Stanford Issues Findings from Cognitive and Brain Experts Urging Consumer Caution…

Stanford Issues Findings from Cognitive and Brain Experts Urging Consumer Caution on Memory Fitness Products.

“Fear of memory loss, mental impairment and Alzheimer’s disease lead many consumers to search for products — from supplements to software — that claim to ward off such ailments,” Laura L. Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, said. “Such products are becoming more prolific, but this burgeoning industry is completely unregulated and the claims can
range from reasonable though untested, to blatantly false. It is important for consumers to proceed with caution before buying into many of these product claims. There is no magic bullet solution for cognitive decline.”

By Stanford Center on Longevity (Reuters)

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Antidepressants, Bipolar Disorder and the Chemical Enslavement

With antidepressants, deeply depressed adults were targeted first. When that market was saturated, drug companies began selling the idea that antidepressants were “happy pills,” suitable for use in not merely serious depression states, but even as “depression prevention!” (So-called “early intervention,” where you use antidepressant drugs in perfectly healthy people in order to “prevent” depression from appearing.)

By Mike Adams (Natural News)

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The Singularity Summit 2009

Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato Online)

The Singularity Summit is the premier dialog on the Singularity.

The first Singularity Summit was held at Stanford in 2006 to further understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress. It was founded as a venue for leading thinkers to explore the subject, whether scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic.

Since 2006, the scope of this dialog has expanded dramatically. In 2008, the Singularity entered mainstream consideration. IEEE Spectrum, a sober and mainstream technology publication, issued a special report on the Singularity, and Intel CTO Justin Rattner remarked that “we’re making steady progress toward the Singularity” during his keynote to 2,000 people at the Intel Developer Forum. What was once a relatively unknown concept is now being discussed in corporate board rooms.

We invite you to join our extraordinary group of visionaries in business, science, technology, design, and the arts, as our community explores this exciting topic. Your participation offers a world of powerful ideas, a unique networking opportunity, and access to an exclusive directory of your peers.

We hope you will join us October 3rd.

Find out more about the Summit here

It’s Too Good to Be True!

One of the most prolific clichés in our culture is:

“Well, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is!”

Yes, I know. I know why this precaution is so popular. I know why we let people get away with such a limiting pronouncement-over and over again! I know why we buy into such a dead end deal.

We’re scared. Or is it “scarred?”

It’s both.

By Keith Varnum (Healthy Wealthy Wise)

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Be aware of your thoughts

Have you ever thought about the fact that there is never a moment when you are not thinking—that whatever happens in this world begins with a thought? Here are five simple steps to help you manage your thoughts and achieve success and happiness in life.

By Anil Bhatnagar (Life Positive)

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Training the mind changes the brain

Whenever we talk about positive interventions, we are assuming that people are malleable. William James wrote about intentional activity to change habits in ways that make life better. That’s the premise of books like The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky: that research has shown that people can make lasting changes in their level of happiness, but it requires action, effort and persistence.

Richard DavidsonThat’s what psychologists have found. Neuroscientists are finding the same thing. Richard Davidson is a neuroscientist who uses brain imaging to study behavior and emotion. (See his site for a more technically correct description of what he does.) He claims, “Social and emotional learning changes the brain,” and “We can change the brain by training the mind.” Social and emotional learning is a process by which people become better at understanding and managing emotions and learn how emotions impact the choices they make, the relationships they have, and their outlook in life.

By Kathryn Britton (Positive Psychology News Daily)

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Language may be key to theory of mind

How blind and deaf people approach a cognitive test regarded as a milestone in human development has provided clues to how we deduce what others are thinking.

“Hearing language is particularly important for understanding others, while other kinds of experience, such as the visual modality, are less important,” says Alison Gopnik, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

By Anil Ananthaswamy (New Scientist)

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Movement and force tax our brains to capacity

A new study suggests activities combining movement and force tax our brains to capacity, countering a long-held belief that difficulty with dexterous tasks results from the limits of the muscles themselves. The findings may help explain why minor damage to the neuromuscular system can at times profoundly affect one’s ability to complete everyday tasks.

The research, supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, appears in the July 8, 2009, Journal of Neuroscience.

