111 replies to this topic

[Lazarus Long]

For those that don't want to read the entire article let me spell out a critical factor with respect to memory; If the results of this study are confirmed and hold up, the basis of Cryogenic suspension of such things as just your head are irrelevant unless your brain were also *mapped* prior and then reassembled to exactly the same *pathways* since the biological encryption system the brain depends on is likely to be both a chemical and spatial matrix that might even use a third related protein to establish a form of *competitive* priority in order to determine the ordinal sequence of accessing. This *prioritization may also relate to numerous factors, chronology only be one of them, significance could be another, like trauma, habit etc.

Does his spell out the dilemma better?

Accessing, interfacing consciousness, copy/pasting (uploading) and reassembling might require an incredibly large and remarkable level of detail with respect to multiple aspects of the brains' neural physiology in order to represent any significant fidelity and this would also influence greatly what is involved for the decant process for cryo.

[Lazarus Long]

Here is another study implying that not only have we possibly been practicing passive eugenics upon ourselves for a considerable time but that we have been intensively selecting for intelligence.

Human brain result of 'extraordinarily fast' evolution
Emergence of society may have spurred growth

Alok Jha, science correspondent
Wednesday December 29, 2004
The Guardian

The sophistication of the human brain is not simply the result of steady evolution, according to new research. Instead, humans are truly privileged animals with brains that have developed in a type of extraordinarily fast evolution that is unique to the species.

"Simply put, evolution has been working very hard to produce us humans," said Bruce Lahn, an assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

"Our study offers the first genetic evidence that humans occupy a unique position in the tree of life."

Professor Lahn's research, published this week in the journal Cell, suggests that humans evolved their cognitive abilities not owing to a few sporadic and accidental genetic mutations - as is the usual way with traits in living things - but rather from an enormous number of mutations in a short period of time, acquired though an intense selection process favouring complex cognitive abilities.

Evolutionary biologists generally argue that humans have evolved in much the same way as all other life on Earth. Mutations in genes from one generation to the next sometimes give rise to new adaptations to a creature's environment. Those best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation.

The evolution of a large brain in humans, then, can be seen as similar to the process that leads to longer tusks or bigger antlers. In general terms, and after scaling for body size, brains get bigger and more complex as animals get bigger.

But with humans, the relative size of the brain does not fit the trend - our brains are disproportionately big, much bigger even than the brains of other non-human primates, including our closest relatives, chimpanzees.

Prof Lahn's team examined the DNA of 214 genes involved in brain development in humans, macaques, rats and mice. By comparing mutations that had no effect on the function of the genes with those mutations that did, they came up with a measure of the pressure of natural selection on those genes.

The scientists found that the human brain's genes had gone through an intense amount of evolution in a short amount of time - a process that far outstripped the evolution of the genes of other animals.

"We've proven that there is a big distinction," Prof Lahn said. "Human evolution is, in fact, a privileged process because it involves a large number of mutations in a large number of genes.

"To accomplish so much in so little evolutionary time - a few tens of millions of years - requires a selective process that is perhaps categorically different from the typical processes of acquiring new biological traits."

As for how all of this happened, the professor suggests that the development of human society may be the reason. In an increasingly social environment, greater cognitive abilities probably became more of an advantage.

"As humans become more social, differences in intelligence will translate into much greater differences in fitness, because you can manipulate your social structure to your advantage," he said.

"Even devoid of the social context, as humans become more intelligent, it might create a situation where being a little smarter matters a lot.

"The making of the large human brain is not just the neurological equivalent of making a large antler. Rather, it required a level of selection that's unprecedented."


http://www.guardian....1380427,00.html

http://www.cell.com/...092867404011432

Copyright © 2004 Cell Press.
Cell, Vol 119, 1027-1040, 29 December 2004

Accelerated Evolution of Nervous System Genes in the Origin of Homo sapiensSteve Dorus,1,2,4 Eric J. Vallender,1,2,4 Patrick D. Evans,1,2 Jeffrey R. Anderson,1 Sandra L. Gilbert,1 Michael Mahowald,1 Gerald J. Wyckoff,1,5 Christine M. Malcom,1,3 and Bruce T. Lahn1

1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
2Committee on Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
3Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA 
Correspondence:
Bruce T. Lahn
773-834-4393 (phone)
773-834-8470 (fax)
blahn@bsd.uchicago.edu


Human evolution is characterized by a dramatic increase in brain size and complexity. To probe its genetic basis, we examined the evolution of genes involved in diverse aspects of nervous system biology. We found that these genes display significantly higher rates of protein evolution in primates than in rodents. Importantly, this trend is most pronounced for the subset of genes implicated in nervous system development. Moreover, within primates, the acceleration of protein evolution is most prominent in the lineage leading from ancestral primates to humans. Thus, the remarkable phenotypic evolution of the human nervous system has a salient molecular correlate, i.e., accelerated evolution of the underlying genes, particularly those linked to nervous system development. In addition to uncovering broad evolutionary trends, our study also identified many candidate genes—most of which are implicated in regulating brain size and behavior—that might have played important roles in the evolution of the human brain.



Footnotes
4These authors contributed equally to this work.
5Present address: Division of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, 64108.

[olaf.larsson]

I have studied molecular biology for four years untill know I have learned almost nothing about genes that are brain specific. I would like some information about brain specific genes if you have some. Suppose you create a model in a computer of all protein and chemical interactions in the brain, have you then created a new artificial brain?? I guess so..

[Lazarus Long]

I will try and get back to you on that wolfram but anyone that wants to and has the data should please chime in.

