the eye of Nova's mind

Woman Finds Body While Hunting for Easter Eggs in Her Backyard

How Do We Explain The Evolution Of Religion? -- "[H]uman religiosity was primed by the meaning-making, imagination, empathy and rule-following of other primates (primates with whom we shared a common ancestor in the past, or those common ancestors themselves). Religious imagination flowered later, in the hominin lineage, as our brains were increasingly selected over time to think beyond the here-and-now."

Study reveals why Neanderthals never faced brain disorders

Scientists unmask a piece in the puzzle of how the inheritance of traumas is mediated -- "[T]raumatic stress alters the amount of several microRNAs in the blood, brain and sperm – while some microRNAs were produced in excess, others were lower than in the corresponding tissues or cells of control animals. These alterations resulted in misregulation of cellular processes normally controlled by these microRNAs."

Here Are the States Where Blowjobs Are Illegal But Necrophilia's Cool -- Just in case you needed the reference.

Neurotransmitter Linked to Post-Traumatic Stress -- norepinephrine activity within the locus coeruleus, a small region in the pons

Why we can "hear" our inner voice

ICU Delirium Affects Brain After Discharge -- "One year after discharge, 34% of patients had cognitive scores similar to those with moderate traumatic brain injury and 24% had the equivalent of mild Alzheimer's disease. [...] The deficits were seen across ages and were strongly linked to duration of delirium in the ICU. [...] Monitoring during the hospital stay indicated delirium in 74% of all patients, with a median duration of 4 days."

Brain activity discovered beyond flat line

Legalized pot would mean more addiction -- There are a lot of things wrong with this article, but the main one that sticks out to me is the underlying, erroneous assumption that all addictive substances have the potential to addict at the same rate. This is my deduction after reading the author's repeated, irrelevant statistics about cocaine, heroin, alcohol & tobacco addiction. Every one of those addict at much higher rates than cannabis does. IIRC, alcoholism affects up to 30% of the total population of drinkers; also, around 70% of tobacco smokers experience difficulties stopping smoking when they attempt to do so, which is one of the main hallmarks of addiction (tobacco, indeed, is one of the most addictive substances known to man). Even caffeine causes withdrawal symptoms 50% of the time when daily users halt intake. Cannabis, on the other hand, at least according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is addictive to 5-10% of the population of such smokers.

Cocaine Use May Boost HIV Susceptibility -- "They found that a 3-day exposure to cocaine enhanced the permissiveness of the T cells to HIV infection."

Richard Dawkins defends "mild pedophilia," says it does not cause "lasting harm" -- Seriously, a shame.

Quran-Burning Pastor Terry Jones' Arrest Could Be Unconstitutional, Experts Say

Orangutans Plan Their Trips Like Humans, Tell Others Their Future Travel Routes -- "Though the team didn't analyze the way the primates are able to figure out the specific routes expressed in the calls, they did recognize that planning skills require episodic memory and the presence of self-control for orangutans to complete such tasks."

Scientists Selectively Erase Unwanted Memories in Rats and Mice -- "'Not unlike in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," we're looking for strategies to selectively eliminate evidence of past experiences related to drug abuse or a traumatic event. Our study shows we can do just that in mice--wipe out deeply engrained drug-related memories without harming other memories.'"

First lady's push to drink more water draws criticism -- Only the AAAD (American Association for the Advancement of Diabetes) should be against this proposal. My god, what is wrong with people?

Steady relationships reduce amphetamine's rewarding effects: Animal study suggests having a lifelong mate leads to greater resistance to drug -- nucleus accumbens

US researchers a step closer to reading your mind -- "Using electrodes, the researchers found the area of the brain that is involved in creating the 40 or so sounds that form the English language."

Certain parts of the brain activated in people who heard tailored health messages and quit smoking -- dorsomedial prefrontal cortex

NYU researchers identify neural circuits used in processing basic linguistic phrases -- "Surprisingly [...], "Broca's" and "Wernicke's" areas appeared to play no role in the comprehension of [...] basic phrases. Instead [...], results revealed increased activity in the left anterior temporal lobe, followed by increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex region of the brain during the processing of simple adjective-noun phrases."

Researchers have found how brain cells control their movement to form the cerebral cortex

Making the ‘Irrelevant’ Relevant to Understand Memory and Aging

A Grudge Match between Humanity and Death--Who Wins? -- "[N]ew research [...] shows that being a mindful person not only makes you generally more tolerant and less defensive, but it can also actually neutralize fears of dying and death."

New Baylor Study Shows Higher Job Performance Linked to People Who Are More Honest and Humble

Full Bladder, Better Decisions? Controlling Your Bladder Decreases Impulsive Choices

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Overeating and indigestion blamed for 1,000 turtle doves falling dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks

Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states

The Dark Side of Oxytocin, the Hormone of Love (NYT) -- "The love and trust it promotes are not toward the world in general, just toward a person's in-group. Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism."

Brain's preparation center gets 'juiced' by prospect of winning -- "[T]he left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, located in the brain approximately two inches above the left eyebrow, is a key area that both predicts a win, or successful outcome, and prepares the motivational cognitive control network to win again."

Brain gene expression changes when honey bees go the distance -- "Tricking honey bees into thinking they have traveled long distance to find food alters gene expression in their brains[.] [...] Foraging honey bees make unique research animals in part because they communicate in a language humans can decode[.] After a successful hunt, a forager performs a highly stylized 'dance' that tells her peers what direction to go to find the food, how good it is and how far away it is. The bee does a 'round dance' if the food is close to home, while a 'waggle dance' indicates it is farther away."

Brain Connections Break Down as We Age -- corpus callosum & "cross-talk"

Scripps Research scientists uncover possible cocaine addiction trigger -- "The results from the new study strongly suggest that a protein known as methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) interacts with a type of genetic material known as microRNA [specifically, microRNA-212] to control an individual's motivation to consume cocaine."

Spinal cord regeneration success in mice

Fate of Universe revealed by galactic lens -- "A 'galactic lens' has revealed that the Universe will probably expand forever."

Fears Influence Actual Risk of Falls

Oxytocin Hormone May Treat Autism: Study Shows Oxytocin May Improve Social Skills for Some People With Autism

Separate brain paths for start and end of sounds is key to hearing and understanding speech -- both eventually join in temporal lobe

First Brain Recordings from Flying Fruit Flies: Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have obtained the first recordings of brain-cell activity in an actively flying fruit fly

Hottest temperature ever heads science to Big Bang -- "Scientists have created the hottest temperature ever in the lab -- 4 trillion degrees Celsius -- hot enough to break matter down into the kind of soup that existed microseconds after the birth of the universe."

Mysterious Origin of Cosmic Rays Pinned Down

Backward Black Holes Control Fate of Galaxies

See-Through Frogs Discovered

Marijuana May Disrupt Brain Development -- "[The researcher] pointed out shortcomings in the study, however."

Simple test may spot concussion in athletes

Timing of Seasons Is Changing -- "The Earth's seasons have shifted back in the calendar year, with the hottest and coldest days of the years now occurring almost two days earlier, a new study finds. This shift could be the work of global warming, the researchers say."

The Neuroscience of Money: Finding How Traders Tick | The Neural Basis of Financial Risk Taking (abstract)

HIV infection or medications age brain

Fireproofing Chemicals May Cause Fertility Issues -- "Researchers at the School of Public Health, U.C. Berkeley, discovered women with the highest levels of PBDEs were twice as likely to take more than a year to conceive."