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Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy : Abstract : Nature Neuroscience
Watching another person being touched activates a similar neural circuit to actual touch and, for some people with 'mirror-touch' synesthesia, can produce a felt tactile sensation on their own body. In this study, we provide evidence for the existence of this type of synesthesia and show that it correlates with heightened empathic ability. This is consistent with the notion that we empathize with others through a process of simulation.
Chips in brains will control computers by 2020
By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.
The Will to Power--Is "Free Will" All in Your Head?: Scientific American
Neurosurgeons evoke an intention to act during brain surgery
A Molecule of Motivation, Dopamine Excels at Its Task - NYTimes.com
In the communal imagination, dopamine is about rewards, and feeling good, and wanting to feel good again, and if you don’t watch out, you’ll be hooked, a slave to the pleasure lines cruising through your brain.
Dopaminergic Aesthetics : The Frontal Cortex
The caricature of dopamine as the chemical of hedonism and pleasure - it's what drives us to enjoy sex, drugs and rock and roll - was always mostly misleading. While dopamine does predict the arrival of rewards, the neurotransmitter is much more important that.
Category-Specific Organization in the Human Brain Does Not Require Visual Experience
Distinct regions within the ventral visual pathway show neural specialization for nonliving and living stimuli (e.g., tools, houses versus animals, faces).
Will ‘Rubi the Robot’ Be the Ultimate Teacher’s Aide?: Machine Learning and the Transformation of Education
The Dana Foundation - Q&A with TERRENCE J. SEJNOWSKI, Ph.D.
Dopamine Release at Individual Presynaptic Terminals Visualized with FFNs (Video Protocol)
To observe neurotransmitter uptake and release from individual presynaptic terminals directly, we designed fluorescent false neurotransmitters as substrates for the synaptic vesicle monoamine transporter.
The Brain: The Dark Matter of the Human Brain | Memory, Emotions, & Decisions | DISCOVER Magazine
Meet the forgotten 90 percent of your brain: glial cells, which outnumber your neurons ten to one. And no one really knows what they do
Mind, brain and self in the age of Facebook
A couple of years ago we organised a salon with Helen Birtwistle of the Institute of Ideas on the meaning of friendship, and the then quite new social networking sites such as Facebook. A US survey in 2004 had found that up to 25% of people claimed that they had no real intimates. Yet by 2007 there was networking technology where people would ask: ‘Can I be your friend?’ What is it all about? Why is it so important?
Philosophy and Neuroscience videos
Here are several other videos the readers of the blog might find of interest:
Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain
In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise. | 29 June 2009 - New Scientist
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In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise
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"self-organised criticality"
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Untangling the Brain
Modern neuroscience rests on the assumption that our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors emerge from electrical and chemical communication between brain cells: that whenever we recognize a face, read the newspaper, throw a ball, engage in a conversation, or recall a moment in childhood, a pattern of activity in our neurons makes such feats possible. It's a tenet of modern biology that sparks fascination--and disbelief. How can a tangle of cells produce the complexity and subtlety of a mind? | Harvard Magazine May-June 2009
Secrets and Powers of the Brain | Channel N Video
Vision, the Brain and Memory: The ups and downs of forgetting (Samuel Wang)
Evolutionary origins of the nervous system
THE HUMAN BRAIN is a true marvel of nature. This jelly-like 1.5kg mass inside our skulls, containing hundreds of billions of cells which between them form something like a quadrillion connections, is responsible for our every action, emotion and thought. How did this remarkable and extraordinarily complex structure evolve?
Evolutionary Origins of Your Right and Left Brain
The division of labor by the two cerebral hemispheres—once thought to be uniquely human—predates us by half a billion years. Speech, right-handedness, facial recognition and the processing of spatial relations can be traced to brain asymmetries in early vertebrates (Scientific American)
Joseph LeDoux: Why the "Right Brain" Idea is Wrong-Headed
As someone who studies the brain and also tries to disseminate information about the brain in a user-friendly, but scientifically accurate, way, I cringe when I read some pop accounts of brain research. For example, I recently saw this CNN headline: "Will right-brainers rule this century?" Clicking on the link took me to OPRAH.com, which promised, less hesitantly, to explain "Why right-brainers will rule this century." At least CNN considered the possibility that there was some question about the veracity of the statement. Oprah's headline implied it's a done deal.
The Mind and Brain in Popular, and Not-So-Popular, Music (Blitz)
Because I’m sure some readers of this blog like to keep reflecting about neuroscience and psychology even when they’re too tired to keep reading books, articles, and blog posts, I thought I’d offer a list of some relaxing (and in some cases, not so relaxing) music that touches on this theme, so that those who are interested can tide themselves over until the caffeine kicks in. Since most of the songs in the list are from my own music library, it has a strong eighties college radio bias.
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