However thanks for bringing this up because on the issue of brain function here is an interesting article with a reference from the Physical Review Letters. one interesting aspect that confirms your suspicion are the experiments involving neurons in a dish but how the entire neural net is wired up is also a product of DNA organization. The interesting this is that neural tissue is also using DNA as a part of its functional tissue and not merely as a latent template, or for cellular replication. In fact the issue of neuron replication is one that is being returned to by serious researchers.

 
http://www.livescien...n_internet.html
Study: Your Brain Works Like the Internet
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Senior Writer
posted: 04 January 2005
03:19 pm ET

Your brain functions a lot like the Internet or a network of friends, scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the activity in peoples' brains and how different regions connect. They conclude the human brain can be visualized as a complex interacting network that relies on nodes to efficiently convey information from place to place.

Very few jumps are necessary to connect any two nodes, the study found.

"This so-called 'small world' property allows for the most efficient connectivity," said Dante Chialvo, a physiologist at Northwestern University.

Other networks -- social and biochemical -- rely on the same principle.

The scientists measured the degree of correlation between activities in tens of thousands of brain regions. They found that many of the nodes had only a few connections, and a small number of nodes were connected to many others. These "super-connected" nodes act as hubs -- as with the Internet or your most gossipy friend -- getting the word out quickly and widely.

So maybe, the thinking goes, if you can figure out how the Internet works -- or why your gossipy friend succeeds -- then you can grasp your own mind.

Or, put more scientifically, these findings of basic principles of brain function suggest "that the underlying properties can be understood using the theoretical framework already advanced in the study of other, disparate, networks," Chialvo said. The research could help frame other studies of the brain's role in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and chronic pain, Chialvo and his colleagues say.

The results were detailed in the Dec. 31 online version of the journal Physical Review Letters.

http://scitation.aip...=cvips&gifs=Yes

Scale-Free Brain Functional Networks
Victor M. Eguíluz,1 Dante R. Chialvo,2 Guillermo A. Cecchi,3 Marwan Baliki,2 and A. Vania Apkarian2
1Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), E07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA
3IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Rd., Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA

(Received 13 January 2004; published 6 January 2005)

Functional magnetic resonance imaging is used to extract functional networks connecting correlated human brain sites. Analysis of the resulting networks in different tasks shows that (a) the distribution of functional connections, and the probability of finding a link versus distance are both scale-free, (b) the characteristic path length is small and comparable with those of equivalent random networks, and © the clustering coefficient is orders of magnitude larger than those of equivalent random networks. All these properties, typical of scale-free small-world networks, reflect important functional information about brain states. ©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/...PRL/v94/e018102
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018102
PACS: 87.18.Sn, 87.19.La, 89.75.Da, 89.75.Hc 

[Cyto]

Brain “avalanches” may help store memories



Meeting a friend you haven't seen in years brings on a sudden surge of pleasant memories. You might even call it an avalanche.

Recent studies suggest that avalanches in your brain could actually help you to store memories. Last year, scientists at the National Institutes of Health placed slices of rat brain tissue on a microelectrode array and found that the brain cells activated each other in cascades called "neuronal avalanches."

New computer models now suggest that these brain avalanches may be optimal for information storage. If so, certain neurochemical treatments might someday improve life for people with memory problems. A report of this work will be published Feb. 4 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

"When most people think of an avalanche, they imagine something huge," said biophysicist John Beggs, now a professor in the Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University Bloomington, who helped perform the NIH experiments. "But avalanches come in all sizes, and the smaller ones are most common. That's just what we found in the brain cells."

An avalanche roaring down a mountainside may seem to be wildly out of control, but actually it is governed by certain equations. These same equations also govern such seemingly unrelated events as forest fires and earthquakes -- as well as some neural activity in the brain, Beggs said. All are examples of phenomena that can be studied with the new science of complexity, which deals with all kinds of complex systems ranging from living cells to national economies.

Biocomplexity is a cross-disciplinary field involving physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and the life sciences. A description of the IU Biocomplexity Institute, headquartered in IU Bloomington's Department of Physics, is available at http://www.indiana.e...7/solving.shtml.

To find out the possible benefits of brain avalanches, Beggs and IU senior Clay Haldeman simulated the spreading activity of brain cells in a computer model. When the activity was tuned to mimic the avalanches seen in brain tissue, a large number of stable activity patterns appeared. Stable activity patterns are thought to be important for memory, since they have been recorded in the brains of monkeys and rats after they perform memory tasks, Beggs said.

"The fact that the most stable activity patterns appeared when the network of brain cells was also producing avalanches hints that the brain may actually use avalanches to store information," Beggs said.

"This work might ultimately help human memory," he explained. "If our computer simulations apply to networks of human brain cells, then it would be desirable to have your brain in a state where it naturally produces avalanches. In the laboratory, we can apply neurochemicals to defective networks of rat brain cells, gently easing them into a state where avalanches occur. These chemicals suggest treatments that might someday improve information storage in people with memory problems."

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

[Lazarus Long]

Here are a few studies that I think merit review.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Vol. 93, pp. 13500-13507, November 1996
Colloquium Paper

This paper was presented at a colloquium entitled "Memory: Recording Experience in Cells and Circuits," organized by Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic, held February 17-20, 1996, at the National Academy of Sciences in Irvine, CA.

Functional organization of the hippocampal memory system
(hippocampus / cerebral cortex / memory / olfaction / rats)

Howard Eichenbaum*, Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Brian Young, and Michael Bunsey§

* Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2575; Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270; Department of Psychology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand; and § Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44240

http://www.pnas.org/...selection

ABSTRACT

In humans declarative or explicit memory is supported by the hippocampus and related structures of the medial temporal lobe working in concert with the cerebral cortex. This paper reviews our progress in developing an animal model for studies of cortical-hippocampal interactions in memory processing. Our findings support the view that the cortex maintains various forms of memory representation and that hippocampal structures extend the persistence and mediate the organization of these codings. Specifically, the parahippocampal region, through direct and reciprocal interconnections with the cortex, is sufficient to support the convergence and extended persistence of cortical codings. The hippocampus itself is critical to the organization cortical representations in terms of relationships among items in memory and in the flexible memory expression that is the hallmark of declarative memory.

