Vollkommen unverdaute, zusammenhangslose Zitate zum Thema Gehirn

[Pygar]

Scholars are now interested in whether having a vocabulary item for a concept influences thought in domains far from language, such as visual perception. Consider the case of the "Russian blues." While English has a single word for blue, Russian has two words, goluboy for light blue and siniy for dark blue. These are considered "basic level" terms, like green and purple, since no adjective is needed to distinguish them. Lera Boroditsky and her colleagues displayed two shades of blue on a computer screen and asked Russian speakers to determine, as quickly as possible, whether the two blue colors were different from each other or the same as each other. The fastest discriminations were when the displayed colors were goluboy and siniy, rather than two shades of goluboy or two shades of siniy. The reaction time advantage for lexically distinct blue colors was strongest when the blue hues were perceptually similar.

What arenas of perceptual-linguistic interaction remain to be conquered? The current finding indicates that linguistic knowledge can influence perception, contradicting the traditional view that perception is processed independently from other aspects of cognition, including language. This is most famously seen in the case of visual illusions, which are mostly impervious to knowledge about the illusion. Hmm. One wonders: Could the Russian Blues be recruited in altering a visual illusion that depends on color shades?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...U42XSNR5os

[Pygar]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30732847

Meditation induces physical relaxation and enhances cognition: A perplexing paradox.

Meditation induces physical and mental relaxation. Experimental evidence has also suggested that meditation enhances cognition. The relaxation (physical and mental) and cognitive enhancement are quite opposite tasks. It is quite surprising, how meditation produces these two quasi opposite effects. It is well known that continued practice of sensori-motor and cognitive maneuvering would result in enhanced capacity of attaining physical and mental relaxation through decreased sympathetic excitation. It is further known that meditation results in better attentional regulation. The mechanism for meditation induced enhancement of cognitive function appears to be due to cognitive restructuring, autonomic changes and release of cytokines. Recently, it has been shown that the relaxation results in decreased levels of IL-1 and IL-6. Therefore, reduction of cytokines by practice of meditation could well explain the enhanced cognition. The question remains whether practice of meditation really enhances the cognition over and above the baseline levels through enhance neural plasticity. Future studies might answer such questions. There is a need for a unified hypothesis that could explain two opposing effects of meditation, namely relaxation and cognition enhancement through Meditation.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zytokin

[Pygar]

Hacking the Brain: Dimensions of Cognitive Enhancement

Martin Dresler*† , Anders Sandberg‡, Christoph Bublitz§, Kathrin Ohla∥, Carlos Trenado⊥#, Aleksandra Mroczko-Wąsowicz∇, Simone Kühn○◆, and Dimitris Repantis¶

In an increasingly complex information society, demands for cognitive functioning are growing steadily. In recent years, numerous strategies to augment brain function have been proposed. Evidence for their efficacy (or lack thereof) and side effects has prompted discussions about ethical, societal, and medical implications. In the public debate, cognitive enhancement is often seen as a monolithic phenomenon. On a closer look, however, cognitive enhancement turns out to be a multifaceted concept: There is not one cognitive enhancer that augments brain function per se, but a great variety of interventions that can be clustered into biochemical, physical, and behavioral enhancement strategies. These cognitive enhancers differ in their mode of action, the cognitive domain they target, the time scale they work on, their availability and side effects, and how they differentially affect different groups of subjects. Here we disentangle the dimensions of cognitive enhancement, review prominent examples of cognitive enhancers that differ across these dimensions, and thereby provide a framework for both theoretical discussions and empirical Research.

Link zum Volltext:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs...ro.8b00571

[Pygar]

Brain scans support findings that IQ can rise or fall significantly during adolescence
IQ, the standard measure of intelligence, can increase or fall significantly during our teenage years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust, and these changes are associated with changes to the structure of our brains. The findings may have implications for testing and streaming of children during their school years.
[*]

