"Human intelligence is the foundation of human technology; all technology is ultimately the product of intelligence. If technology can turn around and enhance intelligence, this closes the loop, creating a positive feedback effect. Smarter minds will be more effective at building still smarter minds." The Singularity Institute of Artificial Intelligence

It seems that it is time to start making a change.  We need to stop thinking that by modifying the human body we are playing at being "god".  It is ridiculous and sadly wrong.  We have done it with computers after smart humans first created them.  Every day researchers and geeks create faster, smarter and much more efficient programs and chips.  Why not turning all this knowledge into human's brain modification?

We could start increasing human's brains, efficiency in neural transmisions and getting some help from Artificial Intelligence to augment human power.  I do believe there is much to learn from technology, and not technology from humans.

I do believe there can be smarter-than-human, human beings.

According to an article in New Scientist (see video embed below), a robot has been developed which is controlled by a mass of disembodied rat neurons. The brain cells (about 300,000 of them) live ("IT'S ALIVE!!!")...

inside a small pot containing a pink broth of nutrients and antibiotics. Inside that pot...neurons have made - and continue to make - connections with each other.

As they do so, the disembodied neurons are communicating, sending electrical signals to one another just as they do in a living creature. We know this because the network of neurons is connected at the base of the pot to 80 electrodes, and the voltages sparked by the neurons are displayed on a computer screen.

[...]

To create the "brain", the neural cortex from a rat fetus is surgically removed and disassociating enzymes applied to it to disconnect the neurons from each other. The researchers then deposit a slim layer of these isolated neurons into a nutrient-rich medium on a bank of electrodes, where they start reconnecting. They do this by growing projections that reach out to touch the neighbouring neurons. "It's just fascinating that they do this," says Steve Potter of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who pioneered the field of neurally controlled animats. "Clearly brain cells have evolved to reconnect under almost any circumstance that doesn't kill them."

[...]

Like a creature with no limbs or senses, the cut-down brain is simply bursting out of boredom, says Whalley. "With no structured sensory input the hypothesis is that you get arbitrarily random and quite often detrimental activity because all these cells are asking for some kind of direction."

Here's the video...
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.662324&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

According to Kevin Warwick, one of the researchers, "It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains. This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."  Warwick later speculates that much of the difference between rat and human brains lies in the number of neurons and not the neurons themselves.  Picking on that particular statement, since I think it's a pretty bold claim, you have to wonder about animals like whales and elephants who have one to two times the number of neurons we do.  If he's right and it's the number of neurons that makes the difference, we are literally killing sentient beings.  Of course, to the people who are killing blue whales and elephants, that doesn't matter one bit.

This technology troubles me a bit.  On the one hand, it's really cool.  Biological computers!  On the other hand, the potential for harm here is just enormous.  On the other other hand, it may pave the way for humans to place their brains in vats and replace their meat sacks with machinery.  On the other other other hand it may mean advanced combat robots that make iron man look like a sissy.  Or maybe not.  The recent round of research that aims to make animals into cyborgs (and often for military purposes) strikes me as a harbinger of a world where the line between artificial and biological life is blurred beyond recognition.  If a cyborg constructed in such a way can feel...

It’s an interesting plot, if a little low-key. It references the crazy possibilities, which our own increasing scientific knowledge is throwing out there.  We left the TV series talking of UFO’s, abductions, government conspiracies. Challenging ethics and pushing the questions of science upon us, sounds more like the X-Files we knew first. This was an X-Files, where something strange and never seen before was at first afforded a supernatural element but rapidly realised (usually by Scully) to be actually ingrained in the biological world around us. A freakish possibility. An unlikely, if logical, scenario.

Which brings us to asking:how logical is the main premise of the movie? How much is fact, and how much is speculative? Head transplants have been carried out on dogs and monkeys, more successfully on the former. The measure of success is both the length of time the animal survives after the operation, and the extent to which cerebral function is resumed. While Charles Guthrie, the American physiologist, was the first to “create” a two-headed dog by transplantation in 1908, it was the Russian, Vladimir Demikhov in the 1950’s, who produced the two headed dog, possessed of full cerebral function. The transplanted head of Guthrie’s dog only retained the most primitive movements. The key difference between the strategies of the two doctors was the time allowed to elapse between decapitation and attachment of the donor head to the recipient body. For this time period, the head is without oxygen supply, and the neurons are at risk of dying, thus debilitating brain function. Although Demikhov’s surgery was successful, after 6 days his two-headed dog died.

