functional magnetic resonance imaging

Five thoughts to think about when thinking about the speed of thought

by

As inquis­i­tive beings, we are con­stant­ly ques­tion­ing and quan­ti­fy­ing the speed of var­i­ous things. With a fair degree of accu­ra­cy, sci­en­tists have quan­ti­fied the speed of light, the speed of sound, the speed at which the earth revolves around the sun, the speed at which hum­ming­birds beat their wings, the aver­age speed of con­ti­nen­tal drift….

These val­ues are all well-char­ac­ter­ized. But what about the speed of thought? It’s a chal­leng­ing ques­tion that’s not eas­i­ly answer­able – but we can give it a shot. [Read more…] about Five thoughts to think about when think­ing about the speed of thought

Flexibility is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how scientists can reach different conclusions analyzing the same brain scans

by

Neu­roimag­ing: Many Ana­lysts, Dif­fer­ing Results (Dana Foundation):

For decades, both the research and med­ical com­mu­ni­ties have relied on neu­roimag­ing tools like func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fMRI) to give them a win­dow into the liv­ing human brain. Such scans have pro­vid­ed unprece­dent­ed insights into the brain’s struc­ture and func­tion – and the field, as a whole, has used this tech­nique to bet­ter under­stand how the brain gives rise to thoughts, emo­tions, and actions. But as neu­roimag­ing tech­nol­o­gy has advanced, so have the dif­fer­ent analy­sis tools and the num­ber of ways one can eval­u­ate the result­ing data. Now, the results of unique research project, the Neu­roimag­ing Analy­sis, Repli­ca­tion, and Pre­dic­tion Study (NARPS), sug­gest that dif­fer­ent analy­ses can lead to strik­ing­ly dif­fer­ent results from the same data set.

[Read more…] about Flex­i­bil­i­ty is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how sci­en­tists can reach dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions ana­lyz­ing the same brain scans

Machine-learning study finds EEG brain signatures that predict response to antidepressant treatments

by

–

Brain-wave pat­tern can iden­ti­fy peo­ple like­ly to respond to anti­de­pres­sant, study finds (Stan­ford Med­i­cine press release):

“A new method of inter­pret­ing brain activ­i­ty could poten­tial­ly be used in clin­ics to help deter­mine the best treat­ment options for depres­sion, accord­ing to a study led by researchers at the Stan­ford School of Medicine.

Stan­ford researchers and their col­lab­o­ra­tors used elec­troen­cephalog­ra­phy, a tool for mon­i­tor­ing elec­tri­cal activ­i­ty in the brain, and an algo­rithm to iden­ti­fy a brain-wave sig­na­ture in [Read more…] about Machine-learn­ing study finds EEG brain sig­na­tures that pre­dict response to anti­de­pres­sant treatments

Neuroimaging study finds extensive brain rewiring–in just six months–among illiterate adults learning to read and write

by

—

Learn­ing to read and write rewires adult brain in six months (New Scientist):

“Learn­ing to read can have pro­found effects on the wiring of the adult brain – even in regions that aren’t usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with read­ing and writing.

That’s what Michael Skei­de of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Human Cog­ni­tive and Brain Sci­ences in Leipzig, Ger­many, and his col­leagues found when they taught a group of illit­er­ate adults in rur­al India to read and write [Read more…] about Neu­roimag­ing study finds exten­sive brain rewiring–in just six months–among illit­er­ate adults learn­ing to read and write

Study: Harnessing fMRI neurofeedback to enhance attention and cognitive potential

by

fMRI_neurofeedback

.

Real-time brain feed­back reduces atten­tion laps­es (News at Princeton):

“In an arti­cle pub­lished online Mon­day by the jour­nal Nature Neu­ro­science, researchers at Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty describe a study that shows train­ing peo­ple using real-time feed­back from their own brain activ­i­ty can reduce the fre­quen­cy of atten­tion laps­es and improve their abil­i­ty to sus­tain atten­tion. [Read more…] about Study: Har­ness­ing fMRI neu­ro­feed­back to enhance atten­tion and cog­ni­tive potential