A Single Neuron Can Alter the Brain

A Single Neuron Can Alter the Brain – Waking Times : Waking Times.

June 18, 2013 | By Dylan Charles 

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Waking Times

“I think every single person perceives things differently. We are all singular.” ~ Julia Leigh 

If you’ve ever dropped a tiny pebble into a glass-smooth lake, you know that this single change can reverberate out from the middle of the body of water to the furthest reaches close to shore. It turns out that a single neuron can change a person’s brain waves just like that pebble. Recent research from Yang Dan at the University of California, Berkeley, has uncovered new information about just how powerful an individual neuron is in changing our brain chemistry.

Even though there are thousands of neural connections happening in our brains at any one moment in time, a veritable orchestra of cross-talk and communication, an individual brain cell has much more clout than was previously assumed. We know that the chaotic ways in which the brain communicates to itself and the rest of the body can lead to some pretty serious health issues – starting with insomnia and even sleepwalking, and, later on in life, dementia and other illnesses if left untreated. But we can make changes to these deleterious patterns starting with just one neuron.

As Yang Dan tells us, “A single neuron has more weight than we used to think.” Usually, we look at brain waves – the collection of billions of cells talking to one another through electrical impulses across the brain at large. These patterns can help to control everything from our respiratory rates, to how we respond to a traffic accident, or how we express pleasant surprise when someone buys our coffee in line ahead of us.

This collection of brain wave chatter forms a sine wave, called a brainwave. There are different types of waves, depending on the prevalent type of communication happening between the billions of neurons. For example, large, slow brain waves are associated with deep sleep. During REM or rapid eye movement sleep, another type of wave forms, since there is an overarching change in the flavor of communication happening in the brain at that time, and the communication is less synchronized. There are smaller and more frequent oscillations in the sine waves. When we are awake, the pattern gets even more chaotic, with the neurons chattering like rambunctious school children, broadcasting an uncoordinated, rapid-fire cacophony of electrical signals.

Dan and his colleagues came to their findings by studying how large-scale brain wave patterns influenced a connection between two singular neurons, knowing that repetitive patterns create groove-like electrical pathways that could get stronger over time. When used less often, like grass growing over a walking path, the neuronal pathways become less prominent. Dan and his scientific peers wondered if the overall pattern of brain activity altered the ability of nerve cells to broadcast with a louder decibel, or, so to speak, greater strength.

Using anesthetized rats to produce experiment results, they found that tickling just one neuron in the brain caused a whole set of neurons to fire, even when the surrounding neurons were left undisturbed.

Dan explains the results of his study, “Every neuron makes connections to roughly 1000 other neurons, but most of those are quite weak . .  .” What makes this single neuron stimulation firing other areas of the brain interesting is that a target cell won’t normally respond unless quite a few of the neurons that connect to it are stimulated. It usually takes a group effort on the part of cells to get an entire brain wave going. What is odd is that single neurons were found to change the activity of the entire brain, though.

Dan and his team still don’t understand exactly how one cell could exert so much influence over the rest of the brain. They had to repeatedly stimulate a cell to cause a pattern to switch, so it is possible that they were emulating the effect of many cells firing concurrently, although a neuron does not normally fire that way. It is still a question as to whether the activity of the single neuron could change the entire brain pattern under more normal circumstances.

These findings do, however, alter the way scientists understand how patterns are established in the brain. They already know that certain brain structures, like the brain stem and hypothalamus, help to set the tone of the conversations happening in the whole brain, but it turns out that altering just small parts of the brain may have a profound effect on what the brain ‘says’ to us overall. These changes can originate in all areas of the brain, even the corpus callosum, the thin layer between the hemispheres.

We already know that sound, meditation, or even sitting by ocean waves can alter our brain wave patterns so that we exist in a more peaceful state, but it turns out that the change may start from a smaller seed of thought, a single cell firing, than was tacit before this type of study.

About the Author

Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny,  Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.

