2009年4月30日星期四

News-090501

Paralysis deniers could be helped by seeing video of themselves
(BPS research digest)
Researchers develop better treatment for social fears
(Physorg)
Research finds perceived warmth, 'babyfaceness' positive characteristics for black CEOs
(Physorg)
The Alzheimer's Project HBO Documentary Puts Spotlight On Alzheimer's Disease; Premiere Screening at the Hennepin County Library in Downtown Minneapolis
(Biomed)
The Alzheimer's Project HBO Documentary Puts Spotlight on Alzheimer's Disease; North Dakota Family Featured
(Biomed)
NeurogesX to Hold Conference Call to Discuss First Quarter 2009 Financial Results
(Biomed)
Nfocus Neuromedical Appoints Robert O'Holla to Head Regulatory
(Biomed)
Brain protein central to both Parkinson's, drug addiction identified
(Biomed)
Child stalking 'more aggressive'
(BBC)

2009年4月29日星期三

很早以前就听闻华尔街人士风光的背后很多人都是drug-addict，比如这里的新闻所说的。而美国的学生精英（例如哈佛）所过的生活几乎是没有私人时间的，几乎就是一周工作+社交生活全部花去了，结果就是其中有人在服用Addrall & Ritalin。

这种残酷的社会+竞争确实产出了很大的创造力。但是其背后的基础很可能就是这些具有神经增强性质的药物，他们讳言的东西。

前面frontal cortex的说道这些药物在增强注意力的前提下还会损伤创造力。

所以，真得要用的话，我们得审时度势。

The quest for compassion

Greg Miller writes (PDF here) on the establishment of a new institute at Stanford University for the scientific study of compassion.

斯坦福大学要建立共情的研究所，据说是da-lai捐助的。这篇介绍很详细。

source:Deric Bownd

ScienceDaily news-090430

Cognitive Enhancement side effect

从 The Frontal Cortex

认知增强（增加注意力）的副作用：降低创造性

Margaret Talbot has a thorough and thought-provoking article in the New Yorker on the potential pitfalls of "neuroenhancing drugs". At this point, enhancement essentially consists of taking uppers (Adderall, Ritalin, Provigil, etc.) to improve concentration and focus. These drugs might have fancy new brand names, but the underlying concept is as old as caffeine and nicotine, which work by tweaking our neurons (often through the activation of excitatory neurotransmitters or, as in the case of coffee, by inhibiting our inhibitory neurotransmitters). Furthermore, there is a lofty literary tradition of modern writers who relied on benzedrine, the Red Bull of the mid-twentieth century. W.H. Auden, for instance, began every day with a cup of coffee and a little benzedrine, which he credited with allowing him to write precisely honed poetry for hours at a time. ("It makes me think faster," he said.) Philip K. Dick also took the drug to increase his focus and help him pump out prose. And then, of course, there's Jack Kerouac: he got hopped up on Benzedrine so that he could write On the Road in an epic twenty day writing session.

So shouldn't we all be on speed? What could possibly be wrong with these mild amphetamines? For starters, benzedrine is addictive, an unfortunate consquence that many of these writers would later discover. (Auden tried to quite when benzedrine was no longer sold over the counter for bronchitis.) But such uppers might also come with a more subtle side-effect: reduced creativity. Here's Talbot:

Both Chatterjee and Farah have wondered whether drugs that heighten users' focus might dampen their creativity. After all, some of our best ideas come to us not when we sit down at a desk but, rather, when we're in the shower or walking the dog--letting our minds roam. Jimi Hendrix reported that the inspiration for "Purple Haze" came to him in a dream; the chemist Friedrich August Kekule claimed that he discovered the ring structure of benzene during a reverie in which he saw the image of a snake biting its tail. Farah told me, "Cognitive psychologists have found that there is a trade-off between attentional focus and creativity. And there is some evidence that suggests that individuals who are better able to focus on one thing and filter out distractions tend to be less creative."
Farah and Chatterjee recently completed a preliminary study looking at the effect of one ten-milligram dose of Adderall on sixteen students doing standard laboratory tests of creative thinking. They did not find that this low dose had a detrimental effect, but both believe that this is only the beginning of the vetting that must be done. "More and more of our young people are using these drugs to help them work," Farah said. "They've got their laptop, their iPhone, and their Adderall. This rising generation of workers and leaders may have a subtly different style of thinking and working, because they're using these drugs or because they learned to work using these drugs, so that even if you take the drugs away they'll still have a certain approach. I'm a little concerned that we could be raising a generation of very focussed accountants."

It makes perfect sense that such a cognitive trade-off would exist. Paying attention to a particular task - like churning out run-on sentences about a road trip, or cramming for an organic chemistry test, or crunching numbers - requires the brain to ignore all sorts of seemingly unrelated thoughts and stimuli bubbling up from below. (The unconscious brain is full of potential distractions.) However, the same thoughts that can be such annoying interruptions are also the engine of creativity, since they allow us to come up with new connections between previously unrelated ideas. (This might be why schizotypal subjects score higher on tests of creativity. They are less able to ignore those distracting thoughts, which largely arise from the right hemisphere.) Here's what I wrote in my New Yorker article on the anatomy of the insight moment:

While it's commonly assumed that the best way to solve a difficult problem is to focus, minimize distractions, and pay attention only to the relevant details, this clenched state of mind may inhibit the sort of creative connections that lead to sudden breakthroughs. We suppress the very type of brain activity that we should be encouraging. Jonathan Schooler has recently demonstrated that making people focus on the details of a visual scene, as opposed to the big picture, can significantly disrupt the insight process. "It doesn't take much to shift the brain into left-hemisphere mode," he said. "That's when you stop paying attention to those more holistic associations coming in from the right-hemisphere."

I think this is also supported by a peculiar neural twitch observed by Jung-Beeman and Kounious when they studied the moment of insight using EEG. Just before the insight appeared, the scientists saw a sharp drop in activity in the visual cortex, as if the sensory area was turning itself off. At first, the scientists couldn't figure out what was going on. What does visual sensation have to do with insights? But then it occurred to them: the visual cortex was going quiet so that brain could better focus on its own, interior associations. The outside world had become a distraction, so the brain was blocking it out.

This doesn't mean that "cosmetic neurology" is a bad thing - people should simply be aware that every brain "enhancement" is going to have side-effects. Increased focus, for instance, makes it harder to eavesdrop on those remote associations that are often the source of new ideas. So if you want to write like Jack Kerouac, your words rushing out in an inchoate stream, or if you need to spend hours tinkering with a few lines of poetry, or analyzing some obscure data set, or staying awake on an assembly line, then maybe you should pop some amphetamines. Just remember that increased attention isn't a universal panacea and that just because you're thinking differently doesn't mean you're thinking better.

Read the comments on this post...

