tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/brain-activity-11213/articlesBrain activity – The Conversation2023-12-06T13:27:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178892023-12-06T13:27:31Z2023-12-06T13:27:31ZHow electroconvulsive therapy heals the brain − new insights into ECT, a stigmatized yet highly effective treatment for depression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563043/original/file-20231201-17-j1qrjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2059%2C1454&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Electroconvulsive therapy involves inducing a controlled seizure under anesthesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/human-brain-impulse-concept-futuristic-royalty-free-illustration/1177917141">Inkoly/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When most people hear about <a href="https://theconversation.com/electroconvulsive-therapy-a-history-of-controversy-but-also-of-help-70938">electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT</a>, it typically conjures terrifying images of cruel, outdated and pseudo-medical procedures. Formerly known as electroshock therapy, this perception of ECT as dangerous and ineffective has been reinforced in pop culture for decades – think the 1962 novel-turned-Oscar-winning film “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/One-Flew-over-the-Cuckoos-Nest-film-by-Forman">One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest</a>,” where an unruly patient is subjected to ECT as punishment by a tyrannical nurse.</p>
<p>Despite this stigma, ECT is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmra2034954">highly effective treatment for depression</a> – up to 80% of patients experience at least a 50% reduction in symptom severity. For one of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9">most disabling illnesses</a> around the world, I think it’s surprising that ECT is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/yct.0000000000000320">rarely used</a> to treat depression.</p>
<p>Contributing to the stigma around ECT, psychiatrists still don’t know exactly how it heals a depressed person’s brain. ECT involves using <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538266/">highly controlled doses of electricity</a> to induce a brief seizure under anesthesia. Often, the best description you’ll hear from a physician on why that brief seizure can alleviate depression symptoms is that ECT <a href="https://www.uhhospitals.org/services/adult-psychiatry-psychology/ect-suite/about-ect-procedure">“resets” the brain</a> – an answer that can be fuzzy and unsettling to some.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tDUCQ3UAAAAJ">data-obsessed neuroscientist</a>, I was also dissatisfied with this explanation. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02631-y">our newly</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02634-9">published research</a>, my colleagues and I in <a href="https://voyteklab.com">the lab of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ydFvGx0AAAAJ&hl=en">Bradley Voytek</a> at UC San Diego discovered that ECT might work by resetting the brain’s electrical background noise.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcmarVpo2xE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Despite its high effectiveness in alleviating depression symptoms, misperceptions about ECT made it unpopular.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listening to brain waves</h2>
<p>To study how ECT treats depression, my team and I used a device called an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563295/">electroencephalogram, or EEG</a>. It measures the brain’s electrical activity – or brain waves – via electrodes placed on the scalp. You can think of brain waves as music played by an orchestra. Orchestral music is the sum of many instruments together, much like EEG readings are the sum of the electrical activity of millions of brain cells.</p>
<p>Two <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-00744-x">types of electrical activity</a> make up brain waves. The first, oscillations, are like the highly synchronized, melodic music you might hear in a symphony. The second, aperiodic activity, is more like the asynchronous noise you hear as musicians tune their instruments. These two types of activities coexist in the brain, together creating the electrical waves an EEG records.</p>
<p>Importantly, tuning noises and symphonic music shouldn’t be mistaken for one another. They clearly come from different processes and serve different purposes. The brain is similar in this way – aperiodic activity and oscillations are different because the biology driving them is distinct.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram showing EEG reading of neural oscillations and aperiodic activity" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=134&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=134&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=169&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=169&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563769/original/file-20231205-27-cj7f46.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=169&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This diagram shows two EEG readings: One signal contains slow neural oscillations and the other contains only aperiodic activity. Although these signals can be tricky to visually distinguish, certain data analysis methods can help tease them apart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sydney Smith</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the methods neuroscientists have traditionally used to analyze these signals are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-00744-x">unable to differentiate</a> between the oscillations (symphony) and the aperiodic activity (tuning). Both are critical for the orchestra, but so far neuroscientists have mostly ignored – or entirely missed – aperiodic signals because they were thought to be just the brain’s background noise.</p>
<p>In our new research, my team and I show that ignoring aperiodic brain activity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02631-y">likely explains</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02634-9">the confusion</a> behind about how ECT treats depression. It turns out we’ve been missing this signal all along.</p>
<h2>Connecting aperiodic activity and ECT</h2>
<p>Since the 1940s, ECT has been associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.99.4.525">increases in slow oscillations</a> in the brain waves of patients. However, those slow oscillations have never been linked to how ECT works. The degree to which slow oscillations appear is not consistently related to how much symptoms improve following ECT. Nor have ideas about how the brain produces slow oscillations connected those processes to the pathology underlying depression. </p>
<p>Because these two types of brain waves are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12021-022-09581-8">difficult to separate in measurements</a>, I wondered if these slow oscillations were in fact incorrectly measured aperiodic activity. Returning to our orchestra analogy, I believed that scientists had misidentified the tuning sounds as symphony music.</p>
<p>To investigate this, my team and I gathered three EEG datasets: one from nine patients with depression undergoing ECT in San Diego, another from 22 patients in Toronto receiving ECT and a third from 22 patients in Toronto participating in a clinical trial of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.58.3.303">magnetic seizure therapy, or MST</a>, a newer alternative to ECT that starts a seizure with magnets instead of electricity.</p>
<p>We found that aperiodic activity increases by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02634-9">more than 40% on average</a> following ECT. In patients who received MST treatment, aperiodic activity increases more modestly, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02631-y">by about 16%</a>. After accounting for changes in aperiodic activity, we found that slow oscillations do not change much at all. In fact, slow oscillations were not even detected in some patients, and aperiodic activity dominated their EEG recordings instead.</p>
<h2>How ECT treats depression</h2>
<p>But what does aperiodic activity have to do with depression?</p>
<p>A long-standing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.120">theory of depression</a> states that severely depressed patients have too few of a type of brain cell called inhibitory cells. These cells can turn other brain cells on and off, and maintaining the balance of these on and off states is critical for healthy brain function. This balance is particularly relevant for depression because the brain’s ability to turn cells off plays an important role in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2174%2F1570159X1304150831150507">how it responds to stress</a>, a function that, when not working properly, makes people particularly vulnerable to depression.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of a long green neuron touching a red neuron" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563047/original/file-20231201-21-7jfwil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This microscopy image shows a mouse inhibitory neuron (red) contacting a pyramidal neuron (green).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/J8HizN">McBain Laboratory, NICHD/NIH via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.078">mathematical model</a> of cell type-based electrical activity, I linked increases in aperiodic activity, like those seen in the ECT patients, to a huge <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02634-9">change in the activity</a> of these inhibitory cells. This change in aperiodic activity may be restoring the crucial on and off balance in the brain to a healthy level. </p>
<p>Even though scientists have been recording EEGs from ECT patients for decades, this is the first time that brain waves have been connected to this particular brain malfunction.</p>
<p>Altogether, though our sample size is relatively small, our findings indicate that ECT and MST likely treat depression by resetting aperiodic activity and restoring the function of inhibitory brain cells. Further study can help destigmatize ECT and highlight new directions for the research and development of depression treatments. Listening to the nonmusical background noise of the brain could help solve other mysteries, like how the brain changes in aging and in illnesses like schizophrenia and epilepsy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sydney E. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Electroconvulsive therapy often evokes inaccurate images of seizing bodies and smoking ears. Better understanding of how it reduces depression symptoms can illuminate new ways to treat mental illness.Sydney E. Smith, Ph.D. Candidate in Computational Neuroscience, University of California, San DiegoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2068322023-10-01T15:12:16Z2023-10-01T15:12:16ZWe got the beat: How we perceive rhythm involves neurological processes that control movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535420/original/file-20230703-268647-i4u2qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7153%2C4781&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Experiencing the beat of a rhythm may be influenced
by the body’s expectation of movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/we-got-the-beat-how-we-perceive-rhythm-involves-neurological-processes-that-control-movement" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>When you hear a song playing somewhere, you might find yourself tapping your fingers or moving your head to the rhythm. If you’re walking, your footsteps may fall in line with the beat. Whether or not you’re a musician, somehow you know intuitively when to speed up or slow down to stay in time. </p>
<p>A wide range of living and non-living systems show synchronization, the tendency to coordinate rhythmic activity across interconnected groups. Pendulum clocks hanging on the same wall <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/the-secret-of-the-synchronized-pendulums/">eventually sync up</a>, and large groups of fireflies may start to <a href="https://www.firefly.org/synchronous-fireflies.html">flash as one</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232240-600-most-animals-cant-keep-a-beat-despite-what-darwin-believed/">nothing else in the natural world</a> spontaneously synchronizes with rhythms across such a wide range of tempos and with such precision as humans listening to music. Joining the flow of a rhythmic piece of music is something we think of as almost automatic. But as pleasant and natural as it may be, it’s not at all clear how we do it. </p>
<p>As a musician, I spend many happy hours synchronizing to rhythms. And as a scientist, I am fascinated by the processes in the mind and brain that allow us to interact so expertly and spontaneously with rhythm. </p>
<h2>Rhythm and the brain</h2>
<p>Our sense of rhythm would seem to begin within the confines of the mind. As we listen to rhythmic music, we intuitively know when the next note is likely to occur. We are surprised when our rhythmic expectations are thwarted, as when a prominent downbeat is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13909">played slightly early or is intentionally left silent</a>. </p>
<p>But it appears that even our ability to mentally follow and anticipate musical rhythms is tied up with the brain processes we use to move our bodies. </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/functional-mri-imaging-the-brain">functional MRI</a>, music neuroscientists have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104588">established</a> that actively listening to rhythm activates the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2478">supplementary motor area</a> of the cerebral cortex and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.60.10.1365">basal ganglia</a> in the deep brain, both of which are important for generating voluntary movements.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C85%2C5694%2C2949&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people in an exercise class mid-step" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C85%2C5694%2C2949&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535417/original/file-20230703-227943-4xq7eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As we move our bodies in space, we are continuously monitoring the state and progress of our actions using the sensory feedback they produce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How is mentally following a rhythm similar to moving our bodies? In my research, I am exploring <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SBI24s6KnI">one possible link</a>: As we move our bodies in space, we are continuously monitoring the state and progress of our actions using the sensory feedback they produce. </p>
<p>This process of monitoring resembles a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/kalman-filter">Kalman filter</a>, an algorithm used to track the movement of objects based on limited and noisy measurements. </p>
<p>I recently showed that the process of following the cycle of a periodic beat underlying a complex rhythm can also be approximated surprisingly well by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009025">a version of the Kalman filter</a>. Anticipating and processing events in a rhythm may draw on the same brain mechanisms as anticipating and processing the sensory consequences of our own movements. </p>
<p>From an evolutionary perspective, I suspect that our sense of rhythm developed (at least in part) as an outgrowth of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204319892617">monitoring and anticipating our own footsteps</a> as we walk or run.</p>
<h2>Causes of motor disorders</h2>
<p>Drawing links between motor control and rhythm perception may help us make sense of the underlying causes of neurological disorders that both affect rhythm perception and benefit from rhythm-focused therapies, including <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322262/">Parkinson’s</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31450508/">Huntington’s</a>, and stuttering.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a girl looks at a metronome on a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535418/original/file-20230703-257123-rl7hkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using a metronome can help alleviate stuttering.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Developmental stuttering (a stutter during speech that arises in early childhood) is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105219">impairment in rhythm perception</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00847">weaker ability to tap in time with a metronome</a>. </p>
<p>Conversely, stuttering can be partially alleviated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(71)80001-1">by speaking along with a metronome</a>. Further, stutterers often experience substantially improved speech when their speech is played back to them with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2006.04.001">slight delay or a pitch shift</a>. </p>
<p>Understanding the link between processing motor feedback — like the sound of one’s own speech — and perceiving an underlying beat could help us better understand stuttering by unifying the primary speech impairments with the secondary effects relating to rhythm and feedback as parts of a larger picture.</p>
<h2>Rhythm and boundaries</h2>
<p>The study of rhythm is one gateway to bigger questions about our relationship with the world around us. I believe that how we sense rhythm blurs the boundaries between our internal and external worlds.</p>
<p>We simply don’t have the cognitive resources to take all the information coming in our ears and rapidly separate it into multiple rhythmic streams. As a result, the rhythms we hear become entangled with the rhythms we make with our bodies. As we play music in a group, we literally lose ourselves in the rhythm: we no longer predict the timing of our own sounds separately from the mix, but instead predict the timing of all sounds based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74816">the group’s rhythm as a whole</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P2ngriiCuME?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drummers cannot experience more than one internal beat at a time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prediction and action</h2>
<p>So when we play music with others or slip into step with a friend on a walk, how does the rhythm we hear come to commandeer the timing of our actions? I suspect that the last ingredient is the tight relationship between prediction and action. According to one exciting theory of the neural control of action, we move our bodies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-012-0475-5">not by sending “commands” to them, but instead by predicting what we will experience</a> when we move them. </p>
<p>For example, when I fully expect to experience the sound and feeling of a handclap, my body aligns with my expectations and I clap my hands. This is one way to understand some people’s tendencies to finish others’ sentences: once they have a clear prediction of what they are going to hear, it is difficult to avoid producing those sounds themselves.</p>
<p>A shared rhythmic experience is a fluid interplay between sound, external expectations, self-expectation and action. As I come to understand the rhythm I’m hearing and predict its sounds, I start to predict the timing of my own actions with the same clock. And when I do that, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8FbKeqRY08">my actions can’t help but align themselves with my predictions</a>.</p>
<p>In this way, listening to and playing rhythmic music is a way to feel and act as a part of something larger than ourselves. We no longer experience ourselves as fully separate sources of sound and action — instead, we move and experience our movement as if music and movement all come from the same source, a source that includes us not as individuals but as parts of a larger system. </p>
<p>In a culture that often treats us as fundamentally separate and compartmentalized individuals, music helps us experience our minds, our bodies, other people, and our environments as an integrated whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Joseph Cannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humans can spontaneously fall into rhythms with precision, and across a wide range of tempos. This may be because the same neurological processes that anticipate rhythm are involved with movement.Jonathan Joseph Cannon, Assistant Professor of Psychology/Neuroscience/Behavior, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2136472023-09-20T15:04:57Z2023-09-20T15:04:57ZDepression recovery can be hard to measure − new research on deep brain stimulation shows how objective biomarkers could help make treatment more precise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548890/original/file-20230918-23-pisigx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2190%2C1369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deep brain stimulation can alleviate treatment-resistant depression for some patients.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brain-connection-royalty-free-image/1272275035">PM Images/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It can be challenging to create a treatment plan for depression. This is especially true for patients who <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147%2FNDT.S198774">aren’t responding to conventional treatments</a> and are undergoing experimental therapies such as deep brain stimulation. For most medical conditions, doctors can directly measure the part of the body that is being treated, such as blood pressure for cardiovascular disease. These measurable changes serve as an objective biomarker of recovery that provides valuable information about how to care for these patients. </p>
<p>On the other hand, for depression and other psychiatric disorders, clinicians rely on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203574">subjective and nonspecific surveys</a> that ask patients about their symptoms. When a patient tells their doctor they are experiencing negative emotions, is that because they are relapsing in their depression or because they had a bad day like everyone does sometimes? Are they anxious because their depression symptoms have lessened enough that they are experiencing new feelings, or do they have some other medical problem independent of their depression? Each reason may indicate a different course of action, such as altering a medication, addressing an issue in psychotherapy or increasing the intensity of <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-stimulation-can-rewire-and-heal-damaged-neural-connections-but-it-isnt-clear-how-research-suggests-personalization-may-be-key-to-more-effective-therapies-182491">brain stimulation</a> treatment.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JHuo2D0AAAAJ&hl=en">We are</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K0dED3QAAAAJ&hl=en">neuroengineers</a>. In our study, newly published in Nature, we identified <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06541-3">potential biomarkers</a> for deep brain stimulation that could one day help guide clinicians and patients when making treatment decisions for those using this approach to alleviate treatment-resistant depression.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Deep brain stimulation involves surgically implanting electrodes in the brain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Biomarker for depression</h2>
<p>Clinical depression does not respond to available therapies in a significant number of patients. Researchers have been working to find alternative options for those with <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147%2FNDT.S198774">treatment-resistant depression</a>, and many decades of experiments have identified specific brain networks with abnormal electrical activity in those with depression.</p>
