Tag: brain

Top 10 Common Judgment Errors

Jun. 01 Science 1 comment

Is your brain processing information correctly?

The human brain is amazingly fast at processing data.  For example, you may be consciously thinking  of only one thing, but your brain is processing thousands of bits of data on a subconscious level.  Unfortunately, our thinking processes are not perfect and we suffer from what psychology calls cognitive biases: patters of deviations of judgment that occur in certain situations.

The list of these judgment deviations is extensive and numbers close to 100.  Some of these sound like things we encounter every day:  false memories, hindsight bias, selective perception, stereotyping, and the hostile media effect.  Others are a bit more obscure:  hyperbolic discounting, Semmelweis reflex, availability heuristic, and the bandwagon effect to name a few.

Not all cognitive biases are bad.  Some even allow us to reach a conclusion or make decisions faster.  However, there are some that lead us to distorted perceptions, and inaccurate or illogical interpretations.

Listverse.com has compiled a list of the top 10 common faults in human thought.  As you read these think about whether you or someone you know have experienced any of these.

10. Gambler’s Fallacy: the tendency to think that future probabilities are altered by past events, when in reality, they are not. Example:  Flip a coin 37 times and each and every time the probability of landing heads is exactly 50% each and every time.

9.  Reactivity: the tendency of people to act or appear differently when they know that they are being observed. Example:  Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to type accurately when someone is looking over your shoulder?

8.  Pareidolia: when random images or sounds are perceived as significant. Example:  Seeing Jesus on a piece of toast or hearing messages when a record is played backwards.

7.  Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: engaging in behaviors that obtain results that confirm existing attitudes. Example:  Telling yourself that you have bad luck and then falling, tripping, or bumping into things constantly.

6.  Halo Effect: the tendency for an individual’s positive or negative trait to “spill over” to other areas of their personality in others’ perceptions of them. Example:  When your sister arrives late to every family gathering and you conclude that they don’t care about the family.

5.  Herd Mentality: the tendency to adopt the opinions and follow the behaviors of the majority to feel safer and to avoid conflict. Example:  Peer pressure in all its forms.

4.  Reactance: the urge to do the opposite of what someone wants you to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain your freedom of choice. Example:  Not doing something you know is good for you just because your parents told you to do it.

3.  Hyperbolic Discounting: the tendency for people to prefer a smaller, immediate payoff over a larger, delayed payoff. Example:  Taking a $20 million lottery payoff today rather than $100 million in five years.

2.  Escalation of Commitment: the tendency for people to continue to support previously unsuccessful endeavors. Example:  Continuing to put money into a business that you repeatedly lose money at.

1.  Placebo Effect: when an ineffectual substance that is believed to have healing properties produces the desired effect. Example:  You start a clinical trial for a prescription medication that is supposed to cure your cold symptoms.  The symptoms disappear and you attribute it to the medication, but it turns out that you were taking sugar pills the entire time.

 

To see the original list at Listverse go here.

To see a comprehensive list of cognitive biases go here.

 

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New Evidence for Innate Knowledge

May. 28 Science no comments

Scientists in Switzerland’s Blue Brain Project have discovered new evidence that proves that humans are born with some form of innate knowledge.

When the scientists tested in vitro neuronal circuits from different rats, they all presented very similar characteristics. If the circuits had only been formed from the experiences lived by the different animals, the values should have diverged considerably from one individual to the next. Thus, the neuronal connectivity must in some way have been programmed in advance.

This might help explain why we all seem to share a basic sense of the physical world around us.  While it still holds true that the memories we make and the things we learn come from experience and sensory perception, this recent finding might prove that we might have already come programmed with the basic and fundamental building blocks.   The finding by the Blue Brain’s neuroscientists  opens up a whole knew way of thinking about the human brain and provides a great opportunity for more extensive research.

On a related note, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are working on a project that will enable them to grow a brain in a petri dish complete with memories.  They have managed to produce neural activity for up to 12 seconds.  The picture included in this article isn’t an artists rendition, it comes directly from these scientists’ findings.

To produce the models, the Pitt team stamped adhesive proteins onto silicon discs. Once the proteins were cultured and dried, cultured hippocampus cells from embryonic rats were fused to the proteins and then given time to grow and connect to form a natural network. The researchers disabled the cells’ inhibitory response and then excited the neurons with an electrical pulse.

The research and advances that are occurring in the field of neuroscience are advancing more rapidly day by day.  The implications of their findings are wide and varied.  These include: the ability to validate the idea of collective consciousness, the regeneration of a person’s brain, artificial intelligence with organic brains, and new psychological insights into human thought processes.

To read the innate knowledge article go here.

To read the study from the University of Pittsburgh go here.

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Has Science Explained Life After Death?

May. 23 Science 3 comments

Does science have an explanation for NDE’s and OBE’s?

Science has explained away Near Death Experiences (NDE’s) and Out of Body Experiences (OBE’s) separately, but what happens when both occur at the same time?  In How Stuff Works, Josh Clark recounts the story of Pam Reynolds.  In 1991 she was undergoing brain surgery and for the 45 minutes that the doctors worked she was clinically dead.  When she came to she reported having experiences while she was on the operating table.  These included having conversations with dead relatives but also being able to see her body as they operated on her.  She remembered the whole experience and was able to provide details including the saw the surgeons used on her skull.

So what does science make of Pam’s experience?  Technically, when you are brain dead you shouldn’t be able to form new memories.  A study from the University of Kentucky posited that NDE’s happen in the brain stem:

Researchers there theorize that the mysterious phenomenon is really an instance of the sleep disorder rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In this disorder, a person’s mind can wake up before his body, and hallucinations and the feeling of being physically detached from his body can occur.  If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state.  The area where REM intrusion is triggered is found in the brain stem — the region that controls the most basic functions of the body — and it can operate virtually independent from the higher brain. So even after the higher regions of the brain are dead, the brain stem can conceivably continue to function, and REM intrusion could still occur [source: BBC].

Regarding out of body experiences, while Dr. Olaf Blanke conducted a brain mapping test, he was able to induce OBE’s by stimulating the Temporal Parietal Junction:

The temporal parietal junction (TPJ) is responsible for sorting through this disparate information and putting it together into a coherent package.

The TPJ also happens to be the region that controls our comprehension of our own body and its situation in space. Blanke believes that a misfiring of this region is responsible for OBEs. If any of the information being sorted by the temporal parietal junction becomes crossed, like where we are in space, then we could seemingly be released from the confines of our body — even if only for a moment.

So it seems like science has been able to explain both NDE’s and OBE’s separately.  But what about when they happen at the same time?  NDE’s happen when the brain stem is active even if the higher brain is dead.  OBE’s happen when the higher brain is stimulated, but it’s supposed to be dead remember?  Therein lie the areas of further research and study.  In the meantime we can continue to analyze the content of these NDE’s and OBE’s. As physician Dr. Melvin Morse wrote, “Simply because religious experiences are brain-based does not automatically lessen or demean their spiritual significance.”


To read the full HowStuffWorks article go here.

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