Brains and Stuff
omnibrain | February 9, 2009I love 'I told you so' moments...Brain games don't do shit.
(this is totally going to come back and bite me in the ass though)
A number of months ago, I made a claim that paying for brain games was a waste of money. I got jumped on pretty hard for that claim - even though there isn't much evidence of their benefits except for perform the brain game itself better after a lot of practice (and maybe a couple other semi-related ones). I've been vindicated now by a meta-analysis of the relevant literature by Peter Snyder of the Brown med school.
Check this out from the press release:
Through a…
omnibrain | February 6, 2009In preparing for this issue of Encephalon I got access to the submission email account and realized that I had won 500,000.00 euro! I am in no way going to share this wealth with anyone else since it is my turn to do Encephalon. Here's the proof:
Dear Email ID Owner,
This is to notify you that you have won 500,000.00 euro in our online email Promo Draw in which email ID´s are picked randomly by computerized balloting, Your email address was amongst those chosen for this period.
contact: Dr. Mike Mejia, Accu Online Promotion.
!#$%!#$%@I'mnottellingyousinceIwon.com…
omnibrain | January 28, 2009I always get a kick when people see patterns in noise - especially when it's of the paranoid conspiracy religious type. Pareidolia is an amazing thing!
So onto this peach of a story...
KNIGHTSVILLE, Ind. (WTHI) - Months ago, Rachel Jones was shocked to discover her 4-year-old's baby doll seemed to have a hidden message: Islam is the light.
Imagine her surprise when a game for her 8-year-old daughter's Nintendo DS had the same message.
Rachel said she bought the Nintendo game, Baby Pals, as a gift for her 8-year-old daughter after a good report card.
She had no idea the game also contained…
omnibrain | January 20, 2009It seems that a brilliant doctor in the UK has come up with an amazing piece of machinery and convinced a famous author to wear it in order to stave off the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Here's the machinery... looks like a mind control device or something - too bad It's not going to work.
According to the news article about this amazing technology:
The prototype anti-dementia helmet, which must be worn for ten minutes each day, was designed by British GP Dr Gordon Dougal.
It works by directing intense bursts of infrared light into the brain to stimulate the growth of brain cells.
Low-level…
omnibrain | December 7, 2008 Oh pareidolia. I mean I understand seeing something that maybe looks like something else in the clouds or one time I accidentally peeled an orange that looked like a penis. But thinking that there is something actually significant and spiritually meaningful in seeing a pattern in randomness is ridiculous. This is my favorite example so far. It was only a matter of time until someone saw something like Jesus or in this case the Virgin Mary in an MRI scan. After all the Hippocampus is named after the sea horse since it vaguely looks like one.
Anyway here's the image - and if you want you…
omnibrain | December 4, 2008 Arguably the most important and certainly the most famous single case study patient in Psychology and Neuroscience passed away on Tuesday December 2nd. H.M. as he was known to probably every student of Psychology can now be revealed as Henry G. Molaison, 82, from Windsor Locks, CT.
HM was a man with no memory (well... at least episodic). Early in his life he developed epilepsy which left him very much incapacitated, he would have numerous small and large seizures a day. After nearly lethal doses of drugs that sought (unsuccessfully) to control the seizures, doctors, namely William…
omnibrain | October 2, 2008
According to a recent National Geographic article primates pay a lot of attention to their friends asses. But not only that, they can actually identify them based on their fabulous booties. In humans facial recognition is based on a region coined as the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) and I believe a similar region has been found in primates. There is also an area of the human cortex dedicated to processing the body, call the Extra Striate Body Area (EBA). The big question here is whether primates have a particular area of the brain dedicated to only ass processing or they are using one of…
omnibrain | August 18, 2008 Thanks to a reader, Daniel Keogh, we have a wonderful video detailing what the Imperial March from Star Wars would taste like to one particular synaesthete who has some particularly odd sensation pairings.
