by Nora Schultz WHAT does the human brain sound like? Now you can find out thanks to a technique for turning its flickering activity into music. Listening to scans may also give new insights into the differences and similarities between normal and dysfunctional brains. Brain scans created using functional MRI consist of a series of images in which different areas light up with varying intensity at different times. These can be used to determine which parts of the brain are active during a particular task. To turn such scans into music, philosopher Dan Lloyd at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, identified regions that become active together and assigned each of these groups a different pitch. He then created software that analyses a series of scans and generates the notes at these pitches as the corresponding brain areas light up. Each note is played at a volume that corresponds to the intensity of activity. When Lloyd fed the software a set of scans of his own brain taken as he switched between driving a virtual-reality car and resting, he found that he could detect the switch-over in the sounds. Lloyd then gave the software scans taken from volunteers with dementia and schizophrenia, and from healthy volunteers. The brains of people with schizophrenia switched between low and high activity more erratically than healthy brains, allowing the two types of brain to be distinguished by sound alone. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hearing; Alzheimers
Link ID: 13017 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People who have a particular gene flaw and live alone in middle-age are at highest risk of developing dementia, researchers suggest. The risk affects those who split up or were widowed from their long-term partner before the age of 50, Sweden's Karolinska Institute found. Researchers say the APOE variant 4 is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's. However, UK experts said there are many ways of reducing dementia risk. As the world's population ages, dementia is a growing concern. In 2005 around 25m people had dementia, but the number is expected to be around 81m by 2040. The researchers studied 2,000 men and women from eastern Finland aged around 50 and again 21 years later. They looked at their marital status and also carried out genetic tests to see if they carried the gene APOE variant 4. People living alone in middle-age had twice the risk of dementia than those who were living with a partner. But widows and widowers had three times the risk of dementia. And those with the APOE gene variant who had lost their partners and remained living alone had the highest risk of all of developing Alzheimer's. The team, led by Dr Krister Hakannson, said the results were important for preventing dementia and cognitive impairment. They also said "supportive intervention" could be helpful for people who had lost a partner. Writing in the British Medical Journal online, they said: "Living in a relationship with a partner might imply cognitive and social challenges that have a protective effect against cognitive impairment in later life." (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13016 - Posted: 07.04.2009

Medical research out of the University of British Columbia suggests the number of children taking medications known as atypical antipsychotics has increased tenfold over the past decade, CBC News has learned. The drugs — a class of medicines used to treat psychosis and other mental and emotional conditions — can have potentially serious side-effects, and are linked to increases in stroke and sudden death in adults. Health Canada has not approved atypical antipsychotics for children. "None of the atypical antipsychotics approved in Canada [Risperidone, Quetiapine, Olanzapine, Clozapine, Paliperidone, Ziprasidone] are indicated for use in children," Philippe Laroche, a Health Canada spokesman, told CBC News in an email on Thursday. Colin Dormuth is an epidemiologist who reviewed all prescriptions involving atypical antipsychotics and written for children in B.C. over the last decade. He says he found a tenfold increase in prescriptions of atypical antipsychotics for children 14 and under. Also called neuroleptics or second-generation antipsychotics, they include risperidone (Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and olanzapine (Zyprexa). Dormuth was surprised at the young age of some of the children on the powerful medications, he told CBC. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13015 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey You may not be riding the latest social wave on Facebook or MySpace, or tweeting your every impulse to fans on Twitter. But your brain is hooked on networking. Vision works because different brain regions link up to connect the dots of light and color into a meaningful picture of the world. Language depends on networks of neural circuitry that make sense of the words you hear or see and that help you generate your side of the conversation. Networks of nerves control the motion of your muscles, allowing you to move smoothly and, when necessary, swiftly. Networks are the “in” thing for brain scientists, as surely as they have been for online social butterflies. Scientists learn about the brain’s networks by asking people to perform all sorts of mental acrobatics — interpreting optical illusions, solving riddles, taking tests of mental or muscular skills. But some neuroscientists think they can learn even more about the brain by asking volunteers to just lie back, close their eyes and let their minds wander. Such unstructured journeys of the mind — be they planning tonight’s dinner, thinking about that meeting at work and what your boss said afterward, debating whether to drive or fly for your next vacation, or recalling that day in your childhood when you first sat in your new tree house listening to birds chirp —turn out to offer clues about one of the most important, mysterious and well-connected networks of all. It’s called the default mode network, and it’s responsible for what the brain does when it is doing nothing in particular. It’s the brain’s core, both physically and mentally, and it’s better connected to the brain’s system of circuits than Kevin Bacon is to movie stars. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Brain imaging; Attention
