Mind Modifications

The placebo effect, in a nutshell, is demonstrated like this: instead of giving a patient real medicine, he is given ineffective medicine (e.g. sugar pills) but the patient is nevertheless cured. This is because the patient thinks he is receiving real medicine and “knows” that it should work - thus, although really given ineffective medicine, he cures himself through some form of self-suggestion.

BBC4 has now put both parts of their radio program about the placebo effect online.

Be sure to also check this post at Mind Hacks for links to a couple of interesting papers.

An interesting article about research which was done to help people with dyslexia. The brain can learn to permanently adapt to enhance the learning capabilities, as long as enough training and instruction are given (and the training carefully followed, of course). Check out “Remedial instruction rewires dyslexic brains, provides lasting results”.

Quote: “Focused instruction can help underperforming brain areas to increase their proficiency.”

Mindmapping is a technique where one iteratively draws a diagram with information, and links those pieces of information together with connections. It’s a very powerful technique which you can use when trying to tackle complex problem areas, such as new ideas, studying of new subjects, analysis of problems, organizing, writing, decision-making, etc.

This is a quick-and-dirty introduction how mindmaps work and how you can use them.
Read all »

The consumer-grade EEG device from OCZ, the “Neural Impulse Actuator”, has started shipping. It can be bought (although stock seems empty) at least from play.com, with the price being 100 UK pounds (I will not play along with silly 99.99 prices).

A review can be read at Overclock3D.net.

No word yet about support for non-Windows platforms.

An article about enhancing cognition (with the aid of chemicals) in the Economist.

This here is a story what happened to a friend of mine. It relies on the fact that people enter a kind of trance-like state when they do something monotonous. Behold, the sequencing attack against coffee shop clerks!
Read all »

A hypnotist from Great Britain underwent a surgery without anaesthetic, opting instead to hypnotise himself to not feel the pain.
Read all »

Wired brings you: Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them.
Read all »

In order to make coloured noise (white, brown, pink) you do not have to spend even $35 to get a specialized commercial product. You can just download Audacity, an open source audio editor, and generate the noise files with that.
Read all »

The activity happening within the brain is electrochemical by its nature. When this activity is measured, it can be broken down into five major frequency bands: delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma. Roughly speaking, these bands correspond to certain biological states.

For example, delta waves are prominent in slow wave sleep (SWS, stage 4 of NREM). Beta waves are seen in normal waking state as well as intense thinking or concentration. Theta waves are seen with meditation, hypnosis, trances and other altered states of consciousness.

In other words, with a suitable measuring device, it is possible to get objective feedback about what your state of consciousness is.
Read all »