Demikhov's dog

Unnerving as the dog operations may seem, the experimental surgeries carried out by Dr. Robert White, an American World War II veteran at the County Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio raised the bar on grotesque far higher. In 1962, he achieved a world's-first by successfully removing an animal's brain and keeping the brain alive. In 1964, he transplanted the brain of one dog into the neck of another dog, and connected it to the recipient dog’s blood supply, monitoring the brain activity with electrodes. His aim was to successfully keep the brain alive outside of a skull, but the issue of actually proving consciousness eluded him. In 2001, it was revealed to the world that his quest had led him to transplanting the head of a monkey to another’s body, deemed successful since the transplanted head could exhibit facial movements, and react to stimuli. However it was, of course paralysed.

Sketch of White's monkey plan

While many deemed his operation “grotesque” he maintained that the next step was to carry out the same on humans. He pointed out that in the case of person with irreparable damage to their body or organs, the replacement of their entire body would be ideal. It would offer them a means to prolong their lifespan beyond what is currently possible. The transplant would offer options to those individuals, who would rather be quadriplegic than dead.

The brain-neck experiment by Dr. White

The opposing argument was outlined by Dr Stephen Rose, director of Brain and Behavioural Research at the Open University who remarked; "This is medical technology run completely mad and out of all proportion to what's needed”. Since the donor head is not connected to the recipient body except by blood supply, he feels it cannot be called a true transplant. There is no real interaction with the recipient body. Indeed, looking at Dr. White’s original interest in maintaining the consciousness of the brain, it would seem his surgeries are driven more by a personal ambition than a true wish to benefit the scientific community.

Basically, head transplantation remains firmly unethical and without purpose unless repair can be carried out successfully on the spinal cord, thus ensuring the individual is not condemned to quadriplegia.  If this barrier could be overcome, then, head transplantation would offer endless possibilities and opportunities. At the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of California, Irvine, spinal cords in mice have been shown to be repaired to some degree by stem cells. Mice which were partially paralysed by the spinal damage, could walk again after treatment. Many scientists, including Dr. Rose, believe we could be better served by researching stem cells (the cells which can be induced to become any cell type in the body), than by attempting large scale and complex head transplant operations. There is potential for treatment of spinal damage and muscular disabilities using stem cells. New, functioning neurons have been shown to be capable of being grown in the human hippocampus. And, in June of this year, researchers at Berkley University, California have been able revive the repair ability of muscle tissue in old mice. They achieved this by altering the biochemical pathway by which stem cells repair damaged tissue.

Quite aside from the problem of spinal cord repair, allowing a donor head to communicate effectively with the recipient body, there is the issue of transplant rejection to be considered, whereby the transplanted organ fails to be accepted by the recipient body leading to an immune attack on the organ. The extent of post operative treatment which could be required to allow an individual undergoing head transplantation to survive, may be too great to render the surgery a benefit at all.

Whether or not we agree with Dr. White’s opinions or consider all the operations carried out to date to be highly unethical, there is no doubt that the progress will continue. The medical and scientific community may condemn the activities of some of its members, but curiosity and ambition have always pushed some individuals beyond what is considered acceptable. The world’s first human head transplant is believed to have already been carried out in Chicago, Illinois. A woman suffering from multiple organ failures and with only a week to live volunteered for the controversial surgery. Perhaps we would rather head transplantation remained only the realm of movies such as The X-Files: I want to believe. I’m not sure we want to believe something like this possible or even watchable. Unfortunately the existence of YouTube means it’s not just Mulder and Scully who get the chance to be horrified.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJGIYOL0r4

The VTA DA neurons have also been linked with drug addiction, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are not well understood. "While usurpation of learning and memory processes may support persistent seeking of abused drugs, common synaptic mechanisms of natural and drug reinforcement have not been demonstrated," says study author Dr. Antonello Bonci from the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Bonci and colleagues demonstrated that self-administration of cocaine produced a potentiation of VTA excitatory synapses that persisted for three months after abstinence and was still present after three weeks of extinction training. This finding may be relevant to relapse in humans as potentiation persisted even when drug-seeking behaviors were extinguished. In contrast to self-administration of cocaine, self-administration of natural rewards, such as food or sugar, induced a potentiation of VTA glutaminergic synapses that was equally potent but quite short-lived.

Interestingly, rats that received repeated passive injections of cocaine did not exhibit potentiation of VTA glutamatergic function, suggesting that cocaine-associated changes were due to an associative process and not just to the pharmacological effects of the drug. "We suggest that neuroadaptations induced specifically by drug self-administration may form a powerful 'memory' that can be activated by drug-associated cues," explains coauthor Dr. Billy T. Chen.

