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Posts Tagged ‘Brain

MOOD MODIFICATION WITH ELF MAGNETIC FIELDS – Robert C Beck, 1978

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Brain-Scanning Tech May Threaten Our Right to Cognitive Liberty

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A Conversation About Cognitive Liberty
Brain-scanning and the tools that make it possible can actually benefit society, but the potential dangers cannot be ignored. An open conversation needs to be had about cognitive liberty, and it needs to be between legal experts, neuroscientists and, most importantly, the people whose lives will be effected by its successful application.

Full Article at  https://futurism.com/brain-scanning-tech-may-threaten-our-right-to-cognitive-liberty/

Mental Privacy
Your thoughts are your own, are they not? Despite what you say or do in public, privately around others, or what information you share online, the thoughts, ideals, and actions contained within your own mind should be yours, and yours alone. However, advances in technology dealing with brain-imaging/brain-scanning, developed in order to study and interpret the human mind, may be encroaching on this way of thinking, and posing the question: is it our right to control our own thoughts and processes?

 
Believing that we should be the ones in control of our minds is known as cognitive liberty, or the right to mental self-determination. Ask just about anyone the question posed above, and most would agree that yes goes without saying. However when asked the same question with regards to their potential benefits in medicine and law, the answer may be different. If a brain scan could prove someone committed a crime, wouldn’t it be in everyone’s best interest to use it?

https://futurism.com/brain-scanning-tech-may-threaten-our-right-to-cognitive-liberty/

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Written by bothernews

August 15, 2017 at 8:14 pm

Control of traveling waves in the Mammalian cortex.

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January, 2005

Source URL:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15698234?

Control of traveling waves in the Mammalian cortex.

Richardson KA1, Schiff SJ, Gluckman BJ.
Author information
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA.

Abstract

We experimentally confirmed predictions that modulation of the neuronal threshold with electrical fields can speed up, slow down, and even block traveling waves in neocortical slices. The predictions are based on a Wilson-Cowan-type integro-differential equation model of propagating neocortical activity. Wave propagation could be modified quickly and reversibly within targeted regions of the network. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of direct modulation of the threshold to control wave propagation in a neural system.

We therefore predicted that we could speed up, slow down, and block propagating neural activity in neocortical slices with the application of electric fields. Furthermore, we predicted that we could affect wave propagation either globally, over the whole slice, or locally, in a specific region of the slice, by changing the geometry of the applied field.

We experimentally confirmed theoretical predictions that threshold modulation can increase or decrease the propagation speed of, and even block, cortical traveling waves. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of direct modulation of threshold to control wave propagation in a neural system. Such modulation could be applied rapidly in a locally precise manner. Since neural systems permit direct access to threshold, these findings open avenues to novel neural prosthetic applications including control and containment of seizure propagation.

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Scientists discover that our brain waves can be sent by electrical fields – ScienceAlert

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PETER DOCKRILL

15 JAN 2016

“The implications are that such directed fields can be used to modulate both pathological activities, such as seizures, and to interact with cognitive rhythms that help regulate a variety of processes in the brain.”

The results indicate that electric fields (ephaptic effects) are capable of mediating propagation of self-regenerating neural waves,” they write. “This novel mechanism coupling cell-by-volume conduction could be involved in other types of propagating neural signals, such as slow-wave sleep, sharp hippocampal waves, theta waves, or seizures.”

If their findings, which are reported in The Journal of Neuroscience, can be expounded in further studies, it could help us to better understand how brain waves are associated with things like memory, epilepsy, and healthy physiology.

Source URL:   http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-new-method-of-brain-wave-transmission-electrical-fields

Ancient “Super-Acoustics” technology used on Malta

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June 16th, 2014 Linda Eneix

Researchers detected the presence of a strong double resonance frequency at 70Hz and 114Hz inside a 5,000-years-old mortuary temple on the Mediterranean island of Malta. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is an underground complex created in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period as a depository for bones and a shrine for ritual use. A chamber known as "The Oracle Room" has a fabled reputation for exceptional sound behavior.

During testing, a deep male voice tuned to these frequencies stimulated a resonance phenomenon throughout the hypogeum, creating bone-chilling effects. It was reported that sounds echoed for up to 8 seconds. Archaeologist Fernando Coimbra said that he felt the sound crossing his body at high speed, leaving a sensation of relaxation. When it was repeated, the sensation returned and he also had the illusion that the sound was reflected from his body to the ancient red ochre paintings on the walls. One can only imagine the experience in antiquity: standing in what must have been somewhat odorous dark and listening to ritual chant while low light flickered over the bones of one’s departed loved ones.

 

                                                            Hal Saflieni (ca. 3600 BCE)

                                                     Credit: Mediterranean Institute of Ancient Civilizations

Sound in a Basso/Baritone range of 70 – 130 hz vibrates in a certain way as a natural phenomenon of the environment in the Hypogeum, as it does in Newgrange passage tomb, megalithic cairns and any stone cavity of the right dimensions.  At these resonance frequencies, even small periodic driving forces can produce large amplitude oscillations, because the system stores vibrational energy.  Echoes bounce off the hard surfaces and compound before they fade.  Laboratory testing indicates that exposure to these particular resonant frequencies can have a physical effect on human brain activity.

What is astounding is that five thousand years ago the builders exploited the phenomenon, intentionally using architectural techniques to boost these "super-acoustics". Glenn Kreisberg, a radio frequency spectrum engineer who was with the research group, observed that in the Hypogeum, "The Oracle Chamber ceiling, especially near its entrance from the outer area, and the elongated inner chamber itself, appears to be intentionally carved into the form of a wave guide."

The same people who created Ħal Saflieni also engineered a complete solar calendar with solstice and equinox sunrise alignments that still function today in one of their above-ground megalithic structures. There is no question that a sophisticated school of architectural, astronomic and audiologic knowledge was already in place a thousand years before the Egyptians started building pyramids.

 

Full Press Release on Phys.org by Project Organizer, Linda Eneix:  Ancient Man Used “Super-Acoustics” …

Written by bothernews

March 6, 2015 at 3:54 am

Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity

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June 26, 2013

Weizmann Institute scientists discover that spontaneously emerging brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity.

past_brain_activation

The day-after effect of brain activation: The brain image at the back presents spontaneous resting state patterns before an fMRI-based neurofeedback training session. The front brain image presents spontaneous resting state patterns a day after the training session, illustrating the long-term trace of the training. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

This research suggests a number of future possibilities for exploring the brain. For example, spontaneously emerging brain patterns could be used as a “mapping tool” for unearthing cognitive events from an individual’s recent past.

Or, on a wider scale, each person’s unique spontaneously emerging activity patterns might eventually reveal a sort of personal profile — highlighting each individual’s abilities, shortcomings, biases, learning skills, etc.

via Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity | KurzweilAI.

US Patent Number 3951134 – Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves

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US Patent Number 3951134 – Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves.

Assignee at issue:  Dorne & Margolin, Antenna manufacturers

While Patent Protection will have expired by now,  ITT Exelis seems to be the current owner/manufacturer of the Dorne & Margolin brand

Download:  US3951134

[click images to enlarge]

USPatent3951134

USPatent3951134-b

USPatent3951134-cc

Patent Overview

Patent Title: Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves
Patent Number: 3951134 Filing Date: Aug 05, 1974
Application Number: 4945182 Issue Date: Apr 20, 1976
Inventor Name(s): Malech, Robert G.
Examiner Name(s): Kamm, William E. (primary)
Assignee Name(s) at Issue: Dorne & Margolin Inc.
Agent or Attorney: Darby & Darby

Neural ‘synchrony’ may be key to understanding how the human brain perceives

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Georgia Tech, Back in the News:

Garrett Stanley, a Georgia Tech/Emory University biomedical engineering professor, has published almost 40 articles related to “reading and writing the neural code.” In his latest perspective article, he wrote that the specific timing of electrical pulses may be key to understanding how the human brain perceives what we see, feel and hear.

Despite many remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience during the past several decades, researchers have not been able to fully crack the brain’s “neural code.” The neural code details how the brain’s roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment.

In a perspective article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience on Feb. 25, 2013, biomedical engineering professor Garrett Stanley detailed research progress toward “reading and writing the neural code.” This encompasses the ability to observe the spiking activity of neurons in response to outside stimuli and make clear predictions about what is being seen, heard, or felt, and the ability to artificially introduce activity within the brain that enables someone to see, hear, or feel something that is not experienced naturally through sensory organs.

via Neural ‘synchrony’ may be key to understanding how the human brain perceives.

 

Related:  Physicists propose a way to make atomic clocks more accurate

 

 

 

Why Traffic Jams Are Bad for Your Health – WSJ.com

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New public-health studies and laboratory experiments suggest that, at every stage of life, traffic fumes exact a measurable toll on mental capacity, intelligence and emotional stability. “There are more and more scientists trying to find whether and why exposure to traffic exhaust can damage the human brain,” says medical epidemiologist Jiu-Chiuan Chen at the University of Southern California who is analyzing the effects of traffic pollution on the brain health of 7,500 women in 22 states. “The human data are very new.”

So far, the evidence is largely circumstantial but worrisome, researchers say. And no one is certain yet of the consequences for brain biology or behavior. “There is real cause for concern,” says neurochemist Annette Kirshner at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. “But we ought to proceed with caution.”

via Why Traffic Jams Are Bad for Your Health – WSJ.com.

Written by bothernews

March 12, 2013 at 2:32 am

Biometric Brainwaves, Your Unique Signature

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European scientists are developing security systems that uniquely identify people through the pattern of electrical activity in their brain.

This latest and most unique entry into the field of biometrics was developed by researchers at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece. It makes use of the EEG (electroencephalograph) which measures the fluctations in brain activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. It is the voltage difference between different parts of the brain that produces the traces known as EEG, the so-called brainwaves.

Each person has a unique pattern of neural pathway which determines their brain activity. This makes the EEG biometric system hard to forge and therefore desirable for use in high security systems.

via Biometric Brainwaves, Your Unique Signature.