Website review: The REAL brain drain: Modern techno...
pseudonym discovered this in Neuroscience
•12 reviews since May 9, 2008
neuroscience, imagination, science
•dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technolog...
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pseudonym discovered 2 months ago- From the page: "The REAL brain drain: Modern technology - including violent video games - is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist . . . The brain, in other words, is malleable - not just in early childhood but right up to early adulthood, and, in certain instances, beyond." It's this article's discussion of the malleability, or plasticity, of the human brain and how it consequently adjusts to our modern life that I find most interesting. Contrasting this today to what the brain was subjected to three hundred or so years ago is well worth some serious consideration. Have we human beings not, more or less, made our brains guinea pigs of change--and, perhaps, change that we are only just now realizing may not be change for the good.
- kavisho9 rated 2 months ago
- Unless we wake up to the damage that the gadget-filled, pharmaceutically-enhanced 21st century is doing to our brains, we could be sleepwalking towards a future in which neuro-chip technology blurs the line between living and non-living machines, and between our bodies and the outside world. It would be a world where such devices could enhance our muscle power, or our senses, beyond the norm, and where we all take a daily cocktail of drugs to control our moods and performance. Already, an electronic chip is being developed that could allow a paralysed patient to move a robotic limb just by thinking about it. Thanks for the heads up Javamanjoe!
- javamanjoe rated 2 months ago
- THE REAL BRAIN DRAIN--VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES CHANGE THE WAY THE BRAIN WORKS. Thanks 'aliasinkhorn'. And it's caused by one simple fact: the human brain, that most sensitive of organs, is under threat from the modern world. Unless we wake up to the damage that the gadget-filled, pharmaceutically-enhanced 21st century is doing to our brains, we could be sleepwalking towards a future in which neuro-chip technology blurs the line between living and non-living machines, and between our bodies and the outside world.
- aliasinkhorn rated 2 months ago
- The REAL brain drain: Modern technology - including violent video games - is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist From the page: "But with our brains now under such widespread attack from the modern world, there's a danger that that cherished sense of self could be diminished or even lost. Anyone who doubts the malleability of the adult brain should consider a startling piece of research conducted at Harvard Medical School. There, a group of adult volunteers, none of whom could previously play the piano, were split into three groups. The first group were taken into a room with a piano and given intensive piano practise for five days. The second group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano - but had nothing to do with the instrument at all. And the third group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano and were then told that for the next five days they had to just imagine they were practising piano exercises. The resultant brain scans were extraordinary. Not surprisingly, the brains of those who simply sat in the same room as the piano hadn't changed at all. Equally unsurprising was the fact that those who had performed the piano exercises saw marked structural changes in the area of the brain associated with finger movement. But what was truly astonishing was that the group who had merely imagined doing the piano exercises saw changes in brain structure that were almost as pronounced as those that had actually had lessons. "The power of imagination" is not a metaphor, it seems; it's real, and has a physical basis in your brain. Alas, no neuroscientist can explain how the sort of changes that the Harvard experimenters reported at the micro-cellular level translate into changes in character, personality or behaviour. But we don't need to know that to realise that changes in brain structure and our higher thoughts and feelings are incontrovertibly linked." The excerpt above indicates the potential for the brain to change. The article raises the concern of the impact on 'mind'. A more difficult task given the rigors of scientific proof. Yet given this, I believe there is an impact, in deed, a siginficant one. There have been various behavioural studies over the years that suggest it is the case here.
- Jecrell rated 2 months ago
- Simply, I disagree.
- fussypants rated 2 months ago
- FTP- "However, playing certain games can mimic addiction, and that the heaviest users of these games might soon begin to do a pretty good impersonation of an addict. Throw in circumstantial evidence that links a sharp rise in diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the associated three-fold increase in Ritalin prescriptions over the past ten years with the boom in computer games and you have an immensely worrying scenario"
- jakad rated 2 months ago
- Fascinating. The medical research being conducted today is phenomenal. Within the next five to ten years, we'll see a significant number of diseases and disorders eradicated.