Across our lifetime, our intellectual ability is considered to be stable, with intelligence quotient (IQ) scores taken at one point in time used to predict educational achievement and employment prospects later in life. However, in a study published today in the journal 'Nature', researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) and the Centre for Educational Neuroscience show for the first time that, in fact, our IQ is not constant.
The researchers, led by Professor Cathy Price, tested 33 healthy adolescents in 2004 when they were between the ages of 12 and 16 years. They then repeated the tests four years later when the same subjects were between 15 and 20 years old. On both occasions, the researchers took structural brain scans of the subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Professor Price and colleagues found significant changes in the IQ scores measured in 2008 compared to the 2004 scores. Some subjects had improved their performance relative to people of a similar age by as much as 20 points on the standardised IQ scale; in other cases, however, performance had fallen by a similar amount.
To test whether these changes were meaningful, the researchers analysed the MRI scans to see whether there was a correlation with changes in the structure of the subjects' brains.
"We found a considerable amount of change in how our subjects performed on the IQ tests in 2008 compared to four years earlier," explains Sue Ramsden, first author of the study. "Some subjects performed markedly better but some performed considerably worse. We found a clear correlation between this change in performance and changes in the structure of their brains and so can say with some certainty that these changes in IQ are real."
The researchers measured each subject's verbal IQ, which includes measurements of language, arithmetic, general knowledge and memory, and their non-verbal IQ, such as identifying the missing elements of a picture or solving visual puzzles. They found a clear correlation with particular regions of the brain.
An increase in verbal IQ score correlated with an increase in the density of grey matter - the nerve cells where the processing takes place - in an area of the left motor cortex of the brain that is activated when articulating speech. Similarly, an increase in non-verbal IQ score correlated with an increase in the density of grey matter in the anterior cerebellum, which is associated with movements of the hand. However, an increase in verbal IQ did not necessarily go hand-in-hand with an increase in non-verbal IQ.
According to Professor Price, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, it is not clear why IQ should have changed so much and why some people's performance improved while others' declined. It is possible that the differences are due to some of the subjects being early or late developers, but it is equally possible that education had a role in changing IQ, and this has implications for how schoolchildren are assessed.
"We have a tendency to assess children and determine their course of education relatively early in life, but here we have shown that their intelligence is likely to be still developing," says Professor Price. "We have to be careful not to write off poorer performers at an early stage when in fact their IQ may improve significantly given a few more years.
"It's analogous to fitness. A teenager who is athletically fit at 14 could be less fit at 18 if they stopped exercising. Conversely, an unfit teenager can become much fitter with exercise."
Other studies from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and other research groups have provided strong evidence that the structure of the brain remains 'plastic' even throughout adult life. For example, Professor Price showed recently that guerrillas in Columbia who had learned to read as adults had a higher density of grey matter in several areas of the left hemisphere of the brain than those who had not learned to read. Professor Eleanor Maguire, also from the Wellcome Trust Centre, showed that part of a brain structure called the hippocampus, which plays an important part in memory and navigation, has greater volume in licensed London taxi drivers.
"The question is, if our brain structure can change throughout our adult lives, can our IQ also change?" adds Professor Price. "My guess is yes. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that our brains can adapt and their structure changes, even in adulthood."
"This interesting study highlights how 'plastic' the human brain is," said Dr John Williams, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust. "It will be interesting to see whether structural changes as we grow and develop extend beyond IQ to other cognitive functions. This study challenges us to think about these observations and how they may be applied to gain insight into what might happen when individuals succumb to mental health disorders."
Notes for editors

Reference

Ramsden S et al. Verbal and nonverbal intelligence changes in the teenage brain. Nature 2011 [epub ahead of print].
About the Centre for Educational Neuroscience
The Centre for Educational Neuroscience (opens in a new tab) is a tri-institution collaboration between Birkbeck College, University College London, and the Institute of Education, and is a unique attempt, nationally and internationally, to bring together a wide range of developmental cognitive neuroscientists, educators and educational researchers to propel the new dialogue between education and neuroscience.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
'Understanding the brain' is one of the Wellcome Trust's key strategic challenges. It funds a significant portfolio of neuroscience and mental health research, ranging from studies of molecular and cellular components to work on cognition and higher systems. At the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, clinicians and scientists study higher cognitive function to understand how thought and perception arise from brain activity, and how such processes break down in neurological and psychiatric disease.
Search

[*]
https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/bra...dolescence

[Rhetor]

Sehr interessant
Ob die Verschlechterung in manchen Fällen auch etwas mit THC und/oder Alkohol zu tun haben könnte?
Darauf wird in dem Artikel leider nicht explizit eingegangen. Die Rede ist nur von "healthy adolescents".
Ab wieviel Kiffen oder Saufen ist man denn nicht mehr "healthy"?
Ich hoffe, sie haben diejenigen dann aus der Studie herausgenommen.

