Dreams......

Welcome back to Brain Tech..!!

So I would first like to apologise for being out of action for a while. I am now back with answers to some questions related to various brain phenomenon,

Dreams are not a new topic to us. We all have experienced it. So in here, we are going to probe deeper into our brains in search of answers....

"Dreams are successions of images, ideas , emotions and sensations that occur involuntarily in the brain during certain stages of sleep." This is how a dream can be defined. The scientists have not yet completely understood the root of this concept. Lets see how far down we could go.
The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.

There are different stages of sleep. One of them, REM, which stands for Rapid Eye Movement, is the stage of sleep where dreams mainly occur. This is the stage of sleep where the brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake! The REM phase of the sleep is often recognised by the continuous eye movement by the sleeper.  Dreams can last from a few seconds to some twenty minutes. An average person is said to have 3-5 dreams per night.

Brain Activity during REM

It is said that even after working for years to figure out the General Theory Of Relativity, the answer to Einstein appeared in a dream...

Even Elias Howe was benefited by his dream. He was the inventor of Sewing machine. Even after days of work, he was not able to make the machine. Once, he dreamed about being stuck in a strange country. There the savage king gave him a day to complete the machine. The punishment if he was not able to complete it, was death. He worked continuously until he finally gave up. The king's men took him for the execution. At that time, he saw that the men had spears with a hole at the head. He finally found the answer to his problem!!! The last thing he remembers before waking up is begging for the king to give more time.
He then ran to his workshop and tried the model of a needle with the eye at the head. It worked!!!!!

There are many theories behind the question " Why do we dream?". We are going to explore and scan through some of the important theories in this field....

Sigmund Freud Theory : Popularly known as the Freudian view of dreams. In this, Sigmund Freud theorized that dreams were actually the reflection of the unconscious mind and its wish fulfillment.

Carl Jung : Carl Jung somewhat expanded the Freudian view and stated that dreams were actually messages to the dreamer. He also stated that by closely observing the dreams, the person could find answers to his religious problems and fears. If the dreams were repeating, it meant that it required immediate attention. He also believed that happenings in a day also play a role in dreaming. Sometimes, memories leave an impression for the mind to deal with later. The subconscious mind then reenacts these parts during the dream. This was termed as day residue.

Controlling a dream is a very tough task. It requires the dreamer to be in the state of self control. If he attains this, then he could control the dream (To an extent I guess). This method of controlling ones dream is called Lucid Dreaming!!

The Dreams could even form and provide you with meaningful answers to your biggest problems as you may have seen the case with Einstein and Howe. The conscious mind is limited by rational thinking. But your subconscious is not. If you become a Lucid dreamer, It is believed that you could pose the question to which you want answers during your dream.

I personally believe that all dreams have an inner meaning which we must understand!

The topic does not end here!! What I talked about was just the Basic view on dreams. In the later posts. I have started training myself to be a lucid dreamer. How about we learn together?? I Think it would be fun!
I need to have your say in this.....

So if you have any topic in your mind which you feel should be the next post here at Brain Tech, feel free to share them with me!!

Until next time, this is your Brain Tech Asst, Signing out!! Stay Tuned!!

The Secrets Of Memory Part- 2

In the last post we discussed about what a memory is, in basic terms. Now we are going to go deep into that subject i.e, we are now going to discuss on how we can develop that feature of the brain.

Think of it in this way. The Brain is a library and the hippocampus, the librarian. We all dislike a library where the books are not arranged or kept in a particular pattern. A similar case applies for the brain too.
We must organize the books (memories) in a particular manner or pattern so that it would be easy to retrieve it later. There are many ways to improve our memory. One of the most accepted, reliable and efficient method is The Method of Loci.
The Method Of Loci, plural of Latin word Locus which means a place or location, is also referred to as a journey method. The parts of the brain which greatly contribute to this method are medial parietal cortex, retrosplenial cortex and right posterior hippocampus.

The Method of Loci.....

   Allow me to give you a brief introduction to the story behind it. There was a poet during the 5th century B.C. His name was Simonides of Ceos. The tale goes like this: Simonides of Ceos was once hired to recite an ode at a noleman's banquet. He started off with a few lines of praise to divinities - Castor and Pollux, before starting the serious talk about the host. The host, who objected to the diversion of flattery, deducted half of Simonide's fee and asked him to collect the rest from the gods he praised. At that time, a message came to him that two men had come to his house and wished to speak with him immediately. When he went to his house, there was no one there. But while he was out, the banquet hall had collapsed, killing the impious noblemen and other guests. Castor and Pollux did indeed pay their fee!!
Now now..... don't just think that the story ends here. like any other Greek stories. That's not the moral or the interesting part of the story!!!!
When the rubble was cleared... the bodies of the victims were un-identifiable to their families. Simonides, however was able to identify each and every one of them!! How did he do it?? Well, he was one of the first persons' to ever use the technique or method of Loci. While he was on the stage making his speech, he had a full view of the banquet hall and the guests along with it. He visualized a banquet hall exactly same to to what he saw. Then, he virtualised each guests present at the banquet and placed them in his version of the banquet hall exactly where they sat at the real hall. In simple words he memorised the position of each guests in the hall. So he was able to identify each of the deceased guests. This marked the beginning of The Method Of Loci.