********************

Brain, Vol. 126, No. 1, 43-56, January 2003
© 2003 Guarantors of Brain
doi: 10.1093/brain/awg005

Neuroanatomical correlates of episodic encoding and retrieval in young and elderly subjects
S. M. Daselaar1, D. J. Veltman2, S. A. R. B. Rombouts3, J. G. W. Raaijmakers4 and C. Jonker1
1 Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, 2 Department of Psychiatry, 3 Department of Neurology/Alzheimer Center, ‘Vrije Universiteit’ Medical Center and 4 Department of Psychonomy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence to: S. M. Daselaar, Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, ‘Vrije Universiteit’ Medical Center, c/o Secr. EMGO Dept., vd Boechorstraat 7, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: sm.daselaar@vumc.nl

http://brain.oupjour...stract/126/1/43

Lesion studies have shown convincingly that the medial temporal lobes (MTL) and frontal lobes are critical to episodic memory. Ageing generally has been found to have a generally negative effect on episodic memory performance, which might relate to neurofunctional changes in the frontal and medial temporal brain regions. In the present study, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate separately the contributions of encoding and retrieval to the age-related decline in memory. To this end, we compared brain activity patterns obtained during incidental encoding (pleasant/unpleasant judgements about nouns) and subsequent retrieval (recognition) in three groups: a group of young subjects, a group of elderly subjects showing reduced memory performance (ELD-RED), and a group of elderly subjects who still performed in the normal range (ELD-NORM). This allowed us to differentiate between age-related changes in brain activity that affect memory function and those that do not have an apparent effect on memory function, because they are found in both elderly groups.

****************
(Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2005;17:84-96.)
© 2005 The MIT Press

Aging and the Neural Correlates of Successful Picture Encoding: Frontal Activations Compensate for Decreased Medial-Temporal Activity
Angela H. Gutchess and Robert C. Welsh
University of Michigan
Trey Hedden
Stanford University

Ashley Bangert, Meredith Minear and Linda L. Liu
University of Michigan
Denise C. Park
University of Illinois

We investigated the hypothesis that increased prefrontal activations in older adults are compensatory for decreases in medial-temporal activations that occur with age. Because scene encoding engages both hippocampal and prefrontal sites, we examined incidental encoding of scenes by 14 young and 13 older adults in a subsequent memory paradigm using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Behavioral results indicated that there were equivalent numbers of remembered and forgotten items, which did not vary as a function of age. In an fMRI analysis subtracting forgotten items from remembered items, younger and older adults both activated inferior frontal and lateral occipital regions bilaterally; however, older adults showed less activation than young adults in the left and right parahippocampus and more activation than young adults in the middle frontal cortex. Moreover, correlations between inferior frontal and parahippocampal activity were significantly negative for old but not young, suggesting that those older adults who showed the least engagement of the parahippocampus activated inferior frontal areas the most. Because the analyses included only the unique activations associated with remembered items, these data suggest that prefrontal regions could serve a compensatory role for declines in medial-temporal activations with age.
http://jocn.mitpress...bstract/17/1/84

[Lazarus Long]

This article probably belongs on this list as it relates to how the brain may be innately wired for sexuality but also how it get cross or rewired.


http://www.nytimes.c...ticle_popular_5

Gay Men Are Found to Have Different Scent of Attraction

By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: May 9, 2005
Using a brain imaging technique, Swedish researchers have shown that homosexual and heterosexual men respond differently to two odors that may be involved in sexual arousal, and that the gay men respond in the same way as women.

The new research may open the way to studying human pheromones, as well as the biological basis of sexual preference. Pheromones, chemicals emitted by one individual to evoke some behavior in another of the same species, are known to govern sexual activity in animals, but experts differ as to what role, if any, they play in making humans sexually attractive to one another.

The new research, which supports the existence of human pheromones, is reported in today's issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Ivanka Savic and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The two chemicals in the study were a testosterone derivative produced in men's sweat and an estrogen-like compound in women's urine, both of which have long been suspected of being pheromones.

Most odors cause specific smell-related regions of the human brain to light up when visualized by a form of brain imaging that tracks blood flow in the brain and therefore, by inference, sites where neurons are active. Several years ago, Dr. Savic and colleagues showed that the two chemicals activated the brain in a quite different way from ordinary scents.

The estrogen-like compound, though it activated the usual smell-related regions in women, lighted up the hypothalamus in men. This is a region in the central base of the brain that governs sexual behavior and, through its control of the pituitary gland lying just beneath it, the hormonal state of the body.

The male sweat chemical, on the other hand, did just the opposite; it activated mostly the hypothalamus in women and the smell-related regions in men. The two chemicals seemed to be leading a double life, playing the role of odor with one sex and of pheromone with another.

The Swedish researchers have now repeated the experiment but with the addition of gay men as a third group. The gay men responded to the two chemicals in the same way as did women, Dr. Savic reports, as if the hypothalamus's response is determined not by biological sex but by the owner's sexual orientation.

Dr. Savic said that she had also studied gay women, but that the data were "somewhat complicated" and not yet ready for publication.

The finding is similar to a report in 1991 by Dr. Simon LeVay that a small region of the hypothalamus is twice as large in straight men as in women or gay men. The brain scanning technique used by the Swedish researchers lacks the resolution to see the region studied by Dr. LeVay, which is a mere millimeter or so across. But both findings suggest that the hypothalamus is organized in a way related to sexual orientation.

The new finding, if confirmed, would break ground in two important directions, those of human pheromones and human sexuality.

Mice are known to influence each other's sexual behavior through emission of chemicals that act like hormones on the recipient's brain and so are known as pheromones. Hopes by the fragrance industry, among others, of finding human pheromones were dashed several years ago when it emerged that a tiny structure in the nose through which mice detect many pheromones, the vomeronasal organ, is largely inactive in humans, having lost its nervous connection with the brain.