<p>This notion of depression as abnormal brain activity rather than a chemical imbalance led to the development of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.02.014">deep brain stimulation</a> as a depression treatment: a surgically implanted, pacemaker-like device that delivers electrical impulses to certain areas of the brain. Studies testing this technique have found that it can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30371-1">decrease depression severity</a> over time in most patients.</p>
<p>Our research team wanted to find specific changes in brain activity that could serve as a biomarker that objectively measures how well deep brain stimulation is helping patients with depression. So we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06541-3">monitored the brain activity</a> of 10 patients receiving deep brain stimulation for severe treatment-resistant depression over six months.</p>
<p>At the end of six months, 90% of the patients responded to the therapy – defined by a reduction of symptoms by at least a half – and 70% were in remission, meaning they no longer met the criteria for clinical depression.</p>
<p>To identify a potential biomarker, we developed an algorithm that looked for patterns in brain activity changes as patients recovered. The algorithm was based on data from six out of the original 10 patients who had usable data from the experiment. We found that there are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06541-3">coordinated changes in different frequencies</a> present in the electrical activity within the area of the brain being stimulated. Using these patterns, the algorithm was able to predict whether someone was in a stable recovery with 90% accuracy each week.</p>
<p>Interestingly, we observed some parts of this pattern <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01669-0">moved in the</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2018.00043">opposite direction</a> later in stimulation therapy compared with the patterns at the start of therapy. This finding provides evidence that the long-term recovery is due to the brain adapting to the stimulation in a process <a href="https://theconversation.com/medication-can-help-you-make-the-most-of-therapy-a-psychologist-and-neuroscientist-explains-how-209200">called plasticity</a> rather than as a direct effect of the stimulation itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Person lying in bed, light speckled over their face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548887/original/file-20230918-23-pyx5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Depression is a debilitating disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/depressed-woman-lying-on-the-bed-at-home-royalty-free-image/1433295949?adppopup=true">Guido Mieth/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also saw other potential biomarkers worth investigating further. </p>
<p>For example, abnormalities in brain imaging taken before implanting the electrodes in specific parts of the brain correlated with how sick each patient was. This could provide clues about what’s causing depression in some people, or help develop imaging methods to determine who might be a good candidate for deep brain stimulation. </p>
<p>For another example, we found that the facial expressions of patients changed as their brains changed over the course of their treatment. While physicians often report this anecdotally, quantifying these changes may provide a way to develop objective markers of recovery that incorporate a patient’s behavior with their brain signals. </p>
<p>Because the results of our study are based on a small sample of patients, it’s important to further investigate how broadly they can be applied to other patients and newer deep brain stimulation devices.</p>
<h2>Improving decision-making for depression</h2>
<p>Clinical depression is a debilitating condition that causes significant personal and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-021-01019-4">societal suffering</a>. It is one of the largest contributors to the <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/254610">overall disease burden</a> of many countries. Despite the many approved treatments available, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.20m13699">nearly 30% of the 8.9 million U.S. adults</a> taking medications for clinical depression continue to have symptoms.</p>
<p>Deep brain stimulation is one of the alternative therapies for treatment-resistant depression that researchers are investigating. Studies have shown that deep brain stimulation can offer effective and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18121427">long-term relief</a> for some patients. </p>
<p>Although deep brain stimulation is an approved treatment for other conditions like <a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/impact/ninds-contributions-approved-therapies/deep-brain-stimulation-dbs-treatment-parkinsons-disease-and-other-movement-disorders">Parkinson’s disease</a>, it remains an experimental therapy for treatment-resistant depression. While the results from small experimental studies have been positive, they have not been successfully replicated in <a href="https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.21m13973">large-scale, randomized clinical trials</a> necessary for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.</p>
<p>Finding an objective biomarker that measures recovery in depression has the potential to improve treatment decisions. For example, one patient in our study had a relapse after several months of remission. Were a biomarker available at the time, the clinical team would have had warning that the patient was relapsing weeks before standard symptom surveys showed that anything was wrong. Such a tool could help clinicians intervene before a relapse becomes an emergency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Rozell serves on the scientific advisory board and owns shares in Motif Neurotech, Inc. and is a listed inventor on intellectual property related to this work. He receives funding from NIH, NSF and the James. S. McDonnell Foundation. Hs is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology, serves on the board of directors at Neuromatch, Inc., and serves on the advisory council of the Institute of Neuroethics. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sankaraleengam Alagapan receives funding from the National Institute of Health. He is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a listed inventor on intellectual property related to this work.</span></em></p>Deep brain stimulation can help some people with treatment-resistant depression feel better, but it can be unclear whether a bout of low mood is a relapse or a bad day.Christopher Rozell, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologySankaraleengam Alagapan, Research Scientist in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059012023-06-07T12:26:29Z2023-06-07T12:26:29ZBrain tumors are cognitive parasites – how brain cancer hijacks neural circuits and causes cognitive decline<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529651/original/file-20230601-23-o9ysdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gliomas can form connections with distant areas of the brain, exploiting them for their own spread and growth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/neuron-system-royalty-free-image/1421511892">Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Researchers have long known that brain tumors, specifically a type of tumor <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441874/">called a glioma</a>, can affect a person’s cognitive and physical function. Patients with <a href="https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/2491/glioblastoma">glioblastoma, the most fatal type of brain tumor</a> in adults, experience an especially drastic decline in quality of life. Glioblastomas are thought to impair normal brain functions <a href="https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-braintumor.htm">by compressing</a> and causing healthy tissue to swell, or competing with them for blood supply. </p>
<p>What exactly causes cognitive decline in brain tumor patients is still unknown. In our recently published research, we found that tumors can not only remodel neural circuits, but that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06036-1">brain activity itself can fuel tumor growth</a>.</p>
<p>We are a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ouLmr_AAAAAJ&hl=en">neuroscientist</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LVHlXIUAAAAJ&hl=en">neurosurgeon</a> team at the <a href="https://herveyjumperlab.ucsf.edu">University of California, San Francisco</a>. Our work focuses on understanding how brain tumors remodel neuronal circuits and how these changes affect language, motor and cognitive function. We discovered a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06036-1">previously unknown mechanism</a> brain tumors use to hijack and modify brain circuitry that causes cognitive decline in patients with glioma.</p>
<h2>Brain tumors in dialogue with surrounding cells</h2>
<p>When we started this study, scientists had recently found that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noaa158">self-perpetuating positive feedback loop</a> powers brain tumors. The cycle begins when cancer cells produce substances that can act as neurotransmitters, proteins that help neurons communicate with each other. This surplus of neurotransmitters triggers neurons to become hyperactive and secrete chemicals that stimulate and accelerate the proliferation and growth of the cancer cells. </p>
<p>We wondered how this feedback loop affects the behavior and cognition of people with brain cancer. To study how glioblastomas engage with neuronal circuits in the human brain, we recorded the real-time brain activity of patients with gliomas as they were shown pictures of common objects or animals and asked to name what they depicted <a href="https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/treatments/surgery/awake-brain-mapping-faq">while they were undergoing brain surgery</a> to remove the tumor. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAFbM6Zhz7k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Awake brain surgery involves mapping out the function of the areas of the brain around a tumor.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the patients engaged in these tasks, the language networks in their brains were activated as expected. However, we found that the brain regions the tumors had infiltrated quite remote from known language zones of the brain were also activated during these tasks. This unexpected finding shows that tumors can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06036-1">hijack and restructure connections</a> in the brain tissue surrounding them and increase their activity. </p>
<p>This may account for the cognitive decline frequently associated with the progression of gliomas. However, by directly recording the electrical activity of the brain using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190228484.003.0030">electrocorticography</a>, we showed that despite being hyperactive, these remote brain regions had significantly reduced computational power. This was especially the case for processing more complex, less commonly used words, such as “rooster,” in comparison with simple, more commonly used words, such as “car.” This meant that brain cells entangled in the tumor are so compromised that they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06036-1">need to recruit additional cells</a> to carry out tasks previously controlled by a smaller defined area.</p>
<p>We make an analogy to an orchestra. The musicians need to play in synchrony for the music to work. When you lose the cellos and the woodwinds, the remaining musicians can’t deliver the piece as effectively as when all players are present. Similarly, when brain tumors hijack the areas surrounding it, the brain is less able to effectively function.</p>
<h2>Gabapentin as a promising drug for glioblastoma</h2>
<p>Now we understood that tumors can impair cognition by affecting neural connections. Next, we further examined their connections with each other and with healthy neurons using mouse models and <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-organoids-help-neuroscientists-understand-brain-development-but-arent-perfect-matches-for-real-brains-130178">brain organoids</a>, which are clusters of brain cells grown in a Petri dish.</p>
<p>These experiments, led by one of us, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ouLmr_AAAAAJ&hl=en">Saritha Krishna</a>, found that tumor cells secrete a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06036-1">protein called thrombospondin-1</a> that plays a key role in promoting the hyperactivity of brain cells. We wondered whether blocking this protein, which normally helps neurons form synapses, would halt tumor growth and extend the survival of mice with glioblastoma.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1447&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of glioma cells" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1447&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529647/original/file-20230601-22-crdeom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Glioma cells could potentially be treated by repurposing the anti-seizure drug gabapentin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/RrbmvV">Castro Lab, Michigan Medicine/NIH via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To test this hypothesis, we treated mice with a common <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493228/">anti-seizure drug called gabapentin</a> that blocks thrombospondin-1. We found that gabapentin was able to keep the brain tumors from expanding for several months. These findings highlight the potential of repurposing this existing drug to control brain tumor growth.</p>
<p>Our study suggests that targeting the communication between healthy brain cells and cancer cells could offer another way to treat brain cancer. Combining gabapentin with other conventional therapies could complement existing treatments, helping mitigate cognitive decline and potentially improving survival. We are now exploring new ways to take advantage of this drug’s potential to halt tumor growth. Our goal is to ultimately translate the findings of our study to clinical trials in people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shawn Hervey-Jumper receives funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute Neurological and Stroke Disorders (NINDS), Robert wood Johnson Foundation, OligoNation, LoGlio.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saritha Krishna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer, causing significant decline in cognitive function. New research suggests a common anti-seizure drug could help control tumor growth.Saritha Krishna, Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurological Surgery, University of California, San FranciscoShawn Hervey-Jumper, Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042592023-04-26T15:12:44Z2023-04-26T15:12:44ZCognitive flexibility is essential to navigating a changing world – new research in mice shows how your brain learns new rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522864/original/file-20230425-26-ozwsdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A class of inhibitory neurons can make long-distance connections across both hemispheres of the brain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brain-shape-labyrinth-with-staircase-royalty-free-image/1384468191">akinbostanci/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being flexible and learning to adapt when the world changes is something you practice every day. Whether you run into a new construction site and have to reroute your commute or download a new streaming app and have to relearn how to find your favorite show, changing familiar behaviors in response to new situations is an essential skill.</p>
<p>To make these adaptations, your brain changes its activity patterns within a structure called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167">prefrontal cortex</a> – an area of the brain critical for cognitive functions such as attention, planning and decision-making. But which specific circuits “tell” the prefrontal cortex to update its activity patterns in order to change behavior have been unknown. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i47_jiCsBMs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The prefrontal cortex of the brain is involved in executive functions like self-control and decision-making.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a-dRpwgAAAAJ&hl=en">team of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EYE8lYIAAAAJ&hl=en">neuroscientists</a> who study how the brain processes information and what happens when this function is impaired. In our newly published research, we discovered a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06012-9">special class of neurons</a> in the prefrontal cortex that may enable flexible behavior and, when they malfunction, may lead to conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.</p>
<h2>Inhibitory neurons and learning new rules</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.brainfacts.org/brain-anatomy-and-function/cells-and-circuits/2021/how-inhibitory-neurons-shape-the-brains-code-100621">Inhibitory neurons</a> dampen the activity of other neurons in the brain. Researchers have traditionally assumed they send their electrical and chemical outputs only to nearby neurons. However, we found a particular class of inhibitory neurons in the prefrontal cortex that communicate across long distances to neurons in the opposite hemisphere of the brain.</p>
<p>We wondered whether these long-range inhibitory connections are involved in coordinating changes in activity patterns across the left and right prefrontal cortex. By doing so, they might provide the critical signals that help you change your behavior at the right moment.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of an interneuron" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522868/original/file-20230425-22-cg77ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interneurons connect other neurons together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/G2ScFK">NICHD/McBain Laboratory via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To test the function of these long-range inhibitory connections, we observed mice performing a task that required them to learn a rule to receive a reward and then later adapt to a new rule in order to continue receiving the reward. In this task, mice dug in bowls to find hidden food. Initially, the smell of garlic or the presence of sand within a bowl might indicate the location of the hidden food. The specific cue associated with the reward would later change, forcing the mice to learn a new rule. </p>
<p>We found that silencing the long-range inhibitory connections between the left and right prefrontal cortex <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06012-9">caused the mice to get stuck</a>, or perseverate, on one rule and prevented them from learning new ones. They were unable to change gears and learn that the old cue was now meaningless and the new cue signaled food.</p>
<h2>Brain waves and flexible behavior</h2>
<p>We also made surprising discoveries about how these long-range inhibitory connections create behavioral flexibility. Specifically, they synchronize a set of “brain waves” called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0990-16.2016">gamma oscillations</a> across the two hemispheres. Gamma oscillations are rhythmic fluctuations in brain activity that occur roughly 40 times per second. These fluctuations can be detected during many cognitive functions, such as when performing a task that requires holding information in your memory or making different movements based on what you see on a computer screen. </p>
<p>Though scientists have observed the presence of gamma oscillations for many decades, their function has been controversial. Many researchers think that the synchronization of these rhythmic fluctuations across different brain regions doesn’t serve any useful purpose. Others have speculated that synchronization across different brain regions enhances communication between those regions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gvpuOBezW0w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Fluctuations in neural activity manifest as brain waves, or neural oscillations.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found a completely different potential role for gamma synchrony. When long-range inhibitory connections synchronize gamma oscillations across the left and right prefrontal cortex, they seem to also <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06012-9">gate communication between them</a>. When mice learn to disregard a previously established rule that no longer leads to a reward, these connections synchronize gamma oscillations and seem to stop one hemisphere from maintaining unneeded activity patterns in the other. In other words, long-range inhibitory connections seem to stop input from one hemisphere from “getting in the way” of the other when it is trying to learn something new. </p>
<p>For example, the left prefrontal cortex can “remind” the right prefrontal cortex about your usual route to work. But when long-range inhibitory connections synchronize these two areas, they also seem to shut off these reminders and enable new patterns of brain activity corresponding to your new commute to take hold.</p>
<p>Finally, these long-range inhibitory connections also <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06012-9">trigger long-lasting effects</a>. Shutting off these connections just once caused mice to have trouble learning new rules several days later. Conversely, rhythmically stimulating these connections to artificially synchronize gamma oscillations can reverse these deficits and restore normal learning.</p>
<h2>Cognitive flexibility and schizophrenia</h2>
<p>Long-range inhibitory connections play an important role in cognitive flexibility. The inability to appropriately update previously learned rules is one <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16965182/">hallmark form of cognitive impairment</a> in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. </p>
<p>Research has also seen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0990-16.2016">deficiencies in gamma synchronization</a> and abnormalities in a class of prefrontal inhibitory neurons, which includes the ones we studied, in people with schizophrenia. In this context, our study suggests that treatments that target these long-range inhibitory connections may help improve cognition in people with schizophrenia by synchronizing gamma oscillations.</p>
<p>Many details of how these connections affect brain circuits remain unknown. For example, we do not know exactly which cells within the prefrontal cortex receive input from these long-range inhibitory connections and change their activity patterns to learn new rules. We also do not know whether there are specific molecular pathways that produce the long-lasting changes in neural activity. Answering these questions could reveal how the brain flexibly switches between maintaining and updating old information and potentially lead to new treatments for schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vikaas Sohal receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, the UCSF Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders, and the Bay Area Psychedelic Research consortium.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Cho receives funding from the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF). </span></em></p>Learning new rules requires the suppression of old ones. A better understanding of the brain circuits involved in behavioral adaptation could lead to new ways to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.Vikaas Sohal, Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San FranciscoKathleen Cho, Principal Investigator in Neuroscience, InsermLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011492023-03-29T12:28:19Z2023-03-29T12:28:19ZBrains also have supply chain issues – blood flows where it can, and neurons must make do with what they get<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516713/original/file-20230321-20-at1818.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1921%2C1561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blood carries oxygen and vital nutrients to the brain.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cerebral-angiography-image-from-fluoroscopy-in-royalty-free-image/1473413961">Mr. Suphachai Praserdumrongchai/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">Neuroscientists have long assumed</a> that neurons are greedy, hungry units that demand more energy when they become more active, and the circulatory system complies by providing as much blood as they require to fuel their activity. Indeed, as neuronal activity increases in response to a task, blood flow to that part of the brain increases even more than its rate of energy use, leading to a surplus. This increase is the basis of common <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">functional imaging technology</a> that generates colored maps of brain activity.</p>
