Lots of things change our brains (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to these shows). Changes in sensory experience can cause massive rewiring of the brain, even as one ages. This rewiring involves fibers that supply the primary input to the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for sensory perception, motor control and cognition.
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It turns out that the human brain takes a series of snapshots, very quickly, that appears to us as continuous perception. This is the way a movie filmstrip works–the dark line between each frame tricks the eye and the brain to perceiving a series of still images as moving. Could this be why it is so difficult for us to see the visitors–that they can control how they synchronize with our perception?
Just as the body goes through a 24-hour sleep-wake cycle controlled by a circadian clock, brain function undergoes such cyclic activity–but at a much faster rate.
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Why do the elderly support politicians who want to do away with Medicare and Social Security? Scientists say this is because a specific area of the brain has deteriorated or is damaged.
By examining patients with various forms of brain damage, researchers have pinpointed the precise location in the human brain, called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, that controls belief and doubt, and which explains why some of us are more gullible than others.
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Drug research is changing: instead of pills, researchers are concentrating on "bioelectronics" that "zap" the brain into healing the body through electronic signaling. A lot this has to do with implants (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show). Neurological problems, from stroke and epilepsy to depression, will be treated through brain implants rather than pills or injections.
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