How self-administration of a drug but not a natural reward can elicit enduring changes within the brain remains a mystery. "Future studies are required to identify the exact mechanisms through which drugs of abuse alter neural circuitry that is normally accessed by naturally reinforcing events but is usurped by cocaine to persistently cement these synaptic adaptations, perhaps ultimately leading to pathological drug-seeking behavior," concludes Dr. Bonci.

Source: Cell Press

"Our model is proposing a way that the brain processes temporal information and how this can vary over time" said Jean-Philippe Thivierge, a post-doctorate researcher in IU Bloomington's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

A better understanding of rhythms in the brain -- how to create them or stop them -- would help researchers studying such neural diseases as epilepsy, which involves seizures or uncontrollable rhythms in the brain.

Thivierge and co-author Paul Cisek, an assistant professor at the University of Montreal, created a mathematical model for how hundreds of neurons interact after being stimulated by an electric current. They propose that the random synchronization, which occurs in large populations of neurons, results from "positive excitatory feedback originating from recurrent connections between the cells."

The synchronization involves most of the cells in the group but begins with a preferred small group of cells -- like "elite" cells -- that tend to become active just before all the others do. When enough cells in the group become active, a threshold, or "point of no return" is reached where all the cells become active and their activity spikes.

The study also demonstrates how neural activity can spike periodically or rhythmically. When researchers introduced a specific rhythm to the model, they discovered that the model could learn and repeat the rhythm. Scientists have known for 50 years that the brain could do this, but the mechanism was unknown until now. Thivierge said the mechanism is based on how the neurons come together to motivate each other to fire in a specific, periodic way, following the rhythmic stimuli.

The spontaneous neural activity modeled in this study has been detected in several regions of the brain as well as in other species. The authors conjecture that the benefits of such spontaneity come in the brain's ability to be more flexible and responsive to external events, that the random synchronization can prevent the brain from remaining "stuck" in a particular state.

"It seems like when you're in a more flexible brain state, it's easier for you to redirect your attention to new and important things," Thivierge said.

Source: Indiana University

the top illustration shows how seratonin (small green circles) travel from neuron to neuron. in most brains, enough seratonin makes it across the synaptic cleft to allow enough seratonin flowing from synapse to synapse. when too little seratonin makes the jump, one can take an seratonin reuptake inhibitor, which essentiallly keeps the seratonin out in the gap longer (inhibits its reuptake in the originating neuron) so that it has more opportunity to join up with seratonin receptors on the other side of the cleft. so jump, little seratonins, JUMP!

the illustration above is the molecular structure of seratonin.

Worms calculate how much the strength of different tastes is changing (the same as taking a derivative in calculus (the derivative of y=x^2+4x-5 is y=2x+4)) to figure out if they are moving toward food or should change direction according University of Oregon biologist Shawn Lockery, who believes humans and other animals do the same thing.

With the aid of salt and chili peppers, Lockery reached the calculating-worms conclusion by studying two anatomically identical neurons from the worm's brain that collectively regulate its behavior. These two neurons function like "on" and "off" gates in a computer in response to changes in salt concentration levels.

Like human visual systems that respond to the presence and absence of light, Lockery and colleagues found that when the left neuron fires as salt concentrations increase, the roundworm continues crawling in the same direction. The right neuron responds when salt concentrations decrease, and the worm turns in search of a saltier location.

Lockery said this is similar to a game of hot-and-cold.  However the worm calculates if it needs to go closer or further by itself.  Observing the worm responding to changes in concentration suggested an experiment to see if the worm's brain computes derivatives.  The mathematical concept of a derivative indicates the rate at which something, such as salt concentration, changes at a given point in time and space.  So Lockery tried to verify that these neurons recognize changes in salt concentration and then tell the worm where food is and where it is not.

To do so, he artificially activated each neuron with capsaisin, the chemical that makes hot peppers spicy.  Worms normally do not natrually detect the chemical compound.  Worms with capsaicin applied to the left neuron crawled forward.  When the worm's brain indicated that the current direction of movement lead to increasing salt concentrations, it continued moving in its original direction.  But since the worm's right neuron was activated with capsaicin, it is fooled into thinking the salt levels are decreasing.  So the worm changed direction, hoping to find salt elsewhere.

Previous studies have identified "on" and "off" cells in the brains of other chemosensory animals such as fruit flies, cockroaches, frogs, lobsters and rats.  As a result of the strong similarities between these regions, more animals could be doing calculus to find food.  This could help the many Americans who cannot taste or smell, especially those with Alzheimer's.