<p>Scientists used to interpret this apparent mismatch in blood flow and energy demand as evidence that there is no shortage of blood supply to the brain. The idea of a nonlimited supply was based on the observation that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fjcbfm.2013.181">only about 40% of the oxygen</a> delivered to each part of the brain is used – and this percentage actually drops as parts of the brain become more active. It seemed to make evolutionary sense: The brain would have evolved this faster-than-needed increase in blood flow as a safety feature that guarantees sufficient oxygen delivery at all times.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B10pc0Kizsc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Functional magnetic resonance imaging is one of several ways to measure the brain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does blood distribution in the brain actually support a demand-based system? <a href="https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=cldyZo8AAAAJ&hl=en">As a neuroscientist myself</a>, I had previously examined a number of other assumptions about the most basic facts about brains and found that they didn’t pan out. To name a few: Human brains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21974">don’t have 100 billion neurons</a>, though they do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2014.00046">have the most cortical neurons</a> of any species; the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa9101">degree of folding of the cerebral cortex</a> does not indicate how many neurons are present; and it’s not larger animals that live longer, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24564">those with more neurons in their cortex</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that figuring out what determines blood supply to the brain is essential to understanding how brains work in health and disease. It’s like how cities need to figure out whether the current electrical grid will be enough to support a future population increase. Brains, like cities, only work if they have enough energy supplied.</p>
<h2>Resources as highways or rivers</h2>
<p>But how could I test whether blood flow to the brain is truly demand-based? My freezers were stocked with preserved, dead brains. How do you study energy use in a brain that is not using energy anymore?</p>
<p>Luckily, the brain leaves behind evidence of its energy use through the pattern of the vessels that distribute blood throughout it. I figured I could look at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">density of capillaries</a> – the thin, one-cell-wide vessels that transfer gases, glucose and metabolites between brain and blood. These capillary networks would be preserved in the brains in my freezers.</p>
<p>A demand-based brain should be comparable to a road system. If arteries and veins are the major highways that carry goods to the town of specific parts of the brain, capillaries are akin to the neighborhood streets that actually deliver goods to their final users: individual neurons and the cells that work with them. Streets and highways are built on demand, and a road map shows what a demand-based system looks like: Roads are often concentrated in parts of the country where there are more people – the energy-guzzling units of society.</p>
<p>In contrast, a supply-limited brain should look like the river beds of a country, which couldn’t care less about where people are located. Water will flow where it can, and cities just have to adjust and make do with what they can get. Chances are, cities will form in the vicinity of the main arteries – but absent major, purposeful remodeling, their growth and activities are limited by how much water is available.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of astrocytes contacting a capillary" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image shows astrocytes, a type of brain cell, contacting a ravinelike capillary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/astrocyte-in-the-brain-touching-a-capillary-250x-royalty-free-image/152883277">Ed Reschke/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Would I find that capillaries are concentrated in parts of the brain with more neurons and supposedly require more energy, like streets and highways built in a demand-based manner? Or would I find that they are more like creeks and streams that permeate the land where they can, oblivious to where the most people are, in a supply-driven manner?</p>
<p>What I found was clear evidence for the latter. For <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">both mice</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">and rats</a>, capillary density makes up a meager 2% to 4% of brain volume, regardless of how many neurons or synapses are present. Blood flows in the brain like water down rivers: where it can, not where it is needed.</p>
<p>If blood flows regardless of need, this implies that the brain actually uses blood as it is supplied. We found that the tiny variations in capillary density across different parts of dead rat brains matched perfectly with the rates of blood flow and energy use in the same parts of other living rat brains that researchers measured 15 years prior. </p>
<h2>Resolving blood flow and energy demand</h2>
<p>Could the specific density of capillaries in each part of the brain be so limiting that it dictates how much energy that part uses? And would that apply to the brain as a whole?</p>
<p>I partnered with my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=18-0e2EAAAAJ&hl=en">Doug Rothman</a> to answer these questions. Together, we discovered that not only do both human and rat brains do what they can with what blood they get and typically work at about 85% capacity, but overall brain activity is indeed <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">dictated by capillary density</a>, all else being equal. </p>
<p>The reason why only 40% of the oxygen supplied to the brain actually gets used is because this is the maximum amount that can be exchanged as blood flows by – like workers trying to pick up items on an assembly line going too fast. Local arteries can deliver more blood to neurons if they start using slightly more oxygen, but this comes at the cost of diverting blood away from other parts of the brain. Since gas exchange was already near full capacity to begin with, the fraction of oxygen extraction seems to even drop with a slight increase in delivery.</p>
<p>From afar, energy use in the brain may look demand-based – but it really is supply-limited.</p>
<h2>Blood supply influences brain activity</h2>
<p>So why does any of this matter?</p>
<p>Our findings offer a possible explanation for why the brain can’t truly multitask – only quickly alternate between focuses. Because blood flow to the entire brain is tightly regulated and remains essentially constant throughout the day as you alternate between activities, our research suggests that any part of the brain that experiences an increase in activity – because you start doing math or playing a song, for example – can only get slightly more blood flow at the expense of diverting blood flow from other parts of the brain. Thus, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183614">inability to do two things at the same time</a> might have its origins in blood flow to the brain being supply-limited, not demand-based. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="MRI brain scan images" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A better understanding of how the brain works could offer insights into human behavior and disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brain-scan-close-up-royalty-free-image/sb10069835m-001">Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our findings also offer insight into aging. If neurons must make do with what energy they can get from a mostly constant blood supply, then the parts of the brain with the highest densities of neurons will be the first to be affected when there is a shortage – just like the largest cities feel the pain of a drought before smaller ones. </p>
<p>In the cortex, the parts with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">highest neuron densities</a> are the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These areas are involved in short-term memory and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1212%2F01.wnl.0000106462.72282.90">first to suffer in aging</a>. More research is needed to test whether the parts of the brain most vulnerable to aging and disease are the ones with the greatest number of neurons packed together and competing for a limited blood supply. </p>
<p>If it’s true that capillaries, like neurons, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.010">last a lifetime</a> in humans as they do in lab mice, then they may play a bigger role in brain health than expected. To make sure your brain neurons remain healthy in old age, taking care of the capillaries that keep them supplied with blood may be a good bet. The good news is that there are two proven ways to do this: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archneurol.2011.548">healthy diet</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103046">exercise</a>, which are never too late to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzana Herculano-Houzel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Neuroscientists have typically thought of energy supply to the brain as demand-based. A supply-limited view offers another perspective toward aging and why multitasking can be difficult.Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1722802022-02-01T13:14:03Z2022-02-01T13:14:03ZSeizures can cause memory loss, and brain-mapping research suggests one reason why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443023/original/file-20220127-4399-lt0flk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1732%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In addition to memory loss, seizures can result in a complete loss of consciousness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/digital-artwork-of-human-mental-energy-royalty-free-illustration/1283557418">pressureUA/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2017.11.015">Epilepsy</a> is a disease marked by recurrent seizures, or sudden periods of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. <a href="https://www.epilepsy.com/make-difference/public-awareness/1-26#">One in 26 people</a> in the U.S. will develop epilepsy at some point in their life. While people with mild seizures might experience a brief loss of awareness and muscle twitches, more severe seizures could last for several minutes and lead to injury from falling down and losing control of their limbs. </p>
<p>Many people with epilepsy also experience memory problems. Patients often experience retrograde amnesia, where they cannot remember what happened immediately before their seizure. Electroconvulsive therapy, a form of treatment for major depression that intentionally triggers small seizures, can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.02.026">cause retrograde amnesia</a>. </p>
<p>So why do seizures often cause memory loss?</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bjrXv58AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">neurology</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nMb-pTcAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> who study the mechanisms behind how seizures affect the brain. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101984">brain-mapping study</a> found that seizures affect the same circuits of the brain responsible for memory formation.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">One of the earliest descriptions of seizures was written on a Babylonian tablet over 3,000 years ago.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why do seizures cause memory loss?</h2>
<p>Seizures can be caused by a number of factors, ranging from <a href="https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-due-specific-causes/structural-causes-epilepsy">abnormalities in brain structure</a> and <a href="https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-due-specific-causes/genetic-causes-epilepsy">genetic mutations</a> to <a href="http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/connections-between-infections-seizures">infections</a> and <a href="https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/11979/autoimmune-encephalitis">autoimmune conditions</a>. Often, the root cause of a seizure <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2Fjfmpc.jfmpc_322_16">isn’t known</a>.</p>
<p>The most common type of epilepsy involves seizures that originate in the brain region located behind the ears, the <a href="https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1184509-overview">temporal lobe</a>. Some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy experience retrograde amnesia and are unable to recall events immediately before their seizure. </p>
<p>This may be because these seizures affect the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-0082(91)90011-O">hippocampus</a>, a region in the temporal lobe important for memory storage and processing. During sleep, the hippocampus transmits new information learned during the day to another part of the brain called the cerebral cortex in order to consolidate it into new memories. This process occurs through many brain pathways connecting the hippocampus to the cortex. </p>
<p>With this in mind, our research group wondered if the electrical signals of seizures might also follow the same routes the brain uses for memory consolidation instead of creating their own separate path. We reasoned that disruption of this pathway might cause memory loss.</p>
<p>To figure this out, we trained mice to navigate a T-shaped maze to find a reward of sweetened condensed milk. The mice had to learn how to alternate between the left and the right arm of maze in a specific pattern to be given milk. When the mice were able to obtain the milk 80% of the time, we determined that the mice had successfully consolidated their memory of how to navigate the maze.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">T mazes are used to assess spatial learning and memory.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fifteen minutes after the mice successfully learned how to navigate the maze, we injected them with a drug that causes seizures. The day following the seizure, we found that the mice performed poorly on the maze, as though they hadn’t learned how to navigate it in the first place. This confirmed that a single seizure was enough for the mice to forget what they learned just before the seizure. </p>
<p>Our next step was to figure out why seizures caused the mice to forget what they learned. To identify which parts of the brain were active during the learning process and during seizures, we used genetically engineered mice whose neurons produce a red protein when activated. We mapped the neurons of these mice as they were learning how to navigate the maze and during the induced seizures. In analyzing these maps, we found that learning and seizures activated the same brain circuits in the hippocampus and cortex. Because they use the same brain pathways, seizures can disrupt the memory consolidation process by taking over the circuit. This meant that seizures can hijack the memory pathways and cause amnesia.</p>
<p>Because memory is networked throughout the brain, memory impairments might not necessarily stem just from interference in the hippocampus alone. Future studies on other brain regions will further clarify how seizures cause memory loss.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaideep Kapur receives funding from the NIH and the University of Virginia. He is the chair of the International League against Epilepsy North America, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Epilepsy Society, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the CURE Epilepsy Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Brodovskaya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people with epilepsy are unable to remember what happened immediately before they have a seizure. This may be because seizures and memory use the same pathways of the brain.Anastasia Brodovskaya, Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurology, University of VirginiaJaideep Kapur, Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1742222022-01-26T19:58:40Z2022-01-26T19:58:40ZConcussion management is changing as more research suggests exercise is best approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442339/original/file-20220124-27-rrhb4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=208%2C6%2C3525%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Concussion patients were once prescribed rest in a dark room, but in recent years concussion management has literally come out of the dark.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/concussion-management-is-changing-as-more-research-suggests-exercise-is-best-approach" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000801820.38637.38">Public interest in concussion has exploded over the space of a generation</a>, together with a new understanding of how best to help patients recover. Concussion patients were once prescribed rest in a dark room, but in recent years concussion management has literally come out of the dark.</p>
<p>This is in large part because of a research boom: the number of studies on this mild form of traumatic brain injury has <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=concussion&timeline=expanded">multiplied by 15 times over the last 20 years</a>. This spike is a sign that the relatively young field of concussion research is maturing into a deeper science. It has created new evidence to support an entirely new approach to treating concussion. A recent wave of research papers has turned old practices on their heads.</p>
<h2>Past approach: A dark room</h2>
<p>For many years, concussion management followed a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2018.0006">rest-is-best</a> approach.</p>
<p>Under this passive approach, patients were advised to avoid cognitive and physical activity until their symptoms naturally resolved, leading to the notion that a dark room was the best environment for recovery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two soccer players colliding while trying to head a ball" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=182%2C0%2C3771%2C2795&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442147/original/file-20220124-27-15ph81j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of research papers on concussion management has increased greatly over the last 20 years, leading to new approaches to treatment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The problem was that there was scant evidence to support the dark-room method.</p>
<p>The motivation for using rest as a concussion-management strategy was a desire to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3928/00904481-20120827-12">limit exposure to environments and activities that might lead to secondary concussions</a>, which can have compounding, longer-lasting effects. Avoiding secondary injury was prioritized over proactive recovery.</p>
<p>But we are now in the midst of a transformation in concussion management.</p>
<h2>Exercise is medicine</h2>
<p>In the past few years, scientists have started to study aerobic exercise (or cardio training) as a management strategy for concussion symptoms. This <a href="http://doi.org/10.1249/JSR.0000000000000505">exercise-is-medicine</a> approach is diametrically opposed to the rest-is-best status quo.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002663">Many studies</a> have examined the effects of sub-maximal (low-to-moderate intensity) aerobic exercise on concussion symptoms. This research confirms the utility and safety of such exercise for managing concussion symptoms, which vary between individuals, but they are typically categorized as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2017-097699">somatic (or physical), cognitive, emotional and sleep-related</a>. They can be assessed using adult- and child-specific symptom scales.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man running on a treadmill while another man wearing a lanyard observes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442573/original/file-20220125-19-11lqfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prescribing exercise in concussion typically involves a baseline test.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002663">An academic review</a> that summarizes the findings of individual studies shows that exercise is indeed one of the most effective, evidence-informed strategies for managing concussion symptoms. Beyond a brief period (24 to 48 hours) of rest after concussion, the science now suggests that exercise is more beneficial than rest.</p>
<p>Prescribing exercise in concussion typically involves a baseline test. The most widely studied tests require patients either to walk on a treadmill with the incline gradually increasing throughout the test or cycle on a stationary bicycle against progressively increasing resistance. </p>
<p>Patients exercise under supervision until they experience an increase in symptoms (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000000431">which research shows is transient and not associated with poor long-term outcome</a>) or are unable to continue exercising. The heart rate at the point where the test is terminated is noted, and patients are then prescribed an exercise program involving five to six days of aerobic exercise at an intensity equivalent to 80 per cent of the maximum heart rate achieved during the test.</p>
<h2>Ongoing research</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man sitting on grass with his eyes closed and his fingertips on his temples" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442160/original/file-20220124-13-dseuqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The motivation for using rest as a concussion-management strategy was a desire to limit exposure to environments and activities that might lead to secondary concussions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Kindel Media)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a next step, scientists are hard at work trying to determine the exact mechanism by which such sub-maximal exercise improves concussion symptoms. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/NRE-172298">A leading hypothesis</a> is that the autonomic nervous system (which regulates involuntary physiological processes, such as heart rate and breathing) is disturbed following a concussion, with its two constituent sub-systems becoming “uncoupled.”</p>
<p>Sub-maximal aerobic exercise is thought to engage the autonomic nervous system in a way that helps restore balance to this critical command centre. Simply put, it looks like exercise can safely and effectively generate the biological change required to overcome the symptoms of concussion.</p>