So now lets try this method out. What do you say??
Ok here's a list of some things.
- A Deck of cards
- Quartz crystal
- Australian Aborigine
- Saxophone
- Zebra
- Telephone
- Micky Mouse
- Table fan
- Bread and Butter
- Airport

 Ok this will do. Now this is just a very small (very small... i mean it) list. If you notice the list and just read through, you will find that the things mentioned here are barely connected to each other. This is just to increase the complexity or toughness of the activity (or should i say demonstration?). Now your task, as you might have guessed, is to memorize the whole list.
The most common method used is linking and connecting to one another. In this method, what we do is find something which is common in two things which lie side by side. This method is very familiar to all of us. But this method is not efficient in cases where the link or common thing between things are absent, such as this!!!!
I would suggest to use the method of Loci here. So here's how to use it .
Imagine your house. Now think of yourself walking into the house. In order to get into the house, you must pass through the door first (naturally!!). Now construct a virtual image of a Deck of Cards and place it at the doorway of your house. So now you have to pass through the Deck of Cards (door) to get in. You slide the Deck of Cards and get in the house. Now you have entered the living room of your house. Time for placing the next thing on the list, The Quartz Crystal. The Quartz crystal is visualized first. But it must be large enough to be visible. So what you must do is increase its size and place it at the center of our living room. Now thats over and you move on. You take a turn at the end of the living room and see your bedroom. Now visualize and place a Australian Aborigine playing with a flute. But you don't like its tune. So you replace the flute with Saxophone. And it goes on......
You will discover that the list is now much more easier to remember that bow you could tell the list even from bottom to top in the exact order!!!! You can make this much more simpler by adding some more effects to your visualizations like sounds and other special effects. You can even add or register some emotions and humour into your Locus like getting shocked when you see the Australian Aborigine in your bedroom!
It is not necessary to position each object in the list at each room. Since the list above is small, you may keep each item at different rooms. But if you observe, you notice that I grouped The Australian Aborigine and Saxophone in a single room. It all depends on your likes and imagination.
So since the list is small, you may only use a small Locus. But in case of very long list, you must use many Locus or Loci ( In that case, you can imagine a multi-storey flat or shops on a road). So in order to recollect the objects in the list in the right order, all you must do is virtually travel on the same path you took while using or storing the objects in the Locus for the first time. This will fire the same neuron path you took to store it in your brain or memorize.

Here's a short video on The Method of Loci. Courtesy of BBC.

Please don't forget this one point: " This is just one of the ways to improve your memory."

So I guess that's it about memory. I hope you all practice The Method of Loci and tell me how you positioned your objects in the Locus. Above all, I hope this post was informative!!!!!

Stay tuned for more secrets and tips of the brain.!!! Bye till then.

The Secrets of Memory --- Part 1..

So Welcome once again!! As we continue our journey through the deep forest of brain, we come across a bridge that is very well known and crossed. But it hides its architectural secrets ..until now.  .... Memory 

So coming to memory. It is a familiar term to all of us. Memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and subsequently, recall information and past experiences in the human brain. The word Memory is derived from the Middle-English, memorie which is in turn derived from the Anglo-French word, memoire. This word, in turn finds its root from a Latin word memoria and memor which means 'mindful' or 'remembering'. Sorry if I drifted towards Etymology a bit. Switching back to relation between Human Brain and memory.

In Psychology, in simplest of words, memory is the processes by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. We have all experimented with this ability of our Brain ( I can assure you that!!). It is one of the most interesting feature of our Brain!!. We will start from the lowest steps.
   Infants. Until the mid- 1980's, it was believed that infants were not capable of encoding, storing or retaining information, i.e memorising. Developments in research and technology have proved that 6 -month old child can recall information up to 24 hours. It has also been revealed that as a child grows older, they become capable of storing more information!!. For example, as mentioned above, a 6-month old child can recall information up to 24 hours,
a 9-months old upto 5 weeks, a 20-months old as long as 12 months!!!!.  Moving on.....

Now we know what memory is. So time to climb the next step...
   Memory is a complex function that involves multiple steps, which starts with the input of the stimulus to the brain and ends with independent memory retrieval. Human memory is made up of three stages.
Sensory memory : Information is derived from touch, visual or aural. The ability to look at an item and recall what it looked like is an example of sensory memory.

Short-term Memory : Encodes information acoustically.

Long-term Memory : Encodes information semantically.

 The parts of brain that deals with memory are : 

Prefrontal Cortex :
The Prefrontal Cortex, a part of the brain's frontal lobe, is the region responsible for short-term memory.The Prefrontal Cortex is referred to as the "coordinator" in short-term memory, as it is involved in the ways in which memories are used.

