Archive for the 'Mindhacks' Category

The waterfall illusion can be transferred between vision and touch

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on February 17, 2010
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

If you look at a waterfall for about 30 seconds, and then shift your gaze to a nearby stationary object, such as a rock or a tree, that object will seem to drift slowly upwards. This well known optical illusion demonstrates a phenomenon called the motion after-effect, which is thought to occur as a result of adaptation – the brain compensates for movement in one direction, causing us to momentarily perceive a stationary objects to be moving in the other.

Although illusory motion can also be induced in the sense of touch, the brain is thought to process visual and tactile motion separately. But now researchers from MIT have found that not only can moving visual stimuli induce a tactile motion after-effect, but also that moving tactile stimuli can induce a visual motion after-effect. The findings, which are published in Current Biology, show that the senses of vision and touch are closely linked, and that each can influence the other.

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The Spiritual Brain: Selective Cortical Lesions Modulate Human Self-Transcendence

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on February 17, 2010
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Mind/Body/Spirit and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

The predisposition of human beings toward spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors is measured by a supposedly stable personality trait called self-transcendence. Although a few neuroimaging studies suggest that neural activation of a large fronto-parieto-temporal network may underpin a variety of spiritual experiences, information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking. Combining pre- and post-neurosurgery personality assessment with advanced brain-lesion mapping techniques, we found that selective damage to left and right inferior posterior parietal regions induced a specific increase of self-transcendence. Therefore, modifications of neural activity in temporoparietal areas may induce unusually fast modulations of a stable personality trait related to transcendental self-referential awareness. These results hint at the active, crucial role of left and right parietal systems in determining self-transcendence and cast new light on the neurobiological bases of altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors in neurological and mental disorders.

Neuron

The Cutaneous Rabbit Illusion Hops Out Of The Body

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on February 17, 2010
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

IF a rapid series of taps are applied first to your wrist and then to your elbow, you will experience a perceptual illusion, in which phantom sensations are felt along the skin connecting the two points that were actually touched. This feels as if a tiny rabbit is hopping along your skin from the wrist to the elbow, and is therefore referred to as the “cutaneous rabbit”. The illusion indicates that our perceptions of sensory inputs do not enter conscious awareness until after the integration of events occuring within a certain time window, and that the sensory events taking place at a certain point can be influenced by future events.

A group of Japanese researchers now shows that this illusion is not just confined to the body. In a new study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, they report that the cutaneous rabbit can easily be induced to “hop out” of the body, so that the illusory sensations are perceived to originate not from the body itself, but from external objects that interact with it.

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Blind taught to ‘see’ like a bat

Published
by
billycuts
on February 11, 2008
in Biology, Consciousness/Psych/Brain and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

Blind British children are to be taught a pioneering bat-style echolocation technique to visualise their surroundings.

The children are learning how to build up detailed images of the world around them by clicking their tongue and interpreting the sound as it echoes back.

The technique is used by animals such as bats, dolphins and whales to navigate and hunt in the dark.

Bats are able to manoeuvre around caves and catch tiny insects on the wing by emitting short bursts of high-pitched noise and reading the sound waves as they bounce back to their highly evolved ears.

There is emerging evidence that blind people can harness their sense of hearing – which is often more acute – to interpret reflected sound and create detailed mental images of their surroundings, including the distance, size and density of objects.

The technique is being piloted in Glasgow, where 10 children aged five to 17 are being taught by staff from Visibility, one of the city’s oldest charities for the blind. The children are learning how to make the clicking sound and how to use the technique even in noisy urban areas, including the underground system.

Blind people in America, where human echolocation was pioneered, have learnt to differentiate between people, trees, buildings and parked cars by interpreting the pitch and timbre of the echo they produce. Practitioners say they can determine the height, density and shape of objects up to 100ft away.

Times Online

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Calming Emotions Through Identification

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on September 17, 2007
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Help Yourself and Mindhacks
. 1 Comment

fmri“Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don’t know why it works.

“UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.

“They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as ‘angry’ or ‘fearful’—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.

“When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.

“When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.

ucla

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Mixed Feelings

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on May 24, 2007
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Fringe Science, Futurism/Transhumanism, Health/Bio-Tech and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

seefeel

For six weird weeks in the fall of 2004, Udo Wächter had an unerring sense of direction. Every morning after he got out of the shower, Wächter, a sysadmin at the University of Osnabrück in Germany, put on a wide beige belt lined with 13 vibrating pads — the same weight-and-gear modules that make a cell phone judder. On the outside of the belt were a power supply and a sensor that detected Earth’s magnetic field. Whichever buzzer was pointing north would go off. Constantly.

