# brain: apropos of mandering minds, the 'default mode' network.

<< When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other. >>

<< The default mode was one of the first brain networks characterized by science. It consists of a handful of brain regions, including a few at the front of the brain, like the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices, and others scattered throughout the organ, like the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus and the angular gyrus. These regions are associated with memory, experience replay, prediction, action consideration, reward/ punishment and information integration. >> ️

<< The default mode is clearly up to something complicated; it’s involved in many different processes that can’t be neatly described. >>

<< “It’s kind of silly to think that we’re ever going to be like, ‘This one brain region or one brain network does one thing,’” (..). “I don’t think that’s how it works.” (..) “Network interactions are more elucidating to study in some ways than just a network in isolation because they do work together and then come apart and then change what they’re doing over time”. >> Lucina Uddin.️

Lucina Uddin << is particularly interested in how the default mode network interacts with the ️salience network, which seems to help us identify the most relevant piece of information at any given time. Her work suggests that the salience network detects when something is important to pay attention to and then acts as an off switch for the default mode network. >>

Vinod Menon << has developed what he calls️ ️the triple network theory. It posits that abnormal interactions between the default mode network, the salience network and a third one called the frontoparietal network could contribute to mental health disorders. >>️

Nora Bradford. What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything.  quantamagazine.org. Feb 5, 2024. 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-your-brain-is-doing-when-youre-not-doing-anything-20240205/

FonT: the cat when it is in a contemplative state ... Who knows in what forms and with what results an artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to structure itself in networks of this type.

Also: brain, brain default mode network, in  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+default+mode+network

Also: brain, salience network, in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+salience+network

Also: brain, triple network theory, in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+triple+network+theory

Also: brain, ai (artificial intell), analogy,  in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: brain, mind, default mode network, salience network, triple network theory, AI

# brain: how the brain says 'Oops!'

AA << have uncovered how signals from a group of neurons in the brain's frontal lobe simultaneously give humans the flexibility to learn new tasks—and the focus to develop highly specific skills. >>

<< The study's key finding is that the brain uses the same group of neurons for performance feedback in many different situations—whether a person is attempting a new task for the first time or working to perfect a specific skill. >>

<< Part of the magic of the human brain is that it is so flexible, (..) We designed our study to decipher how the brain can generalize and specialize at the same time, both of which are critical for helping us pursue a goal. >> Ueli Rutishauser. ️

️

New Study Reveals How the Brain Says 'Oops!'. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. May 5, 2022. 

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/new-study-reveals-how-the-brain-says-oops/

AA << recorded the activity of more than 1000 neurons in the medial frontal cortex of human epilepsy patients while they performed complex cognitive tasks. They found that domain-general and domain-specific performance monitoring neurons were intermixed within this brain region. The population activity gave rise to a geometry that allowed domain-general signals to be read out with more than 90% accuracy on single trials while at the same time retaining the ability to separate different conflict conditions. These results show how the human medial frontal cortex resolves the fundamental trade-off between task generalization and specialization, which is critical for cognitive flexibility. >>

️

Zhongzheng Fu, Danielle Beam, et al. The geometry of domain-general performance monitoring in the human medial frontal cortex. Science. Vol 376, Issue 6593. doi: 10.1126/ science.abm9922. May 6, 2022.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm9922

Also

keyword 'cervello' | 'brain' in Notes

(quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=cervello

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=brain

keyword 'brain' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=brain

keyword 'organoids' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=organoids

PS: An image of "oops", not completely spanned in the air, could be this:

Keywords: brain, mind, cervello, mente, oops

# brain: spiral waves at the edge of neural tissue during cognitive processing.

AA << have discovered human brain signals travelling across the outer layer of neural tissue that naturally arrange themselves to resemble swirling spirals. >>️

<< The research (..) indicates these ubiquitous spirals, which are brain signals observed on the cortex during both resting and cognitive states, help organise brain activity and cognitive processing. >>️

<< Our study suggests that gaining insights into how the spirals are related to cognitive processing could significantly enhance our understanding of the dynamics and functions of the brain, (..) These spiral patterns exhibit intricate and complex dynamics, moving across the brain’s surface while rotating around central points known as phase singularities. >> Pulin Gong.

