By Sandra G. Boodman, Silvia Bacot had devised a strategy for coping with her steadily worsening eyesight. As she walked down the hall of the suburban Maryland federal building where she works as a medical researcher, Bacot would say, “Hi, how are you?” to everyone she passed, worried that if she didn’t she might inadvertently snub someone she knew but couldn’t see. She always sat in the front row at lectures and close to the screen in movies. At crowded scientific meetings she tried to seem unwaveringly approachable, peering and squinting at name tags when their wearers got close enough. “I would feel like an idiot,” she said, referring to her practice of universal greeting. “At scientific conferences you want to make connections, and if you can’t see people, it’s bad.” Luckily her work was unaffected by her inability to see at a distance because as a bench scientist she focused on objects at close range. Bacot was frustrated that her ophthalmologist had been unable to correct her severe nearsightedness and the distortion known as astigmatism that often accompanies it. She assumed that her deteriorating eyesight was an inevitable result of aging; her eye doctor offered no other explanation. It wasn’t until the summer of 2010, while undergoing a work-up for laser eye surgery, that Bacot, now 38, learned that her visual problems were not caused by the normal progression of myopia, but in fact indicated something far more serious. “I turned white as a sheet of paper,” Bacot recalled, after corneal specialist Roy Rubinfeld told her that lasik was out of the question. “I didn’t even know I had anything wrong with me.” © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 16631 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, Reporter Taking antidepressants during pregnancy raises the risk of high blood pressure in expectant mothers, a new study shows. Antidepressants are one of the most commonly used medications in pregnancy, and hypertension can cause problems for both mother and child. About one in five women suffer from depression during pregnancy, and up to 14 percent of those women end up using an antidepressant medication to treat it. Though the drugs are commonly prescribed to pregnant women, there has not been much research on the effect they can have on a mother’s health. The new study, published in The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, looked at more than 13,000 pregnant women, 1,200 of whom had pregnancy-induced hypertension with no history of the condition before they became pregnant. The researchers found that women taking antidepressants of any kind had a 53 percent greater risk of high blood pressure. Those who were taking Paxil, which belongs to the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, saw their risk rise even higher, by 81 percent. Though those numbers sound high, it’s important to note that the absolute risk from taking these drugs remained low. Antidepressants raised a woman’s absolute risk of hypertension from 2 percent to 3.2 percent, and Paxil raised it from 2 percent to 3.6 percent. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16630 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By Carolyn Butler, My beautiful, fiercely independent grandmother Audrey has always been one of the most positive forces in my life, even as she has endured the death of my grandfather and most of her friends. At the same time, she has faced such mounting challenges as the gradual loss of her hearing and, more lately, the affront of having to walk with a cane. But now, on the eve of her 94th birthday, her vision has deteriorated to the point that she’s having trouble reading her beloved newspaper every morning. For the first time, she seems sort of depressed. Watching Grams struggle to keep up with the family-dinner chitchat on a recent trip home, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the particular trials of growing older — from the death of loved ones to gradual declines in health, self-sufficiency and control — inevitably lead to this unhappy outcome. The short answer is that aging does seem to make us more vulnerable to depression, but it’s not a foregone conclusion. “Even though so many things happen as we get older — lots of losses and physical changes — most people weather those by adapting, and adapting without becoming depressed,” says Susan Lehmann, director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Day Hospital at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. There’s a difference, she adds, between feeling profoundly lonely or blue and true clinical depression, which is a mood state involving physical and behavioral manifestations that does not shift easily. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16629 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By RONI CARYN RABIN, Reporter Tammy Kwarciak, a 44-year-old nurse whose weight had been creeping up for years, was determined to lose 50 pounds. So in February, she drove from her home in Port Huron, Mich., across the border into Canada and had a small balloonlike device inserted into her stomach. The intragastric balloon, filled with liquid and left in the stomach for up to six months, is not approved for use in the United States, though it’s available in Europe, South America and other parts of the world. Clinical trials required to win federal Food and Drug Administration approval are being initiated, but many Americans aren’t waiting. Since the balloon’s introduction in Canada in 2006, people like Mrs. Kwarciak have been streaming north in growing numbers. Drawn by the relative ease of balloon placement, Americans account for nearly a third of patients undergoing the procedures in Canadian clinics just over the border. “The nice thing about the balloon is that you have such a sense of satiety,” said Mrs. Kwarciak, who has lost 25 pounds since she had the procedure. “I feel full all the time. I have to remind myself at times to eat.” But the balloon is a temporary measure, and once it is removed in a few months, she said, “I’m on my own.” The intragastric balloon appeals to people like Mrs. Kwarciak who have a significant amount of weight to lose but are not heavy enough to qualify for bariatric surgery like gastric bypass surgery and adjustable gastric band surgery. The patient is anesthetized, and the balloon is inserted through the esophagus — a relatively noninvasive procedure. It is removed after six months or so. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 16628 - Posted: 04.10.2012

Dawn Turner Trice What makes some people look at, say, a cupcake and hardly consider taking a bite, and others munch the whole thing into oblivion? We know this isn't just about willpower. How our brain responds to food when we see, smell or taste it and how we decide to act on our desire to eat is what neuroscientists are trying to unlock. Two researchers visiting Chicago recently for a conference of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society are studying what goes on in the brain across a spectrum of eating habits and disorders — from extreme overeating to anorexia. The goal is to use information about brain activity patterns to help tailor treatments for people with eating disorders. But the information can also be used for healthier people who simply want to understand better how their minds and bodies work. Laura Holsen, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said eating disorders, especially anorexia, are often difficult to treat. "Prescription medication and therapies are often unsuccessful, and even when they do work it takes a long time to see results," said Holsen. "Being able to predict whether a given treatment will work better for an individual can save time, anguish and money."

