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Fructose Fogs the Brain New Study on Rats Suggests

  • Posted on May 16, 2012 at 12:10 pm

A high intake of fructose impairs the cognitive abilities of rats by interfering with insulin signaling, but omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) reduces those negative effects effects according to a study from the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology UCLA published in Journal of Physiology.

Although headlines today, including my own, emphasize the study’s findings regarding the impairing effects of high levels of fructose, the study also highlights the importance of n-3 acids, specifically DHA, to cognitive function. The authors of the study conclude: “In terms of public health, these results support the encouraging possibility that healthy diets can attenuate the action of unhealthy diets such that the right combination of foods is crucial for a healthy brain.”

The study, conducted by Rahul Agrawal1 and Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, consisted of four groups of six rats:

  • one group ate an n-3 deficient diet with a fructose solution
  • one group ate an n-3 deficient diet without a fructose solution
  • one group ate an n-3 sufficient diet with a fructose solution
  • one group ate an n-3 sufficient diet without a fructose solution

Each group was tested on a Barnes maze, a standard measure of spatial learning and memory in rodents. Prior to beginning their special diets all of the rats had been trained in the maze for a five days were found to be of equal cognitive condition.

The study found that an n-3 deficient diet hampered the rats’ performance on the maze, and that adding high fructose intake to an n-3 deficient diet made things substantially worse. The rats with an n-3 sufficient diet but a high level of fructose did significantly better than those with a n-3 deficient diet and a high level of fructose, but still did worse than those with a deficient n-3 level but no fructose. Here’s an illustration of the latency in completing the maze (lower is better):

Comparison of latency times in Barnes maze test

The study notes: “Although there was a preference towards fructose drinking in comparison to the food intake, no differences were observed in body weight and total caloric intake, thus suggesting that obesity is not a major contributor to altered memory functions in this model.”

Full Paper: The Journal of Physiology: ‘Metabolic syndrome’ in the brain: deficiency in omega-3 fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signalling and cognition

This is a new study and has yet to be replicated, and so far its implications for human diets is unclear. “We’re not talking about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants,” Gomez-Pinilla said in a pres release. “We’re concerned about high-fructose corn syrup that is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.”

Although studies have found positive benefits in taking DHA supplements (see Wikipedia for an overview), previous study by Nutritional Sciences Division at King’s College London on the DHA levels in vegans and vegetarians concluded that although those who don’t eat meat have significantly lower levels of DHA “There is no evidence of adverse effects on health or cognitive function with lower DHA intake in vegetarians.” However, there are now a number of algae based vegan DHA supplements.

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/05/16/fructose-fogs-the-brain-new-study-on-rats-suggests/

Care to leave a comment?

Study: Moderate Jogging Increases Longevity

  • Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:00 am

From a press release regarding an as of yet unpublished study conducted over the past 36 years:

Undertaking regular jogging increases the life expectancy of men by 6.2 years and women by 5.6 years, reveals the latest data from the Copenhagen City Heart study presented at the EuroPRevent2012 meeting.

Reviewing the evidence of whether jogging is healthy or hazardous, Peter Schnohr told delegates that the study’s most recent analysis (unpublished) shows that between one and two-and-a-half hours of jogging per week at a “slow or average” pace delivers optimum benefits for longevity. [...]

The debate over jogging first kicked off in the 1970s when middle aged men took an interest in the past-time. “After a few men died while out on a run, various newspapers suggested that jogging might be too strenuous for ordinary middle aged people,” recalled Schnohr.

European Society of Cardiology: Regular jogging shows dramatic increase in life expectancy

The press release doesn’t talk about how the study controlled for other health factors. Do joggers live longer than swimmers or cyclists? Did the joggers and non-joggers have otherwise similar health habits (diet, tobacco, etc.)?

See also: How and Why Exercise Boosts Your Brain. Plus: How Little Exercise Can You Get By With?

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/05/06/study-moderate-jogging-increases-longevity/

Meta-Study Suggests Acupuncture No Better Than Placebo

  • Posted on May 1, 2012 at 7:00 am

I’ve linked before to research on the effectiveness of acupuncture for managing pain. But a recent meta-study published in PAIN suggests that real acupuncture is no more effective than “fake” acupuncture:

The authors observe that recent results from high-quality randomized controlled trials have shown that various forms of acupuncture, including so-called “sham acupuncture,” during which no needles actually penetrate the skin, are equally effective for chronic low back pain, and more effective than standard care. In these and other studies, the effects were attributed to such factors as therapist conviction, patient enthusiasm or the acupuncturist’s communication style. [...]

