Changing Brains

[sean69]

Cool website that I thought I'd share, courtesy of the Brain Development Lab and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. Especially relevant to those of you that have kids/babies.

http://changingbrains.org/

Click the "watch online" on the menu - there's several interesting videos. Here are a couple. Enjoy.

 

[SEXY_SCORPIO]

CAC

 

[owl]

Interesting find...

 

[JofromthaNO]

I love neuroscience, so I'm there!

 

[sean69]

I love neuroscience, so I'm there!

 

[JofromthaNO]

^^^^^



Yes, in undergrad and graduate school, I was a student teacher/graduate assistant in classes dealing with neuroscience and neuropsychology...

I'm also a follower of Mel Levine from out of UNC - Chapel Hill and his research with neurodevelopment and children...

However, he was accused of sexual abuse about two years ago

 

[sean69]

^^^^^



Yes, in undergrad and graduate school, I was a student teacher/graduate assistant in classes dealing with neuroscience and neuropsychology...

I'm also a follower of Mel Levine from out of UNC - Chapel Hill and his research with neurodevelopment and children...

However, he was accused of sexual abuse about two years ago

Cool.

For the last year or so I've been teaching myself neuroscience...thanks to Standford U. and MIT's online course modules and reading lot's of journal articles ... autodidactic stuff like that. Started with neurophysiology and now i'm on cognitive psychology. Neuroscience is easily THE most fascinating science.

Just read an interesting article in the recent issue of Scientific American called "The Brain's Dark Energy" by Marcus E. Raichle. Talks about how the brain still shows a persistent level of background activity even when we're sleeping, resting and not involved in active conscious perception of our environment. This brain activity - the "Default Mode" - accounts for up to 80% of brain activity. 80%.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-brains-dark-energy

 

[OnSlaught]

Cool.

For the last year or so I've been teaching myself neuroscience...thanks to Standford U. and MIT's online course modules and reading lot's of journal articles ... autodidactic stuff like that. Started with neurophysiology and now i'm on cognitive psychology. Neuroscience is easily THE most fascinating science.

Just read an interesting article in the recent issue of Scientific American called "The Brain's Dark Energy" by Marcus E. Raichle. Talks about how the brain still shows a persistent level of background activity even when we're sleeping, resting and not involved in active conscious perception of our environment. This brain activity - the "Default Mode" - accounts for up to 80% of brain activity. 80%.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-brains-dark-energy

Yeah Sean, it's what some call compartmentalization and consolidation of memory and neurological and physiological data.

Think of it as your brain running diagnostic tests on yourself so that it can make sense of the data you just sent it to allow your system to work optimally the next wake cycle.

It is fascinating. The studies on sleep deprivation are very interesting to me.

For years there's been debates about whether it's truly necessary to receive sleep or not. I think it's absolutely vital to our existence and development as humans...

 

[JofromthaNO]

With those numbers, I don't think anyone can NOT argue the value of sleep in our lives...

When I was doing student teaching, I mostly was focusing on the administration of such neuropsych tests as the NEPSY and color discrimination tests to determine the effect to which neurological systems may be interfering with student learning. Unfortunately, usually these tests are rarely available in public school systems (unless it's a small, affluent one) and the opportunity to administer one to a student is slim-to-none.

 

[sean69]

Yeah Sean, it's what some call compartmentalization and consolidation of memory and neurological and physiological data.

Think of it as your brain running diagnostic tests on yourself so that it can make sense of the data you just sent it to allow your system to work optimally the next wake cycle.

It is fascinating. The studies on sleep deprivation are very interesting to me.

For years there's been debates about whether it's truly necessary to receive sleep or not. I think it's absolutely vital to our existence and development as humans...

Yeah. Basically the our brains create mental representations based on memory to define sensory input. A general consensus in neuroscience.

As for memory, research has shown that "rehearsal" - what you're saying with the brain's diagnostic tests and stuff - isn't the only mechanism that the brain uses to remember things.
Google "Craik and Lockhart (1972)" They argue that memory is just a by-product of the depth of processing of information and there is no clear distinction between short term memory and long term memory. Interesting perspective.