<< One key characteristic of these brain spirals is that they often emerge at the boundaries that separate different functional networks in the brain, >> Yiben Xu. 

Philip Ritchie. Scientists discover spiral-shaped signals that organise brain activity. sydney.edu.au. Jun 16, 2023. 

https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2023/06/16/scientists-discover-spiral-shaped-signals-that-organise-brain-activity.html

https://youtu.be/YZlqokljqY8️

Yiben Xu, Xian Long, Jianfeng Feng & Pulin Gong. Interacting spiral wave patterns underlie complex brain dynamics and are related to cognitive processing. Nat Hum Behav. doi: 10.1038/ s41562-023-01626-5. Jun 15,  2023.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01626-5

Also: brain, vortex, waves in: https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: brain, vortex, waves,  cognition

# brain: brain images of silence

<< When imagining music, the musicians' brain activity had the opposite electrical polarity to when they listened to it -- indicating different brain activations -- but the same type of activity as for imagery occurred in silent moments of the songs when people would have expected a note but there wasn't one. >>

<< There is no sensory input during silence and imagined music, so the neural activity we discovered is coming purely from the brain's predictions e.g., the brain's internal model of music. Even though the silent time-intervals do not have an input sound, we found consistent patterns of neural activity in those intervals, indicating that the brain reacts to both notes and silences of music. Ultimately, this underlines that music is more than a sensory experience for the brain as it engages the brain in a continuous attempt of predicting upcoming musical events. Our study has isolated the neural activity produced by that prediction process. And our results suggest that such prediction processes are at the foundation of both music listening and imagery. >> Giovanni Di Liberto. 

The music of silence: Imagining a song triggers similar brain activity to moments of mid-music silence. Trinity College Dublin. Aug 3, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210803105600.htm

Guilhem Marion, Giovanni M. Di Liberto,  Shihab A. Shamma. The Music of Silence. Part I: Responses to Musical Imagery Encode Melodic Expectations and Acoustics. Journal of Neuroscience  JN-RM-0183-21. doi: 10.1523/ JNEUROSCI.0183-21.2021. 2 Aug 2, 2021.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/07/23/JNEUROSCI.0183-21.2021.

Giovanni M. Di Liberto, Guilhem Marion,  Shihab A. Shamma. The music of silence. Part II: Music Listening Induces Imagery Responses. Journal of Neuroscience JN-RM-0184-21. doi: 10.1523/ JNEUROSCI.0184-21.2021. 

Aug 2, 2021.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/07/22/JNEUROSCI.0184-21.2021

Also

2123 - le dislocazioni pausali di Theo. 

(quasi-stochastic poetry). Notes. Feb 26, 2007.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2007/02/2123-le-dislocazioni-pausali-di-theo.html

A pause (acyclic pauses?)  approach to enhance and manage creativity. Mar 23, 2019.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2019/03/brain-pause-acyclic-pauses-approach-to.html

We pronounce words more slowly compared with verbs and sometimes pause. May 20, 2018.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2018/05/lang-we-pronounce-words-more-slowly.html

# brain: a body-brain circuit regulates the body's inflammatory responses

<< The body-brain axis is emerging as a principal conductor of organismal physiology. It senses and controls organ function, metabolism and nutritional state. >>

Here AA << show that a peripheral immune insult powerfully activates the body-brain axis to regulate immune responses. (They) demonstrate that pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines communicate with distinct populations of vagal neurons to inform the brain of an emerging inflammatory response. In turn, the brain tightly modulates the course of the peripheral immune response. >>

<< Genetic silencing of this body-to-brain circuit produced unregulated and out-of-control inflammatory responses. By contrast, activating, rather than silencing, this circuit affords exceptional neural control of immune responses. >>️

Jin, H., Li, M., Jeong, E. et al. A body–brain circuit that regulates body inflammatory responses. Nature. May 1, 2024. 

