New research has identified a brain circuit that is key to shifting attention from one object to another. The researchers found that there is object-based attention and spatial attention, each of which is centered in different parts of the brain. The prefrontal cortex (“inferior frontal junction (IFJ), which controls visual processing areas that are tuned … Read more
A little over a week ago, I posted the first section of an article I am writing on the topic of Big Neuro and how it has taken over nearly all of the Federal research dollars in psychology. Based on that, you all know how I feel about the topic. This brief overview of the … Read more
In 2009 researchers at Simon Fraser University discovered a system in the brain that helps us ignore irrelevant information – “the specific neural index of suppression“. Now their research suggests that the problem in disorders such as ADHD is that the “filter” or “anti-distraction system” is not functioning optimally due to either environmental factors (my … Read more
Here is a summary of some of the research presented at the 2014 Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting. Daisy Yuhas at Scientific American Observations blog does the summarizing. Brains in Boston: Weekend Recap of Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s Annual Meeting By Daisy Yuhas | April 8, 2014 Greetings from Boston where the 21st annual meeting of … Read more
Below is a research update from Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle (funded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen) on some of their work in President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). This article comes from The Independent (UK). Mysteries of the human brain revealed as scientists release detailed 3D image of … Read more
As my regular readers well know, I don’t think we will ever have human-like robots who can interact with us as though they are not machines. This article from Nautilus presents recent advances in what is known as subsymbolic approaches to AI, “Trying to get computers to behave intelligently without worrying about whether the code … Read more
This is a brief but cool little article from Rick Hanson’s blog – and this may be preaching to the choir, but it felt worth sharing. The Effect of Relationships on the Evolution of the Brain posted on: April 10th, 2014 Your brain is the product of 3.5 billion years of intense evolutionary pressure, including … Read more
Back in the 1980s, a physicist, Per Bak, proposed that the human mind may operate on some of the same principle as a sand pile – avalanches of various sizes help keep the entire system stable overall, a process Bak named “self-organized criticality.” More precisely, “the brain’s ordered complexity and thinking ability arise spontaneously from … Read more
Our ability to image the brain is becoming quite extraordinary. How we use those images and the agenda of which they are a piece are, however, somewhat concerning. It’s wonderful to see how the brain can go wrong in development, but it’s FAR more important to understand WHY the brain goes wrong – and the … Read more
Interesting research. The definitive book on this topic remains Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, although his system I and system II distinction is slightly different than what is being discussed here. The current study is looking at developmental learning skills, but it too is distinguishing between explicit (more conscious) and implicit learning (less … Read more