Desire

Epiphany

So cute.

I was having lunch with my Mother last week and we were talking about depression (she suffers from it periodically) and she said that she thinks depression is a lack of life force. I was surprised by this comment, because I have always believed that was the root of depression, and the reason why simply getting out and excercising can overcome it.

Well, turns out I was right... so was my mom. The latest research says that depression is caused by the death of neurons and that the reason prozac can cure depression is because it stimulates neuron growth, but so does excercise, sunlight, social activity, talk therapy, and a variety of other, much neglected things. Hell, looks like St. John's Wort might just have the same effect without side effects (although in a milder way). Stress is a major cause of the conditions that allow for neuron death. I guess this means that the average job in North America is literally killing our brains.

Part of why I don't stay depressed is expression. When I get depressed I write (it usually isn't about what I am depressed over, for instance I might write a blog post about the causes of depression when something completely unrelated is bothering me) or draw, or do Parkour, or Tae Kwon Doe, or go for a walk with my dogs. I recommend the same to you, dear reader. When you don't feel motivated to do anything, go outside and walk or run, or hell, just play. Don't drink though. While drinking is often a social activity which helps, I'm pretty sure that alcohol contributes to neuron death... just based on casual observation of drinking and depressive behaviour.

Prozac was working to help rejuvenate the braincells, but scientists were misled by the fact that serotonin levels were increasing. "The effectiveness of Prozac ... has little to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. Rather, the drug works because it helps heal our neurons, allowing them to grow and thrive again." Prozac isn't a happy pill, but a healing pill. "In this sense, Prozac is simply a bottled version of other activities that have a similar effect, such as physical exercise."

technorati tags: prozac, health, healing, neurons, brain, serotonin

خیلی ها این کتاب را انقلابی در علم نورولوژی دانسته اند و حتی آن را بهترین کتاب سال در این زمینه خوانده اند. البته بعضی هم اشاره داشته اند که کتاب بیشتر به حواشی رفته است و این دانشمند ایتالیایی به خوبی بر روی قضیه تمرکز ندارد، بلکه بر تاریخچه کشف اعصاب آیینه ای و داستان های جانبی آن بیشتر مانور می دهد.

نیویورک تایمز در مورد این کشف نورولوژیک چنین نوشته است که "این کشف در حال لرزاندن نظم های علمی بسیاری است و در حال تغییر فهم ما از فرهنگ، روانشناسی و فلسفه است ...".

از نکات جالبی که در راستای این کشف بیان شده است –نمی دانم که کتاب به آن اشاره دارد یا خیر- موضوع اختلالات در افرادی همچون کودکان اوتیسم³ است که ارتباط مناسبی را با محیط اطرافشان پیدا نمی کنند و اختلال در تکلم و ارتباط با دیگران دارند. این موضوع فرضی را ارائه می دهد که اعصاب آیینه ای در این افراد به درستی کار نمی کنند چرا که عمل آنها تقلید محیط می باشد و از کارکردهای مهم شان اجتماعی شدن فرد است. و همانطور که می دانیم این افراد اجتماعی نیستند.

در مصاحبه ای که Scientific American با Iacoboni انجام داده است در مورد مسئله فیلم ها و بازی های خشن از وی می پرسد که آیا ذهن ما آنها را تقلید می کند یا خیر. پاسخ می دهند که بلی و این مسئله بسیار نگران کننده است و می بایست مواظب باشیم که چه چیزی را تماشا می کنیم. شواهدی رفتاری متقاعد کننده ای بین ارتباط خشونت رسانه ها و تقلید خشونت در افراد وجود دارد. اما تغییر ساختار رسانه ها کار ساده ای نیست و جامعه می بایست به طور زیر پوستی به کاهش این مقولات بپردازد.

پانوشت:

متاسفانه بنده این کتاب را ندارم و آن را در لیست تهیه کتاب های چندین و چند فوریتی ام می گذارم.

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1. Mirroring People: The New Science of How we connect with others

2. Mirror Neurons           

3. Autism

OK, this post covers the good news. The next post, the bad news.

The good news is fish makes us smart.

At least that’s what Taras Grescoe says in his new book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood.

“It is likely our seafood-rich diet provided the nutrients that make us the world’s brainiest primate. Without fish, we might still be micro cephalic apes, swinging through the trees."

Fish has a high content of omega-3 acids. Omega-3 is the “good” fat, the stuff that boosts your good cholesterol and reduces the risk of coronary disease, among other things.

