Trainning our brain

Nowadays, results of psychology and physiologic research combined with the most recent technology create new techniques to maximize our mental potential. One of those techniques is called:
Neurofeedback. This is a form of biofeedback which uses direct signals from the central nervous system. 

Neurofeedback works by transmitting information about the electrical behavior of the brain to a computer by placing surface electrodes on the scalp.  The information is processed into visual images and sounds to enable the person to get feedback and change his or her electrical response pattern, that is to say, to change his or her brainwaves without pain, medication, or other medical risks.  This phenomenal process allows us to obtain, after several training sessions, the regulation of the desired brain activity.

The most common use of Neurofeedback is in Attention Deficit Disorder, but it is also used to treat anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, headaches, migraines, impulsivity and addictions. The improvements that can be obtained through this therapy are various, such as:
• Increased concentration and sustained attention.

• Increased intelligence and creativity

• Improved memory, performance, and self control and self regulation

• Stress management.

• Improved performance.

• Decreased anxiety, among others.

Moreover, its treatment of symptoms without medication would lead to a long-term and sustained effect by operant conditioning with no unpleasant side effects since it is not an invasive therapy.

But, what about the disadvantages of this therapy? Despite the myriad potential benefits of the procedure,  Neurofeedback can also be very expensive since  it's still considered an experimental treatment by many insurance companies, sessions average anywhere from $50 to $100. Nor is the process quick and easy.  It is often very time-consuming, requiring that you commit to two sessions a week for 20 weeks for a total of 40 sessions.If you’re unlucky, you might need additional booster sessions from time to time during this period, therefore it could take months for the effects of neurofeedback to kick in.

If you take into consideration all the advantages and disadvantages,would you rather take the pills, or undergo this treatment?

I invite you to watch those videos and make your own opinion about this treatment

Your last minute alive

Have you ever thought in your last minute alive? What would you think? What would you feel? Are you curious to know what it feels being shot in the head, hit a hundred km glass or just feel your last breath? You can stop asking you that question, because you will not know that even if it happens to you. Would you like to know why? Now, I am going to explain it.

                First of all, this is difficult because the brain takes time to process an experience. The signals that we perceive and integrate as experiences, take time to go through the neurocórtex and being assimilated. The neuroscientist David Eagleman says , "we are always living in the past." According to Eagleman, our brain takes between 150 milliseconds and 300 milliseconds in assembling a conscious experience after sensing a signal. This is because our brain takes the time to synchronize everything we perceive, when things happen at different speeds and at different distances. For instance, the sound and the light travel at different speeds, which we perceive in daily lightning.

One example is if the person dies because a bullet is very peculiar. There are numerous cases where people have survived a gunshot wound when the bullet passes through parts of the brain without causing much damage because of their size. However, even if the person survives, we lost our conscious because is a delicate phenomenon which depends on the interaction of electrical signals traveling constantly in the brain.

In conclusion, it would be difficult that you experience your last minute alive, that you feel that second when you died. It would happen, but according to this theory, without conscious, you will not know what is going to happen to you, you will keep living in the past when you are dead.

Do you know another theory that arguments the opposite to this one? Have you ever thought about that? 

Brain Plasticity: The Reinvention of The Brain

For those who might think that everything is lost once you are old or that there is no hope after an accident in which our brain could be damaged…You had better sit down and read my entry, because I have good news for you! Believe it or not, our brain has a special property which enables it to adapt to new experiences and create new neurons through its whole life—Yes, it can reinvent itself!

Fundamentally, Brain Plasticity, which is also known as Cortical Remapping, Neuroplasticity or Brain Malleability, is a term that refers to the capacity of the brain to change and adapt as a result of experience. Even though it was believed in the past that these kinds of changes only occurred during childhood, it’s been demonstrated that the brain continues creating new neural pathways, being able to adapt to new experiences, learn new information and create new memories during its whole life.

How does Brain Plasticity work? According to some findings I made, the human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons and because of neurogenesis—the process in which the brain produces more neurons—it possesses the remarkable capacity to recognize pathways, create new connections and even create new neurons. Additionally, neurons that are used—frequently--develop stronger connections and those that are rarely or never used, eventually, die. By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain is able to adapt to the changing environment.

In short, there are two types of Brain Plasticity: Functional Plasticity (the brain’s ability to move functions from a damaged area to other undamaged areas) and the Structural Plasticity (the brain's ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning).

There are four relevant characteristics you should know about Neuroplasticity!

• It occurs throughout the lifetime; nevertheless, certain types of changes are more predominant during specific life ages.
• It can happen for two different reasons: As a result of learning, experience and memory formation, or as a result of damage to the brain.
• Environment plays an essential role in the process, but genetics can also have an influence.
• It also involves a variety of processes, where glial and vascular cells are protagonists.

This is an amazing video which portrays the story of a nine-year-old girl, whose brain had been threatened by a strange electrical disease when she was a toddler. Out of the blue, when everything seemed to be lost for her, after a  medical surgery she was capable of recovering almost all of her mental capacities because of her brain’s plasticity.

After having watched the video, what do you think about it? Do you believe in her experience?

Ok, it’s about time I ate dinner, otherwise, I’ll die of hunger. See you next week!

