synapses

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

The NeuroGeneration and Humankind’s Quest to Enhance the Brain

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Some peo­ple may be uneasy with the idea of “brain enhance­ment,” but the quest to boost our brain­pow­er is noth­ing new; it is an essen­tial part of human nature. Ever since Homo sapi­ens emerged near­ly 200,000 years ago, we have been search­ing for ways to upgrade the hard­ware and wet­ware in our heads, and we’ve been cre­at­ing and using tools to help us do it—physical and cog­ni­tive tools that help us solve prob­lems and com­plete tasks more effi­cient­ly, tools that extend our nat­ur­al abil­i­ties and allow us to do things that weren’t pos­si­ble before. Lan­guage, num­bers, sci­ence, education—these are all tools we’ve devel­oped to improve our men­tal capacities.

Our most pow­er­ful tool for nav­i­gat­ing the ever-chang­ing world, how­ev­er, is the brain itself. [Read more…] about The Neu­ro­Gen­er­a­tion and Humankind’s Quest to Enhance the Brain

What Everyone Should Know About Stress, Brain Health, and Dance

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-- Dancing to the clapping of bands. Egyptian, from the tomb of Ur-ari-en-Ptah, about 3300 B.C. (British Museum.)
– Danc­ing to the clap­ping of bands. Egypt­ian, from the tomb of Ur-ari-en-Ptah, 6th Dynasty, about 3300 B.C. (British Museum)

Every­one expe­ri­ences stress at some point in our lives. It is impor­tant to know that stress can harm the brain, and also that dance can be a great avenue for a per­son resist, reduce, or escape it.

Stress can change the phys­i­cal struc­ture and func­tion of the brain, affect­ing wiring and thus per­for­mance of one’s activ­i­ties. [Read more…] about What Every­one Should Know About Stress, Brain Health, and Dance

What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity, Learning and Dance

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dance
— The Dance for Ath­letes class at Glen Burnie High School per­forms a swing piece

Dance. Is it mere­ly art?  Is it just recre­ation?  Think again.

Dance is now being stud­ied as a path­way to enhance learn­ing.  And, sci­en­tists say, edu­ca­tors and par­ents should take note of the movement.

Recent­ly at the annu­al meet­ing of the Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science annu­al meet­ing, more than 6,800 atten­dees paid rapt atten­tion to renowned chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Mark Mor­ris as he answered ques­tions about [Read more…] about What Edu­ca­tors and Par­ents Should Know About Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Learn­ing and Dance

To Harness Neuroplasticity, Start with Enthusiasm

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We are the archi­tects and builders of our own brains.

For mil­len­nia, how­ev­er, we were obliv­i­ous to our enor­mous cre­ative capa­bil­i­ties. We had no idea that our brains were chang­ing in response to our actions and atti­tudes, every day of our lives. So we uncon­scious­ly and ran­dom­ly shaped our brains and our lat­ter years because we believed we had an immutable brain that was at the mer­cy of our genes.

Noth­ing could be fur­ther from the truth. [Read more…] about To Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Start with Enthusiasm

Brain Training for Babies: Hope, Hype, Both?

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Train­ing the brain is pos­si­ble because of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty. Our dai­ly expe­ri­ences can trig­ger neu­ro­plas­tic changes in the brain, such as the growth of new brain cells (neu­rons) and new con­nec­tions (synaps­es) between neu­rons. Plas­tic­i­ty is observed at all ages but is at its peak dur­ing brain devel­op­ment, as a baby and then a child learns basic knowl­edge and skills nec­es­sary to sur­vive. We should thus expect that the brain of a baby could be eas­i­ly trained. This is what Wass and his col­leagues recent­ly demon­strat­ed in a new study with 11-month-old babies. [Read more…] about Brain Train­ing for Babies: Hope, Hype, Both?