Cognitive Labs

We love to be afraid, just ask Hollywood marketing experts who turn out horror movies and thrillers regularly to consistently solid box-office returns. It turns out that the brain processes 'fright' through the amygdala. The adrenaline boost associated with fear, if the the fear is not too real, can become addictive. This is why some people enjoy skydiving, free-form rock climbing, or surfing very large waves, where the risk is manageable, but still provides a 'rush.'
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Iranian tech blog picks up the firefox game. Maybe we can all learn to get along in this world and focus on the important stuff like building a better browser and solar energy.

Here's the Halloween test. It includes (even) a geek-jack o'lantern (see below)

:-) have fun

Halloween brain exercises are coming.

Google scholar utilizes the page-rank algorithm to so show circles of influence in the academic substrate(from whence it came) so that scholarly work is ranked by the number of citations. For example, look at JW Ashford, Elan Amir, or Arthur Jensen.

the ultimate in browser rivalry...for brains everywhere.

  

In 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, (Deutsch article)interviewed a patient named Mrs. Auguste D, age 51. He showed her several objects and later asked her what she had been shown. She could not remember. He would initially record her behavior as "amnestic writing disorder," but Mrs. Auguste D. would be the first patient to be identified with Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer would later work in the laboratory of the esteemed Emil Kraepelin in Munich, Germany. Kraepelin was the author of a leading textbook in psychiatry and was a strong believer that neuropathology could be linked to clinical psychiatric function. Early in April 1906, Auguste D died, and Alzheimer worked with two Italian physicians to examine her anatomy and neuropathology. On November 3, 1906, he presented Auguste D's case to the 37th Assembly of Southwest German Psychiatrists and described the neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques that would be the hallmark of the disease. Kraepelin would later write about this case and others in his Textbook for Students and Doctors and index them under Alzheimer's disease. By 1910, the name of the disease was well established among the specialist community. [1]


CLEVELAND, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Many of the world's Alzheimer's disease experts will be in Cleveland next week to observe the 100th anniversary of the first Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.

Approximately 350 scientists from Australia, Canada, China, Britain, Japan, Mexico and the United States are to attend a conference Nov. 6-7 sponsored by Case Western Reserve University to discuss advances in technology, environmental design, ethics and care in dealing with the disease that affects 18 million people worldwide.

There are 4.5 million U.S. citizens with the disease and that number is expected to double by 2025.

"As we mark the 100th anniversary of Alzheimer's, it is time to think broadly and reflect deeply on the meaning of Alzheimer's for individuals and society," said Dr. Peter Whitehouse, professor of neurology at the university's Center for Memory and Aging.

Speakers at the "Reflecting on 100 Years of Alzheimer's: The Global Impact on Quality of Lives" conference will discuss the challenges created by Alzheimer's disease and related conditions in the areas of psychiatry, neurology, geriatrics, psychology, nursing and social work.

A couple of fascinating general science stories over the weekend:

First, scientists have sequenced the honeybee genome, which is pretty interesting because bees have such different appearances and behaviors depending on minor edits to the genetic structure. At slashdot, a clever poster had this to say:

< script language="make honeybee" >
Make Wings;
Make Thorax;
Make Head;
Size = 10;
if (GrowthStoppingHormonePresent == false){
Size+=20;
if (OtherQueenPresent == true){kill it;}
Spray Growth Stopping Hormone On All Bees Around You;
}
else
{
Behavior = "Go around gathering honey";
}

< / script>->

Secondly, a scientist in Oregon announced the discovery of the first known bee, 100 million years old, trapped in a chunk of amber extracted from a Chinese rock mine. (Think of the film Jurassic Park, a perennial favorite). This bee, only 1/10 of an inch long, was responsible for the flourishing of flowering plants which started around that time.