Hippocampus : 

The Hippocampus, present in the temporal lobe of the brain consolidates short-term memories into long-term memories. For a memory to be consolidated, it must pass through a hippocampal pathway multiple times. The route of the memory in the brain is as follows:-

 Hippocampus - Mammilary bodies of the Hypothalamus - anterior Thalamic nucleus - Cingulate Cortex - Entorhinal Cortex - Back to Hippocampus.The repetition through the hippocampal pathways prevents the breakdown of the memory.

 Cerebral Cortex :
After the memory is consolidated, it is stored in the cerebral cortex.The memory is now independent of the hippocampus, so it can be recalled at any time.The long-term memories are subject to less decay, or loss of information, than short-term memories.

A Short note on recalling information: 

Recalling memories re-fires many of the same neural paths we originally used to 

sense the experience and, therefore, almost re-creates the event. Memories of concepts and ideas are related to sensed experiences because we extract the essence from sensed experiences to form generalised concepts.

So by that we come to the end of Part 1. Hope you guys liked it. Coming up - Part 2 of memory
Stay tuned. Thank you!!

Reaction Time.... Secrets

We have all seen some Hollywood movies ( Mission: Impossible for instance.... my favorite) where the hero, during a fight, seems to be predicting all the move the villain makes and defending against it accordingly...
How does he do it???
The answer is reaction time......
Before going deep into it... we must first understand what reaction time or in much more easier words reflex is.....
reflex is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus, which is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. So "Reaction time is the elapsed time between the presentation of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response. In psychometric psychology it is considered to be an index of speed of processing."
I know... it must be a little confusing to some.. don't feel bad about it ( I also had some problems grasping it in the first case). Allow me to simplify it further.  So basically Reaction time is the time taken for you to produce a suitable response (behavioral) at the presentation of a stimulus.
So almost all martial arts teachers teach different methods to decrease your reaction time in a situation.
Now you have the answer to the question above.
Now moving on....

Here is a video on reaction time. Courtesy of  FSN Sports Science.
This is just one application of reaction time from thousands.... We make use of this reaction time almost everyday.

The reaction time is measured mostly in terms of milliseconds.
The key to decrease your reaction speed is to calm down and focus your mind.
This will decrease the traffic of impulses in your brain and thereby decreases your reaction time.

Here are some sites to check your reaction time.
http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php
http://getyourwebsitehere.com/jswb/rttest01.html

Here is a simple experiment.

• Randomly pick a male or female student to perform this simple experiment.
• Ask them to extend their hand and hold out their thumb and forefinger.
• The 0 centimeter mark on the ruler should be level in between the subject's fingers.
• Ask them to catch the ruler with these two fingers. Do not give any advanced notice when you release it from rest.
• Record the position of their fingers on the ruler when they catch it.
• Repeat the first 5 steps for more trials.

Analysis

Testing you reaction time is as simple as 123. With a ruler and a friend, you can tell how long a person it takes to react to a change. Having a fast reaction time is vital in sports whether you're in the track, hockey or soccer etc.
In our experiment, one person will drop the ruler and when the subject catches it, you can measure the reaction time. First, we convert the centimeters to meters for a standard measurement. Then, using the distance formula given in the introduction

s = ½at²

since there is no initial distance nor initial velocity. So the time can be found from

t = √2s/a

Explanation
Your nervous system is divided into two parts with a central nervous system (consisting of the brain and the spinal cord) and a peripheral nervous system (composed of all the nerves that deliver messages to the spinal cord). Both parts are at work here. First, the nervous system must recognize a stimulus (the ruler being dropped), then cells in the nervous system called neurons relay the message to the brain, muscles and other nerves. Now the peripheral nerve comes into play: the message travels from the brain to the spinal cord and is finally delivered to your fingers. The motor neurons tell the muscles to catch the ruler.

So i hope its been a wonderful journey for you. Keep on practicing to decrease your reaction time. It really helps. Don't forget to comment your reaction time.

Coming up next.... the secrets to memory...
Keep in touch.

Gotta Walk before you run.......

The human brain is one of the most extraordinary organ in a multi-cellular organism especially in us humans. It forms the center of the nervous system in humans. The brain is made up of 80-120 billion neurons (maybe even more) i.e nerve cells. The nerve cells in the brain are mostly coated with myelin sheath, which allows the impulses to travel much more quickly.
For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been fascinated by the brain, but until recently they viewed the brain as nearly incomprehensible. Now, however, the brain is beginning to relinquish its secrets.
The brain is like a committee of experts. All the parts of the brain work together, but each part has its own special properties. The brain can be divided into three basic units: the fore-brain, the mid-brain, and the hind-brain.
The hind-brain includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem, and a wrinkled ball of tissue called the cerebellum. The hind-brain controls the body’s vital functions such as respiration and heart rate. The cerebellum coordinates movement and is involved in learned rote movements.
The uppermost part of the brain stem is the mid-brain, which controls some reflex actions and is part of the circuit involved in the control of eye movements and other voluntary movements
The fore-brain is the largest and most highly developed part of the human brain: it consists primarily of the cerebrum and the structures hidden beneath it.

Here are two basic videos on the human brain which helps you to grasp things easily.

Thank you for your patience. ... Please comment.
On which topic do you want the next blog....
Reaction time or memory??