New brain gene gives us edge over apes, study suggests

New brain gene gives us edge over apes, study suggests: Scientists have taken a step forward in helping to solve one of life's greatest mysteries -- what makes us human?

Running too far, too fast, and too long speeds progress 'to finish line of life'

Running too far, too fast, and too long speeds progress 'to finish line of life': Vigorous exercise is good for health, but only if it's limited to a maximum daily dose of between 30 and 50 minutes, say researchers.

[Report] A Large-Scale Model of the Functioning Brain

[Report] A Large-Scale Model of the Functioning Brain: Two-and-a-half million model neurons recognize images, learn via reinforcement, and display fluid intelligence.

Authors: Chris Eliasmith, Terrence C. Stewart, Xuan Choo, Trevor Bekolay, Travis DeWolf, Charlie Tang, Daniel Rasmussen

Cultivator of Brain Parts

Cultivator of Brain Parts:
Yoshiki Sasai is not just an ordinary tissue engineer who tries to coax stem cells to grow into fully formed bodily structures. It is true that Sasai has made his mark by taking on big projects like using stem cells to whip up a retina, cortical tissue and the cerebellum, involved with balance and movement. But his research has gone deeper by delving into the way stem cells organize themselves into complex structures under the influence of genes and the prenatal environment. Read a profile of Sasai here to accompany “ Grow Your Own Eye ,” Sasai’s own account of growing a retina in the November Scientific American .
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Efficient use of brain space makes the intelligent person

"When you finish playing with your toys, you must put them back. Otherwise next time you want to play with them again, you cannot find them." These are my mother's words that will forever echo through my mind. How remarkably correct she was!

In a limited network, struggling to represent the world, the trick is to clean up after yourself, as quickly as possible, leave a cue, and then you can move on to something else, doing the same thing again. If you do not clean up after yourself, and leave clutter, then you don't have space to handle the new stuff. Then, things get messy. You start to have new stuff mixed with old stuff, you can't tell the two apart, you take more time to find things, if you can find them at all. They are there, but you can't get at them because they were not organized well.

We see this partially in evidence from personality studies. Higher levels of neuroticism, with lower levels of conscientiousness are associated with higher incidence of Alzheimer's dementia. Perhaps higher neuroticism means that the brain is stuck in a certain way of doing things and can't disengage from processes that are unhelpful. And, perhaps lower conscientiousness means that the brain does not process information thoroughly enough before attending to other matters. These hint at the clean-up-after-yourself problem.

We can also project this from simple conceptual developments surrounding neural network and information representation and retrieval. A fixed neural network region can only represent 1 state of information at any one time, even though that state may be a complex one. In order for that network to move on to represent another state effectively, it must settle into a stable representation of the 1st state. Otherwise, the two states will overlap and the representation will be compromised. By this token, subsequent attempts to retrieve a given state will be more difficult or less accurate because the two states simpy do not exist as separate entities.

How does a network stabilize it's state representations? The answer is work. After you are done, clean up. Put it back in a place in order. Plan ahead and project what you need to know to get the stuff back in the future, and organize your stuff right now accordingly. Use placeholders. Don't just leave things lying around. Go deep. Understand the essence of stuff.

An example may easily be seen in spatial representations. It is much more efficient to know the rule that a square consists of 4 sides of equal length, and that the length is X, than to encode that the first side of a square is X length, the second is X length, the third is X length, and the fourth is X length. Working hard to understanding the essence of something helps to clean up brain space.

Another example relates to Hansel and Gretel. You're in a forest of trees. Everything looks the same. Realize that you are going to get lost. Think a little bit and realize that if you drop a trail, or do something out of the ordinary for yourself, you can find your way back later. Don't just jump head into the forest without thinking, hoping that you will somehow come out the right way again. Working hard to do something that insures you in the future also cleans up brain space.

Some will find it harder than others to clean up after themselves. Some stuff are harder to organize and pack up than others too. But in this is the beauty of the human being - that we are all creatures who have habits, and habits can be fostered, and habits make a hard thing easier, or at least help us not to mind doing it. Familiarity feels good.

I may have bad memory, but I make good decisions.

Age and time. They catch up with the best of us. Despite its awesome capabilities, our brains are still finite apprehenders of reality. There is only so much knowledge we can each possess. And therefore, only so much knowledge we can retain or retrieve at any one time. Information that we used to have is changed, and therefore lost.

This is at once a threat to our existence. Loss of important information acquired in the past might cost us a bad choice. Effectively, we might make uninformed choices.

