Conscious in Biological News

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

... "A lot of the early work in this field was on conscious decision making, but most of the decisions you make aren't based on conscious reasoning," says Pouget. "You don't consciously ... threshold, which was then reported to the conscious mind as a definite, sure answer. The subjects, ...

Study reveals effects of unconscious exposure to advertisements

... are enhanced when visual exposure occurs without conscious recognition. "This non-conscious mechanism ... visual exposure information alone, without conscious judgment, has implications for the expected ... is competing with the information from conscious recognition of the object and any subsequent ...

Unconscious decisions in the brain

... decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current ... that occurred a fraction of a second before a conscious decision. Libet's experiments were highly ... the brain that makes the decision, not a person's conscious mind. Libet's experiments were particularly ...

Cause and affect: Emotions can be unconsciously and subliminally evoked, study shows

... at varying speeds making it impossible for the participants to be fully conscious of their presence. In other words, the participants were unaware that they ... while the study did not investigate how an individual eventually becomes conscious of their emotions, the scientists did pose an additional hypothesis: When ...

OHSU researchers reveal the science of shivering

... brain wiring, is parallel to but not the same as the sensory pathway for conscious cold detection. In other words, your body is both consciously and ... the day, all of these important functions take place in the body without conscious thought. Without these important functions, humans and other animals could ...

Expecting an afternoon nap can reduce blood pressure

... such as standing and lying down without going to sleep. Nap versus conscious Rest The researchers tested nine healthy volunteers (eight men, one ... The period between lights out and the onset of Stage 1 sleep (loss of some conscious awareness of the external environment) Phase 3: The period between the ...

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

... it reaches a person's awareness. But until now, there was little way to determine what specific mental tasks were taking place prior to the point of conscious awareness. That has changed with the findings of scientists at Rutgers University in Newark and the University of California, Los Angeles who have ...

Why do we choose our mates? Ask Charles Darwin, prof says

... females of their choice or that humans spend hours primping to catch the perfect spouses it's a condition that is ingrained into all creatures and a conscious "choice" is made between the two so the romantic fireworks can begin. Jones says Darwin set the standard for original thinking about animal ...

'Shortcuts' of the mind lead to miscalculations of weight and caloric intake, says Penn study

... negative artifacts packaged within the evolved way the human brain processes information. The mind has evolved to develop a capacity to free up our conscious thinking for dangerous and reproductive situations. For example, a driver at a green light doesn't need to cycle through a series of decisions. Green ...

Single women gaze longer

... effect and introduces the possibility that sexual partner status impacts women's cognitive processing of novel male faces but not necessarily their conscious subjective appraisal," the authors wrote in the journal article. The researchers also note that influence of partner status in women could reflect ...

Neuroscientists discover long-term potentiation in the olfactory bulb

... reflect abstract concepts, such as the shape of human faces, in the visual system or melodies in the auditory system. The brain areas related to our conscious perception of the world are presumably at the top of pyramid. However, the Case Western Reserve University researchers found that the brain ...

Dolphins maintain round-the-clock visual vigilance

... the left eye, reasoning that if half of her brain was asleep during testing, the dolphin would only see the shapes through the eye connected to the conscious half of the brain. But the team were in for a surprise when they began training SAY's left eye. She already recognised the shapes, even though her ...

First neuroimaging study examining motor execution in children with autism reveals new insights

... automating motor tasks, while children with autism had increased activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA), a region of the brain important for conscious movement. This suggests children with autism have to recruit and rely on more conscious, effortful motor planning because they are not able to rely ...

MIT: How you feel the world impacts how you see it

... to these cross-modal motion aftereffects. "Neuroscientists study perceptual illusions because they help reveal how the brain gives rise to conscious experience," Moore said. "We don't experience the world through isolated senses, and our data support the emerging view that the brain is organized ...

Ma and Pa solutions to global warming

... there is an alternative that does not simply hanker for the agricultural "good-old days" which actually never existed, "We must make business climate conscious and climate consciousness profitable," he adds. Environmental change, energy shortages, and economic downturn are not discrete challenges, there ...

LocatePLUS Announces Election of Independent Board

... serve 13,500 security-sensitive clients across a spectrum of interests from homeland-security-centered public entities to security and fraud conscious private concerns such as human resource professionals, the collections industry, and even dating services. Two thousand law enforcement agencies and ...

Pay attention! Small packages may lead to overeating

... Lisbon), Rik Pieters, and Marcel Zeelenberg (both Tilburg University, the Netherlands) found that large packages triggered concern of overeating and conscious efforts to avoid doing so, while small packages were perceived as innocent pleasures, leaving the consumers unaware that they were overindulging. ...

Fresh from the grapevine to the table

... wrapping method works best when used with recyclable plastic boxes, as the plastic boxes do not absorb the SO2. A bonus for the environmentally conscious industry: plastic boxes also can be more environmentally viable than traditional cardboard boxes. ...

