Minority rules: Scientists discover tipping point for ideas

In this visualisation, we see the tipping point where minority opinion (shown in red) quickly becomes majority opinion. Over time, the minority opinion grows.

Once the minority opinion reached 10 percent of the population, the network quickly changes as the minority opinion takes over the original majority opinion (shown in green).

Credit: SCNARC/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Scottish Researcher Maps Human Eye's Neural Network

The world around you might look really pretty and colorful, but just how we perceive that color hasn’t always been so clear.

The moment the light hits your eyes from the sun, cells in your retina can transmit the signals to your brain.

Curious to examine the circuitry behind the the neural network, researchers mapped color vision with a recording device.

The retina is made of a layer of neural tissue with input cells, processing cells and output cells. Its input cells (photoreceptors) can take in light and distinguish the wavelength in such a way we can see in color.

University of Glasgow created a 519-electrode array to record the speedy neural signals in great spacial detail, the news release said.

By measuring the retinal output signals of hundreds of thousands of cells, it was clear how the types of cells in the retina created a color image.

The breakthrough study showed how the cells receive light and transmit that information to the brain. The study was published in the journal Nature. For the first time, the scientists saw how cone receptor cells are connected to the ganglion cells.

The Glasgow researcher, Keith Mathieson, now at the University of California Santa Cruz and Stanford University said, “To develop new therapies for vision-related problems it is necessary to fully understand how the retina works. This research gives us a much greater insight into the circuitry of the retina and is an important development for neuroscience.”

Transcendental Meditation activates the brain's natural ground state

A new EEG study conducted on college students at American University found they could more highly activate the default mode network, a suggested natural "ground state" of the brain, during their practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique.

This three-month randomized control study is published in a special issue of Cognitive Processing dedicated to the Neuroscience of Meditation and Consciousness, Volume 11, Number 1, February, 2010.

Specifically, the study found the TM technique:

• Produces a unique state of "restful alertness," as seen in the markedly higher alpha power in the frontal cortex and lower beta and gamma waves in the same frontal areas during TM practice.
• Creates greater alpha coherence between the left and right hemispheres of the brain suggesting the brain is working as a whole.
• Enhances an individual's sense of "self" by activating what neuroscientists call the "default mode network" in the brain. (This is considered the natural ground state of the brain, glimpsed by neuroscientists during eyes-closed rest but more fully activated during Transcendental Meditation practice.)

"The finding of significant brain wave differences between students practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique and those simply resting with their eyes closed is especially convincing because subjects were randomly assigned to conditions, and testing was conducted by a researcher unaware of the experimental condition to which the subject had been assigned," said David Haaga, Ph.D., coauthor and professor of psychology at American University.

"Research has already shown that simply closing one's eyes and relaxing increases the default mode. A significant additional finding of this new study is that activity in the default mode increases during TM compared to simple eyes-closed rest," said Fred Travis, Ph.D., lead author and director of the Centre for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management.

"Different meditation techniques entail various degrees of cognitive control. Thus, activation patterns of the default mode network could give insight into the nature of meditation practices."

Previous published research, funded by the NIH, shows TM practice decreases high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, cholesterol, stroke, and heart failure.

If you wish to see more visit their website http://www.mum.edu/