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Decalcify Your Pineal Gland! A guided meditation to unblock your Ajna Chakra, Third Eye

Decalcify Your Pineal Gland! A guided meditation to unblock your Ajna Chakra, Third Eye. Sudevi – YouTube.

Quick tip: Substitute fluoride toothpaste with baking soda and olive oil.

______________________________________________________________

2 Apr 2012

A lot of you have been asking whether or not it’s possible to reverse the damage caused by fluoride calcification. The answer is YES! You can decalcify the pineal gland, and restart your natural production house of seratonin, melatonin, and DMT.

Simple steps to decalcify:

1. Stop consuming fluoride in all it’s forms. (Reverse osmosis water filtration, fluoride free toothpaste, mouthwash and gum.)

2. Eat a healthy, vegetarian diet, consisting mainly of fresh, organic, non GMO fruits and vegetables! (This step was left out of the video- but very important! The bodies ability to heal and reverse the damage of fluoride poisoning is greatly accelerated when we consume foods that cleanse, rather than foods that build up.)

3. Meet your daily requirements of essential fatty acids through raw foods! (Coconut, avocado, sesame seeds, nuts, superfoods like acai and goji berries, etc.)

4. MEDITATE! The guided meditation shared here is ideal for the decalcification process, as it focuses on third eye awareness, and the reversal of verbalized thought process. Do it as often as possible, and look forward to vivid dreams, deep meditations, spiritual joy, and a natural ease of life.

When the pineal gland is working properly, life is bliss!

Enjoy.

Start Your Day With This: Binaural Beats: Powerful Concentration, Focus, Manifestation – Gamma 40 Hz –

After you wake up, put on some headphones, sip your favorite beverage, and listen to this for a few minutes. Your brain will tingle. That’s how effective these gamma waves work. Use at your own risk. This is new territory. 

These waves have a very subtle effect on me. It’s alike meditation; you don’t immediately feel the effects, but you can see them through your mind’s eye if you think about it. All of a sudden you are doing the things you know you are supposed to do. Great tool for procrastinators (I would know).

By the way, you can always find it here on the homepage under Consciousness Connector.

Lou

______________________________________________________________

Binaural Beats: Powerful Concentration, Focus & Manifestation – Gamma 40 Hz – YouTube.

I vouch for the veracity of  what EthereaJDemure  says below. 
Lou

Aug 3, 2011

What Are Gamma Brain Waves?

The fastest documented brainwave frequency range is that of Gamma Brain Waves — which oscillate within the range of 40 Hz to 70 Hz. Gamma Brain Waves have the smallest amplitude on an E.E.G. in comparison to the other four basic types of brainwave frequencies. Gamma Brain Waves have long been considered the brain’s information and sensory-binding brainwave — or the brainwave that is able to link and process information from all parts of the brain. Having high amounts of Gamma Brainwave activity has been associated with: having high levels of intelligence, being compassionate, having high amounts of self-control, and feelings of natural happiness.

Gamma Brain Waves have also been linked to having a great memory and an increased perception of reality. People lacking in Gamma Brainwaves tend to experience difficulties with learning and mental processing. Usually people with impaired or retarded mental functioning tend to have significantly less Gamma Brainwave activity than those who have average and above-average intelligences. There seems to be a correlation with higher amounts of Gamma Brainwave activity and increased brain functioning ability.

How Can You Experience Gamma Brain Waves?

If you want to experience boosted mental processing speed, a better perception of reality, and want to get a richer-sensory experience, then you should definitely consider increasing your Gamma Brain Waves. People have reported being able to learn quicker and being able to maintain a laser-like focus after listening to Gamma Waves. I.Q. scores have also been noted to increase after one’s Gamma Brain Waves increase.

Tapping an increased perception of reality and higher-internal energy is now more possible than ever before with Gamma Brainwave Entrainment technology. Cultivating brainwave flexibility by learning to access other brainwave states of awareness like Gamma is a great skill to learn. There are many benefits and new experiences that can be had by experiencing an altered state of consciousness. If you’d like to experience Gamma Brain Waves, I suggest that you check out some brainwave products — many of which you can test out for free before you buy.