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07469-y

Also: brain, pnei, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: brain, pnei

# gst: apropos of transitions, a perpetual dance between states of meta-stability and chaos (in brain).

img: https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Radio_image_15.jpeg?fit=2160,1214

<< Hello! Today: new research is shining a light on how our brains flit between states of stability and chaos, depending on what we’re doing. >>

<< Our brains exist in a state somewhere between stability and chaos as they help us make sense of the world, according to recordings of brain activity taken from volunteers over the course of a week. >>

<< As we go from reading a book to chatting with a friend, for example, our brains shift from one semi-stable state to another—but only after chaotically zipping through multiple other states in a pattern that looks completely random. >>

<< Understanding how our brains restore some degree of stability after chaos could help us work out how to treat disorders at either end of this spectrum. Too much chaos is probably what happens when a person has a seizure, whereas too much stability might leave a person comatose. >>

Jessica Hamzelou. Neuroscientists listened in on people’s brains for a week. They found order and chaos. Rhiannon Williams. MIT Download. Feb 8, 2023.

https://mailchi.mp/technologyreview.com/mass-market-military-drones-have-changed-the-way-wars-are-fought-839014

<< The team (Avniel Ghuman, Maxwell Wang, et al.) found some surprising patterns in brain activity over the course of the week. Specific brain networks seemed to communicate with each other in what looked like a “dance,” with one region appearing to “listen” while the other “spoke,” say the researchers, who presented their findings at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego last year. >>

Jessica Hamzelou. MIT Tech Rev. Feb 7, 2023. 

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/07/1067951/brains-week-order-chaos

Also 

keyword 'danza' in Notes

(quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=danza

keyword 'dance' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=dance

keyword 'cervello' | 'brain' in Notes

(quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=cervello

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=brain

keyword 'brain' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=brain

keyword 'chaos' | 'chaotic' in Font

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=chaos

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=chaotic

keyword 'caos' | 'caotico' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=caos

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=caotico

<< Amico, qualunque  cosa suonerai . . . >>  Jelly Roll Morton. cit.: 2113 - soniche a ramulo. Jan 28, 2007

http://inkpi.blogspot.it/2007/01/2113-soniche-ramulo.html

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=jelly+roll

Keywords: gst, brain, transition, chaos, dance

# brain: the hypothesis that a brain organoid (a lab-grown brain) can reach consciousness.

<< In Alysson Muotri’s laboratory, hundreds of miniature human brains, the size of sesame seeds, float in Petri dishes, sparking with electrical activity. 

These tiny structures, known as brain organoids, are grown from human stem cells and have become a familiar fixture in many labs that study the properties of the brain. Muotri, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has found some unusual ways to deploy his. He has connected organoids to walking robots, modified their genomes with Neanderthal genes, launched them into orbit aboard the International Space Station, and used them as models to develop more human-like artificial-intelligence (AI) systems. (..) But one experiment has drawn more scrutiny than the others. In August 2019, Muotri’s group published a paper in Cell Stem Cell (*) reporting the creation of human brain organoids that produced coordinated waves of activity, resembling those seen in premature babies. The waves continued for months before the team shut the experiment down. This type of brain-wide, coordinated electrical activity is one of the properties of a conscious brain. >> 

Sara Reardon. Can lab-grown brains become conscious? Nature 586, 658-661. doi: 10.1038/ d41586-020-02986-y. Oct 27, 2020. Correction Nov 4, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02986-y     

(*)  Trujillo CA, Gao R, et al. Complex Oscillatory Waves Emerging from Cortical Organoids Model Early Human Brain Network Development. Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Oct 3;25(4):558-569.e7. doi: 10.1016/ j.stem.2019.08.002. Aug 29, 2019. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31474560/

https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(19)30337-6

# brain: creativity, neural patterns involved in Jazz improvisation

<< "I had always intuitively understood that the creative process in jazz improvisation is very different than the process of memorization," he (Charles Limb) explained. "That is immediately apparent when you play" >>

<< While the musicians improvised, the parts of the brain that allow humans to express ourselves - the medial prefrontal cortex or "default network" - became more active. At the same time, the part of the brain responsible for self-inhibition and control, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, became dormant. >>

<< By inhibiting the part of the brain that allows self-criticism, the musicians were able to stay in their creative flow, known as "in the zone." >>

Sandee LaMotte, CNN. Jazz improv and your brain: The key to creativity?  Apr 29, 2018.