Your brain needs Omega-3

Sixty percent of our brain consists of fat, and scientists believe that at least 30% of this fat is Omega-3 fatty acids. These are necessary to develop the cells in our body.

Even though we don’t produce more brain cells after we are two years old, brain cells grow and develop "tendrils" to other cells, which is important for learning.

Electrical signals going through the brain get passed from one brain cell, or neuron, to the next. In the switch, a signal needs to leave one brain cell at a point called the synapse and cross a physical gap before entering the next neuron.

For signals to enter a neuron, they need to pass through brain cell membranes which consist almost entirely of fats. Twenty percent of these fats are Omega-3s.

Embedded in brain cell membranes are structures called ion channels that open to allow the flow of electrical signals into the cell by changing their shape.

Omega-3 makes the cell membrane more elastic, absorb nutrients more easily, and develop. Limited development of these ”tendrils” to the brain cells causes us to become forgetful and have problems learning new things when we become older.

Playing challenging video games on your PC may not have the same benefits of Omega-3 on your brain but they might put some of those cells to work. Check out our games at Brain Games Software.

Satu dapatan interesting mengenai otak: Brains always enforced the Reality First Policy & insisted on reacting on real circumstances instead of imaginary lives (1). Ini bermakna bila saya ditanyakan soalan mengenai apa yang akan saya rasai pada masa akan datang, jawapan saya akan berkait rapat dengan apa yang saya rasai sekarang. In other words, we cannot feel good about an imaginary future when we are busy feeling about an actual present (1). Keaadaan ini dinamakan Presentism; the tendency for current experience to influence one's views of the past and the future. Jadi, saya tak perlu memikirkan sangat mengenai hal masa depan kerana bila saya sudah melangkah ke tempat(educational level, pekerjaan dll) yang saya idam-idamkan, apa yang saya rasai sekarang tidak akan sama dengan apa yang saya rasai sewaktu saya sedang berangan menuju ke tempat yang diidamkan. Situasi ini juga sangat berkait rapat dengan imaginasi seseorang. Tidak salah kalau saya berimaginasi tentang masa depan, namun imaginasi juga mempunyai flaws yang tersendiri. It fills in and leaves out (1); bermakna, imaginasi berupaya membolehkan kita untuk membayangi masa depan yang cukup nan indah namun gagal untuk mengimbangi perkara2 crucial yang harus kita tempuhi jika kita ingin merealisasikan imaginasi tersebut. Dalam erti kata lain, imagination fails to weigh the absence and this may cause problems. Sebagai contoh, saya ingin menjadi seorang penyanyi seperti Siti Nurhaliza (cheh cheh berangan). Jadi saya pun berangan, konon naik atas pentas bernyanyi dengan penuh sentimental dan kejiwangan yang maha dasyat dan semua penonton sangat enthusiastic bertepuk-tepuk tangan. Doing! back to reality. Nak jadi penyanyi? crazy ke aku ni?. Macam mana nak jadi penyanyi kalau tak tahu teknik untuk bernyanyi dan bermacam-macam persoalan hukum hakam yang tidak pernah terlintas ketika saya sedang berimaginasi. Tapi sekali-sekala berangan tu tak mengapalah, asalkan dapat kembali ke jalan yang lurus He He.

Semakin lama, semakin banyak disorder di dunia ini. Dan kini saya terbaca mengenai satu disorder yang baru saja saya ketahui 2 hari yang lalu (ST, world, 28 June 08). Yakni Colony Collapse Disorder. Jumlah bees semakin berkurangan. Bekalan honey semakin merosot. Situasi akan menjadi huru hara kerana bees juga bertanggungjawab dalam pollination. Terutama sekali bunga yang tidak boleh untuk self-pollinate seperti epal. Lantas ini juga antara satu penyebab mengapa food prices semakin naik. Antara sebab-sebab jumlah bees semakin merosot ialah parasit, virus, cellphone dll. Cellphone? research menunjukkan bees menjadi tidak keharuan bila mereka dekat dengan power cables. Ini kerana electromagnetic wave somehow disorient bees' navigation system. Pengajaran: Mesra bee, jauhi menggunakan cellphone jika anda berada dekat dengan tabuan.

