Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mapping the brain - MIT News Office

Brain mapping and large scale brain networks, IMHO, are a fundamental new key to understanding cognitive functioning and neuro technologies

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/brain-mapping.html


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Educational Psychologist

Smart People Really Do Think Faster : NPR

Conceptually this is consistent with Jenson's neural efficiency hypothesis and Rammsayer's temporal resolution hypothesis.

http://www.npr.org/tablet/#story/?storyId=102169531


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Educational Psychologist

Article: Technology for psychologists


Technology for psychologists
http://sylvainroy.blogspot.com/

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Educational Psychologist

Ten Brain Science Studies from 2011 Worth Talking About - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2011/12/27/ten-brain-science-studies-from-2011-worth-talking-about/


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Exploring the Musical Brain at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

Research on music and the brain is hot.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/11/15/exploring-the-musical-brain-at-the-society-for-neuroscience-annual-meeting/


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Article: Neuroscience Applied to Learning, Mental Health, Healthy Aging



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Friday, December 30, 2011

Interactive Metronome and meditation both quiet the wandering mind?






Is there similarity between the controlled attentional focus required by the Interactive Metronome (IM) neurotechnology training and that attained by experienced meditators?  Emerging scientific evidence suggests the answer is "yes."  

In a prior post I suggested that the requirement to quiet my unquiet or busy mind, via controlled focus on the IM auditory feedback cow bell tone, might be similar to the sense of being "in immediate awareness" as described by those who meditate.  Furthermore, I hypothesized that both IM and meditation training might be training the mind to silence the ever-present random self-talk of the default brain network.  By silencing this network, it becomes possible to attain singular focus on a stimulus or immediate experience.  The constant wandering of our minds, which can be focused on both positive and negative thoughts and ideas, can be trained to disappear by invoking certain executive functions (our personal brain manager) and high levels of attentional control.   The video of an experienced meditator (see link above) watching identical visual images in both non-meditative and meditative states provides clear evidence that the networks of the brain function differently during these two different states.  

In this context, I was excited to read an article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Science consistent with my hypotheses and experience.   In Brewer et al.'s Dec 13, 2011 PNAS article "Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity", the author’s state:  

Many philosophical and contemplative traditions teach that 'living in the moment' increases happiness. However, the default mode of humans appears to be that of mind-wandering...and with activation in a network of brain areas associated with self-referential processing. We investigated brain activity in experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls as they performed several different meditations (Concen-tration, Loving-Kindness, Choiceless Awareness). We found that the main nodes of the default-mode network (medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices) were relatively deactivated in experienced meditators across all meditation types...Our findings demonstrate differences in the default-mode network that are consistent with decreased mind-wandering. As such, these provide a unique understanding of possible neural mechanisms of meditation.  

These authors suggest that we spend approximately 50% of our time in the mind-wandering default mode! I believe that individuals differ in their amount of spontaneous mind wandering.  For those who want to read the original article, I have provided access to an annotated version via IQs Reading feature.        

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Article: On line sports concussion library



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Good ADHD overview video



Brain Science

 on Twitter
"ADHD: Your Brain On Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (VIDEO) http://t.co/HYCevNv5"
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Educational Psychologist

Article: How Realistic is fMRI?



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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Fifth Graders Make Significantly Greater Gains than a Comparison Group Across Multiple Subjects Afte

VIDEO: After using Fast ForWord for 30 minutes a day, students made significantly greater improvements on a state-aligned computerized adaptive test than students who did not use Fast ForWord.