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/04/29/health/brain-on-jazz-improvisation-improv/index.html

Charles J. Limb, Allen R. Braun. Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation.  PLOS ONE 3(2): e1679.  doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001679. Feb 27, 2008.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001679  

Also

# brain: about creativity in musical improvisation.  Apr 6, 2018.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.it/2018/04/brain-about-creativity-in-musical.html

2117 - la destra e la sinistra di Hines.
Feb 02, 2007.

https://inkpi.blogspot.it/2007/02/2117-la-destra-e-la-sinistra-di-hines.html

# life; a hypothetical externalization of knowledge effects; humans are thought to have decreased in brain volume since the end of the last ice age (3,000 y.ago)

<< Human brain size nearly quadrupled in the six million years since Homo last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased in volume since the end of the last Ice Age. The timing and reason for this decrease is enigmatic. Here (AA) use change-point analysis to estimate the timing of changes in the rate of hominin brain evolution. (They) find that hominin brains experienced positive rate changes at 2.1 and 1.5 million years ago, coincident with the early evolution of Homo and technological innovations evident in the archeological record. But (AA) also find that human brain size reduction was surprisingly recent, occurring in the last 3,000 years. >>

Jeremy M. DeSilva, James F. A. Traniello, et al. When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size? A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants. Front. Ecol. Evol.,  doi: 10.3389/ fevo.2021.742639. Oct 22, 2021. 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.742639/full

When and why did human brains decrease in size 3,000 years ago? Ants may hold clues. Frontiers. Oct 22, 2021.

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-human-brains-decrease-size-years.html

Also

keyword 'nomade' | 'nomad' | 'nomads' | 'nomadic' | 'hunter-gatherers' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=nomade

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=nomad

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=nomads

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=nomadic

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=hunter-gatherers

keyword 'nomade' | 'nomadi' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=nomade

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=nomadi

keyword 'ctz' entities in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=ctz

keywords: evolution, brain, brain size, nomads, post-nomads, sociocultural effects

# brain: a unique patterns of activations during processing narratives

<< English, Farsi and Mandarin readers use the same parts of the brain to decode the deeper meaning of what they're reading >>

<< Even given these fundamental differences in language, which can be read in a different direction or contain a completely different alphabet altogether, there is something universal about what occurs in the brain at the point when we are processing narratives >> Morteza Dehghani.

<< In the case of each language, reading each story resulted in unique patterns of activations in the "default mode network" of the brain. This network engages interconnected brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the inferior parietal lobe, the lateral temporal cortex and hippocampal formation >>

<< One of the biggest mysteries of neuroscience is how we create meaning out of the world. Stories are deep-rooted in the core of our nature and help us create this meaning >> Jonas Kaplan.

University of Southern California. Something universal occurs in the brain when it processes stories, regardless of language.  ScienceDaily. Oct 5, 2017.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171005141710.htm

Morteza Dehghani, Reihane Boghrati, et al.  Decoding the neural representation of story meanings across languages. Human Brain Mapping. 2017 doi: 10.1002/hbm.23814

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi?DOI=10.1002/hbm.23814

# brain: to trace transitions from consciousness to unconscious subliminal perception

AA << study the transition in the functional networks that characterize the human brains’ conscious-state to an unconscious subliminal state of perception >>

<< the most inner core (i.e., the most connected kernel) of the conscious-state functional network corresponds to areas which remain functionally active when the brain transitions from the conscious-state to the subliminal-state. That is, the inner core of the conscious network coincides with the subliminal-state. >>

<< This finding imposes constraints to theoretical models of consciousness, in that the location of the core of the functional brain network is in the unconscious part of the brain rather than in the conscious state as previously thought. >>

Francesca Arese Lucini, Gino Del Ferraro, et al. How the Brain Transitions from Conscious to Subliminal Perception. Neuroscience. Volume 411, Jul 15, 2019, Pages 280-290.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452219302052

<< The k-core of the conscious state is reduced to three active regions of the brain, the fusiform gyrus (left and right) and the precentral gyrus. These regions are the only active in the subliminal state. >>

Physicists use mathematics to trace neuro transitions. City College of New York. Jul 18, 2019.