<p>More research is needed to build on this growing base of exercise-concussion knowledge. We need to understand how different frequencies, intensities, times and types of exercise can lessen symptom burden.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Illustration of a brain on a purple and blue background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442165/original/file-20220124-21-1wbjqdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers need to know how exercise impacts brain function in concussion as.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash/Fakurian Design)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other research, including my ongoing work at McMaster University, aims to develop understanding of the effects of exercise by studying its impacts not only on symptoms, but also on brain activity. We need to know how exercise impacts brain function in concussion as, after all, concussions are brain injuries.</p>
<p>This shift in concussion management may mean better care will become available for patients. It is also a story about the power of bold science, the type of science which questions accepted wisdom and rebuilds first principles using evidence.</p>
<p>Challenging norms by changing perspective can lead to new approaches and better outcomes. Sometimes, as in the case with concussion, the game needs to be changed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhanu Sharma receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. </span></em></p>For many years, concussion treatment followed a rest-is-best approach. But research now suggests that low-to-moderate intensity exercise is a safe and useful approach to managing concussion symptoms.Bhanu Sharma, Post Doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1555282021-03-17T12:14:27Z2021-03-17T12:14:27ZSelfish or selfless? Human nature means you’re both<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389862/original/file-20210316-22-nwmjbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C118%2C3362%2C2166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even young children are very aware of whether they're getting their fair share.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/24028496-royalty-free-image/87803233">Jupiterimages/PHOTOS.com via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Looking out for number one has been important for survival for as long as there have been human beings.</p>
<p>But self-interest isn’t the only trait that helped people win at evolution. Groups of individuals who were predisposed to cooperate, care for each other and uphold social norms of fairness tended to survive and expand relative to other groups, thereby allowing these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.12.009">prosocial motivations to proliferate</a>.</p>
<p>So today, concern for oneself and concern for others both contribute to our sense of fairness. Together they facilitate cooperation among unrelated individuals, something ubiquitous among people but uncommon in nature.</p>
<p>A critical question is how people balance these two motivations when making decisions. </p>
<p>We investigate this question in our work at the <a href="https://voices.uchicago.edu/scnl/">Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory</a> at the University of Chicago, combining behavioral economics tasks with neuroimaging methods that let us watch what’s happening in the brains of adults and children. We’ve found evidence that people care about both themselves and others – but it’s the self that takes precedence.</p>
<h2>Learning to be equitable</h2>
<p>Children are sensitive to fairness from a very early age.</p>
<p>For instance, if you give two siblings different numbers of cookies, the one who receives fewer will likely throw a fit. Very young children, between 3 and 6 years of age, are highly sensitive to concerns about equality. Splitting resources is “fair” if everyone gets the same amount. By 6 years old, <a href="https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0025907">children will even throw resources away</a> rather than allocate them unequally.</p>
<p>As they grow, children develop abilities to <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-understand-far-more-about-other-minds-than-long-believed-72711">think about the minds of others</a> and care about social norms. Soon, they begin to understand the principle of “equity” – a “fair” distribution can be unequal if it takes into account people’s need, effort or merit. For instance, a sibling who does more chores may be entitled to more cookies. This shift toward equity appears to be universal in humans and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12729">follows similar patterns across cultures</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, it <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/do-kids-have-a-fundamental-sense-of-fairness/">takes several years of development</a> before children’s own behavior catches up with their understanding of fairness – for instance, by opting to share resources more equally rather than prioritizing their own payoffs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Child wearing a EEG cap" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389861/original/file-20210316-19-jyqb6d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers fitted children with EEG caps to monitor their brains’ electrical activity as they watched an adult distribute treats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Decety/University of Chicago</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To investigate how children’s developing brains guide their understanding of fairness, we invited kids ranging from age 4 to 8 into our lab. We gave them four candies to divide between two other people. After they decided how many (if any) to share, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000813">we measured their brain activity</a> using <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/brain-imaging-techniques/">noninvasive electroencephalography</a> while they watched an adult split 10 rewards – like candies, coins or stickers – between two other people. The distributions could be fair (5:5), slightly unfair (7:3) or very unfair (10:0).</p>
<p>At first, kids’ brain activity looked the same whether they were observing a slightly unfair or very unfair distribution of the treats. After 400 milliseconds, the brain electrical activity for kids who saw the slightly unfair 7:3 split changed to look like the brain response of kids who saw the completely fair 5:5 division.</p>
<p>Our interpretation is that the young brains used that short lag time to consider why an adult might have handed out the treats in a slightly unfair way and then resolved that it may actually have been fair.</p>
<p>Further, children whose brain activity patterns were the most different when viewing fair versus unfair distributions were the most likely to have used merit and need when they originally divided up their candies, before they watched the adults.</p>
<p>So the EEG recordings indicate that even 4-year-old children expect distributions to be perfectly equal, which makes sense given their natural preference for equality. When children, especially after age 5, watch an adult make a completely unfair distribution, they work to try to understand why this might be the case.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman with fruit spilling out of ripped grocery bags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389864/original/file-20210316-21-1yybp28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How do you prioritize assisting someone else if it would come at a cost to yourself, like missing your bus to help pick up spilled items?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-dropping-groceries-on-sidewalk-royalty-free-image/90201027">Chris Ryan/OJO Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Me first, then you</h2>
<p>In your everyday adult life, you face decisions that affect not just yourself, but other people around you. Do you help a stranger pick up their spilled bag and miss your bus? Do you take the big piece of cake and leave the small one for the coworker who is coming later?</p>
<p>Put more generally, how do people balance self-interest against fairness for others when those motivations conflict?</p>
<p>To answer this question, we invited participants to play an economic game. In each round, an anonymous proposer would split US$12 among themselves, the participant and another player. The participant could decide to accept the distribution, allowing all three players to keep the money, or reject the distribution, meaning no one got anything. While participants made their decision, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107576">we measured their neural activity</a> using EEG and fMRI. <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/health/health-sciences/how-fmri-works">Functional magnetic resonance imaging</a> reveals active areas of the brain by mapping blood flow.</p>
<p>The proposer was actually a computer that let us manipulate the fairness of the offers. We found that both fairness for self and fairness for the other were important for participants’ decisions, but people were more willing to tolerate offers which were unfair to others if they themselves received an unfair offer. </p>
<p>Our design also allowed us to ask whether the same regions of the brain are sensitive to self-interest and concern for other. A popular concept in cognitive science is that we are able to understand other people because we use the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2003.10.004">same parts of our brain to understand our self</a>. The idea is that the brain activates and manages these shared representations depending on the task at hand.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="brain with different areas highlighted for 'self' and 'others'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389628/original/file-20210315-17-5xu54c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Regions of the brain that were sensitive to fairness for self (red) or other (blue) didn’t overlap in the study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Decety/University of Chicago</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in our studies, we found that rather than shared brain areas, distinct brain networks were involved in thinking about fairness for self and other.</p>
<p>We also used machine learning to test whether by looking at the brain signals we could predict what kind of offer a participant had received. We could reliably decode a signal in multiple brain networks that corresponded to fairness for self – that is, “did I get at least a third of the $12?” And this focus on self-interest dominated the early stages of decision-making.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="EEG depicts brain waves when thinking about self and other" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389630/original/file-20210315-19-epmnpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accuracy of the machine-learning algorithm trained to use EEG data to classify distributions as fair or unfair for the self or other. Darker lines are times when the algorithm was better than chance (50%). It was better at identifying a reliable pattern of brain activity for self fairness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Decety/University of Chicago</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall, these results suggest that people prioritize their own payoffs first and only later integrate how their options affect other people. So while people do care about others, self-interested behavior is alive and well, even in behavioral economics games. Once people get their fair share, then they are willing to be fair to others. You’re more likely to help the stranger with her bag if you know there will be another bus in 10 minutes, rather than an hour.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Investigating more complicated scenarios</h2>
<p>In daily life, people are rarely just responders, like in the game in our lab. We are interested in what happens when a person must make decisions that involve other people, such as delegating responsibilities among team members, or when an individual has limited power to personally affect the way resources are divided, as in government spending.</p>
<p>One implication from our work is that when people want to reach a compromise, it may be important to ensure that no one feels taken advantage of. Human nature seems to be to make sure you’ve taken care of yourself before you consider the needs of others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cognitive neuroscientists use brain imaging and behavioral economic games to investigate people’s sense of fairness. They find it’s common to take care of yourself before looking out for others.Keith Yoder, Postdoctoral Scholar in Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of ChicagoJean Decety, Professor of Psychology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1248912019-10-22T18:58:07Z2019-10-22T18:58:07ZYour brain approaches tricky tasks in a surprisingly simple way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298045/original/file-20191022-28100-1p7sz04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C110%2C6699%2C4134&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It gets easier with practice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Duntrune Studios/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever sat down to complete your morning crossword or Sudoku and wondered about what’s happening in your brain? Somewhere in the activity of the billions of neurons in your brain lies the code that lets you remember a key word, or apply the logic required to complete the puzzle. </p>
<p>Given the brain’s intricacy, you might assume that these patterns are incredibly complex and unique to each task. But <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-018-0312-0">recent research</a> suggests things are actually more straightforward than that.</p>
<p>It turns out that many structures in your brain work together in precise ways to coordinate their activity, shaping their actions to the requirements of whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve. </p>
<p>We call these coordinated patterns the “low-dimensional manifold”, which you can think of as analogous to the major roadways that you use to commute to and from work. The majority of the traffic flows along these major highways, which represent an efficient and effective way to get from A to B. </p>
<p>We have found evidence that most brain activity follows these types of patterns. In very simple terms, this saves your brain from needing to work everything out from scratch when performing a task. If someone throws you a ball, for instance, the low-dimensional manifold allows your brain to swiftly coordinate the muscle movements needed to catch the ball, rather than your brain needing to learn how to catch a ball afresh each time.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-brain-prepares-for-movement-and-actions-111674">How the brain prepares for movement and actions</a>
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<p>In a study <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(19)30775-5">published today in the journal Neuron</a>, my colleagues and I investigated these patterns further. Specifically, we wanted to find out whether they play a role in shaping brain activity during really challenging cognitive tasks that require lots of concentration. </p>
<p>We scanned people’s brains with high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_square">Latin squares task</a>, which is similar to a Sudoku puzzle but uses shapes instead of numbers. Anyone who has played Sudoku before their morning coffee knows how much focus and concentration is required to solve it. </p>
<p>The idea behind the Latin squares task is to identify the missing shape in a particular location in a grid, given that each shape can only show up once in each row and column. We created three different levels of difficulty, defined by how many different rows and columns needed to be inspected to arrive at the correct answer. </p>
<h2>Directing traffic</h2>
<p>Our prediction was that performing the more difficult versions of the task would lead to a reconfiguration of the low-dimensional manifold. To return to the highway analogy, a tricky task might pull some brain activity off the highway and onto the back streets to help get around the congestion.</p>
<p>Our results confirmed our predictions. More difficult trials showed different patterns of brain activation to easy ones, as if the brain’s traffic was being rerouted along different roads. The trickier the task, the more the patterns changed. </p>
<p>What’s more, we also found a link between these changed brain activation patterns and the increased likelihood of making a mistake on the harder version of the Latin Squares test. </p>
<p>In a way, attempting a difficult task is like trying out a new rat run on your morning commute – you might succeed, but in your haste and stress you might also be more likely to take a wrong turn.</p>
<p>Overall, these results suggests that our brain activity perhaps isn’t as complicated as we once thought. Most of the time, our brain is directing traffic along pretty well-established routes, and even when it needs to get creative it is still trying to send the traffic to the same ultimate destination.</p>
<p>This leaves us with an important question: how does the brain achieve this level of coordination? </p>
<p>One possibility is that this function is fulfilled by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/thalamus">thalamus</a>, a structure that lies deep in the brain but is connected to almost the entire rest of the brain. </p>
<p>Importantly, the circuitry of the thalamus is such that it can act as a filter for ongoing activity in the cerebral cortex, the brain’s main information processing centre, and therefore could exert the kind of influence we were looking for.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298044/original/file-20191022-28112-nv7utl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Positions of the thalamus and the cerebral cortex within the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pikovit/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Patterns of activity in the thalamus are hard to decipher in traditional neuroimaging experiments. But fortunately, the <a href="https://cai.centre.uq.edu.au/facilities/human-imaging/7t-magnetom">high-resolution MRI scanner used in our study</a> collected by my colleagues Luca Cocchi and Luke Hearne allowed us to observe them in detail.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/neuroscience-in-pictures-the-best-images-of-the-year-89077">Neuroscience in pictures: the best images of the year</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Sure enough, we saw a clear link between activity in the thalamus and the flow of activity in the low-dimensional manifold. This suggests that when performing particular tasks, the thalamus helps to shape and constrain the activity in the cortex, a bit like a police officer directing busy traffic. </p>
<p>So next time you sit down to play Sudoku, spare a thought for your thalamus, and the low-dimensional manifold that it helps to create. Together, they’re shaping the brain activity that will ultimately help you solve the puzzle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Shine receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. He is affiliated with The University of Sydney and the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping Australia.</span></em></p>Despite its huge complexity, your brain directs its neural traffic in relatively straightforward ways when approaching cognitively demanding tasks such as puzzles.James Shine, Robinson Fellow, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1210162019-09-11T12:17:15Z2019-09-11T12:17:15ZHow do brains tune in to one neural signal out of billions?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291591/original/file-20190909-109935-1d821fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=285%2C1%2C567%2C387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your brain is conducting multiple orchestras of information at the same time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://enlightenedaudio.com/categories/royalty-free-brainwave-entrainment-music">Enlighted Audio</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The human brain sends <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/mar/10-numbers-the-nervous-system">hundreds of billions of neural signals</a> each second. It’s an extraordinarily complex feat.</p>
<p>A healthy brain must establish an enormous number of correct connections and ensure that they remain accurate for the entire period of the information transfer – that can take seconds, which in “brain time” is pretty long.</p>
<p>How does each signal get to its intended destination?</p>
<p>The challenge for your brain is similar to what you’re faced with when trying to engage in conversation at a noisy cocktail party. You’re able to focus on the person you’re talking to and “mute” the other discussions. This phenomenon is selective hearing – what’s called the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120418135045.htm">cocktail party effect</a>.</p>
<p>When everyone at a large, crowded party talks at roughly the same loudness, the average sound level of the person you’re speaking with is about equal to the average level of all the other partygoers’ chatter combined. If it were a satellite TV system, this roughly equal balance of desired signal and background noise would result in poor reception. Nevertheless, this balance is good enough to let you understand conversation at a bustling party.</p>
<p>How does the human brain do it, distinguishing among billions of ongoing “conversations” within itself and locking on to a specific signal for delivery?</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7z-nA_kAAAAJ&hl=en">My team’s research</a> into the neurological networks of the brain shows there are two activities that support its ability to establish reliable connections in the presence of significant biological background noise. Although the brain’s mechanisms are quite complex, these two activities act as what an electrical engineer calls a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.042">matched filter</a> - a processing element used in high-performance radio systems, and now known to exist in nature.</p>
<h2>Neurons singing in harmony</h2>
<p>Let’s take a moment to focus on just one of the hundreds of billions of nerve fibers in the human brain, of which many are typically active at any given point in time. They’re all doing their part to carry out thought processes that allow humans to function successfully and interact meaningfully with each other – supporting abilities such as orientation, attention, memory, problem-solving and executive function.</p>
<p>My research team has developed a model that translates biological brain activity to the human audible range, so we <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg50wEHqpas">can hear the brain</a> at work. Here’s what a single nerve fiber transmitting its signal sounds like in an ideal, noise-free environment:</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="5" data-image="" data-title="A single nerve fiber's activity translated into the human audible range." data-size="121670" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided (no reuse)" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/1697/actionpotential.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
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<div class="audio-player-caption">
A single nerve fiber’s activity translated into the human audible range.
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided (no reuse)</span><span class="download"><span>119 KB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/1697/actionpotential.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<p>When this chosen nerve fiber transmits a signal to its target destination elsewhere in the brain, it’s up against the background noise caused by the activity of all the other active fibers. Here’s the sound of that same fiber now immersed in the brain’s cocktail party:</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="5" data-image="" data-title="A single nerve fiber's activity, against the background of everything else going on in the brain." data-size="121670" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided (no reuse)" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/1698/brainsignal.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
A single nerve fiber’s activity, against the background of everything else going on in the brain.
