Painting post: Exploitation in Rwanda

Statistics are sobering but none caught my attention more so than when I ran into a website called the Sisters of Rwanda here (http://sistersofrwanda.org/). This is an NGO run out of Rwanda by Jared N Miller (a partner in The Incubator Group, a private equity firm out of Nashville) and Joseph Ayienga (Pastor from Kenya).
The NGO is actively involved in helping prostitutes (former and current) on the streets of Kigali, Rwanda lead better lives by teaching them about better opportunities and slowly but surely convincing them to stay off the streets.

The numbers that caught my eye were the results of this group interviewing random samplings of women in and around Kigali. Some averages taken from interviewing groups of 50 women were as follows: (from their website)

-5 Men per day
-7 Days per week
-3 Weeks off per year
-A condom was used less than half of the time
-If a man pays 5,000 RWF ($9.00 USD) he doesn’t have to use a condom. If a man pays 1,000 RWF – 3,000 RWF ($1.80 USD - $5.40 USD), the girl has some bargaining power and can get them to use one about half the time. The more the man pays, the less likely he is to use a condom.

They had images of women on their site that bespoke a kind of suffering that I could hardly imagine and I decided to paint one of them. This is what I have created and I decided to call it "5 Men a day 7 days a week 49 weeks a year". The painting is 3 feet wide and 4 feet high.

Ancient Art principles: Redux

I was recently reading a book by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran where he argues that Chola bronzes from ancient India were mocked at by the Victorian Englishmen as artistically primitive and unrealistic. They were unrealistic in the sense that the waist was too narrow, hips too wide and their breasts too large. They in fact decided that art like this was not art at all and labeled it primitive art. Professor Ramachandran goes on to say that some of the Victorians labeled the art thus based on prevailing standards of Western art (some of which was rooted in realism and stemmed from classical Greek and Renaissance art).

Today most people will readily tell you that most expressions of art is not really about realism and is not about creating a replica about what is out there in the world - rather it is a figurative way of communicating message(s) in an appropriate way to the viewer. He makes the assertion (a bit specious in my view) that the ancient Cholas really knew about this dictum long ago and that was the reason why they did not create ‘realistic’ statues but accentuated the hips and breasts of the goddesses such that they could abstractly communicate beauty of the female form (one among the many such subjects they tackled) to the common people.

On a related note, a finding by scientists at Harvard and Princeton shows that intricate decorative tile-work found in medieval architecture across the Islamic world appears to exhibit advanced decagonal quasicrystal geometry (mathematical concepts discovered by mathematicians and physicists just 30 years back). (Reported in the current issue of the journal Science)

“In their journal report, Mr. Lu and Dr. Steinhardt concluded that by the 15th century, Islamic designers and artisans had developed techniques to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns, five centuries before discovery in the West. Some of the most complex patterns, called “girih” in Persian, consist of sets of contiguous polygons fitted together with little distortion and no gaps. Running through each polygon (a decagon, pentagon, diamond, bowtie or hexagon) is a decorative line. Mr. Lu found that the interlocking tiles were arranged in predictable ways to create a pattern that never repeats — that is, quasi crystals.” - excerpt from the New York Times (02/27)

This has oftentimes led me to wonder how many of our prevailing art movements could have roots in techniques practiced by our ancient ancestors. Have you come across any examples of this kind?

PS: The picture above is of Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva, circa 1000 AD, Tamil Nadu, India

A brief post on savants and the savant syndrome:
The other day my wife called me excitedly and told me to listen to a show on NPR about a man named Daniel Tammet and his amazing feats of memory (which included the recitation of irrational numbers - non-repeating non-terminating decimal numbers like pi to 22,000 places). I had not heard of him before this, but I knew that she was talking about a savant.

Although the formal meaning of the word is "a learned person or a scholar", it is more commonly engaged to refer to people who possess astonishing islands of ability, brilliance or talent (like exactly remembering the day of the week and the weather of any given day of their lives). In many cases it is manifested due to various beural developmental disorders, including autistic disorder.

It is one thing to read about stuff like this and be amazed, but I was astounded to run into the following documentary on the web that talks about this man abilities. If you have about an hour, please do not miss out on.

Excerpt from a book by Daniel Tammet:
I was born on January 31, 1979—a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number 9 or the sound of loud voices arguing. I like my birth date, because of the way I’m able to visualize most of the numbers in it as smooth and round shapes, similar to pebbles on a beach. That’s because they are prime numbers: 31, 19, 197, 97, 79 and 1979 are all divisible only by themselves and 1. I can recognize every prime up to 9,973 by their “pebble-like” quality. It’s just the way my brain works. I have a rare condition known as savant syndrome, little known before its portrayal by actor Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning 1988 film Rain Man.

Commonly the savant syndrome has been associated with people who have undergone some kind of a traumatic change in their brains (be it an epileptic seizure or a blow to certain parts of the cranium or in some cases be born with symptoms of synesthesia or autism), but it is also strongly argued by some researchers like Professor Alan Snyder at the Centre for the Mind in Sydney who state that it is not only savants who have these extraordinary abilities, but that everyone does. However, he suggests that in normal people it is suppressed by the other natural forces involved in the brain’s operation.

Snyder uses Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to try to recreate the same brain state in normal individuals that is observed in autistic savants and so stimulate the same type of creativity. (I am personally a little dubious, but whatever type of research it takes for us to understand this phenomenon better is fine with me).

It is still unclear on the exact neurobiology behind manifestations like this in individuals but people like Daniel offer modern day scientists a great opportunity to study the inner workings of our brains and how aberrations in the neural circuitry can positively effect our mental capabilities.

PS: There is a theory that some of this happens when there is damage to the left hemisphere at some stage in the individuals life that is compensated by right hemispheric activities coupled with damage to cognitive memory circuits compensated by larger takeup of circuits involved I the formation and manifestation of habit based memory (taken from “Islands of Genius” by Darold Treflert.

I found some very good research material on the web mainly in the form of papers and it might be worth taking a look at some of this if you wish to understand this phenomenon better

We are all savants – Diane Powell

The cognitive neuroscience of creativity Arne Dietrich American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Savant-like numerosity skills revealed in normal people by magnetic pulses - Snyder et. al. Perception, 2006, volume 35, pages 837 ^ 845

Savant like skills exposed in normal people by suppressing the left fronto-temporal lobe - Snyder et. al. (Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, Vol 2, No. 2, 149-158 (2003))

The uncanny abilities of Idiot savants - Donald K. Snyder

Commentary on Michael Winkelman, ‘Shamanism and cognitive evolution’ Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 12, 91-3, 2002

Blue Nines and Red Words – Daniel Tammet

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

New Art City:
If you are not careful walking around in the city this weekend, chances of tripping and falling on an art fair are fairly high (and some good fairs at that). I could not resist scanning this collection of art fairs ongoing this weekend. Do visit some if you have the time (and the money)...

(Click on the image to make it readable)

My post on Art and Perception:
Since I did not want to repost stuff that I had already posted on Art and Perception, here is a link to a one pager that I had written explaining the technique behind my artwork.

