Category: Links

Wednesday Round Up #24

Extended Mind

Andy Clark, Natural Born Cyborgs?
The noted philosopher of mind delivers his Edge piece on the extended mind, embodiment, and technology

Paul Rabinow & Gaymon Bennett, A Diagnostic of Equipmental Platforms
Working Paper #9 of ARC: Anthropology of the Contemporary Research Collaborative.
The paper, through focusing on “equipment” (what mediates method and technology), aims to “bring the biosciences and the human sciences into a mutually collaborative and enriching relationship.”

Lambros Malafouris, The Cognitive Basis of Material Engagement: Where Body, Brain and Culture Conflate
Neuroarchaeologist on cognition, brain and material culture

Taede Smedes, Review – Mind in Life
A philosopher gives his take on Evan Thompson’s massive new book, Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of the Mind

M. Wheeler, Final Report – The Interactive Mind: A Series of AHRC Workshops
The Arts and Humanities Research Council sponsored a series of meetings on the interactive mind. This final report, while also filled with technical information about the meetings themselves, contains a nice summary of the major cross-disciplinary themes of the workshop. A good guideline to how to think about the extended mind.

Tim Ingold, Culture from the Ground: Walking, Movement and Placemaking
Homesite for this integrative project. The research is now out as a new book, Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot.

Andy Clark and David Chalmers, The Extended Mind
Online paper that lays out the case for “active externalism”

Theresa Sheft, Reading Notes for Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”
Background and summary to the iconic essay, which you can read in full here

Robert Logan, The Extended Mind Model of the Origins of Language and Culture
How the extended mind relates to hominid evolution, particularly the emergence of language and culture. For more from Logan, see his website.

Robin Prior, Extending the Extended Mind
Past, present and future of the extended mind – a worthwhile MA thesis. For the summary and lots of useful links, see Prior’s site.

Frederick Adams and Kenneth Aizawa, The Bounds of Cognition
Recent book that critiques embodied cognition and the extended mind. For the book summarized into a paper, check out their online essay, Why the Mind Is Still in the Head.

Brain

Mind Hacks, The Best Is Yet to Come: Reward Prediction in the Brain
Computation, dopamine and the reward model considered

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #24”

Integrative Neuroscience

Integrative Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary endeavour to build unified models of the brain from the various disciplines within the neurosciences. It is an effort to break down the boundaries and encourage a freer exchange of information across disciplines and scales. The highly jargonised world of science can often mean that findings from one area of science are completely incomprehensible to another. However, it is crucial that efforts are made to consolidate the knowledge from various streams within the brain sciences. From the micro-scale findings to the macro-scale findings, integrative neuroscience deeply informs clinical research and practice. It means that when a patient is diagnosed with a brain disease, we can typify the genetic, neurological, social and environmental influences on his/her condition. It is a form of diagnosis and treatment that has never existed before.

While two brains may perform the same function, the way in which they do it is never the same. Statistically it is almost impossible for the underlying connections of any two brains to be exactly the same. What does this mean? Well, it means that no two brains react to the same actions or events in the same way. You may jump out from a hiding place and scream “boo” at your best friend who freezes in fright, while someone else might react more aggressively. Similarly, if you administer a neuroactive drug to two different people, the effects can be dramatically different. That is why some patients who are prescribed medication for a brain disorder may get better, while other patients may have little or no reaction to the same drug. You will often find that Psychiatrists, neurologists and other clinicians will personalise treatments for patients. Whether the treatment is behavioural, cognitive or pharmacological, nearly all treatments must be personalized. These treatments can only become better when more people share their experience and knowledge of personalized medicine. So what is your story?

LINKS:

Integrative Neuroscience Links         

Journal of Integrative Neuroscience   

Brain Dynamics Centre                                                

Integrative Neuroscience Facility                                             

Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neuroengineering

Brainnet

Brain Resource Company

 

 

                          

Personalized Medicine

There is a large amount of variation in the manifestation of brain disease. There is also a large amount of variation in the response to treatment. Often patients are prescribed drugs on a trial-and-error basis until the right drug is found. This situation, multiplied across many cases, can lead to over-servicing, inefficiency and high expenses in the healthcare industry—not to mention the stress this places on individuals, their families and friends. Integrated Neuroscience could be heading towards an answer in dealing with the large amount of variation in the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. This answer is called ‘Personalized Medicine’. A Brain-related Personalized Medicine approach matches genetic markers (gene-related information) with neuromarkers (brain-related information).

The brain is arguably the most complex organ of the body. It is subject to biological and environmental influences as well as the personal life history and experiences of individuals. A Personalized Medicine approach hopes to match treatment programs with the biological and psychological profile of each individual. With recent advances in biomedical science, this treatment ethic may be more realistic than ever before. Neurogenomics has gone some way in elucidating a vast number of genes that play a role in various brain disorders. However, a genetic approach alone is insufficient to diagnose and treat the development of brain disease. The combination of both genetic-markers and neuro- markers is crucial in the ultimate success of any one particular treatment.

Neuromarkers include observations of brain structure (using MRI), imaging of brain function (EEG, ERP, MEG, fMRI and PET) and psychological tests measuring social, emotional and cognitive performance. Further research is needed towards the orientation of Brain-related Personalized Medicine. Research will need to establish the links between genetic-markers and neuromarkers (genomic-neuromarkers) for use in diagnostics, drug development, treatment prediction and treatment efficacy monitoring. From here, clinicians will be able to better match the appropriate treatment for each patient according to the developmental stage of their disorder. The outcomes may even extend further to a preventative medicine that contributes to disability management, harm minimization, psychosocial and quality of life recovery.