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided (no reuse)</span><span class="download"><span>119 KB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/1698/brainsignal.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<p>The background noise in the brain stimulates a small population of other nerve fibers around our chosen nerve fiber to <a href="https://abdn.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/understanding-synchronization-induced-by-common-noise">synchronize</a> and transmit roughly the same message. This synchronization reduces the effect of the noise and improves the clarity of the signal.</p>
<p>It does the job, but is not perfect. It’s similar to many voices singing in harmony. Each voice projects sound at its unique frequencies at each moment, with the sum total of the multitude of voices extending the frequency range of each individual voice. Think of a chorus filling a music hall with its song, as opposed to a soloist singing just one part. This strategy enriches the frequency content, raises the level of the transmitted signal and increases the quality of the reception.</p>
<p>Scientists describe this phenomenon as the emergence of a relationship, or coupling, between physically separated subsystems of nerve fibers. It creates a larger, dynamical system. The idea is not so different from the 350-year-old mystery, finally solved, of how <a href="https://www.livescience.com/51644-why-pendulum-clocks-sync-up.html">pendulum clocks</a> mounted on the same wall synchronize through small physical forces exerted on the supporting beam.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I believe that this same ability to “sync up” might lead to the discovery of noninvasive therapeutic treatments for neurological disorders such as <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7318854">multiple sclerosis</a>. This could be accomplished using a noninvasive neuromodulator device at the surface of the scalp to provide small, nonphysical custom electric field forces to the region of the brain <a href="https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS">affected by the disease</a>. By noninvasively altering the patient’s brain signals, these electric field forces would create a healthier neurological network environment for information transfer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291751/original/file-20190910-190021-1gunhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like the drums in a band, brainwaves help ‘keep the beat.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/MjIMc6uhwrE">Josh Sorenson/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Brains rolling the drums</h2>
<p>The second way brains cut through the signal clutter is what neuroscientists refer to as the delivery key. It’s the role played by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02391-6">brain’s natural rhythms</a>, popularly known as brainwaves.</p>
<p>These brain rhythms are created by nerve cells that fire in specific patterns, causing waves of electrical activity at certain very low frequencies, ranging from about 0.5 to 140 cycles per second. By comparison, smartphones operate at around 5,000,000,000 cycles per second. The waves that help to deliver a signal to a destination in the brain’s noisy environment appear to be either Alpha waves, 8 to 13 cycles per second, or Beta waves, 13 to 32 cycles per second.</p>
<p>In my lab, we refer to this second activity as like “rolling the drums.” The brainwave frequency is similar to that of the sub-bass or bass drum used to mark or keep time in military, rock, pop, jazz and traditional orchestra music.</p>
<p>These low-frequency rhythms act as a delivery key that is impressed on the transmitted signal as an additional frequency. It’s sort of like how <a href="https://www.orolia.com/resources/knowledge-center/gps-clock-synchronization">GPS signals</a> synchronize telecommunications networks. Say that the brainwave signal or delivery key is 10 cycles per second. The time duration of one cycle is a tenth of a second, so the delivery key gives a time marker at the reception point every tenth of a second.</p>
<p>This time marker is extremely helpful in the accurate reception of the transmitted signal. Crucially, this delivery key only opens, or activates, the lock at the intended reception point. The idea is not so different from the use of a password to gain access to specific content.</p>
<p>Neuroscientists believe that the choice of delivery key used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02391-6">depends on the state of the individual</a>. For example, Alpha waves are associated with wakeful rest with eyes closed. Beta waves are associated with normal wakeful consciousness and concentration.</p>
<p>Scientists suppose that associated with each delivery key, or brain rhythm, is a list of cognitive functions consistent with the individual’s state. So, for example, a signal sent with a 10 cycles per second Alpha wave brain rhythm impressed upon it already has information encoded in it about wakeful rest.</p>
<p>Brainwaves of electrical activity were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02391-6">identified almost 100 years ago</a>, and researchers are constantly learning more about them and their role in behavior and brain function.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291752/original/file-20190910-190016-l9s04c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To improve telecommunications systems, researchers can learn from how the brain does its work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/0C9VmZUqcT8">Mario Caruso/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modeling built systems on the brain</h2>
<p>My lab’s research into neurological networks has implications for not only understanding the human brain and developing noninvasive diagnostic procedures and therapeutic treatments for a variety of neurological dysfunctions, but also for designing improved systems for telecommunications, networking, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and robotics.</p>
<p>For example, the human brain demonstrates just how much more advanced telecommunications network system designs could be. <a href="https://theconversation.com/advanced-digital-networks-look-a-lot-like-the-human-nervous-system-108319">5G cellular networks</a> hope to serve about 1 million devices in a square mile. In contrast, the human brain can rapidly establish at least 1 million connections within a <a href="https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/case-studies/connections-in-the-brain/">cubic inch of brain tissue</a>.</p>
<p>Today’s telecommunications network system designs are constrained because they essentially draw from the principles of one discipline – electrical and computer engineering. Even the simplest circuits of the brain, the nerve fibers, which are like the links in a telecommunications network, operate in exceedingly complex ways according to combined principles of biology, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering.</p>
<p>Designing systems similar in capability to the human brain will require the much more multidisciplinary approach reflected in my research group – a team drawn from experts in medicine, life sciences, engineering and advanced materials – and <a href="https://www.scripps.edu/">research</a> <a href="https://mpfi.org/">partners</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Salvatore Domenic Morgera has received funding for research in networks from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, The Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et technologies, National Science Foundation, United States Special Operations Command, IBM, Harris Corporation, CMC Electronics, Motorola, Bell Canada, and other public and private agencies.</span></em></p>Like a cocktail partygoer able to focus on one discussion in a noisy room, brains are able to make reliable connections against a busy neural background. Here are two phenomena that help it happen.Salvatore Domenic Morgera, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1164512019-06-06T12:47:19Z2019-06-06T12:47:19ZSpiritual science: how a new perspective on consciousness could help us understand ourselves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278337/original/file-20190606-98017-jhzser.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/169130534?src=eO0MsQlDSQropEaoiXWDgA-1-26&studio=1&size=medium_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientists have long been trying to understand human consciousness – the subjective “stuff” of thoughts and sensations inside our minds. There used to be an assumption that consciousness is produced by our brains, and that in order to understand it, we just need to figure out how the brain works. </p>
<p>But this assumption raises questions. Apart from the fact that decades of research and theorising have <a href="https://highexistence.com/consciousness-spiritual-perspective/">not shed any significant light</a> on the issue, there are some strange mismatches between consciousness and brain activity. </p>
<p>For example, as the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190326-are-we-close-to-solving-the-puzzle-of-consciousness">neuroscientist Giulio Tononi</a> has pointed out, brain cells fire away almost as much in some states of unconsciousness (such as deep sleep) as they do in the wakeful conscious state. In some parts of the brain, you can identify neurons <a href="https://jsmf.org/meetings/2003/nov/consciousness_encyclopedia_2003.pdf">associated with conscious experience</a>, while other neurons don’t seem to have any affect on it. There are also cases of a very low level of brain activity (such as during some near death experiences and comas) when consciousness may not only continue, but even become more intense. </p>
<p>If you held a human brain in your hand, you would find it to be a soggy clump of grey matter, a bit like putty, weighing about 1.3kg. How is it possible that this grey soggy stuff can give rise to the richness and depth of your conscious experience? This is is known as the “<a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/hard-con/">hard problem</a>” of consciousness.</p>
<p>As a result, many eminent philosophers (such as <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/david-chalmers-thinks-the-hard-problem-is-really-hard/?redirect=1">David Chalmers</a> and <a href="https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.biography&personid=20156">Thomas Nagel</a>) and scientists like <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-consciousness-universal/">Christof Koch</a> and Tononi have rejected the idea that consciousness is directly produced by brain processes. They have turned to the alternative view that it is actually a fundamental quality of the universe. </p>
<p>This might sound far fetched, but think about the other “fundamentals” in the universe we take for granted, such as gravity and mass. Consciousness would have the same status as those. </p>
<h2>Fundamental explanations</h2>
<p>One of the reasons I’m in favour of this approach is that the idea of consciousness as a fundamental quality offers elegant solutions to many problems which are difficult to explain using the the standard scientific model. </p>
<p>First, it can explain the relationship between the brain and consciousness. The brain does not produce consciousness, but acts as a kind of receiver which “picks up” the fundamental consciousness that is all around us, and “transmits” it into our own being. </p>
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<p>Because the human brain is so sophisticated and complex, it is able to receive and transmit consciousness in a very intense and intricate way, so that we are (probably) more intensely and expansively conscious than most other animals. </p>
<p>One of the arguments for assuming that the brain produces consciousness is that, if the brain is damaged, consciousness is impaired or altered. However, this doesn’t invalidate the idea that the brain may be a receiver and transmitter of consciousness. A radio doesn’t produce the music that comes through it, but if it is damaged, its ability to transmit the music will be impaired. </p>
<p>The puzzle of altruism can also be explained. If, as <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Selfish-Gene-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0192860925">many scientists believe</a>, human beings are just genetic machines, only concerned with the survival and propagation of our genes, then altruism is difficult to account for. </p>
<p>It makes sense for us to be altruistic to people who are closely related to us genetically, but not so much to strangers, or to members of different species. In the latter cases, from the conventional point of view, there must be some benefit to us, even if we’re not aware of it. </p>
<p>Perhaps being kind makes us feel good about ourselves, impresses other people, or encourages people to be kind to us in return. </p>
<p>But these explanations seem unable to explain the full range and depth of human altruism. If we are fundamentally selfish, why should we be willing to risk our own lives for the sake of others? Altruism is often instantaneous and spontaneous, particularly in crisis situations, as if it is deeply instinctive.</p>
<p>From a “spiritual” perspective (which sees consciousness as fundamental), though, altruism is easy to explain. It is related to empathy. </p>
<p>Human shared fundamental consciousness means that it is possible for us to sense the suffering of others and to respond with altruistic acts. Since we share fundamental consciousness with other species, too, it is possible for us to feel empathy with – and to behave altruistically towards – them as well.</p>
<p>One of my main areas of interest as a psychologist is in what I call <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-31/september-2018/awakening">“awakening experiences”</a>, when human awareness intensifies and expands and we experience a sense of oneness with other human beings, nature or the world as a whole. </p>
<p>I see awakening experiences as encounters with fundamental consciousness, in which we sense its presence in everything around us, including our own selves. We experience a sense of oneness because oneness is the fundamental reality of things. </p>
<p>Conventional science also struggles to explain the powerful effect of mental intention and belief on the body (as illustrated by the placebo effect and the pain numbing effects of hypnosis). If the mind is just a byproduct of matter, it should not be able to influence the form and functioning of the body so profoundly.</p>
<p>That would be like saying that images on a computer screen can change the software or hardware inside the computer. But these effects are comprehensible if we presume that mind is more fundamental than the matter of the body, a more subtle and fuller expression of fundamental consciousness. As a result, it has the capacity to alter the functioning of the body. </p>
<p>I believe the idea of consciousness as a fundamental quality of the universe has a great deal of weight. As I point out in <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/spiritual-science/">my book Spiritual Science</a>, it may be that the best way to understand the world is not through science or spirituality alone – but through an approach which combines them both.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is everything about who we are contained within our brains?Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020592018-08-28T08:46:46Z2018-08-28T08:46:46ZThe hidden costs of a hangover<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233477/original/file-20180824-149490-1h5opai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you drink alcohol, it’s likely you’re familiar with some of the effects of a hangover. Headaches, nausea and fatigue are just some of the unpleasant but common experiences of the morning after the night before. But have you ever wondered how a hangover may influence your thoughts and behaviour?</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.14404/full">Our research</a> shows that hangovers may influence essential cognitive processes which are important for everyday living. We found evidence of impairments in memory (short and long term), the ability to sustain attention, and psychomotor skills. But performance in some kinds of thought processes – such as the ability to divide attention between tasks – did not show an overall decline following a night of heavy alcohol consumption.</p>
<p>The impairments caused by hangovers have implications for lots of us – from parents to health care professionals, teachers to business owners. When referring to memory, students are a good example of a group who need to retain information. With poorer memory during a hangover, you might think it wise for students to stay in the night before an exam. But we found that evidence comparing performance on a multiple choice test showed no difference between the scores of those who were hungover and those who weren’t. Having said that, the learning of this material was done while participants were sober, suggesting that retrieval of information is relatively unaffected. </p>
<p>By comparison, our review found that it could be the learning aspect of memory, rather than recall, that is impaired during a hangover. When studies asked participants to both learn and recall information while hungover, their memory was poorer. This could explain why exam performance is relatively unaffected – as the information was already learned. It also suggests it might be a good idea not to go out drinking the night before an important lecture, where material for the exam is learned.</p>
<p>Being able to concentrate on one task, or sustain attention, is vital in many circumstances. Anyone who needs to keep their wits about them and pay attention to a task may find this difficult while experiencing a hangover. Impairment of sustained attention following alcohol consumption may be due to fatigue – a major and common symptom of being hungover. Fatigue can influence our ability to maintain focus and lower our “mental resource”, making engaging in tasks more difficult.</p>
<p>Maintaining attention is an important aspect of driving. Of the 19 studies we reviewed, only three assessed driving ability. One looked at the speed at which people drove during a hangover and found no effect. But two studies found impairments in an individual’s ability to handle a vehicle during a hangover – and one of the studies compared the level of impairment when people are hungover to when people are under the influence of alcohol. They reported that hangover-related driving impairments are the equivalent of having a 0.05 – 0.08% blood alcohol concentration (BAC).</p>
<p>Drink driving limits for most European countries are 0.05% BAC and in the UK it is 0.08%. This means that hangover-related impairments in driving may be at the sort of level that is currently unacceptable by law during alcohol intoxication. Our finding of reduced psychomotor skills during hangover may also contribute to driving impairments experienced following an evening of heavy alcohol consumption. </p>
<h2>Delayed reactions</h2>
<p>Psychomotor skills involve the informational process related to movement, such as hand-eye co-ordination. When we combined all studies in our review that had investigated psychomotor skills we found that reaction times were reduced during a hangover. This could contribute to a delay in correcting the swerve of a vehicle, or reacting to other drivers.</p>
<p>Our review has highlighted brain activity fundamental to processing information are impaired in hangover. But what about “higher” thought processes such as decision making, inhibition, or being able to manage our moods?</p>
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<p>Here’s where there is a serious gap in the scientific literature. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/43/2/163/122637">Despite calls for more research</a> to examine a hangover’s impairment of higher thought processes involved in completing goals (“executive functions”) ten years ago, few studies have explored this area. </p>
<p>Understanding these processes could provide insight into why some people decide not to turn up to work with a hangover, or why <a href="https://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsa.1997.58.37">being hungover is associated</a> with increased conflict with supervisors and colleagues and poorer performance. </p>
<p>Hangovers are estimated to cost the UK economy almost £2 billion a year in absenteeism and lost productivity – so this is definitely something worth knowing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our brains work differently the morning after the night before.Craig Gunn, PhD Candidate, University of BathSally Adams, Lecturer in Health Psychology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830762017-12-09T21:44:10Z2017-12-09T21:44:10ZFor baby’s brain to benefit, read the right books at the right time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198399/original/file-20171209-27683-qnf9a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=935%2C40%2C5774%2C4215&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can you maximize reading's rewards for baby?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/baby-book-read-aloud-579664624">aijiro/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-1384">receive books at pediatric checkups</a> via <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-1207">programs like Reach Out and Read</a> and hear from a variety of health professionals and educators that reading to their kids is critical for supporting development. </p>
<p>The pro-reading message is getting through to parents, who recognize that it’s an important habit. A summary report by Child Trends, for instance, suggests <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/05_Reading_to_Young_Children.pdf">55 percent of three- to five-year-old children</a> were read to every day in 2007. According to the U.S. Department of Education, <a href="https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/edu1.asp">83 percent of three- to five-year-old children</a> were read to three or more times per week by a family member in 2012.</p>
<p>What this ever-present advice to read with infants doesn’t necessarily make clear, though, is that what’s on the pages may be just as important as the book-reading experience itself. Are all books created equal when it comes to early shared-book reading? Does it matter what you pick to read? And are the best books for babies different than the best books for toddlers? </p>
<p>In order to guide parents on how to create a high-quality book-reading experience for their infants, <a href="http://www.psych.ufl.edu/bcdlab/">my psychology research lab</a> has conducted a series of baby learning studies. One of our goals is to better understand the extent to which shared book reading is important for brain and behavioral development.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198357/original/file-20171208-27674-v4iqff.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even the littlest listeners can enjoy having a book read to them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maggie Villiger</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>What’s on baby’s bookshelf</h2>
