Adult brain can change within seconds
July 17, 2009 at 12:42 am | In discoveries, neuroscience, research | Leave a CommentTags: adult brain, amputee, brain, brain change, calibrations, cerebral, cortex, information, latent, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGovern Institute, MIT, neuron, neuroscience, re wire, research, sensory information, wire
Research done by neuroscientists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) found that the adult brain can almost instantly change its re-wiring to adapt to new conditions.
People who has lost limbs often report feeling it when touched on the face. What wasn’t known was that the brain can readjust itself within 2 seconds. This led to the conclusion that the re-wiring wasn’t structural. The connections were already there, latent; and the brain monitors the system making calibrations constantly to adapt to new sensory information.
Read the full article by Cathryn M. Delude, from the McGovern Institute after the jump.
A big imagination doesn’t make you more intelligent. But helps you be prepared
June 30, 2009 at 2:25 am | In Daily Life, cognitive psychology, intelligence | Leave a CommentTags: associations, be prepared, brain, day dreaming, decision making, decisions, fantasies, fantasy, g factor, Howard Gardner, ideas for work, imagination, individual, inspiration, intelligence, intelligent, mental map, mind, plan, planning, play, realities, scenarios, Spearman, synapses, think, thinking, unexpected events, utopia
I don’t regard myself as an unusually intelligent guy. I’d say I’m average. But life has treated me well so far. Looks like I’ve been making good decisions, I’ve sometimes had good timing and why not, I’m might even have been a bit lucky (I haven’t won the lottery though).
This article will tell you about the relationship between intelligence and the imagination. The ability to represent a fictional play within your mind.
Defining it is not the purpose of this article but what we need to know is that there are several theories about intelligence. Some people consider intelligence as one big integrated thing (called the g-factor, or general factor of intelligence), others, like Howard Gardner, conceive it as different intelligences that combine and interact. For instance, one of the most common intelligence tests, WAIS, take into account different kinds of intelligence and integrate all the results in a general intelligence scale. The well known IQ.
None of these theories consider imagination a form of intelligence. And with just cause. Imagination takes a different route, a more heuristic and intangible one.
Many regard imagination as an expression of intelligence. Einstein once said that “the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination”. Bottom line is that no one is absolutely sure about what intelligence is. Definitions of it abound. Standpoints too.
The point I’ll try to make is that having a big imagination won’t make your logical-mathematic or spatial intelligence better. It does help in the development of abstract and heuristic thinking, but it is not a factor that will pop up as a booster of intelligence/es in any test.
Imagination prepares you for unexpected events, it helps you plan and foresee possible situations by staging a theatrical play in your head.
I’ll use myself as a Guinea Pig. Continue reading A big imagination doesn’t make you more intelligent. But helps you be prepared…
A bilingual environment affects infant development, changes personality
June 22, 2009 at 3:37 am | In Daily Life, discoveries, psychology, research | 6 CommentsTags: adolescents, bilingual, bilingual environment, brain, change, children, cognitive, cognitive development, development, evolutive, executive function, experience, household, infant, kids, language, learning, life, mental retardation, mild, mind, pathology, personality, physiological, research, youngsters
Have you ever wondered if there was any difference in human brain development or change in personality when a person has grown up in a bilingual household or environment?
Researchers from Baruch College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, studied how bilingual people’s personality is unconsciously affected when switching languages, according to an article published by Reuters.
Also, a team of experts from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste affirms that in order to cope with the two languages they deal with, infants have to develop their executive function sooner to adapt to that particular environment. Thus, cognitive development is boosted in that area.
Is your baby going to be a smarter guy? Cognitively speaking, he won’t be smarter, but he’ll grow to become a much more flexible person. According to research done by Patricia Kuhl, from the University of Washington “bilingual people aren’t cognitively smarter, but they are more cognitively flexible,” [...] “Practice at constant switching improves an aspect of their cognitive abilities. They become more facile at adjusting to new situations and inventing new situations.”
