Mind, Body & Quantumness

Increasingly we are made aware that humans are composed of more parts than we can see or measure.

We have Stephen Hawking whose body suffers from a degenerative disorder yet is able to maintain a lucid (and brilliant) Mind. Of course we are aware that it is other parts of his body and not the brain, which are degenerating rapidly. The same with other degenerative conditions such as MS, where the 'person' is losing 'control' of the body, but retains an otherwise alert mind - unless of course they are struck by epilepsy or some other electrical imapct or damage to the neural system in the brain.

On the other hand we are becoming increasingly aware that in a 'modern' society like the US with over 5 million Alzheimer's sufferers, people with otherwise healthy or quasi-healthy bodies, and no discernible physical deterioration of the brain, are losing access to memory and memories.

Maybe there is information loss in black-holes. Of course it all depends what kind of information we are referring to, and which type of blackhole.

Though we may be able to look at the distant past and reconstruct a cosmological or geological picture of what might have been - we have absolutely no knowledge of peoples' thoughts (dreams, emotions, beliefs and memories) other than those carefully preserved in ancient scrolls, papirii or texts, and nowdays on 'record' (vynil) or tape (magnetic tape) or video tape, or more modern CDs, DVDs and the latest memory sticks.

Of course these are only but a fraction of any thoughts, or memories, or theories, which people have chosen to record or debate publicly whether thru course work or the internet.

We may even have some recorded mobile phone messages from 9/11 or those passengers on a flight before a crash, but in general most mobile phone conversations, like face to face conversations are discarded (or evaporate) into thin air as soon as they leave the speakers mouth.

But there is something more - we are increasingly becoming aware that man (or woman) is more than just their DNA. How the brain formed from that DNA, and is then educated or interacts with its environment - is what is commonly termed nurture (versus nature).

It has always been possible for a brilliant mind to be born into a severely disabled body, and equally it has always been accepted that a healthy body does not necessarily come accompanied by a smart brain, nor a healthy & lucid mind.

Furthermore it is increasingly becoming clear that is is not DNA or memory defines who we are. We cannot be selective with our DNA (yet) - we are born into it. But we are clearly selective with our memory, we can choose to keep (or romanticise) one memory whilst discarding another, and sometimes we cannot shake off a memory (pleasant or unpleasant) no matter how much we try. Though by enlarge few of us try to discard pleasant memories, since it seems we are seeking to create (or store) a selection & collection of pleasant memories and experiences. Bar in the few exceptions - which are not uncommon - where people strive for unpleasant, or painful and maccabre memories and experiences.

People often choose to remember or believe what they will.

Experimentalists probe the structure of the proton by scattering electrons (white line) off quarks which interact by exchanging a quantum of light (wavy line) known as a photon.
Visual QCD


So where am I leading with all this. It is to address the duality whereby some would like to believe that the DNA could carry not only our genes (always mutated) but some of our memory and the so called inherent abilities or skills (always truncated) - whilst others can more clearly see that one is independent of another. A king can be born the son of a carpenter, a musician can be born the son of a nuclear physicist, a painter can be born the son of a cleaner, and a Caesar can be born the son of a slave. All human hierarchies are purely artificial, imposed by the surrounding environment or society - and have nothing to do with Natural Law.

One still cannot give any verifiable testimony to the quantum leap 'life' makes from one lifeform (or lifetime) to the next. But this is only a mathematical equation. After all even the body you are in has already changed dramatically several times from the one you were in yesterday or yesteryear or ten and four score years ago.

The only thing that is clear upon death, is that there is something visible missing from the lifeless bofy or form. The lifeforce which gave it life.

And whilst all other information like memory, thoughts, feelings. emotions, may or not disappear down a blackhole (and reach a point of no return) it is clear that the lifeforce stripped of these continues thru Space and spacetime - to take up another form.

________________________________________________________
Memory Restored In Mice Through Enriched Environment
________________________________________________________

Mice whose brains had lost a large number of neurons due to neurodegeneration regained long-term memories and the ability to learn after their surroundings were enriched with toys and other sensory stimuli, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. The scientists were able to achieve the same results when they treated the mice with a specific type of drug that encourages neuronal growth.