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-physicists-mathematics-neuro-transitions.html  

# brain: networks that may underlie our perception of free will

<< Our perception of free will is composed of a desire to act (volition) and a sense of responsibility for our actions (agency). >>

AA << study focal brain lesions that disrupt volition, causing akinetic mutism (..), or disrupt agency, causing alien limb syndrome (..), to better localize these processes in the human brain. >>

<< Lesion locations causing akinetic mutism all fell within one network, defined by connectivity to the anterior cingulate cortex. Lesion locations causing alien limb fell within a separate network, defined by connectivity to the precuneus. >>

AA << results demonstrate that lesions in different locations causing disordered volition and agency localize to unique brain networks, lending insight into the neuroanatomical substrate of free will perception. >>

R. Ryan Darby, Juho Joutsa, et al. Lesion network localization of free will. PNAS Oct 1, 2018.  doi: 10.1073/pnas.1814117115  

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/09/25/1814117115 

Study looks at brain networks involved with free will. Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Oct 1, 2018

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2018-10-brain-networks-involved-free.html  

# life: how humans could mutate, step by step, into proto- alien entities ...

AA << studied the brain after long-duration space flight. The authors performed serial MRI on 11 of 54 eligible International Space Station astronauts (10 men, one woman; five astronauts had previous exposure to spaceflight; mean mission duration almost 6 months), both preflight and at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after spaceflight. They found that prolonged microgravity exposure caused the following brain changes: (a) an approximate 2% expansion of brain and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) volumes, attributable to both white matter and lateral ventricular measurements, and these remained elevated at 1-year after spaceflight, suggesting permanent alterations; (b) a 13% increase in mean CSF intraventricular (aqueductal) flow velocity, suggesting a reduction in intracranial compliance; and (c) in roughly half (six of 11 astronauts), depression of the pituitary dome compared with baseline (average midline height decreased from 5.9 to 5.3 mm), suggesting elevated intracranial pressure during spaceflight. >>

Michael H. Lev. The Long-term Effects of Spaceflight on Human Brain Physiology. Radiology. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020201164. Apr 14, 2020.

https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020201164

Chelsea Gohd. Space travel can seriously change your brain. Apr 14, 2020.

https://www.space.com/brain-changes-in-space-astronaut-health-study.html

# brain: jazzy perceptions inside, there’s more to all the noise; even in the dark, neurons of the visual cortex chat

<< Scientists are now rethinking how they study and conceive of perception. >>

<< At every moment, neurons whisper, shout, sputter and sing, filling the brain with a dizzying cacophony of voices. Yet many of those voices don’t seem to be saying anything meaningful at all. They register as habitual echoes of noise, not signal; as static, not discourse. >>️

<< But over the past decade, that view has changed. (..) There’s more to all the noise, scientists realized, than they had assumed. >>️

<< Now, by analyzing both the neural activity and the behavior of mice in unprecedented detail, researchers have revealed a surprising explanation for much of that variability: Throughout the brain, even in low-level sensory areas like the visual cortex, neurons encode information about far more than their immediately relevant task. They also babble about whatever other behaviors the animal happens to be engaging in, even trivial ones — the twitch of a whisker, the flick of a hind leg. Those simple gestures aren’t just present in the neural activity. They dominate it. >>️

<< Our brains aren’t just thinking in our heads. Our brains are interacting with our bodies and the way that we move through the world. >> Cris Niell. 

