Proponen que hubo un cerebro primigenio comun

Mother of All Brains Probed

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

­ All brains originated from a single common ancestral brain that emerged
at least 700 million years ago, according to a recent analysis of brain
studies from the past decade.

The finding suggests this mother brain for all creatures with a central
nervous system ­ such as insects, birds, animals and humans ­ evolved only
once before each species underwent its own evolutionary course.

"What we see today in humans, insects and all other multicellular animals
with a central nervous system are probably just variations of one ancient
scheme," said Rudi Loesel, who conducted the analysis.

Loesel, a scientist in the Department of Developmental Biology and
Morphology of Animals at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, added, "What
this ancestral brain looked like, we do not know. Its architecture might
have been very simple, but the basic genetic mechanisms and the principal
chemical setup was already there (before 700 million years ago)."

The researchers don't know what the creature that contained the mother of
all brains looked like. Some scientists speculate that it could have been a
segmented flatworm, while others think it was a more complex creature.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050926/brain.html

Proporcion entre vitaminas C y E

Also of great importance as an antioxidant is vitamin E, which ideally should be taken along with vitamin C in a ratio of roughly 1 part E for every 3 1/2 parts C. In long-lived wildlife, the ratios of these two antioxidants are typically found to be between 1:4 and 1:6. However, most animals have very low body fat—roughly 2–4%, which is far lower than that of humans. Hence the recommended ratio of 1:3 1/2. (It’s interesting to note that vitamin E and ascorbyl palmitate together constitute a good system for protecting foods from oxidation.)

life-enhancement.com

Polemico: afirma que el stress no incrementa la necesidad de vitaminas

drmirkin.com:

September 18, 2005
Stress Does Not Increase Need for Vitamins

Several years ago a major drug company claimed that its vitamin pills helped to relieve stress from the "complications of everyday life" and gave their products names such as "StressTabs." The New York Attorney General forced them to stop their deceptive advertising, but many people still remember and believe this claim. There is no evidence that stress increases your needs for vitamins or that taking vitamins will help you handle stress. When you eat vitamins in pills or in your food, they go into your bloodstream and then into cells. They function by combining with other chemicals in cells called apoenzymes, to form complete enzymes that cause reactions to proceed in your body. All chemical reactions in your body require enzymes to make them go, and that is why vitamins are essential. For example, all of the B vitamins form enzymes that convert food to energy. But since enzymes only start chemical reactions and are not used up by them, they can be used over and over again and only minuscule amounts are needed from your diet.

In the 1930's, Hans Selye of McGill University in Montreal reported that the adrenal glands contain the highest concentration in the body of vitamin C. The adrenal glands make cortisol from vitamin C. When a person is under stress, the adrenal glands make tremendous amounts of cortisol and the concentration of vitamin C in them drops. However, scientists have known for more than forty years that the levels of vitamin C in the adrenal glands are still high enough to continue to produce cortisol and that giving extra vitamin C will not increase production of cortisol. So the myth that vitamins treat stress is based on a misinterpretation of one study on one vitamin, and that research did not show that taking extra vitamins prevents stress."

Several years ago a major drug company claimed that its vitamin pills helped to relieve stress from the 'complications of everyday life' and gave their products names such as 'StressTabs.' The New York Attorney General forced them to stop their deceptive advertising, but many people still remember and believe this claim. There is no evidence that stress increases your needs for vitamins or that taking vitamins will help you handle stress. When you eat vitamins in pills or in your food, they go into your bloodstream and then into cells. They function by combining with other chemicals in cells called apoenzymes, to form complete enzymes that cause reactions to proceed in your body. All chemical reactions in your body require enzymes to make them go, and that is why vitamins are essential. For example, all of the B vitamins form enzymes that convert food to energy. But since enzymes only start chemical reactions and are not used up by them, they can be used over and over again and only minuscule amounts are needed from your diet.

In the 1930's, Hans Selye of McGill University in Montreal reported that the adrenal glands contain the highest concentration in the body of vitamin C. The adrenal glands make cortisol from vitamin C. When a person is under stress, the adrenal glands make tremendous amounts of cortisol and the concentration of vitamin C in them drops. However, scientists have known for more than forty years that the levels of vitamin C in the adrenal glands are still high enough to continue to produce cortisol and that giving extra vitamin C will not increase production of cortisol. So the myth that vitamins treat stress is based on a misinterpretation of one study on one vitamin, and that research did not show that taking extra vitamins prevents stress."