“It was slightly strange at first,” Wächter says, “though on the bike, it was great.” He started to become more aware of the peregrinations he had to make while trying to reach a destination. “I finally understood just how much roads actually wind,” he says. He learned to deal with the stares he got in the library, his belt humming like a distant chain saw. Deep into the experiment, Wächter says, “I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn’t get lost, even in a completely new place.”

The effects of the “feelSpace belt” — as its inventor, Osnabrück cognitive scientist Peter König, dubbed the device — became even more profound over time. König says while he wore it he was “intuitively aware of the direction of my home or my office. I’d be waiting in line in the cafeteria and spontaneously think: I live over there.” On a visit to Hamburg, about 100 miles away, he noticed that he was conscious of the direction of his hometown. Wächter felt the vibration in his dreams, moving around his waist, just like when he was awake.

Direction isn’t something humans can detect innately. Some birds can, of course, and for them it’s no less important than taste or smell are for us. In fact, lots of animals have cool, “extra” senses. Sunfish see polarized light. Loggerhead turtles feel Earth’s magnetic field. Bonnethead sharks detect subtle changes (less than a nanovolt) in small electrical fields. And other critters have heightened versions of familiar senses — bats hear frequencies outside our auditory range, and some insects see ultraviolet light.

We humans get just the five. But why? Can our senses be modified? Expanded? Given the right prosthetics, could we feel electromagnetic fields or hear ultrasound? The answers to these questions, according to researchers at a handful of labs around the world, appear to be yes.

wired

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The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism by Hakim Bey

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on April 12, 2007
in Activism, Anthropology, Art, Books / E-Books, Civil Rights, Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Freedom of Information, Futurism/Transhumanism, Hacks, Help Yourself, Human Rights Violations, Inc. Shenanigans, Language, Literature/Poetry, Media, Memetics, Mind/Body/Spirit, Mindhacks, Nature of Reality, Occulture, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Religion, Resistance, Sexuality and Society/Social Systems
. 1 Comment

taz

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Robert Anton Wilson Needs Our Help

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on October 4, 2006
in Activism, Mindhacks and Personal
. 0 Comments

While we don’t generally speak our mind here at Nerdshit or try to solicit anything from our readers other than, hopefully, a gradual broadening of your mind and worldview, this is a great exception.  Robert Anton Wilson, the philosopher, writer, comic, mystic trickster (and on and on), is set to relinquish his body to a disability he has had all his life, and he needs a bit of help to comfortably make that transition. R.A.W. has been monumentally influential in our lives. I can say with certainty that I would be a completely different, and I dare say, more constricted personality, had that influence not touched me.

So here’s the news…

Note from Robert’s friend, Denis Berry: Sadly, we have to report that wizard-author-intelligence increase agent is in trouble with his life, home and his finances. Robert is dying at his home from post polio syndrome. He has enough money for next months rent and after that, will be unable to pay. He cannot walk, has a hard time talking and swallowing, is extremely frail and needs full time care that is being provided by several friends-fans-volunteers and family. We appeal to you to help financially for the next few months to let him die at his home in peace.

Robert’s writing has enlightened-educated many and if you can please commit to help pay a portion of his expenses until his passing which sadly won’t be that long. All monies will go directly to Robert and can be sent to his PayPal address olgaceline@gmail.com. You can also send a check to RAW c/o Futique Trust, P.O. Box 3561, Santa Cruz, Ca 95063.

If you have been fortunate enough to have your perspective widened by this crazy old coot like we have, then you’ll understand and will do what you deem best.

Much love,

The nerdshit crew

notes via futurehi 

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The Boy Who Sees with Sound

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on July 17, 2006
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Health/Bio-Tech and Mindhacks
. 2 Comments

There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. That’s when Ben started his clicking thing. “I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I socked him a good one,” says Ben, a skinny 14-year-old. “He didn’t reckon on me going after him. But I can hear walls, parked cars, you name it. I’m a master at this game.”

