Tag Archive: brain
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When Life is Unfair
Don’t even think of trying to rip me off…
If you find that the daily injustices of life make you more irate that most others, it could be that you have an overdeveloped Insular Cortex.
The insula responds to internal body signals, such as pain, heart rate and temperature, but new research has hinted at role for the walnut-sized structure in detecting social norms and fairness. When you have deviations in fairness the insula revs into action, Montague says. - New Scientist
That explains a lot for me.
On the contrary, lack of response to signals of mistrust may indicate a poorly functioning insula and borderline personality disorder.
Learning Makes you Smarter
Get Wired
12 Hacks That Will Amp Up Your Brainpower
Learning new things actually strengthens your brain — especially when you believe you can learn new things. It’s a virtuous circle: When you think you’re getting smarter, you study harder, making more nerve-cell connections, which in turn makes you … smarter. This effect shows up consistently among experimental subjects, from seventh graders to college students to businesspeople.
This actually explains a lot for me. I’ve found that the older I get, the more rapidly I assimilate information and my capacity to do so has expanded. It is almost to the point of addiction. Yet I don’t see this happening to the people around me.
The “virtuous circle” seems accurate if you have the propensity… and the access to information. I believe if I didn’t have access to the firehose of factoids pouring out of the web, this effect would be significantly muted.
Piotr Wozniak: How to Become a Genius
Just be perfect and think naturally
Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn?
- You must clarify your goals,
- gain knowledge through spaced repetition,
- preserve health,
- work steadily,
- minimize stress,
- refuse interruption, and
- never resist sleep when tired.
This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity.
The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life.
The paedophile tumor
How to get a head in child porn
Brain tumour causes uncontrollable paedophilia
The sudden and uncontrollable paedophilia exhibited by a 40-year-old man was caused by an egg-sized brain tumour, his doctors have told a scientific conference. And once the tumour had been removed, his sex-obsession disappeared.
This is interesting because it points to the organic/biological nature of paedophilia. Generally recidivism for paedophilia is very high - up to 40% or more.
If it is clearly demonstrated that a person has no control over such urges, then more research into medical interventions (as opposed to strictly penal interventions) could be justified.
The man, a schoolteacher, began secretly visiting child pornography web sites and soliciting prostitutes at massage parlours, activities he had not engaged in previously. Swerdlow says while the man felt that his new behaviour was unacceptable, “in his words, the ‘pleasure principle’ overrode his restraint”.