Benefits Of Gamma Brain Waves

People with higher amounts of Gamma Brainwaves are lucky due to the fact that they will often experience improvements in memory and their ability to vividly recall past experiences. One frequency in the Gamma Waves range, which cycles 40 times per second (e.g. At a rate of 40 Hz), has been known to regulate memory processing in the brain. If you are currently having difficulty remembering information like: names, dates, events, plans, etc. — you would likely benefit from increasing your Gamma Brainwave range.

Gamma Brain Waves are also known to boost your perception of reality through your five senses. Gamma Brainwave activity is responsible for making smells more powerful, increasing your visual acuity, sharpening your hearing, and making foods taste better. Those who lack Gamma Brain Waves may have the same foods or be put in the same environment, but their brain’s will not have as much sensory-rich processing as individuals with Gamma activity.

The Gamma Brainwave range is able to properly combine or “bind” your senses and memory together for one ultimate experience. This is why on a memorable night you’ll often remember the music that was playing, the aroma of the atmosphere, what you saw, the foods you ate, etc. The Gamma Brain Wave state is an incredibly focused one and allows us to get the richest possible sensory experience as a result of our external world.

Gamma Brain Waves have also been linked with the ability to process large amounts of information in relatively small amounts of time. Think of having more Gamma Activity as getting a processor upgrade for your brain. People without much Gamma activity literally cannot imagine what they are missing out on — unless they have experienced Gamma activity before.

One of the best side-effects from Gamma Brainwave Entrainment is that you’ll naturally begin to feel more compassionate towards others and internally happier. Gamma Brain Waves have been documented as being a powerful antidepressant-type brainwave. This makes complete sense due the fact that people suffering from clinical depression tend to have lower-than-average amounts of Gamma Brain Waves.

Source:

Binaural Beats: Powerful Concentration, Focus & Manifestation – Gamma 40 Hz – YouTube.

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The science in meditation

Knowledge of Today

Did YOU know that Meditation is scientifically proven to:

1. Overcome stress (University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2003)
2. Boost your creativity (ScienceDaily, 2010)
3. Improve your sex life and increase your libido (The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2009)
4. Cultivate healthy habits that lead to weight loss (Journal Emotion, 2007)
5. Improve digestion and lower blood pressure (Harvard Medical School)
6. Decrease your risk of heart attack (The Stroke Journal, 2009)
7. Help overcome anxiety, depression, anger and confusion (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2009)
8. Decrease perception of pain and improve cognitive processing (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 2010)
9. Increase your focus and attention (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007)
10. Increase the size of your most important organ – your brain! (Harvard University Gazette, 2006) Brainwave technology gives you deep, effortless, enjoyable meditation in minutes:
http://goo.gl/gL1cU

 

Human Brain Can Consciously Change the Temperature of the Body

Human Brain Can Consciously Change the Temperature of the Body.

June 2, 2013

http://www.learning-mind.com

Singapore scientists made a surprising discovery with the help of monks from Tibet. According to the Science Daily, a conscious increase of the body temperature as a result of meditation was first recorded.

The researchers observed the monks during meditation. Despite the temperature of about 25 degrees below zero, their clothes soaked through. But right in front of the astonished scientists, the Buddhists began to dry their wet clothes with their own body temperature, which was 38.3 degrees.

Monks made themselves warm from the inside by a meditative technique named “Tummo” – the Yoga of inner fire. In short, it is powerful visualization of the inner fire burning behind one’s back and some breathing exercises. In order to master this technique, Buddhists sit on the snow trying to melt as much of it as possible with the heat of their body. As a result, the monks who have attained some success in the “Tummo” technique are absolutely impervious to cold temperatures.

A similar experiment was conducted by the SingaporeUniversity professor Maria Kozhevnikov. Although the conditions were more benign, the experiment did produce some results.