<< Wait — maybe the brain isn’t noisy. Maybe it’s actually much more precise than we thought, >> David McCormick️.️

Jordana Cepelewicz. ‘Noise’ in the Brain Encodes Surprisingly Important Signals. Quantamag. Nov 7, 2019. 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/noise-in-the-brains-vision-areas-encodes-body-movements-20191107/

Salkoff DB, Zagha E, McCarthy E, McCormick DA. Movement and Performance Explain Widespread Cortical Activity in a Visual Detection Task. Cereb Cortex. 2020 Jan 10;30(1):421-437. doi: 10.1093/ cercor/bhz206. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31711133/

Also

keyword 'perception' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=perception

keyword 'percezione' | 'percezioni' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=percezione

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=percezioni

keyword 'error' | 'fuzzy' | 'noise'  in FonT 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=error

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=fuzzy

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=noise

keywords 'errore' | 'errori' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=errore

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=errori

keyword 'jazz' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=jazz

keyword 'jazz' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry):

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=jazz

Keywords: brain, perception, visual cortex, noise

# brain: short-term exercise enhances brain function

<< Exercise is cheap, and you don't necessarily need a fancy gym membership or have to run 10 miles a day, >> Gary Westbrook

AA << designed a study in mice that specifically measured the brain's response to single bouts of exercise in otherwise sedentary mice that were placed for short periods on running wheels. The mice ran a few kilometers in two hours. >>

<< short-term bursts of exercise- the human equivalent of a weekly game of pickup basketball, or 4,000 steps- promoted an increase in synapses in the hippocampus. Scientists made the key discovery by analyzing genes that were increased in single neurons activated during exercise. >>

<< One particular gene stood out: Mtss1L. This gene had been largely ignored in prior studies in the brain. >>

Study reveals a short bout of exercise enhances brain function. Oregon Health & Science University.  Jul 3, 2019.

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-reveals-short-bout-brain-function.html   

AA << results link short-term effects of exercise to activity-dependent expression of Mtss1L, which propose as a novel effector of activity- dependent rearrangement of synapses. >>

Christina Chatzi, Yingyu Zhang, et al.  Exercise-induced enhancement of synaptic function triggered by the inverse BAR protein, Mtss1L.  eLife 2019; 8: e45920. doi: 10.7554/eLife.45920. Jun 24, 2019

https://elifesciences.org/articles/45920 

# s-brain: how to manage big and small numbers ...

<< Previous  studies  have  highlighted  the  general  region  where  the  brain  handles numbers  -  in  an  area  called  the  fronto-parietal  cortex,  which  runs  approximately  from the  top  of  the  head  to  just  above  the  ear.  But  scientists  are  in  the  dark  about  how exactly  the  brain  unpicks  and  processes  numbers >>

<< Dr  Qadeer  Arshad (..) said:  "Following  early  insights  from  stroke  patients  we  wanted  to  find  out exactly  how  the  brain  processes  numbers.  In  our  new  study,  in  which  we  used  healthy volunteers,  we  found  the  left  side  processes  large  numbers,  and  the  right  processes small  numbers.  So  for  instance  if  you  were  looking  at  a  clock,  the  numbers  one  to  six would  be  processed  on  the  right  side  of  the  brain,  and  six  to  twelve  would  be processed  on  the  left." >>

Kate Wighton. Big  and  small  numbers  are  processed  in  different  sides of the brain. 04 March 2016.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_4-3-2016-9-47-53

<<  This allowed us to demonstrate the first systematic bidirectional modulation of numerical magnitude toward either higher or lower numbers, independently of either eye movements or spatial attention mediated biases >>

<< (..) numerical allocation is continually updated in a contextual manner based upon relative magnitude, with the right hemisphere responsible for smaller magnitudes and the left hemisphere for larger magnitudes >>

Qadeer Arshad, Yuliya Nigmatullina, et al. Bidirectional Modulation of Numerical Magnitude. Cereb. Cortex (2016) doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv344 First published online: February 14, 2016

http://m.cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/02/14/cercor.bhv344.abstract?sid=5874fc1d-ce40-475e-a509-77e48bfaee81

# s-brain: intuitions as a physical brain simulator

<< Recent  behavioral  and  computational  research  has suggested  that  our  physical  intuitions  may  be  supported  by  a  “physics  engine”  in  the  brain akin  to  the  physical  simulation  engines  built  into  video  games. >>

AA << identified  a  set  of  cortical  regions that  are  selectively  engaged  when  people  watch  and  predict  the  unfolding  of  physical  events— a  “physics  engine”  in  the  brain >>

