Nu Sol Cycle™ Wellness

Steven Brill on the American Medical Marketplace

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:30:18 -0400

Steven Brill on the American Medical Marketplace: Why the costs of healthcare in America is killing...

dreamisnow: It’s not about what America can do for us. It’s...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:31:17 -0400

dreamisnow:

It’s not about what America can do for us. It’s about what can be done by us. Together. - President Obama

"Congratulations on the opening of your library. Now maybe you’ll go inside one. You have long held..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:25:40 -0400

“Congratulations on the opening of your library. Now maybe you’ll go inside one. You have long...

The Nation: The Reverse Revolving Door: How Corporate Insiders Are Rewarded Upon Leaving Firms For Congress

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:23:04 -0400

The Nation: The Reverse Revolving Door: How Corporate Insiders Are Rewarded Upon Leaving Firms For...

mothernaturenetwork: Improve indoor air quality for people with...

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:55:10 -0400

mothernaturenetwork:

Improve indoor air quality for people with allergies
We’ve rounded up a few basic ways to help improve the indoor air quality of your home by preventing outdoor allergens from coming in and keeping indoor allergens in check.

Top Hacker Shows Us How It’s Done: Pablos Holman at...

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:30:25 -0400

Top Hacker Shows Us How It’s Done: Pablos Holman at TEDxMidwests (by TEDxTalks)

Nu Sol Cycle™ Wellness - Legitimate Massage in Manhattan, NY - Legitmassage.com

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:55:05 -0400

Nu Sol Cycle™ Wellness - Legitimate Massage in Manhattan, NY - Legitmassage.com

"A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a..."

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:05:21 -0400

“A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it...

neurosciencestuff: New research shows how our bodies interact...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:55:47 -0400

neurosciencestuff:

New research shows how our bodies interact with our minds in response to fear and other emotions

New research has shown that the way our minds react to and process emotions such as fear can vary according to what is happening in other parts of our bodies.

In two different presentations today (Monday) at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London, researchers have shown for the first time that the heart’s cycle affects the way we process fear, and that a part of the brain that responds to stimuli, such as touch, felt by other parts of the body also plays a role.

Dr Sarah Garfinkel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Brighton, UK), told a news briefing: “Cognitive neuroscience strives to understand how biological processes interact to create and influence the conscious mind. While neural activity in the brain is typically the focus of research, there is a growing appreciation that other bodily organs interact with brain function to shape and influence our perceptions, cognitions and emotions.

“We demonstrate for the first time that the way in which we process fear is different dependent on when we see fearful images in relation to our heart.”

Dr Garfinkel and her colleagues hooked up 20 healthy volunteers to heart monitors, which were linked to computers. Images of fearful faces were shown on the computers and the electrocardiography (ECG) monitors were able to communicate with the computers in order to time the presentation of the faces with specific points in the heart’s cycle.

“Our results show that if we see a fearful face during systole (when the heart is pumping) then we judge this fearful face as more intense than if we see the very same fearful face during diastole (when the heart is relaxed). To look at neural activity underlying this effect, we performed this experiment in an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scanner and demonstrated that a part of the brain called the amygdala influences how our heart changes our perception of fear.

“From previous research, we know that if we present images very fast then we have trouble detecting them, but if an image is particularly emotional then it can ‘pop’ out and be seen. In a second experiment, we exploited our cardiac effect on emotion to show that our conscious experience is affected by our heart. We demonstrated that fearful faces are better detected at systole (when they are perceived as more fearful), relative to diastole. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don’t see – and can guide whether we see fear.

“Lastly, we have demonstrated that the degree to which our hearts can change the way we see and process fear is influenced by how anxious we are. The anxiety level of our individual subjects altered the extent their hearts could change the way they perceived emotional faces and also altered neural circuitry underlying heart modulation of emotion.”

