The art and science of whispering - Radiotonic Autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR, is the name of both the tingling sensation we feel when listening to whispering and other high frequency noises and the online community devoted to it. Belinda Lopez enters a world of whispers and scientific curiosity. You play a video on YouTube. An attractive woman whispers to you and waves a make-up brush against the screen— ‘I'm touching your skin just very, very, very gently,’ she says, her lips moving almost imperceptibly. If you’re not yet experiencing subtle tingles all over your body and if your head isn’t yet enveloped in a cloud of relaxation, then perhaps you don’t experience autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR... yet. When people are traumatised, their bodies literally tune to detect a predator, and they have difficulties processing human speech. ASMR is both the name given to the experience, and the large online community that believes ‘the tingles’ they feel should be taken seriously. A question of science
The Top 10 Psychology Studies of 2010 The end of 2010 fast approaches, and I'm thrilled to have been asked by the editors of Psychology Today to write about the Top 10 psychology studies of the year. I've focused on studies that I personally feel stand out, not only as examples of great science, but even more importantly, as examples of how the science of psychology can improve our lives. Each study has a clear "take home" message, offering the reader an insight or a simple strategy they can use to reach their goals , strengthen their relationships, make better decisions, or become happier. If you extract the wisdom from these ten studies and apply them in your own life, 2011 just might be a very good year. 1) How to Break Bad Habits If you are trying to stop smoking , swearing, or chewing your nails, you have probably tried the strategy of distracting yourself - taking your mind off whatever it is you are trying not to do - to break the habit. J. 2) How to Make Everything Seem Easier J. 3) How To Manage Your Time Better M. J.
Boost Your Brain’s Power With a 9-Volt Battery and Some Wet Sponges It seems, with the help of a 9-volt battery, wire, crocodile clips, and wet sponges, you can increase your brain’s performance and, more importantly, return your brain to its younger, more malleable and learning-receptive state. The technique, which is lumbered with the fantastic and slightly terrifying name of transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), is similar to deep brain stimulation (DBS), but it doesn’t involve complex neurosurgery. TCDS runs a very small current — just 2 milliamps — into brain tissue just beneath your scalp; it’s non-invasive, and seemingly quite safe. By pumping electrons into the brain, neurons move a few millivolts towards ‘depolarization’, which makes them more sensitive, and thus reducing the time it takes signals to travel across your nervous system. More importantly, though, this technique increases the plasticity of brain tissue, leaving it in a kind of ‘wet clay’ state after the electrical current has been removed. Read more at Nature
Photographer Uses Brain Waves To Reveal What People Really Want To Look Like They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what happens when that beholder is your own subconscious? Photographer Scott Chasserot put that to the test with his project, "Original Ideal." "What do we find instinctively beautiful in the human face, and how does this translate to self-image?" he asks on the project's website. To find out, Chasserot asked people to pose for a simple, unadorned headshot in his studio. Chasserot then presented both the original and altered images to his subjects, while recording their immediate neuroelectric responses with an EEG headset able to detect and translate brainwaves. Check out what people apparently thought was their "ideal self" below; the original photos are one the left, and the version of their face that provoked the most positive response is on the right.
Why Did Our Brains Stop Expanding? Tony Wright will be joining host Dennis McKenna for the live, interactive video course, "What Plants Can Teach You: Consciousness and Intelligence in Nature." A new paradigm is emerging that recasts how we relate to and understand nature, supported by new scientific evidence. Plants instruct us through their behavior, through their interdependence with the environment, and through direct transmissions conveyed by spirit. Along with Tony and Dennis, the course gathers some of the leading experts in the emerging field of plant intelligence, including: Chris Kilham, Stephen Harrod Buhner, Dayna Baumeister, and Simon G. Powell. This 5-part Evolver webinar starts on June 17. The following is excerpted from Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness by Tony Wright and Graham Gynn, recently published by Inner Traditions. In the forest the human brain was expanding and expanding at a phenomenal rate. Ancestral Diets
What Happens to the Brain During Spiritual Experiences? - Lynne Blumberg The field of neurotheology uses science to try to understand religion, and vice versa. A devotee in a state of trance is calmed by volunteers at a Buddhist temple in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters) “Everyone philosophizes,” writes neuroscientist Dr. Since everyday and spiritual concerns are variations of the same thinking processes, Newberg thinks it’s essential to examine how people experience spirituality in order to fully understand how their brains work. Newberg is a pioneer in the field of neurotheology, the neurological study of religious and spiritual experiences. Since then, he’s looked at around 150 brain scans, including those of Buddhists, nuns, atheists, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and Brazilian mediums practicing psychography—the channeling of messages from the dead through handwriting). As to what’s going on in their brains, Newberg says, “It depends to some degree on what the practice is.” "It's a little overwhelming.
Wearable for state-of-mind shift set for 2015 How will neuroscience impact daily life? A more topical question might be, how will neuroscience play a role in the business of electronic-device vendors of headsets and other wearables? One entry to this niche is Thync, which is in the business of neurosignaling products. Their technology is about proprietary neurosignaling waveforms that target neural pathways via a triad: BRAIN: prefrontal and frontoparietal brain regions; NERVES: sensory fibers of cranial nerves; and MUSCLE: neuromuscular fibers, according to their site. As for the energizing effect, Bullis said the "short-lived" energizing effect "feels a little like drinking a can of Red Bull." Kelly said that "one of the primary technologies Thync is based on is transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, which uses a weak electrical current to change the sensitivity of neurons in the brain. When will this product be available?. More information: www.thync.com/about
Thync Alien Abduction or “Accidental Awareness”? “So then they roll me over on my back, and the examiner has a long needle in his hand. And I see the needle. And it’s bigger than any needle that I’ve ever seen.” So testifies Betty Hill, of her experience inside a flying saucer near Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, in 1961. Betty and her husband, Barney Hill, are the earliest known victims of alien abduction, and the 1966 bestseller The Interrupted Journey describes how they recalled the event under hypnosis. But in 2008 a Columbia University psychoanalyst published “Alien Abduction: A Medical Hypothesis” which suggested that what is known as “accidental awareness under general anesthesia”—in which a patient awakens on the table during surgery—might lie behind stories of alien abduction. While in a hypnotic trance, Barney Hill told his psychiatrist, “I don’t want to be operated on.” One awareness patient describes a flashback: “It struck again days later as horrifying images and terror that rose from the depths of my being.
Pedophiles' Brains Show Abnormal Reaction to Kids' Faces The brain circuits that respond to faces and sex appear to activate abnormally in pedophiles when they look at children's faces, scientists say. These new findings could lead to novel ways to diagnose pedophiles, and could shed light on the evolutionary roots of sex, the researchers added. In the animal kingdom, there may be a number of mechanisms preventing adults from attempting sex with children. Roots of a pedophile To learn more about the roots of abnormal attraction to children in humans, the researchers scanned the brains of 56 men — 11 heterosexual pedophiles, 13 homosexual pedophiles, 18 nonpedophile heterosexuals and 14 nonpedophile homosexuals — using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The institute where Ponseti and his colleagues work offers pedophilic men free and totally anonymous psychiatric treatment. In the men who were attracted to adults, images of adult faces activated a number of brain regions significantly more than child faces did. Testing pedophilia