Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

Venderley AM & Campbell WW. Vegetarian diets : nutritionalconsiderations for athletes. SportsMed 2006; 36(4): 293-305. The quality of vegetarian diets to meet nutritional needs andsupport peak performance among athletes continues to be questioned.Appropriately planned vegetarian diets can provide sufficient energy and anappropriate range of carbohydrate, fat and protein intakes to supportperformance and health. The acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges forcarbohydrate, fat and protein of 45-65%, 20-35% and 10-35%, respectively, areappropriate for vegetarian and non-vegetarian athletes alike, especially those whoperform endurance events. Vegetarian athletes can meet their protein needs frompredominantly or exclusively plant-based sources when a variety of these foodsare consumed daily and energy intake is adequate. Muscle creatine stores arelower in vegetarians than non-vegetarians. Creatine supplementation providesergogenic responses in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian athletes, withlimited data supporting greater ergogenic effects on lean body mass accretionand work performance for vegetarians.

The symbol H+ is the code sign used by some futurists to denote an enhanced version of humanity. The plus version of the human race would deploy a mix of advanced technologies, including stem cells, robotics, cognition-enhancing drugs, and the like, to overcome basic mental and physical limitations.The notion of enhancing mental functions by gulping down a pill that improves attention, memory and planning—the very foundations of cognition—is no longer just a fantasy shared by futurists. The 1990s, proclaimed the decade of the brain by President George H. W. Bush, has been followed by what might be labeled “the decade of the better brain.”

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Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon

The human brain is the most complex, sophisticated, and powerful information-processing device known.

To study its complexities, the Department of Brain and Cognitive 

New study shows striking similarity in the evolution of brains, citiesCities are organized like brains, and the evolution of cities mirrors the evolution of human and animal brains, according to a new study by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Just as advanced mammalian brains require a robust neural network to achieve richer and more complex thought, large cities require advanced highways and transportation systems to allow larger and more productive populations. The new study unearthed a striking similarity in how larger brains and cities deal with the difficult problem of maintaining sufficient interconnectedness.

“Natural selection has passively guided the evolution of mammalian brains throughout time, just as politicians and entrepreneurs have indirectly shaped the organization of cities large and small,” said Mark Changizi, a neurobiology expert and assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer, who led the study. “It seems both of these invisible hands have arrived at a similar conclusion: brains and cities, as they grow larger, have to be similarly densely interconnected to function optimally.

Overconsumption of fatty, sugary foods leads to changes in brain receptors, according to new animal research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  The new research results are being presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB). The results have implications for understanding bulimia and other binge eating disorders.

Read more at : Sciencedaily 

Recent neuropharmacological research has suggested that certain constituents of tea may have modulatory effects on brain state. The bulk of this research has focused on either L-theanine or caffeine ingested alone (mostly the latter) and has been limited to behavioral testing, subjective rating, or neurophysiological assessments during resting. Here, we investigated the effects of both L-theanine and caffeine, ingested separately or together, on behavioral and electrophysiological indices of tonic (background) and phasic (event-related) visuospatial attentional deployment. Subjects underwent 4 d of testing, ingesting either placebo, 100 mg of L-theanine, 50 mg of caffeine, or these treatments combined. The task involved cued shifts of attention to the left or right visual hemifield in anticipation of an imperative stimulus requiring discrimination. In addition to behavioral measures, we examined overall, tonic attentional focus as well as phasic, cue-dependent anticipatory attentional biasing, as indexed by scalp-recorded alpha-band (8-14 Hz) activity.

The aim of this study was to compare 50 mg caffeine, with and without 100 mg L-theanine, on cognition and mood in healthy volunteers. The effects of these treatments on word recognition, rapid visual information processing, critical flicker fusion threshold, attention switching and mood were compared to placebo in 27 participants. Performance was measured at baseline and again 60 min and 90 min after each treatment (separated by a 7-day washout). Caffeine improved subjective alertness at 60 min and accuracy on the attention-switching task at 90 min. The L-theanine and caffeine combination improved both speed and accuracy of performance of the attention-switching task at 60 min, and reduced susceptibility to distracting information in the memory task at both 60 min and 90 min. These results replicate previous evidence which suggests that L-theanine and caffeine in combination are beneficial for improving performance on cognitively demanding tasks.

Background/Objectives Ingestion of the non-proteinic amino acid L: -theanine (gamma-glutamylethylamide) has been shown to influence oscillatory brain activity in the alpha band (8-14 Hz) in humans during resting electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings and also during cognitive task performance. We have previously shown that ingestion of a 250-mg dose of L: -theanine significantly reduced tonic (background) alpha power during a demanding intersensory (auditory-visual) attentional cueing task. Further, cue-related phasic changes in alpha power, indexing the shorter-term anticipatory biasing of attention between modalities, were stronger on L: -theanine compared to placebo. This form of cue-contingent phasic alpha activity is also known to index attentional biasing within visual space. Specifically, when a relevant location is pre-cued, anticipatory alpha power increases contralateral to the location to be ignored.

Thomas Metzinger is the Director of the Philosophy Group at the Department of Philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. His research focuses on philosophy of mind, especially on consciousness and the nature of the self. In this lecture he develops a representationalist theory of phenomenal self-consciousness. The title of this talk is: "Being No One: Consciousness, The Phenomenal Self, and First-Person Perspective"

Quercetin is one of a broad group of natural polyphenolic flavonoid substances that are being investigated for their widespread health benefits. These benefits have generally been ascribed to its combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, but recent in vitro evidence suggests that improved mitochondrial biogenesis could play an important role. In addition, the in vivo effects of quercetin on mitochondrial biogenesis exercise tolerance are unknown. We examined the effects of 7 days of quercetin feedings in mice on markers of mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and brain, and on endurance exercise tolerance. Mice were randomly assigned to one of the following three treatment groups: placebo, 12.5 mg/kg quercetin, or 25 mg/kg quercetin. Following 7 days of treatment, mice were killed, and soleus muscle and brain were analyzed for mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator (PGC-1alpha) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and cytochrome c.

"This is your brain.

Here are the neurons that produce dopamine. When these neurons are activated they release dopamine here, in the frontal lobes. Dopamine is motivation. When dopamine is released you feel motivated to keep on doing whatever it is you're doing.

Dopamine is what makes things seem important and meaningful. Your frontal lobes are where thoughts are formed. If your frontal lobes are low on dopamine you get bored and start looking for something that can stimulate your dopamine neurons to release more dopamine into your frontal lobes.

Food, drink, sex, social pleasure and addictive drugs activate dopamine neurons directly, that's why they can be so addictive. Interesting sights and sounds can also activate dopamine neurons, that's why you're still watching this video.

The technological seeds of a Manhattan project-style scientific enterprise, the optical reverse-engineering of brain circuits to crack the neural code, have recently been planted at Stanford.

The brain is a high-speed dynamical system consisting of different players that are intertwined and that cannot be separately controlled using conventional methods. For this reason, until recently we have not been able to speak the language of the brain (with millisecond timescale and cell-specific resolution), and in 1979 Francis Crick called for a technology by which all neurons of just one type could be controlled, "leaving the others more or less unaltered".