In an accompanying commentary, Harriet Hall, MD, states her position forcefully: “Importantly, when a treatment is truly effective, studies tend to produce more convincing results as time passes and the weight of evidence accumulates. When a treatment is extensively studied for decades and the evidence continues to be inconsistent, it becomes more and more likely that the treatment is not truly effective. This appears to be the case for acupuncture. In fact, taken as a whole, the published (and scientifically rigorous) evidence leads to the conclusion that acupuncture is no more effective than placebo

ScienceDaily: Acupuncture for Pain No Better Than Placebo — And Not Without Harm, Study Finds

The story also mentions harmful side affects from acupuncture malpractice (though malpractice is a risk in just about any professional service).

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/05/01/acupuncture/

Is Punning a Disease?

  • Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:20 am

Last year author Douglas Coupland predicted that within the next 10 years: “We will still be annoyed by people who pun, but we will be able to show them mercy because punning will be revealed to be some sort of connectopathic glitch: The punner, like someone with Tourette’s, has no medical ability not to pun.”

Turns out some researchers already think “bad humor,” including excessive punning, is a disease. MSNBC reports:

Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don’t they?) is a brain dysfunction that causes all sorts of compulsive silliness: bad jokes, corny puns, wacky behavior. It’s also sometimes called the “joking disease,” and as Taiwanese researchers phrased it in a 2005 report, it’s a “tendency to tell inappropriate and poor jokes.” We’ve covered all sorts of strange disorders of the mind in earlier Body Odd posts: one disorder makes you believe your loved ones are strangers, another convinces you that your hand has taken on a life of its own. Now, we give you a brain disorder that actually causes a poor sense of humor.

MSNBC: No pun intended: ‘Joking disease’ is no joke

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/04/18/is-punning-a-disease/

Is Punning a Disease?

  • Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:20 am

Last year author Douglas Coupland predicted that within the next 10 years: “We will still be annoyed by people who pun, but we will be able to show them mercy because punning will be revealed to be some sort of connectopathic glitch: The punner, like someone with Tourette’s, has no medical ability not to pun.”

Turns out some researchers already think “bad humor,” including excessive punning, is a disease. MSNBC reports:

Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don’t they?) is a brain dysfunction that causes all sorts of compulsive silliness: bad jokes, corny puns, wacky behavior. It’s also sometimes called the “joking disease,” and as Taiwanese researchers phrased it in a 2005 report, it’s a “tendency to tell inappropriate and poor jokes.” We’ve covered all sorts of strange disorders of the mind in earlier Body Odd posts: one disorder makes you believe your loved ones are strangers, another convinces you that your hand has taken on a life of its own. Now, we give you a brain disorder that actually causes a poor sense of humor.

MSNBC: No pun intended: ‘Joking disease’ is no joke

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/04/18/is-punning-a-disease/

The Risks and Rewards of Yoga

  • Posted on March 4, 2012 at 9:21 pm

William J. Broad, author of The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards, writes for the New York Times:

Hatha originated as a way to speed the Tantric agenda. It used poses, deep breathing and stimulating acts — including intercourse — to hasten rapturous bliss. In time, Tantra and Hatha developed bad reputations. The main charge was that practitioners indulged in sexual debauchery under the pretext of spirituality.

Early in the 20th century, the founders of modern yoga worked hard to remove the Tantric stain. They devised a sanitized discipline that played down the old eroticism for a new emphasis on health and fitness.

B. K. S. Iyengar, the author of “Light on Yoga,” published in 1965, exemplified the change. His book made no mention of Hatha’s Tantric roots and praised the discipline as a panacea that could cure nearly 100 ailments and diseases. And so modern practitioners have embraced a whitewashed simulacrum of Hatha.

New York Times: Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here

(via AshleyB)

Broad goes on to discuss some of the studies linking yoga to sexual stimulation and speculates about how that could relate to some of the various guru sex scandals that have plagued yogis for decades.

Broad also recently wrote for the times How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body, an extremely interesting piece that’s made frustrating by its lack of comparisons between the number of injuries in yoga and the number of injuries in other types of strength training. But here’s a taste:

Black has come to believe that “the vast majority of people” should give up yoga altogether. It’s simply too likely to cause harm.

Not just students but celebrated teachers too, Black said, injure themselves in droves because most have underlying physical weaknesses or problems that make serious injury all but inevitable. Instead of doing yoga, “they need to be doing a specific range of motions for articulation, for organ condition,” he said, to strengthen weak parts of the body. “Yoga is for people in good physical condition. Or it can be used therapeutically. It’s controversial to say, but it really shouldn’t be used for a general class.”

