Posts Tagged ‘neural activity’

Neanderthals bid for Human Status

Neanderthals bid for Human Status
NEANDERTHALS as innovators? That the concept seems amusing goes to show how our sister species has become the butt of our jokes. Yet in the Middle Palaeolithic, some 300,000 years ago, innovation is what the Neanderthals were up to. From NewScientist, by Rowan Hooper This period is usually regarded...
February 25th, 2010 | Evolution | Read More

Can You Find Consciousness In The Brain?

Can You Find Consciousness In The Brain?
MOST neuroscientists, philosophers of the mind and science journalists feel the time is near when we will be able to explain the mystery of human consciousness in terms of the activity of the brain. There is, however, a vocal minority of neurosceptics who contest this orthodoxy. Among them are those...
February 23rd, 2010 | Extended Mind | Read More

LSD for the NHS?

LSD for the NHS?
This recent article from The Financial Times reports on the scientific progress the Beckley Foundation has been making in the last few years. A British charity is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate LSD, one of the world’s best-known “recreational” drugs, for medicinal use. The Beckley Foundation,...
February 16th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More

It’s lack of balance that makes skunk cannabis do harm

It’s lack of balance that makes skunk cannabis do harm
THE effects of cannabis on mental health have attracted much attention over the years. As far back as the 19th century it was recognised that cannabis could induce a transient psychosis which mimics the symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite this, until the last decade or so, most psychiatrists regarded...
January 29th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More

Can we crack the Consciousness Puzzle?

Can we crack the Consciousness Puzzle?
CONSCIOUS experience is at once the most familiar thing in the world and the most mysterious. There is nothing we know about more directly than consciousness, but it is extraordinarily hard to reconcile it with everything else we know. Why does it exist? What does it do? How could it possibly arise from...
January 28th, 2010 | Extended Mind | Read More

Quining Qualia

Quining Qualia
Dan Dennett’s seminal argument about the properties conscious experience is a must-read for anyone interested in the question of whether the mind/conscious experience is reducible to purely physical/scientific terms. You may not think he’s right, but he’s certainly worth a read… 1....
January 26th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More

Rats Addicted To Gambling

Rats Addicted To Gambling
Rats Compulsively Gamble for Same Reason Humans Do: Lack of Serotonin Rats in laboratory tests learned to gamble based on a system of punishments and rewards, strategizing like human gamblers. And when researchers tweaked the animals’ brain chemistry to mimic that of humans with a gambling addiction,...
January 22nd, 2010 | Health & Happiness | Read More

Does Cocaine make you Smarter?

Does Cocaine make you Smarter?
Hey. Did any of you read this paper on the role of G9a in cocaine-induced dendritic spine plasticity? No? OK, well did you at least read this summary of the findings in Time? Still no? Fine. The gist is that repeated coke use suppresses a protein called G9a, which slows the growth of dendritic spines...
January 15th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More

Can Human Nature Be Changed?

Can Human Nature Be Changed?
An introduction to the discoveries of Bart Huges relating to the economics of the blood supply in the brain, consciousness, LSD, and trepanation – something new… Life is a struggle for survival. For plant or animal of any kind that is an unescapable fact. It is true for each individual...
December 30th, 2009 | Health & Happiness | Read More

Rat Made Supersmart — Similar Boost Unsafe in Humans?

Rat Made Supersmart — Similar Boost Unsafe in Humans?
By modifying a single gene, scientists have made Hobbie-J the smartest rat in the world, a new study says. A similar gene tweak might boost human brainpower too, but scientists warn that there is such a thing as being too smart for your own good. Matt Kaplan for National Geographic News For years...
December 16th, 2009 | Science of the Mind | Read More
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