According to Kozhevnikov, the “Tummo” helps bring your body temperature back to normal.It is an absolutely safe technique that is practiced not only by monks but also by quite ordinary people. There are advanced teachers who can reach almost an infinite increase of their body temperature, feeling a powerful burst of energy.

And this is how the “Tummo” is described by a Tibetan Buddhist teacher Malarep: “equilibrate the variations of red and white at the navel center, and the mind will fill with comprehension, experiencing the warmth as bliss…”

From a scientific point of view, this phenomenon has not yet been explained, despite some attempts. For example, in 1981 and 2000 Herbert Benson of the HarvardUniversity managed to ascertain that the Tibetan monks can raise the temperature of the fingers and toes of more than 8 degrees Celsius.

Distinguishing Brain From Mind

Distinguishing Brain From Mind – Sally Satel – The Atlantic.

The Atlantic

Sally Satel

May 30 2013

In coming years, neuroscience will answer questions we don’t even yet know to ask. Sometimes, though, focus on the brain is misleading.

 

juliendn/Flickr

From the recent announcement of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative to the Technicolor brain scans (“This is your brain on God/love/envy etc”) on magazine covers all around, neuroscience has captured the public imagination like never before.

Understanding the brain is of course essential to developing treatments for devastating illnesses like schizophrenia and Parkinson’s. More abstract but no less compelling, the functioning of the brain is intimately tied to our sense of self, our identity, our memories and aspirations. But the excitement to explore the brain has spawned a new fixation that my colleague Scott Lilienfeld and I call neurocentrism — the view that human behavior can be best explained by looking solely or primarily at the brain.

The critical question, though, is whether this neural disruption proves that the addict’s behavior is involuntary, and that he is incapable of self-control. It does not.

Sometimes the neural level of explanation is appropriate. When scientists develop diagnostic tests or a medications for, say, Alzheimer’s disease, they investigate the hallmarks of the condition: amyloid plaques that disrupt communication between neurons, and neurofibrillary tangles that degrade them.

Other times, a neural explanation can lead us astray. In my own field of addiction psychiatry, neurocentrism is ascendant — and not for the better. Thanks to heavy promotion by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, addiction has been labeled a “brain disease.”

The logic for this designation, as explained by former director Alan I. Leshner, is that “addiction is tied to changes in brain structure and function.” True enough, repeated use of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and alcohol alter the neural circuits that mediate the experience of pleasure as well as motivation, memory, inhibition, and planning — modifications that we can often see on brain scans.

The critical question, though, is whether this neural disruption proves that the addict’s behavior is involuntary and that he is incapable of self-control. It does not.

Take the case of actor Robert Downey, Jr., whose name was once synonymous with celebrity addiction. He said, “It’s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger’s on the trigger, and I like the taste of gunmetal.” Downey went though episodes of rehabilitation and then relapse, but ultimately decided, while in the throes of “brain disease,” to change his life.

Full article:

Distinguishing Brain From Mind – Sally Satel – The Atlantic.

Related Story

Oliver Sacks: Seeing God in the Third Millennium.

Can the Human Soul Be Weighed?

Can the Human Soul Be Weighed?.

May 14, 2013

With thanks and from Anna at

http://www.learning-mind.com

 

The book “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown contains a chapter on some amazing experiments. According to the author, our soul is a material substance which can exist outside the body and can have weight. Therefore, it can be weighed. One of the characters in the book, Katherine Solomon, was able to weigh human soul. She placed a dying man (he had donated his body for scientific purposes) in an air-tight capsule, fitted with very sensitive micro weight detectors. While the man was alive, the scales showed a figure of 51, 4,534,644 kilograms. And after the old man’s death, the micro scales showed a decrease in the body weight. Brown does not specify this difference as a number, but makes a general comment: “This difference, though microscopic, is quite measurable.” This experiment allowed Brown to stipulate that the human soul does exist.

Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill (Massachusetts, USA), was the first scientist to conduct this kind of experiment in 1906, as reported by the New York Times on March 7, 1907. McDougall “detected” the change in the body weight when the person had died. The measurements were performed on a special bed, which was also a gigantic scale with high precision, and have shown that the “soul” weighs 22.4 grams. Another weight measurement of the “transient substance” was done almost 80 years later, in 1990, by another researcher – Lyell Watson from the University of New York. In his experiments, the deceased became 2.5 – 6.5 grams lighter. And almost identical results were obtained by Doctor of Science Eugenyus Kugis from the Institute of Semiconductors of the Lithuania Academy of Sciences in 2006. He found that at the time of death, the person loses between 3 to 7 grams of body weight.

It is not clear yet if the difference in weight can be attributed to the soul. But the question related to the existence of soul may be answered soon. The studies designed to prove the existence of soul have now been conducted in 25 clinics in the U.S., Canada and the UK. Dr. Sam Parnia is in charge of these experiments. He came up with an idea to test the hypothesis of human soul escaping the body after death, the phenomenon which has been persistently described by individuals who had experienced clinical death. The Doctor and his assistance place cards with written notes in intensive care wards, in places not visible to the patients from their beds, on the ceiling, for instance. The patient who becomes “dead” for a short duration, will need to read the words written on cards and then tell them to physicians. If the word is read and told correctly by one of the patients, then it is possible to say that an intelligent entity is separated from the body during death. And what else can it be but the human soul? The experiment will end at the end of 2013, and the separation of this intelligent entity from the body will be observed in 1,500 patients.

Skeptics’ opinion

Russian scientist, the head of the intensive care unit and resuscitation, Nikolai Gubin said:

“My colleagues and I conducted experiments on mice to determine when and how the weight loss occurs when a living organism dies. Four newborn mice weighing 4 and 5 grams were injected with strychnine. After that, two of the mice were placed in the laboratory containers without lids. And the other two mice remained in tightly sealed special containers. When the mice were later weighed, it was found that the weight loss (meaning the “soul” separating from the body) occurred in the first two test subjects, which were dying in the open air. Their weight decreased by 3 and 6 mg. The mice, isolated from the outside world, had their weight unchanged. It turns out that this possible weight loss during the process of dying can be attributed to natural physical processes (water losses during respiration, heat and evaporation losses), and their effect on difference in body weight can be eliminated by sealing the test subjects undergoing the process of dying.”

In addition, it has been long known that a decrease in body weight can be recorded during sleep. In an experiment by Swiss scientists, 23 volunteers laid in bed, outfitted with ultra-sensitive scales and went to sleep. At the time when an individual transitioned from being awake to falling asleep, a weight loss between 4 and 6 grams had occurred.

Related articles

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Preserve memory and cognitive abilities by following a Mediterranean diet

Preserve memory and cognitive abilities by following a Mediterranean diet.

NaturalNews

May 16, 2013

by: John Phillip

The scientists found that those individuals who most closely followed the Mediterranean diet were 19 percent less likely to develop problems with their thinking and memory skills.

It should come as no great surprise to those following a natural diet and healthy lifestyle that the foods we eat and the environment in which we live directly influence our risk of developing many chronic illnesses, degree of aging and ultimately, lifespan. Although considered by many to be a normal part of the aging process, dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, is not a natural progression as we get older and is largely the product of the type of foods we eat over the course of many decades of life.

While many environmental factors contribute to disease progression, diet remains the most influential cofactor in the development of memory and personality-robbing diseases. Researchers from the University of Alabama report the results of a study suggesting that the Mediterranean diet, emphasizing foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, chicken and salad dressing, and avoiding saturated fats, meat and dairy foods, may be linked to preserving memory and thinking abilities.

Reporting in the prestigious journal, Neurology, scientists explain how limiting sugars, refined carbohydrates and hydrogenated fats help to preserve memory and cognitive abilities through mid-life and into our senior years. Study author, Dr. Georgios Tsivgoulis noted “Since there are no definitive treatments for most dementing illnesses, modifiable activities, such as diet, that may delay the onset of symptoms of dementia, are very important.”