(via Dangerous Meme)

See also:

Calling Bullshit on Penn and Teller’s yoga episode

Stripping the Gurus

Guruphiliac

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/WZB632mCkhg/

The Great Adderall Shortage

  • Posted on February 29, 2012 at 2:47 pm

Kelly Bourdet writes for Vice Motherboard:

To prevent hoarding of materials and their potential for theft and illicit use, the Drug Enforcement Agency sets quotas for the chemical precursors to drugs like Adderall. The DEA projects the need for amphetamine salts, then produces and distributes the materials to pharmaceutical companies so that they can produce their drugs. But with the number of prescriptions for Adderall jumping 13 percent in the past year, pharmaceutical companies claim that the quotas are no longer sufficient for supplying Americans with their Adderall.

I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t known how these drugs work:

Despite the millions of prescriptions written each year for ADHD, the scientific community isn’t entirely in agreement on how these drugs actually work. Ritalin increases focus and energy through inhibiting the re-uptake of both dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. These neurotransmitters then remain in the synapse longer, and their effects are felt in the form of heightened focus and awareness. Adderall, however, works via a slightly different mechanism. While it’s postulated that Adderall also inhibits the re-uptake of these same neurotransmitters, amphetamines also trigger the release of dopamine. This affects the brain’s reward mechanisms, so it’s not only easier to focus on mundane or repetitive tasks, it can also feel positively delightful to do so.

Motherboard: Anatomy of the Great Adderall Drought

The article also goes into some of the shadier aspects of the shortage – such as Shire’s missed shipments to competitors and the creation of its newer, more expensive alternative Vyvanse.

Why so much demand? From a recent Portland Tribune article:

Ritalin and Adderol are commonly prescribed for attention deficit disorder. But a recent study showed that as many as one in four students at an Ivy League university were using one of the two not because they had a diagnosis, but because it helped them study.

And it’s not just the students:

“I’ve had several colleagues say to me, ‘You’re a stupid guy if you’re not using Ritalin to stay up all night.’ You’re much more productive, your career takes off much faster,” says Paul Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California.

Zak isn’t sure that those Ivy League students and his college professor colleagues are doing anything wrong.

“I’m very conflicted,” he says.

And, on the subject Adderall, here’s an interesting paper: When we enhance cognition with Adderall, do we sacrifice creativity? A preliminary study. The study concluded that Adderall might actually improve creativity for those who score poorly on tests of creativity (for some background on creativity testing see here).

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/KADfYqsLL6I/

How and Why Exercise Boosts Your Brain. Plus: How Little Exercise Can You Get By With?

  • Posted on February 22, 2012 at 5:18 pm

The New York Times on how exercise raises the level of glycogen available to the brain:

After the single session on the treadmill, the animals were allowed to rest and feed, and then their brain glycogen levels were studied. The food, it appeared, had gone directly to their heads; their brain levels of glycogen not only had been restored to what they had been before the workout, but had soared past that point, increasing by as much as a 60 percent in the frontal cortex and hippocampus and slightly less in other parts of the brain. The astrocytes had “overcompensated,” resulting in a kind of brain carbo-loading.

The levels, however, had dropped back to normal within about 24 hours.

That was not the case, though, if the animals continued to exercise. In those rats that ran for four weeks, the “supercompensation” became the new normal, with their baseline levels of glycogen showing substantial increases compared with the sedentary animals. The increases were especially notable in, again, those portions of the brain critical to learning and memory formation — the cortex and the hippocampus.

New York Times: How Exercise Fuels the Brain

Also:

While many of us wonder just how much exercise we really need in order to gain health and fitness, a group of scientists in Canada are turning that issue on its head and asking, how little exercise do we need?

The emerging and engaging answer appears to be, a lot less than most of us think — provided we’re willing to work a bit. [...]

For years, the American Heart Association and other organizations have recommended that people complete 30 minutes or more of continuous, moderate-intensity exercise, such as a brisk walk, five times a week, for overall good health.

But millions of Americans don’t engage in that much moderate exercise, if they complete any at all. Asked why, a majority of respondents, in survey after survey, say, “I don’t have time.”

Intervals, however, require little time. They are, by definition, short. But whether most people can tolerate intervals, and whether, in turn, intervals provide the same health and fitness benefits as longer, more moderate endurance exercise are issues that haven’t been much investigated.

New York Times: How 1-Minute Intervals Can Improve Your Health

(via socialphysicist)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/ZQxObTDlJB8/

Interview with a Designer Drug Designer

  • Posted on February 12, 2012 at 10:55 am

drug structures

Last year Vice interviewed an anonymous chemist/ neuropharmacologist who invented a few new designer drugs similar to ketamine or PCP, most notably methoxetamine which is becoming increasingly popular. Sort of the Alexander Shulgin of disassociatives.