The results of the experiments suggest that the term "memory loss" may be an inaccurate description of the kinds of mental deficits associated with neurodegenerative diseases. "The memories are still there, but they are rendered inaccessible by neural degeneration," said the senior author Li-Huei Tsai, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I believe that these findings could have particular significance for treatment of people who already have advanced neurodegenerative disease," said Tsai. "Most current treatments seem to be aimed at affecting the early stages of the disease. But our mouse model shows that even when there has been a significant loss of neurons, it is still possible to improve learning and memory."

Memory Restored In Mice Through Enriched Environment
So doctor Tsai, can the mouse recognise its grandaughter?
Can the mouse memorise or remember how to play chess?
Can the mouse remember which bank it has an account with?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Reversing Cancer Cells To Normal Cells
Multiple Sclerosis Is Increasingly Becoming A Woman's Disease
Brain Processes Sense Of Smell Better Than Previously Thought
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Chiral Recognition

A human body has more than 10 to the power of 27 molecules with about one hundred thousand different shapes and functions. Interactions between molecules determine our structure and keep us alive.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart in collaboration with scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg and King’s College London have followed the interaction of only two individual molecules to show the basic mechanism underlying recognition of dipeptides.

By means of scanning tunnelling microscopy movies and theoretical simulations they have shown how dynamic interactions induce the molecular fit needed for the transfer of structural information to higher levels of complexity. This dynamic picture illustrates how recognition works at the very first steps, tracking back the path in the evolution of complex matter.

If one thinks that there are possibly thousands of times more molecules forming our body than stars in the universe it is astonishing how all these molecules can work together in such an organised and efficient way. How can our muscles contract to make us walk? How can food be metabolised every day? How can we use specific drugs to relieve pain?

To work as a perfect machine, our body ultimately relies on the capability of each little part (molecule) to know a specific function and location out of countless possibilities. To do this, molecules carry information in different ways. An international team at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, in collaboration with scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg and King's College London are seeking to find out how the information can be passed on at the very first steps: from the single molecule level to structures of increasing complexity and functionality.

The key to understanding all biological processes is recognition. Each molecule has a unique composition and shape that allows it to interact with other molecules. The interactions between molecules let us - as well as bacteria, animals, plants and other living systems - move, sense, reproduce and accomplish the processes that keep all living creatures alive.

A very common example of recognition can be experienced in daily life whenever one meets someone and shakes right hands. In principle, one can also shake left hands; the fact that we do it with the right has historically been a sign of peace, used to show that both people hold no weapon. But, have you ever attempt to shake the right hand of a person using your left hand? No matter how the two hands are oriented, you will never fit your left hand with the right hand of your friend.

Many molecules can recognise each other and transfer information exactly in the same way, they can either be "right handed" (D) or "left handed" (L). This property called "chirality" is a spectacular way to store information: a chiral molecule can recognise molecules that have the same chirality (same "handedness", L to L or D to D) and discriminate the ones of different chirality (L to D and D to L).

Probably one of the most exciting mysteries of Nature is why the building blocks of life, i.e. amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) are exclusively present in the chiral L form and sugars (which constitute DNA) are all in the D form. Once more, the reason for this preference is "historical", but this time goes back millions of years till the origins of the biological world. Scientists believe that current life forms could not exist without the uniform chirality ("homochirality") of these blocks, because biological processes need the efficiency in recognition achieved with homochiral substances. In other words, the separation of molecules by chirality was the crucial process during the Archean Era when life first emerged.

Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research have now used the "nanoscopic eye" of a scanning tunnelling microscope to make movies following how two adsorbed molecules (diphenylalanine, the core recognition motif of Alzheimer amyloid polypeptide) of the same chirality can form structures (pairs, chains) while molecules of different chirality discriminate and cannot form stable structures.

As it occurs when you shake the hand of your friend, the fact that the two homochiral hands are complementary by shape is not enough, you both have to dynamically adapt and adjust your hands to reach a better fit, a comfortable situation. By a combination with theoretical simulations done at Kings College London, the researchers have shown for the first time this dynamic mechanism of how two molecules "shake hands" and recognise each other by mutually induced conformational changes at the single molecule level.

We live in houses, wear clothes and read books made of chiral cellulose. Most of the molecules that mediate the processes of life like hormones, antibodies and receptors are chiral. Fifty of the top hundred best-selling drugs worldwide are chiral. With this contribution to the basic mechanism of chiral recognition, the researchers have not only tracked back to the very first steps in the evolution of living matter but have also shed light on our understanding and control of synthetic (man-made) materials of increasing complexity.