To conduct their study, the team analyzed 30,239 people over age 45 for a period of four-and-a-half years and monitored them regularly for health changes and adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet. Participants underwent tests to measure memory and thinking abilities over the study period. The scientists found that those individuals who most closely followed the Mediterranean diet were 19 percent less likely to develop problems with their thinking and memory skills. Interestingly, the Mediterranean diet was not associated with cognitive decline in people with diabetes.

While the team did not provide an explanation why diabetics did not benefit from this type of diet, one can theorize that diabetes results from years of dietary transgressions and the resulting cellular and metabolic changes require more intense measures to resolve. Dr. Tsivgoulis concluded “Diet is an important modifiable activity that could help in preserving cognitive functioning in late life, however it is only one of several important lifestyle activities that might play a role in late-life mental functioning. Exercise, avoiding obesity and not smoking cigarettes are also important.”

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The Neurobiology of Individuality: Mice that explore more have higher levels of neurogenesis

The Neurobiology of Individuality | The Scientist Magazine®.

The Scientist Magazine®

Mice that explore more have higher levels of neurogenesis, suggesting a link between experience, brain plasticity, and the emergence of distinct personalities.

By Dan Cossins | May 9, 2013

WIKIMEDIA, RAMA

When a group of genetically identical mice lived in the same complex enclosure for 3 months, individuals that explored the environment more broadly grew more new neurons than less adventurous mice, according to a study published today (May 9) in Science. This link between exploratory behavior and adult neurogenesis shows that brain plasticity can be shaped by experience and suggests that the process may promote individuality, even among genetically identical organisms.

“This is a clear and quantitative demonstration that individual differences in behavior can be reflected in individual differences in brain plasticity,” said Fred Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, who was not involved the study. “I don’t know of another clear example of that . . . and it tells me that there is a tighter relationship between [individual] experiences and neurogenesis than we had previously thought.”

Scientists have often tried to tackle the question of how individual differences in behavior and personality develop in terms of the interactions between genes and environment. “But there is next to nothing [known] about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individuality,” said Gerd Kempermann of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Dresden.

Full article:

The Neurobiology of Individuality | The Scientist Magazine®.

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Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good, researchers find

With thanks to
http://beyondmeds.com

Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good, researchers find – YouTube.

Negative Effects of Antidepressants | Mad in America.

Paul Andrews

September 12, 2012

By Paul W. Andrews, Lyndsey Gott & J. Anderson Thomson, Jr.

Antidepressant medication is the most commonly prescribed treatment for people with depression. They are also commonly prescribed for other conditions, including bipolar depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic pain syndromes, substance abuse and anxiety and eating disorders. According to a 2011 report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of every ten people (11%) over the age of 12 in the US is on antidepressant medications. Between 2005 and 2008, antidepressants were the third most common type of prescription drug taken by people of all ages, and they were the most frequently used medication by people between the ages of 18 and 44. In other words, millions of people are prescribed antidepressants and are affected by them each year.

The conventional wisdom is that antidepressant medications are effective and safe. However, the scientific literature shows that the conventional wisdom is flawed. While all prescription medications have side effects, antidepressant medications appear to do more harm than good as treatments for depression. We reviewed this evidence in a recent article published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (freely available here).

Full story:

Negative Effects of Antidepressants | Mad in America.

Antidepressants are only moderately effective during treatment and relapse is common

The risk of relapse is increased after antidepressant medication has been discontinued

Antidepressants may increase the risks of breast cancer, but may protect against brain cancers

Antidepressants may cause cognitive decline

Antidepressants are associated with impaired gastrointestinal functioning

Antidepressants cause sexual dysfunction and have adverse effects on sperm quality

Antidepressant use is associated with developmental problems (babies born to mom’s on antidepressants)

Antidepressant use is associated with an increased risk of abnormal bleeding and stroke

Antidepressants are associated with an increased risk of death in older people

Antidepressants have many negative effects on older people (read the details of the above list here)

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