Neurosciences

[Parodite]

Interesting and inspiring interview with Ramachandran

ojpyvpFLN6M

[noddy]

http://www.gizmag.com/neurocam-mind-act ... era/29601/

The neurocam is a product of the Tokyo-based Neurowear team, which also brought us Necomimi and Shippo – moving, wearable, mind-controlled cat ears and a tail, respectively. On the less goofy side, Neurowear is also behind a set of headphones that selects music based on the listener's mood.

Like those devices, the neurocam incorporates sensors that detect electrical activity in the wearer's brain. Depending on how much activity is detected, the user's interest level in what they're observing is assigned a numerical value from 1 to 100. Any time that number exceeds 60, a 5-second GIF animated clip is recorded, capturing whatever happens to be in the forward-facing camera's line of sight. Those clips are date- and location-stamped, and stored in a video album for subsequent review.

sounds like a hell of a lot of tits and arse shots being taken to this seedy little mind.

in fairness their are other things that catch the eye but i suspect the ratios might mirror the rest of the net.

Along with the lifelogging application, it has been suggested that the camera could also find use for things like assessing what goods in stores interest customers the most, or showing urban planners what parts of the city people find most appealing.

or maybe not.

[Doc]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269630.php

Oxytocin Found to Stimulate Social Brain Regions in Children With Autism
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: December 2, 2013

The hormone oxytocin has been generating excitement — and caution — among people who care about autism.
Related

Health Guide: Autism

Scientists have been eager to see if oxytocin, which plays a role in emotional bonding, trust and many biological processes, can improve social behavior in people with autism. Some parents of children with autism have asked doctors to prescribe it, although it is not an approved treatment for autism, or have purchased lower-dose versions of the drug over the counter.

Scientifically, the jury is out, and experts say parents should wait until more is known. Some studies suggest that oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone,” improves the ability to empathize and connect socially, and may decrease repetitive behaviors. Others find little or no impact, and some research suggests that it can promote clannish and competitive feelings, or exacerbate symptoms in people already oversensitive to social cues. Importantly, nobody knows if oxytocin is safe or desirable to use regularly or long term.

Now, the first study of how oxytocin affects the brains of children with autism finds hints of promise — and also suggestions of what its limitations might be.

On the promising side, the small study, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the hormone, given as an inhalant, generated increased activity in parts of the brain involved in social connection. This suggests not only that oxytocin can stimulate social brain areas, but also that in children with autism these brain regions are not irrevocably damaged but are plastic enough to be influenced.

The limitations could include a finding that oxytocin prompted greater brain activity in children with the least severe autism. Some experts said that this could imply that oxytocin may work primarily in less-impaired people, but others said it might simply suggest that different doses are needed.

“Here we have a really clear demonstration that oxytocin is affecting brain activity in people with autism,” said Dr. Linmarie Sikich, director of the Adolescent and School-Age Psychiatric Intervention Research Program at the University of North Carolina, who was not involved in the study. “What this shows is that the brains of people with autism aren’t incapable of responding in a more typical social way.”

Nonetheless, said Dr. Sikich, who will be leading a large federally funded trial of 300 children to evaluate behavioral effects of daily oxytocin for six or 12 months, “there’s still a big gap in knowing how much it will really change overall functioning and how to best use it.”

In the new study, conducted by the Yale Child Study Center, 17 children, ages 8 to 16, all with mild autism, got a spray of oxytocin or a placebo (researchers did not know which, and in another session each child received the other substance). The children were placed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, an f.M.R.I., and given a well-established test of social-emotional perception: matching emotions to photographs of people’s eyes. They took a similar test involving objects, choosing if photos of fragments of vehicles corresponded to cars, trucks, and so on.

During the “eyes” test, brain areas involved in social functions like empathy and reward — less active in children with autism — showed more activity after taking oxytocin than after placebo. Also, during the “vehicles” tests, oxytocin decreased activity in those brain areas more than the placebo, a result that especially excited some experts.

“If you can decrease their attention to a shape or object so you can get them to pay attention to a social stimulus, that’s a big thing,” said Deborah A. Fein, a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut.

With oxytocin, the children did not do better on the social-emotional test, unlike in some other studies. But experts said that was not surprising, given the difficulty of answering challenging questions while staying still in an f.M.R.I.

“What I would look for is more evidence of looking in the eyes of parents, more attention to what parents are saying, less tendency to lecture parents on their National Geographic collection,” Dr. Fein said.

The Yale researchers did study oxytocin’s effect on such social interactions and are analyzing those results for later publication, said Ilanit Gordon, a co-author of the study.

The Yale team suggests that oxytocin may be most useful not as a continuous treatment to enhance general social skills, but as a tool to help children benefit more from behavioral therapy or specific social experiences.

Several experts agreed.