Painting Post: Of Bollywood and its denizens

This painting took quite some time to complete as I wanted to make sure that I captured the whimsical expression behind my intent in painting the same. Most of my paintings have a bit of a ‘significant intent’ behind the face that represents my intent. This painting portrays a random face among the multitude of young ladies who leave the suburbs with star crossed eyes hoping to make it big in Bollywood (India’s Hollywood). A very small percentage of them actually make it up the grinding road to stardom (sometimes to be knocked off the pedestal with their very next venture). A large percentage of them do not make it anywhere near the top instead languishing in the alleyways of Bombay as second hands and pass-me-downs. A lot of these ladies have the right ‘stuff’, but sadly they were not the right people at the right place at the right time – ingredients that go into making all of our careers a bit more successful in these random times.
This painting is 48 inches high and 36 inches wide and is titled ‘Bollywood Broodings’.

Related: Product placement and Bollywood movies: an exploration of industry structure, film themes and placement opportunities with indigenous and Indian diaspora audiences

A most remarkable picture

Wounded US Marine returns home from Iraq to marry.

Finding out beforehand what the intentions in our brains are:

Every working day, we make decisions that guide us through our daily lives. Each of these decisions are the products of emotional, cognitive and motivational dispositions acting out their neural concerts in specified regions of our brain. Most (not all) of these decisions are carried out based on pre-planned intentions that may sometimes be voiced aloud and sometimes not. John-Dylan Haynes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (in cooperation with researchers from London and Tokyo) were able to isolate how and where the brain stores these intentions (the full paper is online here). Most of our secret intentions remain hidden in our brains and in our thoughts until we actually decide to carry them out at which point it becomes an action.

The researchers using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and algorithms that inferred the intentions from patterns of neural activity obtained from the fMRI were able to decode the intention that the volunteers had in their heads without them uttering their inner thoughts. They also confirmed the long standing view that actions are not encoded in single neurons but in a whole spatial pattern of brain activity.

"They let subjects freely and covertly choose between two possible tasks - to either add or subtract two numbers. They were then asked to hold in mind their intention for a while until the relevant numbers were presented on a screen. The researchers were able to recognize the subjects intentions with 70% accuracy based alone on their brain activity - even before the participants had seen the numbers and had started to perform the calculation.
Participants made their choice covertly and initially did not know the two numbers they were supposed to add or subtract. Only a few seconds later the numbers appeared on a screen and the participants could perform the calculation. This ensured that the intention itself was being read out, rather than brain activity related to performing the calculation or pressing the buttons to indicate the response. "It has been previously assumed that freely selected plans might be stored in the middle regions of the prefrontal cortex, whereas plans following external instructions could be stored on the surface of the brain. We were able to confirm this theory in our experiments", Haynes explained.

The work of Haynes and his colleagues goes far beyond simply confirming previous theories. It has never before been possible to read out of brain activity how a person has decided to act in the future. The trick by which the invisible is made visible lies in a new method called "multivariate pattern recognition". A computer is programmed to recognize characteristic activation patterns in the brain that typically occur in association with specific thoughts. Once this computer has been "trained" it can be used to predict the decisions of subjects from their brain activity alone. An important technical innovation also lies in combining information across extended regions of the brain to strongly increase sensitivity."

“Taken together, our results extend previous studies on the processing of goals in prefrontal cortex in several important ways. They reveal for the first time that spatial response patterns in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex encode a subject's covert intentions in a highly specific fashion. They also demonstrate a functional separation in medial prefrontal cortex, where more anterior regions encode the intention prior to its execution and more posterior regions encode the intention during task execution. These findings have important implications not only for the neural models of executive control, but also for technical and clinical applications, such as the further development of brain-computer interfaces, that might now be able to decode intentions that go beyond simple movements and extend to high-level cognitive processes”

I am sure that this research will help improve the lives of paralyzed patients currently using brain computer interfaces (BMIs). Imagine a time when a BMI helping a paralyzed patient with motor deficiency would be able to read a complex intention like “I would like to go to the bedroom and rest awhile – robot can you make the bed for me?”…

I also remember reading somewhere (unfortunately I am not able to link to that paper, but will do so as soon as I ferret it out) that there is a time gap between the instant that an intention is formed in our brains and the time that we become consciously aware of the same. In fact I remember being a little perturbed by this fact. Imagine that neural patterns in the brain form an intention based on pre-existing dispositions that you have towards the subject and then you become aware of it - almost like a inner homunculus (albeit a diffuse one) making up decisions and revealing them to you later…

Papers of interest:

Reading hidden intentions in the human brain - John-Dylan Haynes et al.

Brain reading” with fMRI: Decoding of conscious and unconscious information processing
John-Dylan Haynes

Predicting the orientation of invisible stimuli from activity in the human primary visual cortex - Geraint Rees and John-Dylan Haynes; Nature neuroscience Volume 8 Number 5, May 2005

Predicting the Stream of Consciousness from Activity in Human Visual Cortex - Geraint Rees and John-Dylan Haynes; Current Biology, Vol. 15, 1301–1307, July 26, 2005

The cognitive neuroscience of individual differences - new perspectives

Art and Perception has a guest post by me:
Art and Perception (coordinated primarily by Karl Zipser) is a site that brings together some very talented artists who write and discuss art criticism, art technique, and dialectics on other interesting artistic expressions (like photography for instance). Many of the posts tend more towards being artistic essays than regular blog-type posts... Not too sure how many noticed, but this site has remained a permanent fixture on my 'Links of Interest' for some time now. I have been a regular visitor for some time and a commenter for a little while now. Karl asked me to write a guest post about my artistic tendencies and I was happy to write one out for the site. Here is a link to the same. Hope you like it. Of course, if you are bored by my post, fret not, be sure to check out some great posts by other gifted artists on this.

PS: In addition to being an artist, Karl also has an interest in neuroscience and has a doctorate in the neural sciences from MIT.

'Feeling alone' as opposed to 'being alone' and the increased risk for Alzheimers in the former.

In a study published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, Dr. Robert S. Wilson and his colleagues have found evidence from an experimental study that loneliness is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Little is actually known about feeling alone rather than being alone - like between a person who could feel ‘alone’ even when surrounded by lots of people around as opposed to ‘being alone’ experienced by a lot of older age individuals who have lost their significant others.

Humans are very social creatures. We need healthy interactions with others to maintain our health,” said Wilson. “The results of our study suggest that people who are persistently lonely may be more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of age-related neuropathology.”
If loneliness is causing changes in the brain, it is quite possible that medications or changes in behavior could lessen the effects of these negative emotions and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Wilson.

They analyzed the association between loneliness and Alzheimer’s disease in 823 older adults over a four year period and included questionnaires to assess loneliness, classifications of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and testing of their thinking, learning and memory abilities. Loneliness was measured on a scale of one to five, with higher scores indicating more loneliness.
Risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease increased approximately 51 percent for each point on the loneliness score, so that a person with a high loneliness score (3.2) had about double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than a person with a low score (1.4).

