Magic as Brain Artistry

It was painters, not scientists, who first figured out the rules of visual perspective and occlusion. Knowing these rules permitted painters to make pigments on a flat canvas appear like a beautiful landscape, rich in depth. Magicians are just a different type of artist. Instead of using color and form, they manipulate the brain’s attention and cognition. Try viewing a magic show from this perspective. Obviously there are magic presentations that your brain will prefer, much as it prefers some types of paintings.

(Macknik, Stephen L. PhD and Susana Martinez-Conde PhD. Sleights of Mind. P 4-6. NY:Henry Holt and Company, 2010.)

The Brain's Imaginary Playmates

Some brains do create them. Mine did. I had one for several years, although I learned quickly it was something I needed to keep private. Little John Deerfoot was the recipient of a great deal of my childhood chatter about life. I was home schooled (alone) for K - Grade Five. No surprise, my imaginary First Nation child was very helpful in that one-person school. One of these days I'll write a book about our "adventures of the mind." Even today as I write this, he is as clear is my mind as if he was standing right in front of me, with his jet black hair, beaded headband, single feather stuck in the back, and buff deer-skin clothing. With lots of fringe! Actually, it's been decades since I thought to call up his memory picture. I did last week when a parent asked me, with obvious concern, how to "make a child stop lying about a pretend friend." I suggested the parent let it go, perhaps making a comment now and then about the difference between seeing and touching a person in real life and accomplishing that in the brain. The reality principle--even knowing the difference between imagining and pretending versus what is tangible and concrete--appears to kick in some time after the age of four. The power of imagination is a mental faculty built into the brain (likely in the right frontal lobe). If it has been developed, imagination can help you to plan, envision, create, innovate, invent, set and achieve goals, and so on. Without it, I believe a brain can be handicapped in thinking ahead and figuring out what something may be like and what the person will need to do or bring with them.

http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/article/Researchers-take-on-imaginary-playmates-for-1161361.php

Brain and Bottom-Up Learning

I was pleased to read this article and notice that someone is at least talking about a different way of helping the brain to learn information. Schools traditionally emphasis top-down education at the expense of bottom-up strategies (or perceptual learning). Now some researchers are saying that if millions of children can develop a trained eye for video combat games and doctored Facebook photos, they can surely do the same for graphs and equations. The concept isn't new in and of itself (e.g., the brain registers subtle patterns subconsciously, well before a person knows he or she is learning) but applying to education certainly is. One can only hope!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/health/07learn.html?_r=1

Secrets of the "Oldest Old"

Apparently, Stephen Coles(MD and PhD)is offering an extension course in gerontology through UCLA, beginning September 6th, 2011. If you live within driving distance, you might want to check it out. As some of you may already know, Dr. Coles is a lecturer, UCLA Molecular Biology Institute, and co-founder of the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group. How I wish I could attend!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ucla-extension-course-in-gerontology-secrets-of-the-oldest-old?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=011471035b-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

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