Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Stie, Cmabridge Uinervtisy
Depending on what we are thinking, how hard we are concentrating, our brain chemistry, environment, and a number of other factors, our brains have a certain electromagnetic signature, a wave frequency, which we can measure with available technology, namely electroencephalographs (EEG). Traditionally, these continuous rhythmic sinusoidal EEG waves were classified into four types: delta, theta, alpha and beta waves. Delta had a frequency range up to 4 Hz, associated with infants and children. Theta ranged from 4-8 Hz, and was linked with adolescence, trance and the preconscious state just before waking. Alpha (Berger’s) waves, 8-12 HZ, were tied to relaxed, alert consciousness. While, Beta waves, 12 Hz and above, were related to anxious thinking and active concentration. However, as increasing evidence for higher frequency brain activity came to light, Gamma waves lay claim the 26-80 Hz range, known euphemistically as “coherent 40 Hz oscillations.” These waves seem to go together with higher mental processes, perception and consciousness, making them the brain waves you probably want to have.
Gamma waves do not result from axonal-dendritic synapses, but rather from dentro-dendritic gap junctions that form after a synapse activation that links neurons together. Neurons connected by gap junctions have one common membrane, fire simultaneously and generally behave like a single giant neuron. These mega-neurons have membranes that depolarize coherently and can spread across different parts of the cortex (potentially allowing for brain-wide states). Normally, these networks are transient, as gap junctions form and dissolve constantly. But, recent research showing that practiced meditators like Tibetan monks can muscle 25-42 Hz easy, with some pushing 80-120 Hz, suggests that it is possible to keep the gap junctions open longer.
The relation between meditation and high wave frequency is not surprising, since the middle frequency (12-16 Hz), the sensorimotor rhythm, goes together with physical stillness. Just sitting still for a while is already half-way to Gamma. From there on, it almost seems it is just a matter of how much of your brain you have under control. Heightened consciousness, known as Samadhi in the meditation traditions, is an experience unclouded by cognitive contents. One usually arrives at it gradually, after years of practice, disciplining the mind that delights in distraction, learning how to focus all attention on a single thing. To focus completely on a single thing means to be able to let go of everything else. So, once you can do that, you can rid yourself from all undesired cognitive contents and enjoy a pure unmediated experience of reality. Now, if the Gamma wave frequency goes up as more of the brain is connected through gap junctions, it seems that advanced practitioners are simply able to network more of their brains, having trained to concentrate their minds. The benefits of meditation do not all wear off, advanced practitioners have a higher baseline gamma synchrony, suggesting a higher general awareness, concentration and consciousness. Other research has shown that meditation also thickens grey matter in parts of the cortex where it normally gets thinner with age.
Breakthrough study on EEG of meditation, Stuart Hameroff MD, Director, Center for Consciousness Studies, U. of Arizona-Tucson
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that brain cells use a mixture of analog and digital signals. Neurons communicate with each other by sending neurotransmitters through axons (output) and synapses (input). When a cell receives transmitters through a synapse, the voltage inside the cell fluctuates. If there is enough voltage to pass a certain threshold, it generates an action potential, sending a specialized waveform out the axon, thus releasing a transmitter to the next neuron in the chain, which sends one to the next, and so on until the power runs out. This helps overturn the old belief that signals between neurons were sent solely through rate and timing of the action potentials, digitally.
Moreover, they found that the analog signal already present in a nuron is also sent down the axon, further influencing the synaptic transmission. So, the sent waveform is altered with each neuron it passes through. As the voltage of the sending signal becomes more positive, the amplitude of future transmissions is enhanced. This explains in part how neuron nets that store our experiences are formed. David McCormick, neurobiology professor at Yale and senior author of the study, says: "It’s as if everyone thought communication in the brain was like a telegraph, but actually it turned out to be more similar to a telephone."
Brain Communicates in Analog and Digital Modes Simultaneously, Yale.edu
George Lakoff, professor of Linguistics at University of California-Berkeley delivered a lecture entitled "Ethics Freedom, and the Death of Rationalism: What Cognitive Science Tells Us About the Culture Wars" April 13 at Princeton University. Here’s a brief summary of what I heard.
There is an obsolete notion still hanging around from the Enlightenment, it is that Reason exists independently of us, in a conscious, logical, universal and literal way, which leads many to imagine ideas to be invisible entities flying around in the air. This conception, the folk theory of rationality, has largely been proven false by cognitive science. Ideas exist embodied in our heads. They form in neuron clusters, synapses linked in nets across different parts of the brain. The diffuse nature of these clusters is why people don’t usually lose their concepts to brain-damage in any one particular area. When a concept is ingrained, as through repetition, the neuron cluster gets stronger, effecting the physical structure of the brain, which makes deep-seated concepts especially hard to get rid of.
Not all neurons are the same. For example, with mirror neurons, clusters fire when you perform an action or see that action performed by someone else. It is believed that they allows us to feel empathy, the ability to identify with others. There are also certain neurons that fire when you perform an action or see something you can perform the action on. It is through complex systems of different neuron clusters firing with each new thought and feeling that we understand the world around us.
