Yule Heibel's Library tagged brain →  View Popular, Search in Google

Audio archive now available online:
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Although we email, blog, tweet, and text as if by instinct, too many of us toil in schools and workplaces designed for the last century, not the one in which we live. Using cutting-edge research on the brain and learning Cathy N. Davidson — former Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University and co-founder of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) — shows how the phenomenon of “attention blindness” shapes our lives, and how it has led to one of the greatest problems of our historical moment, and suggests ways we can take control, based on her book Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn.
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berkman harvard cathy_davidson brain attention_economy

Memo to self: check in on Cathy Davidson's Sept.20/11 talk on "How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn."
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Approximately fifteen years into industrial-era management science, the medieval university began its rapid metamorphosis into the modern twentieth-century research university. Now, fifteen years after the commercialization of the Internet and the World Wide Web, we are at an optimal moment for reconsidering these fundamental institutions for our own era. Davidson is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the role of technology in our lives but, rather, asks how we can use technology as an engine of transformation. This talk helps us to think in historical, theoretical, and practical ways about how, as individuals and institutions, we can learn new ways to thrive in the interactive, digital, global world we already inhabit.
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berkman cathy_davidson attention_economy brain

Curious. Counter-intuitively, the "addict" personality has *less* pleasure (or feels less pleasure) from his/her activities than the non-addict. On the plus side, his/her desire for stimulus serves him/her well in other endeavors.
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The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well.

So, when searching for your organization’s next leader, look for someone with an attenuated dopamine function: someone who is never satisfied with the status quo, someone who wants the feeling of success more than others — but likes it less.
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addiction nyt david_j_linden brain neuroscience

Time perception depends...
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...people accurately judge whether a dot appears on the screen for shorter, longer or the same amount of time as another dot. However, when the dot increases in size so as to appear to be moving toward the individual -- i.e. the dot is “looming” -- something strange happens. People overestimate the time that the dot lasted on the screen. This overestimation does not happen when the dot seems to move away. Thus, the overestimation is not simply a function of motion. Van Wassenhove and colleagues conducted this experiment during functional magnetic resonance imaging, which enabled them to examine how the brain reacted differently to looming and receding.

The brain imaging data revealed two main findings. [read on]
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scientific_american time perception brain martin_p_paulus

Dopamine isn't what it's cracked up (ha) to be...
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It’s all about seeking — The latest research, though is changing this view. Instead of dopamine causing us to experience pleasure, the latest research shows that dopamine causes seeking behavior. Dopamine causes us to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases our general level of arousal and our goal-directed behavior. (From an evolutionary stand-point this is critical. The dopamine seeking system keeps us motivated to move through our world, learn, and survive). It’s not just about physical needs such as food, or sex, but also about abstract concepts. Dopamine makes us curious about ideas and fuels our searching for information. The latest research shows that it is the opoid system (separate from dopamine) that makes us feel pleasure.
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neuroscience business_insider susan_weinschenk brain psychology

It seems like there's a lot to revise / recheck in this study. One thing it does perhaps prove is that amenities in cities/urban environments are absolutely crucial. Meanwhile, note this caveat, from the article:
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While the work doesn’t prove that living in the city causes the changes in the brain, it could be used to help improve life for city dwellers.
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--> i.e., bring on the amenities.

neuroscience brain cities density health

Interesting details on what helps us keep neuro-plasticity.
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What the researchers discovered was that within each of our brains there exists a population of neural stem cells which are continually replenished and can differentiate into brain neurons. Simply stated, we are all experiencing brain stem cell therapy every moment of our lives.

As one might expect, the process of neurogenesis is controlled by our DNA. A specific gene codes for the production of a protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which plays a key role in creating new neurons. Studies reveal decreased BDNF in Alzheimer's patients, as well as in a variety of neurological conditions including epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Fortunately, many of the factors that influence our DNA to produce BDNF factors are under our direct control. The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors including physical exercise, caloric restriction, curcumin and the omega-3 fat, DHA.

This is a powerful message. These factors are all within our grasp and represent choices we can make to turn on the gene for neurogenesis. Thus, we can treat ourselves to stem cell therapy by taking control of our gene expression.
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david_perlmutter neurogenesis neuroscience brain

Wonder if it works the same way for humans as for rodents? Could have interesting implications for why/ how parental responsibility is typically & traditionally parceled out in early childhood (mostly to mothers):
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In the current study, Dulac and her colleagues found that 61 percent of imprinted genes in the fetal brain are maternal in origin, suggesting a major maternal influence over the brain development of offspring. By adulthood, the proportions are flipped. About 70 percent of imprinted genes in both the adult cortex and hypothalamus appear to derive from the father, suggesting a major paternal influence on the brain function of adult offspring.

This new work expands on the known timeline for the internal conflict between maternal and paternal genes. Maternal genes may predominate in fetal development, followed by a period of childhood where maternal and paternal genes tussle for control, followed by eventual bias in favor of paternal genes during adulthood.
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science biology neuroscience brain childhood genes

Theories on why our brains periodically "lurch into a blizzard of noise" or chaos.
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Some believe that near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory, and could explain why some people are smarter than others.

In technical terms, systems on the edge of chaos are said to be in a state of "self-organised criticality". These systems are right on the boundary between stable, orderly behaviour - such as a swinging pendulum - and the unpredictable world of chaos, as exemplified by turbulence.
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neuroscience brain new_scientist david_robinson chaos

The title is quite misleading since only the first half of Lehrer's article chronicles the city's stressful effects on the brain, while the second half describes urbanism's benefits, and that that it's a question of designing cities so that nature continues to intervene and refresh/ calm / regenerate the brain.

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Given the myriad mental problems that are exacerbated by city life, from an inability to pay attention to a lack of self-control, the question remains: Why do cities continue to grow? And why, even in the electronic age, do they endure as wellsprings of intellectual life?

Recent research by scientists at the Santa Fe Institute used a set of complex mathematical algorithms to demonstrate that the very same urban features that trigger lapses in attention and memory -- the crowded streets, the crushing density of people -- also correlate with measures of innovation, as strangers interact with one another in unpredictable ways. It is the "concentration of social interactions" that is largely responsible for urban creativity, according to the scientists. The density of 18th-century London may have triggered outbreaks of disease, but it also led to intellectual breakthroughs, just as the density of Cambridge -- one of the densest cities in America -- contributes to its success as a creative center. One corollary of this research is that less dense urban areas, like Phoenix, may, over time, generate less innovation.

The key, then, is to find ways to mitigate the psychological damage of the metropolis while still preserving its unique benefits. Kuo, for instance, describes herself as "not a nature person," but has learned to seek out more natural settings: The woods have become a kind of medicine. As a result, she's better able to cope with the stresses of city life, while still enjoying its many pleasures and benefits. Because there always comes a time, as Lou Reed once sang, when a person wants to say: "I'm sick of the trees/take me to the city."
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boston_globe neuroscience psychology nature brain jonah_lehrer urbanization urban_design

Stunning imagery of the brain's neural structures. Must-see. Also includes a couple of links to video/ time-lapse imaging.

brain neuroscience neurogenesis mit_techreview imagery video

brain health neurogenesis neuroscience

Creating new habits = essential for innovation; old habits remain, but can be lessened (if bad,eg.) by new habits.
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...brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
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This reminds me very much of SEED magazine's 2006 article, The Reinvention of the Self," by Jonah Lehrer, which profiled the work of Prof. Elizabeth Gould.
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/02/the_reinvention_of_the_self.php?page=all&p=y

psychology brain habits innovation success business