Emergent science of neurogenesis

ARTICLE»

From the Sacramento News & Review (SN&R); Thursday, September 24, 2009; pages 22-29:

Are you tired of your stupid, good for nothing brain?

By Matt Perry

The emergent science of neurogenesis has produced a

vibrant industry—in Sacramento and beyond—that claims

it can help you think faster, cope better, remember more.

You’ve had it. You’re sick and tired of your stupid brain. It’s cranky and dull. It can’t concentrate, it’s lethargic and it makes horrible decisions. It’s basically a no good cheatin’ brain.

So you’ve decided to fire off a Dear Brain letter: This relationship is over!

But your brain has a message for you: I can change. Really, I can change.

And your brain is right.

The burgeoning science of neurogenesis—that new neural networks can be created to keep brains fresh and alive—has produced a vibrant industry in brain games, brain gyms, designer chemicals, supplements, herbs, diets and every imaginable device to help us think faster, cope better and delay age-related illness. For millions of Americans pressured by overwork, stress and “monkey mind,” the promise of a newer, sharper brain is neurological nirvana.

This cutting-edge brain exploration is a little like settling the Wild West. “We’ve learned more in, say, the last decade than the entire history of the world,” says Leo Chalupa, formerly a neurobiologist for the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. “But where we are right now in terms of understanding how the brain works … is probably where the Wright brothers were in aviation.”

Look no further for intrepid brain explorers than the Sacramento area. Our region is home to several mainstream neurological research facilities and treatment centers, as well as some intriguing alternative practitioners who use diet, exercise and a brainy riff on cognitive therapy to help patients tune up their battered brains. A bit further down the road in San Francisco, we find a leading brain-training software company along with the country’s first “brain gym,” where members pound keyboards instead of weights in hopes of bulking up memory, concentration and visual skills.

. . . .

ARTICLE CONTINUES»

Are you tired of your stupid, good for nothing brain?

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Report on Mobile Phone Radiation and Brain Damage

Greetings, Yes-brainers,

This posting features the article

"Approaching Epidemic: Brain Damage from Mobile Phone Radiation,"

currently online at Mercola.com, a natural health information and health newsletter published by Dr. Joseph Mercola.

We have Diane Whitney to thank for the link.

The article opens as follows:

A collaborative team of international EMF activists has released a report detailing eleven design flaws of the 13-country, Telecom-funded Interphone study.

The exposé discusses research on cell phones and brain tumors, concluding that:

• There is a risk of brain tumors from cell phone use
• Telecom funded studies underestimate the risk of brain tumors
• Children have larger risks than adults for brain tumors

The Interphone study, begun in 1999, was intended to determine the risks of brain tumors, but its full publication has been held up for years. Components of this study published to date reveal what the authors call a ‘systemic-skew’, greatly underestimating brain tumor risk.

To read the complete article, click on the title:

Approaching Epidemic: Brain Damage from Mobile Phone Radiation

Posted by: Dr. Mercola, September 03 2009

Thanks again, Diane.

John

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Animated Graphic: How the Brain Works

Greetings, Yesbrainers,

Your receipt of this message confirms that your email address is currently recorded on our Yes-brainers blog notification list. To newcomers, welcome!

Cindy has plans in the near future to refer again the animated graphic titled "How the human brain works," which you saw (or barely saw) on the wee screen of my laptop yesterday. Plans are in place, I am happy to report, to present graphics at future meetings on a large screen.

In the meantime, if the graphic caught your interest and you'd like to play with it, click on the title directly below:

How the human brain works

Once the program is open, use your mouse to light up the those parts of the brain that interest you. (For me, I will be lighting up those parts of the brain I have difficulty lighting up on my own.)

That's it for now.

Till next month: all the best.

John

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Latest Articles in "New Scientist" on the Human Brain

Instant Expert: The Human Brain

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body, and perhaps the most remarkable. Start finding out how it works with our beginner's guide

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This adaptation may protect people with the skin disorder from hurtful responses to their appearance

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INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC

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Find out how our brains make us feel fear, remember our lives and make decisions, with our animated graphic

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Mind tricks: Six ways to explore your brain

New Scientist's guide to the simple techniques that will uncover the inner workings of your grey matter

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Brain Science to help teachers improve teaching methods

Article in New Scientist, Sept. 16, 2009:

Brain science to help teachers get into kids' heads

• By Nora Schultz, Berlin
• 
  
• New Scientist, 16 September 2009
• For similar stories, visit the Teenagers and
• The Human Brain Topic Guides
• 
  

NEUROSCIENCE could do for schools what biomedical research has done for healthcare. That's the conclusion of the Decade of the Mind (DOM) symposium last week in Berlin, Germany, to discuss how the latest findings could be used to improve education.

"In medicine, we have an excellent system in place to go from basic research to clinical practice, while in neuroscience we have the basic understanding of how the brain learns but still need to figure out how to translate this into the classroom," says Manfred Spitzer of the University of Ulm in Germany, one of the conference organisers. With brain imaging and, increasingly, genetic studies now complementing psychology research, a host of new findings could inform teachers about the conditions in which our brains can be primed to learn best.

One of the main themes emerging at the DOM meeting was that the foundation of successful learning is improving executive function - a collection of cognitive processes important for self-control and focusing on the task at hand. Brain-imaging studies have mapped executive function to several regions, including the anterior cingulate gyrus, which also lights up during error detection and when children learn numeracy and literacy.

Various studies presented at the meeting showed that improving a child's executive function could be achieved with relatively small changes, for example, by altering the timetabling of exercise sessions or encouraging the learning of a musical instrument (see "Stretch and learn" and "The Stephen King effect")

Click here: To read the entire article.

www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327265.800-brain-science-to-help-teachers-get-into-kids-heads.html

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