Articulo en SciAm Mind sobre los nootropicos y sobre la conciencia

SciAm Mind: 'Smart drugs' and consciousness:
The new edition of [Scientific American Mind](http://www.sciammind.com/) has hit the shelves and two articles are freely available online: one on '[smart drugs](http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?articleID=0000E503-E27C-1329-A27C83414B7F0000)' and the other on the problem of [consciousness](http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?articleID=00019F6C-E9EC-1329-A41C83414B7F0000).

The article on 'smart drugs' or 'cognitive enhancers' is by neuroscientist [Michael Gazzaniga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gazzaniga) - most renowned for his work on [split-brain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain) patients.

Gazzaniga examines the ethical implications of having a society cranked-up on pharmaceutical brain enhancers, and looks at the science behind some of the most recent developments in the field.

He makes one particularly interesting point in relation to the relatively developed field of memory enhancing drugs, which have the potential to make the important process of forgetting more difficult:
For a society that spends significant time and money trying to be liberated from past experiences and memories, the arrival of new memory enhancers has a certain irony. Why do people drink, smoke marijuana and engage in other activities that cause them to take leave of their senses? Why are psychiatry offices full of patients with unhappy memories they would like to lose? And why do victims of horrendous emotional events such as trauma, abuse or stressful relationships suffer from their vivid recollections? A pill that enhances memory may lead to a whole new set of disorders.

The article on consciousness is by [Christof Koch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch), who highlights recent research which has looked for the '[neural correlates](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_correlate_of_consciousness) of consciousness' - i.e. which parts of the brain are active when conscious experience is known to occur.

This is a common but controversial approach to understanding consciousness, and one that has been championed by Koch in his own work.

Additional articles that appear in the print edition only include a discussion of the developing mind of infants and what it could tell us about the differences between men and women, the psychology of child-parent interaction and how it is understood (or misunderstood) by the courts, plus an exploration of synaesthesia.


[Link](http://www.sciammind.com/) to Scientific American Mind.

—[Vaughan](http://tinyurl.com/6udmu).

En http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2005/09/sciam_mind_smart_d.html

Ejercicio y te verde contra el Alzheimer

Research Suggests Simple Behavior Changes Can Ward Off Alzheimer's
NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005
<http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/21/173254.shtml>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/21/173254.shtml

Exciting news in the battle against Alzheimer's disease appears in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Animal studies strongly suggest that simple changes in diet and behavior – namely, drinking tea and exercising daily - can slow or even halt the onset of the memory-robbing brain disease.

Después de tanto leer sobre este tema me parece que el ejercicio sigue siendo lo mejor y más importante.

Contenido de Omega 3 y 6 de aceites, frutos secos y semillas

Omega-3, Omega-6 in Oils Nuts Seeds. Essential Fatty Acids

Buenas tablas.

Las nueces parecen mejores de los frutos secos:
Omega-3s (100g) (g) Omega-6s (100g) (g)
Walnuts 5.5 Walnuts 28

y de las semillas las de lino:

Omega-3s (100g) (g) Omega-6s (100g) (g)
Flax / Linseeds 15-25 Flax / Linseeds 6

Por lo tanto dado que son mucho más baratas y contienen más Omega 3 que 6, !a comer semillas de lino!.

El problema es que son duras y feas de gusto por lo que recomiendo molerlasun poco y mezclar con un poco de otras.

Cuando estamos mas alertas?

When Are You Most Alert?: Corante > Brain Waves > : "When Are You Most Alert?
Posted by Zack

People reach their peak of alertness between 6pm and 7pm according to [Circadian Technologies](http://www.circadian.com/). From an evolutionary perspective, this time of day, early evening, was most likely spent securing the hearth for a safe night's sleep. Human alertness also rises at dawn or early morning. While a [CMO magazine](http://www.cmomagazine.com/) piece warns employers that trying to mess with this natural cycle won't get them very far, emerging neurotechnologies from companies like [Cortex Pharmaceuticals](http://www.cortexpharm.com/main.html) are making are making headway on improving alertness and attention.

Located in Irvine, California, Cortex is a neuroscience company focused on novel drug therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders. The company is pioneering a new class of proprietary pharmaceuticals called [AMPAKINE](http://www.cortexpharm.com/html/research/index.html) compounds, which act to increase the strength of signals at connections between brain cells. The loss of these connections is thought to be responsible for memory and behavior problems in [Alzheimer's disease](http://www.cortexpharm.com/html/research/index.html). Many psychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia, occur as a result of imbalances in the brain's neurotransmitter system. These imbalances may be improved by using the AMPAKINE technology.

