Brain Model

Healthline.com recently launched a free interactive “Human Brain in 3D” tool that you may be interested in. You can find it at:

http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/brain

Objects in Mind

Studies by neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory: Adult humans can retain only about four items “in mind” at a time. Using monkeys as subjects, researchers recorded simultaneously from neurons in two brain areas related to encoding visual perceptions (the parietal cortex) and holding them in mind (the prefrontal cortex. Results showed that the monkeys (and supposedly humans, as well) have a capacity of two objects in each hemisphere. If the object to remember appears on the right side of the visual space, it does not matter how many objects are on the left side; as long as the right side contains only two, the monkeys can easily remember an object on the right side. Or if the right side contains three objects and the left side only one, their capacity for remembering the key object on the right is exceeded and so they may forget it.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-many-objects-can-you-hold-in-mind-simultaneously
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/06/13/1104666108.abstract

Your Brain and the Gorilla

Several have written asking about the "gorilla" research by Simons and Chabris, especially the now famous video. Here is the address so you can experience "the experience" yourself. Copy and paste into your browser. Yes, humans are not nearly as attentive as many think they are . . .

Can you trust your memory?

Brain and Apes

You may find this clip interesting: about apes from Emery University

http://youtu.be/F_f6-_zM1QI?hd=1

Copy, paste, and enjoy.

Brain, Braking, and Intention

Studies by researchers at the Technical University of Berlin (as reported in the Journal of Neural Engineering): Research using a driving simulator indicating that the driver's intention to perform emergency braking can be detected based on muscle activation and cerebral activity prior to any actual behavioral response. Electrical signals from the brain were detected 130 milliseconds before drivers actually hit the brakes. Reviewing EEG and EMG data, researchers were able to identify signals in the brain that occurred consistently during emergency brake response situations. Identical levels of predictive accuracy were attained using electroencephalography (EEG), which worked more quickly than electromyography (EMG), and using EMG, which worked more quickly than pedal dynamics. This is another indicating that the brain is "thinking" before those thoughts come to conscious awareness and before any action response occurs.

It will be interesting to follow results of any additional studies. This opens up speculation about what "pre-meditation" may involve and what it may mean . . .

http://iopscience.iop.org/1741-2552/8/5/056001

Meditation and the LEFT Frontal Lobe

EEG studies (11 subjects) at University of Wisconsin: The subjects who practiced meditation over a five-week period were found to have increased activity in the left frontal region of the brain. (Fascinating, since meditation is usually associated--or at least has been--with activity in the right frontal activity.) Earlier research has found that this pattern of brain activity is associated with positive moods. (http://www.kurzweilai.net/meditation-effects-on-left-frontal-lobe-found)

Meditation and Brain Connectors

UCLA studies: using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a relatively new imaging mode that provides insights into the structural connectivity of the brain, researchers found differences between the brain of people who meditate and controls. The subjects reported a variety of styles of meditation. Meditation appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain at large. People who meditate have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. Stronger connections influence the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain. Significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas. Studies showed increased structural connectivity in meditators throughout the brain’s pathways. The greatest differences were seen within the corticospinal tract (axons that connect cerebral cortex and spinal cord), the superior longitudinal fasciculus (long bundles of neurons connecting front and back of the cerebrum), and the uncinate fasciculus (white matter that connects parts of the limbic system, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, with the frontal cortex).

(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meditation-may-change-brains-physical-structure-strengthen-connections?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b658121db8-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email)
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811911006008)