Category: ideas

A Japanese neuroscientist has found that “if you measured the brain activity of someone who was concentrating on a single, complex task — like studying quantum theory — several parts of that person’s brain would light up. But if you asked them to answer a rapid-fire slew of tiny, simple problems — like basic math questions — her or his brain would light up everywhere. Hence the design of [the computer game] Brain Age. It offers you nine different tests, some of which seem incredibly basic — like answering flash-card math questions — and others which are fiendishly tricky.”

“Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car.”

“The idea that ‘guts’ literally serve some cognitive function isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. Some research has found that different visceral states (e.g. indigestion, heartburn) map on to specific brain areas associated with emotion. The relationship between the gastrointestinal system and the brain is particularly complex, but little research has explored whether there is a direct link between our physical ‘guts’ and our emotional responses.”

With a few strokes of the bureaucratic pen, France has officially raised video game design to an art form, placing it alongside literature and art on the list of professions deserving of national recognition and even subsidy. “For some French officials, games are beginning to serve as an outlet for France’s creative energies, but will need nurturing and state patronage to flourish.”

“Big superstores and chain retailers were allowed to spread by planners, town councils and governments in awe of big business. But then it started to go wrong. The chains became the economic equivalent of invasive species: hungry, indiscriminate, often antisocial and destructive. When no one was paying much attention, the superstores and cloned shops grew to dominate and suffocate the economic ecosystem.”

Researchers have discovered that brain injury can affect moral judgment. In the study, victims of an injury “expressed increased willingness to kill or harm another person if doing so would save others’ lives. The finding could have implications for legal cases. Jurors have reduced sentences based on brain-imaging results, and experts say that any evidence of damage to this ventromedial area could sway judgments of moral competency in some cases.”

“Researchers have found that people with musical training have an easier time learning Chinese. Writing in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on parts of the brain that help people detect changes in pitch.”

“Cameras follow your car, GPS tracks your cell phone, software monitors your Web surfing, X-rays explore your purse, and airport scanners see through your clothes. Now comes the final indignity: machines that look into your soul.”

The question of extreme human behavior, both good and bad, is an intriguing one, especially when trying to measure one life against all others. Was Hitler evil on the extreme end of a normal human scale, or were his acts out of all proportion to the rest of humanity, placing him on his own continuum? Was Shakespeare brilliant out of all proportion to normal humanity, or was he merely one of the best on a more Earthbound scale? Journalist Ron Rosenbaum has made a career out of attempting to answer such questions.