[Pygar]

Ob die Verschlechterung in manchen Fällen auch etwas mit THC und/oder Alkohol zu tun haben könnte?
Darauf wird in dem Artikel leider nicht explizit eingegangen. Die Rede ist nur von "healthy adolescents".
Ab wieviel Kiffen oder Saufen ist man denn nicht mehr "healthy"?
Ich hoffe, sie haben diejenigen dann aus der Studie herausgenommen.

Stimmt.
Da könnte man noch argumentieren, dass Verbesserungen im Kleinhirn im Bereich der Handbewegung auch mit viel Handschreiben zu tun haben könnte.

Das wäre spannend, das müsste man aber aus dem Volltext herausbekommen.

[Pygar]

Eating mushrooms may reduce the risk of cognitive decline

Summary: Seniors who eat more than 300 grams of cooked mushrooms per week have reduced odds of developing mild cognitive impairment.
Source: National University of Singapore
A team from the Department of Psychological Medicine and Department of Biochemistry at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that seniors who consume more than two standard portions of mushrooms weekly may have 50% reduced odds of having mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
A portion was defined as three-quarters of a cup of cooked mushrooms with an average weight of around 150 grams. Two portions would be equivalent to approximately half a plate. While the portion sizes act as a guideline, it was shown that even one small portion of mushrooms a week may still be beneficial to reduce chances of MCI.
“This correlation is surprising and encouraging. It seems that a commonly available single ingredient could have a dramatic effect on cognitive decline,” said Assistant Professor Lei Feng, who is from the NUS Department of Psychological Medicine, and the lead author of this work.
The six-year study, which was conducted from 2011 to 2017, collected data from more than 600 Chinese seniors over the age of 60 living in Singapore. The research was carried out with support from the Life Sciences Institute and the Mind Science Centre at NUS, as well as the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council. The results were published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on 12 March 2019.
Determining MCI in seniors
MCI is typically viewed as the stage between the cognitive decline of normal aging and the more serious decline of dementia. Seniors afflicted with MCI often display some form of memory loss or forgetfulness and may also show deficits on other cognitive function such as language, attention and visuospatial abilities. However, the changes can be subtle, as they do not experience disabling cognitive deficits that affect everyday life activities, which is characteristic of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
“People with MCI are still able to carry out their normal daily activities. So, what we had to determine in this study is whether these seniors had poorer performance on standard neuropsychologist tests than other people of the same age and educational background,” explained Asst Prof Feng. “Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that can measure various aspects of a person’s cognitive abilities. In fact, some of the tests we used in this study are adopted from commonly used IQ test battery, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).”


As such, the researchers conducted extensive interviews and tests with the senior citizens to determine an accurate diagnosis. “The interview takes into account demographic information, medical history, psychological factors, and dietary habits. A nurse will measure blood pressure, weight, height, handgrip, and walking speed. They will also do a simple screen test on cognition, depression, anxiety,” said Asst Prof Feng.
After this, a two-hour standard neuropsychological assessment was performed, along with a dementia rating. The overall results of these tests were discussed in depth with expert psychiatrists involved in the study to get a diagnostic consensus.
Mushrooms and cognitive impairment
Six commonly consumed mushrooms in Singapore were referenced in the study. They were golden, oyster, shiitake and white button mushrooms, as well as dried and canned mushrooms. However, it is likely that other mushrooms not referenced would also have beneficial effects.


The researchers believe the reason for the reduced prevalence of MCI in mushroom eaters may be down to a specific compound found in almost all varieties. “We’re very interested in a compound called ergothioneine (ET),” said Dr. Irwin Cheah, Senior Research Fellow at the NUS Department of Biochemistry. “ET is a unique antioxidant and anti-inflammatory which humans are unable to synthesize on their own. But it can be obtained from dietary sources, one of the main ones being mushrooms.”

An earlier study by the team on elderly Singaporeans revealed that plasma levels of ET in participants with MCI were significantly lower than age-matched healthy individuals. The work, which was published in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications in 2016, led to the belief that a deficiency in ET may be a risk factor for neurodegeneration, and increasing ET intake through mushroom consumption might possibly promote cognitive health.