It seems that seeing dots is part of the brain's evolution, part of the development of consciousness that can be traced back tens of thousands of years. Why did cro-magnon people suddenly "get it" and learn to see the world symbolically? While before, they were little more than beasts, unable to speak and comprehend. What's next? Some people think that this level of consciousness could be compared to a chicken getting out of its egg and seeing a wider world. However, there's an even bigger egg that we have to hatch from, that's the egg that surrounds the earth and moon. As a species, we pecked at the shell, chickened out, and now we're getting ready to make another effort to crack that shell. The Internet is one of the tools that extends beyond this second shell and exists everywhere, it's a fulcrum for the future growth of the brain and moving on into, possibly, higher levels of awareness and consciousness, also including as Hawking says, moving out into space and permanent habitation - that's another characteristic of the breaking of this second shell.

Play>

Enjoy. 30% of the visitors now use FireFox, up from 6% last year, an astounding growth rate. Our audience is now large enough to indicate this is a significant movement. Our audience also, is not just the few thousand people in Silcon Valley and the tech industry who watch trends but folks all over the U.S. and the world, similar to those people that might want to track a UPS package on the Internet. (Flat Earth, Thomas Friedman, Chapter 8) or search on Google (Flat Earth, Thomas Friedman, Chapter 9) you could buy it at Amazon or pick it up at Target...another Flat Earth demonstration. The book also talks about unzipping the human genome and designer drugs, a future growth area. For example: "Mr Jones, your brainspeed seems a little slow these past few days, how about an XYZ pill?" - this would be via email or chat. Or, Mr Jones, your brainspeed is trending downward for 3 months...maybe it's time to schedule an MRI?"
The MRI will be evaluated by experts in India, who will make some suggestions. (this all assumes Jones opts-in to the voluntary tracking program). Best of all, Assume Mr. Jones schedules an offworld vacation, staying at the Budget Space Inn. First, he can log in to spacetix.org and see if there are any cancellations (he doesn't want to pay $200,000)Great! there is availability, then Jones picks the cognitive games tailored to enhancing low-gravity cognitive fitness, as part of his personal training regimen. Spaceflight training will become a domain of personal trainers in the near future, just watch. While in space, Jones uses Google earth to home in on and his free-IP based phone account to talk to family and colleagues at home (for free) over a satellite connection.

We're working on an interesting feature....hope you like it.



let's just say you'll have a couple ways of exercising your brain.

Right now, She Sells Sanctuary...an 80's Tune by the Cult.




An oldie but it still rocks.

do what simon (and Flash master paul neave) says.

You can see the past two years graphically above, the data ends today. This chart is for advertisers and sponsors to see the runaway growth of the site. Sometime this evening we'll reach 1.6 million users (1,600,000) which is better than the circulation of many large newspapers, but there is much more growth to come, so hold on to your hats.

A couple of years ago we just wanted to help people take an active role in confronting memory loss. Former president Ronald Reagan passed on due to Alzheimer's, as well as Scotty (James Doohan) from the original Star Trek, but we had a view that easy to use tools should be in the hands of people with the most at stake (that's you - it's your brain) and kept to the plan. And we've overcome the technical hurdles that have blown in every now and then. Well, we're not satisfied; every test and game can be improved - and that's what we're focused on.

Almost, right on the home page... Actually, you will find it a good exercise. Move L-R using the arrow keys, launch a missile with the spacebar. All the sounds of the original 1979 arcade game.

If you're a member of Google Coop, you might have guessed where part of the initiative was headed: towards making a custom search API available which exceeds what could be accomplished before with Google search. Coop allowed you to highlight references of interest and let others find the references you built into your directory and subscribe to updates....this takes it a step further as you can now define the web for your own comunity with your own search engine. Become the editor of the metadata that describes your personal or community web.

Google notwithstanding, solar energy proponents have had their days in the sun before...