Jason Fischer, John G. Mikhael, et al. Functional neuroanatomy of intuitive physical inference. PNAS vol.  113  no.  34  E5072–E5081

http://m.pnas.org/content/113/34/E5072.abstract

Shelly Fan.  Like Video Games, Your Brain Has a Physics Engine That Simulates the World. Sep 04, 2016.

http://singularityhub.com/2016/09/04/like-video-games-your-brain-has-a-physics-engine-that-simulates-the-world

# brain: lizard, an ancient dreamer (2)

<< Reptiles have a brain area previously suspected to play a role in mammalian higher cognitive processes, and establish its role in controlling brain dynamics in sleep. >>

<< The fact that we find a claustrum homolog in reptiles suggests that the claustrum is an ancient structure, likely present in the brains of the common vertebrate ancestor of reptiles and mammals, (..) While our results have not answered the question as to whether the claustrum plays a role in consciousness or higher cognitive functions, they indicate that it may play an important role in the control of brain states (such as in sleep), due to ascending input from the mid- and hindbrain, to its widespread projections to the forebrain and to its role in sharp-wave generation during slow-wave sleep, >> Gilles Laurent

Hidden away: An enigmatic mammalian brain area revealed in reptiles. Max Planck Society.  Feb 13, 2020

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-hidden-enigmatic-mammalian-brain-area.html

Hiroaki Norimoto, Lorenz A. Fenk, et al. A claustrum in reptiles and its role in slow-wave sleep. Nature volume 578, pages 413–418. Feb 12, 2020

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1993-6

Also

keyword 'lizard' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=lizard

# brain behav: a hypothesis of 'loss of self' when they have to assume a 'fictional perspective'

In a functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) study, AA << sought to identify brain regions preferentially activated when actors adopt a Fic1P (fictional first-person) perspective during dramatic role playing. >>

<< Compared to responding as oneself, responding in character produced global reductions in brain activity and, particularly, deactivations in the cortical midline network of the frontal lobe, including the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. Thus, portraying a character through acting seems to be a deactivation-driven process, perhaps representing a 'loss of self'. >>

Steven Brown, Peter Cockett, Ye Yuan. The neuroscience of Romeo and Juliet: an fMRI study of acting. Royal Society Open Science. Mar 13, 2019 doi:.10.1098/rsos.181908

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.181908

<< It is often said that great actors lose themselves in their roles, and now a brain activity study shows that is more than just a turn of phrase. >>

Chelsea Whyte. Brain scans reveal actors lose their sense of self when acting a role. March 13, 2019.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196303-brain-scans-reveal-actors-lose-their-sense-of-self-when-acting-a-role/amp/

# s-brain: everyday decisions inside small brain clusters

<< Choosing  what  shirt  to  buy,  what  to  order  for  lunch  or  whether  to  go  with  the  hearty  red  wine  or  the  lighter white  all  involve  assigning  values  to  the  options.  A  small  brain  structure  plays  a  central  role  in  the  many  decisions  like this  we  make  each  day. >>

<< (..) some  of  the  neurons  in  the  orbitofrontal  cortex  (OFC)  assign  value  to  the  options, while  other  neurons  are  related  to  making  final  choices.  All  of  these  neurons  can  re-map  to  make  different  decisions when  circumstances  change. >>

<< “If  we  look  at  individual  cells,  neurons  are  very  flexible,”  said  Padoa-Schioppa.  “However,  if  we  consider  the  whole network,  the  decision  circuit  is  remarkably  stable.  This  combination  of  circuit  stability  and  neuronal  flexibility  makes  it possible  for  the  same  brain  region  to  generate  decisions  between  any  two  goods.” >>

Small Brain  Area  Plays  Key  Role  in  Making  Everyday  Decisions. 9-May-2016  12:05  PM  EDT

http://www.newswise.com/articles/small-brain-area-plays-key-role-in-making-everyday-decisions

Jue  Xie,  Camillo  Padoa-Schioppa. Neuronal  remapping  and  circuit  persistence  in economic  decisions. Nature  Neuroscience   (2016)   doi:10.1038/nn.4300. Published  online  09  May  2016.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4300