Ask people about Ben Underwood and you’ll hear dozens of stories like this – about the amazing boy who doesn’t seem to know he’s blind. There’s Ben zooming around on his skateboard outside his home in Sacramento; there he is playing kickball with his buddies. To see him speed down hallways and make sharp turns around corners is to observe a typical teen – except, that is, for the clicking. Completely blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes (he now wears two prostheses), Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as the snapping of fingers, Ben’s clicks tell him what’s ahead: the echoes they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp (glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to gauge distances.

people

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A New DS Game to Please the Brain

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on March 28, 2006
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Games and Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

Nintendo is releasing Brain Age, a DS game based on the research of the Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima. Kawashima found that if you measured the brain activity of someone who was concentrating on a single, complex task—like studying quantum theory—several parts of that person’s brain would light up. But if you asked them to answer a rapid-fire slew of tiny, simple problems—like basic math questions—her or his brain would light up everywhere.

Hence the design of Brain Age. It offers you nine different tests, some of which seem incredibly basic—like answering flash-card math questions—and others which are fiendishly tricky. At one point, the DS shows flashes a grid of numbers for one second, then hides the digits; you have to try to remember where they were located in the grid, in ascending order. After you’ve played a few rounds, the DS calculates your “brain age”: How mentally nimble you are, compared to the statistical averages of other people Kawashima measured. Age 20 is the best you can do—the apex of your mental powers, apparently—and by playing Brain Age every day, you can become mentally younger and younger.

Now, the science here is a little dubious. The idea of a discrete brain age is about as phrenologically suspect as the increasingly-disputed concept of IQ itself. Kawashima believes you improve your cognition by getting your brain to light up all over at once. But not all neuroscientists agree that this full-brain activity means you’re thinking more intelligently.

I’m quibbling, though. The truth is, scientists have long known that you can get smarter and stay smarter by engaging in daily, brain-teasing activity—and Brain Age certainly qualifies.

Wired

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The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on March 28, 2006
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Mind/Body/Spirit, Mindhacks and Occulture
. 0 Comments

A comprehensive study summarizing the scientific research on meditation is available free online from the Institute of Noetic Sciences. The publication (also for sale in book format) is titled “The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation” (1996) by Michael Murphy and Steven Donovan. In the helpful introduction Eugene Taylor discusses the historical roots of meditation, outlines meditation’s introduction to the modern West, and provides an overview of meditation as a subject of scientific study in the West, India, and China.

When it comes to defining meditation, Taylor writes:

As for modern developments, in trying to formulate a definition of meditation, a useful rule of thumb is to consider all meditative techniques to be culturally embedded. This means that any specific technique cannot be understood unless it is considered in the context of some particular spiritual tradition, situated in a specific historical time period, or codified in a specific text according to the philosophy of some particular individual.

Taylor is indicating that meditation doesn’t exist as we popularly conceive it — in an abstract or general form — only as distinct techniques which have emerged from specific philosophical and religious backgrounds. As an example, Taylor points out that the widespread and well-regarded Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, founded at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, “combines elements of Vipassana, a Theravada form of Buddhist meditation from Burma, and Zen practices from Japanese Buddhism with Hatha yoga, a tradition from the Indian subcontinent.” (An entry at TricycleBlog, the weblog of the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, offers some thoughts about the MBSR program’s secular presentation of Buddhist meditation.)

When meditation is put under the scientific microscope, Taylor refers to two points of confrontation. The first is whether a rationally-based scientific method can adequately evaluate the realm of ‘intuition and insight’:

Science, the product of Aristotelian thinking and the European rationalist enlightenment, now turns its attention to the intuitive transformation of personality through awakened consciousness (and other such Asian meanings of the term enlightenment). This means that the faculties of logic and sense perception, hallmarks of the scientific method, are now being trained on the personality correlates of intuition and insight, hallmarks of the traditional inward sciences of the East.

To grasp what meditation is has proven to be no easy task. The underlying and usually hidden philosophical assumptions of traditional, rationalist science do not value the intuitive. They do not acknowledge the reality of the transcendent or subscribe to the concept of higher states of consciousness, let alone, in the strictest sense, even admit to the possible existence of unconscious forces active in cognitive acts of perception.

Secondly, Taylor asks whether science itself will be transformed by the encounter:

The essential difficulty here is not just the reformulation of meditation techniques to fit the dictates of the scientific method, but rather what might be called a deeper, more subtle, and potentially more transformative clash of world epistemologies. It is not simply that meditation techniques have been difficult to measure but rather that, in the past, meditation has largely been an implicitly forbidden subject of scientific research. Now, however, major changes are currently underway within basic science that presage not only further evolution of the scientific method but also changes in the way science is viewed in modern culture. An unprecedented new era of interdisciplinary communication within the subfields of the natural sciences, a fundamental shift from physics to biology, and the cognitive neuroscience revolution have liberalized attitudes toward the study of meditation and related subjects. Meanwhile, the popular revolution in modern culture grounded in spirituality and consciousness is having a growing impact on traditional institutions such as medicine, religion, mental health, corporate management strategies, concepts of marriage, child rearing, and the family, and more. Increasingly, educated people want to know much more about meditation, while our traditional institutions of high culture remain unprepared as adequate interpreters.