That is, Akh-n-'tn, literally, 'one-who-gives-to-Aten' or the sun-disk. Like Hebrew, Egyptian lacks written vowels, so you have to supply them. 'Aten,' which means sun-disk (one of its meanings) is first due to the practice of 'honorific transposition' where the deity's name comes first when written, to show pre-eminence, even if spoken the other way around...this trick was first realized in deciphering the Rosetta Stone

This pharaoh led a revolution, taking away power from the priests of Amun in Thebes, and keeping it for himself and a new cadre of priests.

He credited everything in creation to the sun-disk:

The Great Hymn to the Aten was inscribed in several tombs around Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna), the new capital built by the command of King Akhenaten in the 14th century BCE. The site is about 45 miles south of El-Minya, which is about 160 miles south of Cairo. There are numerous interesting tombs in the area, including those of big-thinking officials of the so-called First Intermediate period, who considered themselves independent rulers. (We suggest getting a donkey to reach these tombs and being able to speak Arabic, as this is far off the beaten tourist track. You may even run into some Coptic Christians 'gopts' from the Greek and Roman words for Egypt(Gr: Aegyptos Latin: Aegyptus). If you do they may show you their tatoos and invite you to a meal; for that matter so will Muslims. When I was there last there was an Islamic feast and got to share in the stew of lamb, tomatoes, onions, and okra, which they grew in the adjacent fields). Providing this hospitality is one of the tenets of Islam. The Christians consider themselves real Christians, unbroken in faith since the 2nd century A.D., and possibly practice a religion much closer to the original version than more recent Roman and reformed versions of Christianity.

Central to the hymn is Aten's good provisions for the human world. All goods things are connected to the sun, which is said to create life.
There are only two people who fully understand the true nature of Aten, Akhenaten himself and his queen, Nefertiti.

Praise of Re-Harakhti, Rejoicing on the Horizon, in His Name as Shu who is in the Aten-disc, living forever and ever; the living great Aten who is in jubilee, lord of all that the Aten encircles, Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth, Lord of the House of Aten in Akhetaten; (and praise of) the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on truth, the Lord of the Two Lands: Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re; the Son of Re, who lives on truth, the Lord of Diadems: Akhenaten, long in his lifetime; (and praise of) the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands: Nefer-neferu-Aten Nefertiti, living, healthy, and youthful forever and ever; (by) the Fan-Bearer on the Right Hand of the King ... Eye.

He says:

You appear beautifully on the horizon of heaven,
You living Aten, the beginning of life!
When you have risen on the eastern horizon,
You have filled every land with your beauty.
you are gracious, great, glistening, and high over every land;
Your rays encompass the lands to the limit of all that you have made:
As you are Re, you reach to the end of them;
(you) subdue them (for) your beloved son.
though you are far away, your rays are on earth;
though you are in their faces, no one knows your going.

When you set in the western horizon,
The land is in darkness, in the manner of death.
They sleep in a room, with heads wrapped up,
Nor sees one eye the other.
All their goods which are under their heads might be stolen,
(But) they would not perceive (it).
Every lion has come forth from his den;
All creeping things, they sting.
Darkness is a shroud, and the earth is in stillness,
For he who made them rests in his horizon.

At daybreak, when you arise on the horizon,
When you shine as the Aten by day,
you drive away the darkness and give your rays.
The Two Lands are in festivity every day,
Awake and standing upon (their) feet,
For you have raised them up.
Washing their bodies, taking (their) clothing,
Their arms are (raised) in praise at your appearance.
All the world, they do their work.

All beasts are content with their pasturage;
Trees and plants are flourishing.
The birds which fly from their nests,
Their wings are (stretched out) in praise to your ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feet.
Whatever flies and alights,
They live when you have risen (for) them.
The ships are sailing north and south as well,
For every way is open at your appearance.
The fish in the river dart before your face;
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.

Creator of seed in women,
you who make fluid into man,
Who maintain the son in the womb of his mother,
Who sooth him with that which stills his weeping,
you nurse (even) in the womb,
Who give breath to sustain all that he has made!
When he descends from the womb to breathe
On the day when he is born,
you open his mouth completely,
you supply his necessities.
When the chicken in the egg speaks within the shell,
you give him breath within it to maintain him.
When you have made him his fulfillment within the egg, to break it,
He comes forth from the egg to speak at his completed (time);
He walks upon his legs when he comes forth from it.

