jtotheizzoe:

I know I said I was done posting cool photos of the recent annular “ring of fire” eclipse, but this one just found its way to me and I can’t resist. Here’s the story behind the photo.

(photo by Michael Chow, Arizona Republic)

ikenbot:

How The Brain Turns Reality Into Dreams

Dreams make perfect sense when you’re having them. Yet, they leave you befuddled the next morning, wondering “where did that come from?” The answer may lie in the dreams of people with amnesia, researchers report in an issue of Science.

Much of the fodder for our dreams comes from recent experiences. For this reason, scientists have tentatively supposed that the dreaming brain draws from its “declarative memory” system, which includes newly learned information.

The declarative memory stores information that you can “declare” you know, such as the square root of nine, or the name of your dog. Often, you can even remember when or where you learned something - for example, the day you discovered the harsh truth about Santa Claus. That’s called episodic memory.

People who permanently suffer from amnesia can’t add new declarative or episodic memories. The parts of their brains involved in storing this type of information, primarily a region called the hippocampus, have been damaged. Although amnesiacs can retain new information temporarily, they generally forget it a few minutes later.

If our dreams come from declarative memories, people with amnesia shouldn’t dream at all, or at least dream differently than others do. But new research directed by Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School suggests quite the opposite. Just like people with normal memory, amnesiacs replay recent experiences when they fall asleep, Stickgold’s study shows. The only difference seems to be that the amnesiacs don’t recognize what they’re dreaming about.

Dreaming of Tetris

Every day, the people in the study played several hours of the computer game Tetris, which requires directing falling blocks into the correct positions as they reach the bottom of the screen. At night, the amnesiacs didn’t remember playing the game. But, they did describe seeing falling, rotating blocks while they were falling asleep.

A second group of players with normal memories reported seeing the same images. Therefore, Stickgold’s research team concluded, dreams must come from the types of memory amnesiacs do have, which are called “implicit memories.” These are memories that scientists can measure even when individuals don’t know that they have them.

One class of implicit memories is found in the procedural memory system, which stores information that you use without really being able to say how you know what you’re doing. When you ride a bicycle for the first time in years, or type on a keyboard without looking, you’re relying on procedural memory.

Another type of implicit memory uses “semantic” knowledge, and resides in different parts of the brain, including a region called the neocortex. Semantic knowledge involves general, abstract concepts. Both groups of Tetris players, for example, only described seeing blocks, falling and rotating, and evidently did not see a desk, room, or computer screen, or feel their fingers on the keyboard.

Without help from the hippocampus, new semantic memories are too weak to be intentionally recalled. But they can still affect your behavior - for example, causing you to buy a certain brand of something you saw in an advertisement you don’t remember.

In contrast, the information in episodic memories is associated with specific times, places or events. Without these “anchors” to reality, it’s no wonder that dreams are so illogical and full of discontinuity, the study’s authors say.

Stickgold believes that dreams serve a purpose for the brain, allowing it to make necessary emotional connections among new pieces of information. “Dreams let you consolidate and integrate your experiences, without conflict with other input from real life,” Stickgold said. “Dreaming is like saying, ‘I’m going home, disconnecting the phone, nobody talk to me. I have to do work.’”

Because the hippocampus seems to be inaccessible for this “off-line” memory processing, the brain may use the abstract information in the neocortex instead. According to Stickgold’s theory, dreaming is like choosing an outfit by reaching into bins labeled “shirts,” “pants” and so on. You’ll rummage up something to wear, but it won’t be a perfectly matching ensemble.

Full Article..

© 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Click here for more information on Dreams

(Source: fyeahwiccanraven, via fuckyeahpaganism)

victoriousvocabulary:

FLIDAIS

[noun]

a female mythological figure in early Irish literature, including the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Metrical Dindsenchas and the Ulster Cycle. She is a shape-shifter and member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, known by the epithet Foltchaín (“beautiful hair”). She was considered the goddess of the forest, woodlands, and wild things.

decaturjim:

Popular Health Supplements: The Scientific Evidence

The value of various dietary supplements is sometimes hard to evaluate, given the conflicting reports and misinformation often transmitted by the media and marketing departments.  Presented here is a rather brilliant infographic that visualises popular dietary supplements according to their tangible health benefits as supported by scientific evidence.

The image is presented as a “balloon race”, where the higher the bubble indicates the greater the scientific evidence for its effectiveness.  Importantly, the supplements are only effective for those conditions listed inside the bubble. Some supplements also appear in multiple bubbles as they have been shown to affect a range of conditions, but the evidence varies.

Head here for the updated interactive version.

(via r4dicalnotion)

victoriousvocabulary:

TERRA DEUS

[phrase]

Latin: landing belonging to god[s]; divine land.

[click here for alternative version]

(Source: darkhorsewhiteponies, via mountainwilderness)