A Sex Chip? Targeting the Brain's Pleasure Center with Electrodes

用电极去刺激大脑的快乐中枢的新进展

A fundamental goal of neuroscience has always been to deduce the brain systems that underlie such basic drives as hunger, thirst and sex. In 1956 the well-known physiologist James Olds wrote an article for Scientific American, called “Pleasure Centers in the Brain,” that described how a rat kept without food for a day was lured down a platform by a tasty meal. En route to dinner, it received a pleasurable electric shock. The rat never showed up for mealtime, instead choosing to delight in the arousal. With the optimism characteristic of that era, Olds concluded that stimulation experiments would lead to an understanding of neural functioning that would allow “one drug that will raise or lower thresholds in the hunger system, another for the sex-drive system, and so forth.”

Fifty years later the promise of Olds’s vision has yet to fully materialize. Better drugs are needed to suppress appetite and spark sexual desire. But fascination has grown in recent years with taking Olds’s more direct route of stimulating the central nervous system.

[More]

source: sciam

Physorg news-090430

Solidot news-090430

For Alzheimer's Disease, Surveyed Neurologists Identify a Therapy's Effect on Cognitive Decline as the Attribute That Most Influences Their Prescribin

药业咨询公司Decision Resources对神经病学家访问发现了他们对阿兹海默症开药时的标准，以及符合这种标准的药物组合。

The Combination of Bapineuzumab and Donepezil Will Earn Decision Resources' Gold Standard Status for the Indication in 2012, According to a New Report from Decision Resources

WALTHAM, Mass., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that surveyed neurologists identify a therapy's effect on cognitive decline as the attribute that most influences their prescribing decisions in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. As potential disease-modifying drugs, interviewed thought leaders indicate that Elan/Wyeth's bapineuzumab, Eli Lilly's solanezumab and semagacestat, Medivation/Pfizer's Dimebon and Baxter Healthcare's Gammagard all have advantages in this attribute over donepezil (Eisai/Pfizer's Aricept, Bracco's Memac), the sales-leading agent in the market.

...

Genetic risk for anxiety does not have to be destiny

挑战特定基因型会更容易换上焦虑、抑郁的神经症这一观点的研究。

source:biomed

Philadelphia, PA, April 29, 2009 A growing body of basic animal research and studies of abused and neglected children provide a strong basis of support for the hypothesis that individuals with particular genotypes are at greater risk for depression, anxiety disorders, and problems with the abuse of alcohol and other substances. These gene-by-environment interactions are so powerful that some might assume that these genotypes identify people who are predestined to negative life outcomes.

However, a new study in the May 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biopsychiat), published by Elsevier, challenges this view. Investigators studied infant monkeys from four different rearing conditions to examine how social context and different forms of early adversity interact with genotype to influence behavior.

Neurocrine Biosciences Announces Conference Call and Webcast to Present First Quarter 2009 Financial Results

一家神经制药公司要召开财务新闻发布会，这个就不多说了

source: biomed

Conference Call and Webcast Scheduled for Wednesday, May 6, 2009

SAN DIEGO, April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: NBIX) announced today that the Company will report its first quarter 2009 financial results after the Nasdaq market closes on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Neurocrine will then host a live conference call and webcast to discuss its financial results and provide a Company update Wednesday morning, May 6, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (5:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time).

Participants can access the live conference call by dialing 1-800-895-0198, (US) or 785-424-1053 (International) using the conference ID: 7NEURO. The call can also be accessed via the webcast through the Company's website at http://www.neurocrine.com

If you are unable to attend the Webcast and would like further information on this announcement please contact the Investor Relations Department at Neurocrine Biosciences at (858) 617-7600. A replay of the Conference Call will be available approximately one hour after the conclusion of the call by dialing 1-800-688-7339 (US) or 402-220-1347 (International) using the conference ID: 7NEURO. The call will be archived for two weeks.

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on neurological and endocrine diseases and disorders.

Adults 'Facing' ADHD: ADHD Allies™ Offers Unique Online Community for Adults with ADHD on New Facebook® Page

Facebook上患ADHD成年人的群组。

Titusville, NJ (April 22, 2009) — Although Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition commonly thought of as only affecting children, for nearly 9 million adults in the United States, ADHD is very much a reality. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, adults with ADHD often struggle with getting organized, sticking to a job, remembering or keeping appointments and being productive.

more on Johnson & Johnson's

Making waves in the brain

诱发老鼠脑内gamma波

Scientists have studied high-frequency brain waves, known as gamma oscillations, for more than 50 years, believing them crucial to consciousness, attention, learning and memory. Now, for the first time, MIT researchers and colleagues have found a way to induce these waves by shining laser light directly onto the brains of mice.

...

more on MIT

2009年4月28日星期二

心理画像（psychological profiling）

最近发现美剧的新大陆，通过他们认识了本来非常陌生但是却有很大应用价值的领域-心理画像。

追看的两部美剧（lie to me不算）将这部分描写得活灵活现。他们是《criminal minds》和《the mentalist》。后面一部没有前面一部那么有名，但其中主角也是借助行为证据分析（例如照片中青春期女儿坐在父亲大腿上推断出两人关系不一般）来达到探案的效果。

criminal minds的真实机构是FBI的bahavior analysis unit（BAU），该机构的倡导者之一是John Douglas。当然，对于心理学应用感兴趣的人可能会觉得在警察机构里面做不见得待遇就好，毕竟公务员在美国并不是profitable的职业。其实我在网页上乱搜的结果发现美国已经有专门服务于司法的公司了，而且它的基础是行为科学，领域名字是forensic behavioral science。

前不久在网上发现一家为BAU服务的公司，叫Academy group Inc.。它是有BAU前任员工创建的，ms客户还有很多财富500强的公司。

Read/Write Brain Electrodes Getting Smaller and Smarter

目前还看不出这些电极有什么用，看来只能治疗某些疾病了。

从 Medgadget 作者：Michael

Modern deep brain stimulation techniques use electrical probes that have to be rather small for precise effect. Presently, the electrodes are still bulky because of the manufacturing limitations. Now IMEC, a nanotechnology company out of Leuven, Belgium, reports that it has developed a new process that supposedly can improve electrode resolution and sensitivity. Using the new technology, the company built a prototype probe that can simultaneously read and stimulate brain neurons, paving way for smart neurological implant systems that can quickly react to a detected stimulus.

Wolfgang Eberle, Senior Scientist and project manager at IMEC’s bioelectronics research group: “To have a more precise stimulation and recording, we need electrodes that are as small as individual brain cells (neurons). Such small electrodes can be made with semiconductor process technology, appropriate design tools, and advanced electronic signal processing. At DATE, we want to bring this message to the design community, showing the huge opportunities that the healthcare sector offers.”
IMEC’s design and modeling strategy allows developing advanced brain implants consisting of multiple electrodes enabling simultaneous stimulation and recording. This strategy was used to create prototype probes with 10 micrometer-size electrodes and various electrode topologies.

The design strategy relies on finite-element modeling of the electrical field distribution around the brain probe. This was done with the multi-physics simulation software COMSOL 3.4 and 3.5. The COMSOL tools also enabled investigating the mechanical properties of the probe during surgical insertion and the effects of temperature. The results indicate that adapting the penetration depth and field asymmetry allow steering the electrical field around the probe. This results in high-precision stimulation. Also key to the design approach is developing a mixed-signal compensation scheme enabling multi-electrode probes capable of stimulation as well as recording. This is needed to realize closed-loop systems.

