Monday, 17 March 2014
Science Starting To Identify the Molecular Bases of the Sense of Touch
When it comes to senses such as vision, scientists have known for some time which molecules are responsible for transduction—the conversion of physical stimuli into nerve impulses. Until recently, however, the molecular bases of the sene of touch remained ill-defined. But in an article first published online in the journal Nature in December 2012, Dr. Zhiqiang Yan and his research team from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) reported having found what they believed was the missing link in transduction for the sense of touch. (more…)
The Senses | Comments Closed
Monday, 3 March 2014
The Various Speeds at Which We Perceive Time
Our perception of how fast time passes is amazingly subjective. When we are children, our summer vacations from school seem to stretch on forever. When we are grownups, we are often surprised to realize how long it has been since some major event occurred—Hurricane Katrina was over eight years ago, and the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl almost 28 years ago!
Thus we frequently underestimate or overestimate elapsed time. But what are the factors that push our estimates in one direction or the other? Are there some time scales that are affected and others that are not? Are there certain areas of the brain that are associated with the way we estimate time? (more…)
From Thought to Language | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Lasting Effects of Meditation
A brain-imaging study published in the November 2012 issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience seems to confirm past brain-imaging studies which found that meditation can help people pay better attention and manage stress more effectively. But the November 2012 study goes a bit further: it also shows that such measurable positive effects of meditation seem to continue even when the individual in question is not meditating. (more…)
The Emergence of Consciousness | Comments Closed
Monday, 3 February 2014
Glial Cells Too Are Sensitive to the Environment
For a long time, the brain’s glial cells were assumed to be mere “filler” between the neurons. For a while after that, the glial cells were assumed to serve primarily nutritive functions. But now, year after year, research findings are showing glial cells to be more and more complex. For example, recent studies have shown their role in brain plasticity and how social isolation can disrupt it.
More and more studies indicate that people who experience severe neglect and social isolation as children display cognitive and social impairments as adults. To examine this phenomenon, two research teams recreated these unfavourable conditions for baby mice by placing them in isolation for several weeks. (more…)
From the Simple to the Complex | Comments Closed
Monday, 20 January 2014
The Continuum Between Life and Mind
Neurophysiologist Walter J. Freeman once made the provocative statement that there is: “no deeper prison of the modern mind than the Cartesian legacy that splits mind from life.” He then added that Evan Thompson, in his book Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind, published in 2007, had recognized this impasse and helped to overcome it. In the October 2012 Brain Science Podcast, Dr. Ginger Campbell interviews Thompson about this book, which synthesizes knowledge from multiple disciplines.
In Mind in Life, Thompson successfully shows the profound continuity between life and mind, between the first living systems (such as bacteria) and cognition, the process by which we assign meaning to the attributes of our environment. In other words, he shows that cognition is embodied. This was the subject of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, the landmark work that Thompson co-authored with Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch in 1991 and to which Mind in Life constitutes a sort of sequel. (more…)
Uncategorized | Comments Closed