<p>Researchers see clear <a href="http://www.reachoutandread.org/FileRepository/ReadingAloudtoChildren_ADC_July2008.pdf">benefits of shared book reading</a> for child development. Shared book reading with young children is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00911.x">good for language and cognitive development</a>, increasing vocabulary and pre-reading skills and honing conceptual development. </p>
<p>Shared book reading also likely enhances the <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/42878/1/924159134X.pdf">quality of the parent-infant relationship</a> by encouraging reciprocal interactions – the back-and-forth dance between parents and infants. Certainly not least of all, it gives infants and parents a consistent daily time to cuddle.</p>
<p>Recent research has found that <a href="http://www.aappublications.org/news/2017/05/04/PASLiteracy050417">both the quality and quantity</a> of shared book reading in infancy predicted later childhood vocabulary, reading skills and name writing ability. In other words, the more books parents read, and the more time they’d spent reading, the greater the developmental benefits in their 4-year-old children.</p>
<p>This important finding is one of the first to measure the benefit of shared book reading starting early in infancy. But there’s still more to figure out about whether some books might naturally lead to higher-quality interactions and increased learning.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198355/original/file-20171208-27674-1yr2mjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">EEG caps let researchers record infant volunteers’ brain activity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Lester</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Babies and books in the lab</h2>
<p>In our investigations, my colleagues and I followed infants across the second six months of life. We’ve found that when parents showed babies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02348.x">books with faces</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00019">objects</a> that were individually named, they learn more, generalize what they learn to new situations and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.02.008">show more specialized brain responses</a>. This is in contrast to books with no labels or books with the same generic label under each image in the book. Early learning in infancy was also associated with benefits <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12259/full">four years later in childhood</a>.</p>
<p>Our most recent addition to this series of studies was <a href="https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1560810&HistoricalAwards=false">funded by the National Science Foundation</a> and just <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13004">published in the journal Child Development</a>. Here’s what we did.</p>
<p>First, we brought six-month-old infants into our lab, where we could see how much attention they paid to story characters they’d never seen before. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure their brain responses. Infants wear a cap-like net of 128 sensors that let us record the electricity naturally emitted from the scalp as the brain works. We measured these neural responses while infants looked at and paid attention to pictures on a computer screen. These brain measurements can tell us about what infants know and whether they can tell the difference between the characters we show them.</p>
<p>We also tracked the infants’ gaze using eye-tracking technology to see what parts of the characters they focused on and how long they paid attention.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198356/original/file-20171208-27689-1khpwyr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eye-tracking setups let researchers monitor what infants are paying attention to.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Lester</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The data we collected at this first visit to our lab served as a baseline. We wanted to compare their initial measurements with future measurements we’d take, after we sent them home with storybooks featuring these same characters.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198381/original/file-20171209-27674-1rb2s10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of pages from a named character book researchers showed to baby volunteers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lisa Scott</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We divided up our volunteers into three groups. One group of parents read their infants storybooks that contained six individually named characters that they’d never seen before. Another group were given the same storybooks but instead of individually naming the characters, a generic and made-up label was used to refer to all the characters (such as “Hitchel”). Finally, we had a third comparison group of infants whose parents didn’t read them anything special for the study.</p>
<p>After three months passed, the families returned to our lab so we could again measure the infants’ attention to our storybook characters. It turned out that only those who received books with individually labeled characters showed enhanced attention compared to their earlier visit. And the brain activity of babies who learned individual labels also showed that they could distinguish between different individual characters. We didn’t see these effects for infants in the comparison group or for infants who received books with generic labels. </p>
<p>These findings suggest that very young infants are able to use labels to learn about the world around them and that shared book reading is an effective tool for supporting development in the first year of life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198359/original/file-20171208-27680-1re78pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Best book choices vary as kids grow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatelive/33070370920">Penn State</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tailoring book picks for maximum effect</h2>
<p>So what do our results from the lab mean for parents who want to maximize the benefits of storytime?</p>
<p>Not all books are created equal. The books that parents should read to six- and nine-month-olds will likely be different than those they read to two-year-olds, which will likely be different than those appropriate for four-year-olds who are getting ready to read on their own. In other words, to reap the benefits of shared book reading during infancy, we need to be reading our little ones the right books at the right time.</p>
<p>For infants, finding books that name different characters may lead to higher-quality shared book reading experiences and result in the learning and brain development benefits we find in our studies. All infants are unique, so parents should try to find books that interest their baby.</p>
<p>My own daughter loved the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/241481/pat-the-bunny-first-books-for-baby-pat-the-bunny-by-dorothy-kunhardt-and-edith-kunhardt/">Pat the Bunny</a>” books, as well as stories about animals, like “<a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/rod-campbell/dear-zoo">Dear Zoo</a>.” If names weren’t in the book, we simply made them up.</p>
<p>It’s possible that books that include named characters simply increase the amount of parent talking. We know that <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/babies-learn-what-words-mean-before-they-can-use-them/">talking to babies</a> is important for their development. So parents of infants: Add shared book reading to your daily routines and name the characters in the books you read. Talk to your babies early and often to guide them through their amazing new world – and let storytime help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Scott has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Army Research Institute. </span></em></p>Psychology researchers bring infants into the lab to learn more about how shared book reading influences brain and behavioral development.Lisa S. Scott, Associate Professor in Psychology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/777592017-06-14T02:23:03Z2017-06-14T02:23:03ZHelping or hacking? Engineers and ethicists must work together on brain-computer interface technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173203/original/file-20170609-4841-73vkw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A subject plays a computer game as part of a neural security experiment at the University of Washington.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Bennett</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 1995 film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112462/">“Batman Forever</a>,” the Riddler used 3-D television to secretly access viewers’ most personal thoughts in his hunt for Batman’s true identity. By 2011, the metrics company <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2011/nielsen-acquires-neurofocus.html">Nielsen had acquired Neurofocus</a> and had created a “consumer neuroscience” division that uses <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/solutions/capabilities/consumer-neuroscience.html">integrated conscious and unconscious data</a> to track customer decision-making habits. What was once a nefarious scheme in a Hollywood blockbuster seems poised to become a reality.</p>
<p>Recent announcements <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs">by Elon Musk</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/19/facebook-brain-interface/">and Facebook</a> about <a href="https://theconversation.com/melding-mind-and-machine-how-close-are-we-75589">brain-computer interface (BCI) technology</a> are just the latest headlines in an ongoing science-fiction-becomes-reality story.</p>
<p>BCIs use brain signals to control objects in the outside world. They’re a potentially world-changing innovation – imagine being paralyzed but able to “reach” for something with a prosthetic arm <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/12/21/jan_scheuermann_footage_of_paralyzed_woman_eating_chocolate_with_robotic.html">just by thinking about it</a>. But the revolutionary technology also raises concerns. Here at the University of Washington’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (<a href="http://www.csne-erc.org/">CSNE</a>) we and our colleagues are researching BCI technology – and a crucial part of that includes working on issues such as neuroethics and neural security. Ethicists and engineers are working together to understand and quantify risks and develop ways to protect the public now. </p>
<h2>Picking up on P300 signals</h2>
<p>All BCI technology relies on being able to collect information from a brain that a device can then use or act on in some way. There are numerous places from which signals can be recorded, as well as infinite ways the data can be analyzed, so there are many possibilities for how a BCI can be used.</p>
<p>Some BCI researchers zero in on one particular kind of regularly occurring brain signal that alerts us to important changes in our environment. Neuroscientists call these signals “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.57865">event-related potentials</a>.” In the lab, they help us identify a reaction to a stimulus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172819/original/file-20170607-29557-1ggtcor.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Examples of event-related potentials (ERPs), electrical signals produced by the brain in response to a stimulus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tamara Bonaci</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In particular, we capitalize on one of these specific signals, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2715154/">called the P300</a>. It’s a positive peak of electricity that occurs toward the back of the head about 300 milliseconds after the stimulus is shown. The P300 alerts the rest of your brain to an “oddball” that stands out from the rest of what’s around you.</p>
<p>For example, you don’t stop and stare at each person’s face when you’re searching for your friend at the park. Instead, if we were recording your brain signals as you scanned the crowd, there would be a detectable P300 response when you saw someone who could be your friend. The P300 carries an unconscious message alerting you to something important that deserves attention. These signals are part of a still unknown brain pathway that aids in detection and focusing attention.</p>
<h2>Reading your mind using P300s</h2>
<p>P300s reliably occur any time you notice something rare or disjointed, like when you find the shirt you were looking for in your closet or your car in a parking lot. Researchers can use the P300 in an experimental setting to determine what is important or relevant to you. That’s led to the creation of devices like spellers that allow paralyzed individuals to type using their thoughts, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-4694(88)90149-6">one character at a time</a>.</p>
<p>It also can be used to determine what you know, in what’s called a “<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00207458808985770">guilty knowledge test</a>.” In the lab, subjects are asked to choose an item to “steal” or hide, and are then shown many images repeatedly of both unrelated and related items. For instance, subjects choose between a watch and a necklace, and are then shown typical items from a jewelry box; a P300 appears when the subject is presented with the image of the item he took.</p>
<p>Everyone’s P300 is unique. In order to know what they’re looking for, researchers need “training” data. These are previously obtained brain signal recordings that researchers are confident contain P300s; they’re then used to calibrate the system. Since the test measures an unconscious neural signal that you don’t even know you have, can you fool it? Maybe, if you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2004.00158.x">know that you’re being probed and what the stimuli are</a>.</p>
<p>Techniques like these are still considered unreliable and unproven, and thus U.S. courts have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2007.58.4.460">resisted admitting P300 data as evidence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172821/original/file-20170607-25764-pbljrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For now, most BCI technology relies on somewhat cumbersome EEG hardware that is definitely not stealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Stone, University of Washington</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imagine that instead of using a P300 signal to solve the mystery of a “stolen” item in the lab, someone used this technology to extract information about what month you were born or which bank you use – without your telling them. Our research group has <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/33808">collected data suggesting this is possible</a>. Just using an individual’s brain activity – specifically, their P300 response – we could determine a subject’s preferences for things like favorite coffee brand or favorite sports.</p>
<p>But we could do it only when subject-specific training data were available. What if we could figure out someone’s preferences without previous knowledge of their brain signal patterns? Without the need for training, users could simply put on a device and go, skipping the step of loading a personal training profile or spending time in calibration. Research on trained and untrained devices is the subject of <a href="http://brl.ee.washington.edu/neural-engineering/bci-security/">continuing experiments at the University of Washington</a> <a href="https://perso.uclouvain.be/fstandae/PUBLIS/190.pdf">and elsewhere</a>. </p>
<p>It’s when the technology is able to “read” someone’s mind who isn’t actively cooperating that ethical issues become particularly pressing. After all, we willingly trade bits of our privacy all the time – when we open our mouths to have conversations or use GPS devices that allow companies to collect data about us. But in these cases we consent to sharing what’s in our minds. The difference with next-generation P300 technology under development is that the protection consent gives us may get bypassed altogether.</p>
<p>What if it’s possible to decode what you’re thinking or planning without you even knowing? Will you feel violated? Will you feel a loss of control? Privacy implications may be wide-ranging. Maybe advertisers could know your preferred brands and send you personalized ads – which may be convenient or creepy. Or maybe malicious entities could determine where you bank and your account’s PIN – which would be alarming. </p>
<h2>With great power comes great responsibility</h2>
<p>The potential ability to determine individuals’ preferences and personal information using their own brain signals has spawned a number of difficult but pressing questions: Should we be able to keep our neural signals private? That is, should neural security <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40504-017-0050-1">be a human right</a>? How do we <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2427564">adequately protect and store all the neural data</a> being recorded for research, and soon for leisure? How do consumers know if any protective or anonymization measures are being made with their neural data? As of now, neural data collected for commercial uses are not subject to the same legal protections covering <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html">biomedical research or health care</a>. Should neural data be treated differently?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172822/original/file-20170607-25764-qhx5o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neuroethicists from the UW Philosophy department discuss issues related to neural implants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Stone, University of Washington</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are the kinds of conundrums that are best addressed by neural engineers and ethicists working together. Putting ethicists in labs alongside engineers – <a href="http://www.csne-erc.org/research/neuroethics">as we have done at the CSNE</a> – is one way to ensure that privacy and security risks of neurotechnology, as well as other ethically important issues, are an active part of the research process instead of an afterthought. For instance, Tim Brown, an ethicist at the CSNE, is “housed” within a neural engineering research lab, allowing him to have daily conversations with researchers about ethical concerns. He’s also easily able to interact with – and, in fact, interview – research subjects about their <a href="http://www.csne-erc.org/engage-enable/post/ethics-cornerstone-neural-engineering-research">ethical concerns about brain research</a>. </p>
<p>There are important ethical and legal lessons to be drawn about technology and privacy from other areas, such as <a href="https://www.genome.gov/27561246/privacy-in-genomics">genetics</a> and <a href="http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2011/08/ethical-dimenstions-of-neuromarketing.html">neuromarketing</a>. But there seems to be something important and different about reading neural data. They’re more intimately connected to the mind and who we take ourselves to be. As such, ethical issues raised by BCI demand special attention.</p>
<h2>Working on ethics while tech’s in its infancy</h2>
<p>As we wrestle with how to address these privacy and security issues, there are two features of current P300 technology that will buy us time.</p>
<p>First, most commercial devices available use dry electrodes, which rely solely on skin contact to conduct electrical signals. This technology is prone to a low signal-to-noise ratio, meaning that we can extract only relatively basic forms of information from users. The brain signals we record are known to be highly variable (even for the same person) due to things like electrode movement and the constantly changing nature of brain signals themselves. Second, electrodes are not always in ideal locations to record.</p>
<p>All together, this inherent lack of reliability means that BCI devices are not nearly as ubiquitous today as they may be in the future. As electrode hardware and signal processing continue to improve, it will be easier to continuously use devices like these, and make it easier to extract personal information from an unknowing individual as well. The safest advice would be to not use these devices at all.</p>
<p>The goal should be that the ethical standards and the technology will mature together to ensure future BCI users are confident their privacy is being protected as they use these kinds of devices. It’s a rare opportunity for scientists, engineers, ethicists and eventually regulators to work together to create even better products than were originally dreamed of in science fiction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Klein a member of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) at the University of Washington which receives funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Pratt works for the Electrical Engineering department at the University of Washington in Seattle, and is affiliated with the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE). Katherine Pratt receives funding from the National Science Foundation and Technology Policy Lab, and has also previously received support from Google. The CSNE partners with the companies listed at <a href="http://csne-erc.org/content/current-members">http://csne-erc.org/content/current-members</a></span></em></p>BCI devices that read minds and act on intentions can change lives for the better. But they could also be put to nefarious use in the not-too-distant future. Now’s the time to think about risks.Eran Klein, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Neurology at Oregon Health and Sciences University and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of WashingtonKatherine Pratt, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/614772016-08-05T01:31:34Z2016-08-05T01:31:34ZWhy it’s hard for adults to learn a second language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133176/original/image-20160804-473-32tg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What makes some individuals good at learning languages?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-189291665/stock-photo-four-smiley-fingers-on-a-blackboard-saying-hello-in-english-french-chinese-and-spanish.html?src=krP6IKDXD-q2R3ZjJ93tPw-1-68">Language image www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a young adult in college, I decided to learn Japanese. My father’s family is from Japan, and I wanted to travel there someday. </p>
<p>However, many of my classmates and I found it difficult to <a href="http://www.jimflege.com/files/Flege_Yeni-Komshian_age_constraints_JML_1999.pdf">learn a language in adulthood</a>. We struggled to connect new sounds and a dramatically different writing system to the familiar objects around us. </p>
<p>It wasn’t so for everyone. There were some students in our class who were able to acquire the new language much more easily than others. </p>