Blue Brain: Super computer!

Henry Markham's team in Switzerland have been working since 2005 with IBM to build a supercomputer using digital simulation of the human brain. The Blue Brain project tries to create realistic models of the human brain by parts and both healthy and diseased brains. Scientists of this team have successfully applied simulation to a rat cortical column, to find out how the neuronal network is connected.
The main idea is to discover the basic principles and functions of the human brain, to develop certain strategies that will lead them to build the complete brain.

Henry Markham has stated in several talks that the brain makes its own version of the universe, and then it projects it. This processes are the ones that they are trying to simulate to introduce even more powerful computers based on these processes and neuronal networks. It will also incorporate more data that neuro-scientists and biology will use to have a wider understanding of the brain. In this sense, it could also mean that neuroscience and medicine could find a cure or better treatments to mental conditions and diseases such as Alzheimer and autism.
Now, if you think about the ethics, is this project really trying to find a cure and make better treatments? Isn't it just a project to create super powerful computers and get rid of workers? what is going to happen when the whole brain is completed? are people going to be replaced by computers?

I'd like you to watch Henry Markham's talk on TED and reflect on how is this going to affect our future.

Is there life after death?

At some point in our lives, we've all wondered if there is life after death. There are many beliefs say that yes, there is. For instance, some religions that say that we should have a good behavior in life so that, after this, we won’t go to hell. However, there was still no evidence to prove it so far. Dr. Eben Alexander, after suffering a near-death experience in which his brain stopped working, has returned to the world convinced that there is a higher spiritual dimension and that consciousness does not depend on the brain, it exists beyond the body and death.

Near-death experiences are one of the most interesting research areas in neuroscience. For most scientists are a phenomenon that can be explained perfectly by the physics (spiritual divinity is a conceptual experience generated by the brain), but people who have experienced these close encounters with death, do not listen to the voices of men qualified white coat and, seduced by the beauty of his visions.

Dr. Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon from Harvard University, had experienced one of the most commented encounters about death. He wrote a book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Near Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife, and a condensed version of his experience has been featured on the cover of Newsweek (one of the last editions of this iconic print magazine).

He claimed that he did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. He understood what happens to the brain when a person is near death, and always believed that there was an adequate scientific explanation for extracorporeal heavenly visions described by those who narrowly escaped death. Nevertheless, after 7 days in a coma in which the human part of the brain, the neocortex, was off, he experienced something so profound that gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death. All the main arguments against near-death experiences suggest that these experiences are the result of a least transient or partial malfunction of the cortex. His near-death experience; however, did not happen when the cortex was malfunctioning, but when it was just off. According to scientists, there is no way in which he could have experienced even the slightest and dark consciousness during coma. He argues that while his neurons were obfuscated in complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked, its free-of-consciousness brain traveled to another dimension larger the universe: "a dimension I never dreamed existed." – he says.

It is hard to believe that there is life after death, but according to this neurosurgeon, there is. In my opinion, I do not believe in heaven or hell. I think there is some kind of dimension in which we all go after we died. Do you believe in something similar? or do you think that when we died, our spirit and body died too?

The hormone of love

There are some factors that might determine our character or behavior, from the outside (environment, social etc) or from the inside of us (genes, hormones etc). One factor that caught my attention was “Oxytocin”.

 It’s a hormone released by the pituitary gland that affects both the body and the brain. For years, it has been known as the hormone of love, but it has a lot of other properties according to this website 

- Easy to get: The simple act of bodily contact (hug or kiss) will cause your brain to release low levels of oxytocin.

- Love potion: It helps couples to establish a greater sense of intimacy and attachment.

- It helps mom to be mom: Through labour by stimulating uterine contractions, and after birth, mothers can establish intimacy and trust with their baby.

-What makes us human: Plays a crucial role in forging our ability to maintain relationships, to empathize, trust, and even love one another.

This hormone is a clear example, at least for me, why the natural world is perfect, every little thing has a meaning and a purpose in our development. Can you imagine how would be life without it? I know there are people who can’t produce this hormone, so they have to use special medicine that replace it. But if this weren’t an option, these people would be forced to live like an outsider? Did you know oxytocin was that important? 

Is this real?

According to some sources brain in a vat is used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. Based on the idea that a scientist, machine, or someone else might remove a person’s brain from the body, then suspend it in a vat filled with sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer would provide electrical impulses identical to those the brain receives. In that way, the computer would simulate reality and the brain would continue with its normal conscious experiences.

Can you imagine live in a virtual world? Well, let’s be honest some people live in a virtual world every single day when they connect to their social networks, but when I read this thought experiment a lot of movies came to my mind: Matrix, The surrogates etc. and it is incredible how this idea has been in our mind since forever. For instance, in “The surrogates”, the argument is that people afraid of getting old and to get hurt by an accident etc decide to live a life through a machine.

 I don’t know what you think about it, at least, in my opinion I think it is pointless “live” if you don’t feel something directly, perhaps nothing of this is real, and all of this is inside our minds and what we call “to be alive” is just a dream. We’ll never know.

 If you are interested in checking the movie, here is the trailer from the movie "The surrogates"