We frame many of our concepts in language as metaphors. The metaphors that prevail in most people’s brains is what we call common sense. One such metaphor is that of the nation as a family (patria, the fatherland, Mother India, Mother Russia). For most, the family metaphor among the most deeply ingrained, since it has its roots in childhood. However, depending on the household one grew up in, this metaphor can have different implications, especially when applied on a large scale.
The essential split seems to be between the strict father (or parent) and the nurturing mother models, with the father identified with conservatism and Republicans and the mother with liberalism and Democrats. In the strict father model the basic premise is that the parent needs to be strict because the world is evil and rife with competition. Besides, kids are born ignorant and bad, and need discipline and punishment to develop physical and mental strength to survive in the world. So, from this viewpoint, social programs are seen as undesirable, because they create freeloading dependents, who do not learn how to survive on their own the hard way. Government allows for big business to do whatever, because competition is healthy for everybody. Meanwhile, lesser nations are treated as children, and just as a parent does not ask the children how he is supposed to raise them, neither does a government compromise its sovereignty, but tells them what to do and when. The parent know what is best for the children is also how the government can approach defend spying on its citizens.
The nurturing mother model is centered around empathy and compassion. The idea is that by being nurtured, children grow up to be nurturers of others. Freedom is key for nurture, so discipline is limited in favor of positive reinforcement. Fairness is seen as necessary for prosperity, so big business is kept small. There is also a stronger concern for peace. Lackoff expands on this theory in his book "Don’t Think of an Elephant, Know Your Values and Frame the Debate."
GeorgeLackoff.com
"Don’t Think of an Elephant"
"Metaphors We Live By"
"Moral Politics"
A joint study between the Mayo Clinic physicians and Arizona State school of journalism examined 1,203 newspaper articles about neurological conditions from 2003 and found that 20% of them had medical errors or exaggerations. The articles were taken from the New York Times and eight other regional newspapers with circulation over 200,000. The most common mistake was exaggerating the effectiveness of treatments. Aren’t you glad you get your brain news on the internet?
Newspaper coverage of neurologic conditions incorrect 20 percent of the time, study shows, EurekAlert.org
Mayo Clinic News
The free-content multilingual online encyclopedia, Wiki, has launched two new portals: the mind and brain portal started by Lacatosias (Italian philosopher Francesco Franco), the psychology portal started by Zelifg (New York philosophy/psychology student). In addition to the usual reference entries, these portals feature psychology and neuroscience news, as well as recent research. Wikipedia has many other portals, including religion (from Baha’i to Zoroastrianism), history (incl. egyptology, war), arts and culture (anime and manga, fictional countries and worlds), science, sports, and technology. There are also geographically specific portals for a good number of countries around the world.
Mind and brain portal, Wiki
Psychology portal, Wiki
MIT has a free open educational resource, the OpenCourseWare (OCW), where it shares reading lists, lecture notes and problem sets, for many of its undergraduate and graduate courses from an array of disciplines including ‘Brain and Cognitive Science’, ‘Linguistics and Philosophy’, and ‘Science, Technology, and Society.’ Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president, believes the OCW "expresses in an immediate and far-reaching way MIT’s goal of advancing education around the world." Word, I could read this site for weeks, it’s an invaluable resource and I’m beaming I found it. A few of the many available course materials are:
Animal Behavior
Human Memory and Learning
Cognitive and Behavioral Genetics
Language and Thought
Mind and Machines
Cultural History of Technology
Drugs, Politics, and Culture
Full listings at OCW.mit.edu
Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed to have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The crow has a cunning rep in the avian kingdom. It is the messenger for the Zoroastrian good god Ahura-Mazda, as well as for Hermes (Mercury) and Apollo. Norse god Odin, had two ravens, Huginn and Munnin (Mind and Memory), one on each shoulder. There is a Greek myth that recounts how the crow became black, the love story of Coronis and Ischys. Coronis was pregnant with Apollo’s baby, but before she had the kid, she went and shacked up with Ischys. Apollo found out about this from a crow and in his anger turned the crow black for bringing bad news and then proceeded to kill Ischys and the pregnant Coronis (for what it’s worth, he did feel bad as his lover was lying on the funeral pyre, so he saved the kid by performing the first c-section, the child was Aesclepius, future father of medicine). This identification as a harbinger is possibly why a gathering of crows is a "murder", of ravens an "unkindness."
Crows and other corvidae top the bird IQ scale, followed by falcons, hawks, herons and woodpeckers. They have unusually large brains for their size, about the size of a chimpanzee’s, while rivaling the great apes in intelligence. They use traffic stops to crush nuts, setting and retrieving them during red lights. Like other scavengers they know to follow armies for carrion. They can talk, make tools out of wire, and form complex hierarchical societies. They can even lie.