Researchers interpreted that to mean that humans, as they evolved to rely on sight more than smell, had no need of the primitive cues that pass for sexual attractiveness in mice. But a role for human pheromones could not be ruled out, especially in light of findings that women living or working together tend to synchronize their menstrual cycles.

Some researchers see Dr. Savic's work as strong evidence in favor of human pheromones. "The question of whether human pheromones exist has been answered. They do," wrote the authors of a commentary in Neuron about Dr. Savic's report of 2001.

Dr. Catherine Dulac, a Harvard University biologist who studies pheromones in mice, said that if a chemical modified the function of the hypothalamus, that might be enough to regard it as a pheromone. She said the Swedish study was extremely interesting, even though "humans are a terrible experimental subject." She noted, however, that the researchers used a far higher dose of the armpit chemical than anyone would be exposed to in normal life.

If human pheromones do exist, Dr. Savic's approach may allow insights into how the brain is organized not just for sexual orientation but also for sexuality in general.

"The big question is not where homosexuality comes from, but where does sexuality come from," said Dr. Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health.

The different pattern of activity that Dr. Savic sees in the brains of gay men could be either a cause of their sexual orientation or an effect of it. If sexual orientation has a genetic cause, or is influenced by hormones in the womb or at puberty, then the neurons in the hypothalamus could wire themselves up in a way that permanently shapes which sex a person is attracted to.

Alternatively, Dr. Savic's finding could be just a consequence of straight and gay men's using their brain in different ways.

"We cannot tell if the different pattern is cause or effect," Dr. Savic said. "The study does not give any answer to these crucial questions."

But the technique might provide an answer, Dr. Hamer noted, if it were applied to people of different ages to see when in life the different pattern of response developed.

Dr. LeVay said he believed from animal experiments that the size differences in the hypothalamic region he had studied arose before birth, perhaps in response to differences in the circulating level of sex hormones. Both his finding and Dr. Savic's suggest that the hypothalamus is specifically organized in relation to sexual orientation, he said.

Some researchers believe there is likely to be a genetic component of homosexuality because of its concordance among twins. The occurrence of male homosexuality in both members of a twin pair is 22 percent in nonidentical twins but rises to 52 percent in identical twins.

Gay men have fewer children, meaning that in Darwinian terms, any genetic variant that promotes homosexuality should be quickly eliminated from the population. Dr. Hamer believes that such genes may nevertheless persist because, although in men they reduce the number of descendants, in women they act to increase fertility.

*******

http://www.pnas.org/...ournalcode=pnas

Published online before print May 9, 2005, 10.1073/pnas.0407998102
PNAS | May 17, 2005 | vol. 102 | no. 20 | 7356-7361

NEUROSCIENCE
Brain response to putative pheromones in homosexual men
Ivanka Savic *, , , Hans Berglund and Per Lindström *

Departments of *Clinical Neuroscience and Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden; and Department of Neuroscience, Center for Gender-Related Medicine, Karolinska Institute, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

Edited by Jan-Åke Gustafsson, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden, and approved April 4, 2005 (received for review October 27, 2004)


The testosterone derivative 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and the estrogen-like steroid estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) are candidate compounds for human pheromones. AND is detected primarily in male sweat, whereas EST has been found in female urine. In a previous positron emission tomography study, we found that smelling AND and EST activated regions covering sexually dimorphic nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus, and that this activation was differentiated with respect to sex and compound. In the present study, the pattern of activation induced by AND and EST was compared among homosexual men, heterosexual men, and heterosexual women. In contrast to heterosexual men, and in congruence with heterosexual women, homosexual men displayed hypothalamic activation in response to AND. Maximal activation was observed in the medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus, which, according to animal studies, is highly involved in sexual behavior. As opposed to putative pheromones, common odors were processed similarly in all three groups of subjects and engaged only the olfactory brain (amygdala, piriform, orbitofrontal, and insular cortex). These findings show that our brain reacts differently to the two putative pheromones compared with common odors, and suggest a link between sexual orientation and hypothalamic neuronal processes.
(abstract)

[Lazarus Long]

Here is a very readable yet in depth article on the evolution of the human brain describing what some of the specific selected differences are with respect to the rest of the primates an mammals in general.

Molecular Insights into Human Brain Evolution
http://biology.plosj...al.pbio.0030050

[Lazarus Long]

"What's Love got to do with it"?

Sorry folks I just couldn't resist. [lol]

You see the following article is about how we distinguish and map our neurological response to love. The study is based on fMRI but is accredited as being pretty precise and well done. The interesting result is that there is a difference neurologically between lust and love and how the brain reacts.


http://www.nytimes.c...ogy/31love.html?
Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: May 31, 2005

A new study suggests that an area of the brain known as the caudate is associated with passion.

New love can look for all the world like mental illness, a blend of mania, dementia and obsession that cuts people off from friends and family and prompts out-of-character behavior - compulsive phone calling, serenades, yelling from rooftops - that could almost be mistaken for psychosis.

Now for the first time, neuroscientists have produced brain scan images of this fevered activity, before it settles into the wine and roses phase of romance or the joint holiday card routines of long-term commitment.

In an analysis of the images appearing today in The Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers in New York and New Jersey argue that romantic love is a biological urge distinct from sexual arousal.

It is closer in its neural profile to drives like hunger, thirst or drug craving, the researchers assert, than to emotional states like excitement or affection. As a relationship deepens, the brain scans suggest, the neural activity associated with romantic love alters slightly, and in some cases primes areas deep in the primitive brain that are involved in long-term attachment.

The research helps explain why love produces such disparate emotions, from euphoria to anger to anxiety, and why it seems to become even more intense when it is withdrawn. In a separate, continuing experiment, the researchers are analyzing brain images from people who have been rejected by their lovers.