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Dueling old and young brains@brainfitness, 12/27/11 4:44 PM

Brain Fitness (@brainfitness)
12/27/11 4:44 PM
Aging Brains Match Youth in Some Mental Tasks: bit.ly/vmFWX5


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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Study demonstrates crucial advances in ‘brain reading’

I saw this article when reading leading brains on the Paper.li Mobile Edition and thought you might be interested:

Study demonstrates crucial advances in 'brain reading'

At UCLA's Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ comp...
Read the full article on therapytoronto.ca


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Internet Changes How We Remember: Scientific American

I saw this article when reading The NeuronClub Daily on the Paper.li Mobile Edition and thought you might be interested:

Internet Changes How We Remember: Scientific American

Head Lines | Mind & Brain See Inside Knowing we can retrieve facts online later alters memory By Anne Casselman  | December 24, 2011 Image: Mike Kemp/Corbis Four years ago Columbia University psych...
Read the full article on scientificamerican.com


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Friday, December 23, 2011

Brain Fitness training checklist@AlvaroF, 12/23/11 11:44 AM

Alvaro Fernandez (@AlvaroF)
12/23/11 11:44 AM
Checklist to Evaluate Brain Training and Brain Health Claims: To assist those looking for ideas, products and se... bit.ly/tGBEVw


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Video games won't make you smarter@TheBrainScience, 12/23/11 4:29 AM

Brain Science (@TheBrainScience)
12/23/11 4:29 AM
Researchers: video games won't make you smarter sns.mx/Ytfly0


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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Quieting the unquiet wandering mind

My recent post regarding large scale brain networks and how neurotechnology and mediation may facilitate the silencing of the default brain network, to allow better on-demand controlled focus, has been reposted at the IM-HOME blog.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

The brain beat matters: Neural mechanisms of beat perception.

A very interesting video from the Science Network of the Neural Mechanisms of Beat Perception.  The video is self-explanatory.  This research fits within the temporal processing or brain clock/neural timing framework that is the primary driving force of the Brain Clock blog.  Additional informaiton re: beat production is available here.  I resonate to the concept that temporal processing provides scaffolding for rhythm perception and, in turn, memory, attention, auditory imagery and processing, and rhythm-based rehabilitation of various brain disorders.  Finally, I have been blogging about a specific rhythm-based neurotechnology at the IM-HOME blog that is relevant to this video.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Brain waves or oscillation rate influences short term memory@BrainCosmos, 12/17/11 12:57 AM

Brain (@BrainCosmos)
12/17/11 12:57 AM
What determines the capacity of short-term memory? bit.ly/ryT1Vi


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Leading Brains Daily @AndyHab, 12/17/11 8:50 AM

Andy Habermacher (@AndyHab)
12/17/11 8:50 AM
leading brains is out! t.co/34QwBzk8 ▸ Top stories today via @nathyeisenberg @threedifferent @iqmobile @braintraining_1 @brainchange


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Music can facilitate toilet training? @AdvancedBrain, 12/17/11 10:00 AM

Advanced Brain (@AdvancedBrain)
12/17/11 10:00 AM
Specialized music program improves toilet training bit.ly/uoqVbe #specialneeds


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Mindfulness meditation practice leads to changes in the brain - PubMed Mobile

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21071182/


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Educational Psychologist

Friday, December 16, 2011

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article: The High Price of Materialism, Neuroethics at the Core In The Popular Press: A Single Neck Injection Could Cure PTSD, Gizmodo Brain's Failure to Appreciate Others May Permit Human Atrocities, Science Daily The Ethics of...





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Educational Psychologist

The brain as a set of networks: Fine tunning your networks

Man has always known that the brain is the center of human behavior.  Early attempts at understanding which locations in the brain controlled different functions were non-scientific and included such practices as phrenology.  This pseudoscience believed that by feeling the bumps of a persons head it was possible to draw conclusions about specific brain functions and traits of the person.

(double click on any image to enlarge)


Eventually brain science revealed that different regions of the brain where specialized for different specific cognitive processes (but it was not related to the phrenological brain bump maps).  This has been called the modular or functional specialization view of the brain, which is grounded in the conclusion that different brain areas acted more-or-less as independent mechanisms for completing specific cognitive functions.

