ZOMBIE MIND CONTROL

In true Halloween fashion, today's post is about none other than...ZOMBIE MIND CONTROL. Okay, not really. However, it is about how we can use our thoughts to control what appears in the external world (even cooler).

The study alleging such psychical phenomena was conducted by Christof Koch (a neuroscientist at CalTech), Itzhak Fried (a neurosurgeon at UCLA) and Moran Cerf (a graduate student at CalTech); the original intention of the researchers was to explore whether or not surgically implanted electrodes deep within the neural centers of twelve epilepsy patients could aid in identifying the cause of the patients' epileptic seizures.

What these three researchers found, however, was much more than a cause. Through presenting images to the subjects on a screen and subsequently asking the subjects to think about a different image, the researchers were able to teach the subjects to change the projected image using only their brains!

How does this work? Each neuron is able to function as an essentially independent unit, meaning that the patients could train themselves to trigger certain neurons to respond to specific images (of Marilyn Monroe or Bill Clinton, for example). When these corresponding neurons were triggered, a cursor on a computer screen (visible only to the experimenter) moved up or down depending on the patient's preferences, and the image was altered accordingly.

Sound like something straight out of Frankenstein? Inspiration for the next psychological thriller (ahem, a chance for M. Night Shyamalan to redeem himself)? Believe it!

Here's the proof.

New Clinical Research in Neuroscience Course!!

Dr. Sherman Stein, clinical professor of neurosurgery, is offering his first course for undergraduates – Clinical Research in Neuroscience (BIBB-409-301) – in the upcoming spring semester!

Dr. Stein has two goals for this course. The first is to give students background about clinical research and the second is to get students involved in actually doing the research. He feels that one doesn’t need expensive, elaborate setup to address some of the many unanswered questions in neuroscience and medicine in general. Instead, he seeks to teach students a philosophy of how research works, which will be especially valuable for students who decide to attend graduate or medical schools.

BIBB 409-301 is a seminar-sized, interactive class comprised of ninety minute lectures, guest speakers’ presentations on topics like ethics and translational research, and student research. Students will be divided into teams of three to five and each team will decide on a specific clinical neuroscience question among the ones preapproved beforehand by the IRB. A possible topic of investigation may be the impact of the repealed motorcycle helmet law in Pennsylvania. Has it resulted in more deaths? Dr. Stein states that students will have to dissect the available data such as the trauma database or statistics published by the state and ask more detailed questions. For example, has the demographic of motorcycle riders changed due to the change in law? Is the sample of subjects representative of the population? How much of the annual deaths can be attributed brain injuries as opposed to breaking of the neck? Each team will work on its own topic or question throughout the semester under the supervision of a graduate student or a medical resident. Students will be guided along the whole process, from accessing research libraries to learning how to read and interpret research papers, how to collect data from human subjects and available literature, and how to write research papers. Dr. Stein will have weekly meetings with each team to check on their progress and be a readily available resource.

BIBB 109 is a pre-requisite and instructor’s permission is necessary to register. Dr. Stein is looking for students with intellectual energy and motivation; he hopes that self-motivated students will put in work outside of the classroom, since students will gain from this course as much as they invest in it. These projects may serve as foundations for analyses continued by grad students that may produce publishable results. There are plenty of possibilities for students to continue their involvement in this process and eventually even contribute to the research paper.

Interested students should set up appointments to meet Dr. Stein for a brief interview by emailing him directly at Sherman.Stein@uphs.upenn.edu

WHAT A HIT!

"At the 32 on third down and 6...Kolb in trouble, gets rid of it....OOOHHH! BIG HIT ON DeSEAN JACKSON!"

One of the hottest topics bridging sports and neuroscience today is the widespread prevalence of concussions in the National Football League.

In the 6th week of NFL play (OCT 17-18), there were at least 7 documented concussions. And in a league that emphasizes toughness, who knows how many other players ignored their symptoms leaving a concussion undiagnosed? Two notable brain injuries occurred on the same play when Philadelphia Eagles' receiver DeSean Jackson and tackler Dunta Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons viscously collided while running full speed. It'll be interesting to see how recent rule changes to avoid helmet-to-helmet contact and the increased awareness of the issue affect both the game and the longevity of its players.

So what exactly is happening to the brain of each player during one of these tackles?

Below is an alarming video from Sport Science (one of my favorite shows on television!) with an explanation of the average forces experienced by the head of an NFL player during a hit.