Link ID: 13014 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Ewen Callaway, Boston A gadget that could sneak a glimpse inside an astronaut's brain has cleared a significant hurdle, operating successfully aboard an aircraft that simulates the weightlessness of outer space. Eventually, the device could be used to remotely monitor astronauts for signs of brain injury, depression and even mental fatigue that could compromise their ability to make a critical repair of equipment. Gary Strangman, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is leading development of the non-invasive scanner, which fires weak pulses of near-infrared light into the brain, then reads back what's reflected. Called near-infrared optical spectroscopy, the approach equates changes in blood flow to brain activity, much like a functional MRI scanner (see Tiny scanner may monitor astronauts' mental health). Aboard a mission, the device could help explain why astronauts sometimes suffer from depression, as well as provide an objective gauge of an astronaut's mental state. The scanner has already garnered $400,000 in NASA funding, but to receive more – and eventually, make it aboard a space mission, it must first pass a series of technological hurdles. In June, researchers tested the device in Florida on an aircraft that achieves periods of weightlessness by flying in steep parabolas. The flight showed the device works outside controlled lab settings, and crucially, that it works in weightlessness. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 13013 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Aimee Cunningham Americans consume more fructose than ever before, yet concerns remain that the sugar, used to sweeten beverages and processed foods, poses health risks. In animals, fructose-rich diets increase the production of fat and promote resistance to the energy-regulating hormone insulin. New research suggests that memory suffers as well, at least in rats. Neuroscientist Marise B. Parent of Georgia State University and her col­leagues fed 11 adolescent rats a diet in which fructose supplied 60 percent of the calories. For 10 other rats, cornstarch took the place of the sweetener. The scientists trained the rats to find a submerged platform in a pool, with the help of surrounding cues. Two days after the training ended, Parent’s group removed the pool’s platform and recorded where the rats—now adults—swam. Whereas the control group spent most of its time around the platform’s old location, the fructose-fed rats visited this area significantly less often. “They can learn” the platform’s location, Parent notes, “but they just can’t remember it for long periods.” Another research group has shown in hamsters that insulin resistance can affect the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for learning and remem­bering facts and events. Parent’s team is examining whether the hippocampus of the memory-impaired rats became resis­tant to the hormone. Parent is also interested in how the addition of glucose, another sugar, would affect her results. The body metabolizes fructose and glucose differently, she explains. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13012 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Mairi McCleod DEEP in the Atlantic forests of Brazil lives the muriqui - the world's most peaceful and egalitarian primate. Or is it? The cuddly reputation of the "hippy monkey" has taken a battering after a gang of six were spotted attacking and killing an adult male. The victim, an old male, died an hour after receiving savage bites to his face, body and genitals. The observations, published this week in the American Journal of Primatology (DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20713), show how lifestyles may dramatically alter the behaviour of a species. The muriqui's peaceful reputation stems mainly from northern populations that feed on abundant leaves, and where males patiently queue to mate with females. But in the southern population where the attack took place, fruit is more widely available than in the north, and this may provide a clue to the assault, says Mauricio Talebi of the Federal University of São Paulo-Diadema, Brazil, who led the research. Because fruit is widely dispersed, females detach from the main group to locate it, making them less available for sex with the males than in the north where everyone stays together to eat leaves. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13011 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have uncovered new evidence suggesting that damage to nerve cells in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) accumulates because the body’s natural mechanism for repairing the nerve coating called myelin stalls out. The new research, published by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David H. Rowitch and colleagues in the July 2009 issue of the journal Genes & Development, shows that repair of nerve fibers is hampered by biochemical signals that inhibit cellular repair workers in the brain, called oligodendrocytes. The symptoms of MS, which range from tingling and numbness in the limbs to loss of vision and paralysis, develop when nerve cells lose their ability to transmit a signal. Axons, which are the fibrous cables radiating from nerve cells, transmit impulses to neighboring neurons. They are dependent on myelin, which protects nerve cells and helps transmit their electrical signals properly. In people with MS, immune cells attack and erode this protective layer of myelin. In the early stages of the disease, damage accumulates in the myelin sheath only, but it does not affect the nerve cells themselves. Later on, axons without myelin and the nerve cells themselves die. Although damaged myelin can usually be repaired, in some people with MS the repair effort is inefficient, said Rowitch, who is at the University of California, San Francisco. This could be because oligodendrocytes themselves might not work properly, or they may be killed off by the disease. Rowitch explained that in chronically demyelinated areas of the central nervous system, oligodendrocyte precursor cells have been found, but they appear stalled in development and never become fully functional oligodendrocytes. © 2009 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Glia