"When you're in the throes of this romantic love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational, you're going to the gym at 6 a.m. every day - why? Because she's there," said Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and the co-author of the analysis. "And when rejected, some people contemplate stalking, homicide, suicide. This drive for romantic love can be stronger than the will to live."

Brain imaging technology cannot read people's minds, experts caution, and a phenomenon as many sided and socially influenced as love transcends simple computer graphics, like those produced by the technique used in the study, called functional M.R.I.

Still, said Dr. Hans Breiter, director of the Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Collaboration at Massachusetts General Hospital, "I distrust about 95 percent of the M.R.I. literature and I would give this study an 'A'; it really moves the ball in terms of understanding infatuation love."

He added: "The findings fit nicely with a large, growing body of literature describing a generalized reward and aversion system in the brain, and put this intellectual construct of love directly onto the same axis as homeostatic rewards such as food, warmth, craving for drugs."

In the study, Dr. Fisher, Dr. Lucy Brown of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and Dr. Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, led a team that analyzed about 2,500 brain images from 17 college students who were in the first weeks or months of new love. The students looked at a picture of their beloved while an M.R.I. machine scanned their brains. The researchers then compared the images with others taken while the students looked at picture of an acquaintance.

Functional M.R.I. technology detects increases or decreases of blood flow in the brain, which reflect changes in neural activity.

In the study, a computer-generated map of particularly active areas showed hot spots deep in the brain, below conscious awareness, in areas called the caudate nucleus and the ventral tegmental area, which communicate with each other as part of a circuit.

These areas are dense with cells that produce or receive a brain chemical called dopamine, which circulates actively when people desire or anticipate a reward. In studies of gamblers, cocaine users and even people playing computer games for small amounts of money, these dopamine sites become extremely active as people score or win, neuroscientists say.

Yet falling in love is among the most irrational of human behaviors, not merely a matter of satisfying a simple pleasure, or winning a reward. And the researchers found that one particular spot in the M.R.I. images, in the caudate nucleus, was especially active in people who scored highly on a questionnaire measuring passionate love.

This passion-related region was on the opposite side of the brain from another area that registers physical attractiveness, the researchers found, and appeared to be involved in longing, desire and the unexplainable tug that people feel toward one person, among many attractive alternative partners.

This distinction, between finding someone attractive and desiring him or her, between liking and wanting, "is all happening in an area of the mammalian brain that takes care of most basic functions, like eating, drinking, eye movements, all at an unconscious level, and I don't think anyone expected this part of the brain to be so specialized," Dr. Brown said.

The intoxication of new love mellows with time, of course, and the brain scan findings reflect some evidence of this change, Dr. Fisher said.

In an earlier functional M.R.I. study of romance, published in 2000, researchers at University College London monitored brain activity in young men and women who had been in relationships for about two years. The brain images, also taken while participants looked at photos of their beloved, showed activation in many of the same areas found in the new study - but significantly less so, in the region correlated with passionate love, she said.

In the new study, the researchers also saw individual differences in their group of smitten lovers, based on how long the participants had been in the relationships. Compared with the students who were in the first weeks of a new love, those who had been paired off for a year or more showed significantly more activity in an area of the brain linked to long-term commitment.

Last summer, scientists at Emory University in Atlanta reported that injecting a ratlike animal called a vole with a single gene turned promiscuous males into stay-at-home dads - by activating precisely the same area of the brain where researchers in the new study found increased activity over time.

"This is very suggestive of attachment processes taking place," Dr. Brown said. "You can almost imagine a time where instead of going to Match.com you could have a test to find out whether you're an attachment type or not."

One reason new love is so heart-stopping is the possibility, the ever-present fear, that the feeling may not be entirely requited, that the dream could suddenly end.

In a follow-up experiment, Dr. Fisher, Dr. Aron and Dr. Brown have carried out brain scans on 17 other young men and women who recently were dumped by their lovers. As in the new love study, the researchers compared two sets of images, one taken when the participants were looking at a photo of a friend, the other when looking at a picture of their ex.

Although they are still sorting through the images, the investigators have noticed one preliminary finding: increased activation in an area of the brain related to the region associated with passionate love. "It seems to suggest what the psychological literature, poetry and people have long noticed: that being dumped actually does heighten romantic love, a phenomenon I call frustration-attraction," Dr. Fisher said in an e-mail message.

One volunteer in the study was Suzanna Katz, 22, of New York, who suffered through a breakup with her boyfriend three years ago. Ms. Katz said she became hyperactive to distract herself after the split, but said she also had moments of almost physical withdrawal, as if weaning herself from a drug.

"It had little to do with him, but more with the fact that there was something there, inside myself, a hope, a knowledge that there's someone out there for you, and that you're capable of feeling this way, and suddenly I felt like that was being lost," she said in an interview.

And no wonder. In a series of studies, researchers have found that, among other processes, new love involves psychologically internalizing a lover, absorbing elements of the other person's opinions, hobbies, expressions, character, as well as sharing one's own. "The expansion of the self happens very rapidly, it's one of the most exhilarating experiences there is, and short of threatening our survival it is one thing that most motivates us," said Dr. Aron, of SUNY, a co-author of the study.

To lose all that, all at once, while still in love, plays havoc with the emotional, cognitive and deeper reward-driven areas of the brain. But the heightened activity in these areas inevitably settles down. And the circuits in the brain related to passion remain intact, the researchers say - intact and capable in time of flaring to life with someone new.

Previous Article
Defining the Brain Systems of Lust, Romantic Attraction, and Attachment
http://www.ingentaco...000005/00379300

[kevin]

Link: http://www.medicalne...=29875&nfid=mnf

---

Probing the genetic basis of memory, Montreal
31 Aug 2005

A group of Montreal researchers has discovered that GCN2, a protein in cells that inhibits the conversion of new information into long-term memory, may be a master regulator of the switch from short-term to long-term memory. Their paper Translational control of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory by the eIF2a kinase GCN2, which was published in the August 25th issue of the journal Nature, provides the first genetic evidence that protein synthesis is critical for the regulation of memory formation.