The Smell of Fear: It's Catching

How good is the human sense of smell? Smell provides us with information about our environment, but due to evolution plays second string to our more developed senses of sight and hearing. Cortical areas in our brains are more devoted to cognitive, visual, and auditory functioning, while other species, such as rats and dogs, have increased area in their brains devoted to the sense of smell (relative to their brains' total sizes). Despite our more significant dependency on our other senses, we can actually identify a variety of scents, each discriminated by a specific and intricate combination of chemicals to our olfactory receptors. While humans can get by just fine without a sense of smell, it adds a descriptive component to everyday life that would surely be missed by those of us who have it. Smell plays the role of a warning system, alerting us of dangers such as spoiled food or a fire, and that of an enhancer, supplying yet another quality to associate an object or experience with. Close your eyes and imagine waking up in the morning to the aroma of hot coffee, the fragrance of apple pie for dessert, or an attractive perfume on your date. It is not hard to believe that the areas of our brain connected to smell are closely related to those involved with memory formation. We tend to rely more on smell when our other senses are weak, as opposed to animals that depend on a more sophisticated olfactory system as a sense of direction and communication. With our slightly inferior noses, is it credible for humans to identify scents characteristic of things less tangible than food, smoke, or cologne…such as emotion?

According to several studies, humans can actually smell the emotion of fear (staying true to the theme for Halloween). This discrimination occurs at a subconscious level, influencing our interpretation of otherwise ambiguous situations as fearful ones. What is the source of this smell? Human sweat. "Our findings provide direct behavioral evidence that human sweat contains emotional meanings," said Denise Chen, a psychologist at Rice University in Houston. Supposedly, we are able to unconsciously detect whether or not someone is stressed/fearful via the release of a chemical pheromone through his/her sweat. Brain regions of the study participants associated with fear (the amygdala and hypothalamus) responded at stronger levels when the smell inhaled was of sweat collected from the armpits of petrified skydivers vs. sweat collected from exercisers. However, participants did not posses the ability to consciously distinguish between the two types of sweat.

This leads scientists to believe that emotions may in fact be contagious via a process of chemical transfer, adding a whole other component to social dynamics. Imagine the appeal to military institutions hoping to invoke fear in enemies, or perfume companies working to master the rules of sexual attraction (yes, there are pheromones in sweat during sex as well). Movie directors of horror films perhaps profit from this, because if one person in the movie is scared, chances are the viewers immediately around him will sense fear, starting a domino effect. The marketable value of these research results suggests a way in which pheromones may physiologically influence our behavior and perception. So the next time that you have an exam, remember not to show up too early with all of the worriers; just being around them can create a source of self-doubt when confidence is necessary to perform well.

For more information on two of these studies, click the links below:

http://www.livescience.com/health/090310-fear-scent.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/dec/04/smell-fear-research-pheromone

The Age of Adz

Commercials, billboards, labels, clothing--advertisements are everywhere. Look around. I can guarantee that an advertisement of some sort is within your visual frame. Though many of us consider ourselves immune to coercive marketing ploys (myself often included), a NeuroFocus study has shown that this is apparently not the case.

Gap, the multibillion dollar clothing company empire, recently attempted to update its old logo (on the left) to a newer, fresher, design (on the right). However, the strategy grossly backfired, ending with the decision to switch back to the original logo. Considering that upwards of ten million dollars were spent on the new look, this was clearly not an easy defeat to admit.

So, why the epic failure? According to the study, Gap's new design violated several aesthetic neural templates that humans intrinsically prefer, such as:

1. The blue cube covering part of the "p" distracts the viewer from the holistic brand name, which should be the focal point of the logo.

2. Our brains, being hardwired to avoid sharp edges, react negatively to those of the blue cube overlapping the "p."

3. The font of the new logo is relatively similar to most to which we're exposed on a daily basis, so there is no real sense of novelty.

4. There is less contrast in the new design, which is black on white, than in the old, which made the white letters stand out more against the blue background. Thus, we are inclined to pay less attention to the new logo than the old one.

5. "Gap" is capitalized in the new logo, which sparks our brains to search for some sort of tangible meaning to the word (like that found in a sentence). The most effective advertisements and marketing ploys tend to utilize all uniform letters, lending more attention to the brand name.

6. As is evident above, the new logo is a sharp contrast to the old logo. Because it is so unrecognizable from the original, people may have difficulty associating what they already know about Gap as a company with the new logo.

What do you think? Click here to read more, then let us know!