The Default Mode Network that the article talks about is active even during unfocused wakeful rest and only gets deactivated during focused goal-oriented activity. It's probably the most active during meditative states and praying ... real praying, not that loud obnoxious attention seeking yelling shit.

Anyway, the author of the Sci. Am. article argues that the brain has numerous specialized brain systems and each of these systems fire electrical potentials. To subvert chaos, electrical signaling of certain brain systems take precedence over others with the DMN residing at and at the top of the hierarchy coordinating everything.

Read this short article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_network

I really wana get this article: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000381

Here's a pretty interesting article from 4yrs ago that argues against the significance of the brain's DMN and of even studying the neural function in the contest of a restful state: http://www.princeton.edu/~njclub/2007-10-10_papers/Morcom+Fletcher_2007.pdf

With those numbers, I don't think anyone can NOT argue the value of sleep in our lives...

When I was doing student teaching, I mostly was focusing on the administration of such neuropsych tests as the NEPSY and color discrimination tests to determine the effect to which neurological systems may be interfering with student learning. Unfortunately, usually these tests are rarely available in public school systems (unless it's a small, affluent one) and the opportunity to administer one to a student is slim-to-none.

Sure, sleep seems to be valuable but why? Why do we sleep? I started a thread on here a while ago about this ...

 

[OnSlaught]

Yeah. Basically the our brains create mental representations based on memory to define sensory input. A general consensus in neuroscience.

As for memory, research has shown that "rehearsal" - what you're saying with the brain's diagnostic tests and stuff - isn't the only mechanism that the brain uses to remember things.
Google "Craik and Lockhart (1972)" They argue that memory is just a by-product of the depth of processing of information and there is no clear distinction between short term memory and long term memory. Interesting perspective.

The Default Mode Network that the article talks about is active even during unfocused wakeful rest and only gets deactivated during focused goal-oriented activity. It's probably the most active during meditative states and praying ... real praying, not that loud obnoxious attention seeking yelling shit.

Anyway, the author of the Sci. Am. article argues that the brain has numerous specialized brain systems and each of these systems fire electrical potentials. To subvert chaos, electrical signaling of certain brain systems take precedence over others with the DMN residing at and at the top of the hierarchy coordinating everything.

Read this short article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_network

I really wana get this article: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000381

Here's a pretty interesting article from 4yrs ago that argues against the significance of the brain's DMN and of even studying the neural function in the contest of a restful state: http://www.princeton.edu/~njclub/2007-10-10_papers/Morcom+Fletcher_2007.pdf

I'm stressed like a muthafucka right now because of the multiple projects I have going on, but here is the article that you wanted in pdf form:

http://www.zshare.net/download/74864355c11a37f8/

I'll come back and read in more depth the links you provided.

THanks Sean!

 

[sean69]

I'm stressed like a muthafucka right now because of the multiple projects I have going on, but here is the article that you wanted in pdf form:

http://www.zshare.net/download/74864355c11a37f8/

I'll come back and read in more depth the links you provided.

THanks Sean!

No, thank you! Onz. You're the muthafucking man! I owe you one brotha.
Hang in there man, research can be stressful always remember though, every "failed" experiment mean you just learned a way not to get the answer.

 

[OnSlaught]

No, thank you! Onz. You're the muthafucking man! I owe you one brotha.
Hang in there man, research can be stressful always remember though, every "failed" experiment mean you just learned a way not to get the answer.

I'm trying to keep that at the front of my head when my results keep coming back not matching what is supposed to be my basis of comparison.


Sean, what you know about oligo design and DNA sequences? I figure as a chemist you might have a different perspective on this, especially since the essential elements are proteins made up of aminos.

 

[sean69]

I'm trying to keep that at the front of my head when my results keep coming back not matching what is supposed to be my basis of comparison.


Sean, what you know about oligo design and DNA sequences? I figure as a chemist you might have a different perspective on this, especially since the essential elements are proteins made up of aminos.

Is that some kind of software program? If so, i'm not familiar with it. Explain more ...