#brain

The development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. It is one of the commonest medical procedures in the world, yet we still don't know how the drugs work. Perhaps this isn't surprising: we still don't understand consciousness, so how can we comprehend its disappearance?

"Intense auditory brain training targeted at the regions of a rat’s brain that process sound reversed many aspects of normal, age-related cognitive decline and improved the health of the brain cells, according to a new study from researchers at University of California, San Francisco."

"By disrupting brain activity in a particular region, neuroscientists can sway people’s views of moral situations."

Did sharp rocks warp our brains? Did cooking warp our brains? Did speech warp our brains? Did writing warp our brains? The net is the sharpest, hottest, chattiest, wordiest thing to hit since all the above.

"Dropping the F-bomb or other expletives may not only be an expression of agony, but also a means to alleviate it"

"Open the door THEN come in! ... I got my head stuck in the cupboard! ... Ohhhh... my brain hurts! "

"Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? The question invites two standard replies. Some accept the demarcations of skin and skull, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others are impressed by arguments suggesting that the meaning of our words "just ain't in the head", and hold that this externalism about meaning carries over into an externalism about mind. We propose to pursue a third position. We advocate a very different sort of externalism: an active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes. "

"It's probably not a great idea to smoke while you do brain surgery and insert mind-control electrodes into little kids' heads."

"An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation."

"Sure, I'm a veritable genius when I'm on the grid, but am I mentally crippled when I'm not? Does an overreliance on machine memory shut down other important ways of understanding the world?"

"After reading this post all I can say is: I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy."

"Appreciating these differences may be crucial to understanding the mechanisms of neural information processing, and ultimately for the creation of artificial intelligence."

"A "data cable" made from stretched nerve cells could someday help connect computers to the human nervous system. The modified cells should form better connections with human tissue than the metal electrodes currently used for purposes such as remotely co

"No component of the system is itself stable but the entire production locks together to have stable existence. This is how you can manage to persist even though much of you is being recycled by day if not the hour."

"My entire brain, the organ by which my very consciousness is controlled, was reorganized one day ten years ago."

"It's rare to find such a carefully considered and well-informed account of brain damage from someone who has suffered the consequences."

"Stanford neuroscientist Bill Newsome wants to implant an electrode in his brain to better understand human consciousness."

"Juggling and probably other visual skills that take time to master increase the size of your brain."

"A gene has been identified that appears responsible for key differences between the brain of humans and other primates."