Here's sprinkling more salt on the wound. Losing information is one thing, but having our tuning for what's good or bad for us messed with, now that's something warranting some learned helplessness. At least if we forget, we can Google it now. But if we can't distinguish what's good or bad for us, even if it's staring us in the face, right under our noses, then Googling the most relevant hits will do us no good, pun intended.

So, how do we keep our senses tuned?

Yellowstone 2012: Day 1

It is 12.43am, I am writing a paper. Its been 4 days since my last day at LBN. The weekend was mostly spent on work, shopping, eating, watching TV. Packing up our stuff was at the back of our minds...the 22nd seems so far away at the moment. But we know it is not. It is a stressor.

Today's thoughts included:
1. Tim Minchin's Storm is something I contend with.
2. Higgs-Boson particle.
3. Dang it Apple! -- you stole my eye-glass computer screen idea, and you'll probably make it work too, I so love/hate you.
4. Pho.
5. Classes to teach.
6. Grants to write.
7. Research projects to do.
8. Lumix GX1 wins.
9. The Snow Leopard has not yet appeared at our door.
10. DK is cool, but he does go on.
11. ...

You can hardly tell that in 4 hours, we're leaving for Yellowstone.

What I need is a butler.

Yay to vacations, yay to getting back to reality.

Selling our Cars

2 x HONDA FITS FOR SALE

One black and one blue Honda Fit, 2010 standard models (not sport model).

4 door hatchback, stick-shift, 33 mpg city driving, 40 mpg highway driving.

Black one has ~55000 miles.

Blue one has ~40000 miles.

Minor paint scratches from road chips.

Air-conditioning excellent.

CD player with line-in.

Power-windows.

Auto-door locks.

Auto day headlights.

Spacious.

Oil-change and maintenance always done at dealer using Honda's maintenance minder system.

Asking for $12250 each.

Black is available after 30th June. Blue is available after 18th July.

Leave a comment.

Upheaval

The ridge is getting nearer, who knows what is behind it?
We travel on with our gear, leaving some stuff, bring some stuff.
Yet we are still the same, having been changed.

The light behind grows dim, the light ahead is blinding.
We only see where our feet will tread.

Where are those who accuse you?
I see no one.

City Scene, sketched on an iPad

Embattled 'Faster-than-Light' Neutrino Experiment Leaders Step Down

Embattled 'Faster-than-Light' Neutrino Experiment Leaders Step Down:

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazine

The team that last year reported measurements showing neutrinos traveling faster than light has confirmed that two sources of error flagged in February explain the findings.

Analyses presented internally on 28 March and posted publicly on 30 March show that the measurements were skewed by a combination of a faulty cable and flawed timing in the experiment's master clock. [More]

Can You Make Yourself Smarter?

Can You Make Yourself Smarter?: A new memory game has revived the tantalizing notion that people can work their way to a higher I.Q.

Depth and Breadth for an Efficient Brain: No Short Cuts

Maturation of a neural network. Over time, new nodes are formed 

with their respective connections, and existing connections are 

strengthened. The overall system, still maintains a small world 

structure, and its original base structure.

What are the sorts of activity over the lifespan that shape the efficiency of our brains? Short of taking a pill or undergoing microneurosurgery, how do we engage in cognitive processes that encourage favorable levels of neurotransmitter activity and optimal configurations of neural connectivity? For that matter, is it possible to bypass all the "hard work" of thinking and doing and just pop a pill to make our minds more intelligent? To preempt the latter question, perhaps there is no short cut. But that does not mean we give up. Rather, it means it is all the more critical to lay the right foundations, and it also means, it is never too late to start.

A recent development in our understanding of neural structure might be mapped onto this set of physical properties. Based on graph theory, we now know that the way in which the human brain is wired resembles a small-world network. That is, neurons are connected to each other in the brain such that there is an optimal balance between short-distance, local, connections with close neighboring neurons, as well as long-distance connections via hub neurons. This balance of having both types of connections results in the most efficient structure with which information can be transmitted from one neuron to another, on average. Too many local connections, and information must shuttle through an adverse number of short-range synapses before reaching a distant neuron, increasing time of transfer. Too many long-distance connections, and also information must ridiculously pass through distant neurons before arriving at the neuron which is just beside. Other properties emerge that also are used to characterize the degree to which a network is a small-world network - level of clustering and randomness of connections. Using such indices, we now know that the evident connectivity of the brain seems to represent a high-level of efficiency with regards to the processing of information pertaining to stimuli, memory, thought, and action. Because of such neural organization, we are able to read or hear, comprehend, remember, reason, and respond, all literally within the blink of an eye.

