Science!: Sexy Mouse Tears

[megalomania]

Lots of psych stuff this week. As always, a very interesting read.

That first article kind of makes me wonder how much "better" the brain could be if it was tuned. That "noise" almost seems analogous to useless processes going on in a computer. Like perhaps everyone has a virus or some spyware running in their brain.

See I was thinking a different thing about the 'noise' thing; the system idle processes that a processor runs are actually essential to it running properly - it isn't designed to sit there doing nothing. My guess is that the brain is the same: a muscle atrophies if it is not used, the brain atrophies if it is unused too (see old people staying more mentally sharp if they are intellectually stimulated), maybe the neurons firing is the brains way of making sure all the neural pathways stay open for business!

What do y'all think?

 

[Uri]

Lots of psych stuff this week. As always, a very interesting read.

That first article kind of makes me wonder how much "better" the brain could be if it was tuned. That "noise" almost seems analogous to useless processes going on in a computer. Like perhaps everyone has a virus or some spyware running in their brain.

See I was thinking a different thing about the 'noise' thing; the system idle processes that a processor runs are actually essential to it running properly - it isn't designed to sit there doing nothing. My guess is that the brain is the same: a muscle atrophies if it is not used, the brain atrophies if it is unused too (see old people staying more mentally sharp if they are intellectually stimulated), maybe the neurons firing is the brains way of making sure all the neural pathways stay open for business!

What do y'all think?

Interesting, that would make sense.

Again, nice article.

 

[oranger]

I wonder how something like Tinnitus, which produces a constant sensory input, would factor into this?

 

[Grahav]

I wonder if non-regulated noise can cause stupid, random, crazy or disgusting thoughts.

Maybe brain noise is associated with lack of concentration or madness.

The final questions about Ritalin+Prozac: Is this combination addictive too? How much?

 

[El pup]

Ritalin+Prozac=Cocain=A lot more kids pretending to have ADD+Depression

 

[oktalist]

The human brain is capable of processing 100 trillion calculations per second, the equivalent of 100 teraflops of information.

The teraflops is not a unit of information.

OT: That mouse thing was pretty cool. I'm always interested in animal behaviour studies.

 

[thenamelessloser]

I just looked up the blog that talked about the prozac+ritalin= cocaine thing and it seemed it neglected certain things that the blog talked about the study. First, the study had some flaws which I'm too lazy to remember and list, secondly, the results of the two drugs being similar to cocaine was actually pretty expected. The blog also complained about the fact that because cognitive enhancement was in the title of the study it got it published in a journal that it otherwise wouldn't have been. Still, find the whole prozac+ritalin= cocaine interesting.