These new design approaches open up possibilities for more effective stimulation with less side effects, reduced energy consumption due to focusing the stimulation current on the desired brain target, and closed-loop control adapting the stimulation based on the recorded effect.

Press release: IMEC’s design strategy for brain implants paves the way to multi-electrode deep-brain stimulation ...

Research Highlights Genetic Risk for Autism

又是两个自闭症相关的基因，估计再发现下去没完没了。

Expert calls new findings a 'crack in the facade' of the disorder,,

TUESDAY, April 28 (HealthDay News) -- Inheriting abnormal mutations of two common genes can raise the risk for developing autism, according to one of two new studies highlighting the complex genetic roots of the disorder.

Both genes are located in the brain's frontal lobe region, responsible for complex social behavior and abstract thought, and are normally involved in the proper functioning of healthy brain cell connections. Both also play a key role in the formation of those connections, or synapses, which allow brain cells to communicate and enable learning, cognition, and memory.

...

请读我的唇！东英格兰大学：好啊！

东英格兰大学的研究人员打算将这些转来转去的技术更进一步：研究的项目是「读唇术」，也就是直接辨识人们说话的嘴型，并将它转成文字。

事实上，这套系统不仅仅是读唇而已，还能够辨识目标对象目前是在讲哪一国的语言。目前这套系统能够「看」懂的语言包括：英语、法语、德语、阿拉伯语、华语( 也就是国语~~，只是不知道有没有卷舌儿会不会影响辨识度？~~)、广东话、意大利语、波兰语以及俄语。为了增加辨识准确度，这套系统除了分析唇部的变化外，同时还会观察其它影响发声部位，比如：舌头、上下颚等部位的动作。

这项技术可以运用在帮助聋胞和其它人的沟通，或是让警方能够在吵杂的环境，或是监测录像带中读出被监视者的对话。或许以后要说什么不能见人的秘密时，得记得先将嘴巴遮起来唷。

[原文连结]

source:engadget

ScienceDaily news-090429

Physorg news-090429

Brain Games: Do They Really Work?

scienfitic american上又一篇杜克大学研究人员对Brain fitness training的评论，他们的态度是有点用处，但是效果和经常锻炼、社交、玩桥牌对老年人的积极影响差不多。但是购买这些软件服务的理由是，因为我花钱了，所以我一定要去。呵呵，自我强迫啊。

A recent multicenter clinical trial of a commercial brain fitness program makes a case for why we should take brain games more seriously.

Do you misplace your keys or regularly miss appointments? Do you often forget the names of people you know well? Do you feel like your memory is slowly getting worse? If so, then you may find yourself considering those brain games advertised everywhere. Sales pitches such as “where the sweat is figurative, but results are real” and “your brain will thank you” are amusingly alluring. But you may find yourself wondering whether they are really worth the time and expense. You shell out the money, play a few rounds and your brain will start spitting out names, dates and pin numbers like you’re 18 again—right?

...

more on sciam

较晚生育的女性后代更可能得自闭症

Autism Tied to Older Moms, Breech Birth

But it's unlikely these factors cause the neurological condition, experts say

HealthDay

Monday, April 27, 2009

HealthDay news image MONDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- Children of older mothers and children who have breech deliveries are almost twice as likely to develop autism spectrum disorders (ASD), U.S. researchers report.

The findings confirm those of other studies and support the idea that much of autism has a genetic base, researchers say.

"A child with breech is twice as likely as a child who did not present as breech to develop autism," said lead researcher, Dr. Deborah Bilder, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

A breech presentation occurs when the infant presents with the legs and buttocks first instead of the head. These children are usually delivered by cesarian section.

For mothers 35 and older, the risk that their child will develop ASD is 1.6 times greater than for children of younger women, and for women having their first child, the risk is 1.8 times higher than if she has delivered before, Bilder said.

The absolute risk for autism in any child is still relatively small, Bilder stressed. "I don't think there is good reason right now to instill worry in moms over 34 who are already concerned with other genetic issues," she said. "But I do think this is a finding to pursue further, because this suggests a potential genetic cause for autism."

There is no doubt that ASD runs in families, Bilder said. "I see a lot of families with autistic children, particularly in Utah where families are larger," she said.

But there may be other causes of autism, Bilder said. "We are also looking at environmental issues -- prenatally," she said.

The report is published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

For the study, Bilder's team collected data on eight-year-olds born in Utah in 1994 who were diagnosed with ASD in 2002 via the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The researchers found birth records for 132 of these children.

Bilder's group then compared those children's birth records with the records of 13,200 boys and girls who did not have ASD.

The researchers found that ASD occurred more often among children of mothers 35 and older, mothers who were having their first child and children born in a breech delivery.

Bilder does not think that any of these factors are causes of ASD. "The implication is that there is a prenatal factor involved, which lends itself to breech presentations, that is also lending itself later to the development of autism, such as an impairment in neuromuscular development," she said. The "prenatal factor" might involve a genetic or environmental component, the researchers said.

Dr. Eugene R. Hershorin, an associate professor of clinical pediatrics and medical director of the Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic at the University of Miami, said the findings raise some questions.

"The problem is, you don't know what to make of these findings -- what's the cause-and-effect?" Hershorin said. "Is it if you are going to be autistic, you are going to have a breech presentation? Or is it that breech presentation has some influence on whether or not you are going to be autistic?"

Hershorin noted that the risk of abnormalities in children of older mothers is well known and perhaps a more important consideration for parents than a breech presentation.

HealthDay

source: medline

生物谷新闻-090428

J.Neurosci：发现调节中脑多巴胺能神经元发育基因
from 生物谷RSS在线浏览器 - 生物类RSS by 生物谷
4 月22日国际神经科学杂志《神经科学杂志》（Journal of Neuroscience）发表了中科院神经所周嘉伟研究员所领导科研团队的研究成果——“调节中脑多巴胺能神经元发育的基因”。这一成果提出了这类神经元胚胎发育的模式，为进一步认识基底神经节的发育过程提供了新的资料。中脑多巴胺能（mDA）神经元在人类和动物的运动能力、情绪调节等重要生理过程中发挥着极其关键的作用，这些细胞功能和结构的异常与...
App.AnimalBehav.Sci.：金鱼也有痛苦回忆
from 生物谷RSS在线浏览器 - 生物类RSS by 张祎
鱼缸里自由自在游动的金鱼看似无忧无虑，没有痛苦也没有记忆。然而挪威和美国科学家研究发现，金鱼不仅有痛感，还能记住痛苦的经历。知痛知热挪威兽医学院和美国珀杜大学研究人员把实验金鱼分为两组，给一组金鱼注射吗啡止痛剂，另一组金鱼注射盐溶液。他们给金鱼穿上内置微小金属箔加热器的“迷你上衣”。加热器最高温度控制在50摄氏度，以免伤害金鱼。加热器温度升至38摄氏度时，两组金鱼或蜷缩身体，或摆动尾巴，想要逃离。...
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Study suggests Buddhist deity meditation temporarily augments visuospatial abilities

