Category Archives: Science

Communicating with the help of an fMRI

The Guardian Long Read: How science found a way to help coma patients communicate. “After suffering serious brain injuries, Scott Routley spent 12 years in a vegetative state. But his family were convinced that he was still aware – could a pioneering ‘mind-reading’ technique prove them right?” By Adrian Owen.

“In recent years, thanks to the invention of fMRI, we have made extraordinary breakthroughs in understanding the mental life of people trapped in the grey zone. We have discovered that 15% to 20% of people in the vegetative state, who are widely assumed to have no more awareness than a head of broccoli, are in fact fully conscious, even though they never respond to any form of external stimulation. They may open their eyes, grunt and groan, and occasionally utter isolated words. They appear to live entirely in their own world, devoid of thoughts or feelings. Many really are as oblivious and incapable of thought as their doctors believe. But a sizeable number are experiencing something quite different: intact minds adrift deep within damaged bodies and brains. We have even figured out how to communicate directly with such people.”

Link via MetaFilter.

See also the BBC Panorama documentary ‘The Mind Reader – Unlocking My Voice’ in which Prof. Adrian Owen communicates with several vegetative state patients using fMRI.

A friend I knew since kindergarten was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for almost 15 years after a car accident. She passed away this spring.

BFFs

NPR: Having A Best Friend In Your Teenage Years Could Benefit You For Life.

“”[They were asked] how much trust there is, how good communication is and how alienated they feel in the relationship,” says Rachel Narr, the lead author on the study and a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Virginia. Each year, the original participants were also given questionnaires to assess levels of anxiety, depression and self-worth.
[…]
Those strong relationships are paying dividends in adulthood, the study found. When the researchers evaluated the participants at the conclusion of the study, the ones who had close, emotional links showed improvement in their levels of anxiety, depression and self-worth. In other words, they reported less depression and anxiety and more self-worth at 25 than they had at 15 and 16.”

I’m still friends with my best friend from kindergarten, 37 years later, and also a group of friends from highschool, most of which I’ve known for 30 years now. We live all over the country now, but try to get together at least once a year, and it’s always great to see them and catch up.

Space Station Transiting Eclipse

Smarter Every Day: Space Station Transiting 2017 ECLIPSE, My Brain Stopped Working. (YouTube, 8:38min)

What it says on the tin, the eclipse as seen from Wyoming, with a bonus appearance of the International Space Station. The ISS transit across the sun is fast, much faster than I thought it would be even though I’ve watched the ISS cross the sky many times.

Bonus link: Veritasium: Eclipse 2017 (YouTube, 5:20min), including time-lapse video from first contact to totality, viewed from Oregon.

Rechenschwäche?

Süddeutsche Zeitung: Sind die Gene schuld – oder die Lehrer?

“Mathe ist doof. Das werden viele Kinder gedacht haben, als sie am Schuljahresende ihr Zeugnis gesehen haben. Manche von ihnen hätten für eine bessere Note vielleicht nur mehr üben müssen. Andere haben genau das getan – bis sogar Mama und Papa an 25 plus 17 verzweifelt sind.”

“Kinder mit Dyskalkulie werden behandelt, als sei ihnen nichts beizubringen”.

“Dabei sei es möglich, jedem Kind Grundlagen im Rechnen zu vermitteln, sagt [der Mathematikdidaktiker Wolfram Meyerhöfer]. Er hält die Rechenstörung für eine Ausrede der Schulen.”