On the medicinal uses of ketamine:

I discovered a long time ago that ketamine and cannabinoids helped my phantom hand. I’m quite convinced these classes work by distorting body image so severely that you phase out triggers for the pain. I have experienced profound proprioceptive distortions after intramuscular PCP injection, as if my whole body were a proportional model of the sensory homunculus. But in a sense, what I feel is not hallucination or a distortion, I actually find dissociatives corrective, that is, they make the phantom disappear. This is not just an idiosyncratic response on my part; there are at least three articles published on the effectiveness of ketamine in treating phantom-limb pain. It’s dished out by British pain-management clinics for just that purpose in the form of a nauseatingly artificial lemon-flavored linctus. Needless to say, the whole lot of it gets squirted up the arse to bypass my taste buds, but even this has its drawbacks… like sticky, sugary bum cheeks!

On being hospitalized after going into a catatonic state while testing 3-MeO-PCP:

And what happened when you were released?

That was the final straw for my partner, and she said she would not sit idly by and watch me self-destruct. When I came home she was gone, Nesbitt was still dead, and all of the arylcyclohexylamines I had been researching had been confiscated and destroyed.

That’s really terrible. Alexander Shulgin always felt that the dissociatives had no use as psychotherapeutic drugs, and John Lilly found that even when you think the effects of ketamine have worn off there is a lingering undercurrent of dissociation that prevents you from reaching baseline.

And despite the fact that I knew all of that, I still ignored what should have been indicators that I was slipping. The arylcyclohexylamines light up too many of the reward systems in the brain, with the dopamine-reuptake inhibition, the NMDA antagonism, and the µ-opioid affinity. They lend themselves to abuse and escape to fantasy. I used to find myself raving about chemicals I had only tried once or twice, saying they were Huxley’s soma or moksha, or Polidamma’s Nepenthe. I’ve come to realize that dissociatives have a really dark side to them that classic serotonergic psychedelics don’t.

Vice: Interview with a Ketamine Chemist

See also: Vice’s interview with Shulgin

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/4wQd50CEiUY/

The Vegan Body Building Movement

  • Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:13 pm

vegan body builder

“Is it possible to be a good bodybuilder and be a vegan? Yes,” said Jose Antonio, the chief executive of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. “But is it ideal? No.”

Vegan bodybuilders may face challenges getting sufficient amino acids, found in meats, Antonio said, adding that although protein can be found in vegetables and nuts, they must be consumed in greater quantities to get the same amount as their counterparts in meat. “The amount of rice and beans you need to eat would fill up a Mexican restaurant,” he said.

Other nutritionists and bodybuilders have argued that a disciplined vegan diet, consisting of things like hemp-based protein supplements, peanut butter, nuts, vegetables and legumes, can yield similar, if not better, results than a meat- or dairy-filled diet. Carefully monitored, vegans can get the same amount of protein with less fat or toxins, they argue. (For a midafternoon snack, Sitko sometimes eats 10 bananas.)

New York Times: Sculptured by Weights and a Strict Vegan Diet

(via Roope Mokka)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/Nfrcd9txxz8/

The Afghanistan War’s Signature Wound

  • Posted on November 20, 2011 at 8:13 pm

The Great War had shell shock. World War II had facial burns. Vietnam had amputations. Iraq, traumatic brain injuries. What’s Afghanistan’s “signature wound”? Penis mutilation as a result of homemade bombs that are detonated underfoot, injuring soldiers feet, legs and genitals. Their compensation? Fifty thousand dollars.

Men’s Health is selling a Kindle single on the subject. I read the feature in the print magazine, and it’s well worth your time and money.

Here’s a sidebar specifically on fertility: War is Hell (On Fertility)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/fTw-ZUlLeM0/

Wired Interviews Vegan Black Metal Chef

  • Posted on September 4, 2011 at 11:44 am

Wired did an interview with the famous Vegan Black Metal Chef. I posted his first video here:

Wired.com: Are you also in a band?

Vegan Black Metal Chef: Yes, my main project is called Forever Dawn. You can hear some old, shit recordings on the MySpace.

I would describe it as industrial symphonic black metal. I play all of the instruments in this and have a live keyboardist and bassist to play shows. I like the songs a lot, but the recordings were done when I had no idea what I was doing.

I am currently recording a new album for this project and putting together a new stage show. I also play keys in an eclectic metal band called Fields of Glass. I was not on the first album, though.

Wired.com: Do you perform in makeup and outfits similar to what you wear as Vegan Black Metal Chef?

Vegan Black Metal Chef: Yes, that is my Fields of Glass band attire.