Previous studies have shown the effects of social isolation and the risk for dementia and cognitive decline (like that suffered by prisoners undergoing long term incarceration), but this study was one of the first to focus on the effects of emotional isolation when the person has it in their minds that they FEEL alone. A very instructive study and I will be eager to find out more on this as and when additional results come out of this group.

Loneliness and Risk of Alzheimer Disease by Robert S. Wilson, PhD et. al - Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64:234-240

Supermax Prisons: Their Rise, Current Practices, and Effect on Inmates Jesenia Pizarro and Vanja M. K. Stenius; Rutgers University

Women in Prison: A Fact Sheet The Issue: Sexual Assault and Misconduct Against Women in Prison

Stress and its pernicious effects on our lives...

I was reading an excellent book by Joseph LeDoux (Synaptic Self – How our brains become who we are) and came across a remarkably succinct definition of stress and stress related damage on our brains and thought that I should draw a diagram to better understand it. I posted it here so that we could later refer to some of the flows involved (I plan to write a follow up post on some of the latest discoveries regarding stress). Please click on the image for a detailed view.
What is fascinating is that a behavior (stress response) that was evolved and fine tuned by our ancestors for use in one-off occasions to protect ourselves from impending attacks of wild beasts is now being experienced by all of us on a regular basis because of the pace of lives that we live out (the effects of this on our brains is far removed than what evolution had planned).

Well, there is clear evidence that the stress related changes in our bodies could directly effect our capacity to remember things and to a larger extent, have long term destructive effects on some of the most important structures within our brains. I hope you find this diagram useful. It is not as dense as it looks…

Some relevant definitions:
Hormone: Is a chemical messenger from one cell (or group of cells) to another. Hormones are produced by nearly every organ system and tissue type in an animal body. Hormone molecules are secreted (released) directly into the bloodstream.
Amygdala: It is a set of subcortical mass of neuronal cells that is important for perceiving in others and having in oneself emotional or affective behaviors and feelings (e.g. fear, anger). It got its name from its shape - like an 'almond'.
Peptides: Family of short molecules formed from the linking, in a defined order, of various amino acids (similar to proteins). Used for signalling among a host of other functions. Hormones are made of protein/peptides.
Hippocampus: Part of the brain located inside the temporal lobe (humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain). It plays a major part in memory and spatial navigation. The name derives from its curved shape in coronal sections of the brain, which resembles a seahorse (Greek: hippos = horse, kampi = curve).

Painting Post:
I remember being struck by a picture of Isabella Rossellini in which she holds her impossibly long neck proudly to the camera and also remember deciding immediately to capture this pose in oil. It took about 20 days to finish this one mainly because I was agonizing over the right colors to use for the hair. I finally decided on a combination between alizarin crimson hue, cadmium yellow pale, umber and shades of flesh for the hair. The face was mostly mixing white with a pale yellow hue contrasted with lemon yellow shade. I was happy for the most part with the results achieved mainly because it did capture the pose in the original picture (I think...). I decided to call it ‘Long neck and adornments’. The size is 48 inches by 36 inches.

A bit of trivia: Isabella's real name is Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (that's quite a mouthful).

Damage to a brain structure called the Insula disrupts addiction to cigarette smoking:

Scientists have reported recently that damage to a portion of the brain called the insula kills the urge to smoke. The insula is a region that lies underneath the cerebral cortex behind the upper lobes of our ears. It is a deep brain structure and is thought to the implicated in the intermeshing of physical activity and emotion and the translation of one to the other (including the attendant effects of motivation and craving for the ‘fix’). This may be the first time that scientists have obtained definitive proof that the insula may be the seat and originator for cravings that develop within all of us. Of course we cannot go ahead and damage a person’s insula in the hope that the person may quit smoking, but we could develop alternative therapies like selective ablation of certain portions of the insula or stem cell based mediated growth (or death) to relevant portions of the insula to stop the urge to smoke. All of that is conjecture at this point in time and only a lot more concentrated research in this field will prove to us the viability of technologies outlined above...

Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California who led the research said that he was initially puzzled when a patient with stroke related damage to the insula suddenly gave up the smoking habit. This prompted him to look at stroke registries for correlation between location of the stroke related injuries in the brain and the predilection of the person to go back to smoking. This led to the ultimate pinpointing of the region on the brain that kills the urge in an individual to smoke. The rest they say is concentrated research and history... He has published his results in today’s issue of the science magazine... Unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on the paper.

In light of the enormous amount of research that needs to be carried out in this area, it may be a while until we see troops of smokers heading to the operating table for brain surgery to quit smoking... Meanwhile if you want to quit smoking, I would say, just drop the bad habit.

Off topic but relevant to our lives:
Listening to the 'State of the Union', the rebuttal and the 'pre-rebuttal', I was struck by the seemingly lackadaisical attitude towards securing healthcare - especially for the indigent population.

Imagine this scenario: You belong to the middle to lower income rung of the society where you make a living from paycheck to paycheck. You are relaxing inside your home enjoying a good family get-together when you decide to get up and help yourself to some more water from the refrigerator. On your way you happen to trip on the furniture and fell down hard on your knees and double up in excruciating pain. You decide the pain is too much for you to bear and it almost seems like a broken kneecap. Your significant other manages to reach the phone, call 911 and the ambulance comes along. As you are loaded onto the ambulance they ask you about the insurance and you tell them that you are uninsured. They give you disapproving looks, but haul you off to the nearest hospital. Once in the hospital, they say that they cannot start treatment on you until you present them with a major credit card such that they could bill you for expenses. You tell them that in addition to having no health insurance (because your employer did not provide for it); you really do not have any major credit cards. They tell you to sign a few forms that will give you a credit card account immediately. You reluctantly sign and head off into the ER to be treated for a broken kneecap.

Although this scenario is made up - times are coming upon us where we would begin to see this as a form of reality among the more indigent among us. A report released this week titled "Borrowing to stay healthy" compiled by Demos (a public policy group in New York) stated that about 29% of low and middle income families with credit card debt reported using their credit cards to pay for medical expenses for major medical problems. This additional indebtedness tacked onto late fees and interest payments only adds to the suffering endured by the patient and their families.

I was also deeply struck by the following lines from the New York Times op-ed page that talked about this report:

"Its one thing to reach for your Visa or MasterCard to pay for a Barbie doll or a flat-screen TV. It’s way different to pull out the plastic because you have just learned you have cancer or heart disease, and you don’t have any other way to pay for treatment that would prevent a premature trip to the great beyond. A society is seriously out of whack when legalized loan sharks are encouraged to close in on those who are broke and desperately ill"

The report cites the following policy recommendations:
-Differentiate Medical Debt from Consumer Debt
-Limit the Entry of Medical Providers into Financial Services
-Increase Oversight of Lines of Credit Attached to Health Savings Account Products
-Improve screening for eligibility in public or private financial assistance programs
-Enact a Borrower’s Security Act

The report is a little dense reading and may not serve your light reading needs, but is nonetheless an urgent wake up call...
Read it here if time permits...