Primate's scent speaks volumes about who he is

... cases, there is some subtle signaling in scent that apparently helps govern mate choice or nepotism, even when humans' meager sense of smell isn't conscious of it, she said. ...

Decade of the Mind symposium in Iowa to emphasize need for $4 billion in federal support

... period, quantum leaps in neuroscience spurred development of technologies that gave researchers the tools to look non-invasively into the living, conscious brain and develop a blueprint of its structure. The Decade of the Mind initiative takes this scientific inquiry further, providing greater ...

Chloroform provides clue to 150 year old medical puzzle

... body but are predominant in the brain. We know that this ion channel plays a signalling role in the central nervous system, which regulates the conscious and unconscious states, so I was left wondering whether inhibiting this calcium ion channel was one mechanism by which anaesthesia works, says Dr ...

Great Ape Trust to gather internationally recognized scientists for Decade of the Mind III

... period, quantum leaps in neuroscience spurred development of new technologies that gave researchers the tools to look non-invasively into the living, conscious brain and develop a blueprint of its structure. The Decade of the Mind initiatives take this scientific inquiry further, providing greater ...

Most people believe smallpox not an extinct disease

... know that the horrendous, killer disease is now extinct. But theres good news too. The study, conducted by Scotinform, showed that many people are conscious of the wide range of activities of microorganisms. Three quarters of interviewees knew that microbes are used to make medicines, while 65% knew that ...

Carbon capture strategy could lead to emission-free cars

... energy strategy for automobiles that could solve each of those limitations, eventually using renewable energy sources and in an environmentally conscious way. Little research has been done to explore carbon capture from vehicles, but the Georgia Tech team outlines an economically feasible strategy ...

Hearing changes how we perceive gender

... the keys in which they are played. In contrast, it is the neglected absolute-frequency information that influences visual perception of gender. A conscious impression of your voice is not what enhances your look of masculinity or femininity, said Suzuki. Sounds seem to influence visual gender in a much ...

Trusting your instincts leads you to the right answer

... better when given almost no time to think. The conscious or top-level function of the brain, when active, ... to perform worse than our subconscious ?but the conscious mind still tends to veto the subconscious. ... as different from the original, whereas the conscious brain sees the two objects as identical. For ...

Finding the mind's eye

... brain and how it transforms visual stimuli into conscious experience. His paper, "Visibility, visual ... with the eye by identifying the neural basis of conscious experience, a relationship important to the ... to visual stimuli regardless of whether the conscious mind "sees" them or not. However, Tse and his ...

Frog peptides block HIV in lab study

... frontiers of consciousness, has theorized that conscious thought depends on the brain's ability to ... early in the night frequently report little or no conscious experience. Later in the night, and especially in ... the later stages of sleep can be associated with conscious experience, Tononi says. But why does ...

Deep sleep short-circuits brain's grid of connectivity

... frontiers of consciousness, has theorized that conscious thought depends on the brain's ability to ... early in the night frequently report little or no conscious experience. Later in the night, and especially in ... the later stages of sleep can be associated with conscious experience, Tononi says. But why does ...

New success in engineering plant oils

... of March 5, 2007. While conversion of an unsaturated oil to an oil with increased saturated fatty acid levels may not sound like a boon to those conscious about consuming unsaturated fats, "the development of new plant seed oils has several potential biotechnological applications," said Brookhaven ...

UCLA/Toronto researchers unlock key to memory storage in brain

... which suggest a new approach for preserving memory in people suffering from Alzheimer's or other brain injury. "Making a memory is not a conscious act," explained Alcino Silva, principal investigator and a professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. ...

Paying attention sets off symphony of cell synchronization

... as if you engage a symphony of brain activity that can come to your rescue as millions of neurons together make the music that represents a vivid conscious experience," added Ken Paller, professor of psychology at Northwestern and co-investigator of the study. ...

What comes first…the chicken, the egg, or the bad attitude?

... meat) are happy to shift their nutrients from the growth of their bodies to egg production, but some of them don't do it very willingly. It is not a conscious thing the bird does, but it does express a tendency of that bird to either be generous or to be selfish with its nutrients." Channelling food into ...

Blink, and the brain misses it

... even though the light falling onto the retina remained constant throughout the blink. Many of these brain areas are activated when people become conscious of visual events or objects in the outside world. "Transiently suppressing these brain areas involved in visual awareness during blinks may be a ...

How exactly does the brain control breathing?

... breathing is fundamental to the treatment of respiratory disorders. We know that breathing is an automatic rhythmic process that persists without conscious effort whether we are awake or asleep, but the question that has intrigued many scientists for well over 100 years is what maintains this almost fail ...

UCSB scientists probe sea floor venting to gain understanding of early life on Earth

... ecosystems may represent both the cradle of life on Earth and a model for the exploration and discovery of life on other planets. "We are highly conscious of the importance of microbes in the grand scheme of things," said Haymon. "Indeed, they are the greatest biomass on the planet. They are strongly ...