佛教冥想能暂时增加视觉空间能力，那以后我们要多冥想，说不定对眼睛有好处。

Meditation has been practiced for centuries, as a way to calm the soul and bring about inner peace. According to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, there is now evidence that a specific method of meditation may temporarily boost our visuospatial abilities (for example, the ability to retain an image in visual memory for a long time). That is, the meditation allows practitioners to access a heightened state of visual-spatial awareness that lasts for a limited period of time.

source: sciencedaily

ADHD Medication Treatment Associated with Higher Academic Performance in Elementary School

治疗ADHD的方法ms能提高患有ADHD的小学生的成绩。

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who take medication to treat the condition tend to do better in math and reading compared to their peers who also have ADHD but do not take medication, according to data from a national survey. The NIMH-funded study was published in the May 2009 issue of Pediatrics.

source: NIMH

研究发现，高智商的人能作出更明智的经济决策

明尼苏达大学研究人员的一项新研究发现，在多种不同类型的经济决策中，高IQ值的人能做出更聪明的决策。报告发表在本周的《美国国家科学院学报》上。研究人员调查了美国机动车运输公司Schneider National的1千名接受训练的卡车司机。首先测试他们的认知能力，请他们在多种经济试验中做出选择，然后跟踪他们的工作情况。结果发现，认知能力高的人，尤其是IQ值高的人，更愿意去预计风险，以节省金钱，并保持了一贯的决定。在策略性情境下，他们更愿意与人合作，表现出更高的“社会意识”，他们能更精确的预测他人的行为。对他们工作的追踪显示，高IQ值的司机留在公司内的比重是低IQ值的两倍。

source: solidot

dTMS用来可卡因成瘾

Magnetic Brain Stimulation for Cocaine Addiction, Multiple Sclerosis?

from Medgadget by Michael

Brainsway Inc., a Jerusalem, Israel firm that develops deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) machines, has announced receiving approval from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to conduct a trial of its product to test whether the system can be used to treat cocaine addicted patients. Additionally, the company plans to test its device in a Berlin hospital as a treatment option for people with symptomatic multiple sclerosis.

About TMS therapy from Brainsway:

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique used to apply brief magnetic pulses to the brain. The pulses are administered by passing high currents through an electromagnetic coil placed adjacent to a patient's scalp. The pulses induce an electric field in the underlying brain tissue. When the induced field is above a certain threshold, and is directed in an appropriate orientation relative the brain's neuronal pathways, localized axonal depolarizations are produced, thus activating the neurons in the relevant brain structure.
Standard TMS coils are limited to activation of only cortical brain regions, up to a depth of about 1.5 cm. Hence when treating depression with a standard TMS system, the limbic system, which is related to mood regulation and is generally deeper than 1.5 cm, is only indirectly affected, through secondary processes involving cortical structures, which are directly activated by TMS and then affect the deeper limbic system structures.

The unique technology of Brainsway Deep TMS System enables direct non-invasive activation of deep brain structures.

Deep TMS is a breakthrough in the search for a non-invasive approach for treating common brain disorders. Deep TMS uses a unique, patented coil design to produce directed electromagnetic fields that can induce excitation or inhibition of neurons deep inside the brain. The treatment is non-invasive, with no significant side effects, no systemic effect (in contrast to drugs), and no need of hospitalization or anesthesia.

Biomed news-090428

Brain fitness authority(so-called)

今天找到的一家由神经科学家Elkhonon Goldberg和曾在麦肯锡做过的Alvaro Fernandez共同创立的市场调研公司，和neuroinsight几乎一模一样的宣言（neurotech market authority）。

瞧瞧这种模式，我们落后了多少。现在只有做代理的份了。

从它的客户名单上，我们可以看到一些端倪，包括我关注的posit science都是它的客户。

Below you have a partial list of clients:

Advanced Brain Technologies

AARP

Aberdare Ventures

AKM Holdings

Aspyr Media, Inc

BCM technologies

Behavioral Science Technology

Belmont Village Senior Living

BerCon Ltd

BIDMC-Harvard Medical Center

Binnacle Capital

Brain Resource Company

Brookdale Senior Living

Case Western Reserve University

Club One, Inc.

Cogmed

CogniFit

CogState

Dakim

Ericsson

Ernst & Young Advisory

Easter Seals

Harvard Medical School

International Masters Publishers

Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation

Kaiser Permanente

MaRS Discovery District

Memorial Hospital Health System

Memphis City Schools

Merit Entertainment

Mindmedi Clinic

National Academy Child Development

National Research Council of Canada

Navon

NeuroCare Network

New York Public Library

NovaVision

OptumHealth

Oregon Center for Applied Science

Osmium Partners

Peninsula Jewish Community Center

Posit Science

Sunrise Senior Living

University of Texas at Austin

University of Michigan

US Army Research Lab

Scientific Learning

Scientific Brain Training

Sutter Health Partners

VibrantBrains

Encephalon 69th Edition

ms是一家健脑软件的市场调研公司搞的脑科学博客奖，做了大约1年多，很不错的，可以看看。

Welcome to the 69th edition of the Encephalon blog carnival. This carnival is devoted to presenting blog posts that cover neuroscience and psychology related topics.

First up, Neuroanthropology does an in depth analysis about the twitter phenomenon in "Fear of Twitter: technophobia part 2". I personally have not been inclined to get on the twitter bandwagon. Do I have twitter phobia? Perhaps. Not sure if I'm interested in another time waster. A couple of topics in that article include a discussion about matters related to privacy and twitter's potential affect on cognitive processes.

Brain Blogger has a post about "Free Will and the Philosophy of Science". The author talks about the relationship between neuroscience and scientific determinism. There is further discussion about the topic in the comment section too. There is a little bit of confusion on the part of the blog post author and some of the commenters about whether the physics of our world is deterministic or not. The most widely accepted interpretation of quantum mechanics among physicists (many worlds) is deterministic. So does a deterministic world deny the existence of free will? Well I think that depends on how you define the term "free will". As mentioned by the blog post author in one of the comments, the term "free will" can be rather vague. So I think the discussion won't be particularly fruitful if you don't properly define what exactly "free will" is. It's a topic I myself might explore in a future post.

Sharp Brains writes on the subject of whether taking art classes can boost academic achievement in other fields in "Arts and Smarts: Test Scores and Cognitive Development". There is conflicting data as to whether participating in the arts is beneficial for test scores in more conventional domains (like math or reading ability). There is also the issue of whether correlation proves causation in some of the studies.

Neuroanthropology has another lengthy article that discusses about a "neuro" term in "Who you callin’ a ‘neuroconstructivist’?!". Another "neuro" word? What does neuroconstructivist mean? You'll have to read the post if you want to find out the whole story. It looks like part of being a neuroconstructivist entails taking environmental effects on the brain and its development more seriously. The expression of brain genes can be dependent on social environmental factors, for instance (i.e. social interactions). From my own reading of the Neuroanthropology blog, I tend to think they sometimes overstate the case for certain environmental social factors being able to shape an individual's brain to a desired output. Nonetheless, they usually have well reasoned posts. I also think it is important to stress that while the environment can have an impact on brain functioning, brain functioning itself can impact how we consciously perceive the environment. Changing brain chemistry (like by using a neuro drug as one extreme example) can alter our perception of reality (i.e. the environment) and this can affect all subsequent brain/environment interactions as a result of that altered perception.

