“…people really do change their brain functions in response to experience,” said Kurt W. Fischer, the director of Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, and Education Program. “It’s just amazing how flexible the brain is. That plasticity has been a huge surprise to a whole lot of people.”
via Education Week: Scientists Find Learning Is Not ‘Hard-Wired’.
…Recently, some neuroscientists have proposed that the function of sleep is to reorganize connections and “prune” synapses—the connections between brain cells. Last year, one group of researchers, led by Gordon Wang of Stanford University reviewed the evidence for this idea in a paper called Synaptic plasticity in sleep: learning, homeostasis and disease.
This illustration, taken from their paper, shows the basic idea:
While we’re awake, your brain is forming memories. Memory formation involves a process called long-term potentiation (LTP), which is essentially the strengthening of synaptic connections between nerve cells. We also know that learning can actually cause neurons to sprout entirely new synapses.
Read the article at: The Crux | Discover Magazine.
…Not only are the ring and pinky fingers physically tethered together by a shared tendon, as anatomists long have known; measurements of neuromuscular activation patterns have shown that all fingers, including the ones with the greatest structural autonomy, the thumb and index finger, are keenly responsive to every flex and twitch of their neighboring digits.
“Even when you think you’re moving just one finger,” said Marc H. Schieber, a professor of neurology and neurobiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, “you’re really controlling your entire hand.”…
A Gripping Tale – Each Flick of a Finger Takes the Work of Five – NYTimes.com.
Dr. Terry Wahls learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair.
Two of California’s largest health insurers have agreed to pay for costly behavioral therapy for thousands of autistic children — services the companies have long resisted covering.
Under pressure from regulators, Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross said they would pick up the initial cost of a treatment known as applied behavior analysis.
via Autism, healthcare: Anthem, Blue Shield to cover therapy for autistic children – latimes.com.
I’m not familiar with applied behavior analysis, but I have seen what ABM can do for children. (And it’s nothing less than amazing). Wouldn’t it be great if parents could use their insurance to choose the treatment that would give their children the best chance at a happy, healthy life?