By National Science Foundation

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Mind over matter as scientists use brainpower to make wishes come true

From the Hollywood film Firefox to the television show Heroes, science fiction writers have always dreamt of the day when humans could control machines with the power of thought alone.

Now British scientists are turning the vision into reality with a device that allows objects to be manipulated with brain waves.

The prototype, developed at Essex University, can already be used to play simple computer games. By imagining a movement, the wearer of the hat-shaped device can tell the computer to move an object around a screen or a robot around a room.

The researchers hope their technology will eventually allow people to move wheelchairs and drive cars with their thoughts.

By Richard Gray (Telegraph.co.uk)

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Stay Upbeat, Active to Keep the Mind Young

To stave off the mental decline associated with old age, engage in intellectually challenging activities, maintain a positive outlook and keep up your social life.

Those are the findings of what researchers say is the largest-ever review of studies on aging and the brain.

The review, which spanned three decades and covered more than 400 studies, found that remaining physically, mentally and socially active has a substantial impact on whether older adults experience declines in memory and cognition, which includes the ability to learn and solve problems.

By Jennifer Thomas (U.S.News)

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102-year-old grandma is oldest person on Facebook

At a mere 102, she’s the oldest face on Facebook. Ivy Bean many have been born 46 years before the first computer, but that hasn’t stopped the savvy senior from tapping in to the online world of social networking.

After hearing her care workers discussing the Web site, the British great-grandmother decided to sign up too.

By Nicole Lyn Pesce (Daily News)

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Brain Twister

BrainTwister is a cross-platform application (for Macintosh and Windows*) consisting of several cognitive training tasks in different variants. The training paradigms that are available in BrainTwister are based on various research projects carried out by the Department for Experimental Psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The training tasks can be used for participants over the whole lifespan in either a single or in a group setting. There are no requirements of computer-related skills in order to train with these tasks. BrainTwister generates detailed training data for each training task and allows to visualize and print the obtained training results.

Division of Experimental Psychology and Neuropsychology

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Measuring Stress is a Matter of Perception

No matter what you learn about stress, there remains one critical fact to keep in mind. Above all, stress is a disorder of perception.

It is not the actual degree of stress that determines its impact on health and well-being, but the perceived degree. What is stressful to one person may be ho-hum or even energizing to another.

There are obvious limits here, at least for most of us. Put someone in combat or in a persistently and intensely abusive situation, and the power of perception to create a positive spin substantially diminishes.

Nonetheless, there is evidence that, even in extreme circumstances, some folks fare far better than most. Their “secret” appears to be the capacity to mentally reframe what is happening around them into a less vile and more manageable scenario.

By Philip Chard (redorbit)

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How Your Mind Really Works

How is it that your mind is capable of handling new situations you’ve never previously encountered? How do you solve a problem you’ve never solved before? Is this just the magic of consciousness, or is there an underlying process — or algorithm — your mind uses behind the scenes to deal with the unique experiences you encounter each day? And if there is a process, how can you use it to improve your ability to think?

By Steve Pavlina (StevePavlina.com)

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The Mind and Choice

We live in an age where we are now exploring the mind and personal choice in society.  Living in a society that produces technology that can read into the mind to determine what a person is thinking, and moving towards a future where even our desires might be determinable by machine.  There is no doubt that these new discoveries that are coming to the forefront will bring about issues relating to mind control and manipulation of personal freedom.  People are panicking at the thought of loosing the ability to choose their own goals and the things in which they wish to experience in life and also personal thoughts.

The true question to ask in this situation is, ‘is it ever possible to loose control of the mind?’

By Stacey T Pollock

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Self Perception

Our self perception determines our behavior – if we think we are inadequate, we act that way. If we think we are splendid, we act that way.

The pathway forward towards happiness and authenticity is not determined by something outside ourselves. It’s determined by our own thinking, our own inner process, our self perception.

So if our way forward feels blocked, it is blocked by the way we perceive ourselves, by our fears and how they cause us to act toward ourselves. We take forward with us our unhealed inner negative perceptions and recreate the same situations over and over.

By (Authentic-Self.com)

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Effects of homeopathy ‘are all in the mind’

Homeopathy offers no real health benefits and its perceived effects are “all in the mind”, according to new research.