How manifold it is, what you have made!
They are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
you did create the world according to your desire,
Whilst you were alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,
you set every man in his place,
you supply their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As you distinguish the foreign peoples.
you make a Nile in the underworld,
you bring forth as you desire
To maintain the people (of Egypt)
According as you made them for yourself,
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
The Aten of the day, great of majesty.

All distant foreign countries, you make their life (also),
For you have set a Nile in heaven,
That it may descend for them and make waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
To water their fields in their towns.
How effective they are, your plans, O lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven, it is for the foreign peoples
And for the beasts of every desert that go upon (their) feet;
(While the true) Nile comes from the underworld for Egypt.

Your rays suckle every meadow.
When you rise, they live, they grow for you.
you make the seasons in order to rear all that you have made,
The winter to cool them,
And the heat that they may taste you.
you have made the distant sky in order to rise therein,
In order to see all that you make.
While you were alone,
Rising in your form as the living Aten,
Appearing, shining, withdrawing or approaching,
you made millions of forms of yourself alone.
Cities, towns, fields, road, and river --
Every eye beholds you over against them,
For you are the Aten of the day over the earth....

You are in my heart,
And there is no other that knows youy
Save your son Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re,
For you have made him well-versed in your plans and in your strength.

The world came into being by your hand,
According as you have made them.
When you have risen they live,
When you set they die.
you are lifetime your own self,
For one lives (only) through you.
Eyes are (fixed) on beauty until you set.
All work is laid aside when you set in the west.
(But) when (you) rise (again),
[Everything is] made to flourish for the king,...
Since you found the earth
And raise them up for your son,
Who came forth from your body: the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, ... Akhenaten, ... and the Chief Wife of the King ... Nefertiti, living and youthful forever and ever.

It's academic: web-based brain games, more surely than a GI Joe with Kung-Fu grip, impact the onset of Alzheimer's. According to this article ( and numerous supporting articles, including our own objective Stanford-conducted research which supports the conclusion) interactive internet brain games roll back the onset of cognitive decline.

They also boost attention and focus, whether you are gunning for the SAT, GMAT, LSAT or trying to hit a baseball on the 'sweet spot' of your bat.

What did mummies really look like? Now you can find out. By the 3rd century A.D., the people in Egypt were still practicing mummification, but replaced the old King Tut style masks with realistic face paintings, characteristic of Greek and Roman art. Some of the people in this memory TV exercise had red-bordered tunics, indicating they were probably Roman citizens (possibly a stereotype broken as well). Take yourself back 2,000 years and see faces you might see right now, anywhere. This is the same time period when Gnosticism grew in popularity in Egypt...

this may be the most fun you have had with your computer since fingerpainting. express yourself

The National Institutes of Health is spending million of dollars studying the compound Huperzine A, derived from a Chinese moss. Huperzine A was an active ingredient in the formulation of BrainSpeed from Natrol, which allowed people to monitor themselves over time using several of the Cognitive Labs tests.

number of Cognitive Labs users in Arizona: >100,000

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have discovered a gene that plays a significant role in memory performance in humans. The findings, reported by TGen and research colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, Banner Alzheimer's Institute, and Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, appear in the October 20 issue of Science.

The study details how researchers associated memory performance with a gene called Kibra in over 1,000 individuals --both young and old-- from Switzerland and Arizona. This study is the first to describe scanning the human genetic blueprint at over 500,000 positions to identify cognitive differences between humans.

"Using the latest whole-genome association technologies, we have shed light on the fundamental biological process of human memory performance," said Dr. Dietrich Stephan, Director of TGen's Neurogenomics Division and a senior author of the paper. "The capacity to remember is a defining feature of humans and we can now use this new understanding to develop drugs that will improve memory function."

