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POPSSwitching it up: How memory deals with a change in plans The answer is "both," according to researchers at The Johns Hopkins University, who have learned that two different areas of the brain are responsible for the way human beings handle complex sets of "if-then" rules. "This discovery may eventually lead to enhanced understanding of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, all conditions in which a person's ability to remember and change such rules is impaired," "This indicates that different parts of our brains store different kinds of memories and information," Courtney said. That, she said, "provides clues about how the human brain accomplishes complex, goal-directed behaviors that require remembering and changing abstract rules, an ability that is disrupted in many mental illnesses."
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POPSAwesome Innovations from the Underdeveloped Male Mind Hesh says that “the curtain may contain appropriately placed openings to allow for communication by or to the user”, which will allow for interaction like this: Man without Portable Rain Covering: “Dude, that’s really a sweet little device you’ve got there.” Man wearing Portable Rain Covering: “Thanks. I’ve had it for about a month now and I …..” Man without Portable Rain Covering: “Dude, that was sarcasm.”
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POPSBig-brained Animals Evolve Faster a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that animals with larger brains, relative to their body size, have more developed skills for changing their behavior through learning and innovation, facilitating the invasion of novel environments and the use of novel resources. Despite the progress, the role of the brain in the adaptive diversification of animals has remained controversial, mostly due to the difficulties to demonstrate that big-brained animals evolve faster. Now, ecologist Daniel Sol of CREAF-Autonomous University of Barcelona and evolutionary biologist Trevor Price of the University of Chicago, provide evidence for such a role in birds in an article in The American Naturalist. Analyzing body size measures of 7,209 species (representing 75% of all avian species), they found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size.
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POPSCooking and Cognition: How Humans Got So Smart We started innovating. We tried different materials, such as bone, and invented many new tools, including needles for beadwork. Responding to, presumably, our first abstract thoughts, we started creating art and maybe even religion. To understand what caused the cognitive spurt, Khaitovich and colleagues examined chemical brain processes known to have changed in the past 200,000 years. Comparing apes and humans, they found the most robust differences were for processes involved in energy metabolism. The finding suggests that increased access to calories spurred our cognitive advances, said Khaitovich, carefully adding that definitive claims of causation are premature. The research is detailed in the August 2008 issue of Genome Biology.
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POPSIntelligence and Empathy He stresses that the human mind does not qualify as a completely ‘General Intelligence’ but lies somewhere on the spectrum between AGI on one end and ‘Narrow AI’ on the other. This is one of several reasons why he does not expect AGI to be achieved by mimicking the workings of the human brain. He describes how our brains fool us into believing that we understand our actions and decisions when we don’t. And why modeling an AI too closely on the human brain might make it too, vulnerable to false notions. He also says, ‘I think virtual worlds are going to be absolutely critical to the development of Artificial General Intelligence.’ As well as ‘Right now connecting AI’s to virtual worlds is probably the best way to get an AI to have a general human-like embodied experience.’
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POPSCultural Neuroscience I do believe this attention to culture as every bit as important as brain activity, indeed inseparable from it, is crucial for the way we think about thinkinfg and how we think we think we are.
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POPSTucson Dog Severely Sunburned I honestly wonder where some people park their brains, poor baby. Bobcat is on pain medication and antibiotics while his skin recovers.
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POPSNeurogenesis and Brain Plasticity in Adult Brains Elkhonon Goldberg, neuroscientist and co-founder of SharpBrains, discussing Brain Plasticity and Cognitive Fitness, pointed out that “as we age, our expert knowledge remains strong, and our capacity for solving problems within our areas of expertise can often exceed that of those who are younger.” He further employed us to “turn neuroplasticity to your advantage” by: • welcoming novel challenges • beware of being on mental autopilot • remain cognitively active
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POPS20 Tips for Success - Kimmons Wilson 13. No job is too hard as long as you are smart enough to find someone else to do it for you. 14. Opportunity comes often. It knocks as often as you have an ear trained to heat it, an eye trained to see it, a hand trained to grasp it, and a head trained to use it. 15. You cannot procrastinate-in two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. 16. Sell your wristwatch and buy an alarm clock. 17. A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts himself because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch. 18. Do not worry. You can't change the past, but you sure can ruin the present by worrying aver the future. Remember that half the things we worry about never happen, and the other half are going to happen anyway. So, why worry? 19. It is not how much you have but how much you enjoy that makes happiness. 20. Believe in God and obey the Ten Commandments.
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POPSHow your inner athlete makes you smarter
also from article: Even when we are sitting or lying down, our bodies send our brains regular updates about how our limbs are positioned. When we, say, stand and begin walking, these electric messages need to be sent more often. (Knee is bent, straight, bent, straight ...) Move fast enough and the electrical activity doesn't have time to dissipate between each message. It begins building up in the brain and eventually triggers a release of chemicals called growth factors. Growth factors are like manna for neurons. "They make neurons stronger, healthier and improve their ability to learn," Cotman said. In the presence of growth factors, new neurons are born and old ones sprout, grow and form better connections with each other. Blood vessels blossom along side the neurons, giving them quick access to glucose and other nutrients. All this, in turn, improves our ability to think, learn and remember. As Cotman said, exercise "builds the pipes" for improved cognition.
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POPSOffshore Web Development Company HiddenBrains has established source for excellence in Web development services for a number of industries, offering custom and project based services.
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POPSThe science of love Studies show that when you first fall in love, serotonin levels plummet and the brain's reward centres are flooded with dopamine. This gives a high similar to an addictive drug,
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