A report in the respected medical journal The Lancet said that patients treated with homeopathy fared no better than those treated with a dummy, “placebo” therapy. The article will add to the debate over whether complementary therapies should be provided on the health service.

By Maxine Frith (The Independant)

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Do ADHD Drugs Take a Toll on the Brain?

Stimulant treatments for ADHD are effective; they can improve attention, concentration and productivity and suppress impulsive behavior, producing significant improvements in some people’s lives.

Over the past 15 years doctors have been prescribing stimulants for a rapidly rising number of patients, who also increasingly take the drugs for many years. With the expanded and extended use of stimulants comes mounting concern that the drugs might wreak silent havoc on the brain over the long run.

A smattering of recent studies, most of them involving animals, hint that stimulants could alter the structure and function of the brain in ways that may depress mood, boost anxiety and, in sharp contrast to their short-term effects, lead to cognitive deficits.

By Edmund S. Higgins (Scientific American)

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David Meyer and Tendzin Choegyal: Can computers have consciousness?

Many people are questioning today what consciousness really is. How will this concept be defined? Watch this interesting video that highlights some of the issues:

Don’t Believe Everything You See Online

Why is our first impulse to believe something that we see, read or hear? Especially if it is in print, online or comes in an “officially” looking packaging?

How do we teach ourselves and our students, that another impulse has to follow the first one immediately: Evaluate…critical thinking… learn to listen for and to your own “gut feeling”… cross referencing…

By Langwitches

Read the article and watch the interesting videos here

Gullibility goes a long way, especially when people follow sites that are fictitious and when they get caught up in the hype that is associated with marketing strategies.  Take a look at this site linked to the upcoming movie of 2012, called the IHC, which claims to be an organization that is working towards the continuity of the human species.  Already a lot of gullible people have signed up for their lottery ticket from all around the world.  I’m sure Sony Pictures is having a good laugh at their expense.  This just shows how marketing and media manipulation can go a long way, and how truly gullible a lot of people really are.  Don’t believe all that you read, see and hear!

Follow through to the website here

Does smoking cause mental health problems?

We already know smoking has nothing to offer our physical health, but now there’s evidence that lighting up can deflate mental health, too.

In a study of more than 1000 women, the University of Melbourne has found that women who smoke are more likely to develop depression.

By Health and Wellbeing (ninemsn)

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Smoking and mental health

Why people smoke

The biological factors involved in smoking relate to how the brain
responds to nicotine. When a person smokes, a dose of nicotine reaches the brain within about 10 seconds. At first, nicotine improves mood and concentration, decreases anger and stress, relaxes muscles and reduces appetite.

Smoking and anxiety

Research into smoking and stress has shown that instead of helping people to relax, smoking actually increases anxiety and tension. Nicotine creates an immediate sense of relaxation so people smoke in the belief that it reduces stress and anxiety. This feeling of relaxation is temporary and soon gives way to withdrawal symptoms and increased cravings.

Smoking and schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia are 3 times more likely to smoke than other people and they tend to smoke more heavily. One of the most common explanations of this is that people with schizophrenia use smoking to control or manage some of the symptoms associated with their illness and to reduce some of the side effects of their medication.

By the Mental Health Foundation

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Positive Is Negative

Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato On-line)

Despite what all those self-help books say, repeating positive statements apparently does not help people with low self-esteem feel better about themselves. In fact, it tends to make them feel worse, according to new research.

In one of their studies involving 32 male and 36 female psychology students, the researchers found that repeating the phrase did not improve the mood of those who had low self-esteem, as measured by a standard test. They actually ended up feeling worse, and the gap between those with high and low self-esteem widened.

By Shankar Vedantam (Science Digest:Washington Post)

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Teaching the Mind to Treat Insomnia

Changing bad sleep habits and clearing the mind with meditation may offer drug-free alternatives to traditional insomnia treatments.

Two new studies suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy to change people’s attitudes and actions about sleep and using meditation to encourage relaxation can help insomniacs get a better night’s sleep without pills.

By Jennifer Warner (WebMD)

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What is Mind Mapping?

A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps structuring information, helping you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas.

