Synchronization in networks, from dancing groups to brain cells, is influenced by the structure of connections between its members. Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the quality of synchronization depends on ‘walks’ within a network, with a higher number of convergent walks leading to poorer synchronization…
Posted in neuroscience, robotics/AI
Mind mastery refers to intentionally developing self-awareness and discipline to take control of your thought patterns, emotional responses, and behaviors. Rather than operating on autopilot or being swept away by negativity, you respond consciously in alignment with your values and goals. Benefits of mind mastery include reduced stress, achieving ambitions, fulfilled relationships, and overall life satisfaction.
Mastering your mind requires commitment, but small, consistent steps to steward your thoughts and manage your emotions will compound to impact your mental health and empower your life profoundly. Here are key techniques:
Practice observing your thoughts like clouds passing by without reacting or judging. Creating this mental space between stimulus and response allows you to gain perspective. Ask what evidence supports or contradicts anxious thoughts.
In a recent study published in JAMA, researchers investigated whether accelerometer-assessed sedentary behavior was associated with incident dementia.
The global population is engaging in more sedentary-type activities such as sitting while using the computer, watching television, and driving. Studies have reported associations between sedentary behavior and cardiometabolic diseases and related mortality; however, its relationship with new-onset dementia is not clear.
Serious vision loss affects millions of Americans each year, and biological strategies are still decades away from restoring eyesight lost to macular degeneration. But University of Oregon researchers are looking to create an electronic solution — a bionic eye — that could restore people’s sight. They’re tapping into the world of fractal structures that will allow a retinal implant and a human brain to communicate with each other.
DishBrain reveals how human neurons work together to process information. New research shows that when neurons are given information about the changing world around them (task-related sensory input) it changes how they behave, putting them on edge so that tiny inputs can then set off ‘avalanches’.
In the 1939 neuroscientists began cutting living human brains in two in order to treat certain types of epileptic seizures. Subsequent experiments on those patients gave science an unnerving window into the nature of human consciousness. It turns out that there might be more versions inside of your own brain than you might be comfortable with.
#splitbrain #consciousness #malcovich #neuroscience.
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Split brain behavioral experiments (Video of Joe)
Netherlands: The use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) among kidney transplant recipients may lead to severe fatigue, fatigue severity, and lower mental and physical health-related quality of life, a new study has suggested. The study was published online in the American Journal Of Kidney Diseases.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed medications for the management of acid-related gastrointestinal disorders.
Tim J. Knobbe and colleagues aimed to investigate the potential association between PPI use and fatigue as well as health-related quality of life among 937 kidney transplant recipients. Participants were at least one-year post-transplantation and were enrolled in the TransplantLines Biobank and Cohort Study.
Posted in neuroscience
My flash fiction literary sci-fi story Le bibloteca de las estrellas has been published by White Cat Publications! Link:
By Logan Thrasher Collins.
Six years after their wedding night, Erik’s wife Viviana died in the halls of La biblioteca de las estrellas. Viviana’s body laid on the floor of that great library, stacks of blue books scattered all around. The covers of the books were navy blue, the pages a pale cornflower blue, and the paragraphs written in brilliant sapphire ink. Erik stepped hesitantly towards his wife’s body, not wanting to comprehend the sight before him. Viviana wore a yellow sundress and her cooling skin seemed luminous beneath the azure light of the library’s electric chandeliers.
As Erik approached the body, he began to weep. His tears fell like rainwater onto the blue books, staining them with grief. Erik reminded himself that Viviana had died for a reason of her own choosing, that she had purposefully let El conocimiento de las estrellas into her brain. He knelt beside her, not wanting to move, not wanting to look away from her face. To Erik, Viviana was the most sparkly glittering girl in the universe. She had been enamored with small animals, she had danced in meadows of scarlet flowers, and she had spoken animatedly of constellations and galactic nuclei. But now her glamor had been stolen by the miniscule machines inhabiting these blue books.
Following your gut. Losing your appetite. A gutsy move. Though we often consider the gut as merely a digestive tool, these common expressions reflect the central role the gut plays in a much wider range of essential functions.
The entire digestive tract is lined by the enteric nervous system (ENS), a vast network of millions of neurons and glial cells—the two primary cell types also found in the central nervous system. While often called the second brain, the ENS not only generates the same neurotransmitters but actually predates the evolution of the central nervous system in the brain.
The functions of the ENS are crucial to life and extend far beyond digestion, as it regulates immunity, gut secretions, and enables complex, bi-directional communication between the gut and the brain. This is why a happy gut co-exists with a happy brain, and why digestive issues can lead to changes in mood and behavior.
Scientists investigating the possible health effects of microplastics have uncovered some disturbing initial results in an experiment based on mice.
When old and young rodents drank microscopic fragments of plastic suspended in their water over the course of three weeks, researchers at the University of Rhode Island found traces of the pollutants had accumulated in every organ of the tiny mammal’s body, including the brain.
The presence of these microplastics was also accompanied by behavioral changes akin to dementia in humans, as well as changes to immune markers in the liver and brain.