Other compounds contained within mushrooms may also be advantageous for decreasing the risk of cognitive decline. Certain hericenones, erinacines, scabronines and dictyophorines may promote the synthesis of nerve growth factors. Bioactive compounds in mushrooms may also protect the brain from neurodegeneration by inhibiting production of beta amyloid and phosphorylated tau, and acetylcholinesterase.
Next steps
The potential next stage of research for the team is to perform a randomised controlled trial with the pure compound of ET and other plant-based ingredients, such as L-theanine and catechins from tea leaves, to determine the efficacy of such phytonutrients in delaying cognitive decline. Such interventional studies will lead to more robust conclusion on causal relationship. In addition, Asst Prof Feng and his team also hope to identify other dietary factors that could be associated with healthy brain ageing and reduced risk of age-related conditions in the future.

https://neurosciencenews.com/cognitive-d...oms-10885/

[Pygar]

BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE

Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training

Sofie L. Valk
Boris C. Bernhardt


Abstract

Although neuroscientific research has revealed experience-dependent brain changes across the life span in sensory, motor, and cognitive domains, plasticity relating to social capacities remains largely unknown. To investigate whether the targeted mental training of different cognitive and social skills can induce specific changes in brain morphology, we collected longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data throughout a 9-month mental training intervention from a large sample of adults between 20 and 55 years of age. By means of various daily mental exercises and weekly instructed group sessions, training protocols specifically addressed three functional domains: (i) mindfulness-based attention and interoception, (ii) socio-affective skills (compassion, dealing with difficult emotions, and prosocial motivation), and (iii) socio-cognitive skills (cognitive perspective-taking on self and others and metacognition). MRI-based cortical thickness analyses, contrasting the different training modules against each other, indicated spatially diverging changes in cortical morphology. Training of present-moment focused attention mostly led to increases in cortical thickness in prefrontal regions, socio-affective training induced plasticity in frontoinsular regions, and socio-cognitive training included change in inferior frontal and lateral temporal cortices. Module-specific structural brain changes correlated with training-induced behavioral improvements in the same individuals in domain-specific measures of attention, compassion, and cognitive perspective-taking, respectively, and overlapped with task-relevant functional networks. Our longitudinal findings indicate structural plasticity in well-known socio-affective and socio-cognitive brain networks in healthy adults based on targeted short daily mental practices. These findings could promote the development of evidence-based mental training interventions in clinical, educational, and corporate settings aimed at cultivating social intelligence, prosocial motivation, and cooperation.

Link zum Volltext

[Pygar]

Can J Exp Psychol. 2019 Mar;73(1):28-36. doi: 10.1037/cep0000170.
Comparing the influence of doodling, drawing, and writing at encoding on memory.
Meade ME1, Wammes JD1, Fernandes MA1.
Author information
1Department of Psychology.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent to which doodling, which we define as drawing that is semantically unrelated to to-be-remembered information, enhances memory performance. In Experiment 1, participants heard auditorily presented lists of categorized words. They were asked to either doodle, draw a picture of, or write out, each item while listening to the target words.
Participants showed poorer free recall for words encoded while free-form doodling compared to words that were drawn or written, with drawing resulting in the best performance.
In Experiment 2, target words were embedded in a narrative story to better resemble a real-world situation in which one might doodle. Participants monitored each auditorily presented narrative while either free-form doodling, drawing, or writing in response to the target words. As in Experiment 1, doodling led to the poorest subsequent recall for targets compared to drawing or writing during encoding.
In Experiment 3, we used a structured doodling task at encoding, such that participants shaded in geometric shapes printed on paper rather than create their own doodles. Structured doodling led to similar levels of recall compared to simply writing. Creating a drawing of the words at encoding, rather than doodling, once again enhanced recall significantly. Taken together, these findings indicate that unlike task-relevant drawing, structured doodling during study provides no benefits to free recall, and free-form doodling leads to memory costs. (PsycINFO Database Record © 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3088...t=Abstract

[Pygar]

Rapidly Flashing Lights and Sounds Reduces Alzheimer’s in Mice

Exposing mice to an hour of 40-hertz stimuli every day for a week reduced levels of amyloid-β plaques and tau protein, and improved cognition.
Mar 15, 2019
Jef Akst
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The mouse cortex on the left shows a reduction in amyloid-β plaques following visual and auditory stimulation, compared to the untreated mouse cortex on the right.
GABRIELLE DRUMMOND
Sounds with a frequency of 40 hertz and lights that flicker at the same rate stimulate a pattern of brain activity known as gamma waves, which are associated with excitement or concentration and typically have a frequency of 40 hertz as well, though can range from 25 to 100 hertz. Exposing mice with signs of Alzheimer’s disease to an hour of such stimuli every day for a week somehow helped clear their brains of disease-related amyloid-β plaques, reduced levels of tau protein, and improved the animals’ performance on cognitive tasks, according to a study published yesterday (March 14) in Cell.