Brain Blogger has another post discussing new objective testing methods for Alzhiemer's disease. Volumetric brain imaging analysis of the hippocampus can be used as a biomarker for Alzhiemer's disease. It's unfortunate that there aren't too many therapies that are truly effective in treating/preventing Alzhiemer's even with earlier detection. A lot of the new neurotechnologies discussed on my own blog will probably have only a limited effect on the disease process too. I also think it will be getting harder and harder to actually get FDA approval for many new neurological therapies in the future. The current regulatory environment is not conducive to this sort of thing and it will probably only get worse. Hopefully my pessimism will prove wrong.

Cognitive Daily has a post entitled "How wrong is it to use a kitten for personal ughhh... pleasure?". Very embarrassing post title to describe. It deals with one particular sort of kitty induced pleasure. Do we really need to be giving people these sorts of ideas? Aren't there enough weirdos out there who will try anything? The post talks about how people have a tendency of rating things as being more immoral when they are exposed to something else disgusting (fart smell, disgusting movie) that is unrelated to the poll. Conversely you can make people judge something as being more "moral" as well by having them do certain things beforehand (having them wash their hands, for instance).

Sharp Brains also mentions about a Cognitive Health Track at Games for Health Conference.

Well, that's it for now. The next Encephalon installment will be hosted at TBD, May 11th, 2009. More information about future editions of this blog carnival and details about making post submissions can be found at the Encephalon archive.

source:brain stimulant

Child behaviour 'linked to sleep'

俗话说：小孩子要睡得好，白天才能少一点“多动”和坏行径，芬兰的研究为这一点添加了证据。BBC很恶心，研究发在哪里没说。

The study looked at children aged seven or eight

A good night's sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behaviour among children, a Finnish study reports.

It has been suggested that some children who lack sleep do not appear tired, but instead behave badly.

Of the 280 examined in the Pediatrics study, those who slept for fewer than eight hours were the most hyperactive.

Experts said adequate sleep could improve behaviour in healthy children and reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

It is recognised that chronic sleep deprivation is a problem for many adults in Western countries and that it can have consequences for their health and daily life.

The team behind this research said not enough was understood about the role of sleep in children's lives but it has been estimated that a third of US children do not get enough sleep.

Monitoring

In this research, the team from the University of Helsinki and Finland's National Institute of Health and Welfare studied 280 healthy children aged seven or eight.

They wanted to see if those healthy children who slept the least were the most likely to display the kind of symptoms associated with ADHD.

None of the children studied had the attention disorder.

There is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD

Neil Stanley, Sleep expert

Parents filled in questionnaires about their children's usual sleeping habits and then noted how long their children slept for over seven nights.

The children also wore devices called actigraphs, which measure movement, to monitor how long they actually rested for.

Parents' estimates of sleep duration were longer than the actigraph measurements, which the researchers say could be because they measured from bedtime or because they assumed their children were asleep when they were simply lying awake in bed or reading.

The parents were also asked about their children's behaviour, using measures normally used to diagnose ADHD.

The children whose average sleep duration as measured by actigraphs was shorter than 7.7 hours had a higher hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour score.

They also had a higher ADHD symptom score overall.

'Sleep needs differ'

Dr Juulia Paavonen, who led the study, said: "We were able to show that short sleep duration and sleeping difficulties are related to behavioural symptoms of ADHD.

"The findings suggest that maintaining adequate sleep schedules among children is likely to be important in preventing behavioural symptoms.

Even 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement

Dr Juulia Paavonen, Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare

"It may well be that inadequate sleep is increasing some of the behavioural problems that have been seen in children with attention deficit disorders."

Dr Paavonen said further studies were needed to confirm the link.

And she advised parents that, even though the study suggested fewer than eight hours sleep could be problematic, it was not a figure everyone should aim for.

"Sleep needs differ between individuals. The only way is to take care that a particular child has enough sleep is to see if they seem to have a problem with short sleep.

"But even [an extra] 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement in objective cognitive tests, improving reaction times, impulsivity and attention spans."

Sleep expert Neil Stanley, of the University of East Anglia, said: "It has been acknowledged for a while now that there is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD."

He said parents needed to recognise that sleep was important for children.

"These things have been lost at a time when ADHD is increasing.

"How much of what is diagnosed as ADHD is something that can be modified or improved, or even totally cured by a more rigid sleep pattern?

"Maybe parents should try and get sleep sorted out if the child is still showing symptoms, then that's probably the time to look at pharmacological interventions."

source:bbc

Fatty foods 'offer memory boost'

老鼠实验表明：高脂肪食物增强记忆，好囧的结果。

Fried foods are high in fat

Eating fatty foods can help boost memory, a US study suggests.

A team at the University of California, Irvine discovered oleic acids from fats are converted into a memory-enhancing agent in the gut.

They hope their work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could offer a new way to treat memory-related problems.

Drugs to mimic the action of the compound are in trials for controlling the dangerous fat triglyceride.

Evidence shows high levels of oleoylethanolamide or OEA can reduce appetite, produce weight loss and lower blood cholesterol as well as triglyceride levels, making it an attractive candidate as a diet pill too.

Memory maker

Dr Daniele Piomelli and his team discovered that OEA also causes memories to be laid down by activating memory-enhancing signals in the amygdala - the part of the brain involved with memories of emotional events.

When they gave OEA to rats, it improved their memory retention in two different tests - running in a maze and avoiding an unpleasant experience.

And when they blocked OEA with a drug, their performance on the tasks declined.

Better understanding of how memories are formed could lead to new treatments that help the brain when it becomes affected by Alzheimer's

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust

Dr Piomelli said there was an evolutionary explanation for this role of OEA.

He said: "By helping mammals remember where and when they have eaten a fatty meal, OEA's memory-enhancing activity seems to have been an important evolutionary tool for early humans and other animals.

"Remembering the location and context of a fatty meal was probably an important survival mechanism for early humans."

But he said this might not always be helpful. While OEA contributes to feelings of fullness after a meal, it could also engender long-term cravings for fatty foods that, when eaten in excess, can cause obesity.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "This is fascinating research and advances our understanding of the impact that diet can have on brain activity.

"When thinking about what constitutes a healthy diet, usually what's good for the heart is also good for the head.

"While this research suggests that fatty foods could help in the formation of longer term memories, a healthy balanced diet is still the best advice for reducing the risk of developing dementia.

"Better understanding of how memories are formed could lead to new treatments that help the brain when it becomes affected by Alzheimer's."

Professor Harald Hansen, of The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Copenhagen, has been studying OEA's anti-obesity properties.

He said: "Clariyfing the role of OEA in human food consumption will add to our understanding of the development of the obesity epidemic. Such knowledge may possibly also help us develop drug candidates for treating morbid obesity."