Dr Garfinkel says that her findings might have the potential to help people who suffer from anxiety or other conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“We have identified an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our emotions and reduce fear. We hope to explore the therapeutic implications in people with high anxiety. Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and are very prevalent in the UK and elsewhere. We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is processed and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for these people, and also for those, such as war veterans, who may be suffering from PTSD.

“In addition, there is a growing appreciation about how different forms of meditation can have therapeutic consequences. Work that integrates body, brain and mind to understand changes in emotion can help us understand how meditation and mindfulness practices can have calming effects.”

In a second presentation, Dr Alejandra Sel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at City University (London, UK), investigated a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex – the area that perceives bodily sensations, such as touch, pain, body temperature and the perception of the body’s place in space, and which is activated when we observe emotional expressions in the faces of other people.

“In order to understand other’s people emotions we need to experience the same observed emotions in our body. Specifically, observing an emotional face, as opposed to a neutral face, is associated with an increased activity in the somatosensory cortex as if we were expressing and experiencing our own emotions. It is also known that people with damage to the somatosensory cortex find it difficult to recognise emotion in other people’s faces,” Dr Sel told the news briefing.

However, until now, it has not been clear whether activity in the somatosensory cortex was simply a by-product of the way we process visual information, or whether it reacts independently to emotions expressed in other people’s faces, actively contributing to how we perceive emotions in others.

In order to discover whether the somatosensory cortex contributes to the processing of emotion independently of any visual processes, Dr Sel and her colleagues tested two situations on volunteers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain response to images, they showed participants either a face showing fear (emotional) or a neutral face. Secondly, they combined the showing of the face with a small tap to an index finger or the left cheek immediately afterwards.

Dr Sel said: “By tapping someone’s cheek or finger you can modify the ‘resting state’ of the somatosensory cortex inducing changes in brain electrical activity in this area. These changes are measureable and observable with EEG and this enables us to pinpoint the brain activity that is specifically related to the somatosensory cortex and its reaction to external stimuli.

“If the ‘resting state’ of the somatosensory cortex when a fearful face is shown has greater electrical activity than when a neutral face is shown, the changes in the activity of the somatosensory cortex induced by the taps and measured by EEG also will be greater when observing fearful as opposed to neutral faces.

“We subtracted results of the first situation (face only) from the second situation (face and tap), and compared changes in the activity related with the tap in the somatosensory cortex when seeing emotional faces versus neutral faces. This way, we could observe responses of the somatosensory cortex to emotional faces independently of visual processes,” she explained.

The researchers found that there was enhanced activity in the somatosensory cortex in response to fearful faces in comparison to neutral faces, independent of any visual processes. Importantly, this activity was focused in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas; the primary area receives sensory information directly from the body, while the secondary area combines sensory information from the body with information related to body movement and other information, such as memories of previous, sensitive experiences.

“Our experimental approach allows us to isolate and show for the first time (as far as we are aware) changes in somatosensory activity when seeing emotional faces after taking away all visual information in the brain. We have shown the crucial role of the somatosensory cortex in the way our minds and bodies perceive human emotions. These findings can serve as starting point for developing interventions tailored for people with problems in recognising other’s emotions, such as autistic children,” said Dr Sel.

The researchers now plan to investigate whether they get similar results when people are shown faces with other expressions such as happy or angry, and whether the timing of the physical stimulus, the tap to the finger or cheek, makes any difference. In this experiment, the tap occurred 105 milliseconds after a face was shown, and Dr Sel wonders about the effect of a longer time interval.

(Image: Shutterstock)

yaleuniversity: The 5th Annual Environmental Film Festival at...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:50:39 -0400

yaleuniversity:

The 5th Annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) is the largest student-run environmental film festival in the world.

Come see some of the most revealing films of the year that raise awareness and provoke thought about current environmental and social issues.

All events are free and open to the public, and include panel discussions with filmmakers, Yale faculty, and special guests.

FULL SCHEDULE AND DETAILS: environment.yale.edu/film/films.

Lonesome, 1928

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:43:10 -0400

Lonesome, 1928

Nu Sol Cycle fb page...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:30:16 -0400

Nu Sol Cycle fb page...