[...]

In the new work, Tsai and colleagues found that sounds humming at 40 hertz have a similar effect and extended the clearing of amyloid-β plaques to the hippocampus, a brain region that is affected in Alzheimer’s. The researchers also noticed increased activity of immune cells called microglia, which digest cellular debris including plaques, and an expansion of blood vessels in the mice’s brains, likely aiding in the remove of amyloid-β and tau Proteins.

After a week of hearing an hour of such clicks each day, the animals were more quickly able to find an underwater platform and recognize previously seen objects, compared with mice that had heard randomly spaced clicks.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opini...mice-65602

Wie gut, dass ich mit Raipat in Hacken eine Brille gebastelt habe, die genau das macht. Ich werde sie wohl demnächst wieder öfter benutzen.

Aber scheinbar helfen auch Isochronic beats alleine.

[Pygar]

Dieses Video ist mal hammer interessant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU78oVzr-Ks

Jeff Tarrant - NeuroMeditation Updates and Insights

Gehirnregionen und die unterschiedlichen Formen der Meditation - sehr spannend.

[Pygar]

Taking a deep breath in through the nose appears to help the human brain create a laser-like focus on visuospatial tasks, according to a new study by a team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. This paper, “Human Non-Olfactory Cognition Phase-Locked with Inhalation,” was published March 11 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. 
[...]
First, taking a deep diaphragmatic breath in through the nose, followed by a long, slow exhale through pursed lips (like you're blowing out a candle) is the quickest way to calm your nervous system. Diaphragmatic breathing is key to maintaining guts, wits, and grace under pressure in sport and life. 

During the exhalation phase of diaphragmatic belly breathing, the vagus nerve squirts out a tranquilizer-like substance called "vagusstoff." This so-called “vagus substance” is also known as acetylcholine. ACh (i.e. vagusstoff) is the primary neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system and counteracts “fight, flight, or freeze” stress responses.


https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/...aser-focus

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0556-z

[spell bound]

First, taking a deep diaphragmatic breath in through the nose, followed by a long, slow exhale through pursed lips (like you're blowing out a candle) is the quickest way to calm your nervous system. Diaphragmatic breathing is key to maintaining guts, wits, and grace under pressure in sport and life. 

cool, das wende ich so auch oft an, sowohl in sport wie auch vor stressigen rl-situationen.

[Raipat]

Wie gut, dass ich mit Raipat in Hacken eine Brille gebastelt habe, die genau das macht. Ich werde sie wohl demnächst wieder öfter benutzen.
Aber scheinbar helfen auch Isochronic beats alleine.

Cool, dass Du das Ding noch hast/nutzt!
Auch das HEG fertigzustellen hätte ich Bock. Die Teile liegen noch rum, hab sie aber seit dem Hacken nicht mehr angerüht...

[Pygar]

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a circuit-oriented treatment for mental disorders. Unfortunately, even well-conducted psychiatric DBS clinical trials have yielded inconsistent symptom relief, in part because DBS’ mechanism(s) of action are unclear. One clue to those mechanisms may lie in the efficacy of ventral internal capsule/ventral striatum (VCVS) DBS in both major depression (MDD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). MDD and OCD both involve deficits in cognitive control. Cognitive control depends on prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions that project into the VCVS. Here, we show that VCVS DBS’ effect is explained in part by enhancement of PFC-driven cognitive control. DBS improves human subjects’ performance on a cognitive control task and increases theta (5–8Hz) oscillations in both medial and lateral PFC. The theta increase predicts subjects’ clinical outcomes. Our results suggest a possible mechanistic approach to DBS therapy, based on tuning stimulation to optimize these neurophysiologic phenomena.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09557-4

In one study, people enrolled in a French-language intensive course had an increase in REM sleep and dreams while they were studying: their brains were working overtime to master a new language, and that work continued in their sleep.

Why We Dream: The Science, Creativity and Transformative Power of Dreams by Alice Robb is published by Pan Macmillan (£20).

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019...RATeNncBFA