Semalam semester baru bermulanya pergas. Kelas saya didatangi dengan seorang pengajar generalist (bukan specialist) kerana dia banyak bertukar-tukar jurusan daripada science, humanities, accounting, economic dll semasa di bangku sekolah. Kini dia mengambil PHd di NTU. Sebelum ini dia mengambil honours/master dalam bidang falsafah di NUS mengkaji mengenai falsafah Islam dan falsafah Cina. Pelajar-pelajar di kelas lantas mengeluarkan bunyi-bunyian wow wuuu woow. Seperti biasa soalan-soalan falsafah pun dirembatnya ke gegendang telinga kami. Kadang-kadang saya rasa tak boleh angkat. Begitu juga dengan rakan saya di sebelah. Banyak sangat persoalan/soalan. Betul punya tak boleh angkat. Walau apa pun se-twisted soalan yang diajukan. Dia memberitahu akhirnya jawapannya adalah, untuk mencari keredhaanNya. Philosophy memang interesting. Mempersoalkan soalan, soal lagi soalan yang sudah ada jawapan, soal punya soal punya soal sampai tak boleh angkat.

Cerita pasal otak lagi:Our brain is a web of neurons. Lantas jika neurons kita sudah interconnected dengan bermacam-macam idea, senanglah bagi kita untuk mencari information, menyelesaikan suatu masalah dll. Ini bermakna rote learning memang sah tak begitu effective especially bila kita ingin menyelesaikan masalah yang tak pernah terlintas dibuat dimana-mana kertas soalan peperiksaan. Dan ini bermakna banyak lagi perkara yang harus saya lakukan! Ahhh! lagi 4 bulan beb sebelum the BIg A muncul kembali dengan taring yang lebih tajam.

post akan datang: post Pop - nantikan kemunculan penyanyi tanah air/ seberang di post Pop akan datang.

ps: akan saya jawab tag board malam ini. sekarang saya tengah illegally typing out this post during working hours jadi disebabkan security problem saya tak dapat access cbox. eh eleh lagi pun tak banyak kerja, tengah free. Tak salah kan kan kan He He.
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(1) stumbling on happiness, daniel gilbert, p123,p125

Below is an updated class diagram of the new version:

here's the updated implementation (with a VS2k8 solution):

Neural Network C++ Source Code

We know we are more than just neurons firing. Or, at least we think we are, while the neurons are firing.

-Space Collective

(source: ffffound)

Be inspired.

When a person is in a calm and unstimulated environment neural activity is minimal. At the perception of danger, or some other, environmental stress such as a car back-firing or while waiting in anticipation for an important interview, they become alert and attentive, acting spontaneously and intuitively. If  the stimulus is perceived as a threat, the brain releases an intense and prolonged flow of adrenaline that prepares the body for fight or flight. This reaction is also known as acute stress response. Below is a list of some of the physiological changes that take place in the body:

• Accelerated heart and lung rates also causes blood pressure to rise
• Stomach constricts to suppress appetite
• Nutrients are released into the bloodstream to help fuel muscular action
• Blood vessels to muscles dilate
• Tears, saliva and other glands dry up
• Pupils dilate and tunnel vision excludes peripheral sight. Focus is directly ahead toward the source of the stimulus or away in the opposite direction.
• Bladder and sphincter muscles relax, ready to expel surplus weight which enables the person to move more quickly
• Reproductive functioning is inhibited and men may lose the ability achieve an erection
• Lessened hearing ability shifts focus to other senses which will be more useful
• Hair stands on end ("gooseflesh" ). Although this serves no function now, all of these reactions originate from a time when our bodies were covered with much more body hair.
• There is also a drop in the amount of time it takes for blood to clot, increased blood/sugar level and an increase in metabolic rate.

All these actions serve a logical purpose as the body prepares itself for combat or a quick exit. In anxiety sufferers the same physiological changes take place for no apparent reason. Distorted thinking is one of the primary causes of anxiety. CBT, meditation, exercise and controlled breathing helps us switch off to these incessant thoughts and to disregard the internal dialog. Which usually consists of thoughts and feelings of self-judgment and inadequacy. What we must do, is concentrate, instead, on acheiving a sense of well-being.

Neurological changes include;

• increased ACTH secretion from the anterior lobe of the pituitary.

Below is a diagram of neurological processes active during the fight or flight response.

Incidentally, I decided not to start taking the Mirtazapine after reading about the side-effects. I don't want to add to the sense of dysphoria I already feel, and as with SSRI's, they have no effect on endorphin levels. The small amount of research available, in the public sector, is not sufficiently specific.

Does anyone else have personal experience of them?

Links

www.sustainedaction.org contains an explaination of shutting off the internal dialog.

At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine.Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.

Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there being no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Sciama, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph.D. he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.

After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.The chair was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton.

Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.

His many publications include: The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has three popular books published; his best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays and most recently in 2001, The Universe in a Nutshell.