Wired: Vegan Black Metal Chef Is Still Cooking With Hellfire

Here’s the most recent two episodes, one on quick and easy meals and the other on vegan sushi:

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/UKR8_jHvUPY/

Reverse Placebo: People Wrongly Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Go Senile

  • Posted on August 30, 2011 at 9:50 am

Psychologists in the Netherlands have documented the case of a 58-year-old woman who was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she became permanently confused, and at one point suicidal — before another doctor realized the diagnosis was incorrect.

What happens to people who are wrongly diagnosed with having cognitive difficulties? It turns out that even if your brain is perfectly healthy, you’ll start having more problems with concentration.

io9: What happens when you’re wrongly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease

(Thanks Bill!)

See also: The placebo effect is real apparently even when you know it’s a placebo

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/sfvKHNEt7S0/

Modified MDMA (Ecstasy) May Be the Key to Curing Certain Types of Cancer

  • Posted on August 23, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Ecstasy is known to kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they said in Investigational New Drugs journal.

Their early study showed all leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells could be killed in a test tube, but any treatment would be a decade away. [...]

In 2006, a research team at the University of Birmingham showed that ecstasy and anti-depressants such as Prozac had the potential to stop cancers growing.

The problem was that it needed doses so high they would have been fatal if given to people.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.

BBC: Modified ecstasy ‘attacks blood cancers’

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/rWohtdkDthw/

Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests May Wildly Overestimate Your Risk of Disease

  • Posted on July 21, 2011 at 10:54 am

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests give inaccurate predictions of disease risks and many European geneticists believe that some of them should be banned, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics heard May 31.

Although the predictive ability of the DTC tests in the study was moderate for all diseases, both companies assigned an increased risk to a substantial part of the group. Yet the risk of disease in this group was often not substantially higher than the risk in the rest of the population studied. For AMD, the disease with the highest predictive ability, both companies assumed that the risk in the population was around 8%. Of all subjects designated as having an increased risk, 16% using the 23andMe risk estimations and 19% using deCODEme’s estimations would develop AMD, compared to the 4% found in the rest of the population studied. [...]

“deCODEme predicted risks higher than 100% for five out of the eight diseases,” Ms Kalf will say. “This in itself should be enough to raise considerable concern about the accuracy of these predictions — a risk can never be higher than 100%. In the case of AMD one in every 200 individuals in the group would have received a predicted risk of higher than 100%, suggesting that they would definitely develop the disease.”

Science Daily: Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests Neither Accurate in Their Predictions nor Beneficial to Individuals, Study Suggests

(via Edward Borasky)

Oh well, at least we’ll always have palm reading.

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/tCzMzhy5sqE/

Using Swarm Intelligence to Build Targeted Anti-Cancer Nano-Drugs

  • Posted on July 11, 2011 at 12:49 pm

nanoparticles Using Swarm Intelligence to Build Targeted Anti Cancer Nano Drugs

The results of Geoffrey von Maltzahn et al. in their Nature Materials publication reveal that nanoparticles that communicate with each other can deliver more than 40-fold higher doses of chemotherapeutics (anti-cancer drugs) to tumors than nanoparticles that do not communicate can deliver. These results show the potential for nanoparticle communication to amplify drug delivery over that achievable by nanoparticles that work alone, similar to how insect swarms perform better as a group than the individual insects do on their own.

Scientific American: Learning from Insect Swarms: Smart Cancer Targeting

(via Social Physicist)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/EUAmsJjMdjM/

5 Reasons Why Having a High IQ Ain’t All It’s Cracked-Up to Be

  • Posted on June 10, 2011 at 9:30 am

OddJohn 5 Reasons Why Having a High IQ Aint All Its Cracked Up to Be

Yes, it’s from Cracked, but it’s interesting:

#5.You’re Probably a Night Owl — And That’s a Bad Thing
#4.You’re Less Likely to Pass On Your Genes
#3. You’re More Likely to Lie
#2. You’re More Likely to Believe Bullshit
#1. You’re More Likely to Be Self-Destructive

Cracked: 5 Unexpected Downsides of High Intelligence

See also:

Why Smart People Do More Drugs

Smart kids more likely to be heavy drinkers

(via Dr. Benway)

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/06/10/5-reasons-having-a-high-iq-aint-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/

N-Back Training Exercise Still Holding Up in Tests

  • Posted on June 1, 2011 at 10:52 am

soakyourhead screenshot 0511 N Back Training Exercise Still Holding Up in Tests
Above: the Soak Your Head Dual N-Back Application

I’ve covered research on how most brain training exercises don’t actually hold-up in tests. The good news is that dual n-back training, also covered here previously, is continuing to hold up in tests:

Jonides, who is the Daniel J. Weintraub Collegiate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, collaborated with colleagues at U-M, the University of Bern and the University of Tapei on a series of studies with more than 200 young adults and children, demonstrating the effects of various kinds of n-back mental training exercises. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and by the Office of Naval Research.

