Toyota technology has brain waves move wheelchair

Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command. Toyota’s system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday. Past systems required several seconds to read brain waves, but the new technology requires only 125 milliseconds. Full Story : Newsvine.com…..

Brain detects happiness more quickly than sadness

Our brains get a first impression of people’s overriding social signals after seeing their faces for only 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds). Whether this impression is correct, however, is another question. Now an international group of experts has carried out an in-depth study into how we process emotional expressions, looking at the pattern of cerebral asymmetry in the perception of positive and negative facial signals. The researchers worked with 80 psychology students (65 women and 15 men) to analyze the differences between their cerebral hemispheres using the “divided visual field” technique, which is based on the anatomical properties of the visual system. Full Story : Physorg.com…

Human Brains Make Their Own ‘Marijuana’

U.S. and Brazilian scientists have discovered that the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself. This discovery may lead to new marijuana-like drugs for managing pain, stimulating appetite, and preventing marijuana abuse. The extracted proteins were then compared with another peptide previously known to bind to, but not activate, the receptor (THC) affected by marijuana. Full Story : ScienceDaily.com….

Creative problem solving enhanced by REM sleep

Research led by a leading expert on the positive benefits of napping at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. The findings may have important implications for how sleep, specifically REM sleep, fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain. REM sleep helps achieve such solutions by stimulating associative networks, allowing the brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas. Importantly, the study showed that these improvements are not due to selective memory enhancements. Full Story : Physorg.com….

Music a ‘mega-vitamin’ for the brain

Researchers in Finland have demonstrated that listening to music for several hours a day can enhance the rehabilitation of stroke patients. In another study, stroke patients who were taught to play the piano or drums made speedier progress in their general recovery than patients who received only traditional therapy. Doctor Wendy Magee, International Fellow in Music Therapy at London’s Institute of Neuropalliative Rehabilitation, describes music as a “mega-vitamin for the brain,” capable of influencing and improving motor function, communication and even cognition. Full Story : CNN.com…..

Marijuana Chemical May Fight Brain Cancer

The active chemical in marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spain report.The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests. Full Story : Webmd.com…..

Meditation increases brain gray matter

In a study published in the journal NeuroImage and currently available online (by subscription), the researchers report that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group. Research has confirmed the beneficial aspects of meditation. In addition to having better focus and control over their emotions, many people who meditate regularly have reduced levels of stress and bolstered immune systems.Full Story : PhysOrg.com…..

A smart home controlled by your thoughts

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology , which was demonstrated at CeBIT in Hannover in March, provides an innovative way of controlling the interconnected electronic devices that will populate the smart homes of the future, granting increased autonomy to people with physical disabilities as well as pleasing TV channel-surfing couch potatoes. Full Story : Physorg.com….

Chocolate Improves Math Ability

Eating chocolate could improve the brain’s ability to do maths, a new study suggests. The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so. The flavanols, found mainly in dark chocolate, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain. Full Story : Telegraph.co.uk….

Facebook harms children’s brain?

Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, argues that social networkings sites like Facebook risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity. Greenfield also warned there was a risk of loss of empathy as children read novels less. She said “Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction.”"

Love and Hate: Not Your Fault

Studies showed that part of the brain putamen (connected to the perception of contempt and disgust) and the insula activated when people see someone they hate. These parts of the brain also activated by romantic love. The putamen could also be involved in the preparation of aggressive acts in a romantic context during the rival situation. It is fascinating to see how both hate and love lead one to make irrational, heroic and evil decisions. The two opposite sentiments lead to the same behaviour because they are triggered from the same part of the brain.

Women more prone to Strokes

When blood flow to the brain is suddenly disrupted by a clot or a burst vessel brain damage occurs and it is called stroke. There are 700 000 people each year who suffer stroke. According to a research, women account for 60 percent of death caused by stroke. The chances of stroke is increased by birth control pills and pregnancy. Migraines, also have been linked to strokes.