Emma Lazarus' ditty to the Statue of Liberty is worth remembering here (actually these are the last four lines of her poem 'The New Colossus' :

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The dynamics of concussion

As I was driving home last night I happened to listen to a program on NPR that talked about the suicide of former National Football League player Andre Waters (he killed himself in November of last year). After examining remains of the player’s brain, a neuropathologist in Pittsburgh is claiming that Mr. Waters sustained brain damage from concussion related injuries while playing football and says that these injuries lead to depression and ultimate death.

Dr. Bennet Omalu (the neuropathologist on the case) of the University of Pittsburgh, has determined that Mr. Waters’s brain tissue degenerated into a brain that had characteristics of an 85-year-old man with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. A lot of credit should be given to Mr. Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler whose repeated concussions ended his career. These injuries also left him with severe migraines and depression. It also pushed him into exposing the dangers behind concussions to the brain tissue suffered from contact sports that often go unattended because in most cases the player just runs back into the field in response to cheers of heroism.

All of this got me thinking a bit more about the exact neurology behind concussion.. I would be interested in the exact neurobiology behind brain concussion, could not find too much on the web, but here is a little theory behind the sequence of events that might occur:

Our brain is suspended within our skull in a fluid medium called the cerebrospinal fluid (in fact our brain actually floats in this fluid and would our brains would limply lie on its sides without this support from the cerebrospinal fluid and the surrounding skull to give it shape and support). A concussion is trauma suffered to brain tissue usually as a result of a very sharp blow to some part of the skull that could cause temporary cognitive deficits. Sharp blows essentially translate to forces on our brain that propel the brain-mass to impact the inside of our skulls with very high velocities. High velocity brain matter can’t really go anywhere; it is abruptly stopped in its tracks by the inner surface of our skulls. In being stopped, very high impact forces are transferred from the hard dura that covers the inner surface of our skulls to the cerebral surface of the brain tissue. Sudden buildup of pressure in a localized area of the brain translates to even higher pressures inside the miniature capillaries that snake and find their way through the cerebral tissue. As brain tissue (neurons and glia) squeezes on the capillary, the blood really has no place to go but rupture the capillary and flow out in multiple minute locations (all of this might be happening at the level of minutest capillary – but nonetheless is a possibility). Of course, the sum effects of this are so small that normally nothing really happens. But repeated injuries taking place over a period of time (say over a players career), could lead to multiple blood vessel ruptures in various areas of the brain (doctors tend to call these vascular infarcts). Over time, decreased blood supplies (albeit in small quantities) and microscopic ruptures compromise the individual cells that make up our brain – the neurons. In fact necrotizing tissue could also be formed in small pockets all over the brain from the minute ruptures. Large scale cognitive deficits start to show on the individual’s personality as multiple areas involved in sensory processing and higher order executive functions start to function at decreased processing power. Some of this could be manifested as depression, migraines, headaches, listlessness etc. Maybe this is what killed Mr. Waters - we will never know for sure, but the time has come for us to look closely at the business of sending our kids off to play football or other contact sports.

I am not saying that contact sports is a bad thing, but better research needs to be dedicated to protecting the soft matter that we implicate for the development of our 'selves' within our heads.

Some of the research that I managed to dig up in this regard is here:

PROLONGED EFFECTS OF CONCUSSION IN HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES

Traumatic brain injury and concussion in sports - James P. Kelly MD JAMA Sept 8 1999 Volume 282 No 10 Page 989

The nature of concussion: a speculative hypothesis - Paul McCrory (Br. J. Sports Med. 2001;35;146-147)

Attentional deficits in concussion - P. VAN DONKELAAR, J. LANGAN, E. RODRIGUEZ, A. DREW, C. HALTERMAN, L. R. OSTERNIG, & L.-S. CHOU Department of Human Physiology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

Essential Information for Athletes, Parents, and Coaches

Off topic but nevertheless relevant - Faces on Meth:

It is always difficult to see the aftermath of drugs on human beings. The following site lists the faces of people after they have been on methamphetamine for months or a couple of years. The effect of this quiet and silent killer is stark on these faces and is being played out in a lot of homes and communities all over the United States.

• Some papers of interest:

Structural Abnormalities in the Brains of Human SubjectsWho Use Methamphetamine by Paul M. Thompson, Kiralee M. Hayashi, Sara L. Simon, Jennifer A. Geaga, Michael S. Hong, Yihong Sui,Jessica Y. Lee, Arthur W. Toga, Walter Ling, and Edythe D. London

The brains response to Methamphetamine - article

Methamphetamine dependence and HIV infection - article

Implications of research for treatment : Methamphtamine - article

Methamphetamine Dependence Is Associated With NeurocognitiveImpairment in the Initial Phases of Abstinence by Ari D. Kalechstein, Ph.D. Thomas F. Newton, M.D. Michael Green, Ph.D.

Neuropsychological Effects of Chronic Methamphetamine Useon Neurotransmitters and Cognition: A Review by Thomas E. Nordahl, M.D., Ph.D. Ruth Salo, Ph.D. Martin Leamon, M.D.

Painting post - deviation from usual:

My first painting on hard wood board - was fairly difficult as finished board does not have the coarseness of canvas and hence had to play around a bit with the consistency of the oil paint. I think it came out to be all right in the end. This painting titled 'Classic Torso - I', is my first painting for this year and is quite a bit of a deviation from my usual theme : faces (I really did not have the requisite sized canvas to paint a face and was too lazy to go out and get one in time). This is about 60 inches high by 28 inches wide and took quite some time to complete...

A personal recollection and some neurological ruminations on glossolalia

When we were children growing up in Bangalore, India, my parents would pack my brother, sister and me down to our ‘native-place’ (a small town in Kerala, the place where my parents grew up) to spend time with our grand parents, uncles and aunts. These trips were a mixture of discovery, exploring nature, wide grassy lands with intrusive coconut trees and great food prepared from produce grown in and around our home. Every once in a while, I would venture out to the boundaries of the large tracts of land that was part of my mothers ancestral property. On occasions, I used to distinctly remember hearing a distant rhythmic wailing of human voices sounding very eerie, intriguing and somewhat painful. I resolved to ask my cousin about the origin of these mysterious voices. On querying, he explained to me that they were a denominational sect of Pentecostal Christians praying and seemingly in a trance. I was intrigued. I decided in all my infinite wisdom that this was a pretty strange way to pray… so, I decide to explore the boundaries a little more and find out more about this ‘prayer’. I remember being frightened and brave at the same time – frightened as to what I was going to uncover and brave because I was doing this all by myself. Presently I crossed the boundaries of our lands and followed the direction of the chanting sounds until I came upon a clearing with a stark white stucco house with barred windows and a large shut wooden door. At this time I remember the voices being very loud, incoherent, and rhythmic but making no sense whatsoever. I noticed that if I tried hard enough, I could venture out and peep through a tiny slit in one of the closed windows. I decide that this was my chance. I crept up to the window and peered inside. It took some time for me to adjust to the dim kerosene lamp based lighting inside, but I saw about 20 -25 locals sitting in a group, arms and bodies flailing, chanting a strange language that made no sense to me. Some of the women in the group had their hair loose and it added to the eeriness of the spectacle. I decided that if I stayed on and spied on this strange group any longer, I may be caught and transformed into one of the members of the group (which was a prospect I definitely was not relishing). Quietly and quickly I ran away and remember not be able to sleep well that night with all kinds of strange images floating around in my head.