<p>So, what makes some individuals “good language learners?” And do such individuals have a “second language aptitude?” </p>
<h2>What we know about second language aptitude</h2>
<p>Past research on second language aptitude has focused on how people perceive sounds in a particular language and on more general cognitive processes such as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lang.12011/full">memory and learning abilities</a>. Most of this work has used paper-and-pencil and computerized tests to determine language-learning abilities and predict future learning. </p>
<p>Researchers have also studied brain activity as a way of measuring linguistic and cognitive abilities. However, much less is known about how brain activity predicts second language learning. </p>
<p>Is there a way to predict the aptitude of second language learning?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133177/original/image-20160804-484-gs32u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How does brain activity change while learning languages?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-135434942/stock-photo-road-map-of-the-mind-conceptual-image-roads-and-streets-making-up-a-human-brain.html?src=HJ_bIcrDLDdPd8lCaWQHdg-1-43">Brain image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In a 2016 study, <a href="http://ilabs.washington.edu/institute-faculty/bio/i-labs-chantel-prat-phd">Chantel Prat</a>, associate professor of psychology at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, and I <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X15300833">explored how</a> brain activity recorded at rest – while a person is relaxed with their eyes closed – could predict the rate at which a second language is learned among adults who spoke only one language.</p>
<h2>Studying the resting brain</h2>
<p>Resting brain activity is thought to reflect the organization of the brain and it has been linked to <a href="http://ac.els-cdn.com/0013469469901886/1-s2.0-0013469469901886-main.pdf?_tid=3db84b64-583d-11e6-a78e-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1470093253_56e73e470a62523073ba880ee7061a7d">intelligence</a>, or the general ability used to reason and problem-solve.</p>
<p>We measured brain activity obtained from a “resting state” to predict individual differences in the ability to learn a second language in adulthood.</p>
<p>To do that, we recorded five minutes of eyes-closed resting-state electroencephalography, a method that detects electrical activity in the brain, in young adults. We also collected two hours of paper-and-pencil and computerized tasks.</p>
<p>We then had 19 participants complete eight weeks of French language training using a computer program. This software was developed by the U.S. armed forces with the goal of getting military personnel functionally proficient in a language as quickly as possible. </p>
<p>The software combined reading, listening and speaking practice with game-like virtual reality scenarios. Participants moved through the content in levels organized around different goals, such as being able to communicate with a virtual cab driver by finding out if the driver was available, telling the driver where their bags were and thanking the driver.</p>
<p>Here’s a video demonstration:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/piA6dMkBroQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Nineteen adult participants (18-31 years of age) completed two 30-minute training sessions per week for a total of 16 sessions. After each training session, we recorded the level that each participant had reached. At the end of the experiment, we used that level information to calculate each individual’s learning rate across the eight-week training.</p>
<p>As expected, there was large variability in the learning rate, with the best learner moving through the program more than twice as quickly as the slowest learner. Our goal was to figure out which (if any) of the measures recorded initially predicted those differences.</p>
<h2>A new brain measure for language aptitude</h2>
<p>When we correlated our measures with learning rate, we found that patterns of brain activity that have been <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X03000671">linked to linguistic processes</a> predicted how easily people could learn a second language.</p>
<p>Patterns of activity over the right side of the brain predicted upwards of 60 percent of the differences in second language learning across individuals. This finding is consistent with previous research showing that <a href="http://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/Abstract/1997/12010/Anatomical_variability_in_the_cortical.30.aspx">the right half of the brain</a> is more frequently used with a second language.</p>
<p>Our results suggest that the majority of the language learning differences between participants could be explained by the way their brain was organized before they even started learning.</p>
<h2>Implications for learning a new language</h2>
<p>Does this mean that if you, like me, don’t have a “quick second language learning” brain you should forget about learning a second language? </p>
<p>Not quite.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133178/original/image-20160804-473-1aro24p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Language learning can depend on many factors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-434124805/stock-photo-asian-kid-learning-english-in-classroom.html?src=2roCgcubbDGRVq3TrBTFhw-1-52">Child image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, it is important to remember that 40 percent of the difference in language learning rate still remains unexplained. Some of this is certainly related to factors like attention and motivation, which are known to be reliable predictors of learning in general, and of <a href="http://web3.apiu.edu/researchfile/Research%20Materials/Teaching%20Method%20and%20Student%20English%20Learning%20Performance/Student%20learning%20attitudes%20or%20motivation/Attitudes,%20motivation%20and%20second%20language%20learning.pdf">second language learning in particular</a>.</p>
<p>Second, we know that people can change their resting-state brain activity. So training may help to <a href="http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0149763413002248/1-s2.0-S0149763413002248-main.pdf?_tid=b2641376-5a86-11e6-8931-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1470344704_0174549f303f0fa340e3b867668a229a">shape the brain</a> into a state in which it is more ready to learn. This could be an exciting future research direction. </p>
<p>Second language learning in adulthood is difficult, but the benefits are large for those who, like myself, are motivated by the desire to communicate with others who do not speak their native tongue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project was funded by a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONRBAA13-003) entitled “Training the Mind and Brain: Investigating Individual Differences in the Ability to Learn and Benefit Cognitively from Language Training.”</span></em></p>Researchers have found that some individuals have a ‘language aptitude,’ which depends on how their brain is organized.Brianna Yamasaki, Ph.D. Student, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/483192015-12-17T00:40:54Z2015-12-17T00:40:54ZHidden and unexplained: feeling the pain of fibromyalgia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98795/original/image-20151019-7780-tl94to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fibromyalgia can be made more difficult when the pain doesn't seem to have a visible cause</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shitsuren/4904341484/in/photolist-8to2RN-4X7hMc-bUKXf9-7Y1isf-6yEpBk-ce2LSm-dtEpX2-dveXaK-xe9cn5-c2B6h5-66McvJ-qnAtkg-8svFP7-6VpBou-jbFPK1-3ufH6f-8fs4o8-7WZfgM-9WBGsu-mDPKmX-9muCe5-wtbz54-e9Cgqt-6cHmaC-9BwjCn-9WBGuo-7Ej7ZR-asbJv-duCLzk-duCLvx-4mnysH-dCFk4u-5Nhvo-dbu6y-cs3kb1-w45C7b-vfkWGM-9pttue-wk2LMG-w45DX7-4MwSo5-bcFxaD-4emb3T-txbGq6-tx3NMm-djEJ7P-CkP9f-2zEhNw-66CQtU-bXpF8E">Silvia Sala/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some people, waking up every day means the start of persistent pain that affects their mood, thinking and relationships. This experience is more difficult when the pain doesn’t seem to have a cause; at least not a visible one. </p>
<p>That’s the reality for people with <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3394355/">fibromyalgia</a>, a chronic disorder characterised by pain and muscle tenderness throughout the body where even the slightest touch can be sensitive. Sufferers often <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2306288">have other health issues</a>, including sleep difficulties and fatigue. </p>
<p>For a long time, fibromyalgia was thought of as a medical mystery. Technological advancement has allowed us to look closer. Today, it is a recognised disorder, part of a group of chronic pain syndromes described as <a href="http://americanpainsociety.org/about-us/press-room/fibromyalgia-clauw">central nervous system disorders</a>. </p>
<p>The condition affects more than four times as many women as it does men. With <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7818567">as many as 2-5% of the developed world</a> living with fibromyalgia, it is far from uncommon. Yet targeted and effective treatment options aren’t available for the condition. And compared to fibromyalgia’s impact, this area of research remains highly underfunded.</p>
<h2>Chicken or egg?</h2>
<p>Fibromyalgia has a long history of stigma. Some explanations even pinned it <a href="http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2013/08/13/fibromyalgia-living-with-a-controversial-chronic-disease/">down to being psychosomatic</a>, “made up” and “all in your head”, as well as a condition people needed to “just get over”. </p>
<p>There may be some truth in saying fibromyalgia is “all in your head”, but more as a reflection of associated brain changes than a figment of the imagination. An <a href="http://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/2012/585419/">explosion of recent research</a> has shown <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258006/">brains</a> of fibromyalgia sufferers are made up differently. There are variations, for instance, <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/15/4004.full">in regions key to how we think and feel</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100125/original/image-20151029-15322-b3eoqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even the slightest touch can be sensitive for fibromyalgia sufferers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vaxzine/2642346629/in/photolist-52uHAv-pp7YBE-goCmpj-2kjSVv-gjn8K4-4QTDnm-veQ41f-zeen7c-5JywNQ-hgrWBb-pb9vUY-zDuRPi-9pn552-wN61eQ-pLM4Fq-aWz48r-5V3DUx-vpTg1L-6L12vv-h6bNVm-aeZNE2-zwVBuA-bnCWMZ-hkyUXn-aexdvy-bjSowZ-6vYLeq-gwXzyC-apcXUo-6yYVAK-6L4xdj-KzR53-gRVQ5S-8nEmvz-nxjKe1-6noCBP-5JsNAa-6CWBgP-6mdMbb-dwLgYp-5G9Ycs-pEPUfR-8yYFSu-bRXyo8-8HYk6L-7EnZAj-duCLte-5qPk8m-k4pFrn-jNYM1">vaXzine/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although our understanding has taken a dramatic leap in the last few decades, we can’t shut the book on fibromyalgia’s exact cause or causes. The reported brain changes pose a real chicken and egg scenario: are these brain changes causing fibromyalgia, or is fibromyalgia causing the brain changes? </p>
<p>The condition may have multiple causes. Some suggest biological factors, including a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17187510">genetic basis</a> for the disorder. Other research shows a history of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20722042">sexual, emotional and physical abuse</a> among sufferers. <a href="http://www.arthritis-research.com/content/6/3/98">Psychological factors</a>, including responses to chronic stress, have also been shown to contribute to its cause. </p>
<p>None of these are likely to be independent of each other.</p>
<h2>Links to mood disorders</h2>
<p>Further complicating explanations of fibromyalgia include its <a href="http://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/2012/486590/">link to other illnesses</a>, such as mood disorders like depression. This relationship likely reflects the fact they share some of the same biological processes, such as inflammation. </p>
<p>Inflammation occurs when injury or infection triggers the production of messenger molecules that flood to the site of injury as part of an immune response. <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n1/full/nrn2297.html">It is now believed </a> that, like injury to the body, psychological adversity and mental illness can trigger the same immune response affecting the brain.</p>
<p>And recent research suggests the <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279299589_Bidirectional_Association_Between_Depression_and_Fibromyalgia_Syndrome_A_Nationwide_Longitudinal_Study">occurrence of fibromyalgia or depression may increase the likelihood</a> of the other. Regardless of what came first, though, the presence of mood disorders in fibromyalgia is <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/45439877_Fibromyalgia_syndrome_and_depressive_symptoms_Comorbidity_and_clinical_correlates">linked to more pain</a> and reduced quality of life.</p>
<p>It comes as no surprise, then, that if medical professionals and scientists can’t explain what causes fibromyalgia, it is even harder for the person living with the condition. In fact, those diagnosed have <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22820966">a significantly harder time</a> understanding or explaining their pain to people with other disorders, like arthritis for instance.</p>
<h2>Treatment options</h2>
<p>It can take years to receive a fibromyalgia diagnosis, and some may have been misdiagnosed with one or more other conditions beforehand. This can be very frustrating for the patient as well as their doctor. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100126/original/image-20151029-15355-114v0a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite the poor response rate, pharmaceutical methods are the main treatment option for fibromyalgia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fatmandy/125282049/in/photolist-c56Zk-65PyUt-7bcRAo-7b93mX-7bcSbd-aiJisn-a4Np1S-7bcTtj-7b942v-7b91Lt-7b977K-7bcSNb-7bcPoY-r7nCL-7bcPPu-4moWD6-4qzzzv-8ZpNUe-7Dsout-NsGJW-9ZYKte-bqCnhN-66xQyU-f1Vmj-89jusq-ebNVM8-nsnjck-dgA1YX-nAcUbq-e5PSvZ-Gj9AL-5f3ocG-qVvXtf-qgicVF-qg5Wtd-tJtjct-68UMtV-tJkbky-t4U6RW-7rhB2d-7b6fb7-6gnfen-AeS5k9-8ZiU7L-7qU1Bc-q2oo56-ceYBEy-pgHs4Z-cFe563-cy5SLS">Chris Frewin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Currently, the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2306288">best method</a> of diagnosis is classification-based. Physicians assess the number of possible body areas where someone experienced pain in the last two weeks, and the severity of other symptoms, including fatigue and cognitive function. </p>
<p>Following diagnosis, there is no universally effective treatment plan. It usually includes a multi-method pain management regime from a team of health care providers. But <a href="http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=713152">responses to treatments</a> can be no better than chance, regardless of whether these are pharmacological or others such as acupuncture or hypnotherapy.</p>
<p>Despite the poor response rate, pharmaceutical methods are the main treatment option. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067369904088X">Prescriptions are commonly</a> made out for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen), opioid analgesics (such as codeine), antidepressants, or anticonvulsants (drugs used to control seizures that also affect pain signals). </p>
<p>Because there is no clear treatment target for fibromyalgia, drug doses needed to manage symptoms have significant side effects. These include problems with thinking, drowsiness and the risk of drug dependency. </p>
<p>We don’t know exactly what causes fibromyalgia, but treatments need to be developed based on what we do know. For instance, we know there are brain changes. One promising treatment may therefore be brain stimulation techniques like <a href="http://www.maprc.org.au/dr-bernadette-fitzgibbon">Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation</a> (rTMS); a non-invasive technique that can change the activity of neurons in the brain.</p>
<p>There is a clearly an urgent need to provide targeted and effective treatment options for fibromyalgia sufferers. Considering how far we have come in explaining the unexplained pain of the condition, there is real hope for the future.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is part of a series focusing on Pain. Read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/pain-series">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernadette Fitzgibbon receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and Arthritis Australia. </span></em></p>Unexplained, chronic pain known as fibromyalgia affects up to 5% of the population. Yet there are no effective treatment options for the millions for whom each day begins with persistent pain.Bernadette Fitzgibbon, Neuroscientist, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511412015-11-24T15:16:32Z2015-11-24T15:16:32ZHallucinations? They may just be caused by a fold in the brain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103015/original/image-20151124-18233-1t5u40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine hearing a voice that screams, “You’re no good at this and you’re going to fail every exam” but not knowing where it came from. Or suddenly seeing a poisonous snake slithering towards you. Even if you’ve never had a hallucination – a sensory event that is experienced as real, despite having no material world cause – it’s easy to imagine how frightening they can be.</p>
<p>Despite advances in brain imaging technology, we still have a limited understanding of the biological processes behind hallucinations. But <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151117/ncomms9956/full/ncomms9956.html">new research</a> has discovered that a key region of the brain, the paracingulate sulcus, may underlie the experience. This delivers a glimmer of insight into why some people are more likely to hallucinate and provides a neural target for treatments that aim to tackle such terrifying experiences.</p>
<p>When someone has a hallucination, the basic problem is that they fail to distinguish between real events and those created by the imagination. As a result, hallucinations have been described as an impairment in “<a href="http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/153/4/437">reality monitoring</a>”.</p>
<h2>Imagination centre</h2>
<p>Recent studies that have taken images of the brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16552413">have shown</a> there is an area of the frontal lobe particularly related to imagination. The outer layer of tissue (cortex) around a fold (sulcus) in the brain known as the paracingulate activates when you imagine yourself in a future scenario or imagine what others are thinking or feeling. We also know from <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14976518">studying patients</a> with brain damage that the frontal lobe in general is important for complex human behaviours, such as planning and our sense of self.</p>
<p>The key role played by the paracingulate sulcus area in imagination suggests that it is also involved in reality monitoring. If this part of the brain functions poorly then it might influence your ability to differentiate reality from imagination – and so increase the likelihood that you could experience hallucinations.</p>
<p>To test this theory, Jane Garrison and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge, undertook a <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151117/ncomms9956/full/ncomms9956.html">large-scale study</a> of paracingulate sulcus anatomy. This particular brain fold can look very different in different people: in some brains, it is long and uninterrupted; in others, it is short and broken up – and some people have virtually no paracingulate sulcus at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=216&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=216&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103183/original/image-20151125-23842-1eskerz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paracingulate sulcus: how big is yours?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Garrison et al, Nature Communications</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Longer folds actually mean there is less brain cell-carrying <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/247170">grey matter tissue</a> in the area. Other individual differences in sulcus anatomy can also affect the connections to the rest of the brain through the white matter tissue that carries neural signals. These structural variations can affect the local processing that takes place in a brain region.</p>
<p>The researchers measured the paracingulate sulcus length of three groups of people using structural MRI brain scans: schizophrenic patients who experienced hallucinations, schizophrenics who did not, and a control group of healthy individuals. Remarkably, those patients who experienced hallucinations had significantly reduced paracingulate sulcus length compared to those patients who had no hallucinations.</p>
<p>Analyses indicated that a reduction in sulcus length by 1cm led to an increased likelihood of experiencing hallucinations of nearly 20%. Plus, sulcus length did not differ between the schizophrenics without hallucinations and the control individuals. This suggests that sulcus length specifically relates to the experience of hallucinations rather than schizophrenia more generally.</p>
<h2>Shedding light on schizophrenia</h2>
<p>Interestingly, a shorter paracingulate sulcus was also more likely no matter what kind of hallucinations the patients suffered, whether they heard voices, saw images, felt touches, or smelt odours that weren’t real. This links the region to hallucinatory experience in general, rather than specific problems with, for example, visual or aural perception.</p>
<p>This study doesn’t just shed light on why some patients with schizophrenia might experience hallucinations while others might not. It also tells us more fundamentally about the neural basis for the hallucinatory process. In understanding what makes some people more likely to experience hallucinations, we begin to appreciate the anatomical features of the brain that underpin our experience of self and human consciousness. </p>