Image Credit:www.stroke.org.nz

Down Syndrome In A Dish

Harvard scientists have created stems cells for 10 genetic disorders. These stems cells will allow these researchers to watch the diseases develop in a lab. This new technique could help to find treatments for some of the genetic diseases. Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute produced these stem cells by using skin cells and bone marrow from people with diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Down syndrome. The new technique of re-programing cells gives these cells the qualities like embryonic stem cells, which can morph into all kinds of tissue, such as heart, nerve and brain. So researchers can see progression of each diseases in a dish. This technique can help to find a cure by knowing what goes right or wrong in a dish.

Photo Source: www.wellcome.ac.uk

Athletes Have Better Brain

Athletes not only get better and healthy body, they also have better brains. It has been found that a balanced diet and regular exercise can protect the brain and help prevent mental disorders. A person who does exercise regularly learn faster, remember more, think clearer and when brain injuries such as a stroke occurs they can bounce back more easily. They are also less affected by depression or any other age-related cognitive decline problems. When we exercise more, electric messages will be sent more often to the brain and eventually triggers a release of chemicals called growth factors. These growth factors make neurons stronger, healthier and improve one’s ability to learn.

Rare Foreign Accent Syndrome From Stroke

A woman from southern Ontario Canada, recovering from a rare brain syndrome due to stroke, starts to speak with a different accent, and this is the first reported cases in Canada. This woman’s family noticed the accent change while the woman was recovering from a stroke. Her Ontario accent now sounds like Maritime Canadian English.

Researcher Alexandre Sévigny, a cognitive scientist at McMaster University in Ontario said that this women never visited the Maritimes, nor has she been exposed to anyone with an East Coast accent. Karin Humphreys, a psychologist at McMaster University reported that the woman didn’t notice any changes in her accent. As strange as it sounds, the ongoing research at McMaster University will open a new perspective of FAS.

Revolutioned Brain Surgery

Sicentists from Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne are developing a revolutionized technology to create individualized brain maps to diagnosis diseases and guide the brain surgery. Current coarse maps of the brain’s structure do not allow for differences that occur between people. This brain mapping technology will provide microscopic level investigation of individual brains, and it will be available in the next 2-3 years.

Coma Is Equal To Daydreaming?

To find out whether brain-damaged patients will regain consciousness, researchers conducted a study on brain-injured patients with a variety of different levels of consciousness. Some part of the brain can stay active even the brain is severely damaged, and this could help to understand the chances of recovery. The “default network” in the brain seems to match the level of consciousness, and it is more active when the brain is not actively working and that links with daydreaming. With the help of default network, there is a 10% fall in normal activity in in minimally conscious patients, while in coma and “persistent vegetative state” patients, it falls by 35%, and no activity in the brain-dead patients.

Researchers believe that activity within the network will help to confirm the level of consciousness, and help the medical team to decide whether or not to treat the patient.

Photo Source: www.abc.net.au

Marriage Of Brain Science And The Internet

Researchers at Keio University have developed the world’s first demonstration experiment to help a disabled person to to chat and stroll through the virtual world by using brainwave. This technology will help motion-impaired people to communicate with others. This technology is a “marriage of brain science and the Internet”, and it opens an opportunity to meet with people and have chat in the virtual world.

The tech. uses electrodes attached to the scalp, and a computer detects brainwaves from the cortex when the subject slightly moves fingers, and it moves the avatar accordingly.

Reason For Irrational Fear

We worry too much about man-made catastrophe. We are disproportionately afraid of some things but can ignore others. The reason for this is how our brains are wired, which allow us to respond to danger before we’ve even had time to think about it.

Asteroids are natural and dangerous, but we are more terrified by risks such as terrorism or bio-engineered foods. Because we don’t believe that the asteroid impact can happen. Our experience and culture taught us what to fear. We are born with some basic phobias, and we learn few others from media and everyday life. We’re more afraid of catastrophic events such as airplane crashes than of everyday risks like cancer which kills may people every single day.

My Brain Knows It, But I Don’t See It

Patients with “hemineglect” disorder will tend to ignore things presented to their left side. So that means “I only see right side of the shirt that you are wearing”

But sometimes these ignored stimuli may be processed without awareness. The brain may extract the meaning of presenting objects and symbols , but the patient will not consciously perceive.

Photo Source: http://home.c2i.net