I am sure that it made quite an impression in my head for me to remember in this detail what happened roughly 25 years ago, but I what I described above is now termed as ‘glossolalia’. There is nothing strange or mystical about glossolalia – in fact some people say it has therapeutic properties (I am not so sure of that). I decided to write on glossolalia because of the fact that something as unreasonable or irrational as this can now be explained through neuroscience.

Glossolalia or ‘speaking in tongues’ is an unusual mental state associated with certain religious orders where the subject goes into a trance like state and produces speech that is not semantically linked and not part of the normal language repertoire of the individual. In most cases this can be described as religious singing state where the words of the songs have no structure, syntax, morphology, semantics or known language origins. It is now known that Glossolalia has been practiced by Christian as well as non-Christian denominations for thousands of years (some examples are Shamans of Sudan, the aborigines of South America and Australia and Tibetan monks). For an extensive list see here.

It is also known that certain neurological deficits like Wernicke’s aphasia, epileptic seizures of the temporal lobe and cataphasia also produce glossolalia like symptoms (although present studies have shown that most of the religious practitioners show no known neurological deficits).
Researchers at UPenn have published a neuro-imaging study on glossolalia, and have found the following:

1. Decreased activity in the frontal lobes (entirely in line with the experience – the frontal lobes maintain our sense of conscious control and thinking and the phenomenon of glossolalia shows a marked reduction of intentional control leading to low levels of activity in these lobes )

2. Decreased activity in the left hemispheric structures (our left lateral hemisphere specifically the left temporal lobe behind your ears is dominant in about 90% of individuals as they go about the mechanics of meaningful language construction, but in a ‘glossolaliac’s’ case the language is really not produced, the sounds are non-structured and non-semantic and hence lesser activity in the left lateral hemisphere)

3. The studies also showed a dip in the activity of a region called the left caudate. The caudate area is involved in motor and emotional control, so it may be that practitioners, while mindful of their circumstances, cede some control over their bodies and emotions.

4. They also noticed a shift in thalamic activity when the subject changed from a normal singing mode to a glossolaliac phase. The thalamus is responsible for relaying large amounts of cortical and cortical-subcortical neuronal information. This shift might be indicative of the sense of control alteration in which practitioners no longer feel as if they are willfully making the vocalization.

Of course this is just the first imaging study of glossolalia, but studies like this once again demonstrate that what looked like seemingly bizarre behavior could be fairly easily explained when they are looked at from a scientific perspective.

It is also interesting to note the following from this paper (more of a psychiatric treatment to this phenomena) :

The experience of glossolalia is always connected with the feeling of euphoria, relaxation and altered state of consciousness. An explanation of the positive neuropsychological relaxing effect of glossolalia could be derived by looking at the activity of limbic system and anterior hypothalamus. This activity is mediated by acetylcholine, which activates parasympathetic pathways, leading to the reduction in autonomous and skeletal-muscular tension and metabolic activities that protect the organism from the stress and decrease the cerebral cortical activity.

Please see this paper for some more interesting related stuff:
Meditation States and Traits: EEG, ERP, and Neuroimaging Studies by B. Rael Cahn and John Polich

Helping the blind see (device nearing end of clinical trials):
I have always wondered, what if a device were invented that could input visual stimuli and multiplex it into appropriate signals and feed this as input into the optic nerve of a blind person? After the signals travel down their visual pathways into the visual areas of the brain would the blind person start to 'see'?
Well, it turns out that a company in Europe is nearing the end of clinical trials into exactly such a device (albeit a simpler version) and would be applying for licenses to commercially sell such a device in the market in early 2008.

The company is Intelligent Medical Implants AG, based in Zug, Switzerland--with its subsidiaries IIP-Technologies GmbH and Intelligent Medical Implants Ltd. (collectively referred to as "IMI Group") and is developing the Learning Retinal Implant System(TM), the first product of its developing neuro-prosthetics technology platform.

About the Learning Retinal Implant System(TM)

IMI's Learning Retinal Implant System(TM) replaces the signal-processing functions of a healthy retina and provides input to the retinal nerve cells (the ganglion cells) that, in turn, provide input to the optic nerve and the brain. The System comprises three main components: (1) an implant, "The Retinal Stimulator", which is surgically placed into the eye of a patient, who wears (2) a pair of spectacles containing an integrated mini-camera and transmitter components for wireless signal and energy transmission ("The Visual Interface"). Via a cable, the spectacles are connected to (3) "The Pocket Processor" worn at the patient's waist. This device replaces the information processing function of the formally healthy retina. The use of a high-speed digital signal processor allows the provision of "intelligent information" to the implant (and the nerve cells) by using tuneable software to approximate the information processing normally carried out by the healthy retina. The entire process enables patients to optimize their visual perception during the learning phase. Indeed, using the patient's feedback on perception as an input for the tuning of The Pocket Processor is the unique, patent-protected feature of the System and constitutes the 'learning' capability of the Learning Retinal Implant System(TM).

"The provoked visual perceptions were pleasant, according to the patients, and this was the first time they had seen something in many years-- in one case, several decades. Understandably, they reacted emotionally to their visual experience."
Looks like the Science magazine had a report on this some time back.

Here we go on a reiteration of the glorious wedding between nanotechnology and neuroscience:

I did my masters in nanotechnology and every once in a while I go on the net to see what is current out there I am pleasantly surprised. I was happy to run into an article that sits at the intersection of nanotechnology and neuroscience.

Well, maybe I should backtrack and explain what nanotechnology is all about... Fortunately, I do not have to recite in detail all of the copious amount of information that is available on the net about nanotechnology, but the following article in The New Atlantis gives a very good account of what nanotechnology is all about.. (In a sentence, the human hair is about 80000 nanometers thick - we are talking about devices of the range of 10-20 nanometers thick whereas a red blood cell is vast in comparison: about 5,000 nm in diameter). At this ‘nanoscopic’ level, most of our body cells start to look like giant hot air balloons and a lot of work can be accomplished if we load the right scientific instruments at the end of nanometer sized problems that can then be inserted into our cells.

OK, this is precisely what is happening:
As you know, our brain is richly impregnated by millions of blood vessels whose diameter range from 5 millimeters (the larger junctions) to 10 microns (at the smallest levels). In fact we have about 25 kilometers of blood vessels that have a diameter of less than 10 microns.