Link ID: 13010 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Obesity rates in the US have surged over the last year, a report shows. The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found adult obesity rates rose in 23 of the 50 states, but fell in none. In addition, the percentage of obese and overweight children is at or above 30% in 30 states. The report warns widespread obesity is fuelling rates of chronic disease, and is responsible for a large, and growing chunk of domestic healthcare costs. Obesity is linked to a range of health problems, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Dr Jeff Levi, TFAH executive director, said: "Our health care costs have grown along with our waist lines. The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the US. How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?" The US government has set a target of cutting obesity rates in all 50 states to 15% by next year. However, the report said this target was certain to be missed. For the fifth year in a row, Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5%. Three other states - West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee - also had adult obesity rates in excess of 30%. In just one state - Colorado - was the adult obesity rate below 20%. In 1991, no state had an adult obesity rate above 20%, and in 1980 the national average for adult obesity was 15%. Mississippi also had the highest rate of obese and overweight children (ages 10 to 17) at 44.4%. Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rate at 23.1%. Childhood obesity rates in the US have more than tripled since 1980. The report warns that the current economic crisis could exacerbate the obesity epidemic by driving up food prices, particularly for nutritious foods. (C)BBC

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13009 - Posted: 07.02.2009

By GARDINER HARRIS and DUFF WILSON WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular drugs to stop smoking should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reports mount of suicides among the drugs’ users. But officials emphasized that fear should not stop patients from taking the smoking-cessation medicines, Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline, which also sells it under the brand name Wellbutrin, for depression. “Stopping smoking is a goal we should all be working towards,” said Dr. Curtis J. Rosebraugh, director of a drug evaluation office at the Food and Drug Administration. “We don’t want to scare people off from trying a medication that could help them achieve this goal. You should just be careful.” Pfizer will add a so-called black box warning — the F.D.A.’s most serious caution — to the packaging information for Chantix. The Pfizer drug, introduced in 2006, has about 90 percent of the market for prescription smoking-cessation drugs, according to IMS Health, a health care information company. Even so, Chantix sales — $846 million in 2008 — had been less than Pfizer had hoped because of previous warnings of its side effects. Glaxo will expand its existing black box warning on Wellbutrin, citing suicidal thoughts by patients who use it for depression, to include Zyban, which has had only modest sales in the smoking cessation market. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13008 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Nicholas Wade The journal Nature held a big press conference in London Wednesday, at the World Conference of Science Journalists, to unveil three large studies of the genetics of schizophrenia. Press releases from five American and European institutions celebrated the findings, one using epithets like “landmark,” “major step forward,” and “real scientific breakthrough.” It was the kind of hoopla you’d expect for an actual scientific advance. It seems to me the reports represent more of a historic defeat, a Pearl Harbor of schizophrenia research. The defeat points solely to the daunting nature of the adversary, not to any failing on the part of the researchers, who were using the most advanced tools available. Still, who is helped by dressing up a severely disappointing setback as a “major step forward”? The principal news from the three studies is that schizophrenia is caused by a very large number of errant genes, not a manageable and meaningful handful. The rationale behind the long search for schizophrenia genes was entirely justifiable. Since schizophrenia is highly heritable, it must have a strong genetic component. And it has long seemed possible that the responsible genetic variants underlying most common diseases would also be common. Natural selection gives us strong protection against diseases that strike before the age of reproduction. But its power to eliminate harmful genes is thought to wane sharply thereafter. So bad versions of genes that are bad only late in life could build up in the population, explaining why the common diseases that strike later in life are so common. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13007 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Ewen Callaway The brain is not an equal opportunities organ, it seems. An imaging study of Chinese and Caucasian people has found that their brains respond less strongly to the pain of strangers whose ethnicity is different when compared with strangers of their own race. "It's one of a string of papers that have come out in the cognitive neuroscience literature that helps us to understand some of the unfortunate ways in which racial group identity can influence our reactions to other people," says Martha Farah, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the new study. Previous research has shown that the amygdala, a brain area implicated in fear, responds more strongly to pictures of people whose ethnicity is different from the viewer's. But these responses aren't uniform; other research has shown that activity in other brain areas can dampen the amygdala. To determine how ethnicity also sways the brain's sense of empathy, Shihui Han and colleagues at Peking University in Beijing showed 17 Chinese and 16 Caucasians volunteers videos of a person being poked in the cheek with a Q-tip cotton bud or a hypodermic syringe, while the volunteers had their brains scanned on a functional MRI machine. The films sparked activity in a region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which also lights up when people are in pain themselves. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 13006 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Laura Sanders Large collections of common genetic variants, rather than the harmful actions of just a few key mutations, probably predispose people to schizophrenia, three large genetic studies suggest. The studies, all published online July 1 in Nature, sifted through mountains of genetic data from patients with schizophrenia and people without the disease looking for spelling differences in the sequence of letters that make up the genome. The studies also turned up specific chromosome regions that probably play a role in the disease. Understanding such genetic factors, estimated to account for 80 percent of the total risk of getting schizophrenia, may ultimately lead to better treatments. “This is a pretty major breakthrough for us,” said Michael O’Donovan of Cardiff University’s School of Medicine in Wales at a July 1 press briefing. O’Donovan coauthored one of the studies as part of the International Schizophrenia Consortium. He says a person with schizophrenia probably has hundreds or thousands of risk-increasing variants. Using a method called genome-wide association, each of the three studies compared several thousand DNA samples from people diagnosed with schizophrenia with samples from thousands of others, some healthy and some with other diseases. Association studies are designed to find single letter differences, called SNPs, at many points along the DNA.Such variants popping up more frequently in the schizophrenia patients’ DNA are presumed to markers of regions of the genome that contribute to the disease. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13005 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By John P. Mello Jr. A protein found on brain cells, known to contribute to nicotine addiction, may also be the key to developing drugs for a wide range of diseases and medical conditions, including obesity, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. In a recent study, researchers at Brown University in Providence discovered the protein, called the alpha-7 receptor, has a previously unsuspected wide-ranging influence on processes within the body. It affects dozens of cellular interactions and interacts with 55 other proteins, including a separate class of receptor that is a target for about 40 percent of all therapeutic drugs. “These [receptors] as a group are very important because they control a lot of critical functions, like heart rate,’’ said Edward Hawrot, the study’s lead author and a professor of molecular science, molecular pharmacology, physiology, and technology at Brown. “What was surprising was that we saw a connection between [the] proteins, because these two receptor families are very, very different.’’ Alpha-7 receptors have long been known, but their function was something of a mystery until the Brown researchers revealed their importance. “They’ve learned that these nicotinic receptors have a profound influence on other systems in the body,’’ said J. Donald deBethizy, chief executive of Targacept in Winston-Salem, N.C., which makes drugs that target receptors. DeBethizy said the Brown research shows “the alpha-7 receptor may be at the apex of many, many important biological responses.’’ © 2009 NY Times Co

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Alzheimers
Link ID: 13004 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Toyota-sponsored researchers in Japan unveiled a brain-machine interface system on Monday that allows a person to use thoughts to direct the motion of a wheelchair. The system processes thought patterns and translates them into actions for the wheelchair, allowing for movement left, right or forward. The delay between the thought and the wheelchair action is as little as 125 milliseconds, according to the BSI-Toyota Collaboration Center, which demonstrated the technology on Monday. The system measures electrical activity in the brain through five electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes placed above the areas of the brain that handle motor movement. The sensors interpret the signals they pick up and translate them into motion. The system is capable of adjusting itself to the individual user to improve accuracy, the researchers said. At its best performance, the system achieved an accuracy rate of 95 per cent. The system also incorporates some basic motor controls: a demonstration video of the systems shows a researcher puffing out a cheek to make an emergency stop. A number of other Japanese companies, including Honda and Hitachi, have begun work on brain-machine interface technologies. In April, Honda unveiled a system that sensed a researcher's thoughts and then relayed them wirelessly to the Asimo robot, which then acted out the command, lifting its right arm when the researcher thought about raising his right arm. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 13003 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Katie Balestra Stan Starr, a 54-year-old financial consultant, sat in the back of the room filled with blue chairs, quietly tapping his Converse sneakers on the carpet. The 12 steps to recovery, enshrined by Alcoholics Anonymous, were printed in large black letters on a wall. But Starr was there because of a different drug -- a class of prescription medication called benzodiazepines. Five years ago, he couldn't sleep at night, his heart raced, he had wrenching stomach pains and felt as if his skin were crawling off his bones. He was in the midst of a 2 1/2 -year battle to withdraw from the drug Klonopin, which his psychiatrist had prescribed to him for anxiety. "I went through sheer living hell," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to make it." Benzodiazepines, often prescribed to manage anxiety, panic and sleep disorders, include Xanax, Ativan, Valium and Klonopin. Originally pushed as an alternative to barbiturates, their use has grown rapidly in the past 30 years. But critics say their long-term effects have gone largely unaddressed. Health professionals and consumers are increasingly recognizing that taking the drugs for more than a few weeks can lead to physical dependence, often ending with a grueling withdrawal. The benefits of the drugs have been heralded by both physicians and patients. On