Check it out:
The Professor Funk also has a whole bunch of other entertaining looking videos about other aspects of science. We give them 4 thumbs up. I never did understand why Ebert, et. al. could only ever give a single thumbs up. After all there were two people with four total thumbs. Meh whatever, not everyone can be as awesome as Shelley and I.
omnibrain | July 5, 2008It seems that vegetarians are screwed on multiple levels, they get called hippies by me AND they might be at an increased risk of dementia in old age. The study recently published in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders focused on a number of elderly Indonesians who live across a wide range of areas in Java. They discovered that people who ate tofu at least once a day (which is classified as high consumption) had a statistically higher chance of showing dementia. So what could be causing this higher rate? According to BBC News:
Soy products are rich in micronutrients…
omnibrain | July 3, 2008 Hitachi recently announced that they would be producing a 5 TB drive in the near future (2010?). This is totally unexciting to me but what Hitchachi's Yoshiro Shiroishi said was. According to Techradar:
As for what can be stored on such disks, Hitachi's Yoshihiro Shiroishi explains, "By 2010, just two disks will suffice to provide the same storage capacity as the human brain."
In other words, a next-generation hard drive will be able to recall that trip to the seaside in 1976, but never where it left the car keys last night.
Ignoring the faulty memory comment for a moment - Where in the…
omnibrain | June 18, 2008Check out Mother Brain from the Metroid series.
What other brains are featured in video games?
omnibrain | June 18, 2008Seriously.... wow.....I'd totally forgotten about the brain from the cartoons.
and....
Ohh... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How I used to love thee. I actually watched the most recent movie a few weeks ago. Do they really suck that much? I remember them being pretty kick ass. This is why growing up sucks - all your favorite cartoons from childhood blow now. Did you hear they are coming out with a Smurfs movie?
omnibrain | June 7, 2008 According to the Mayo Clinic website,
Three out of four people with Alzheimer's will wander at some point during the course of the disease. Wanderers who get lost outdoors may become injured or even die of exposure. This risk increases dramatically if the weather is very cold or very hot.
There's a number of ways that you can protect your beloved family member from trying to walk to Disney World or their house in the old country.
Some of the ways the Mayo Clinic suggests for preventing wandering are:
Alarms and locks
A variety of devices can alert you that your loved one is on the move.…
omnibrain | June 3, 2008 This is actually pretty much the most useful and accurate infographic I've ever seen in my entire life. Thank goodness this appears on an article highlighting the brain region responsible for decoding sarcasm.
Now that you've seen this amazing infographic you know exactly how sarcasm happens in the brain and what area is responsible.... AND!!! that area is lighting up right now as you read this very deep and meaningful post. As a matter of fact after reading this post you might have an aneurysm originating in your right ventromedial prefrontal gyrus. I apologize for the brain deadness I…
omnibrain | May 20, 2008This gallery is sweet! The Online gallery of modern and vintage psychiatric drug advertising has a large selection of some pretty scary old drug advertisements and packaging.
Like these:
I wonder what the people of the future are going to say about our current psychiatric system?
HT: Dave
omnibrain | May 20, 2008 Actually, I'll let you read the press release first and then we'll decide if 'religious leaders' and the damn hippies know something we don't ;)
Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly…
omnibrain | May 19, 2008boingboing gadgets has uncovered the most brilliant brain game ever. Not only does this enhance your cognitive abilities with use, it can enhance your emotional intelligence! wow!
Through mindless manipulation of pretty colors and funny shapes you too can be Dr. Phil!
Since I don't think I've had my quota of !!!!'s here are a few more to direct you to the original boingboing post: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
omnibrain | May 19, 2008Really?! Come on...
Molecular and statistical genetic studies in 15 Finnish families have shown that there is a substantial genetic component in musical aptitude. Musical aptitude was determined using three tests: a test for auditory structuring ability (Karma Music test), and the Seashore pitch and time discrimination subtests. The study represents the first systematic molecular genetic study that aims in the identification of candidate genes associated with musical aptitude.
The identified regions contain genes affecting cell extension and migration during neural development. Interestingly…
omnibrain | May 15, 2008 So what's the story with the big O? Scientific American has the full story. Here's the main points to get you warmed up though:
Principles of Pleasure
* Sexual desire and orgasm are subject to various influences on the brain and nervous system, which controls the sex glands and genitals.
* The ingredients of desire may differ for men and women, but researchers have revealed some surprising similarities. For example, visual stimuli spur sexual stirrings in women, as they do in men.
* Achieving orgasm, brain imaging studies show, involves more than heightened arousal. It requires…