" The basic idea consists of a set of nano-wires tethered to electronics in the main catheter such that they will spread out in a “bouquet” arrangement into a particular portion of the brain’s vascular system. Such arrangement could support a very large number of probes (in the millions). Each n-wire would be used to record, very securely, electrical activity of a single or small group of neurons without invading the brain parenchyma. Obviously, the advantage of such system is that it would not interfere with either the blood flow exchange of gases or produce any type of disruption of brain activity, due to the tiny space occupied in the vascular bed.

A catheter is introduced into the femoral carotid or the sub-clavial artery and is pushed up to one of the vascular territories to be addressed. Such procedure is, in principle, similar to interventional neuro-radiology techniques where catheters are guided to any portion of the central nervous system. The number of 0.5 micron diameter wires (recording points) that could be introduced in a one-millimeter catheter is staggeringly large (in the range of few million). Once the areas to be recorded or stimulated are reached, a set of leads held inside the catheter head would be allowed to be extended and randomly distributed into the brain’s circulatory system. Since a catheter can be placed in any major brain vessels, the maximum length of nano-wire electrodes required to reach any capillary bed is of the order 2 to 3 cm. Hence, a large number of electrodes would cover any region of the central nervous system from the parent vessels harboring the stem catheters. "

This means that most of the brain can be 'reached' using this technique and signals from the 'signal ensemble in our brains' can be dynamically read to yield information on malfunctions, malformations or aberrations. This is extremely exciting and shows yet another way in which new technologies are helping us reach and probe into the deepest parts of the brain without interfering with too much of the inherent functions.

I see a future whereby patients can go a suitably equipped clinic, get this nano wire inserted into her/his femoral carotid and let the vascular system do its work of pulling the wire through all of the arteries that interlace our brains. Once the blood 'pulls' the fibers into the deepest parts of the brain, non-integrated dynamic signals from various parts of the brain can then be mixed and integrated to yield useful information helping us pinpoint tumors, clots, infarcts or damaged brain cells at a microscopic level. A neuro-surgeon can then use the same nano wire apparatus only this time turning on the ablative laser at the end of the nano-wire, find the cells that constitute the tumor/glioma and proceed to vaporize it. At the end of the procedure the nanowires are extracted out of the patients femoral carotid and the patient walks back home. No skull splitting brain surgery or no post operative recuperation... Of course this is me dreaming in the New Year...


That said, I would also urge you to refer to the following words of caution:
“Release of nano-particles should be restricted due to the potential effects on environment and human health.” – Nanotechnology and Regulation within the framework of the Precautionary Principle. Final Report for ITRE Committee of the European Parliament, February 2004.

“Until more is known about their environmental impact we are keen that the release of nanoparticles and nanotubes in the environment is avoided as far as possible. Specifically we recommend as a precautionary measure that factories and research laboratories treat manufactured nanoparticles and nanotubes as if they were hazardous waster streams and that the use of free nanoparticles in environmental applications such as remediation of groundwater by prohibited.” – Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, “Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and uncertainties,” July 2004.

Some papers of interest:

Inferring the Dynamics of “Hidden” Neurons from Electrophysiological Recordings by Valeri A. Makarov and Nazareth P. Castellanos

Fabrication of nanoelectrodes for neurophysiology: cathodic electrophoretic paint insulation and focused ion beam milling by Yi Qiao, JieChen, Xiaoli Guo, Donald Cantrell, Rodney Ruoff
and John Troy

Wiring the Brain at the Nanoscale

It Binds, Therefore I Am! by Rüdiger Vaas a review of Rodolfo Llinás’ ‘I of the Vortex’

Neuro-vascular central nervous recording/stimulating system: Using nanotechnology probes
by Rodolfo R. Llinás1 , Kerry D. Walton, Masayuki Nakao, Ian Hunter and Patrick A. Anquetil

Risk governance for nanotechnology by M.C. Roco - some very good slides on what to expect in the next generation

Painting post - last one for this year - and a happy new year on that note:


This did not come out as well as I wished it would, but this oil titled 'Hazy Shades of Winter' is 48 inches by 36 inches. I finished it in about four days and maybe that explains why parts of it are a bit sloppy (I was not the happiest with this one)... You tell me....

When opposites become apposite...


In my view, science is the ultimate unifier - looking relentlessly for universal truths that explain phenomena with simple clarifying concepts. Art on the other hand is in the other extreme - the epitome of self expression, uniqueness and individuality. It is indeed refreshing when the both come together. OK, what am I talking about now…

These two worlds came together in a refreshing fusion this week at Princeton University.

Art of Science asked the Princeton University community to submit images including videos and audio produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science. Here are the results.
Quite amazing, I must say!!

Sobering column that appears everyday in the New York Times (for the last four years) this was from today's Times:

You know after a while a lot of this becomes just statistic. I usually scan the names, remember the dead people (soldiers and the uncounted civilians) and move on - but this time I was struck by the fact that all people listed dead above were in their 20's.

The teen brain - a work in progress and driving implications :


An overwhelming amount of research is slowly bringing to light the fact that the teen brain is very much a work in progress and a lot of the 'neuronal sculpting and pruning' that takes place as the child matures through the teen years is incomplete at least until the age of 21 to 22... I remember as a teen (about 20 years back), I used to sneak into a lower shelf in my family cupboard and 'help myself' to money kept there to to buy cool jeans. For some reason my father did not confront me, but one day the goose that laid the golden eggs stopped replenishing itself and I often wondered if my father 'noticed'. I also remember sneaking out on my father’s motorcycle a couple of times without his knowledge and without any sort of a valid license to drive. I was 15 then. Looking back in retrospect, it seems stupid and unreasonable to assume that my father would not 'notice'. Research can now conclusively tell us that the teen brain is undergoing a huge amount of structural changes. In fact the following have been conclusively proved:

1. The first areas to mature (e.g., extreme front and back of the brain) are those with the most basic functions, such as processing the senses and movement.
2. Areas involved in spatial orientation and language (parietal lobes) follow.
3. Areas with more advanced functions -- integrating information from the senses, reasoning and other "executive" functions (prefrontal cortex) - mature last.

The actions outlined in 3 above takes place post puberty and extends over 8-10 years (until they are 21 or 22)... In fact actions that are directed by the pre-frontal cortex involve critical integrative functions like organize plans, generate ideas, set priorities, form strategies, control impulses, and allocate attention. In retrospect all of this was what I lacked when I helped myself to get the jeans and drove outside on my motorcycle in unbridled frivolity.

In fact a couple of months back, there was the case of a teen who texted her suicide notes as she drove her Mercedes into a oncoming Daewoo. The mother of three in the Daewoo died as a result while the teen survived. Highly irrational behavior like this can be rationalized a bit more when we understand that Louise Egan Brunstad's (later charged with murder as an adult) neuronal connections were not sculpted or pruned enough for her to think or plan or strategize her next course of actions in light of her current conditions. Of course, this opens up a bunch of ethical arguments again - do not blame the child, blame the brain - but nonetheless brings to light the fact that we need to pay closer attention to teen brains in formative modes and maybe legislate that actions that require a surprisingly large amount of planning and thinking - like driving for example should maybe be the purview of 21 year olds instead of 16-18 year old...

