Stress during pregnancy may raise the risk for having a child with autism for women who have an altered gene.
Category: neuroscience – Page 1,245
Genes, brain structure influence second language learning: study
Very insightful for my deep mind/ neuro mapping friends.
If you have trouble learning a new language as an adult, maybe you can blame your genes and brain structure, a U.S. study suggested Monday.
The study by researchers at the University of Washington showed that genetic variations of the so-called COMT gene and a measure of the strength of the brain’s communications network — known as “white matter”— jointly accounted for 46 percent of the reason for why some college students performed better than others in the second language class.
“We are interested in understanding why individuals learn differently, including those who perform well and those who perform poorly,” said lead author Ping Mamiya, a research scientist at the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS).
Neuroscientists discover how the brain processes upper and lower visual stimuli differently
Visual information from near and far space are processed with differing degrees of acuity.
Neuroscientists from Tübingen have discovered how our brain processes visual stimuli above and below the horizon differently. The researchers led by Dr. Ziad Hafed of the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) at the University of Tübingen investigated non-human primates, ascertaining that different parts of the visual field are represented asymmetrically in the superior colliculus, a brain structure central to visual perception and behavior. More neural tissue is assigned to the upper visual field than to the lower. As a result, visual stimuli above the horizon are processed sharper, stronger, and faster: our brain is wearing bifocals, so to speak.
Seeing — arguably our most important way of perceiving the world — mostly happens without conscious intent. We see much better in the center of our visual field (along the visual axis) than in the periphery. So when our brain detects an object of interest in the periphery of our visual field, it immediately initiates an eye movement so our visual axis intersects with those objects. Once an object is in our direct line of sight, we can perceive it in far more depth and detail.
Why Elon Musk Is Advocating For Brain Chipping The Human Race
Actually, it is proving to be more effective, cheaper and quicker to advance people with technologies such as BMI v. trying to create machines to be human. BMI technology started development in the 90’s for the most part; and today we have proven tests where people have used BMI to fly drones and operate other machinery as well as help others to have feelings in prosthesis arm or leg, etc. So, not surprised by Musk’s position.
Would you ever chip yourself? The idea of human microchipping, once confined to the realms of science fiction and conspiracy theory, has fascinated people for ages, but it always seemed like something for the distant future. Yet patents for human ‘implants’ have been around for years, and the discussion around chipping the human race has been accelerating recently.
Remember when credit and debit cards went from smooth plastic to microchipped? That could be you in a few years, as multiple corporations are pushing to microchip the human race. In fact, microchip implants in humans are already on the market, and an American company called Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) has developed one approximately the size of a grain of rice which has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for distribution and implementation. Here is a video taken three years ago of DARPA Director and Google Executive Regina Dugan promoting the idea of microchipping humans.
Biological networks can boost artificial intelligence
For robots; the bigger question where is the bigger ROI? Robots trying to be built to out do people; or is it better to enhance people? DARPA is more focused on enhancing people such as soldiers; and I agree with DARPA.
Understanding the hierarchical structure of biological networks like human brain — a network of neurons — could be useful in creating more complex, intelligent computational brains in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics, says a study.
Like large businesses, many biological networks are hierarchically organised, such as gene, protein, neural, a…
Sunspring | A Sci-Fi Short Film Starring Thomas Middleditch
AI escreveu este curta metragem e é surpreendentemente divertido.
Todo o roteiro do filme é o trabalho de uma rede neural treinada em scripts de sci-fi.
Fonte: Singularity Hub
Fundamental Physics of Consciousness
Edwin E Klingman, [email protected]
PO Box 3000, San Gregorio CA 94074
Abstract.
Because every physical theory assumes something, that basic assumption will determine what is ultimately possible in that physics. The assumed thing itself will likely be unexplained. This essay will assume one thing, a primordial field, to explain current physics and its many current mysteries. The derivation of physics from this entity is surprisingly straightforward and amazingly broad in its implications.
The Syntellect Emergence #SyntellectHypothesis
The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution, Book Trailer, more info: www.ecstadelic.net
Air pollution can mess up your brain
I am not surprised at all by this finding given the other issues with pollution such as cancer from carcinogens, asthma, sinus infections, etc.
Air pollution is a known culprit in lung and heart disease. Fine particulate matter, tiny particles, 1/30th the width of a human hair, are released into the air by power plants, factories, cars and trucks. These fine particles somehow invade the body’s defenses and do the most damage. Air quality is worst in urban areas with increased traffic. New research points out that air pollution negatively affects brain and cognitive development in young children and teenagers.
Moreover, Jennifer Weuve, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Rush Medical College, found that older women who had been exposed to high levels of the pollution experienced greater cognitive decline compared with other women their age (Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012). Other studies cite black carbon in the form of soot as a cause of cognitive decline in an aging population for both men and women. Simply put: Dirty air messes up the brain.
In a new study conducted by a research team at Umeå University in Sweden, the correlation between exposure to air pollution in residential areas and children’ and adolescents’ psychiatric health was studied. The results show that air pollution increased the need for prescribed psychiatric medication for a mental illness. “The results can mean that a decreased concentration of air pollution, first and foremost traffic-related air pollution, may reduce psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents,” says lead researcher Anna Oudin, the Unit for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine.