ctrl.altered.mind

According to results of a study led by Morten Kringelbach, our brains respond distinctly to pictures of babies and infants (as compared to those of adults), with reaction times averaging around 150ms and most significant differences in brain activity occurring in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, according to this graph in the published findings.

The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) is primarily associated with decision-making and evaluating emotion and reward. It also ranks among the least-understood regions of the human brain.

According to the Cognitive Daily,

This area of the brain has been shown to be activated in a similar pattern when people see masked drawings — drawings that they don’t actually remember seeing because they are flashed so briefly. So almost immediately after seeing infant faces, adults show a dramatically different response compared to equivalently emotional and attractive adult faces; a response they may not even be aware of.

These findings might aid in fortifying speculation the researchers have, on the correlation between such medial OFC activity and postpartum depression (the prevalence rate of which ranges between 5-25%).

Morten Kringelbach is affiliated with the University of Oxford (where he is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry) and researches the functional neuroanatomy of human conscious and unconscious processing, in particular those aspects related to pleasure, desire, emotion, learning, reward and hedonic processing.

(via the Cognitive Daily weblog)

Consistency of performance is a primary basis for any sport. If you’ve wondered why it isn’t possible for the human brain to tune itself such that it can repeatedly perform a task with near-perfect consistency, the explanation to that is now out. There would perhaps be a minimal competitive advantage in sport if our brains could learn to perform consistently - for mere practice would help achieve a perfect strike each time we bowl, or hit the bulls-eye at every game of darts (assuming external factors remain constant).

The reason for this, as a Stanford study suggests, is that the human brain has to start from scratch each time a movement is planned. Our neurons are not wired to retain and adapt to repetitive motion as was previously conceived, and muscles are to blame for less than half of the mechanical inconsistencies observed during movement.

As Krishna Shenoy, study co-author and assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, puts it, “The main reason you can’t move the same way each time, such as swinging a golf club, is that your brain can’t plan the swing the same way each time.”

According to study co-author and postdoctoral researcher Mark Churchland, “The nervous system was not designed to do the same thing over and over again. The nervous system was designed to be flexible. You typically find yourself doing things you’ve never done before.”

As the study results demonstrate, “effect magnitudes were such that at least half of the observed movement variability likely had its source during motor preparation. Thus, even for a highly practiced task, the ability to repeatedly plan the same movement limits our ability to repeatedly execute the same movement.”

If motion validation at the neural level were possible, I wonder if this would help eliminate the partial responsibility that muscles have on the accuracy of movement. It would be very interesting to research this aspect further, as I’m sure many research groups are. At the very least, it would be of tremendous help in alleviating motion inconsistencies in debilitating diseases.

Link: BBC Article 

Abstract, Neuron, Volume 52, Issue 6 , 21 December 2006, Pages 1085-1096

My dear friend Maria is participating in a 150-mile MS bike tour (July 8 - 9) in order to help raise funds for the National MS Society (Colorado Chapter). MS, or Multiple Sclerosis, is a chronic degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system and currently has no cure. With enough effort, a preventive solution or cure can be found. You can also read Maria’s page (excerpt below). The MS Society also accepts e-pledges to sponsor participants, and any contribution is welcome. Good luck Maria!

Multiple sclerosis affects lives every moment of every year. At any time, someone with MS may suddenly be unable to stand up, hug their child or see a friend across the room.

This year, I’ll be participating in the National MS Society’s annual MS Bike Tour to help raise funds for research and local programs. It’s a small thing for me to do for people who face the devastating and relentless effects of MS every day. With each mile I ride, I hope to bring the National MS Society closer to a cure.

Will you help by sponsoring me in this year’s MS Bike Tour? With your generous support, we can end the devastating effects of MS, sooner rather than later.

Thank you!

- Maria Toscano

(Click here to sponsor Maria for the MS Bike Tour)