This new discovery is the fruit of an international collaboration. The work of McGill researchers Nahum Sonenberg, Karim Nader, Wayne Sossin and Claudio Cuello, Jean-Claude Lacaille and Nabil Seidah of the Université de Montréal, and David Ron of New York University sheds light on the mysterious workings of the hippocampus, a region of the brain responsible for learning and memory.

"Not all new information we acquire is stored as long-term memory," says Dr. Costa-Mattioli, a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Sonenberg, who spearheaded the research project. "For example, it takes most people a number of attempts to learn new things, such as memorizing a passage from a book. The first few times we may initially succeed in memorizing the passage, but the memory may not be stored completely in the brain and we will have to study the passage again."

In a series of experiments, the researchers demonstrated that mice bred without the GCN2 protein (known as transgenic mice) acquire new information that does not fade as easily as that of normal mice. This new information is more frequently converted into long-term memory. The researchers concluded that GCN2 may prevent new information from being stored in long-term memory.

Adds Dr.Jean-Claude Lacaille: "The process of switching to long-term memory in the brain requires both the activation of molecules that facilitate memory storage, and the silencing of proteins such as GCN2 that inhibit memory storage."

Although research on humans is still a distant possibility, (not so distant I think.. ) the scientists believe their discovery may hold promise in the treatment of a variety of illnesses linked to memory. "The discovery of the role of GCN2 in long-term memory may help us develop targeted drugs designed to enhance memory in patients with memory loss due to illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, where protein synthesis and memory are impaired," concludes Dr. Karim Nader.

About Université de Montréal

Founded in 1878, the Université de Montréal counts 13 faculties and, along with its two affiliated schools, HEC Montréal and l'École Polytechnique, is Quebec's largest institution of higher learning, second in Canada, and among the most active in North America. With a faculty of 2,400 professors and researchers, the university has a student population of more than 55,000, offers more than 650 undergraduate and graduate programs and awards some 3,000 Master's and PhD degrees each year.

About McGill University

McGill University is Canada's leading research-intensive university and has earned an international reputation for scholarly achievement and scientific discovery. Founded in 1821, McGill has 21 faculties and professional schools which offer more than 300 programs from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. McGill attracts renowned professors and researchers from around the world and top students from more than 150 countries, creating one of the most dynamic and diverse education environments in North America. There are approximately 23,000 undergraduate students and 7,000 graduate students. It is one of two Canadian members of the American Association of Universities. McGill's two campuses are located in Montreal, Canada.

Marc Tulin
marc.tulin@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal
umontreal.ca/english/index.htm

[Lazarus Long]

This may in fact end much of the discussion I hope about how sleep is the *little death* well I guess that is actually an orgasm, "le petite mort". Anyway the actual neurophysiology of sleep is getting unraveled and those that have tried to make sleep analogous to death are simply wrong. It is as some of us suspected more a systems information and communication issue and the brain is never stopped.

However the debate over consciousness will certainly have to be re-engaged with vigor every time new data like this emerges to contribute to our understanding. The study is detailed in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Science.

It also lends even more support to the neural network argument that the brain is operating analogously to the internet.

http://news.yahoo.co...GZ1BHNlYwMxNzAw

Study Reveals How Your Brain Sleeps
Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor
LiveScience.com
Thu Sep 29, 3:00 PM ET

Your brain never stops working. But it does cease talking to itself when you lose consciousness, a new study shows.

Scientists have long wondered what the brain does and doesn't do during deep sleep. It remains active, they know. So what's the difference between consciousness and the lack of it?

When we're awake, different parts of the brain use chemicals and nerve cells to communicate constantly across the entire network, similar to the perpetual flow of data between all the different computers, routers and servers that make up the Internet.

In the deepest part of sleep, however, the various nodes of your cranial Internet all lose their connections.

"The brain breaks down into little islands that can't talk to one another," said study leader Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tononi's team used a non-invasive procedure to activate select parts of the brain. Subjects had electrodes attached to their heads to monitor how each stimulation triggered reactions elsewhere.

In the early morning, when subjects were dreaming, signals careened around the noggin similarly to when they were awake. But at night, during deeper sleep, the picture was much different.

"During deep sleep early in the night," Tononi said, "the response is short-lived and doesn't propagate at all."

Consciousness has long mystified scientists. The new finding suggests that it depends on the brain's ability to integrate information, Tononi says.

The compartmentalization might also help the brain's synapses, which make all the connections that give us thought, to take a break, according to Tononi's colleague, Marcello Massimini.

"This process would allow cortical circuits to eliminate noisy synapses and renormalize in order to be ready for the next day," Massimini told LiveScience. The reduced activity might also help explain why performance in various tasks improves after sleep, he said.

The machine used to conduct the experiments is new. It generates a magnetic field to provide stimulation, and Tononi's team expects this to be the first of many similar studies that will help researchers better understand the mind and specific disorders of the brain.

Miller, NEUROSCIENCE: Neural Communication Breaks Down As Consciousness Fades and Sleeps, Science 2005 309: 2148-2149

Why Great Minds Can't Grasp Consciousness
By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 08 August 2005
06:05 am ET

[Lazarus Long]

There have been a number of studies involving the structure of memory released lately. They seem to imply there is more than one mechanism at work simultaneously and that there is definitely a tiered system that works not only with long and short term memory but a kind of contingent or intermediate one as well.

This study is somewhat sensationalistic in its title but consistent with discussions involving Freewill and Determinism if born out.

Scientists Predict What You'll Think of Next
Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Thu Dec 22, 4:00 PM ET

To recall memories, your brain travels back in time via the ultimate Google search, according to a new study in which scientists found they can monitor the activity and actually predict what you'll think of next.