But he pointed out that OEA was not commercial available for human consumption and it has not yet been documented that it will have the same effects in humans as is seen in rats.

source:bbc

2009年4月27日星期一

Frontal Cortex blog news

Reading Reports Involving Risk-taking Affects Financial Decision Making

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2009) — An innovative study carried out at the University of Haifa examined factors influencing decisions by investment advisors and accountants, finding that irrelevant substance, such as newspaper articles dealing with unrelated risky decisions, affects financial decision making. The results of the study were presented at the APESA 2009 international conference on behavioral economics at the University of Haifa.

source: sciencedaily

Meds Help Kids With ADHD in Classroom

Study finds they test higher than unmedicated peers in grade school MONDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- Children who take medication to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do better in elementary school than those who don't, a new study has found. Of 594 children whose parents reported an ADHD diagnosis, those who took medication scored 2.9 points higher on...

source: biomed.org

For Bipolar Depression

For Bipolar Depression, Surveyed Experts Indicate That Current and Emerging Therapies Have No Advantage Over Seroquel in Decreasing the Severity of Symptoms

Lamictal Will Retain Decision Resources' Clinical Gold Standard Status for Bipolar Depression, According to a New Report from Decision Resources WALTHAM, Mass., April 27 /- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that surveyed psychiatrists identify a therapy's effect on decrease in severit...

source:biomed.org

收费信息一则

Posit Science Adds $5.6M For Brain Power

从 Dow Jones VentureWire Alert 作者：VentureWire

With plenty of venture interest in companies offering brain fitness technology, Posit Science Corp. has raised $5.6 million in insider Series C funding, company President and Chief Executive Steven Aldrich said.

2009年4月26日星期日

Sciencedaily News-090427

MRI的循环论证again

It's those Voodoo correlations again ... brain imagers accused of "double dipping"

从 BPS RESEARCH DIGEST 作者：Digest

This time there's no explicit naming and shaming, and the title may not be as colourful, but a new study out today in prestige journal Nature Neuroscience echoes many of the same concerns voiced earlier this year in the leaked paper "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience" (since renamed as "Puzzlingly High Correlations ..."). And the new paper's implications are surely just as profound for the cognitive neuroscience community.

Nikolaus Kriegeskorte and colleagues analysed all the fMRI studies published in Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron and Journal of Neuroscience, in 2008, and found that 42 per cent of these 134 papers were guilty of performing at least one non-independent selective analysis - what Kriegeskorte's team dub "double dipping".

This is the procedure, also condemned by the Voodoo paper, in which researchers first perform an all-over analysis to find a brain region(s) that responds to the condition of interest, before going on to test their hypothesis on data collected in just that brain region. The cardinal sin is that the same data are used in both stages.

A similarly flawed approach can be seen in brain imaging studies that claim to be able to discern a presented stimulus from patterns of activity recorded in a given brain area. These are the kind of studies that lead to "mind reading" headlines in the popular press. In this case, the alleged statistical crime is to use the same data for the training phase of pattern extraction and the subsequent hypothesis testing phase.

Kriegeskorte's claim is not that all the studies guilty of this procedure are invalid, but that their data will have been distorted to varying degrees. "To decide which neuroscientific claims hold, the community needs to carefully consider each particular case, guided by both neuroscientific and statistical expertise," they wrote.

To support their case, Kriegeskorte's team performed two "mock" experiments of the "region of interest" and "pattern extraction" types. In each case they showed how double-dipping can drastically distort results. For example, in a mock pattern-information analysis they achieved a significant result with double-dipping even after feeding purely random data into the analysis.

The ramifications of these statistical observations don't end with brain imaging. They also have implications for work with electroencephalography, in which researchers are prone to use the same data for selecting relevant channels and testing hypotheses, and for research using single-cell recording.

"A circular analysis is one whose assumptions distort its results," the authors concluded. "We have demonstrated that practices that are widespread in neuroimaging are affected by circularity."
_________________________________

Kriegeskorte, N., Simmons, W.K., Bellgowan, P.S.F., & Baker, C.I. (2009). Circular analysis in systems neuroscience: the dangers of double dipping Nature Neuroscience. In Press.

最危险的是披着科学的外衣

神经营销学"neuromarketing"是认知神经科学中很炫的一个领域。近些年有一些研究发表在顶级的期刊上，比如neuron (doi )。《买》 (buyology)这本书，介绍了neuromarketing 在业界的一些实际应用。

对于影响人类购买行为的因素，书中大部分解释实际上没有达到神经层面，而只是决策行为层面。比如，人的决定经常受到非理性、潜意识以及习惯的影响。这些理论是认知心理学和经济学结合的产物，即行为经济学。 Daniel Kahneman 正是由于在这领域的杰出贡献而获得2002年诺贝尔经济学奖。相比于比较完善的行为经济学的理论，书中提到真正与神经有关的理论恐怕只有镜像神经元 (mirror neuron)和躯体标识器假设 (Somatic Marker Hypothesis)。镜像神经元恐怕是认知神经科学领域很重要的一个发现，但书中应用镜像神经元解释人的购买行为却不太合理。你看到其他人戴带着白色耳机线的ipod，导致你的镜像神经元激活，所以你也想买一个同样的ipod。镜像神经元理论只是说人们在观察别人行动时会激活自己做相同行动时所用的脑区，即镜像神经元。激活自己做动作的脑区只是理解对方行为的一种途径，并不代表自己想要做同样的事情。

本书作者和其他一些研究者还做了一些功能磁共振 (fMRI)和脑电 (EEG)的研究，试图说明人们为什么买某一类商品，或者预测某些广告是否会成功。可惜的是，两类研究的逻辑都是错误的。比如，作者试图说明人们对某些品牌的偏好类似于某种宗教信仰。因此作者对比了人们看某些“强势品牌”和“弱势品牌”时大脑活动的差异，发现激活的区域与宗教体验激活的区域相似。但这种相似并不能说明人们偏好某品牌与人们信仰宗教相似，因为fMRI数据分析只能得到统计性的结果，而且大脑某个区域的功能并不是非常非常特定的 (没有哪个专门的区域是单纯的负责“宗教体验”)。

另外，作者的研究还试图用人们观看广告片时的神经活动来预测该广告片时否会成功。首先，各种不同广告片之间的物理属性差异巨大，很难说明哪一个广告片会引起更大的注意。即使可以可靠的测量注意，在现实中广告的效应也很难单独由是否引起注意力决定。如果观众一连看了多个高度吸引注意的广告片，也许另外一个轻松的广告片更会被记住。

脑成像研究实际上有很大的主观性，想要得出一个“结果”是很容易的。因此，对待这类研究结论一定要小心。如果自己不能确定，最好要相信同行评议的程序，也就是学术期刊上的研究。所谓“全球首席品牌营销专家”, 不一定是靠得住的。

source: Never

2009年4月25日星期六

Pittsburgh pattern recognition

Accurate face recognition is coming. Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, a face recognition start-up spun out from Carnegie Mellon University, has posted a tech demo showing an analysis of the entire original Star Trek series using face recognition.

