News Day!
Machine Means Ends to Sleepless Nights - A device worn on the head could in squeeze the benefit of eight hours’ sleep into just two or three hours. Scientists in the US used a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to induce slow waves - indicative of the deepest phase of sleep and essential for learning ability and mood, in a group of sleeping volunteers. (This story is just for Mad … who has no other name but Mad. I’ve never seen him mad … so it’s all kinda weird to me. /randomness)
The face, not the body, attracts a mate - Body builders and gym buffs, look away now. It appears that the opposite sex is much more interested in your face than your bulging biceps or elegant figure, especially if you’re a man. At least that’s the upshot of the first study to assess how much faces and bodies contribute to someone’s overall attractiveness.
Gut Almighty! - Intuitions, or gut feelings, are sudden, strong judgments whose origin we can’t immediately explain. Although they seem to emerge from an obscure inner force, they actually begin with a perception of something outside—a facial expression, a tone of voice, a visual inconsistency so fleeting you’re not even aware you noticed.
A Frown or A Smile? Children With Autism Can’t Discern - When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say. Eyes can smolder or twinkle. Gazes can be direct or shifty. “Reading” these facial expressions gives context and meaning to the words we hear. In a report presented May 5 at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Seatlle, researchers from UCLA explained that children with autism can’t do this. They hear and they see, of course, but the areas of the brain that normally respond to such visual cues simply do not respond.
mental and emotional health, sleep, transcranial magnetic stimulation, University of Wisconsin, attraction, body building, working out, attractiveness, University of Western Australia, Psychology Today, intuition, gut feelings, inner force, The Second Brain, Columbia University, Brazilian School of Business and Public Administration, autism, facial expressions, International Meeting for Autism Research, UCLA, visual cues, children
May 16th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I remember reading about that transcranial gizmo thing and thinking there’s no way I would trust a machine to slow down my brain waves. What if they refused to get back up to speed? It could happen, you know.