With this background, we come back to the opening questions. If our brains are generally already efficient, how does this efficiency change with age, and if it goes down (as we are apt to assume), how do we keep it at optimum efficiency for as long as possible apart from the use of chemical and physical interventions? How do we optimize our small-world networks via mental interventions?

Lifelong brain-stimulating habits linked to lower Alzheimer's protein levels

Lifelong brain-stimulating habits linked to lower Alzheimer's protein levels: People who have made mental engagement a lifelong habit have lower levels of a key protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by neuroscientists. The findings could provide support for cognitive therapies to help prevent the onset of a debilitating disease.

Rodrigo y Gabriela Return to Mexico City in Triumph

Rodrigo y Gabriela Return to Mexico City in Triumph: The Mexican-born guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, after honing skills and an eclectic style abroad, are welcomed by fans in their hometown, Mexico City.

Solar Eruption Triggers Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years - Mashable

Solar Eruption Triggers Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years - Mashable:

National Geographic

Solar Eruption Triggers Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years Mashable A huge eruption on the Sun has caused the strongest radiation storm since 2005, which is due to hit Earth on Tuesday, Jan 24, possibly causing widespread communications interference. The eruption occurred late on January 22, 2012 sending a burst of ... Huge solar eruption to reach Earth todayTG Daily Largest Solar Radiation Storm in Six Years Headed Toward EarthBusinessWeek Astronauts in Space Safe from Huge Solar Radiation StormSpace.com Fox News -Los Angeles Times -USA TODAY all 690 news articles »

Genetic contributions to stability and change in intelligence from childhood to old age

Genetic contributions to stability and change in intelligence from childhood to old age:

Genetic contributions to stability and change in intelligence from childhood to old age

Nature advance online publication 18 January 2012. doi:10.1038/nature10781

Authors: Ian J. Deary, Jian Yang, Gail Davies, Sarah E. Harris, Albert Tenesa, David Liewald, Michelle Luciano, Lorna M. Lopez, Alan J. Gow, Janie Corley, Paul Redmond, Helen C. Fox, Suzanne J. Rowe, Paul Haggarty, Geraldine McNeill, Michael E. Goddard, David J. Porteous, Lawrence J. Whalley, John M. Starr & Peter M. Visscher

Understanding the determinants of healthy mental ageing is a priority for society today. So far, we know that intelligence differences show high stability from childhood to old age and there are estimates of the genetic contribution to intelligence at different ages. However, attempts to discover whether genetic causes contribute to differences in cognitive ageing have been relatively uninformative. Here we provide an estimate of the genetic and environmental contributions to stability and change in intelligence across most of the human lifetime. We used genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from 1,940 unrelated individuals whose intelligence was measured in childhood (age 11 years) and again in old age (age 65, 70 or 79 years). We use a statistical method that allows genetic (co)variance to be estimated from SNP data on unrelated individuals. We estimate that causal genetic variants in linkage disequilibrium with common SNPs account for 0.24 of the variation in cognitive ability change from childhood to old age. Using bivariate analysis, we estimate a genetic correlation between intelligence at age 11 years and in old age of 0.62. These estimates, derived from rarely available data on lifetime cognitive measures, warrant the search for genetic causes of cognitive stability and change.

Learning the Exception to the Rule: Model-Based fMRI Reveals Specialized Representations for Surprising Category Members

Learning the Exception to the Rule: Model-Based fMRI Reveals Specialized Representations for Surprising Category Members:

Category knowledge can be explicit, yet not conform to a perfect rule. For example, a child may acquire the rule "If it has wings, then it is a bird," but then must account for exceptions to this rule, such as bats. The current study explored the neurobiological basis of rule-plus-exception learning by using quantitative predictions from a category learning model, SUSTAIN, to analyze behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. SUSTAIN predicts that exceptions require formation of specialized representations to distinguish exceptions from rule-following items in memory. By incorporating quantitative trial-by-trial predictions from SUSTAIN directly into fMRI analyses, we observed medial temporal lobe (MTL) activation consistent with 2 predicted psychological processes that enable exception learning: item recognition and error correction. SUSTAIN explains how these processes vary in the MTL across learning trials as category knowledge is acquired. Importantly, MTL engagement during exception learning was not captured by an alternate exemplar-based model of category learning or by standard contrasts comparing exception and rule-following items. The current findings thus provide a well-specified theory for the role of the MTL in category learning, where the MTL plays an important role in forming specialized category representations appropriate for the learning context.