The online visualization includes various annotated clips of the series with clickable thumbnails of each character's appearance. They also have a separate page showing the full data of all the prominent characters in every episode including extracting thumbnails of each appearance.Their software can recognize frontal or near-frontal face instances.

source: slashdot

BTW：
做面部识别的创业公司Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition网址是http://www.pittpatt.com/

Twitter界的重大突破：脑波Twitter

source:engadget

由 Bin Chen 于 18 hours 之前发表

[原文连结/编译：Judy]

如果能无时无刻走到哪就Twitter到哪，应该可以满足不少人向全世界发声的欲望吧！而威斯康辛大学(University of Wisconsin)的Adam Wilson则更进一步，把向世界发声的动作从「手动」升级到「脑动」，他将一般的脑波控制装置稍为加工一下后，只要脑袋用力想，就能在Twitter上留言，虽然一分钟只能打10个字母符号的速度，真的有点给他小慢，不过想想它未来的潜力吧！或许这顶看起来像科学怪人的脑波判读帽，将来会变得稍微时尚些，或许脑波讯号的传输将来会变得更快更灵敏，或许假以时日无线网络的覆盖率会变得更大更广，或许将来凭脑波无线上网根本就是小case，或许..... 未来这些或许将使得脑波Twitter变成满街跑的流行。

[整理编译自 Hack A Day]

2009年4月24日星期五

Positive Body Image More Effective Than Exercise In Helping Young Women Lose Weight, Quit Smoking

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2009) — One in five women between the ages of 18 and 24 are smokers, and most say they keep lighting up for fear of gaining weight. But researchers at Temple University have found that when it comes to quitting, a little bit of dialogue and support can be more effective than an exercise plan in helping women not only keep off the weight, but also stay smoke-free.

"A lot of college--age women report smoking to keep their weight down and for body image reasons, and we think that by providing them with the tools to make them feel better about themselves, it alleviates some of those stressors," said Melissa Napolitano, a clinical psychologist at Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education.

In a two-phased study, Napolitano and a team of researchers looked at the smoking habits and weight gain of women aged 18-24. The first phase collected data from focus groups who stated that stress, peer pressure and weight management were the main reasons why they smoked. Participants also felt that group-based programs that provide ongoing social support would be instrumental in helping them quit.

Those results laid the groundwork for the project's next phase, dubbed Fit to Quit, a small pilot study of 24 women who were randomly assigned to either a supervised group exercise program or body image group counseling sessions. All women were provided with a nicotine patch as well.

After eight weeks, the body image counseling group showed a rate of smoking cessation that was more than double that of the exercise group (18 percent vs. 8 percent). In addition, the body image group lost more than three times the weight of their exercise counterparts (3.3 pounds vs. less than a pound). These findings were presented this week at the Society for Behavioral Medicine's annual meeting.

"Smoking has psychological and psychosocial implications, especially for young women," said Napolitano, an associate professor of kinesiology and public health in the College of Health Professions. "We wanted to design a program that would not only address the physical addiction by providing a nicotine patch, but would also address those social and behavioral aspects as well."

Another aspect of the program relied on technology to reach their population of smokers. Text message and email were used to stay in contact with participants, more so than phone calls, because those were the preferred methods of communication among the young women in the study.

"A lot of times, we would try to call participants to remind them of different sessions, and they would respond back via text or e-mail, so we took that message and used avenues like text messaging and the Internet not just as a means of getting information out, but for support as well."

Napolitano says that the results derived from this study have laid the groundwork for larger future studies at Temple and nationwide that focus on smoking cessation in college age women. The hope is to see if the results continue to hold true in studies with larger numbers of participants.

Temple's Student Health Services supported the Fit to Quit program, and Napolitano says it has the potential to be permanently offered as part of the menu of health promotion services on campus.

"Our hope is to make programs like Fit to Quit sustainable on other college campuses, because we know that if we can give young people the tools they need to make better health decisions, it helps them not only improve their health but it also helps them do better academically."

Other researchers on this study include Joseph Fava, Ph.D., Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson, Ph.D., and Bess Marcus, Ph.D., of the Miriam Hospital/Brown Medical School and Brown University.

The study was funded by a grant to Napolitano from the National Cancer Institute.

Adapted from materials provided by Temple University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Brain music

source: biomed.org

Every brain has a soundtrack. Its tempo and tone will vary, depending on mood, frame of mind, and other features of the brain itself. When that soundtrack is recorded and played back -- to an emergency responder, or a firefighter -- it may sharpen their reflexes during a crisis, and calm their nerves afterward.

Over the past decade, the influence of music on cognitive development, learning, and emotional well-being has emerged as a hot field of scientific study. To explore music's potential relevance to emergency response, the Dept of Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) has begun a study into a form of neurotraining called "Brain Music" that uses music created in advance from listeners' own brain waves to help them deal with common ailments like insomnia, fatigue, and headaches stemming from stressful environments. The concept of Brain Music is to use the frequency, amplitude, and duration of musical sounds to move the brain from an anxious state to a more relaxed state.

"Strain comes with an emergency response job, so we are interested in finding ways to help these workers remain at the top of their game when working and get quality rest when they go off a shift," said S&T Program Manager Robert Burns. "Our goal is to find new ways to help first responders perform at the highest level possible, without increasing tasks, training, or stress levels."

If the brain "composes" the music, the first job of scientists is to take down the notes, and that is exactly what Human Bionics LLC of Purcellville, VA does. Each recording is converted into two unique musical compositions designed to trigger the body's natural responses, for example, by improving productivity while at work, or helping adjust to constantly changing work hours.

The compositions are clinically shown to promote one of two mental states in each individual: relaxation for reduced stress and improved sleep; and alertness for improved concentration and decision-making. Each 2-6 minute track is a composition performed on a single instrument, usually a piano. The relaxation track may sound like a "melodic, subdued Chopin sonata," while the alertness track may have "more of a Mozart sound," says Burns. (It seems there's a classical geniusor maybe two geniiin all of us. Listen to an instrumental alert track at www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/multimedia/snapshots/st_brain_music_active.mp3.

After their brain waves are set to music, each person is given a specific listening schedule, personalized to their work environment and needs. If used properly, the music can boost productivity and energy levels, or trigger a body's natural responses to stress.

The music created by Human Bionics LLC is being tested as part of the S&T Readiness Optimization Program (ROP), a wellness program that combines nutrition education and neurotraining to evaluate a cross population of first responders, including federal agents, police, and firefighters. A selected group of local area firefighters will be the first emergency responders taking part in the project.

The Brain Music component of the ROP is derived from patented technology developed at Moscow University to use brain waves as a feedback mechanism to correct physiological conditions.

In British philosopher John Locke's terms, Brain Music brings new meaning to his famous phrase: "A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World."

And then there's always Cervantes, who coined, "He who sings scares away his woes."

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Contact: John Verrico
john.verrico@dhs.gov
202-527-3625
US Department of Homeland Security - Science and Technology
Source:Eurekalert

2009年4月23日星期四

Blue Brain Models Mammalian Organ Inside Computer

从 Medgadget 作者：Michael

The Blue Brain Project at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland is an attempt to simulate the functioning of the brain by building the virtual organ from the ground up, molecule by molecule. After much computer programming of data from experimental studies into the virtual organ, the first effective simulations have been performed.