Dr Bungyar, University of Austria, conducted an experiment to see what ravens learned from each other while foraging. He had two birds, one dominant and one subordinate, named after Odin’s. Their task was to work out which color-coded film containers held cheese, open them and eat. The subordinate was far better at this than the dominant. But as soon as he’d start eating, the dominant one would bully him away to gain access to the food. So then the subordinate headed over to a set of empty containers, opened them enthusiastically, and pretended to eat. The dominant followed, whereupon the subordinate rushed to the loaded containers, having clearly misled the other. But that’s not all, the dominant one soon grew wise and stopped falling for the tactic, at which point the subordinate got angry and started throwing things about. Crows not only lie, but they can tell when others lie, and even get upset when they’re found out.
Quoth the raven, Economist
Crows as clever as great apes, study says, National Geographics
Crows and jays topbird IQ scale, BBC
Richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University. Their research is focused on whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one’s income to the income of others (relative income effect). They present their research in a session paper, titled "Relative Income and Happiness: Are Americans on a Hedonic Treadmill?," at the American Sociological Association Centennial Annual Meeting on August 14.
Firebaugh argues that, in evaluating their own incomes, individuals compare themselves to their peers of the same age. Therefore a person’s reported level of happiness depends on how his or her income compares to others in the same age group. Using comparison groups on the basis of age, the researchers find evidence of both relative and absolute effects, but relative income is more important than absolute income in determining the happiness of individuals in the United States. This may result in a hedonic treadmill, because incomes in the United States rise over most of the adult lifespan.
This seems to be support French philosopher Rene Girard’s theory of mimetic desire. While we assume that desire is either objective or subjective, in reality it usually rests on a third party. We want what others want. Opposition strengthens desire, because rivalry validates the object of desire as something worth pursuing. Inversely, quiet and untroubled possession weakens desire. E.g. The man whose wife I desire had perhaps ceased to desire her over time. His desire was dead, but upon contact with mine, which is living, it regains life.
Money can buy you happiness but only relative to your peer’s income. Eurekalert.org
I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Rene Girard
The maximum # of variables a person can keep track of at a time is four, as mentioned in R A Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy. In a new study by Graeme S. Halford, U of Queensland, 30 academics were given incomplete verbal descriptions of statistical interactions between fictitious variables, with graphs that represented the interactions. Participants had to complete given sentences to describe the interactions in the graphs, interactions involving 2-5 variables. After each problem, they also expressed how confident they were of their solutions. Needless to say, performance and confidence dropped as complexity grew until accuracy was no better than chance with five-way interactions. After the four- and five-way interactions, participants said things like, "I kept losing information," and "I just lost track."
How much can your mind keep track of? PhysOrg.com
Guosong Liu, a neuroscientist at the Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT, has discovered that neurons communicate their electrical signals in trinary code - using zeros, ones and minus ones. This allows additional interactions to occur during processing; two signals can add together or cancel each other out, or different pieces of information can link up or try to override one another. Whereas computers running on a binary system don’t ignore information, trinary "is an evolutionary advantage that’s unique to the brain." Some analysts predict that future hard/soft-ware will function using trinary systems, making everything known today obsolete within the next ten years.
Brain circuitry findings could shape computer design, MIT News Office.
The BBC is running a radio program called All in the Mind. Hosted by Dr. Raj Persaud, it explores current issues in cognitive science, psychiatry, psychology and neurology, bringing together experts and commentators in the study of mind. Here’s BBC’s plug by Persaud: "All in the Mind provides a unique chance to meet the people at the cutting edge of research and development on all aspects of the mind and brain from around the world. Please join me as we attempt to illuminate the most complex and least understood mechanism we have so far found in the Universe - the mind."
BBC - Radio 4 - All in the Mind
Listen to the lates episode (Doesn’t work? Download RealPlayer)
The OpenEEG project is encouraging independent research into electroencephalograms (EEG), which provide visual representations of the electrical activity in the brain, by providing instructions on how to get EEGs on your PC. The technology has been around for a while, but is not publically available because of standard IEC601, which requires medical devices to undergo specific tests before being made available, tests that are really expensive. Luckily, you can now build your own! All you need is a signal capture card, two electrodes and some software (which is available free on OpenEEG’s site along with comprehensive guides). Cheap capture cards are available through Olimex, electrodes are easy to find, and different software is readily available:
A recent study detailed this week in Psychological Science, suggests that people with a good memory are also more likely to break under pressure. The study took 93 undergrads from Michigan State and devided them into two groups, a high working-memory group (HWM) and a low working memory group (LWM). When they all took a 24 problem math test in a low-pressure environment, the HWM did much better. When they cranked up the pressure by telling the groups that their performance will be evaluated by math professors, the score of HWM dropped to that of the LWM group. This is just one more study to challange the accuracy of high-pressure tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and MCAT in predicting who will succeed in acacdemics.
Choking Under Pressure, Sian L. Beilok (Miami U) and Thomas H Carr (Michigan State).
The Cognitive Science Society has voted on a list of the top 100 most influential works in cogsci of the 20th century. This was part of the Millenium Project supported by the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary study of cognition (the processes of awareness, though, and mental organization) that intergrates cognitive psychology, linguistics, computer science, cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind.
The List.
Cognitive Science, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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