How Reading Books Changes Childrens’ Brains
via Big Think by Orion Jones
Children who receive mental stimulation in the form of books, educational toys and parental support have brains that are biologically different from children who receive less stimulation.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Brian Thomas, fast asleep, strangled his wife. He awoke and remembered nothing. Are murderers responsible if they're unconscious?... more
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Temple Grandin’s brain doesn’t just think differently, it is physically different
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Image: Photograph by Jonathunder for Wikipedia, used under CC license.
This is kind of neat. Scientists conducted several psychological and neuro-imaging tests on Temple Grandin ’ the woman who has used her own autism as a model for designing better livestock control systems. What they found is that Grandin’s brain looks different, structurally, from that of a neuro-typical person.
Grandin’s brain volume is significantly larger than that of three neurotypical controls matched on age, sex and handedness. Grandin’s lateral ventricles, the chambers that hold cerebrospinal fluid, are skewed in size so that the left one is much larger than the right. “It’s quite striking,” Cooperrider says. On both sides of her brain, Grandin has an abnormally large amygdala, a deep brain region that processes emotion. Her brain also shows differences in white matter, the bundles of nerve fibres that connect one region to another. The volume of white matter on the left side of her brain is higher than that in controls, the study found.Grandin isn’t the only person with autism to have had their brain scanned. But the differences that have been found aren’t always consistent from one study to another. That, of course, makes some sense, given the fact that the word “autism” encompasses a whole spectrum of differences and disabilities which may or may not represent one single thing. But there have been several studies that did find differences similar to the ones found in Temple Grandin.
And here’s the really interesting thing. Some scientists think that the common differences we do keep seeing – especially the bit about the larger brain volume – might be a clue that what eventually becomes autism actually begins in the womb. Here’s a quick excerpt from a story that Carl Zimmer wrote about this stuff last spring:
When autistic children are born, Courchesne’s research suggests, they have an abundance of neurons jammed into an average-size brain. Over the first few years, the neurons get bigger and sprout thousands of branches to join other neurons. The extra neurons in the autistic brain probably send out a vast number of extra connections to other neurons. This overwiring may interfere with normal development of language and social behaviour in young children. It would also explain the excess brain size seen in the MRI scans.Read the story about Temple Grandin’s brain
Read Carl Zimmer’s story on structural differences in brains of people with autism
Special thanks to GrrlScientist!
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The Oppressive Psychology of Poverty
via Big Think by Orion Jones
How will the nation’s psychological character change as the middle class loses the financial comfort it was once able to take for granted? The changes will not be pleasant, warns Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Baathism - the anticolonial, pan-Arab ideology - is near collapse. Damascus is its last stand. What will remain after the fall? Intellectual bafflement and paranoia... more
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Old Man River: 1900
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1910
“Mississippi River packet James Lee”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
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The Troubling Rise of “Compound Pharmacies”
via Big Think by Orion Jones
The once-quaint image of a 1950s pharmacy mixing together different drugs for its customers has returned to many American cities, sometimes with lethal consequences.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The world’s worst words. How did they get that way? Overuse, mostly. Here’s the thing: Resistance is futile. “Yesterday’s abomination is today’s rule”... more
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New Biodegradable Shoes Made From Vegetables
via Big Think by Orion Jones
Most shoes today are manufactured with a variety of thermoplastics, synthetic fibres and foam that are less than ideal for the environment. Huge shoe companies like Puma and Nike have recently started using recycled materials in new lines of shoes to lessen their environmental impact.
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Retro Ad – 10 MB Hard-Drive for $3,398
via How-To Geek by Asian Angel
This is definitely one hard-drive (and price) that you will not be feeling nostalgic over!
View the Full-Size Version of the Ad (Image)
The Hard Disk you've been waiting for [via Fail Desk]
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