There are .pdf and .ps versions of his full publication list. Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and one grandchild), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of travel and public lectures. Prof. Stephen Hawking suffers from ALS.

What is ALS?

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a rapidly progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease that is characterized by degeneration of a select group of nerve cells and pathways (motor neurons) in the brain and spinal cord. This loss of motor neurons leads to progressive paralysis of the voluntary muscles. The heart is not a voluntary muscle, and therefore, remains unaffected by the disease. However, since breathing is controlled voluntarily by the chest muscles, death usually occurs when the chest muscles are no longer able to help the lungs achieve adequate oxygenation. Generally, there is little impairment of the brain or the senses.

"Amyotrophic" means:A = absence ofmyo = muscletrophic = nourishmentlateral = side (of spine)sclerosis = hardening or scarring ALS is not contagious, but it is fatal.For the most part, the battle is short, with 80% losing their lives within three to five years of diagnosis. While between 10% and 20% live ten years or more after diagnosis, others live only a few months. While the cause is unknown, research is being conducted in areas relating to genetic predispositions, viral or infectious agents, environmental toxins and immunological changes. For some people, the muscles for speaking, swallowing or breathing are the first to be affected. This is known as bulbar ALS.

The term "bulbar" refers to the motor neurons located in the brain stem, that control the muscles used for chewing, swallowing, and speaking. ALS symptoms, and the order in which they occur, vary from one person to another. In 85% of cases, ALS effects the lower portion of the spinal cord first. This is known as limb onset ALS. In these cases, muscle weakness, cramps and weakened reflexes affects the muscles in the arms and legs as the first signs of ALS. The rate of muscle loss can vary significantly from person to person with some patients having long periods with very slow degeneration. Signs and Symptoms Upper Motor Neuron Degeneration muscle stiffness or rigidity emotional lability (decreased ability to control emotions) excessive fatigue dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) dyspnea (shortness of breath) dysarthria (a speech disorder caused by impairment of the muscles used for speaking) incresed or 'b risk' reflexesgait spasticiy Lower Motor Neuron Degeneration muscle weakness and atrophy involuntary contraction of muscle fibres muscle cramps weakened reflexes flaccidity (decreased muscle tone)difficulty swallowing disordered articulation shortness of breath at rest.

Is ALS a Rare Disease?

ALS is not considered a rare disease. Approximately 2,500-3,000 Canadians currently live with ALS. Two or three Canadians lose their battle to this devastating disease every day. In Ontario, roughly 1,000 people have ALS at any one time. "ALS is clearly the most common cause of neurological death on an annual basis," Dr. Michael Strong, clinician at the University Health Sciences Centre and research scientist at the Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario.

What Causes ALS?

We don't really know what causes ALS, but we do know that it can strike any adult at any time. While the usual age at onset is between 45 and 65, people as young as 17 have been diagnosed in the past. Between 5 and 10% of ALS cases are found in the same families, meaning that they are "familial", and are definitely linked genetically. But for the most part, diagnosis is sporadic and we don't know how it is caused.

What are the early symptoms?

ALS usually becomes apparent either in the legs, the arms, the throat or the upper chest area. Some people begin to trip and fall, some may notice muscle loss in their hands and arms and some find it hard to swallow and slur their speech. ALS is difficult to diagnose. There is no specific test available that will either rule out or confirm the presence of ALS. Diagnosis is usually made through a 'diagnosis of exclusions'. Neurologists conduct a number of tests, thereby ruling out other disorders that may cause similar symptoms, such as strokes or multiple sclerosis and if nothing else is positive and yet the symptoms continue to worsen, ALS is often the reason.

What are the effects of ALS?

Because ALS frequently takes its toll before being positively diagnosed, many patients are debilitated before learning they have ALS. The disease usually does not affect the senses - taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing - or the mind. ALS has a devastating effect on patients and their families. As they cope with the prospect of advancing disability and eventually death, it consumes their financial and emotional reserves. It is a costly disease in its later stages, demanding both extensive nursing care and expensive equipment.

What can be done about ALS?

There is no known cure at this time and very little in the way of treatment that will have an effect on the disease itself.

Is there hope for people with ALS?

Research is looking to find not only the cause of the disease so that a cure can be developed but also other medications or treatments that can help until a cure is found. With improved knowledge about ALS, healthcare providers and families can help people living with ALS live life more fully. The services offered by the ALS Society of Ontario help improve the quality of life for those who live with ALS and their families.