According to Jonides, the n-back task taps into a crucial brain function known as working memory—the ability to maintain information in an active, easily retrieved state, especially under conditions of distraction or interference. Working memory goes beyond mere storage to include processing information.

Medical Express: A Brain Training Exercise That Really Does Work

(Thanks Bill!)

Soak Your Head offers a free Web-based n-back training program, but it requires Microsoft Silverlight. You can find a list of other applications here.

Another way to boost your mental capabilities? Play first person shooters. This NPR story provides an overview of the research. You can also find a research paper that looks at multiple studies here (PDF).

The best way to stave off cognitive decline, however, may be to spend time socializing with friends.

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/06/01/n-back-training-exercise-still-holding-up-in-tests/

THC Cuts Lung Cancer Tumors in Half, Study Finds

  • Posted on May 16, 2011 at 12:28 pm

thc illustrationpng THC Cuts Lung Cancer Tumors in Half, Study Finds

Then, for three weeks, researchers injected standard doses of THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells, and found that tumors were reduced in size and weight by about 50 percent in treated animals compared to a control group. There was also about a 60 percent reduction in cancer lesions on the lungs in these mice as well as a significant reduction in protein markers associated with cancer progression, Preet says.

Although the researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth, they say the substance could be activating molecules that arrest the cell cycle. They speculate that THC may also interfere with angiogenesis and vascularization, which promotes cancer growth.

Preet says much work is needed to clarify the pathway by which THC functions, and cautions that some animal studies have shown that THC can stimulate some cancers. “THC offers some promise, but we have a long way to go before we know what its potential is,” she said.

Science Daily: Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows

(via Socialphysicist)

Previously: Does Marijuana Shrink Tumors?

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/05/16/thc-cuts-lung-cancer-tumors/

How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?

  • Posted on April 18, 2011 at 2:31 pm

sleep How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?

Almost everyone needs at least eight, and no you can’t train yourself to get by on less:

In what was the longest sleep-restriction study of its kind, Dinges and his lead author, Hans Van Dongen, assigned dozens of subjects to three different groups for their 2003 study: some slept four hours, others six hours and others, for the lucky control group, eight hours — for two weeks in the lab. [...]

Not surprisingly, those who had eight hours of sleep hardly had any attention lapses and no cognitive declines over the 14 days of the study. What was interesting was that those in the four- and six-hour groups had P.V.T. results that declined steadily with almost each passing day. Though the four-hour subjects performed far worse, the six-hour group also consistently fell off-task. By the sixth day, 25 percent of the six-hour group was falling asleep at the computer. And at the end of the study, they were lapsing fives times as much as they did the first day.

New York Times: How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?

(Via Barking Up the Wrong Tree)

There are a few people who get by on four or less hours per night, but they’re rare. There are a lot more people who think they need six or less, but actually need a full eight. This Wall Street Journal Article covers the “sleepless elite” and how rare they. Current research indicates that there’s no way to modify your sleep requirements – they’re genetic.

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/04/18/how-little-sleep-can-you-get-away-with/

Coffee: The Original Smart Drug and Aphrodisiac

  • Posted on April 18, 2011 at 10:50 am

Coffee: Grounds for Debate, a title in the Philosophy for Everyone series, argues that coffee is a performance-enhancing drug for thinkers. “The appropriate analogy is that coffee and philosophy go together like foreplay and sex,” insist editors Scott F Parker and Michael W Austin. “You can have one without the other, but the latter is better with the former and the former often leads to the latter.” Philosopher Basam Romaya says: “With the use of coffee, critical thinking abilities are sharpened, attention to detail enhanced.” This is a venerable claim: in the 16th century, Sheik Abd-al-Kadir, an Arab scholar, said: “No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee’s frothy goodness.” [...]

So what about impotence? That does seem to have been overstated. The Women’s Petition Against Coffee prompted a broadside from men who argued that it “makes the erection more Vigorous, the Ejaculation more full, adds spiritualescency to the Sperme”. Initially I wasn’t sure what “spiritualescency” means, either, until I read in this book that caffeine increases sperm motility. That said, some say coffee may harm the sperm while speeding it on its way, which makes a kind of sense.

The Guardian: Can coffee wreck your marriage?

(via James Governor)

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/04/18/coffee-the-original-smart-drug-and-aphrodisiac/

More Happiness and Longevity Research: Working During Retirement is Good for You?