One of the most exciting developments in contemporary neuroscience is the recognition that the human brain processes information via different brain circuits or loops which at a higher level can be studied as large scale brain networks. Although the modular view still provides important brain insights, the accumulating evidence suggests that it has serious limitations and might in fact be misleading (Bresslor and Menon, 2010).  One of the best summaries of this cutting edge research is that by Bresslor and Menon.





Large scale brain network research suggests that congitive functioning is the result of interactions or communication between different brain systems distributed throughout the brain. That is, when performing a particular task, just one isolated brain area is not working alone.  Instead, different areas of the brain, often far apart from each other within the geogrpahic space of the brain, are communicating through a fast-paced sychronized set of brain signals.  These networks can be considered preferred pathways for sending signals back and forth to perform a specific set of cognitive or motor behaviors. 

To understand preferred neural pathways, think of walking on a college campus where there are paved sidewalks connecting different buildings that house specialized knowledge and activities.  If you have spent anytime on a college campus, one typically finds foot-worn short cuts in the grass that are the preferred (and more efficient) means by which most people move between building A and B.  The combined set of frequently used paved and unpaved pathways are the most efficient or preferred pathways for moving efficiently between buildings.  The human brain has developed preferred communication pathays that link together different brain circuits or loops in order to quickly and efficiently complete specific tasks. 


According to Bresslor and Menon (2010), “a large-scale functional network can therefore be defined as a collection of interconnected brain areas that interact to perform circumscribed functions.”  More importantly, component brain areas in these large-scale brain networks perform different roles.  Some act as controllers or task switchers that coordinate, direct and synchronize the involvement of other brain networks.  Other brain networks handle the flow of sensory or motor information and engage in concious manipulation of the information in the form of “thinking.” 


As illustrated in the figure above, neuroscientists have identified a number of core brain network nodes or circuits.  The important new insight is that these various nodes or circuits are integrated together into a grander set of higher-level core functional brain networks.  Three important core networks are receiving considerable attention in explaining human beavhior. 


Major functional brain networks

The default mode (DMN) or default brain network (shown in blue) is what your brain does when not engaged in specific tasks.  It is the busy or active part of your brain when you are mentally passive.  According to Bresslor and Brennon the “DMN is seen to collectively comprise an integrated system for autobiographical, self-monitoring and social cognitive functions.”  It has also been characterized as responsible for REST (rapid episodic spontaneous thinking).  In other words, this is the spontaneous mind wandering and internal self-talk and thinking we engage in when not working on a specific task or, when completing a task that is so automatized (e.g., driving a car) that our mind starts to wander and generate spontaneous thoughts.  As I have discussed previously (at IM-HOME blog), the default network is responsible for the unquiet or noisy mind.  And, it is likely that people differ in amount of spontaneous mind wandering (which can be both positive creative thinking or distracting thoughts), with some having a very unquiet mind that is hard to turn off, while others can turn off the inner thought generation and self-talk and display tremendous self-focus or controlled attention to perform a cognitively or motorically demanding task.  A very interesting discussion of the serendipitous discovery and explanation of the default brain network is in the following soon to be published scientific article.




The salience network (shown in yellow) is a controllor or network switcher.  It monitors information from within (internal input) and from the external world arounding us, which is constantly bombarding us with information.  Think of the salience network as the air traffic controllor of the brain.  Its job is to scan all information bombarding us from the outside world and also that from within our own brains.  This controller decides which information is most urgent, task relevant, and which should receive priority in the que of sending brain signals to areas of the brain for processing.  This controlling network must suppress either the default or executive networks depending on the task at hand.  It must supress one, and activiate the other.  Needless to say, this decision making and distribution of information must require exquisite and efficienct neural timing as regulated by the brain clock(s).

