Brain Structure Mirrors the Universe

ONE IS ONLY micrometers wide. The other is billions of light-years across. One shows neurons in a mouse brain. The other is a simulated image of the universe. Mark Miller, a doctoral student at Brandeis University, is researching how particular types of neurons in the brain are connected to one another. An international group of astrophysicists used a computer simulation last year to recreate how the universe grew and evolved. What struck me about this is not the similarity between neuron and universe, though it’s striking — rather it’s the continuity of parallels one finds whenever one looks into the structures of nature. From Hermetics to the Tao of Physics — A Universe of Parallels “As above, so below,” goes the Hermetic belief — “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing”. “I had several discussions with Heisenberg. Subjective and Objective, Physiology and Veda

Study showing that humans have some psychic powers caps Daryl Bem's career It took eight years and nine experiments with more 1,000 participants, but the results offer evidence that humans have some ability to anticipate the future. "Of the various forms of ESP or psi, as we call it, precognition has always most intrigued me because it's the most magical," said Daryl Bem, professor of psychology emeritus, whose study will be published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology sometime next year. "It most violates our notion of how the physical world works. The phenomena of modern quantum physics are just as mind-boggling, but they are so technical that most non-physicists don't know about them," said Bem, who studied physics before becoming a psychologist. Publishing on this topic has gladdened the hearts of psi researchers but stumped doubting social psychologists, who cannot fault Bem's mainstream and widely accepted methodology. All but one of the nine experiments confirmed the hypothesis that psi exists.

World's most detailed scans will reveal how brain works 5 March 2013Last updated at 13:27 ET By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News Continue reading the main story Daydream Believer: an MRI scan of the brain at rest. Regions in yellow are strongly linked to the area indicated by the blue spot. A Little Bit Me: composite of the scans of 20 individuals. Regions in yellow and red are linked to the parietal lobe of the brain's right hemisphere. A Little Bit You: A comparison of an individual MRI (left) with an average composite from 12 subjects (right). Listen To The Band: yellow and red regions are activated by a task involving listening to stories, whereas green and blue regions are more strongly activated by a task involving arithmetic calculations. It's Nice To Be With You: yellow and red areas are involved in processing social interactions. I Wanna Be Free: a map of the brain's protective sheath, called myelin. Shades Of Grey: brain activations in the brain's grey matter. Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Brain Structures and Their Functions The nervous system is your body's decision and communication center. The central nervous system (CNS) is made of the brain and the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is made of nerves. Together they control every part of your daily life, from breathing and blinking to helping you memorize facts for a test. Nerves reach from your brain to your face, ears, eyes, nose, and spinal cord... and from the spinal cord to the rest of your body. Sensory nerves gather information from the environment, send that info to the spinal cord, which then speed the message to the brain. The brain then makes sense of that message and fires off a response. The brain is made of three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. The Cerebrum: The cerebrum or cortex is the largest part of the human brain, associated with higher brain function such as thought and action. What do each of these lobes do? Note that the cerebral cortex is highly wrinkled.

Negative Thinking A CEO calls her staff into the conference room on the eve of the launch of a major new initiative. They file in and take their seats around the table. She calls the meeting to attention and begins, “I have bad news. The project has failed spectacularly. What went wrong?” The team is perplexed: What?! I know it seems strange and maybe even counterproductive to demand that employees think negatively instead of optimistically, but in business circles today, everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies and the Harvard Business Review are doing this exact exercise. The technique that the CEO above was using was designed by psychologist Gary Klein. Stocklite/Shutterstock In fact, I think more companies need a Chief Dissent Officer, someone to shoot down the bad ideas that our blind spots and naive optimism too often obscure. The practice goes back much further than just psychology though. A writer like Seneca would begin by reviewing or rehearsing his plans, say, to take a trip.