Funny how perspectives change for the value of a dollar.

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:09:35 -0400

Funny how perspectives change for the value of a dollar.

think-progress: A Republican congressman attacks Sasha and...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:37:28 -0400

think-progress:

A Republican congressman attacks Sasha and Malia Obama.

interiordesignmagazine: #9 on our list of 100 Big Ideas Firm:...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:54:30 -0400

interiordesignmagazine:

#9 on our list of 100 Big Ideas

Firm: Filip Janssens.

Site: Aalst, Belgium.

Idea: Tom Lierman Office of Architecture and Interiors designed Filip Janssens a barnlike residence, and Janssens added a small garden pavilion with an exterior clad in larch planks. The 110-square-foot interior, fully insulated, comprises a tool shed and an airy garden room.

Australia’s new energy and natural resources minister: "I’m no longer a climate sceptic"

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:53:19 -0400

Australia’s new energy and natural resources minister: "I’m no longer a climate sceptic":...

ucresearch: Seastars are the canaries in the coal mine for...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:39:41 -0400

ucresearch:

Seastars are the canaries in the coal mine for climate change

At the Bodega Marine Lab, Eric Sanford studies sea stars and mussels to determine how climate change will affect ecosystems along the California coast.

“Our results suggest that if during the summertime there are more warm events, then this can have a really big effect on marine ecosystems. What we found is that sea stars are actually really sensitive to small changes in temperature, they get really stressed out and they consume fewer mussels and end up growing a lot less.”

jmek: THE NANO GARDEN LETS YOU GROW VEGGIES RIGHT IN YOUR...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:38:31 -0400

jmek:

THE NANO GARDEN LETS YOU GROW VEGGIES RIGHT IN YOUR KITCHEN

BY ANJELIKA PARANJPE ON JUNE 4, 2012

The Kitchen Nano Garden by Hyundai is a super cool concept for growing a vegetable garden right in your kitchen, without help from sun or rain…

The concept takes tiered metal shelving, climate controlled panels, purposefully-directed lumens, and an attachment to a water source to make your indoor vegetable crop dreams a potential reality. Because light, water and nutrient supply is totally controllable, it’s up to you how quickly you want your veggies to grow. It will alert you if you’re overwatering, over-sunning, or if your plants need more nutrients. It even works to naturally purify the air in your home.

Allison Van Eck - “Hand these out instead of food stamps. Get grocery stores to use much larger versions of this in the produce sections to eliminate shipping costs and food waste. THAT will change the world drastically in a decade. It frees a vital resource from supply chain limitations, solves our issues with organics and the pollution of our genome (provided it is done the right way), deals with one of our largest sources of fossil fuel consumption (shipping large quantities of stuff by boat, plane, and train), and teaches people how to be self-sufficient. I agree that they need to really focus their engineering efforts on using spectrum-specific LED’s to further reduce power consumption and make plants happier. As for removing the minerals from hard water…I would think this unit would help with this issue in light that the plants need those minerals and create an opportunity for a closed water-recycling system as part of the unit….just sayin’.”

smarterplanet: 3D Printer for Living Things Solve for X: Austen...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:27:33 -0400

smarterplanet:

3D Printer for Living Things

Solve for X: Austen Heinz on democratizing creation

“Mindblowing presentation about future applications of DNA laser printer. Have you ever wondered how many years will pass since we as human species become able to “freely design” living organisms. This video prove it is quite near future.” via personalfactory:

Dude?

npr: An NPR audience poll to select the 100 best young adult...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:49:48 -0400

npr:

An NPR audience poll to select the 100 best young adult books coughed up 75,000 voters and just two books with non-white protagonists. Even a winning writer complained. Kill the judges? No, the enemy is us. Book editors ask for a solution.

via When A Popular List Of 100 ‘Best-Ever’ Teen Books Is The ‘Whitest Ever’ : NPR Ombudsman

Photo: iStockphoto.com