Transcendental Meditation for treating Post-traumatic stress disorder

A study funded by the Department of Defense, US Army Medical Research and done at the Department of Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System found that Transcendental Meditation works as an alternative for those who do not want to receive or do not respond to exposure-based treatments for Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

What to use instead of willpower to be more productive, according to neuroscience

A long article from medium.com goes over how the primitive part of our brain sabotages delayed gratification and how to program our brain using IF-THEN statements to stop that sabotage.

You really are on the same wavelength with your friends

Researchers from UCLA and Dartmouth College are able to have a computer program determine with 48% accuracy friendships between two people based on neural similarities.  Accuracies of identifying a friend of a friend were at 39%, friend of a friend of a friend at 31%, and friendships further removed than that at 47%.  When the program was wrong, it was usually only off by one category.

Brain activity recorded after death

In Canada, doctors observed delta waves in one patient more than 10 minutes after doctors confirmed the patient's death.

The mind isn't limited to the body

Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body from Quartz feels more like a hidden advertisement for a professor's new book than anything with solid research, but it presents the idea that the mind goes beyond the brain.

Meditation can change the brains of ordinary people and improve their health

A study published in Biological Psychiatry shows that meditation can change the brains of ordinary people and improve their health.  There's an indication in the article that other studies have not had "scientific thoroughness", but I don't know if that claim is true or not.

Meditation Affects Cancer Survivors

Researchers find that meditation maintains the length of telomeres in cancer survivors whereas they shorten in non-meditators.

The Brain During an Out-Of-Body Experience

Scientists from the University of Ottawa did an fMRI brain scan on a woman during her out-of-body experience. What it doesn't state is if they were able to confirm what she was doing, especially if it was something taking place in another room.

Mind Pool

Mind Pool - Physical feedback of a user's brainwave activity presented in real time.

This certainly brings to mind the thought of a still pond and that thoughts create the ripples.

The Effects of Sleep on the Brain

A relatively lengthy article from the New York Times on how sleep is good for the brain.

Sleep Could Produce Cells That Protect The Brain's Circuitry

A study in the Journal of Neuroscience says that sleep could produce the cells that create the insulating material known as myeline. The findings are only in mice so far, but may lead to treatment for those with Multiple Sclerosis. The production increased most during REM. It makes me wonder how many more benefits there are to sleep that science hasn't found yet.

Scientists Predict Images in Dreams

Japanese scientists were able to predict what images people saw in their dreams using MRI scans, according to BBC News.  They accomplished 60% accuracy.

Who knows, this could eventually lead to a machine that we could hook up to and report what we saw in our dreams.  It could be an interesting way to jog the brain to remember the dreams from the previous night.

Matt Killingsworth, Track Your Happiness, and the Wandering Mind

Matt Killingsworth wondered if staying in the present was important to being happy, so created Track Your Happiness to gather data to try to answer that question. As it turns out, a wandering mind is more likely to be unhappy. Just another reason to meditate!

Amy Cuddy On "Power Posing"

Amy Cuddy discusses the differences in high-power and low-power posing, how it affects confidence, and how it can change the levels of testosterone and cortisol in the brain.

Self-control, Cravings, and the Brain

Researchers have found that self-control is managed by the part of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.  They've also found that exerting a lot of self-control at one time will make it harder to exert self-conrol in the short term.  The article from Men's Health also gives some tips for using self-control resources more wisely.

Mapping the Mindful Brain

Episode 259 of the Buddhist Geeks podcast interviews Dr. Judson Brewer about his work of studying the effects of meditation on the brain.  The podcast also discusses meditators using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to get immediate feedback on their practice.  There's also discussion on using this to test the various products out there to see how effective they are.

Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do

Joshua Foer describes an interesting technique for memorizing things.  The video kept my attention through out.  A good presentation.

Brain Scans Predict Math Errors

A University of Arizona doctoral student finds that an EEG brain scan can predict, with 80% accuracy, when SAT math students will make a mistake within 20 seconds of beginning the problem.

The student is looking at brain wave data, but the article does not go into details about which brain waves he is looking at or what kind of patterns predict the mistake.  I'm guessing that the beta wave is involved, but is the indicator the beta wave levels being different between the right and left sides of the brain?  Or is it a strengthening of one of the other brain wave types?

Where There's A Will

Episode 135 of Dr. Kiki's Science Hour discusses the science of will power, including how it relates to the brain and some discussion on how meditation affects the brain.

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson talks about brainwave entrainment

The Insights at the Edge podcast has an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Thompson on brainwave entrainment - a good episode if you are curious about brainwave entrainment or if you just like hearing more about it.