The science of smell – smell as molecular vibration.

Relevant to brain studies, behavior studies (smell and molecular communication play a larger role than most people realize in behaviors and experience), and the popular topic and theme of ‘vibration’ in the esoteric culture materials… How a new science and industry of scent chemicals is evolving from chemists and biologists applying a theory of smell [...]

Memory as a search problem

This Sciam article discusses a recent experiment with memory, that illustrates some of the complex detail that our memory can store. The experiment demonstrated that with a visual image to trigger memory recall, ordinary humans were able to quickly match and compare a really large number of details.

I thought a boingboing’s poster’s take on [...]

Neuro Cards

What do a neurotoxic pufferfish, an iron rod blown by blackpowder thru the brain and skull, a split brain, and an enriched environment neuron all have in common?

You can get them as free .pdfs for printing neuro cards from Accidental Mind.

http://accidentalmind.org/notecards/

Slate’s Special Issue On The Brain

New sarticles about developments in neuroscience (and “neuroculture”) from Slate magazine –

“How Smart Is Grandpa?: How much can you expect from a septuagenarian brain?” by Michelle Tsai. Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007.

“Cells That Read Minds?: What the myth of mirror neurons gets wrong about the human brain,” by Alison Gopnik. Posted [...]

MDMA causes Oxytocin release in studies

From New Scientist – one of the better science email newsletters, incidentally:

Ecstasy really does unleash the love hormone

“Clubbers who take the “love drug” ecstasy really might be “loved up”. Studies in rats suggest the drug causes a brain surge of oxytocin – the hormone that helps bond couples, as well as mothers to [...]

“Neurotheology” – is the brain built to produce thoughts of god?

This is a fairly shallow article, mostly interesting because it appears on the CNN website.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/04/neurotheology/index.html

“”When we think of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, we see a tremendous similarity across practices and across traditions.”

The frontal lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in prayer and meditation.

The [...]

On Intelligence – the memory-prediction framework theory of the brain

What’s “memory-prediction framework”? Well, to oversimplify it, it suggests that the brain takes in information from the senses, compares it to memories of past experiences, and then tries to simulate, or imagine, likely future experiences. Sounds pretty obvious I suppose, but like a lot of things about the brain, it’s not well understood.

Jeff Hawkins, [...]

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