Other sections of Neuroscience, or more specifically Cognitive Science, have boomed in the past few years. We've learned more in just the past 5 years about the brain, then we have at any other point. If you've been out of school for more then 5 years, you are way behind. A large majority of these discoveries have been fueled by the improvements in MRI machines. For starters, the tech has gotten so good that we can actually predict participants actions 7 seconds before they've consciously made a choice. That study was published in Nature Neuroscience in 2008.
"Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done," said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist.
Haynes updated a classic experiment by the late Benjamin Libet, who showed that a brain region involved in coordinating motor activity fired a fraction of a second before test subjects chose to push a button. Later studies supported Libet's theory that subconscious activity preceded and determined conscious choice -- but none found such a vast gap between a decision and the experience of making it as Haynes' study has."
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
Haynes updated a classic experiment by the late Benjamin Libet, who showed that a brain region involved in coordinating motor activity fired a fraction of a second before test subjects chose to push a button. Later studies supported Libet's theory that subconscious activity preceded and determined conscious choice -- but none found such a vast gap between a decision and the experience of making it as Haynes' study has."
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
Here are some additional links on that topic:
There is also new evidence that proves that the mere perception of your environment can actually effect your biology at the molecular level. It affects the very DNA in your body and proves that our idea that you can be born with certain genetic markers, that "lock" you into the a fate of heart disease or even cancer, is wrong. Here is an hour long PowerPoint lecture from Dr. Bruce Lipton entitled "The Biology of Perception", filmed in 2005 and labeled "The Biology of Belief" on Youtube. It will cover how this is possible and what the new understanding of what DNA's actual function inside the cell is. The followup of that video filmed in November 2013, can be found here which includes a great view and understanding of evolution. I suggest watching both, but at least the follow up video as it covers some of the same information already.
- http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~acs/papers/narpwc.pdf
- http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13658-brain-scanner-predicts-your-future-moves.html#.UkJZi8bry0A
- http://www.cracked.com/article_20073_5-bizarre-ways-brain-scans-can-predict-future.html
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N6S9OidmNZM
There is also new evidence that proves that the mere perception of your environment can actually effect your biology at the molecular level. It affects the very DNA in your body and proves that our idea that you can be born with certain genetic markers, that "lock" you into the a fate of heart disease or even cancer, is wrong. Here is an hour long PowerPoint lecture from Dr. Bruce Lipton entitled "The Biology of Perception", filmed in 2005 and labeled "The Biology of Belief" on Youtube. It will cover how this is possible and what the new understanding of what DNA's actual function inside the cell is. The followup of that video filmed in November 2013, can be found here which includes a great view and understanding of evolution. I suggest watching both, but at least the follow up video as it covers some of the same information already.
We've also discovered that your brain's wiring is not set in stone like we once thought. It changes constantly. This is referred to as "Neuroplasticity," or Brain Plasticity. It changes constantly so that it can stay as optimized as possible. It can even reorganize itself after a stroke to move it's functions to the undamaged parts of the brain.
"Charney is using this research to conduct psychological therapies that can improve learning and memory, and solve problems with anxiety and depression."
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/brain-exercise
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/brain-exercise
Along the same line of your perceptions affecting your genes, but quite a bit simpler then that, is something you can put to work for yourself right away. Forcing yourself to smile has been found to boost your mood and even help cure depression, as this article from Psychology Today, posted in July of 2012 talks about. Smiling releases endorphin's, natural pain killers and Serotonin. When you're having a bad day, if you force yourself to smile you'll feel your day get better as your body releases these natural drugs. Smiling even boosts your immune system.
Here are a few more videos to get an idea of how far we have come in the past few years, all from Ted.com and all under 25 minutes:
Gero Miesenboeck: Re-engineering the brain - 8 minutes long
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain - 15 minutes long
VS Ramachandran: 3 clues to understanding your brain - 24 minutes
Christopher deCharms: A look inside the brain in real time - 4 minutes
Read Montague: What we're learning from 5,000 brains - 14 minutes
Here is a 2 1/2 hour recorded WebEx presentation of 7 more discoveries that have happened in just the past 10 years for additional learning if you're interested.
If you'd like a more feature length documentary, this one from the HD History Channel, "Secrets of The Human Brain" is great. Made in 2013, it covers the different sections of the brain, goes over fear and it even covers ESP. It's 1 1/2 hours long.
- http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/15-fascinating-facts-about-smiling/
- http://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/jul/27/mentalhealth.drugs
Here are a few more videos to get an idea of how far we have come in the past few years, all from Ted.com and all under 25 minutes:
Gero Miesenboeck: Re-engineering the brain - 8 minutes long
- "In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward -- manipulating specific neurons to figure out exactly what they do, through a series of stunning experiments that reengineer the way fruit flies perceive light.
Using light and a little genetic engineering -- optogenetics -- Gero Miesenboeck has developed a way to control how living nerve cells work, and advanced understanding of how the brain controls behavior."
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain - 15 minutes long
- Why do teenagers seem so much more impulsive, so much less self-aware than grown-ups? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in adolescents to that of adults, to show us how typically “teenage” behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore studies the social brain -- the network of brain regions involved in understanding other people -- and how it develops in adolescents.
VS Ramachandran: 3 clues to understanding your brain - 24 minutes
- Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples.
Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran looks deep into the brain’s most basic mechanisms. By working with those who have very specific mental disabilities caused by brain injury or stroke, he can map functions of the mind to physical structures of the brain.
