Putting Thoughts Into Action

Surgeons have implanted a novel neural prosthesis into a paralyzed patient’s brain. The high-tech device enables the patient to communicate his thoughts to a computer, which translates them into spoken words.
Nine people so far have received brain-implanted prostheses. In the past, patients have used these devices to spell words on a computer, pilot a wheelchair or flex a mechanical hand.
One day implants may enable paralyzed people to move robotic arms or even bypass damaged parts of the nervous system to reanimate unresponsive limbs. In the meantime, the quest to develop implanted neural prostheses is revealing details of how the brain orchestrates movement.

Got the ITIS? Take a nap.

Does napping after a meal affect memory formation?

The lion’s share of research has focused on the relevance of longer periods of nocturnal rest. For that reason, the duration that is actually needed for sleep’s effects on memory to become behaviorally relevant has not yet been exhaustively investigated. We have reason to assume, however, that even short periods of rest can indeed improve memory formation.

There are only a handful of studies investigating the effect of a short nap on the consolidation of declarative memories, which involve facts and events. Most of these studies have reported better memory performance after sleep as compared with wakefulness, revealing improvements of 4 to 46 percent in word-pair memory after a nap and a 3 percent loss to a 28 percent improvement after wakefulness. Even an ultrashort catnap of about six minutes resulted in better memory retention than staying awake did, but a longer doze of 35 minutes was clearly superior. Interestingly, a number of experiments have indicated that sleep improves memory regardless of whether it occurs during the night or the day, which further highlights the cognitive potential of a postprandial nap.

Research on procedural memory, which comprises perceptual and motor skills (such as learning to play an instrument), has found that a short siesta of 60 to 90 minutes improves visual perception only if the nap includes both slow-wave and rapid-eye-movement sleep, the two phases that the brain cycles through while we doze. In studies focusing on motor skills, such as those in which subjects were asked to repetitively type certain keyboard sequences, a posttraining nap of 60 to 90 minutes likewise improved finger-tapping performance. Even so, the study participants did not show as much improvement after the nap as they did after the following full night of sleep.

FULL STORY at Scientific American Mind

Using Plants Instead of Petroleum to Make Jet Fuel

From Scientific American Mind:

Chemical engineers in North Dakota have successfully turned oil from plants—canola (rapeseed), coconuts and soybeans—into jet fuel indistinguishable from the conventional kind, according to U.S. government tests. Working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), scientists at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota turned these plant oils into fuel that had a similar density, energy content and even freezing point.

"It's got a freeze point of –47 degrees Celsius (–52.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Anyone familiar with biodiesel can tell you that's no small feat," says chemical engineer Chad Wocken, EERC environmental technologies research manager. "It's processed so that it contains only the same hydrocarbon molecules present in petroleum fuel."

Although he declined to explain the exact details of the process, Wocken says it is thermocatalytic—in other words, the engineers heat the plant oils in the presence of an undisclosed catalyst to create a slew of petroleum products. In fact, the process is not unlike conventional oil refining in that it produces everything from the kerosene used as aviation fuel to regular gasoline.

"The processing costs would be similar and comparable to petroleum oil refining," and perhaps even less expensive, Wocken notes, "because you're not dealing with contaminants like sulfur."

Virgin Atlantic has flown a jumbo jet on a combination of conventional jet fuel and biofuel made from palm oil, and a jet powered solely by biodiesel has stayed aloft for more than 30 minutes—albeit with a special device to keep its fuel from freezing at high altitude.

Medical studies about drugs may be victims of a spin

"Does the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have access to the data it needs to make informed decisions on approving drugs, or are drug companies cherry-picking the studies they publish to make their drugs look better than they actually are?

A new report in Monday's PLoS Medicine questions whether doctors and patients are getting objective information about whether a medicine works. That's because more than half of studies on government-approved medications—presumably the ones that show a drug doesn't work—are never published, and those that are show disproportionately positive results."


FULL STORY at

Scientific American Mind

This really doesn't surprise me. I can't stand that pharmaceutical big business B.S . I don't believe in the medication the spill out. I had a friend who was getting treated for depression with epilepsy pills. WHAT? I mean it's no wonder you sit through a commercial for some pill, and they spend the entire commercial listing the side effects.


HERE is a Cymbalta commercial.... "Depression Hurts"



and HERE is a Cymbalta VICTIM video "Cymbalta Hurts More"



This is very deep. It just proves that this is nothing but big business. Our healthcare system is a joke. I went to the doctor for a tiny back ache and left with 5 prescriptions of pain medicine including Vicodin and Flexarol. It's just a minor bache ache....JEEEEZ.

I feel it's important to look into natural ways of healing your body. Before you go to the doctor, take a look at what you're eating and fix it....because the FDA approves THAT processed shit too. =/

I am a StoryTeller

KEY CONCEPTS
* Storytelling is a human universal, and common themes appear in tales throughout history and all over the the world.
* These characteristics of stories, and our natural affinity toward them, reveal clues about our evolutionary history and the roots of emotion and empathy in the mind.
* By studying narrative’s power to influence beliefs, researchers are discovering how we analyze information and accept new ideas.

Full Story at Scientific American Mind

I'm A Gifter Sniffer-Hidden Power of Scent

KEY CONCEPTS

* The human sense of smell is often seen as insignificant, but this sense is keener and more influential on our species than many people realize.
* Smell subconsciously facilitates a variety of human social interactions. People use smell to assess a person’s likability, sexual attractiveness and emotional state. They can also use scent to distinguish a stranger from a friend, a male from a female and someone who is gay from someone who is straight.
* Deficiencies in olfaction may contribute to social withdrawal, such as that which accompanies schizophrenia.

Full Story at Scientific American

Sleep on It-How Snoozing Makes you Smarter

KEY CONCEPTS

* As we snooze, our brain is busily processing the information we have learned during the day.
* Sleep makes memories stronger, and it even appears to weed out irrelevant details and background information so that only the important pieces remain.
* Our brain also works during slumber to find hidden relations among memories and to solve problems we were working on while awake.

Full Story at Scientific American Mind

The Neurological Root Of Genius

KeY ConCEPTs

* Smarter brains tend to be bigger—at least in certain locations. Researchers have fingered parts of the parietal and frontal lobes as well as a structure called the anterior cingulate as important for superior cognition.
* Some studies suggest that the brains of brighter people use less energy to solve certain problems than those of people with lower aptitudes do. But under certain circumstances, scientists have also observed higher neuronal power consumption in individuals with superior mental capacities.
* People often overestimate the importance of intellectual ability. Practice and perseverance contribute more to accomplishment than being smart does.

Check out the full article at Scientific American Mind [great magazine]