There is an intimate relationship between who we are and how we express ourselves . The way we speak and think determines who we are. Languages are structured in different ways, thus our way of thinking will be different. The good news is that potentially we can be more than one of us without the “stress of having Dissociative Identity Disorder” 
Brain difference linked to autism
May 8, 2009 at 10:48 pm | In autism, discoveries, research | 2 CommentsTags: amygdala, amygdala growth, autism, autism diagnosis, brain, discovery, infancy, research, toddlers, University of North Carolina
Researchers from the University of North Carolina made an interest discovery. They found out that the amygdala in toddlers with autism is 13 percent larger than the one in unaffected kids. It is believed that during the last part of the first year of life, some kids’ amygdala starts to grow. This could also explain why autism is so hard and sometimes imposible to diagnose during early infancy. Usually, a diagnosis of autism is deferred until the second year of life, when it becomes easier to identify the condition through observable behaviors. Before that and until now, diagnosis before the second or third year were inacurate and some times impossible.
This new discovery will enable us to detect the condition earlier, since the average age for diagnosis is 3.
Read the full article from CNN following this link.
Blue Laser could lead to Autism cure
May 1, 2009 at 1:40 am | In autism, discoveries, neuroscience, research | Leave a CommentTags: activity, ADHD, attention deficit disorder, autism, blue laser, brain, concentration, cure, gamma ray, MIT, Nature, neurons, schizophrenia
Discovery News published very promising and interesting news.
One characteristic of people with Autism, AD/HD and Schizophrenia, is that in their cerebral activity either don’t have gamma waves at all, or they are very irregular. The idea is to induce gamma ray activity in the brain by triggering lasers set in specific frequencies.
April 29, 2009 — Lasers could one day cure, or at least aid in the search for drugs that treat diseases ranging from autism to schizophrenia, according to two new studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and published in the online issue of the journal Nature.
A blue laser shined into a live mouse brain triggered gamma waves, which are a kind of brain wave necessary for concentration and cognition that people with autism and schizophrenia often lack.
“There are lots of theories about why [gamma wave oscillation] is impaired,” said Li-Huei Tsai, a professor at MIT and a co-author on one of theNature papers.
“This is the first proof that a specific set of neurons are responsible for gamma waves.”
Click here to go to the full article in Discovery News.
Brain Myths—Busted (MSN-Health)
April 20, 2009 at 7:02 am | In Daily Life, neuroscience | 3 CommentsTags: brain, brain myths, fallacies, human brain, MSN health, neuroscience, UCLA
The human brain has received unprecedented press coverage in the past few years, thanks in large part to big leaps in science’s understanding of what goes on in the space between our ears. Yet, some stubborn myths remain.
For this special installment of Brain & Body, we’re offering insights into which commonly held beliefs stem from reliable studies in neuroscience—and which are just plain mindless. For further information on these fallacies, we’ve consulted our favorite research neuroscientist and go-to brain guy, Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, Ph.D., of the Semel Institute’s Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity at UCLA. Continue reading Brain Myths—Busted (MSN-Health)…
New research sheds new light on Autism´s origins
February 28, 2008 at 12:13 am | In autism | Leave a CommentTags: antibodies, autism, brain, cause, fetus, immune system, origins of autism, predisposition, pregnancy, research
Recent research from the Johns Hopkins Children´s Center suggests that one of the origins of Autism could reside in antibodies (interfering with the fetal brain directly) produced by the mother during pregnancy, suggesting that the mother´s immune system could be a trigger or a factor in those already predisposed. Link to full article by Sciencedaily.com here.
Psychologist. Currently working as a Program Coordinator in the Devereux Foundation in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
I studied at the University of Buenos Aires. My professional experience includes working in HR for HSBC Bank Argentina and in two mental health facilities performing psychological evaluations.
Management, social media and tech are my other interests and I’m always keeping myself updated with cutting edge information. If this also interests you, follow me to my other blog http://tek-topic.com/
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