Finally, the central-executive network (CEN; shown in red) “is engaged in higher-order cognitive and attentional control.”  In other words, when you must engage your concious brain to work on a problem, place information in your working memory as you think, focus your attention on a task or problem, etc., you are  “thinking” and must focus your controlled attention.  As I understand this research, the salience or controller network is a multi-switching mechanism that is constantly initiating dynamic switching between the REST (sponatenous and often creative unquie mind wandering) and thinking networks to best match the current demands you are facing.

According to Bresslor and Melon, not only is this large scale brain network helping us better understand normal cognitive and motor behavior, it is providing insights into clinical disorders of the brain.  Poor synchronization between the three major brain networks has been implicated in Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, the manic phase of biploar and Parkinson’s (Bresslor and Melon, 2010), disorders that have all been linked to a brain or neural timing (i.e, the brain clock or clocks).  I also believe that ADHD would be implicated.  If the synchronized milli-second based communicaiton between and within these large networks is compromised, and if the network traffic controller (the salience network) is disrupted in particular, efficient and normal cognition or motor behavior can be compromised.

I find this emerging research fascinating.  I believe it provides a viable working hypothesis to explain why different brain fitness or training neurotechnologies have shown promise in improving cognitive function in working memory, ADHD, and other clinical disorders.  It is my current hypothesis that various brain training technologies may focus on different psychological constructs (e.g., working memory; planning; focus or controlled attention), but their effectiveness may all be directly or indirectly facilitating the sychronization between the major brain networks.  More specifically, by strengthing the ability to invoke the salience or controller network, a person can learn to supress, inhibit or silence the REST-producing default brain network more efficiently, long enough to exert more controlled attention or focus when invoking the thinking central executive network.  Collectively these brain fitness techonologies may all improving the use of those abilities called executive function, or what I have called the personal brain manager.  Those technologies that focus on rhythm or brain timing are those I find most fascinating.  For example, the recent example of the use of melodic intonation therapy with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (she suffered serious brain trauma due to a gun shot) demonstrates how rhythm-based brain timing therapies may help repair destroyed preferred and efficient neural pathways or, develop new pathways, much like the development of a new foot worn pathway in the grass on a college campus if a preferred pathway is disrupted by a new building, temporary work or rennovation, or some other destruction of a preferred and efficient network of movement path.

To understand the beauty of the synchronized brain, it is best to see the patterns of brain network connections in action.  Below is a video called the “Meditating Mind.”  I urge you to view the video for a number of reasons.  




A number of observations should be clear.  First, during the first part of the video the brain is seen as active even during a resting state.  This is visual evidence of the silent private dialouge (REST) of the default mode or network of the brain.  Next, the video mentions the rhythm of increased and decreased neural activation as the brain responds to no visual information or presentation of a video.  The changes in color and sound demonstrate the rich rhthymic sychronization of large and different parts of the brain, depending on whether the brain is engaged in a passive or active cognitive task.  The beauty of the rapidly changing and spreading communication should make it obvious that efficient rhythmic synchronization of timing of brain signals to and from different networks or ciruits is critical to efficient brain functioning.

Finally, the contrast between the same brain under normal conditions and when engaged in a form of meditation is striking.  Clearly when this person’s brain is mediating, the brain is responding with a change in rates and frequency of brain network activation and synchrony.  As I described in my personal IM-HOME based experience post, mastering Interactive Metronome (IM) therapy requires “becoming one with the tone”…which sounds similar to the language of those who engage in various forms of meditation.  Could it be that the rhythmic demans of IM, which require an individual to “lock on” to the auditory tone and stay in that synchronized, rhythmic and repetitive state for as long as possible, might be similar to the underlying mechanics of some forms of meditation, which also seek to suppress irrelevant and distracting thoughts and eventually “let the mind go"---posibbly to follow a specific train of thought with complete and distraction free focus. 

Yes…this is speculation.  I am trying to connect research-based and personal experience dots.  It is exciting.  My IM-HOME based induce personal focus experience  makes sense from the perspective of the function and interaction between the three major large scale brain networks.