Tiered physical memory systems may also explain our *sense of time* where it appears that we store memory in accord with the experience of events.


The Human Brain Seen as Master of Time
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 28 October 2005
03:24 pm ET

Your brain is a time machine with three modes that control everything from instantaneous tasks like moving to maintaining long trains of thought and ultimately staying in synch with night and day.

[manofsan]

Here's an interesting one:

http://biosingularit...es-memory-loss/

Well, if it can actually reverse memory loss, then that's an amazing boon to the elderly, who are most at risk for Alzheimer's. Personally, I'd rather have my body physically infirm than my mind.

[Live Forever]

Yep, already posted:
http://www.imminst.o...=169&t=10831&s=

[Live Forever]

Science Proves Einstein's Brain was Different

A peek into the mind of a genius

June 05 2006 at 11:37AM

By Roger Dobson

London - It was, without doubt, one of the finest minds of all time. Now scientists have proved that Albert Einstein's brain was not only unique in its ability to process concepts: it was also physically different.

New research comparing the characteristics of Einstein's brain with that of four men of similar age has found remarkable structural differences.

Parts of his brain were found to be larger than those of the others, and he also appeared to have had more brain cells, scientists have found previously.

The brain of the great mathematician and physicist, who died at the age of 76 in 1955, has long fascinated researchers, not least because while Einstein's body was cremated, his brain was saved for scientific study.

The brain has now been found to possess a greater number of glial cells for each neurone, suggesting that Einstein's brain needed and used more energy. As a result it may have generated more processing ability. The job of glial cells is to provide support and protection for neurones.

The density of neurones in Einstein's brain is greater, too, and the cerebral cortex is thinner than the brains to which it was compared.

Einstein's brain also has an unusual pattern of grooves in an area thought to be involved in mathematical skills. It was 15 percent wider than the other brains, suggesting that the combined effect of the differences may be better connections between nerve cells involved in mathematical abilities.

The latest research, due to be published this week, was conducted by scientists in the United States and Argentina.

"Einstein's astrocytic processes showed larger sizes and higher numbers of interlaminar terminal masses," say the researchers.

Exactly what effects these differences could have is not clear, and the researchers caution that what they found could simply be a sign of ageing.

The researchers also suggest that the structure of Einstein's brain may not have been unique, and that other people may have something similar, but never get the chance to use it.

"Perhaps individuals with 'special' brains and minds are more frequent than suspected. They just may go unnoticed due to socio-cultural conditions or their early potential being cancelled following exposure to unwanted health or child-rearing hazards during gestation and early childhood, or lack of an adequate child-raising environment,'' say the researchers.

And there's hope for us all. The researchers say that the brain structure shouldn't be seen as a marker of intelligence in isolation. "In a species with a heavily socially moulded brain and mind, such as humans, the full expression of an individual special aptitude depends on multiple genetic and environmental factors.''

[Live Forever]

Link to article.

Paraphrasing from article:

A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body. This is a significant discovery. Results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakines could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging.

The study is evendently going to be appearing in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Kind of interesting...

[Lazarus Long]

Here is an interesting article that supports both Michael and I in the discussion of the role of emotions in abstract thought that we have raised between us in the AGI thread and elsewhere. IOW's it is both biological and derived of a kind of evolutionary necessity for decision making utilizing limited data.


Study Reveals the Logic Behind Our Irrational Brains


I posted this elsewhere too but it belongs as a link here on the subject of brains

MIT researchers watch brain in action

[Lazarus Long]

And now for another link in the chain leading to effective bidirectional BCI and maybe even a BCI WiFi someday.

Scientists identify brain's concept control core

By Jeremy Lovell
Wed Sep 6, 7:42 AM ET

NORWICH (Reuters) - Scientists believe they may have finally identified the part of the brain that deals with the critical issue of matching words to everyday objects. Using brain scans of people suffering from Semantic Dementia -- the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease in people under 65 -- they have found that the front end of the temporal lobe seems to be crucial to conceptual application.

"People have been talking about how the brain encodes concepts for 150 years. We believe we have found it," Matthew Lambon-Ralph of Manchester University told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on Wednesday. Previously the part of the brain dealing with concepts was thought to be Wernicke's area, which is further back on the temporal lobe, but scans and experiments showed degradation of the front end seemed to be key.  Patients, while being able to carry out everyday mechanical activities like making a cup of tea -- as long as it was done in the same order each time -- were unable to match abstract ideas to concrete actions.

(Excerpt)

Strange ducks shape brain science

No 'God Spot' in the Human Brain

[Matt]

Scientists identify memory gene

PHOENIX, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- An international study led by U.S. geneticists has discovered a gene -- called Kibra -- that is associated with memory performance in humans.

The researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix say their findings may be used to develop new medicines for diseases affecting memory, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, by providing a better understanding of how memory works at the molecular level.

The research team was led by Dietrich Stephan, the institute's neurogenomics division director, and included colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix and the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The team used Affymetrix Inc.'s Human Mapping 500K Array to analyze 500,000 DNA markers simultaneously, providing a genetic blueprint for the memory-study participants. The researchers discovered the Kibra gene by comparing the genetic blueprints of people with good memory to those of people with poor memory, looking for the genetic variations consistently present in one group, but not the other

Source: Science Daily

[t4exanadu]

Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in this week's Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Full text can be found here: http://www.scienceda...61017164401.htm

[rflalonde]

Interesting article. I just did a search on Google and Froogle looking for fisetin and rolipram. Got some really interesting finds, but the only products were for weightloss supplements containing fisetin in unlabeled amounts. I'm hoping that these two substances will become more available when some entrepreneurial company picks up on this research. I assume that rolipram is a natural substance like fisetin.

[lightowl]

I don't know if this is the section for this, but it seems to be relevant to maintaining long lasting health, as other subjects here do.