<p>The result is that the paracingulate sulcus may become an important target in new brain therapies that aim to tackle local regions of dysfunction. Techniques such as <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation/basics/definition/prc-20020555">transcranial magnetic stimulation</a>, in which an electromagnetic field is placed just above the scalp and then disturbed, have the power to safely change activity levels in cortical brain areas. Now, researchers hoping to improve the lives of hallucination sufferers have an area pinpointed on the cortical map from where to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Rae does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study of the brain structure of schizophrenics has revealed an important clue that could help treat hallucinations.Charlotte Rae, Sackler research fellow in clinical medicine, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510822015-11-23T16:10:19Z2015-11-23T16:10:19ZBrain connections predict how well you can pay attention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102726/original/image-20151122-439-1579how.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your brain scan told me your mind would wander.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=225428539">Boy image via www.shutterstuck.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLpNKo09Xk">1959 television appearance</a>, Jack Kerouac was asked how long it took him to write his novel <a href="http://www.penguin.com/book/on-the-road-by-jack-kerouac/9780142437254">On The Road</a>. His response – three weeks – amazed the interviewer and ignited an enduring myth that the book was composed in a marathon of nonstop typing. </p>
<p>Like the Kerouac of legend, some people possess the incredible ability to focus for long periods of time. Others constantly struggle to keep their minds on task. Individuals diagnosed with <a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/index.shtml">attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a> (ADHD), for example, are often restless and easily distracted. Even people without ADHD may find their minds wandering while trying to concentrate at school or work. </p>
<p>Although the ability to sustain attention varies widely from person to person, characterizing these individual differences has been difficult. Unlike intelligence, which has traditionally been measured (though <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/2011/04/what-does-iq-really-measure">not without controversy</a>) with pencil-and-paper IQ tests, attentional abilities are not captured by performance on a single test.</p>
<p>In a study recently published in Nature Neuroscience, my colleagues and I set out to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4179">identify a new way to measure attention</a>. Like IQ, this measure would serve as a general summary of a complex cognitive ability. But unlike IQ, it would be based on a person’s unique pattern of brain connectivity – that is, synchronous activity observed across distinct parts of their brain. We previously showed that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4135">every person’s pattern of brain connectivity is unique</a> — <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-activity-is-as-unique-and-identifying-as-a-fingerprint-48723">like a fingerprint</a> — and predicts fluid intelligence, or the ability to solve problems in novel situations. Do unique patterns of brain connectivity predict attention, too? </p>
<h2>How you’re connected predicts your focus</h2>
<p>First we asked 25 volunteers to <a href="http://www.bu.edu/ballab/research.html">perform a task</a> while <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging-fmri/">an MRI scanner measured their brain activity</a>. Their instructions were simple: watch a stream of images and press a button when you see cities, but don’t press when you see mountains. Most of the pictures were of cities, with the occasional mountain thrown in unpredictably. It was challenging to maintain focus on the task, which lasted more than 30 minutes. Some people performed very well. But others made frequent errors – either failing to click for a city, or pressing for a mountain by mistake.</p>
<p>Could we relate participants’ accuracy to their patterns of brain connectivity while they responded to the city and mountain pictures? To analyze the brain data, we first divided each person’s brain into 268 distinct regions, a number <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.081">previously shown</a> to characterize brain function well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102727/original/image-20151122-412-10995v3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spheres represent regions of the brain and lines show the connections between them. The size of the spheres corresponds to the number of connections they have. Orange spheres have more connections in the network that predicts better attention, blue spheres have more connections in the network that predicts worse attention, and gray spheres have an approximately equal number of connections in each.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monica Rosenberg</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Next, we calculated how “functionally connected” each region was with every other region in the brain. Functional connectivity is the degree to which activity in a pair of regions is synchronous. In other words, activity in two regions with a strong functional connection tends to increase and decrease at the same time, while activity in weakly connected regions is out of sync. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8524021">A landmark study published in 1995</a> showed, for example, that there are strong functional connections between regions of the brain’s right and left hemispheres responsible for motor action.</p>
<p>Calculating the functional connections between every pair of regions gave us individual connectivity profiles for each participant in the study. Among these thousands of connections (every person’s connectivity profile contained 35,778!), we identified several hundred that were related to performance on our task – some connections were stronger in people who performed more accurately on the task, and some were stronger in people who performed less accurately.</p>
<p>After careful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-validation_%28statistics%29">statistical analysis</a>, we found we could <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4179">predict how well each subject performed on the task</a> from the strength of his or her functional connections alone. The predictions weren’t perfect, but they were significantly better than a random guess.</p>
<h2>What a resting brain can predict about attention</h2>
<p>Although it was exciting to see that patterns of brain connectivity could be used to predict attention, we had looked only at data collected during the actual task performance. Our brain activity measurement was just a more complicated, less accurate way to assess performance than the button presses themselves. Why involve the brain data at all?</p>
<p>To be useful, our measure needed to predict attention from brain activity in someone who wasn’t taking an attention test.</p>
<p>For example, what if a person were unable to perform the test for some reason, or we didn’t know the right questions to ask, or we didn’t have time to test them on exactly what we wanted to measure? In such cases, it would be valuable to be able to extract information about a person’s attentional abilities from brain data measured while they were not doing any task at all. </p>
<p>To see whether or not a resting brain carries information about attention, we calculated another set of individual connectivity profiles for each of our participants using data collected while they were simply relaxing in the scanner. Using the same procedure as before, we were again able to predict performance on the attention task. Our predictions were not as accurate as the ones we’d made using brain data collected during task performance, but they were still significantly better than a random guess.</p>
<p>Using any person’s resting connectivity profile – even someone who has never performed any attention task, and never will – we can predict how they would hypothetically perform on the cities and mountains task. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102728/original/image-20151122-435-1hiajto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Connectivity profiles of individuals just resting in a scanner provide the same predictions about attention abilities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/8163518759">Martin Hieslmair</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Predicting ADHD using functional connections</h2>
<p>Were our results specific to the group of individuals we had tested and the cities/mountains task we’d used, or could they tell us something meaningful about sustained attention in general?</p>
<p>To test this question, we used data from 113 children and adolescents provided by Peking University as part of <a href="http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/adhd200/">The ADHD-200 Sample</a>. Some of these children had an official diagnosis of ADHD, with varying degrees of symptom severity. Even some without the diagnosis showed subtle signs of attention problems. For each child – both those with and without the diagnosis – clinicians had arrived at an “ADHD score” on a scale of 18-72 indicating how severe that child’s attention deficit symptoms were. Children in our data set had scores ranging from 18-65.</p>
<p>Using brain connectivity profiles calculated while the children were resting in an MRI scanner, we found that the same functional connections that predicted performance of our adults in New Haven predicted ADHD scores of the children scanned in Beijing. Our statistical models predicted that, if they were given the cities/mountains task, children with few symptoms of ADHD would perform well and children with more symptoms would struggle. </p>
<p>So spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity while individuals are simply resting <em>can</em> predict their ADHD symptoms.</p>
<h2>A new “attention score”?</h2>
<p>Does this mean that a scientist can put you in a brain scanner and discover how well you pay attention to things? In some sense, yes. Your <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-activity-is-as-unique-and-identifying-as-a-fingerprint-48723">connectivity profile carries information unique to you</a>, including your attentional abilities.</p>
<p>It’s important to acknowledge that traits like attention and intelligence are multifaceted, so reducing a person’s overall functioning to a single measure risks oversimplification. But measures that summarize a complex process, like IQ for intelligence or gross domestic product for the economy, do provide valuable information. For example, such a measure may help researchers track changes in abilities over time, and may one day help clinicians identify children most likely to benefit from attention training or personalized learning.</p>
<p>One additional benefit of this approach is that, just as multiple biomarkers can be extracted from a single blood sample, multiple predictions can be made from a single connectivity profile. Different connections may tell us different things about an individual. For example, we found that the brain networks that predict ADHD symptoms do not predict IQ, but <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4135">our group has identified other networks that do predict intelligence</a>.</p>
<p>There’s still a long way to go to before brain connectivity becomes for attention what IQ is for intelligence. But these methods show promise for predicting a wide variety of traits and illuminating the relationship between brain and behavior. Perhaps in the future, a better understanding of the relationship between brain connectivity and attention could be used to inform cognitive training – maybe helping transform all of us into the Kerouac of legend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Rosenberg receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Particular parts of an individual’s brain tend to work together on certain tasks. Researchers can look at these patterns of “functional connectivity” to predict traits – like the ability to pay attention.Monica Rosenberg, PhD Candidate in Psychology, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/487232015-10-12T17:53:55Z2015-10-12T17:53:55ZBrain activity is as unique – and identifying – as a fingerprint<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98089/original/image-20151012-17858-w4ne84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I knew that brain was yours.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emily S Finn</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each of us is unique, with our own strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. While this is a truism everyone grasps intuitively, it’s been difficult to determine if and how this individuality is reflected in brain activity.</p>
<p>To investigate, my colleagues and I looked at brain images from volunteers scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or <a href="http://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/divisions/fmrib/what-is-fmri">fMRI</a>. This technique measures neural activity via blood flow in the brain while people are awake and mentally active. We calculated a “functional connectivity profile” for each person based on their individual patterns of synchronized activity between different parts of the brain.</p>
<p>In fact, it turns out that the ebb and flow of brain activity is like a fingerprint: each person has their own signature pattern, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4135">according to our study</a> just published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Using only their connectivity profiles, we could identify individuals from a group. Based purely on these profiles, we could also predict how people would perform on one type of intelligence test.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97989/original/image-20151011-9146-1irzyiq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An fMRI scanner uses a strong magnetic field to track blood flow in the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modern_3T_MRI.JPG">KasugaHuang</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trading the forest for the trees</h2>
<p>fMRI is the best tool we have to study what goes on in a living, thinking human brain in a safe and noninvasive way. And yet fMRI data is notoriously noisy – lots of things influence the signal at any given time, and only some of them are related to the actual brain activity that we care about.</p>
<p>This is why, traditionally, fMRI studies average together data from many different people: the idea is that by finding common patterns of brain activity, we can get rid of much of the noise and end up with something closer to the “true” signal. Essentially, we blend all the individuals’ signals to get one version that’s representative of the whole population.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97991/original/image-20151011-9150-1dp5m6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Usually researchers combine data from many fMRI scans to find the areas of the brain typically active during certain tasks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FMRI_scan_during_working_memory_tasks.jpg">John Graner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But you don’t need to be a brain scientist to recognize that everyone is different; this averaging probably obscures interesting activity patterns that are idiosyncratic to each person. And for fMRI to be practically useful – in medicine, for example – we’d need to get meaningful information based on a scan from a single person.</p>
<p>We set out to prove that analyzing fMRI data from individual people is indeed possible, by showing that these idiosyncratic activity patterns are reliable enough to identify individuals from a large group.</p>
<h2>Analyzing individual scans</h2>
<p>We used data from the Human Connectome Project (<a href="http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org">HCP</a>), a major research effort to collect brain-imaging data along with behavioral, demographic and genetic information from a large number of healthy people. So far, data from 500 people have been released, and there are plans to collect 1,200 in total. All the data are made publicly available, so researchers anywhere can download it, analyze it in different ways, and mine it for interesting insights.</p>
<p>We looked at data from the first 126 <a href="http://humanconnectome.org/about/project/logistics-of-data-acquisition.html">participants in the HCP</a>. Each person was scanned six different times. During two of the scans, people were simply resting, letting their minds wander. During the other four scans, they worked on some type of cognitive task: trying to hold items in mind in a test of working memory, listening to a story, solving math problems, looking at emotional faces or moving different parts of their body.</p>
<p>To analyze the fMRI data for each individual participant, we first divided the whole brain into 268 separate regions. While it’s an open question just how many different functional regions there are in the brain, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.081">previous work</a> of ours has shown that using between 200 and 300 regions lets us detect subtle effects, while still keeping things manageable in terms of the time and computing power it takes to run the analyses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97992/original/image-20151011-9117-9yh6nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The functional connections in the brain that were most distinguishing of individuals. Many were between the prefrontal (left side of image) and parietal (right side of image) lobes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emily S Finn</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For each pair of regions, we calculated the strength of the functional connection between them. To understand what a “functional connection” is, think of two musicians playing at the same time: rather than measuring how loudly each musician is playing, we measure how synchronized their playing is. It’s not about overall levels of activity in any single brain region, but rather how pairs of regions tend to increase and decrease their activity in tandem. We calculated this measure of synchrony for every pair of regions across a brain. For each person we had a functional connectivity profile for each of the six scans they underwent.</p>
<p>We wanted to see if connectivity profiles could act like fingerprints. So we took a single profile from one scan session – say, the working memory session – and compared it to all 126 profiles for a different scan session, say the one at rest. Based on the numerical profiles, we figured out which other profile was its closest match. Would we be able to match up the participant’s working memory and at-rest scans? That is, would an individual’s brain “look the same” no matter what task it was doing?</p>
<p>The majority of the time, the identity we had predicted was indeed the correct one: we were able to identify people with up to 99% accuracy. The accuracy ranged from 64% to 99%, depending the specific pair of scan sessions. If we were just randomly guessing, we would expect to choose the right identity less than 1% of the time, so this was a very significant result.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=139&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=139&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98091/original/image-20151012-17807-j37bcb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two networks highlighted out of the 268 brain regions – the medial frontal in purple and the frontoparietal in teal. These two networks were best for identifying people as well as predicting fluid intelligence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emily S Finn/Xilin Shen</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Predicting fluid intelligence</h2>
<p>Certain connections were most distinguishing of individuals – namely, those between the brain’s prefrontal lobe (just behind the forehead) and parietal lobe (farther back on top of the head). These areas evolved most recently, and neuroscientists have long known that they are crucial for sophisticated functions like attention, memory and language. </p>
<p>We discovered that these connections could also predict how people would perform on a test of fluid intelligence, or on-the-spot reasoning ability. Fluid intelligence is the ability to see patterns and solve reasoning problems.</p>
<p>While the predictions of fluid intelligence were overall more accurate than not, there was still a fair amount of error – the model overpredicted some people’s scores and underpredicted others’ – so we certainly wouldn’t advocate giving someone a brain scan instead of an IQ test or other traditional assessment.</p>
<h2>Your brain scans are quintessentially you</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97995/original/image-20151011-9113-6q5oaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brains – and connectivity profiles – are as unique as we are.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emily S Finn/Michael Hathaway</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the first part of our study, we found that people always look most like themselves, regardless of what they’re doing. In other words, the same brain doing two different tasks always looks more similar than two different brains doing the same task. And in the second part of our study, we saw that these connectivity profiles correspond to highly complex cognitive attributes.</p>
<p>Why does this matter? After all, we don’t need to put someone in an MRI scanner to know who they are – we can tell that by looking at them. The importance of this finding is that these connectivity profiles could potentially give us information about people that is harder to tell just by looking. </p>
<p>For example, they could help predict who is at risk for developing a disease. Maybe there’s something in the individual patterns of strong and weak brain connections that reveals how susceptible someone is to different neurological or mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, depression or Alzheimer’s disease. If we collect fMRI images from people while they are still healthy, and then follow them over time to see who goes on to become ill, perhaps we can build a model relating parts of the connectivity profile to future health. Then we could apply this model to a brand-new person’s profile to predict their likelihood of getting sick. This could be a way to target and treat high-risk people early on, in hopes that intervening early will improve their outcomes.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we hope these profiles could someday be used in personalized medicine, a way to customize interventions and therapies for people based on their individual biology.</p>
<p>But there are still many open questions. For example, we tested identification between scans separated by a few days, but how stable are connectivity profiles over a period of months or years? Can they change as a function of aging, illness, cognitive training or some other process? What other behavioral traits are reflected in patterns of brain connectivity? While there is much work to be done, my colleagues and I believe that these results provide an exciting foundation for future research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily S Finn receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Typically, researchers pool a bunch of brain scans to figure out the average way brains handle certain tasks. Instead, could they pick out individual brain profiles from a stack of 126 people’s scans?Emily S Finn, PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.