Reference: Magalí Lingenfelder, Giulia Tomba, Giovanni Costantini, Lucio Colombi Ciacchi, Alessandro De Vita, Klaus Kern, "Tracking the Chiral Recognition of Absorbed Dipeptides at the Single-Molecule Level," Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. (2007)

Max Planck Society press release 23rd April 2007
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Neural Paths

THE CHOSEN: A new study finds that neurons compete to be in the lucky 20 percent that make a memory during learning or training activities.
Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO/SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI


The Brain May Use Only 20 Percent of Its Memory-Forming NeuronsStudy shows that that pace at which a brain cell activates a key protein may influence its role in memory formation—a finding that could lead to new Alzheimer therapies
By Nikhil Swaminathan @ Scientific American

Remember the old myth that people only use 10 percent of their brains? Although a new study confirmed that bromide to be apocryphal, it did find that we may only use 20 percent of the nerve cells in our midbrain to form memories.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto monitored neurons in the lateral amygdalae (two almond-shaped regions on either side of the midbrain associated with learning and memory) of mice to see whether the presence of the CREB (cAMP response element binding) protein plays a key role in signaling brain cells to make memories.

CREB, a transcription factor that typically increases the production of other proteins in cells, is believed to be involved in memory formation in organisms from sea slugs to humans. Scientists hope that their findings, reported in the current issue of Science, may help pave the way to new treatments for Alzheimer's Disease.

In the future, Josselyn says, this mechanism could be harnessed to produce a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease. "In time, we're going to have some sort of neuron-replacement therapy for Alzheimer's," she says, conceding, "It's a little sci-fi right now." But, if new neurons are inserted into a damaged brain, modulating CREB function could help bias the healing brain to use the functioning neurons and not its injured population.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

Alzheimer's Roots

New study zeroes in on the genetic roots of Alzheimer's

Scientists have known for more than a decade that individuals with a certain gene are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Now research, led by scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), has uncovered a molecular mechanism that links the susceptibility gene to the process of Alzheimer’s disease onset. The findings appear in the April 11 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience and may lead to new pathways for development of Alzheimer’s therapeutics.

Approximately 15 percent of the population carries a gene that causes their bodies to produce a lipoprotein—a combination of fat and protein that transports lipids (fats) in the blood—known as apolipoprotein (Apo) E4. Studies have found that those who inherit the E4 gene from one parent are three times more likely than average to develop Alzheimer’s, while those who get the gene from both parents have a tenfold risk of developing the disease.

The new study discovered that ApoE4 (along with other apolipoproteins) attaches itself to a particular receptor on the surface of brain cells. That receptor, in turn, adheres to a protein known as amyloid precursor protein. The brain cells then transport the entire protein mass inside.

Once inside, cutting enzymes—called proteases—attack the amyloid precursor protein. These cuts create protein fragments that, when present in the brain for long periods of time, are believed to cause the cell death, memory loss and neurological dysfunction characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

Although researchers have known for more than a decade that ApoE4 was involved—somehow—in development of Alzheimer’s, Tang’s new study is the first to connect the process of protein fragment formation to ApoE4.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disorder characterized by slow, progressive memory loss due to the gradual death of brain cells. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the disease affects more than 5 million Americans, including nearly half the population over the age of 85.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

Quantum Sys-stems

Science Tunnel - Max Planck Society

Nothing in the physical sciences predicts the phenomenon of consciousness. Yet its reality is apparent to each and every one of us

Consciousness is as fundamental as matter - in some ways, more fundamental. Advances in physics, psychology, and philosophy have shown that reality is not what it seems.

Take vision, for example. When we look at a tree, light reflected from its leafs is focused onto cells in the retina of the eye, where it triggers a cascading chemical reaction releasing a flow of electrons.

Neurons connected to the cells convey these electrical impulses to the brain’s visual cortex, where raw data is processed and integrated. Then — in ways that are still a complete mystery — an image of the tree appears in our consciousness.

It may seem that we are directly perceiving the tree in the physical world, but what we are actually experiencing is an image generated in our mind.

The same is true of every other experience. All that we see, hear, taste, touch, smell and feel has been created from the data received by our sensory organs. All we ever know of the world around are the mental images constructed from that data. However real and external they may seem, they are all phenomena within our mind.

Peter Russell
The Universe as a hologram by Michael Talbot
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
The human brain stores and processes its information at the level of single organic molecules and is a single macroscopic quantum system. Acts of consciousness may be viewed as incorporating quantum events.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________