Christopher deCharms: A look inside the brain in real time - 4 minutes
- Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity -- thoughts, emotions, pain -- while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel. Christopher deCharms is working on a way to use fMRI scans to show brain activity -- in real time.
Read Montague: What we're learning from 5,000 brains - 14 minutes
- Mice, bugs and hamsters are no longer the only way to study the brain. Functional MRI (fMRI) allows scientists to map brain activity in living, breathing, decision-making human beings. Read Montague gives an overview of how this technology is helping us understand the complicated ways in which we interact with each other.
What does "normal behavior" look like? To find out, Read Montague is imaging thousands of brains at work.
Here is a 2 1/2 hour recorded WebEx presentation of 7 more discoveries that have happened in just the past 10 years for additional learning if you're interested.
If you'd like a more feature length documentary, this one from the HD History Channel, "Secrets of The Human Brain" is great. Made in 2013, it covers the different sections of the brain, goes over fear and it even covers ESP. It's 1 1/2 hours long.
There have also been some very interesting discoveries on where memory is located in the brain. Karl Lashley was a neuropsychologist who spent close to 30 years trying to find where memories were stored in the brain. His experiment on rats proved that no matter the portion of the brain that was removed, the rats could still run a maze they had learned. He concluded that memories must be stored over the entire brain, not any one section. Every part of brain contains all information to recall memory, just like a piece of holographic film. This would explain why some medical patients who had portions of their brain removed would never suffer from selective memory loss, tho their memory would grow hazy. Even those who had sections of their temporal lobe removed.
There was also an experiment run on salamanders where their brains where "shuffled" around that supports this idea. Here's the paper by Paul Pietsch, PhD that was originally published in May of 1972 and it won the 1972 Medical Journalism Award of the American Medical Association.
If the brain acted like a hologram, at least for memory, it would explain the mindbogglingly large amount of information the human brain can hold. It's far more then if a single memory were assigned to each neuron which is a traditional view. The vastness of the brain capacity is also hard to explain out side of a holographic memory theory as a 1 inch square of holographic film can store roughly 50 bibles, or "one bit per cubic block the size of the wavelength of light in writing."
There was also an experiment run on salamanders where their brains where "shuffled" around that supports this idea. Here's the paper by Paul Pietsch, PhD that was originally published in May of 1972 and it won the 1972 Medical Journalism Award of the American Medical Association.
If the brain acted like a hologram, at least for memory, it would explain the mindbogglingly large amount of information the human brain can hold. It's far more then if a single memory were assigned to each neuron which is a traditional view. The vastness of the brain capacity is also hard to explain out side of a holographic memory theory as a 1 inch square of holographic film can store roughly 50 bibles, or "one bit per cubic block the size of the wavelength of light in writing."
"The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-memory-capacity
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-memory-capacity
In the mid 1960's a man by the name of Karl H. Pribram would create a theory that our perception of the world occurs because of a complex reading and transformation of information coming from a more base level of reality, much like how a laser works with a hologram. In this theory the brain uses quantum waves to store, and more importantly access, vast amounts of information; rather akin to a hologram. It became a model for how the brain can carry out localized tasks but also process and store information in the brain as a whole.
"The new data are of such far-reaching relevance that they could revolutionize our understanding of the human psyche, of psychopathology, and of the therapeutic process. Some of the observations transcend in their significance the framework of psychology and psychiatry and represent a serious challenge to the current Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm of Western science. They could change drastically our image of human nature, of culture and history, and of reality." ~ Dr. Stanislav Grof on holographic phenomena in The Adventure of Self-Discovery
This theory would also explain why the visual system doesn't seem to need both hemispheres of the brain to create a full sense of perception. A German girl sees fine with just one hemisphere. There are a few other things supporting or explained through this theory as well, which include how:
There are many other area's of science as well that are coming to this conclusion and we are beginning to understand how our entire universe, our entire reality, may also be holographic at it's most fundamental level. The theory that really got the idea going, and the entire early science behind it, can be found in a book that I highly recommend, "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. Here's a 4 minute clip from a NOVA documentary on the universe and it's holographic properties; It even features Leonard Susskind briefly on the modern ideas of black holes and how they also seem to prove our universe is 2D. Also the 2011 World Science Festival has a 1 hour 30 minute panel discussion on the universe as a hologram featuring Gerard t'Hooft; Leonard Susskind; Herman Verlinde and Raphael Bousso. A Thin Sheet of Reality: The Universe as a Hologram I do not suggest skipping it.
- The visual cortex seems to be a frequency analyzer, a Fourier-wave transformer.
- The interference patterns needed to create a hologram are found in the endless electrical activity of the neurons
- Shuffling (and even removing) the brains of salamanders around seems to have no effect once returned
- The ear was found to be a frequency analyzer
- The rapidity of complex physical tasks seems to be assimliated by the brain by breaking down movements into frequency components
- It explains phantom limb sensations
There are many other area's of science as well that are coming to this conclusion and we are beginning to understand how our entire universe, our entire reality, may also be holographic at it's most fundamental level. The theory that really got the idea going, and the entire early science behind it, can be found in a book that I highly recommend, "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. Here's a 4 minute clip from a NOVA documentary on the universe and it's holographic properties; It even features Leonard Susskind briefly on the modern ideas of black holes and how they also seem to prove our universe is 2D. Also the 2011 World Science Festival has a 1 hour 30 minute panel discussion on the universe as a hologram featuring Gerard t'Hooft; Leonard Susskind; Herman Verlinde and Raphael Bousso. A Thin Sheet of Reality: The Universe as a Hologram I do not suggest skipping it.