Multiple Choice Exam

Here's a cool brainteaser from "Brainbashers." You must get all of them correct! Good luck...

Q1. Which is the first question where c) is the correct answer

a) Q3
b) Q4
c) Q1
d) Q2

Q2. Which is the first question where a) is the correct answer

a) Q4
b) Q2
c) Q3
d) Q1

Q3. Which is the first question where d) is the correct answer

a) Q1
b) Q2
c) Q4
d) Q3

Q4. Which is the first question where b) is the correct answer

a) Q2
b) Q4
c) Q3
d) Q1

© Kevin Stone [Protected Puzzle]

http://www.brainbashers.com/showpuzzles.asp?formpost=Y&field=ctop10a&page=1&puzzletext=All+Time+Top+10

The ANSWER is posted in the comments section...Let us know if you got it right before looking at the answer!

Your Love Is My Drug

Even though the two can often times be synonymous, studies have shown that intense feelings of love can in fact counter the effects of pain, indicating a modulatory relationship. "It turns out that the areas of the brain activated by intense love are the same areas that drugs use to reduce pain," said Arthur Aron, PhD, one of the study’s authors. The neurotransmitter responsible for this analgesic effect is dopamine, known to influence our moods, and to play a prominent role in human “reward” processes. These processes involve activation of the reward areas of the brain during a multitude of experiences, from answering a question correctly in class, to winning the lottery, to taking drugs such as cocaine.

The study focused on undergraduates who were in the first nine months of a relationship, when love can still be considered “very passionate”. After that, habituation comes into effect, and the love one feels is more mature and less intense (not to discredit marriages, but it takes effort to keep the fire burning!). Since distraction has also been known to provide relief from pain, the experimenters used controls to ensure that these feelings of love provided more than mere distraction. While each may equally dissipate the effects of pain, love and distraction were viewed to stimulate very different areas of the brain: Distraction excites higher cortical areas of the brain, while love stimulates the deeper “reward” centers of the brain. The stimulation of these primitive underlying areas suggests pain relief at the spinal level. These regions are associated with our perception of reward and prove crucial for learning processes, as feelings of positive emotion help to reinforce desirable reactions, and also guide us in learning from previous mistakes. If a certain action is associated with the positive effects of dopamine, chances are we will continue performing that action to attain that feeling. This explains why this area is involved in situations of drug abuse; it’s hard to kick a habit when it evokes such a positive “high”.

This opens doors of limitless opportunity for those with chronic pain, because further research may lead to a day when a reliance on drugs is no longer necessary, potentially avoiding any problems associated with negative side effects of these drugs. A fiery, passionate love affair isn’t quite the ultimate cure for chronic pain just yet, but this knowledge holds a promising future for research into alternative methods for pain relief. Who knew, love is a drug: the high is great, withdrawal sucks, and it's no surprise that addicts already exist.

For more information, follow this link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101013173843.htm

Revenge of the...Jocks?

We've all witnessed it: that meathead football player you surreptitiously despised in high school pushing the door that says 'pull,' smashing those tiny cardboard cafeteria milk cartons against his forehead, ending his sentences with prepositions...I digress. But is there actually any truth to the long-standing stereotype that associates athleticism with stupidity?

Apparently, not anymore.

A study conducted by Laura Chaddock et al. and published by Brain Research found a positive correlation between preadolescent fitness and relational memory, which deals with visual and spatial retention. Fitness levels were measured objectively using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment to assess how efficiently children used oxygen while exercising on a treadmill.

One important aspect to note, however, is that the kids who were deemed 'fitter' than their age-related counterparts had, on average, larger (in volume) hippocampi. Considering that larger hippocampi are associated with better cognitive performance, a causal relationship between preadolescent fitness and superior relational memory skills may not be entirely accurate.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the dreams of all those pee wee football prodigies should be crushed quite yet--but it is something to consider before you start making your little brother run sprints in the backyard while simultaneously reciting his times tables.

Click here to judge for yourself.