Of course, some of this might be a little extreme, but Louise’s case above and a bunch of other similar cases may have a case in point.

Related papers of interest:

The Adolescent Brain: A Work in Progress - A good article on changes going on in the teen brain with a focus on preventing teen pregnancy

What’s Going On In There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life By Lise Eliot, Ph.D.

What Makes Teens Tick? - Article in TIME on the teen brain...

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty Adolescence, Brain Development and Legal Culpability - A good flyer put out by the American Bar Association that talks about law and the teen brain and the ramifications

Neuronal Regulation: A Mechanism For Synaptic Pruning During Brain Maturation by Gal Chechik and Isaac Meilijson
- a little mathematical, but a good read nevertheless

Are Teens Driving Safer? By Pilar S. Marin and Brett V. Brown, Ph.D, Child Trends

The First Three Years of Life and the Early Adolescent: Influences of Biology and Behavior - Implications for Child Rearing by Donald E. Greydanus, MD; Helen D. Pratt, PhD; Dilip R. Patel, MD - A CME review article

Teen driving - should states impose tougher restrictions?

Brains filling in or blanking out?

What you see is not reality in this really impressive optical illusion...

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

"If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you're lucky! It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see."

The following site gives a lot more optical illusions that fool our brains if you are really into this kind of stuff... http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html

An aside on ethical dilemmas in brain research:

As research deepens our understanding of the human brain, it is becoming clearer that the distinctions between abnormal and normal brains and concomitant functions are getting more and more blurred. In many cases we are slowly proving that abnormal behavior manifested is due to either inbuilt genetic makeup or genetic changes forced due to conditioning of the human brain in particular environmental settings.

Distinctions between mental or psychiatric diseases and neurological disorders are lost as science progresses towards a more exact understanding of neurological phenomena and unifying explanations that seem to reduce the stigmas associated with psychiatric diseases. On the one hand it empowers the patient in the sense that patients seem to have a better understating of exactly why they are behaving in a certain fashion (abnormal to many but seemingly normal to the patient and the neurologist) down to the molecular detail. This gives the patient a new sense of confidence and in some cases causes reversal of the stated condition (a case of knowing the ailment modifying the behavior of the individual).

On the flip side, we now run the risk of having criminally violent individuals armed with new knowledge of what goes on inside their heads down to the molecular level portraying themselves as mere puppets of the neural machinery that they are endowed with and shaped by the environment. The extreme case of a newly-wed filing a £3.5 million compensation claim against employers, stating that his marriage was ruined because his sex drive spiraled out of control after he injured his head at work is a case in point.

As pointed out in numerous papers at the end of this post, research is revealing patterns of neural activity and gene lines that may be responsible for criminally violent behavior. How do we deal with individuals like this - blame ostracize the individual who committed the crime or blame the environment that the individual was placed in that modified his neural genetic machinery to make the person behave in a 'abnormal (read criminally violent)' fashion..? What about the future when neurologists can predict the predisposition of certain individuals to 'abnormal' behavior based on certain ‘environmental markers’ that could change their neural machinery in socially inappropriate ways? When would society decide to intervene and make changes in an individual’s life based on 'prescient' information about the nature of ones evolving neural machinery..

This is but of a host of minefields that will undoubtedly be uncovered as humankind goes deeper into unraveling the mysteries of what lies within our heads...

Suggested papers:

Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans

Neuroanatomical Background to Understanding the Brain of the Young Psychopath

Gene–environment interactions in psychiatry: joining forces with neuroscience

The Neurobiology of Violence: An Update

Violence—a noxious cocktail of genes and the environment

Neural foundations to moral reasoning andantisocial behavior

Painting post:

OK, I managed to finish this one over the weekend, took about three weeks to complete, but I think it was well worth the effort. Again, this canvas is one of my standard sizes (48 inches by 36 inches) and the technique consists of juxtaposing solid oil tones against opposing contrasting hues. I am satisfied with what I achieved this time around although I am still refining the technique.
The painting is titled 'Buy Me Bring Me Take Me'.

Congenital AVMs and the United States Senate:

Majority control of the United States Senate lies a bit in balance with one of the senators of the leading party in hospital after suffering a brain hemorrhage. I thought this might be a good time to focus on the nature of the condition that led to the hemorrhaging in the senator’s brain. The senator suffered from what is called a "congenital arteriovenous malformation". Even if the name sounds a little foreboding, this is relatively simple to understand.

Normally, arteries carry blood containing oxygen from the heart to the brain, and veins carry blood with less oxygen away from the brain and back to the heart. When an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) occurs, a tangle of blood vessels in the brain or on its surface bypasses normal brain tissue and directly diverts blood from the arteries to the veins. It is estimated that about one in 200–500 people may have an AVM and more common in males than women. Brain AVMs are usually congenital but not hereditary (meaning you may be born with one but will not pass it onto your children)...

As a brain AVM contains abnormal (“weakened”) blood vessels, they sometimes dilate over time and may eventually burst from the high pressure of blood flow from the arteries causing bleeding into the brain. The bursting may be precipitated by several factors that include exercise, stress or sometimes something as common as a sudden stop while riding in a car…

Most AVMs are detected on either a computed tomography (CT) brain scan or with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan. These AVMs can be surgically removed if bleeding occurs. The other ways of treating this would be to 'scar' part of the blood vessel supplying the AVM (using a technique called stereotactic radiosurgery) and allowing the AVM to 'clot off'. There are other advanced ways of treating this inclusing the usage of catheters inside the blood vessels and deploying certain specialized materials to block off the blood flowing into the AVM. Not too sure which one of this was performed on the senator..

It is interesting to note that the senator showed signs of speech slurring and had to be taken to the hospital following that. This would indicate that the AVM was somewhere in the left anterior parietotemporal lobe (just my layman theory) ;-)

Off topic but interesting: Stoneth

If there is one person on a photo blog that I follow closely, it is stoneth on flickr. He compiles images and stories about poverty in the US, bittersweet most of the time...

Possible early detection for Alzheimer’s??

Researchers at New York’s Weill Cornell Medical College found discovered certain biomarkers (a substance whose detection in our bodies indicates a particular disease state (for example, the presence of an antibody may indicate an infection)) that might seem to herald a new early test for Alzheimer’s (much before the actual onset of this devastating disease).

Researchers at Cornell seem to have found out a set of 23 proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid that seem to be an indicator for the onset of Alzheimer’s.

"Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s begins its insidious brain attack years, even decades, before forgetfulness appears — and if so, there should be evidence of those changes in the spinal fluid"

"Using a technology called proteomics, they simultaneously examined 2,000 proteins found in the spinal fluid of 34 people who died with autopsy-proven Alzheimer’s, comparing it to the spinal fluid of 34 non-demented people.
What emerged were 23 proteins, many that by themselves had never been linked to Alzheimer’s but that together formed a fingerprint of the disease."

All the patient will be required to undergo will be a spinal tap and they could be diagnosed as to whether they are at the risk of contracting Alzheimer’s later in life.
Of course a lot of this research will need to be conclusively proven, but I think that this is a quite a start for us and has a lot of potential...

