Brain Seems To Believe Three Arms Are Better Than One, Study Says

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Posted on 26th February 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

In a fascinating piece of brain research, Swedish scientists have been able to convince people that they have three arms.

http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/24/6118219-need-a-hand-scientists-convince-people-they-have-3-arms

The new study consisted of five experiments on 154 men and women, and the research was conducted at  the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Scientists had the test participants sit with their right arm on a table, and their left arm hidden.

A prosthetic right hand was placed next to the person’s real hand, while a piece of material was draped over the participant’s right shoulder covering everything but the forearms of both the artificial and real right arms. If a test participant looked at their right hand, it looked like they had two of them.

In one of the tests, scientists stroked the fingers of the real right hand and the fake one at the same time with different paint brushes. During the test, participants were told to look at the fake hand. Afterward, the participants said they had felt like they had two right hands.

Scientists explained that the brain has the ability “to experience an extra third arm,” according to MSNBC.com. Even though we are born with two arms, the brain can easily be fooled into believing that its body has an extra arm.

Apparently, when the brain sees an artificial arm next to a real one, it wonders which one is really its. And what happens is that the brain accepts both hands.

This odd research may have a pracical application, according to MSNBC.com. 

“The findings, for example, may benefit stroke patients who need an artificial arm because one side of their body is paralyzed,” the website reported. “Scientists would better understand how patients can control this extra arm and experience it as their own.”  

  

Florida Youth Winds Up Brain-Dead After Soccer Accident

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Posted on 21st February 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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 Add this to the list of senseless deaths of kids playing sports like soccer. 

A youth who sustained a brain injured during a soccer game last week in Jacksonville, Fla., has been declared brain dead.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=191628

Josh Walter sustained traumatic brain injury during a soccer game last Tuesday at the Jeb Stuart Middle School and was air-lifted to get medical attention. Walter had remained in critical condition, and a test Sunday found he had no brain activity. 

He is being kept on a respirator so his family can donate his organs.

The website of his church, Highlands Baptist Church, said, “Please pray for the family and friends of Joshua Walter in his passing. Details will be added as we receive them. Thank you.”

http://highlandsbaptist.net/

 

The Bilingual Have The Edge In Staving Off Alzheimer’s Disease

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Posted on 19th February 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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New research has found that being bilingual can help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Associated Press. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/18/v-print/2073892/speaking-2-languages-may-delay.html

The study was conducted by Ellen Bialystock, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto. Her research was sparked by what we know about babies, which is that just talking to them in two languages prompts them to learn both tongues in the time it takes most babies to learn one.

The belief is that the babies’ brains become better equipped to multitask. So Bialystock decided to look into the impact of knowing two languages on the elderly.

Her research involved 450 Alzheimer’s patients, who were all at the same level when diagnosed. Half of them had spoken two languages for much of their lives, while the rest only spoke one language.

The bilingual patients started to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s and were diagnosed with it four to five years later than those who spoke only one language, Bialystock reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Of course, being bilingual doesn’t mean you wanted get Alzheimer’s. But the belief is when you know two languages, the brain must always be working to inhibit one, and that activity helps keep you sharp.