Twitter with your brain

"GO BADGERS" isn't an unusual message to get from the University of Wisconsin at Madison - particularly when it's a status update from Twitter, the texting service that limits users to 140 characters at a time. The unusual thing about this message is how it got to Twitter in the first place:via brain waves. University of Wisconsin doctoral student Adam Wilson's cheer for the hometown team is among the first direct brain-to-Twitter messages ever sent - and it points the way to better communication systems for paralyzed patients who have to cope with the conditions faced by physicist Stephen Hawking and the late Jean-Dominique Bauby, author of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Click to read more ...

The Chairman's Message - The CLF Newsletter - Creative Behaviour Issue (April 2009)

Everyone thinks about creativity and how it is applied differently. Every single creative conversation is different. Every single explanation for how creativity and its outcome, innovation is correct. So how can we know and differentiate between which process is right for us, what works for us and doesn't? Research around creativity and the way we behave has been going on for over 150 years. Out of the generally discredited science of phrenology in the 18th century grew 19th century psychiatry and now neuroscience. The Journal for Creative Behaviour, an unheralded academic journal, has been turning out erudite and insightful research articles quarterly for over 60 years on creative thinking, creative processes and creativity generally.

Click to read more ...

Neuroscience: What is Brain Plasticity?

Neuroscience has changed considerably in the past 20 years. An example of change over period is the concept of brain plasticity. Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to rewire itself, relocating information processing functions to different brain areas and/or neural networks. Two decades ago, it was believed that brain networks were static after its initial formation period. Now that belief has changed. The study of brain plasticity has profound implications in human learning and behaviour, and as such, for mental health. To better understand this concept, let’s take a quick tour of the human brain, neural networks, and the plastic potential therein.

Click to read more ...

Brain neurons can remodel connections

An associate professor of neurobiology at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and colleagues are finding that neurons in the adult brain can remodel their connections. This could lead to creating growth in cells and regions normally unable to repair themselves.

Click to read more ...