Future of Neuroscience

Recently, neuroscientists met at the Experience Music Project Museum in Washington State to discuss the future of neuroscience. Hosted by Microsoft and the Allen Institute, the conference hosted 18 leading neuroscientists to ask the basic question: what’s next? To be sure, the field of neuroscience has a plethora of options available, but here some of the greatest minds tried to focus on certain objectives. The theme of the meeting seemed to be bridging the gaps between genes, cells, connections, and behavior. An all-star line-up of speakers presented their work as well as hopes for future research. 2002 Nobelist Sydney Brenner, also involved in mapping of the human genome, was one of many to speak about the nervous system and the genome. Nobelist Susumu Tonegawa from MIT called for a noninvasive method to simultaneously record the activity of many individual neurons in real time. Edward Boyden of MIT explained his lab’s efforts to use optogenetic tools. Scientists can insert light sensitive proteins into desired populations of neurons and then use laser light to perturb their firing. Stephen Smith from Stanford also wowed the crowd by presenting a 3D reconstruction of a mouse cerebral cortex created by “array tomography”, a technique developed by his lap. Researchers cut very thin slices of brain tissue, stain these sections multiple times with fluorescent markers for proteins of interest, and finally microscopes capture high-resolution images of each section, which a computer ties together. Also discussed was the new Human Connectome Project, funded by the National Institutes of Health. This ground breaking project, the brain-version of the human genome project, will map the brains of 1200 volunteers using several MRI methods, including a new technique called diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI). DSI provides detailed images of the axon tracts in the brain. Allan Jones, the chief executive officer of the Allen Institute, didn't want to speculate about any specific projects, but noted that whatever happens next, there will definitely not be a lack of ideas.

Check out the article from the October 8th issue of Science magazine:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/330/6001/164.pdf

BrainGate

Although still in its early stages, this technology has truly unbelievable potential! BrainGate, a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) jointly developed by Cyberkinetics and Brown University, converts the brain's electrical signals to computer input signals, allowing a completely paralyzed person to use thoughts to control anything from Microsoft Windows to their own prosthetic arm. In what direction would you like to see this technology go? Will we ever get to a point where a functioning human selects to have this chip implanted as an enhancement mechanism?

Comment below..

Also, check out this video to learn more and see the program in action:

“Let Me Sleep On It…I’ll Give You an Answer in the Morning” - Meatloaf

As I was cramming last minute for my physics exam, I finally reached a point of complete saturation. My anxiety consumed me, inhibiting my ability to think clearly, and I couldn’t solve a problem set that I was sure would be on the exam the next day. As it neared 2:00 am, I debated whether or not to stay up to try and figure out the problems (which would have been a futile attempt), or to get some sleep so that I wasn’t completely exhausted during the test. Personally, I have trouble going to bed when I can’t figure out a solution; my mind is never at ease enough for me to relax and fall asleep, and numbers are the last thing I want to think about when I am lying down (I never was one for counting sheep). Eventually I decided on sleep, and slowly but surely, I was out.

I woke up early the next morning…still thinking about physics. I swear I’m not normally that nerdy, but I crave closure. I felt refreshed from my rest, and a little bit more mentally “sharp” than at 2:00 am. Sure enough, I sat at my desk, had a moment of clarity, and solved the problem within five minutes.

If this sounds all too familiar to you, there is now a theory that evolution is the culprit to this phenomenon. According to Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and dreams have evolved to be useful for us in our every day lives by helping us to solve problems. This suggests that we are actually thinking while we sleep, which isn’t so far-fetched of an idea if you consider that many cortical areas are just as active during REM sleep as they are during waking periods (covered in BIBB 109). REM has been suggested to be crucial for the transition of memory from short to long term as well, and so this process can be critical for successful studying.

According to Barrett’s theory, dreaming, which occurs during the REM process, may help us to stimulate our brain’s associative networks. Yet how can dreams help us to solve problems when they sometimes make absolutely no sense? Apparently, the lack of logic in our dreams enhances our creative problem solving skills by helping us to think from an “outside-of-the-box” perspective, which in turn allows us to make useful associations between previously “unrelated” ideas…a valuable adaptive quality.

Perhaps the answers to a variety of problems we deal with during the day are in our dreams. Don’t call Leonardo DiCaprio just yet though (an Inception reference, for those who didn’t see it), because to unlock these solutions, all you need is a “fresh” point-of-view when “conventional wisdom is the wrong way to approach the problem”, according to Barrett. So, amidst all of the studying during this first wave of mid-terms, the next time you are stuck on a problem, maybe you should take a break and sleep on it. Literally.

To read more, click the link below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37926551/ns/health-behavior/

The Dark Side of Medicine

When you hear the word "scandal," what immediately comes to mind? Lindsay Lohan? Christine O'Donnell? Probably not Guatemalan mental institutions circa 1946. However, the latter is a hot topic of discussion this week, as it was the setting of a highly unethical study involving the recruitment of prostitutes in Guatemala to spread venereal diseases to uninfected men.