Researchers at the University of Zurich, collaborating with colleagues at Arizona's Banner Alzheimer's Institute, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, and the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium, collected DNA samples from cognitively healthy people and measured memory performance. TGen researchers screened the collected DNA samples using the whole-genome microarray technology. Researchers then combined the scan data with the memory performance test results and found a connection between Kibra and memory.

According to the study's lead author, Dr. Andreas Papassotiropoulos, professor at the University of Zurich, "The link between Kibra and memory could lead to new treatments for memory loss and possibly help improve memory in patients with memory disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."

Not only did the research team identify that the Kibra gene was associated with memory performance, but they also showed that the gene is turned on in the hippocampus, a brain region known to be critical to memory function.

"Using sophisticated functional brain imaging techniques, we showed that individuals who had a version of the gene that is related to poorer memory potential had to tax their brains harder to remember the same amount of information," said Dr. Dominique de Quervain, professor at the University of Zurich.

"Researchers now have enough of the 'letters' to read the 'genetic book of life' with unprecedented power," said Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute and one of the study investigators. "We're excited about the chance to identify a gene that accounts for some of variation in normal human memory and to use this information in the discovery of promising new memory-enhancing treatments."

Until now, researchers did not have access to the high-density technology to examine the genetic components associated with memory performance. The team at TGen used Affymetrix Human Mapping 500K Arrays to simultaneously analyze 500,000 genetic markers from the people who were tested. They made the memory discovery by comparing the genetic blueprint of people with good memory to people with poor memory; memory performance was based on a series of gold-standard tests for all individuals. The researchers then validated their discovery by replicating the Kibra gene finding in two separate and distinct groups of subjects.

"This memory study is a perfect example of how the use of advanced technologies in human genetics yields fundamental discoveries," said Dr. Stephen P.A. Fodor, Chairman and CEO at Affymetrix, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based manufacturer of the technology.

The impact of the study is that it gives the research community a new and important handhold into truly understanding the process of memory. The ramifications of this report are ultimately developing new and effective medicines that can combat memory loss, and that might also help improve memory in people with memory disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

The team has already begun working on new drugs to restore memory function in age-related memory loss and diseases that have a memory loss component.

some skateboarders can reach 70 MPH.

I didn't know that. I found it on concrete disciples' forum.

skate and snow boarders are also testing their brains there.

This is a pretty new test that anyone can play.

If you want a thorough workout, hit the link at the bottom.

In 1,000 years, humans will evolve into 2 species, according to the BBC. There will be a class of beautiful people and then an undercaste of untouchables.

Life expectancy will be longer, just about everybody could play in the NBA, and people will be better looking, in fact - incredibly good looking - sort of like "Hansel" from the movie Zoolander, and everybody will be a vegan.

They'll all be smarter too, from using cognitivelabs.com for at least 999 years.

read slashdot for the intriguing comments.

The Mountain View campus of Google will go solar according to Slashdot.

To create the interesting mind-machine symbiosis mentioned below, they had to use an Atari 2600 box and write a very lean program.

Instruction sets for those processors could be only about 16k, so you are talking about one page of text for a program, maybe 1/2 page.

Maybe it will be a C64 or Apple 2 to solve the Alzheimer's question, a 64-128-256k box.

Slashdot.org picks up the "Ad(Smell)Sense" piece. from yesterday. Cool.

Washington University Scientists create brain powered Space Invaders game for an epileptic patient:

The boy, a 14-year-old who suffers from epilepsy, is the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game, Space Invaders, using only the signals from his brain to make movements.

Getting subjects to move objects using only their brains has implications toward someday building biomedical devices that can control artificial limbs, for instance, enabling the disabled to move a prosthetic arm or leg by thinking about it.