  • Posted on March 18, 2011 at 10:10 am

Slate has some coverage of the Longevity Project, a decades long research project tracking the lives of geniuses. This could just be propaganda to make us happier about the fact that many of us will never be able to retire, but it makes sense. I don’t want to spend my golden years eating TV dinners and watching Jeopardy reruns.

Retirement is usually seen as the severing of oneself from the work of a lifetime. Friedman, who is 60, dislikes this notion, and from his research he’s come to believe such an attitude is bad both for society and individuals. Of course, for those in miserable work situations, a departure can mean liberation. But most of the Terman males (given the attitudes of the times, far fewer of the women Termites worked) had solid, sometimes even exceptional careers. Interviews done with successful Termites in their 70s, several of them lawyers, showed a striking number continued to work part time.

For those who contemplate retirement as decades filled with leisure and relaxation, The Longevity Project serves as a warning. As Friedman says, “fun can be overrated” and stress can be unfairly maligned. Many study participants who lived vigorously into old age had highly stressful jobs. Physicist Norris Bradbury, who died at age 88, succeeded J. Robert Oppenheimer as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, overseeing the transition of the U.S. atomic weapons research lab from World War II into the Cold War.

Slate: Don’t Stop Working!

(via Alex Pang)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/1aJ5_kW2Qy8/

Top 9 Vegetarian Geniuses

  • Posted on February 25, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Tesla Top 9 Vegetarian Geniuses

It’s a bad idea to fetishize intelligence, or to think that vegetarianism is going to make you a genius, but I found this list of famous vegetarian geniuses interesting:

    1. Sir Isaac Newton
    2. Leonardo Da Vinci
    3. Srinivasa Ramanujan
    4. Nikola Tesla
    5. Thomas Edison
    6. Albert Einstein
    7. Edward Witten
    8. Brian Greene
    9. Alan Calverd

Elephant Journal: The World’s Greatest Geniuses are Vegetarians!

See also: Vegetarianism all the rage in MMA

And, because it’s bound to come up, here’s the Wikipedia entry on Hitler’s vegetarianism. Some question whether he was really a strict vegetarian, despite contemporaneous accounts.

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2011/02/25/top-9-vegetarian-geniuses/

Top 9 Vegetarian Geniuses

  • Posted on February 25, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Tesla Top 9 Vegetarian Geniuses

It’s a bad idea to fetishize intelligence, or to think that vegetarianism is going to make you a genius, but I found this list of famous vegetarian geniuses interesting:

    1. Sir Isaac Newton
    2. Leonardo Da Vinci
    3. Srinivasa Ramanujan
    4. Nikola Tesla
    5. Thomas Edison
    6. Albert Einstein
    7. Edward Witten
    8. Brian Greene
    9. Alan Calverd

Elephant Journal: The World’s Greatest Geniuses are Vegetarians!

See also: Vegetarianism all the rage in MMA

And, because it’s bound to come up, here’s the Wikipedia entry on Hitler’s vegetarianism. Some question whether he was really a strict vegetarian, despite contemporaneous accounts.

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/xS3329LdtWU/

New Evidence Suggests Neanderthals Cooked and Ate Vegetables

  • Posted on February 25, 2011 at 10:47 am

neanderthal New Evidence Suggests Neanderthals Cooked and Ate Vegetables

Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in the teeth of the remains.

The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence. Chemical analysis of their bones suggested they ate little or no vegetables.

BBC News: Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/heK-rcq0NbE/

New Study Fails to Prove That MDMA Causes Cognitive Impairment

  • Posted on February 15, 2011 at 8:51 pm

obamapills New Study Fails to Prove That MDMA Causes Cognitive Impairment

In contrast to many prior studies, ecstasy users in the new study showed no signs of cognitive impairment attributable to drug use: ecstasy use did not decrease mental ability.

The resulting experiment whittled 1500 potential participants down to 52 carefully chosen ecstasy users, whose cognitive function was compared against 59 closely-matched non-users, with tests administered at several stages to make sure participants were telling the truth about their drug and alcohol use.

Science Daily: New Study Finds No Cognitive Impairment Among Ecstasy Users

A small sample size, but this study does not make the same errors that many other studies did.

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/OXxVzcBGHWo/

New Study Fails to Prove That MDMA Causes Cognitive Impairment

  • Posted on February 15, 2011 at 8:51 pm

obamapills New Study Fails to Prove That MDMA Causes Cognitive Impairment

In contrast to many prior studies, ecstasy users in the new study showed no signs of cognitive impairment attributable to drug use: ecstasy use did not decrease mental ability.

