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POPSMusical training enhances integration of the senses This study shows that sensorimotor and auditory training induces cortical reorganization to a greater extent than does auditory training alone. It also shows that sensorimotor and auditory training cause more changes in the auditory cortex than auditory training alone. This phenomemon, called cross-modal plasticity, has been investigated only rarely. In 2003, the same group showed that professional trumput players have enhanced interactions between the auditory cortex and the regions of the somatosensory cortex devoted to the lip. The new study therefore provides another demonstration that the sensorimotor and auditory cortices are connected to each other.
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POPSYou're in Good Hands... with computer games Allstate insurance has contracted Posit Science to deliver its InSight software to older drivers to help them improve their cognitive abilities. So tell the kids they have to get off the joystick so granddad can do his homework.
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POPSMore on Palin There is so much to fear from this person. She is beyond incompetent, yet is in this position. Why?
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POPSThe New Science of Fear: Can It Predict Bravery at 13,500 Feet?
"Mujica-Parodi says:"You're kind of like a rubber band, in that when you go up, you come back down right away. You're conserving your sympathetic dominance for when it's actually needed." These results, Mujica-Parodi says, mirror those of my fMRI session. It's not that I stayed cool when I was plummeting toward earth—"You were in actual danger," she says, so "a strong excitatory response was appropriate"—but that when I wasn't falling I suppressed the fear response and conserved my energy. The upshot: I might do well at keeping calm in the face of lethal danger, as most firemen and policemen do. More important, my results seem to reinforce Mujica-Parodi's theory, which could mean that in the future recruiters for the military and law enforcement will have a way to screen applicants for the most suitable training and job assignments. Our conversation turns back to the sky dive. "Would you go again?" Mujica-Parodi asks. "I think so," I tell her. But not right now. Maybe in a fe
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POPS“Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation While behavioral performance did not differ between groups, Zen practitioners displayed a reduced duration of the neural response linked to conceptual processing in regions of the default network, suggesting that "meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus and, by extension, to voluntarily regulate the flow of spontaneous mentation."
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POPSBirds do it, Bees do it, but humans don't! Of course, we should teach our teenage children good judgement, if that is at all possible when it comes to the powerful instinctual urges belonging to all life, the drive to BEGET. Try telling a teeny bobber about love and responsibility. They'll look at you, the same way you look at a dog chasing its tail, bewilderment of such a stupidity lag. But, for most parents, the teen "eye roll" just slides off their back, down to the floor where it can be easily stepped on. But all sarcasm aside, teaching this program alone is not just block-headed, its outrageously dangerous. By not equipping our young with knowledge on self preservation, we neglect the most basic fact of life, the instinctive teachings of fundamental survival techniques. Go and watch some wild life with their young and you will see such training. Birds do it, Bees do it, even Monkeys in the trees do it. Also on http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com
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POPSStudy: Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind Zen meditation discourages mental withdrawal from the world and dreaminess, and instead asks one to keep fully aware with a vigilant attitude. Typically one focuses on breathing and posture and aims to dismiss thoughts as they arise. Brain scans now show that Zen training leads to different activity in a set of brain regions known as the "default network," which is linked with spontaneous bursts of thought and wandering minds.
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POPSScientists to study synthetic telepathy “Such a system would require extensive training for anyone using it to send and receive messages,” D’Zmura says. “Initially, communication would be based on a limited set of words or phrases that are recognized by the system; it would involve more complex language and speech as the technology is developed further.”
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POPSScientists to study synthetic telepathy The brain-computer interface would use a noninvasive brain imaging technology like electroencephalography to let people communicate thoughts to each other. For example, a soldier would “think” a message to be transmitted and a computer-based speech recognition system would decode the EEG signals. The decoded thoughts, in essence translated brain waves, are transmitted using a system that points in the direction of the intended target. “Such a system would require extensive training for anyone using it to send and receive messages,” D’Zmura says. “Initially, communication would be based on a limited set of words or phrases that are recognized by the system; it would involve more complex language and speech as the technology is developed further.”
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POPSHow many words do dogs understand? For other dog owners, we all know soon we have to say W for walk or C for cookie and so on. This must be done only because they learn words fast. As with the examples above, I would obviously say the 'fast part' is associated with positive things...they're not dumb! For the complete article: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/dogs-understand-words.htm
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POPSInternet Business Ideas A detailed description of how online direct sales programs work, along with some things you should look out for to avoid disappointment
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POPSVA: PTSD and TBI "Overblown"; Like "Football" Injuries VA secretary Peake suggested some of the concern about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury has been overblown. Many of the brain injuries are serious but some of them are akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered, Peake told Guinn. Guinn wasn't entirely satisfied with the answers. He said it's a real issue for returning soldiers as well as their families, and he doesn't think job training is enough. Frankly, Peake's casually dismissive attitude sucks. Being hunted by other humans every day for 15 months, watching your friend bleed to death, and having your brain flattened like a pancake from a thousand-pound detonation are not comparable to football injuries.
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POPSCognitive Fun -- Improve Fluid Intelligence Some examples of a computer based brain-training method designed to improve working memory, which as has been reported recently by a Swiss-American team, also increases scores in "fluid intelligence", or general problem-solving ability.