Note:
"There is no single, comprehensive diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease. Instead, doctors rule out other conditions through a process of elimination. They usually conduct physical, psychological and neurological exams and take a thorough medical history. Diagnosis is about 90 percent accurate, but the only way to confirm it is through autopsy."

"There is no medical treatment currently available to cure or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease. There are currently five FDA-approved Alzheimer's drugs – Namenda, Cognex, Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl -- that may temporarily relieve some symptoms of the disease. Several other drugs are in development."

Top 5 strategic areas for research in neuroscience:

As I read more topics and books on neuroscience, the more I realize that we have only scratched the surface in understanding what really goes on in our heads. This led me to look at various sources across the web in compiling a list of five principle strategic areas that we need to focus to understand at a deeper level the activities of the ‘wet web’ that is within our heads. With this in mind, I am proposing the following five broad areas of research that universities and governments across the world will need to invest time, brains and money for achieving a better understanding in neuroscience.

1. Experience and environment driven modification of genes in the neural realm
Research and investments into genetic modifications due to neural activity in response to life events, environment, culture, beliefs, preferences and intentions across demographic groups such as family, community, society and nations. The impact of religion, ethnicity and race would be an additional orthogonal factor to the effects of the above and will need to be studied as well. This initiative will need to be funded and coordinated across multiple universities across the world.

2. Functional understanding of neural substrates spatially
Investments and research into understanding the functional aspects of different parts or 'spaces' in the human brain. Being able to zoom in or out to understand, display and explain activity in response to intrinsic and extrinsic stimulation at different levels - the synapse, the neuron, the cortical column, ensembles of cortical columns, circuits of cortical ensembles and so on until we are able to functionally explain activities across the whole brain in response to stimulus. This kind of a coordinated multi-level integration and formulation needs to be directed across various universities and hospitals. Investments in imaging technologies are crucial and the only way this will go forward.

3. Functional understanding of neural substrates temporally
Research and investments into collecting neural modifications over time. Coordinated research into clarifying changes that happen at microscopic levels like individual synapses to macroscopic levels like modifications in coordinated neural circuits that can be 'snapshotted' temporally over the lifetime of study subjects. This will yield valuable information among others on ageing, development, neurogenesis, neural substrate atrophy and temporal modification of neural activity due to disease onset/progression. This is time consuming expensive research that could span the average lifetime of a human and should be started as soon as possible

4. Databasing the brain across multiple realms - neuroinformatics
None of the above comes to fruition without extensive investments and programs in neuroinformatics. In fact there is little hope of making progress in the spatial and temporal domains described above unless we build up data warehouses that can be tapped across high speed networks by researchers across the world. This will require new university initiatives or retooling of existing informatics programs and network protocols to equip and position ourselves into providing for tomorrow’s neuroinformatics data explosion. Tools that help correlate, slice and integrate information across various data stores and common protocols and those that marry disparate data formats will also have to be studied and implemented.

5. Neurobiological basis to understanding the mind and neuroethics
Formulating a unified theory to defining the mind through the integration of various neurobiological research areas. Extensive research needs to focus on the various ‘neurobiologies’ – among others, I may quote here are the neurobiology of the senses, feeling, abstract thought, rationality, emotions and thinking culminating in a unified neurobiological understanding of consciousness. This can be achieved only by integrating results from all of the above strategies into a coherent whole that will allow us to better define our mind and self. Congruent with this research will be investments made into understanding and defining neuroethics and clearly defining boundaries for the mind and brain and legislating the definitions of brain death and mental illness in a more substantive way.

References:
1. Antonio Rosa Damasio MD, PhD
- Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

2. Antonio M. Battro MD
- Half a brain is enough

3. Huda Akil PhD
- Mind Brain and Neuroscience

4. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran MD, PhD
- The perception of phantom limbs: The D. O. Hebb lecture. Brain, 121, 1603-1630.

5. James L. McClelland
- Retrieving general and specific information from stored knowledge of specifics: Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 170-172.

6. Alexander Romanovich Luria
- The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About A Vast Memory

7. Patricia S. Churchland and Terrence J. Sejnowski
- A Critique of Pure Vision

Painting Post

This is my latest oil done about 3 weeks back titled "The Veil - A Mea Culpa". Although this is not intended to be a commentary on recent issues surrounding the veil (also called head scarf amongst other things) around the world, that surely will add to the backdrop when looking at the painting.

As always, I have painted a face - following my belief that the human face frames and communicates the essence of all emotions, concealed or otherwise. The size of the painting is 36 inches wide and 48 inches tall.

Brain computer interfaces: New hope for paralyzed individuals with mostly intact brain functions:

25-year-old Matthew Nagle changed the channels on his TV, adjusted the volume and read an e-mail. These feats may not sound impressive, but they earned him a spot on the cover of the July 13, 2006 issue of the journal Nature (and caused a media uproar) because Nagle is a quadriplegic, paralyzed in 2001 by a knife wound that severed his spinal cord. Thanks to a system called BrainGate, Nagle was able to manipulate the TV controls, as well as a prosthetic hand, using his thoughts alone.

This company called Braingate (developed by John Donoghue, head of the Brain Science Program at Brown University, through a company he co-founded: Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems) is piloting a device called Neural Interface System which consists of attaching tiny electrodes to parts of the motor strip in the brain which decodes the ensuing electrical activity into purported actions that the device wearer 'wants' to do. A dumbed down way of saying this would be that the device actually reads your thoughts.
What it is really doing is that the computer connected to the device decodes the 'motor intentions' of the individual. The electrical activity can then be used by the computer to move or align objects in the immediate periphery of the individual. Of course these objects will need to have some kind of a connection to the computer and the computer will need to go through several learning sessions to correlate certain patterns of neural electrical activity into planned goals on behalf of the individual.

"The system is designed to restore functionality for a limited, immobile group of severely motor-impaired individuals. It is expected that people using the BrainGate™ System will employ a personal computer as the gateway to a range of self-directed activities. These activities may extend beyond typical computer functions (e.g., communication) to include the control of objects in the environment such as a telephone, a television and lights."

For people living with paralysis, the technology has the potential to be life-changing.

A little more info on the implant:
The implant is a square silicon chip just four millimeters (about 1/6 of an inch) wide, studded with an array of 100 hair-thin electrodes. The chip sits on the surface of the motor cortex, while the electrodes delve midway into the two-millimeter-thick cortex to eavesdrop on neurons that normally signal muscles to move. A bundle of gold wires sends those signals out through a connector affixed to the top of the skull, and to an amplifier; they then travel by fiber-optic cable to a set of computers. During training sessions for BrainGate, the computer software learns to associate patterns of neural activity with the intent to move a hand in a particular direction; it can use those intentions to pilot a computer cursor or, if all goes as planned, a motorized wheelchair.

Think of a future where severely paralyzed people will be surrounded by intelligent robots that will feed them, clean them and cook for them exactly the way they wanted it - all through reading the thoughts of the individual.

Today is World AIDS day.