Links:

The Biomarkers Consortium

The Personalized Medicine Coalition

Personalized Medicine Coalition

The Food and Drug Administration

The Royal Society

Dan Segal Report

The Brain Resource Company

 

The Brain Resource International Database is one methodology used to acquire genomic-neuromarker profiles. The Database pools data about genetic make-up, brain structure and function, cognition and psychology as well as the life history of participants.

These ‘genomic-neuromarkers’ will be incorporated in the next version of the DSM (DSM V) expected to be released in 2011.

Mental Health Tips

10 steps to better brain health:

 

 

1. A healthy diet. Glucose is the brain’s major source of energy, but a balanced diet is essential to body and brain function. Food with a low glycemic index (GI) like oats and bran as well as dark green leafy vegetables that are rich in magnesium are both believed to help brain function. Choline rich foods such as eggs and red meat are also thought to assist healthy communication between brain cells. Also, avoid substances that stress the brain and limit drugs like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.

 

2. Stimulate your brain. No, put the super-charged magnetic coil down! I’m not talking about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. I’m talking about involving yourself in new activities, playing an instrument, learning to speak a foreign language, solving brain teasers. Exercise the brain as you would the body. The Brain operates on a use-it or lose-it policy. So use it! Play sudoku, solve a crossword puzzle and test your skills at scrabble!

 

3. Keep a diary. A great way to deal with stress, emotional worries and to relax at the end of a hectic day or a busy week is to sit down and write. It’s a fantastic way to see what you have achieved, frame new goals and keep your emotions in balance. Also, writing notes for yourself helps convert information stored in your short-term memory to long-term memory. So get that creative energy flowing and put pen to pad!

 

4. Sleep well! Getting a good night sleep is essential for concentration. It has been shown that regular sleep-wake cycles are important in daily cognitive performance. Dreams may be important in the consolidation of memory. As we all know, it feels great to rise and shine after we have slept like a baby!

           

5. Regular exercise! It is important for your entire body. Exercise is believed to be important in maintaining neural plasticity in old age and aerobic fitness may in fact reduce the loss of brain tissue common in ageing. Exercise also releases natural hormones that lead to those ‘feel good’ sensations. Feeling good about your body is vital to brain health.

 

6. Regulate your couch-time. Too much TV weakens brain power. But a little TV is great mental stimulation. Balance is the key!

 

7. Socialise! Familiar smiles, friendly conversations and meaningful interactions are all part of a healthy lifestyle. The brain is the organ of society and socialisation is an integral part of brain health. Join a book-club, learn to dance, smile at a colleague!

 

8. Organisation. We all know the anxiety that misplacing the house-keys or forgetting an appointment creates. Avoid the stress and make a special place for items such as reading glasses, wallets/purses or the TV remote.

 

9. Relax. Spend time on a hobby, take your dog for a walk or just sit back in a comfortable armchair with a great book. Technique to relax are not only useful to reduce stress and enhance brain performance, relaxation methods have also been shown to play a positive role in emotional health. For example, mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease the recurrence of depression. Find a stress-reducing practice that suits your lifestyle and personal taste and then devote a balanced amount of time each week to it.

 

10. Positive thinking. Always look on the bright side of life (someone should turn that into a song)!

 

 

 

Transcultural Psychiatrists would certainly have a few dilemmas with the above list. The serious Neuroanthropologist probably does too! But what the heck, I put them here just for fun! Mind you, the list might lead to some interesting questions about what could be considered the definitive TOP 10 FOR BRAIN HEALTH applicable across cultures!

 

And now for some links:

 

How Culture May effect depression diagnosis

Mental Health Resources

Mental Health

Mental Health news

Mental Health America

Neurological Examinations

Interactive Health Tutorials:

Brain, The world inside your head

Brain Fitness

Cognitive and Emotional Health

Mental Health Council of Australia

The Human Brain

Brain Food

Meditation and Depression

Brain Activity influences immune function

Food for the brain

Brain Health

The Healthy Brain Program

Feed Your Brain

 

 

Sports Round Up

Science

Dan Peterson and his blog Sports Are 80 Percent Mental: A Look Inside the Mind of the Athlete
Here are some representative posts: Winning Olympic Gold with Sport Science, Federer and Nadal Can See the Difference, See the Ball, Be the Ball—Vision and Sports, Does Practice Make Perfect?

Natalie Angier, Learning from a Muddy Muscle Master
Lessons on strength training and muscle from the master of excessive muscular activity, the male toadfish

Bryant Park Project, Do Top Athletes See the World Differently?
NPR show on vision and athletes

Gina Kolata, Is Stretching All It’s Cracked Up to Be?
Studies of stretching collide with conflicting goals for stretching—an update from two ongoing studies

David Edwards and colleagues. Intercollegiate soccer: Saliva cortisol and testosterone are elevated during competition, and testosterone is related to status and social connectedness with teammates
Abstract for a 2006 Physiology and Behavior article, looking at social status, athletic prowess, and hormone levels

Training

Gretchen Reynolds, Faster, Higher, Stronger: An Olympic Cyclist’s Level-Headed Advice
Christian Vande Velde provides training tips, including substituting interval training for hills through “power bursts”

Arianne Cohen, The Making of an Olympian
Triathlete Andy Potts tops his rivals through an “unorthodox, highly scientific training regimen”

Continue reading “Sports Round Up”