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Celibacy by verypurpleperson
Creative Commons License

Sex is the biggest nothing of all time
--Andy Warhol

Sex sells. We've all heard the phrase. And to a large extent it's true.

Amidst countless mixed messages in the media, one thing seems almost certain. People tend to buy products associated with attractive models and the implication of having sex.

We see it in all sorts of ads--automobile, travel and even soft drink ads.

We're also bombarded with sex in so-called ‘reverse psychology' ads where a voice dryly tells us we won't get a date with a sexy person by buying a product.

But reverse psychology ads speak to the same reality as blatantly sexual ones. Human beings are, for the most part, obsessed with sex. And if suppressed, sexual motifs usually crop up in dreams or express themselves in distorted, harmful ways.

After all, sex is fundamental to human nature. Scientists say we're pre-wired to want and think about sex because our species simply must reproduce to survive.

Another reason for the primacy of the sexual impulse, perhaps equally important, is the desire to conquer loneliness through physical intimacy.

In a landmark study the psychologist Harry F. Harlow demonstrated that test monkeys prefer cloth covered instead of bare, wire frame surrogate mothers.

And human beings are remarkably similar in this regard. People want more than mere physiological survival and most don't enjoy being alone for extended periods.

Studies also indicate that sex is good not just for emotional but also physical health.¹

If sex is essential to the preservation and well-being of humanity, why would anyone in their right mind take up a life of celibacy?

To try to answer this question, this article affords insights from psychology, the sociology of knowledge, world religion and mysticism.

The following observations are based on an ongoing holistic approach that combines textual and multimedia studies, scheduled and unscheduled group and one-on-one discussions, participant-observation,² intuitive impressions, analytical reflection and prayer.

Such a method might not please mediocre thinkers who try their best to look like reputable scholars. Similarly, some might object to the mention of prayer. But this is an important methodological component. And it would misleading to conceal the study's holistic approach or to describe, after the fact, a planned, linear-conceptual method that never existed.³

For expedience the discussion has been organized into six potentially overlapping types of celibacy. Each type should be taken as a hypothetical construction designed to stimulate debate.

Repressed

Opiates such as morphine and heroin lessen pain and produce euphoria, but their capacity for misuse means they must be treated with respect. Recent research has led to discoveries that could revolutionize, not only pain relief, but also, the understanding of addiction, reproduction, and the immune system.

Most recent advances stem from the discovery of the brain's opiate receptor and basic technique for studying brain receptors still used today. Brain receptors are proteins located on the surfaces of nerve cells, or neurons. The brain works through neurons communicating with each other by releasing signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemicals attach to receptors on nearby neurons the way a key fits a lock.

After establishing that opiate drugs acted on a specific neuron of many with a similar molecular structure it was suggested they worked by attaching to a receptor. Researchers used radioactive naloxone, a synthetic opiate with a strong attraction to the receptor to locate the tiny percentage of brain tissue. It was discovered that opiates bind specifically to cultured rat neurons and that non-opiate drugs do not bind to the receptor. Receptor binding assay, as the process is known, became an important method of studying drugs.

By testing which receptor a drug binds to, researchers can:

* Screen new chemicals for use in pain relief.
* Determine if a drug causes side effects by binding to the wrong receptor.
* Identify subtypes of opiate receptors that may be key to a new generation of opiate drugs that work without side effects.

The action of opiate receptors suggested opiates work by mimicking natural opiate-like molecules made and used in the brain. These are known as Endogenous brain opioids, of which there are two. Endorphins are a group of chemicals with a similar action to morphine and beta-endorphins are , produced by the brain's pituitary gland. The body uses these chemicals to control many functions.
Using the receptor binding assay and gene cloning techniques, researchers have now found at least four subtypes of opiate receptors; mu, delta, epsilon, and kappa. Cloning the receptors has helped scientists develop gene probes to locate the receptors in individual cells and other models for receptor subtypes that can reveal how new drugs work.

Scientists also have found that certain brain opioids act more on some receptor subtypes than others. This may lead to the development of new pain-relieving drugs that do not cause addiction, or other side effects.

Researchers believe that opioid receptors may effect the release of luteinizing hormone; an important reproductive peptide, and also help regulate the immune system. This could aid development of new treatments for problems ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to alcoholism.

Here is a map of brain structures containing opiate receptors. The positron emission tomography (PET) scan of mu opiate receptors shows high concentrations in the thalamus (red) which is involved in pain; intermediate concentrations in the cerebral cortex (green) and basal ganglia (yellow and orange) which plays an important role in movement and emotions; and low levels in the visual cortex (violet).