- railmeat rated 2 months ago
The Real Brain Drain
"At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli. The brain, in other words, is malleable - not just in early childhood but right up to early adulthood, and, in certain instances, beyond. The surrounding environment has a huge impact both on the way our brains develop and how that brain is transformed into a unique human mind. Of course, there's nothing new about that: human brains have been changing, adapting and developing in response to outside stimuli for centuries. What prompted Susan Greenfield to write 'The Quest For Identity In The 21st Century' is that the pace of change in the outside environment and in the development of new technologies has increased dramatically. Our brains are under the influence of an ever- expanding world of new technology: multichannel television, video games, MP3 players, the internet, wireless networks, Bluetooth links - the list goes on and on. But our modern brains are also having to adapt to other 21st century intrusions, some of which, such as prescribed drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, are supposed to be of benefit, and some of which, such as widelyavailable illegal drugs like cannabis and heroin, are not. Electronic devices and pharmaceutical drugs all have an impact on the micro- cellular structure and complex biochemistry of our brains. And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behaviour and our characteristics. In short, the modern world could well be altering our human identity."
Folks, it's not just a populist theory, the military already has applicated the 'benefits' of the video game generation:
Further reading for people who are sceptical about the article above:
Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War (*)
The Washington Post, Feb 14, 2006
This is the video game generation of soldiers. " 'Ctrl+Alt+Del,' " the U.S. Army noted in a recent study, "is as basic as 'ABC.' " And computer simulations -- as military officials prefer to call them -- have transformed the way the United States military fights wars, as well as soldiers' ways of killing.
"There's been a huge change in the way we prepare for war, and the soldiers we're training now are the children of the digital age who grew up with GameBoys," says retired Rear Adm. Fred Lewis, a 33-year U.S. Navy veteran who now heads the National Training Systems Association, a trade group that every year puts on the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, the military counterpart of the glitzy Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Lt. Col. Scott Sutton, director of the technology division at Quantico Marine Base, where the mock-up M16s are used, says soldiers in this generation "probably feel less inhibited, down in their primal level, pointing their weapons at somebody." That, in effect, "provides a better foundation for us to work with," he adds.
Pediatric Ritalin Use May Affect Developing Brain (*)
- Silias rated 2 months ago
- From the page: "some of which, such as prescribed drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, are supposed to be of benefit, and some of which, such as widelyavailable illegal drugs like cannabis and heroin, are not." Yes because the mind numbing prozac is a benefit and the mind expanding and creativity inducing cannabis is not. This just negates everything of value from the page, for me, because it calls into question the authors basic reasoning skills, not to mention whatever source material he used.
- jack-black rated 2 months ago
'One of my colleagues recently suggested that someone could be fitted with a cochlear implant (devices that convert sound waves into electronic impulses and enable the deaf to hear) and a skull-mounted micro- chip that converts brain waves into words (a prototype is under research). Then, if both devices were connected to a wireless network, we really would have arrived at the point which science fiction writers have been getting excited about for years. Mind reading!'
Maybe when Shakespeare said 'Thinking does not make it so...' he was wrong. A thought-provoking but ultimately highly speculative article by Oxford prof Susan Greenfield. It's hard enough getting my own thoughts into words, let alone mind-reading someone else's. She is exhibiting a real 'category mistake' (loose thinking) if she believes this is possible. Like SU's imorgen I trust neither The Daily Mail nor Susan Greenfield to tell it like it is. One's never quite sure with media scientists whether they're just pushing for another research grant, and the Mail trade happily on their reader's anxities telling tall tales to shift more sales of bales! I'll have to go check out the Harvard Med School research and see what sample size was used. I know there's some interesting MRI research on the malleability of brains and how they aren't formed till early adulthood -- the only bit of real science in her entire piece -- being done at the moment out of King's College London...
Centre for the Cellular Basis of Behaviour
The James Black Centre,
Kings College London
Institute of Psychiatry
125 Coldharbour Lane
London SE5 9NU
United Kingdom
But some of Suaan Greenfield's earlier books on the brain are admirably clearlyl-written.
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/porter2.html
- imorgen rated 2 months ago
- I don't trust the Mail (or to be honest, Susan Greenfield) not to be sensationalist and the irony of this article about how the brain is literally shaped by input can't be lost on those who feel the same. The agenda-laden corporate media could be considered as dangerously formative. In a society where the sex lives or dietary habits of celebrities are considered more newsworthy than world-changing political happenings, where sex stereotyping is the norm and women are still portrayed as whores, virgins or mothers - only now with expensive 'improvements' - there is something gravely wrong. Having said that, it is an interesting read - makes you think: but how...?
