India

What’s normal? When it comes to the brain, it’s hard to say, and that’s why we need to study global neurodiversity

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In a small vil­lage in India—a place so remote it has no elec­tric­i­ty, no telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem, and no cars or buses—a research work­er pre­pares to place an EEG head­set on a female villager’s head. The woman, who earns $3.75 a day labor­ing in a near­by rice pad­dy and who has nev­er ven­tured out­side her vil­lage, eyes the futur­is­tic device with trepidation.

“Is it going to hurt my head?” she asks.

Sathish, the research work­er, has heard this ques­tion before. In fact, he’s heard sev­er­al sim­i­lar queries from anx­ious vil­lagers who have got­ten scared when they saw the brainwear.

“Will it give me a headache?”

“Is it going to give me an elec­tric shock?”

He assures the woman the head­set is pain­less and explains that all she has to do is sit qui­et­ly and allow her mind to wan­der. Sathish gen­tly adjusts an array of elec­trodes on the woman’s head and [Read more…] about What’s nor­mal? When it comes to the brain, it’s hard to say, and that’s why we need to study glob­al neurodiversity

One in eight children in India aged 2–9 may have neurodevelopmental disorders

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1 in 8 kids in 2–9 age group may have devel­op­men­tal deficits  (Times of India):

“Almost one in eight Indi­an chil­dren aged two to nine may have at least one neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­der, states a study pub­lished in PLOS Med­i­cine jour­nal on Wednesday.

Neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­ders include a wide range of issues rang­ing from visu­al and hear­ing impair­ment to autism and learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties. [Read more…] about One in eight chil­dren in India aged 2–9 may have neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal disorders

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

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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: Is modernity leading to a growing Cognitive Divide?

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Sub­ject dur­ing EEG study. Cour­tesy of Sapi­ens Labs

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Has Mod­ern Expe­ri­ence Changed The Human Brain? (NPR):

“The brain has evolved over evo­lu­tion­ary time scales of mil­lions of years. So, what is the like­li­hood that the rel­a­tive­ly recent advent of read­ing and writ­ing, or motor­ized trans­port, or the Inter­net, could have changed our brains? [Read more…] about Study: Is moder­ni­ty lead­ing to a grow­ing Cog­ni­tive Divide?