Neuroscience: The default brain network - humming along while we're idle

Here's an interesting summary on the default network in the brain, the one that's active when we aren't thinking about anything. (Tina Hesman Saey, "You are who you are by default" ScienceNews, July 18, 2009) Difficulty maintaining the network intact may be a factor in Alzheimer syndrome and schizophrenia.

Long overdue TV series: Mysteries of the Mind

By mysteries, I don't mean the woo-woo factor, I mean stuff that challenges our comprehension and exerciss our gift for wonder: Norman Doidge, psychiatrist and author of The Brain that Changes Itself, will be introducing each segment of Mysteries of the Mind, exploring - among other subjects - Alzheimer Syndrome. At the other end of the spectrum from memory loss, we have:

Brain Man

Friday January 16 2009 at 9 pm

Following Daniel Tammet, one of the world’s few savants as he calculates pi to over 20,000 places in his head, as he meets Kim Peek, who was the inspiration for the film Rain Man, as he makes a killing at the blackjack tables in Las Vegas, and as he learns to speak Icelandic in a week.

You can see why they call it "Mysteries of the Mind."

Hat tip: Stephanie West Allen at Brains on Purpose

Oh, and I just noticed that here Doidge comments on porn addiction changing the brain. TO some extent, we become what we choose to pay attenton to.

See also:

Neuroplasticity: Growing public recognition greets Norman Doidge's new book

More on Norman Doidge and The Brain That Changes Itself ...

Alzheimer helps atheist appreciate God ... yes, really

Who would have thought that atheist science fiction writer Terry Pratchett, who was angry with God for not existing, would grow to appreciate God though his Alzheimer disease?

As the London Times's Robert Watts tells it,

The 60-year-old creator of the Discworld series has spoken of an unexplained experience shortly after his diagnosis with the condition.

“I’m certainly not a man of faith, but as I was rushing down the stairs one day . . . it was very strange. And I say this reluctantly, because I am trying to deal with this situation in as hardheaded a way as I can. I suddenly knew that everything was okay, that what I was doing was right, and I didn’t know why,” Pratchett said.

“It was a thought that all the right things are happening in the circumstances; and I thought, ‘Well, that’s all right then.’ I don’t actually believe in anyone who could have put that in my head – unless it was my dad, and he’s been dead a few years.”

- Robert Watts, (June 8, 2008) "Alzheimer's leads atheist Tery Pratchett to appreciate God"

I am so glad for Terry, because he has surely helped thousands by describing his illness as merely an "embuggerance".

He is, of course, right. Brain diseases are - like heart, liver, and kidney diseases - an embuggerance, to be sure. But like other diseases they can be fought, dealt with. Unfortunately, too many people have been encouraged to give up hope unnecessarily, so it is good to see pioneers like Terry leading the way.

But it seems he had a little Help, and good for him.

See also Alzheimer not an immediate mental death sentence

Alzheimer NOT an immediate mental death sentence

According to Ben Hoyle, Arts reporter for Times on Line, bestselling fantasy author Terry Pratchett, 59, is suffering a rare form of Alzheimer disease, a condition he describes as an embuggerance.

He is continuing to work, and says of his illness (at Discworld/PJSMPrints.com),

I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think -

It may indeed. A friend who is an Alzheimer education nurse insists that staying mentally active helps delay the progress of the disease. She even recommends learning another language. It sounds to me like Pratchett (who has sold 55 million books) has enough to do without that, because he continues to write, but here is some information and are some suggestions on staying mentally active, so as to slow the probgress of the disease.

The main thing, I suppose, is not to assume, without evidence, that one "can't" do things. Perhaps it's the old story: Use it or lose it.