Many gamers think fondly of Atari's Space Invaders, one of the most popular breakthrough video games of the late '70s. The player controls the motions of a movable laser cannon that moves back and forth across the bottom of the video screen. Row upon row of video aliens march back and forth across the screen, slowly coming down from the top to the bottom of the screen. The objective is to prevent any one of the aliens from landing on the bottom of the screen, which ends the game. The player has an unlimited ammunition supply.

The aliens can shoot back at the player, who has to evade, moving left and right. There are lots of levels of play, reflecting the speed at which the aliens descend. The Washington University subject mastered the first two levels of play, using just his imagination.

Here's how:
The teenager had a grid atop his brain to record brain surface signals, a brain-machine interface technique that uses electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity - data taken invasively right from the brain surface. It is an alternative to a frequently used technique to study humans called electroencephalographic activity (EEG) - data taken non-invasively by electrodes outside the brain on the scalp. Engineers programmed the Atari software to interface with the brain-machine interface system.

Pictures of the first computer mouse....circa 1964, before the release of the original Star Trek episode.

Certain stimuli in the brain, such as the smell of freshly based cookies, lead to higher levels of dopamine that remain after the stimulus is removed, leading to changed behavior through interaction with memories - leading perhaps to the buying impulse.

According to new research presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting today shows that the neurotransmitter dopamine continues to be released for nearly an hour after neurons are stimulated, suggesting the existence of secondary mechanisms that allow for sustained availability of dopamine in different regions of the brain including areas critical for memory consolidation, drug induced plasticity and maintaining active networks during working memory, according to a University of Pittsburgh study.

Determining the mechanisms that cause what is being called "post-stimulus activated release" and how they maintain dopamine levels could have important implications for understanding and treating neurological and psychiatric disorders caused by an imbalance of dopamine function including schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's disease and addiction.

According to Bita Moghaddam, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychiatry, who led the study, in addition to its clinical benefits, post-stimulus activated release can be used to explain how brief events that activate neurons for short periods of time can influence brain function long after the events. For example, it can be used to explain how smelling freshly baked cookies could evoke childhood memories of spending time with a beloved grandparent, leading a person to reminisce long after the smell is gone and take the unplanned or impulsive action of baking or buying cookies.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with learning and memory, motor control, reward perception and executive functions such as working memory, behavioral flexibility and decision making. When a novel or salient stimulus occurs, the dopamine neurons in the brain increase their firing rate, boosting the release of dopamine. The dopamine is diffused into the extracellular space of the brain until it can be transported or metabolized.

In a rat model, the researchers have been attempting to understand increases in extracellular levels of dopamine during behaviorally active states, such as completing a cognitive task or experiencing stressful situations and in response to the electrical stimulation of neurons. In their studies, they have observed that dopamine levels remain above the baseline long after neurons had been stimulated – from five to 20 minutes in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and 40 to 100 minutes in the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex.

Attempting to discern the cause of the elevated levels, researchers stimulated the VTA of the brain of a rat model by using an electrode. The VTA is a nucleus in the midbrain where dopamine neurons are located. After stimulating the neurons, the researchers measured the amount of dopamine in the extracellular fluid of the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex – two areas where the VTA is known to send signals. They found that dopamine levels increased during stimulation, and remained elevated for an hour after stimulation.

Dopamine levels wane as dopamine is taken back into cells by an active transport system. Yet this active transport system is not abundant in the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex areas, leading researchers to think that perhaps the dopamine levels remained elevated due to an excess that had yet to be absorbed. To test this hypothesis, they applied tetrodotoxin (TTX), a neurotoxin that blocks the active release of dopamine, to the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. TTX caused dopamine levels to drop, indicating that the dopamine levels remained elevated because dopamine was being actively released after the neurons fired and not because there was residual dopamine in the brain.

The Stephen Hawking test now tells an important message from amongst Dr. Hawkings recent talks....click to exercise your brain and hear

Try the Six Million Dollar Man Test.

Pretty Soon people will be able to take any kind of test they want, that is of interest. Audio aids in recall, but you need to assess the image flow.