A recently completed clinical study with AMPAKINE compounds in patients with schizophrenia indicated improvement in a number of symptoms also common to patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ('ADHD''). The US Department of Defense is also studying the use of these compounds to improve alertness in air force pilots and infantry."

Freud y su adiccion a la cocaina y al tabaco

No se puede minimizar inocentemente las profundas alteraciones asociativas, cognitivas y emocionales que la ingesta de una alta dosis permanente -como en el caso de Freud- puede provocar en una persona sensible a la sustancia adictiva. Más aun si está potenciada por el abuso de tabaco en enormes cigarros con los que el creador del psicoanálisis aparece en muchas fotos.

Todo esto abre una interesante perspectiva antropológica que une las plantas usadas por los chamanes incaicos desde tiempos inmemoriales y las técnicas y las construcciones teóricas del psicoanálisis, muchas de las cuales fueron, al menos, facilitadas por el uso frecuente que hizo Freud en los años liminares de la construcción del edificio teórico de la Psicología del inconsciente. ¿Cuánto le deben a la cocaína la técnica de la libre asociación y las Topologías del Aparato Psíquico?, ¿cómo ayudó a abrir las primeras puertas de exploración del Inconsciente esta sustancia que fue, y es usada aun hoy día, medicinalmente por los sabios indígenas que vivían en las zonas de Perú, Colombia, Bolivia y el Norte Argentino?

Sabido es que la coca (Erithroxylon coca) se dirige fundamental al lóbulo frontal e influye directamente sobre todo el sistema nervioso, la sensación de hambre, cansancio, fatiga (para eso la usaban también los chasquis incaicos), produciendo una extraña lucidez en la asociación de las ideas y afecta rápidamente al corazón, acelerando el latido cardiaco, facilitando el impulso nervioso que hace circular la sangre y llegando a producir muertes por paro cardio-respiratorio, justamente a partir de ese motivo. Desde épocas remotas y todavía en este siglo, las hojas de Coca son usadas en todos los rituales religiosos de la zonas mencionadas por los chamanes indígenas, quienes en verdad descubrieron sus usos medicinales de la planta de la cual se extrae, a través de un proceso verdaderamente alquímico, el poderoso “oro blanco”. Su uso no era sólo sacrificial y como ofrenda, ese es su aspecto degradado y menos importante que subsiste hoy en día. En verdad los sacerdotes y chamanes ingerían la sustancia, como cualquier antropólogo nos puede informar, para lograr estados de trance que les permitiera una comunicación más directa, una comunicación sin trabas con los Dioses y Demonios que regulaban sus creencias.

Polémica e interesante nota para leer en:
http://www.sexovida.com/psicologia/freud5.htm

Crean nanoparticulas que, introducidas en la sangre, reparan las neuronas

Crean nanopart�culas que, introducidas en la sangre, reparan las neuronas: "Crean nanopart�culas que, introducidas en la sangre, reparan las neuronas
Cient�ficos norteramericanos y japoneses abren una nueva era en el tratamiento de las enfermedades neurol�gicas

La nanotecnolog�a ha dado un significativo paso en sus aplicaciones m�dicas despu�s de que un equipo nipo-norteamericano desarrollara nanotubos de platino, 100 veces m�s delgados que el cabello humano, que pueden introducirse en las venas y permitir a los m�dicos intervenir en el cerebro de una persona. Estos nanocaptores permitir�n asimismo un mayor conocimiento de las interacciones entre neuronas, as� como abrir�n el camino a nuevas terapias para el tratamiento de enfermedades neurol�gicas y tumores cerebrales. La nanotecnolog�a promete mejorar asimismo la detecci�n precoz del c�ncer y el suministro de medicamentos desde dentro del organismo. A m�s largo plazo, nanom�quinas pueden recorrer nuestro cuerpo limpiando las arterias, regulando los niveles de az�car, colesterol u hormonas o apoyando al sistema inmunol�gico. Incluso podr�a llegar a conseguir la inmortalidad si, como prev�n algunos expertos, se descubren nanodispositivos que puedan modificar la estructura gen�tica y celular del ser humano. Por Eduardo Mart�nez."