The study, which also involved the use of inoculations to directly infect mental patients in a Guatemalan asylum, surfaced when Susan Reverby, a medical historian at Wellesley College, serendipitously stumbled upon its files. Though it was conducted 64 years ago, the study's effects still appear strikingly egregious: roughly 30% of the subjects exposed to gonorrhea, 61% of those exposed to syphilis, and 97% of those exposed to chancroid were subsequently infected. These are diseases associated with not only physical, but permanently psychological symptoms as well.

On a more positive note, historical scandals such as this can be used as prime examples of what not to do for all those in the medical research community--a true testament to the long-standing mantra of "Learn from your mistakes." And though they may not be as current as those hailed by U.S. Weekly, I would argue that these "scandals" merit exponentially more importance than, say, what Kate Gosselin ate for lunch last Wednesday.

Click here to read more about this biomedical blunder.

Can We Trust Confidence?

As I sink into the couch and duly turn on the TV to watch re-runs of Law and Order (the original, and still the best), I’m never sure whether to root for the prosecution or the defense. I tend to believe the witnesses when choosing whether or not to support the prosecutor’s case. More often than not in these episodes, witnesses have a strong impact on the viewers, and more importantly, on the jury. Even in real life courts, witness testimony is powerful.

But just because one witness is more confident, does that mean he or she is more accurate? In the September 17th, 2010 issue of Science, Fleming et al. report on the possible correlation between confidence and accuracy. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and controlling for response bias, Fleming et al. were able to characterize how well a subject’s confidence can distinguish between incorrect and correct responses, called a “type 2 performance.” Put another way, a high type 2 performance means that there was a close relationship between confidence and accuracy when subjects had to identify a stimulus.

A type 2 performance, in theory at least, is different from a type 1 performance, which is how accurately a subject identifies a stimulus. A type 2 performance is supposed to correlate with higher level thinking and metacognition, the ability to think about thinking. Type 1 performance represents lower level thinking, such as stimulus processing. Researchers faced the problem that type 2 cognition can encompass type 1 performance. For example, a subject could just be bad at making accurate judgments about stimuli, so correct judgments may result purely from chance. To control for type 1 performance, Fleming et al. programmed a computer to give harder tasks to the better observers and easier tasks to the poorer ones. Structural MRI results show greater signal intensity in the gray matter regions of the prefrontal cortex for high type 2 performers, leading researchers to believe that confidence (remember that this experiment controls for response bias, such as brash or reticent personalities) may result from introspection of the perception process (other cognitive processes).

Results from Fleming et al. bring up controversial ideas about self awareness and uncertainty, in not only humans but higher level cognition mammals, such as monkeys and dolphins. It is still a bit unclear if the confidence results from the strength of the external stimulus, or self reevaluation. Nevertheless, Fleming et al. take us one step closer to understanding our perception of the environment and how we perceive the environment. We should be more careful in how we judge confidence. Although the experiment controlled for personality times, it’s entirely possible that the confident witness in a court or an episode of Law and Order may simply be a bombastic and arrogant person.

Check out the articles here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/329/5998/1478

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/329/5998/1541

Neurofeedback as a New Approach to Psychiatric Disorders

The efficacy of neurofeedback, an emerging treatment for psychiatric disorders like depression and ADHD, is widely disputed by experts. Some claim it is a "powerful therapy" while one expert called it "crackpot charlatanism."

What is neurofeedback you ask? It is a procedure in which a patient learns to control their own brainwaves through operant conditioning. If a computer senses an improvement in your EEG pattern, it rewards you with soothing sounds and images.

Several recent studies have shown that neurofeedback does in fact help alleviate symptoms of several disorders. Check out this article from the New York Times to learn more about this controversial therapy:

Neurofeedback Gains Popularity and Lab Attention

Stress and Meditation: How Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life

Tomes of literature have been published addressing the myriad benefits associated with meditation and increasing one's physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Though much of this evidence is apocryphal at best, a recent article published in Neuroscience Letters in July 2010 offers tangible data with promising implications. The focal point of the article is a study that measured levels of plasma catecholamines, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine in two groups: one comprising people who practiced meditation and another containing those who did not. Levels of stress and positive affectivity were also measured in both groups.

Results showed that stress factors were lower and levels of positive affectivity higher for those who meditated.

"Meditation is one of the most well-known mind-body training methods which contributes to managing stress and enhancing mental and physical development."

Check out the full article here:

The effects of mind-body training on stress reduction, positive affect, and plasma catecholamines.