"I launched the Brain Science Podcast in December 2006, so to celebrate I am posting my Fifth Annual Review Episode (BSP 80)."
"As times goes on, there seem to be more and more interconnections between the episodes, so it can be interesting to go back and listen from a new perspective... today’s episode is intended just to hit the highlights, so I hope it will encourage you to go back and learn more."
SERIOUSLY! is a creative documentary that turns the work ethic on its head and reveals how vital play is to our health, happiness, and the future of life. Go to www.seriouslythemovie.com to find out more and help us finish the film. Mindfulness—the unconventional research of psychologist Ellen Langer | Harvard Magazine Sep-Oct 2010
Psychologist Ellen Langer's unconventional research.
"Most often, she’s asked to lecture on that eponymous subject, an idea she has been refining since the late 1970s. “Mindfulness” might evoke the teachings of Buddhism, or meditative states, and indeed, the name and some of these concepts do overlap. But Langer’s version is strictly nonmeditative (“The people I know won’t sit still for five minutes, let alone 40,” she quips). Hers is a simple prescription to keep your mind open to possibility." 
A new study from Yale University gives scientists a window into the meditating mind, providing evidence that the practice appears to change the way the brain works and could give meditators a leg up when it comes to dealing with mental disorders. Via Kate Crisp 
Dr. Miguel NicolelisMiguel Nicolelis at Duke University is pioneering brain-machine interfaces. Science suffers from an image problem. Many students see the subject as too difficult and they think scientists are aloof boffins with big brains. 
This book offers the reader an engrossing and coherent introduction to what neuroscience can tell us about cognitive development through experience, and its implications for education. Stating that... 
The brain learns through changes in the strength of synapses -- the connections between neurons -- in response to stimuli. Now, researchers have found there is an optimal brain rhythm, or timing, for changing synaptic strength, and hence learning.
The researchers found that not only does each synapse have a preferred frequency for achieving optimal learning, but for the best effect, the frequency needs to be perfectly rhythmic -- timed at exact intervals. Even at the optimal frequency, if the rhythm was thrown off, synaptic learning was substantially diminished. 
Psychologists in the Netherlands have documented the case of a 58-year-old woman who was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. 
Learning to meditate altered brain activity in the very same regions, such as the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, that are targeted by next-generation pain medications. It’s as if the subjects were administering their own painkillers. Tags: neuropsych, brainby: Heather McQuaid... 
Comments:Research into the persuasive nature of touchhttp://ow.ly/5DhY8 #psych #neuropsych - Heather McQuaidTags: psych, neuropsychby: Heather McQuaid... |
A large body of experimental and clinical data now indicates that early trauma specifically impacts the later capacities of the right brain and its connections into the limbic and autonomic nervous system to implicitly regulate an array of affective and motivational states, including pain states.
In this presentation Dr. Schore describes the mechanisms by which overwhelming experiences impact the developing brain and mind, including the characterological use of the bottom-line defense of dissociation. 
Young children whose mothers talk with them more frequently and in more detail about people's thoughts and feelings tend to be better at taking another's perspective than other children of the same age. Via Dimitris Agorastos 
In my new book The Willpower Instinct, I describe one of my favorite studies of self-control.
"Paying mindful attention to the trigger of the craving interrupted this complex brain response, and ultimately protected smokers from their own desire.It's likely that this process can help all sorts of temptation and addiction, from food cravings to shopping addiction, substance abuse, and Internet porn. Want to get started? Researcher (aka torturer of smokers) Sarah Bowen leads you through the practice of surfing the urge (click to stream audio, or right-click/control-click and "save file as" to download MP3)." 
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. Via Kate Crisp 
A BBC investigative reports top government agencies are exploiting the last neuroscience research to manipulate the masses. ... Mindfulness is a fast growing hobby in the UK right now. It is a form of non-spiritual ... 
The common and annoying experience of arriving somewhere only to realize you've forgotten what you went there to do. We all know why such forgetting happens: we didn’t pay enough attention, or too much time passed, or it just wasn’t important enough. But a “completely different” idea comes from a team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame. 
Comments:ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2011) — Auditory working memory and attention, for example the ability to hear and then remember instructions while completing a task, are a necessary part of musical ability. 
For the past 15 years, literary-agent-turned-crusader-of-human-progress John Brockman has been a remarkable curator of curiosity, long before either "curator" or "curiosity" was a frivolously tossed around buzzword. His Edge.org has become an epicenter of bleeding-edge insight across science, technology and beyond, hosting conversations with some of our era's greatest thinkers (and, once a year, asking them some big questions.) Last month marked the release of The Mind, the first volume in The Best of Edge Series, presenting eighteen provocative, landmark pieces - essays, interviews, transcribed talks - from the Edge archive. 
This is a Zen center that is inspired by the example set by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who nearly 30 years ago began a dialogue with Dr. Francisco Varela and myself that was to eventually become embodied in the Mind & Life Institute, ...
In the Zen Brain retreats, prominent scientists and Zen practitioners explore Buddhist, neuro-scientific and clinical science perspectives on topics like altruism, compassion and consciousness. Lectures and discussions with participants are embedded within zazen (meditation) practice throughout each day. "The conference was the first public event by the One Mind for Research campaign, whose goal is "to significantly reduce the U.S. burden of disability due to brain disorders." Steven Hyman, outgoing provost of Harvard and a Dana Alliance member, coordinated the science presenters; they and other researchers created a blueprint of research goals, released at the event: "A Ten-Year Plan for Neuroscience: From Molecules to Brain Health" (PDF). The first part of the document describes where we stand, why now is the right time to push, and what we should aim for in general." 
Hypnosis conjures up images of side shows and circus acts, but its use in medicine is growing, and with impressive results - especially with children... 
Last year's annual question posed by Edge was "How is the Internet changing the way you think?" Several psychologists answered that it was becoming an extension of their minds. |
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