchers believe an increase in these connections reflects how the reader places him or herself in the story while reading.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1cANY3n

Journal article: Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Novel on Connectivity in the Brain. Brain Connectivity, 2013. doi:10.1089/brain.2013.0166

The Placebo Effect: Transforming Biology With Belief - See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/07/21/the-placebo-effect-transforming-biology-with-belief/#sthash.d7rQMuEW.dpuf

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/07/21/the-placebo-effect-transforming-biology-with-belief/

What Drives Us to Do the Right Thing?

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303453004579290730664013954?mod=e2fb

Rebecca McMillan

Shared publicly - 1:21 PM

From NECSS 2013; Heather Berlin, Steve Novella, Jon Ronson, & Brian Wecht.

Are conditions such as psychopathy real "brain diseases" that can be reliably diagnosed? Or even defined? How do we ensure that public policy regarding mental illnesses and disorders are based upon science and not sensationalism?

http://youtu.be/PNLncBs0HSo

Scientists Claim That Quantum Theory Proves Consciousness Moves To Another Universe At Death - See more at: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/scientists-claim-that-quantum-theory-proves-consciousness-moves-to-another-universe-at-death/#sthash.42nz8uw4.dpuf

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/scientists-claim-that-quantum-theory-proves-consciousness-moves-to-another-universe-at-death/

Caffeine may improve memory

Taking the stimulant after learning boosted recall

Caffeine might help jog memories by influencing the levels of certain chemical messengers in the brain or the behavior of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory, the researchers write.

Earlier studies had failed to detect caffeine’s memory boost, probably because those experiments gave caffeine before the learning happened. The caffeine hit needs to come after the new information is presented, while the brain is busy filing those memories away.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/caffeine-may-improve-memory

Neuroscience Research Techniques

Although daydreaming may seem like a nonproductive use of brain activity, a new study in the journal NeuroImage reveals that the daydreaming brain actually uses the most direct anatomical connections. Daydreaming activates the brain's default mode network, which is one of approximately 20 different brain networks that control various processes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany studied 1.6 billion different connections in the brain in each of 19 different participants using fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging. The scientists found that the most direct connections between different brain areas were used when the default mode network was active. The researchers believe that the brain automatically switches to the default mode network when not being needed for other activities, and that this is made possible by the anatomical structure of the brain. Understanding how the healthy brain works, scientists say, will help shed light on what happens when something goes wrong.

Read more: http://bit.ly/LigocD

Journal article: The structural–functional connectome and the default mode network of the human brain. NeuroImage 2013. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.09.069

Parietal gray matter volume changes may be associated with early Parkinson’s disease memory deficits

http://www.psypost.org/2014/01/parietal-gray-matter-volume-changes-may-be-associated-with-early-parkinsons-disease-memory-deficits-22196

How metabolism and brain activity are linked

http://www.psypost.org/2014/01/how-metabolism-and-brain-activity-are-linked-22206

Sex & brain

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/01/can-having-sex-make-you-smarter.php

A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Physics of Life Reviews claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons.

http://sharedscience.org/2014/01/16/corroborated-consciousness/

Psychedelics Don’t Harm Mental Health; They Improve It -

See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/14/psychedelics-dont-harm-mental-health-they-improve-it/#sthash.PRpfnXIm.dpuf

Psychologists document the age our earliest memories fade

Although infants use their memories to learn new information, few adults can remember events in their lives that happened prior to the age of three. Psychologists at Emory University have now documented that age seven is when these earliest memories tend to fade into oblivion, a phenomenon known as "childhood amnesia."

"Between the ages of 9 and 18 is largely a no-man's land of our knowledge of howmemory forms."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-psychologists-document-age-earliest-memories.html

Neuroscience Research Techniques

Our brains like to play connect the dots with our memories. If you once heard the angry growl of a dog that was followed by a bite, you might anticipate a painful bite the next time your hear a dog growl. This shows that our brains can link sequential memories, a useful skill when it comes to staying away from harm. Scientists at MIT have identified how two different brain circuits help provide these links. In a new study published in Science, the researchers used optogenetics to show how two different regions of the brain (the hippocampus and an adjacent region known as the entorhinal cortex) interact. The researchers identified a group of excitatory neurons termed "island cells" that are part of layer 2 of the entorhinal cortex. These island cells stimulate inhibitory neurons in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, which interacts with a previously discovered monosynaptic circuit. This interaction keeps the memory of, say, a dog growl, alive long enough to be linked with the memory of the bite. Understanding how these two circuits interact will help us understand how our brains try to balance becoming paralyzed with fear and becoming overly careless, and what happens when this balance is disrupted, such as in PTSD.

Read more: http://bit.ly/KTXurR

Journal article: Island Cells Control Temporal Association Memory. Science, 2014. DOI: 10.1126/science.1244634

Scientists Discover Brain’s Anti Distraction System

http://neurosciencenews.com/psychology-brain-anti-distraction-974/

Brain Control with Light

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Brain-Control-with-Light-Develo

Informative Video On The Pineal Gland And Activating Your Third Eye

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/informative-video-on-the-pineal-gland-and-activating-your-third-eye/

Neurogenesis

Why is it so hard to recall memories from early childhood? New research suggests that neurogenesis, or the generation of new neurons, could play a significant role in this "infantile amnesia," which occurs across a wide range of species, including humans

http://youtu.be/GZ-8t_6GqPA

Magic Mushrooms May Have Long-Lasting Positive Effects On Personality

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/magic-mushrooms-may-have-long-lasting-positive-effects-on-personality/

New Evidence Links Air Pollution to Autism and Schizophrenia

http://neurosciencenews.com/autism-schizophrenia-air-pollution-1084/

Consciousness on-off switch discovered deep in brain

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329762.700-consciousness-onoff-switch-discovered-deep-in-brain.html#.U7kCKPmSycI

Researchers identify brain network with mapping technique

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140718215020.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28Latest+Science+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Consciousness & Physiology I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nrsfZjDiq0&list=TLwoJhlvKJNbQTyzrN-YTgT5xIZq8tlTGo

Year in Review: Sleep clears the cluttered brain

Gunk between cells is cleansed during slumber

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/year-review-sleep-clears-cluttered-brain

Learning rewires the brain

In the process, some of the brain’s nerve cells change shape or even fire backwards

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/learning-rewires-brain

2014 August Breaking News Labs Mixing Human DNA Animal DNA Trans-humanism Last days news

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-acQz_wBx7E#t=118

Enhancing Virtues: Intelligence (Part 3): Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20140920