USA TODAY: Brain stimulation may help some stroke patients

Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.

Brain stimulation may help some stroke patients
http://usat.ly/t602oC

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit: http://usatoday.com/ipad/


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Educational Psychologist

Book Nook-New APA book on the adolescent brain@TheNeuroScience, 12/16/11 6:42 AM

Neuro Science (@TheNeuroScience)
12/16/11 6:42 AM
Book on teen brains can help improve decision making sns.mx/q0izy5


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Educational Psychologist

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Attention Spans Have Dropped from 12 Minutes to 5 Seconds — How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds [Infographic] - SocialTimes.com

http://socialtimes.com/attention-spans-have-dropped-from-12-minutes-to-5-seconds-how-social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic_b86479


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Oxygen therapy for brain injury and possible age-related decline

I find this particularly interesting.  My 88 year old seriously diabetic father had a leg amputated last May.  He had major post-surgical delirium that went on for months.  Then his remaining toe went south. He underwent 60 HBO sessions, and after 20 his cognition showed major improvement.  By the end his cognition was better than pre-surgery.  Everyone, including the treatment staff, observed the change and were amazed. 

April Christopherson (@maxachieveinc)
12/15/11 7:59 PM
More about Oxygen Therapy for trauma, PTSD, and TBI - goo.gl/e8GZa #HBOT #Braintrauma


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Cognitive neuroscience of learning conference@NeurosciUpdate, 12/15/11 6:07 PM

Neurosci Update (@NeurosciUpdate)
12/15/11 6:07 PM
Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning - The New York Academy of Sciences bit.ly/ssnTdP


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Brain Clock (temporal processing) disorder implicated in autism










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Silencing the unquiet mind: Interactive Metronome and controlled attention


See my task analysis (based on pesonal experience) of the brain clock based Interactive Metronome neurotechology at the following link. Using focus or controlled attention to silence the default brain network that produces REST (rapid episodic spontaneous thinking)



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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Integrated Listening Systems Daily@IntListSys, 12/14/11 7:58 PM

Integrated Listening (@IntListSys)
12/14/11 7:58 PM
Integrated Listening Systems Daily is out! bit.ly/taU0EF ▸ Top stories today via @spectrumthefilm @womenwithadhd @brainbalanceil


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Miyake and Shah's (1999) book on models of working memory



The complete PDF copy of this chapter is available at Dr. Miyake's web page (link below).

http://psych-www.colorado.edu/~miyake/MWM%20Chapter%201.pdf

Info regarding the book is available at the followowing link.

http://www.amazon.com/Models-Working-Memory-Mechanisms-Maintenance/dp/0521587212









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Neurofeedback may Benefit Kids with ADHD

Children who have ADHD often have difficulty regulating brain activity. A new study, conducted by German and Swiss researchers, demonstrates that neurofeedback training may help. 

Story at link below.





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Educational Psychologist

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Why Time Matters---The Brain clock

Brief story from Temporal Dynamics Learning Center

http://tdlc.ucsd.edu/about/about-why-time-matters.html


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Using the Power of Optimal Timing to Improve the Brain’s Ability to Learn

Providing the brain with the right feedback at the right time can make a huge impact on learning.  Find out how the brain responds to different time scales in the classroom.






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Book nook: Review of Thinking Fast...Thinking Slow@edge, 12/13/11 8:38 PM

John Brockman (@edge)
12/13/11 8:38 PM
An outstandingly clear and precise study of the 'dual-process' model of the brain and our embedded self-delusions. bit.ly/tsItkd


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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Background noise may disrupt speech perception via neural timing synchronization problems

Yet more research supporting the role of the brain clock in human behavior, this time (again) focusing on the importance of neural timing/temporal resolution being negatively influenced by background noise. Impaired auditory signal processing may disrupt speech perception in invidiauls with speech perception problems.









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