I have been seriously considering getting the fly vaccine regularly. Last week I had a particularly nasty flu infection ( one can really appreciate how nice it is to be in good health when getting the flu ). Mostly I would like to avoid the flu because of the discomfort and waste of time that accompanies it, but then I read this about this study:

http://www.physorg.c...ws80905161.html

"Our study suggests that virus-induced memory loss could accumulate over the lifetime of an individual and eventually lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits,"

Yikes... If this is the case in humans too, I am definitely convinced that getting the flu vaccine each year is well worth it. My doctor advised me that the flu vaccine is only appropriate for certain high-risk groups, but he doesn't consider long term effects of infection. After all, when these effects become a problem, you are "supposed" to accept that your end is near ( not his exact words about memory loss in general, but pretty close ). Well, I am not going to start discussing radical life-extension with my doctor just yet, and its not really his decision to make. If I want the vaccine I am going to get it. So, now I am just about convinced that the vaccine is a good idea. If this study does not have implications for humans, well, all that is lost is some money.

What do you think? Do you use the flu vaccine? Have you considered it? Does this study make you think again? What are your experiences with the vaccine?

[eldar]

I haven't had it before, mostly because I haven't been bothered to get the prescription.

Now having read this study I will definately get it. If it in anyway protects my brain from damage its well worth it, and even if not, there's atleast no harm to it.

[xanadu]

That report is full of maybes and perhapses. I would not take it too seriously at this point. Sure, polio is bad for your brain but I think people know it when they get polio. And besides that, what are we supposed to do about it? I really doubt the flu will "erode" your brain. Mercury and other contaminants in some batches of vacine might be a bigger worry.

[superpooper]

The mercury in the vaccines is probably just as bad for your brain.

[eldar]

Mercury and other contaminants in some batches of vaccine might be a bigger worry.

How big of a thing is this really? ie do vaccines contain significant enough amounts of mercury to be worried? I mean vaccines in general also, not just this flu vaccine.
It seems like whatever I might do, ultimately I'll end up hurting myself [thumb]

Anyway in my case I was planning on getting the flu vaccine this year even without this article, since it's really time consuming if I get sick.

[lightowl]

That report is full of maybes and perhapses.

True, this is very preliminary results based on studies in mice only.

I would not take it too seriously at this point.

No, but its still another weight on the positive to get the vaccine.

Sure, polio is bad for your brain but I think people know it when they get polio. And besides that, what are we supposed to do about it?

Well, we get the polio vaccine as children for that reason. Polio is dangerous. Perhaps some of the more seemingly benign viruses are too, in the long run. Remember, this is about repeated infections through a long period of time.

I really doubt the flu will "erode" your brain.

This study seems to suggest it does. At least in mice.

Mercury and other contaminants in some batches of vaccine might be a bigger worry.

It is possible to get vaccines without Thimerosal today. In fact all mandatory vaccines for children here in Denmark are without Thimerosal. They have been so for more than 10 years. This is because children are at risk of developing autism from getting vaccines with mercury in them. The risk for adults is not clear though. There are already a lot of mercury in the air due to the burning of coal in power-plants.

Does anyone have any information that flu vaccines are a health hazard (other than mercury)?

[Mind]

Remember that the flu has been around as long as humans. Most people get a bad flu a dozen different times in their life and there has never been any obvious link between the flu and brain damage discovered over the last few thousand years. Perhaps there are co-factors. People who get the flu more often are also less healthy because of a bad diet and lack of exercise. These things probably contibute to brain damage more than any virus (my opinion).

Also, for some reason people always jump to the initial conclusion that viruses cause every disease. Viruses were originally blamed for causing scurvy, pellegra, all cancers, heart disease, and most recently obesity. In contrast the vast majority of diseases are chronic and caused by lifestyle choices.

I remain very skeptical of this virus-brain damage link until there is further research. In my opinion you would just be wasting time and money getting all kinds-of vaccines when you could be doing much more to protect yourself through diet and exercise.

[lightowl]

Remember that the flu has been around as long as humans. Most people get a bad flu a dozen different times in their life and there has never been any obvious link between the flu and brain damage discovered over the last few thousand years.

The fact that no correlation has been made for thousands of years really makes no difference. People might not have lived long enough in the past for this to become a problem. Perhaps its not even a problem in humans. Also, its unusual to make a correlation between a recurring ( seemingly harmless ) disease and a devastating disease as chronic memory-loss. The virus is not the most likely candidate. That's what makes this interesting. The link is not obvious.

Perhaps there are co-factors. People who get the flu more often are also less healthy because of a bad diet and lack of exercise. These things probably contribute to brain damage more than any virus (my opinion).

I agree, but this is not the case with the mice. This is not a study on people.

Also, for some reason people always jump to the initial conclusion that viruses cause every disease. Viruses were originally blamed for causing scurvy, pellegra, all cancers, heart disease, and most recently obesity. In contrast the vast majority of diseases are chronic and caused by lifestyle choices.

But this was a study to monitor the effects of viruses on the brains of mice. I am sure that if the test group where experiencing the same symptoms, they would not be publishing these results.

I remain very skeptical of this virus-brain damage link until there is further research. In my opinion you would just be wasting time and money getting all kinds-of vaccines when you could be doing much more to protect yourself through diet and exercise.

I totally agree that exercise and good nutrition is the key to a strong immune-system, but mostly it only lessens the period of infection. The best way to avoid getting infected is by avoiding the risks, but that's just not very practical and would in many cases waste more time than recovery does. The vaccine prepares the immune-system for the virus, so that it may be killed off before symptoms are disruptive. In the worst case it will cut the first few days of recovery, where the immune-system has no idea what is going on, and the virus has lots of room to spread.

And btw, I am not talking about all kinds-of vaccines, I am talking about the flu vaccination, because that is the most common virus. I am not saying: either the vaccination or the exercise. I am of course planning to continue exercising and eating well.