The body of “The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation” is authored by Michael Murphy and Steven Donovan. Following their own overview of the scientific studies on meditation, they provide a detailed summation of the scientific research by organizing it into three categories: physiological effects, behavioral effects, and subjective reports. The research is then broken down by category as follows:

Physiological Effects

The Cardiovascular System
— Heart Rate
— Redistribution of Blood Flow
— Blood Pressure and Hypertension
— Other Cardiovascular Changes
The Cortical System
— EEG: Alpha Activity
— EEG: Theta Activity
— EEG: Beta Activity
— EEG: Hemispheric Synchronization
— EEG: Dehabituation
— Specific Cortical Control
— Other Cortical Changes
Blood Chemistry
— Adrenal Hormones
— Thyroid Hormones
— Total Protein
— Amino Acids and Phenylalanine
— Plasma Prolactin and Growth Hormone
— Lactate
— White Blood Cells
— Red Blood Cell Metabolism
— Cholesterol
The Metabolic and Respiratory Systems
Muscle Tension
Skin Resistance and Spontaneous GSR
Other Physiological Effects
— Brain Metabolism
— Salivary Changes
— Effectiveness in the Treatment of Disease
— Treatment of Cancer
— Changes in Body Temperature
— Alleviation of Pain
— Exceptional Body Control

Behavioral Effects

Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities

Perceptual Ability
— Reaction Time and Perceptual Motor Skill
— Deautomatization
— Field Independence
— Concentration and Attention
— Memory and Intelligence
Rorschach Shifts
Empathy
Regression in the Service of the Ego
Creativity and Self-Actualization
— Creativity
— Self-Actualization
Hypnotic Suggestibility
Anxiety
Psychotherapy and Addiction
— Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
— Addiction and Chemical Dependency
Sleep
Sex Role Identification

Subjective Reports

Equanimity
Detachment
Ineffability
Bliss
Energy and Excitement
Altered Body Image and Ego Boundaries
Hallucinations and Illusions
Dreams
Synesthesia
Extrasensory Experiences
Clearer Perception
Negative Experiences

Searchable Bibiliography

via Meditation Blog

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Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on March 28, 2006
in Computers, Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Mindhacks and Robots/A.I.
. 0 Comments

The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed “neuro-chips” in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.

The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.

They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.

“They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip,” said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.

The proteins allowed the neuro-chip’s electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip’s transistors, while the chip’s capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.

live science

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Pentagon Plans Cyber-Insect Army

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on March 21, 2006
in Big Brother, Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Health/Bio-Tech, Military, Mindhacks and Robots/A.I.
. 0 Comments

The Pentagon’s defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.

The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.

Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed “ludicrous”.

A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.

The new scheme is a brainwave of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technological superiority of the US military.

It has asked for “innovative” bids on the insect project from interested parties.

BBC

Read the full post "Pentagon Plans Cyber-Insect Army" (568 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Using the “Abundance Mentality” to Cure Procrastination

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on December 27, 2005
in Mindhacks
. 0 Comments

The abundance mentality is in my opinion, one of, if not the most important aspect of personal development and growth. Abundance means ‘The property of a more than adequate quantity or supply’ and to really take advantage of all that is available to you, you really do have to have a handle on this extremely important way of thinking.

The exact opposite to the abundance mentality is the scarcity mentality. Amongst other things this mentality breeds fear, jealousy, spite and selfishness leading to insecurity and lack of self worth due to your belief that opportunities are lacking and you have little choice or freedom in your life. The scarcity mentality leads to you seeing nothing but obstacles and problems (There is no money to be made in this industry. I don’t have time to spend on something like that.)

Without saying anything more we can see the negative side effects of the scarcity mentality, but how is the abundance mentality superior? It leads to opportunity because you believe it is everywhere, riches because you believe there is plenty to go around and enjoyment because you are able to celebrate other people accomplishments instead of loathing someone for stealing your ‘piece of the pie’.

bmindful

Read the full post "Using the “Abundance Mentality” to Cure Procrastination" (533 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)