By Luciano Passuello (Litemind)

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Illusions In the Mind Create Irrational Fears

People will often refer to their emotions or fears as irrational. But if we learn how emotions are created, we can see that they are not irrational. They are actually the practical result of what the mind and imagination are doing. It is what the mind and imagination are doing that are completely irrational. Or I should say fabricated in a virtual reality of illusions.

When we understand how the mind creates illusions through stories and how emotions are created from believing these scenarios, then we see that emotions make complete sense. Once we understand this, we no longer fear our emotions. Emotions are just a result of the mind telling stories without our direction over the outcome. To gain self mastery over the mind and the direction of the imagination is how we will get a handle on our emotions.

By Gary van Warmerdam (Pathway to Happiness)

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Templeton Plan

Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato On-line)

To better understand the financial wisdom of John Templeton, we are discussing some of his twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan and pairing them with financial news. We are currently discussing Step 14: Controlling Your Thoughts for Effective Action.

John Templeton often looks to others’ wisdom to augment his own perspective. In the chapter on ”Controlling Your Thoughts for Effective Action” in The Templeton Plan, he uses the words of George Matthew Adams, author and advertising executive, to further illustrate this step:

“We can accomplish almost anything within our ability if we but think that we can. Every great achievement in this world was first carefully thought out. . . . Think–but to a purpose. Think constructively. Think as you read. Think as you listen. Think as you travel and your eyes reveal new situations. Think as you work daily at your desk, or in the field, or while strolling. Think to raise and improve your place in life. There can be no advancement or success without serious thought.”

By Templeton Editor (What would John Templeton Say?)

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A thinking cap that can unlock hidden genius

The device works by switching on and off certain sections of the brain and so unlocking its hidden potential, reported The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London.

The hairnet-like cap uses tiny magnetic pulses to change the way the brain works and has led to improved artistic ability, mathematical ability and proof-reading skills.

By (The Australian)

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Assessing the effects of television on young children

Christakis realized that the jumpy images on the screen were engaging the child’s ‘orienting response’, a basic attentional reflex that directs the senses towards a sudden change in the environment. He wondered about the long-term effect of this on a brain that was at such a sensitive developmental stage. Could it alter the brain to ‘expect’ overstimulation, so that ordinary reality would thereafter seem dull by comparison? And could such a mechanism help to explain the ongoing tsunami of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses, whose rise had roughly coincided with the dramatic increase in media consumption in Western societies?

By Jim Schnabel (Nature News)

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Can a machine change your mind?

There are in fact even more extreme examples than those in the Times article of how neuro-science and social science increasingly overlap. Alan Sanfey, of the Neural Decision Science Laboratory at the University of Arizona, for example, describes a neuro-economic analysis of an Ultimatum Game in which one person is given the power over another to make an offer to split £100. If the other rejects the offer, no one gets anything. So far so familiar — to other behavioural economics experiments that study the norms of fairness. One neuro-twist to the story, though, is that experimenters can make subjects more or less willing to accept unfair offers by subjecting their brains to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), non-invasive and painless stimulation of the brain.

By Jane O’Grady (Open Democracy)

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Intrusive Brain Reading Surveillance Technology: Hacking the Mind

Carole Smith describes claims that neuroscientists are developing brain scans that can read people’s intentions in the absence of serious discussions about the ethical issues this raises, despite the fact that the research has been backed by government in the UK and US.

‘The Brain Scan that can read people’s intentions’, with the sub-heading: ‘Call for ethical debate over possible use of new technology in interrogation”.

“Using the scanner, we could look around the brain for this information and read out something that from the outside there’s no way you could possibly tell is in there. It’s like shining a torch around, looking for writing on a wall”, the scientists were reported as saying.

By Carole Smith (globalresearch.ca)

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Meditation: Changing the way we focus our attention.

Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato On-line)

The Dalai Lama’s interest in neuroscience has been reciprocated by at least some members of the neuroscience community. Reasoning that studying the brains of people who meditate might lead to novel insights about the human brain, investigations of long-term meditators has been fertile ground for scientific investigation, with some of the more rigorous work emerging from Richard Davidson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin.

When expert meditators practiced focused attention meditation, demonstrable changes were seen using fMRI in the networks of the brain that are known to modulate attention.

By Peter B. Reiner (Scientific American)

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