Askapatient.com, a Web site where consumers can rate medicines, one person wrote in April that Xanax was the "best thing that ever happened to me." Another wrote in March, "This drug saved my life." © 2009 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Emotions; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13002 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CARL ZIMMER LINCOLN, Mass. — Sara Lewis is fluent in firefly. On this night she walks through a farm field in eastern Massachusetts, watching the first fireflies of the evening rise into the air and begin to blink on and off. Dr. Lewis, an evolutionary ecologist at Tufts University, points out six species in this meadow, each with its own pattern of flashes. Along one edge of the meadow are Photinus greeni, with double pulses separated by three seconds of darkness. Near a stream are Photinus ignitus, with a five-second delay between single pulses. And near a forest are Pyractomena angulata, which make Dr. Lewis’s favorite flash pattern. “It’s like a flickering orange rain,” she said. The fireflies flashing in the air are all males. Down in the grass, Dr. Lewis points out, females are sitting and observing. They look for flash patterns of males of their own species, and sometimes they respond with a single flash of their own, always at a precise interval after the male’s. Dr. Lewis takes out a penlight and clicks it twice, in perfect Photinus greeni. A female Photinus greeni flashes back. “Most people don’t realize there’s this call and response going on,” Dr. Lewis said. “But it’s very, very easy to talk to fireflies.” For Dr. Lewis, this meadow is the stage for an invertebrate melodrama, full of passion and yearning, of courtship duets and competitions for affection, of cruel deception and gruesome death. For the past 16 years, Dr. Lewis has been coming to this field to decipher the evolutionary forces at play in this production, as fireflies have struggled to survive and spread their genes to the next generation. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Animal Communication
Link ID: 13001 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by David Robson HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer? Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise. Neuroscientists have long suspected as much. Only recently, however, have they come up with proof that brains work this way. Now they are trying to work out why. Some believe that near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory, and could explain why some people are smarter than others. In technical terms, systems on the edge of chaos are said to be in a state of "self-organised criticality". These systems are right on the boundary between stable, orderly behaviour - such as a swinging pendulum - and the unpredictable world of chaos, as exemplified by turbulence. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 13000 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Jim Giles BOB ROHRMAN has never had much time for computer games. He was given a console a year ago, but stopped using it after a few weeks. It's not surprising: Rohrman is 67 and suffers from tremors caused by Parkinson's disease. "The only thing I knew how to play was solitaire," he says. But in January, Rohrman got gaming again, thanks to Ben Herz, an occupational therapist at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Herz had the retired truck driver play sports games on the Nintendo Wii, a console controlled by a hand-held wand that detects movement and gestures. In tennis games, for example, players swing this "Wiimote" as they would a racket. That meant Rohrman was getting a regular workout. After playing 3 hours a week for about a month, he claimed he was a changed man. "I can move better, walk better, coordinate better," he said. After playing tennis on a Nintendo Wii 3 hours a week for about a month, he was a changed man The benefits of exercise are well known, but active console games have several advantages over traditional workouts. Video games are designed to be engaging but not too challenging - players should spend most of their time in the sweet spot between too easy and too hard. And unlike jogging or swing-ball, video games can be played in the living room, where bulging waistlines and appalling skill levels can be kept safely from public view. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Stroke; Parkinsons
Link ID: 12999 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Carl Zimmer I am going to do my best to hold your attention until the very last word of this column. Actually, I know it’s futile. Along the way, your mind will wander off, then return, then drift away again. But I can console myself with some recent research on the subject of mind wandering. Mind wandering is not necessarily the sign of a boring column. It’s just one of the things that make us human. Everybody knows what it is like for our minds to wander, and yet, for a long time psychologists shied away from examining the experience. It seemed too elusive and subjective to study scientifically. Only in the past decade have they even measured just how common mind wandering is. The answer is very. Some of the most striking evidence comes from Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara who is one of the leading researchers on mind wandering. In 2005 he and his colleagues told a group of undergraduates to read the opening chapters of War and Peace on a computer monitor and then to tap a key whenever they realized they were not thinking about what they were reading. On average, the students reported that their minds wandered 5.4 times in a 45-minute session. Other researchers have gotten similar results with simpler tasks, such as pronouncing words or pressing a button in response to seeing particular letters and numbers. Depending on the experiment, people spend up to half their time not thinking about the task at hand—even when they’ve been told explicitly to pay attention. Psychologists have also discovered ways to increase and decrease mind wandering. Jonathan Smallwood, a colleague of Schooler’s at UC Santa Barbara, instructed subjects to tap a key every time they saw a new number appear on a computer screen but to hold off tapping if the number was three.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 12998 - Posted: 06.24.2010