Learning with a zing-zang-zoom!
Remember the Matrix where all you need to do to learn kung fu is to get it uploaded to your brain? Well, that may soon be coming to real life:
New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise…
Memorizing 25,000 city streets balloons the hippocampus.
Streets in Manhattan are arranged in a user-friendly grid. Twenty dministrative districts, or arrondissements, form a clockwise spiral around the Seine in Paris. London is a different story. A map of its streets looks more like a tangle of yarn that a preschooler glued to construction paper than a metropolis designed with architectural foresight. Yet London’s taxi drivers navigate the smoggy snarl with ease, instantaneously calculating the swiftest route between any two points.
Continue reading… “London taxi drivers’ brains grow to navigate London’s streets”
Witnessing violence can have a traumatic effect on the brain.
Scientists at the University College of London (UCL) and the Anna Freud Center liken the impact of family violence on the brains of children to the brains of soldiers exposed to combat. Both kinds of combat result in hypersensitivity to danger and put subjects at risk for developing anxiety disorders.
Continue reading… “Brains of children from violent homes function same as combat soldiers”
Scientists at the University of Hull have found that some people have the ability to hallucinate colors at will.
Scientists at the University of Hull have found that some people have the ability to hallucinate colours at will — even without the help of hypnosis…
The study, published this week in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, was carried out in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull. It focused on a group of people that had shown themselves to be ‘highly suggestible’ in hypnosis.
The subjects were asked to look at a series of monochrome patterns and to see color in them. They were tested under hypnosis and without hypnosis and both times reported that they were able to see colors.
Continue reading… “Some people can hallucinate colors at will”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWzdWMapJ-c&hd=1[/youtube]
With a new concept bike from Parlee Cycles and Toyota “it’s just like riding a bike” takes on a whole new meaning. The concept bike isn’t like all the others: It possesses the power to read your mind.
Continue reading… “A futuristic bicycle that has the power to read your mind”
Violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning.
There could be something to that link between violent video games and aggression. Researchers have bantered back and forth for years with findings that support and then debunk such a link. But Indiana University School of Medicine researchers in Indianapolis found signs via functional magnetic resonance imaging that the brain is affected by violent games.
Continue reading… “Violent video games alter brain function”
Exercise benefits the brain.
Scientists in Ireland recently asked a group of sedentary male college students to take part in a memory test followed by strenuous exercise to learn more about how exercise affects the brain.
Continue reading… “How exercise strengthens the brain”
Air Force operator receiving transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) to accelerate learning.
By running a mild electric current through the brains of pilots during lessons, Air Force researchers have cut their personnel’s learning time in half. Pilots were being taught how to identify targets using drones—the practice is increasingly important to modern warfare and one which, due to its difficulty, is holding back the deployment of drones. Caffeine and other stimulants have been tested to aid learning but none work as well as two milliamperes of direct current for 30 minutes to pilot’s brains during training sessions on video simulators.
Continue reading… “Electrical stimulation to the brain speeds up learning”
Brain scans of psychopaths shows differences in structure and function of brain.
Brain images of prisoners show important differences between who are diagnosed as psychopaths and those who aren’t, according to a new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
Continue reading… “Brains of psychopaths are different”
Dreaming helps ease bad memories.
Fo you want help to ease those bad memories? Well, go to sleep and start dreaming – it can help you deal with bad memories, scientists say.
Continue reading… “Dreaming helps ease bad memories”
Can heavy gaming be considered an addiction?
Some children’s brains could be hard-wired to spend hours playing video games, according to a study which reignites the debate over whether the habit should be considered an addiction. Researchers found that children who spent an excessive amount of time playing the games had an enlarged area of the brain which is the main hub of the reward system.
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What can a fetus sense when?
As a fetus grows, it’s constantly getting messages from its mother. It’s not just hearing her heartbeat and whatever music she might play to her belly; it also gets chemical signals through the placenta. A new study, which will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this includes signals about the mother’s mental state. If the mother is depressed, that affects how the baby develops after it’s born…
Continue reading… “Can a fetus sense it’s mother’s psychological state?”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.