The resulting experiment whittled 1500 potential participants down to 52 carefully chosen ecstasy users, whose cognitive function was compared against 59 closely-matched non-users, with tests administered at several stages to make sure participants were telling the truth about their drug and alcohol use.

Science Daily: New Study Finds No Cognitive Impairment Among Ecstasy Users

A small sample size, but this study does not make the same errors that many other studies did.

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/OXxVzcBGHWo/

Brain Surgery Can Now Be Conducted Through the Eye Socket

  • Posted on September 28, 2010 at 10:03 pm

Eyeball Syringe

Surgeons at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and University of Washington Medical Center have determined that transorbital neuroendoscopic surgery (TONES) is a safe and effective option for treating a variety of advanced brain diseases and traumatic injuries. This groundbreaking minimally invasive surgery is performed through the eye socket, thus eliminating the removal of the top of the skull to access the brain. These findings were published in the September issue of Neurosurgery

Science Daily: Scarless brain surgery is new option for patients

(via Chris Arkenberg)

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/hP0HhasJRCU/

Right or Left Handed? Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Can Shift Your Preference

  • Posted on September 28, 2010 at 9:55 pm

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

When performing simple tasks like pushing elevator buttons or picking up a cup, the brain actually has a mini-debate as to which hand should do the jobs. Now magnetic stimulation will make sure the brain always chooses the left hand.

Researchers found they could influence the decision about what hand to use in simple tasks using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The finding could have medical applications in assisting patients who have lost or damaged limbs. It may also suggest the possibility to manipulate other decisions using TMS.

Mad Science: You can switch from right-handed to left-handed through the power of magnets

(Thanks Bill!)

See also:

The Schizoid Man.

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/_5KlI4KBdv4/

Study Finds Relationships Help You Live Longer

  • Posted on July 30, 2010 at 2:27 pm

No man is an island, and if he tries to be one, he may die sooner, according to a new BYU analysis.

Researchers have discovered that people with greater social relationships are 50 percent more likely to live longer than their socially reclusive counterparts.

In fact, a lack of friends is as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. It’s also twice as damaging as obesity and more harmful than not exercising, according to the study.

“We’re not in any way trying to downplay the seriousness of these other risk factors, (which) are very important,” said author Julianne Holt-Lunstad, associate professor of psychology at BYU. “Rather, we’re trying to make the point that we need to start taking our social relationships just as seriously as we take these other factors.”

The researchers combed through thousands of studies since 1900 to find 148 that dealt with their research questions. Those studies asked more than 300,000 subjects about relationships and then tracked their health outcomes for an average of 7.5 years.

Deseret News: BYU study finds relationships help you live longer

(Via Theoretick)

This post rounds up previous posts on this subject.

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From http://technoccult.net/archives/2010/07/30/study-finds-relationships-help-you-live-longer/

Stem Cells From Human Blood Can Be Reprogrammed

  • Posted on July 6, 2010 at 7:31 pm

blood donation

Blood drawn with a simple needle stick can be coaxed into producing stem cells that may have the ability to form any type of tissue in the body, three independent papers report in the July 2 Cell Stem Cell. The new technique will allow scientists to tap a large, readily available source of personalized stem cells.

Because taking blood is safe, fast and efficient compared to current stem cell harvesting methods, some of which include biopsies and pretreatments with drugs, researchers hope that blood-derived stem cells could one day be used to study and treat diseases — though major safety hurdles remain.

Wired Science: Stem Cells From Human Blood Can Be Reprogrammed

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Related posts:

  1. Hungary detains 4 over illegal stem cell treatment
  2. Human Brain Uses a Triangler Grid to Represent Space
  3. Scientists grow meat in a lab for the first time?

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/Ihko53ja0rI/

The Rise Of ‘Transplant Tourism’ – Should Organ Sales be Legalized?

  • Posted on July 5, 2010 at 11:40 am

polycystic kidney

How much is your kidney worth?

In Turkey the prized organ fetches around €2,300, an Indian or Iraqi kidney enriches its former owner by a mere €800, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the going price on the black market to be about €4,000.

But when you consider that wealthy clients will later pay well over €100,000 for the kidney, this massive profit margin would appear to guarantee a lucrative future for the international trade in human organs if it continues unchecked.

Irish Health: The Rise Of ‘Transplant Tourism’

Should organ sales be legalized and regulated instead of relying on voluntary donations?

Photo by euthman / CC

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Related posts:

  1. First commercial 3-D bio-printer makes human tissue and organs
  2. Wall Street bonuses to rise 40%
  3. More information on human tissue 3D printers

From http://technoccult.net/archives/2010/07/05/transplant-tourism/