The BBC reports:

The first phase of the project is now complete; researchers have modeled the neocortical column - a unit of the mammalian brain known as the neocortex which is responsible for higher brain functions and thought.
"The thing about the neocortical column is that you can think of it as an isolated processor. It is very much the same from mouse to man - it gets a bit larger a bit wider in humans, but the circuit diagram is very similar," Henry Markram, leader of the Blue Brain project and founder of the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland, told BBC News.

He added that, when evolution discovered this "mammalian secret", it duplicated it many many times and then "used it as it needed more and more functionality".

ScienceDaily news series-090424

大脑是如何造句的

source:译言

creekox @ yeeyan.com 2天前16:06

造出一个语法正确的句子似乎离不开高级的认知技能，然而最近的一个研究似乎表明，我们充满创造力的语言能力所依托的系统并不像我们想象的那么复杂。该研究表明人类造句的能力可能基于过程性记忆，这个记忆系统与让狗记住“坐”这个命令的过程一样简单。

加利福尼亚大学圣迭戈分校的Victor S. Ferreira介绍，过程性记忆与学习某种技巧有关，如游泳，而说明性记忆则用来存储知识和事件，如一个人的生日。为了确定哪一种记忆与造句有关，科学家们对这种两种记忆体系进行比较。 Ferreira和他的团队发现了一种叫做“句法持续”的现象，即说话者倾向于使用其曾经用过或者听到过的句子的语法模式。

研究者测试了四个健康的人和四个失忆症患者。失忆症者的过程性记忆没有问题，他们可以通过反复练习学习到一些技能，然而，他们的说明性记忆能力已经损坏，所以他们记不住新的事情。首先，所有参与试验者重复他们听到的一个句子，然后给他们看一副与句子无关的图片，并要求描述，最后，再让所有人听与之前的句子在含义、语法结构上一样的句子，或者就是原句。

结果是，两组都表现出使用之前听到的句子的语法规则描述眼前图片的倾向。然而，失忆症患者并不记得他们曾见过这个句子。Ferreira说，这个现象说明了过程性记忆在造句这个过程中起了作用。除此之外，这个发现还更新了我们对过程性记忆本身的认识。此前认为，过程性记忆只与一些特殊的经历，或者是与发动机技术之类相关。这个新的发现充分说明过程性记忆还与抽象知识有关，证明其作用“比之前认为的更加强大”，Ferreira解释道。

PHYSORG news series-090424

早起者与夜猫子的脑比较


	体内平衡睡眠压力和生理节奏信号的每日变化。点击此处获得更多信息。

source: eurekalert

据4月24日的《科学》杂志报道说，一项新型的脑成像研究可能帮助人们解释为什么有些人在清晨思维最为敏捷，而另外一些人则在傍晚的时候变得最有效率。 Christina Schmidt及其在比利时和瑞士的同僚现在报告说，我们的思维敏捷程度及思想集中的能力受到了我们已经醒了多久以及当时在一天中所处的时间的双重影响，因为我们的生物钟节奏是根据日-夜周期运作的。研究人员应用功能性核磁共振成像来对早起者和夜猫子的脑部活动进行监控。这些人在连续两个夜晚呆在一个睡眠实验室中，并周期性地从事一项需要保持持续注意力的作业。研究的结果提示，一般来说，夜猫子在他们发生脑疲劳之前，其清醒的时间会比早起者长。在清醒10个小时之后，与夜猫子相比，早起者的与注意力有关系的脑部区域的活动性会有所下降。早起者还更容易感到困乏，并容易使作业操作变得更慢。这些脑区域包括生物主时钟的所在地。该区域的活动会降低实验自愿者清醒的时间（即“睡眠压力”增加了），提示早起者和夜猫子之间的行为差异至少有一部份与控制睡眠压力和生理节奏有关的脑区域间的相互作用的结果有关。

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Article #17: "Homeostatic Sleep Pressure and Responses to Sustained Attention in the Suprachiasmatic Area," by C. Schmidt; F. Collette; Y. Leclercq; V. Sterpenich; G. Vandewalle; C. Philipps; G. Tinguely; A. Darsaud; S. Gais; M. Schabus; M. Desseilles; T.T. Dang-Vu; E. Salmon; E. Balteau; C. Degueldre; A. Luxen; P. Maquet; P. Peigneux at University of Liege in Liege, Belgium; P. Berthomier; C. Berthomier at PHYSIP S.A. in Paris, France; C. Cajochen at Psychiatric University Clinics in Basel, Switzerland; P. Peigneux at Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium.

Biomedicine news list-090424

SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral Syndrome

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Children’s speech and language disorders caused by unknown factors are common. The disorders vary in type and manifest themselves differently in different ages. Delayed motor development is widely known to coexist with speech and language disorders. However, hardly any attention has been paid to children in whom delayed speech development is associated with learning to walk unassisted at an early stage.

Dr Marja-Leena Haapanen from the Phoniatric Division of the Helsinki University Central Hospital has studied and described these children and observed a recurrent pattern in their behavioural phenotype. The children were examined by a multi-disciplinary research group over an extensive period in time.

Usually these children, known as SPEEDY babies, have good language comprehension skills, but their speech is very unclear, although they may start speaking early on and can be quite talkative. In some cases, the speech production is delayed, the child speaks less, and the speech maybe unclear, especially when speaking long sentences. What makes the child’s speech unintelligible are words and sentences that are produced incorrectly, but each time in a different way, in addition to consistent sound distortion. Consistent sound distortions are associated with tongue dysfunction and are manifest in sounds in which the tip of the tongue is used.

SPEEDY babies develop motor skills early, and often start walking unassisted at ten months. They are often avid runners, climbers and eager to jump and skip, and all in all, are quite agile and physically active. They are usually in good physical health, and do not typically suffer from respiratory infections, ear infections or allergies. The intellectual skills structure is usually divided so that their vision-based performance is above the average for their age group and better than their linguistic performance.

According to Dr Haapanen, some one to two per cent of children are SPEEDY babies. “The phenotype of these children combines three qualities: atypically speedy motor development, unclear speech, and tongue carriage dysfunction,” Haapanen says. “These characteristics seem to form a triad to the extent that we can talk about a syndrome that has been named ‘SPEEDY baby’.”

The term SPEEDY refers to speed in the development of motor skills as well as problems related to speech development (SPEE – speech and DY – developmental verbal dyspraxia, dysphasia, tongue dysfunction).

Dr Haapanen points out that physical activeness and unclear speech may have adverse psychosocial effects and overshadow these children’s true skills. “SPEEDY babies may not receive the recognition they deserve for their advanced motor skills and activeness and intellectual performance, because these may be overshadowed by their problems, which cause trouble and disappointments,” Haapanen says. “It would be important to accurately identify this particular syndrome in these children, so that their parents and other carers could receive appropriate and timely information and the children could thereby have the support they need.”

Journal reference:

Haapanen ML, Aro T and Isotalo E. SPEEDY babies: A putative new behavioral syndrome of unbalanced motor-speech development. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat., 2008 Dec; 4(6):1225-33

Adapted from materials provided by University of Helsinki, via AlphaGalileo.