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Saturday, October 10, 2009

people can communication with each other through the power of thought alone .

Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control devices like computers, robots, rehabilitation technology, and virtual reality environments just by thinking about various actions. Dr. Christopher James, from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, took the experiment a step further in the current study. The researchers aimed to expand the current limits of this technology, and show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible.

Brain waves can have a direct influence on a person's behaviour, say researchers after an experiment found that people can be made to move in slow motion by boosting one type of brain wave ...
There are many types of brain waves, distinguished by their frequency and location, Brown explained. In this study, researchers injected a small electrical current into the brain through the scalps of 14 people while the participants manipulated the position of a spot on a computer screen as quickly as they could with a joystick. The electrical current used increased normal beta activity, a wave that earlier studies linked to sustained muscle activities, such as holding a book. Beta activity drops before people make a move. Unlike most previous work, which used constant brain stimulation, the new study employed an oscillating current, more like that underlying normal brain activity. As a result, people's fastest times on the computer task were 10 percent slower. Brown said the researchers were surprised that the electrical currents used in the study, which were very small and imperceptible to the participants, could have such a measurable effect, said an UCL release. "If we know what patterns of brain activity slow voluntary movement, then we can try and boost these patterns in conditions like chorea and dystonia, where there is excessive and uncontrolled movement," Brown said. "Conversely, we can try and suppress beta activity in conditions like Parkinson's disease typified by slow movement." "The implication is that it is not just how active brain cells are that is important, but also how they couple their activity into patterns like beta activity."
Mediterranean diet can beat stress....
The finding has been published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry , one of the JAMA/Archives journals . To reach the conclusion, Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, B.Pharm., Ph.D., of University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Clinic of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues studied 10,094 healthy Spanish participants who completed an initial questionnaire between 1999 and 2005. Participants reported their dietary intake on a food frequency questionnaire, and the researchers calculated their adherence to the Mediterranean diet based on nine components (high ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids; moderate intake of alcohol and dairy products; low intake of meat; and high intake of legumes, fruit and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish). After a median (midpoint) of 4.4 years of follow-up, 480 new cases of depression were identified, including 156 in men and 324 in women. Individuals who followed the Mediterranean diet most closely had a greater than 30 percent reduction in the risk of depression than whose who had the lowest Mediterranean diet scores. The association did not change when the results were adjusted for other markers of a healthy lifestyle, including marital status and use of seatbelts. "The specific mechanisms by which a better adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern could help to prevent the occurrence of depression are not well known," the authors write. Components of the diet may improve blood vessel function, fight inflammation, reduce risk for heart disease and repair oxygen-related cell damage, all of which may decrease the chances of developing depression.

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