Keyword: Obesity; Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 16627 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By BARRY MEIER SEATTLE — It was the type of conversation that Dr. Claire Trescott dreads: telling physicians that they are not cutting it. But the large health care system here that Dr. Trescott helps manage has placed controls on how painkillers are prescribed, like making sure doctors do not prescribe too much. Doctors on staff have been told to abide by the guidelines or face the consequences. So far, two doctors have decided to leave, and two more have remained but are being closely monitored. “It is excruciating,” said Dr. Trescott, who oversees primary care at Group Health. “These are often very good clinicians who just have this fatal flaw.” High-strength painkillers known as opioids represent the most widely prescribed class of medications in the United States. And over the last decade, the number of prescriptions for the strongest opioids has increased nearly fourfold, with only limited evidence of their long-term effectiveness or risks, federal data shows. “Doctors are prescribing like crazy,” said Dr. C. Richard Chapman, the director of the Pain Research Center at the University of Utah. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 16626 - Posted: 04.09.2012

By AMY HARMON THE report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that one in 88 American children have an autism spectrum disorder has stoked a debate about why the condition’s prevalence continues to rise. The C.D.C. said it was possible that the increase could be entirely attributed to better detection by teachers and doctors, while holding out the possibility of unknown environmental factors. But the report, released last month, also appears to be serving as a lightning rod for those who question the legitimacy of a diagnosis whose estimated prevalence has nearly doubled since 2007. As one person commenting on The New York Times’s online article about it put it, parents “want an ‘out’ for why little Johnny is a little hard to control.” Or, as another skeptic posted on a different Web site, “Just like how all of a sudden everyone had A.D.H.D. in the ’90s, now everyone has autism.” The diagnosis criteria for autism spectrum disorders were broadened in the 1990s to encompass not just the most severely affected children, who might be intellectually disabled, nonverbal or prone to self-injury, but those with widely varying symptoms and intellectual abilities who shared a fundamental difficulty with social interaction. As a result, the makeup of the autism population has shifted: only about a third of those identified by the C.D.C. as autistic last month had an intellectual disability, compared with about half a decade ago. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16625 - Posted: 04.09.2012

Obesity during pregnancy may increase chances for having a child with autism, provocative new research suggests. It's among the first studies linking the two, and though it doesn't prove obesity causes autism, the authors say their results raise public health concerns because of the high level of obesity in this country. Study women who were obese during pregnancy were about 67 percent more likely than normal-weight women to have autistic children. They also faced double the risk of having children with other developmental delays. On average, women face a 1 in 88 chance of having a child with autism; the results suggest that obesity during pregnancy would increase that to a 1 in 53 chance, the authors said. The study was being released online Monday in Pediatrics. Since more than one-third of U.S. women of child-bearing age are obese, the results are potentially worrisome and add yet another incentive for maintaining a normal weight, said researcher Paula Krakowiak, a study co-author and scientist at UC Davis. Previous research has linked obesity during pregnancy with stillbirths, preterm births and some birth defects. More research is needed to confirm the results. But if mothers' obesity is truly related to autism, it would be only one of many contributing factors, said Dr. Daniel Coury, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was not involved in the study. © 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Autism; Obesity
Link ID: 16624 - Posted: 04.09.2012

Roger Dobson It is the chemical that has been described by women as a "cuddle drug". Now scientists have discovered that its effect on men is more rampant and long-lasting than just the desire for a quick hug. Oxytocin, a hormone traditionally used to induce labour, is as sexually arousing to men as Viagra, according to new research. Studies conducted in the US found that a married man who sniffed a nasal spray containing oxytocin twice daily became more affectionate to friends and colleagues and recorded a marked improvement in his sexual performance. According to the actual breakdown of results, the man's libido went from "weak to strong", while arousal went from "difficult to easy". Ego certainly wasn't hurt either: sexual performance, according to feedback from his wife, was classed as "very satisfying". Scientists at the University of California believe the findings provide strong support for the idea that oxytocin improves sexual performance and, unlike Viagra, remains a chemical glue within the brain to cement relationships between people. Just how it works is not clear, but some studies have suggested that oxytocin levels rise naturally during arousal. The hormone is also thought to interact with the dopamine system, which is involved in the rewarding aspects of sexual activity. © independent.co.uk

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 16623 - Posted: 04.09.2012

By Jonah Lehrer Eric Kandel is a titan of modern neuroscience. He won the Nobel Prize in 2000 not simply for discovering a new set of scientific facts (although he has discovered plenty of those), but for pioneering a new scientific approach. As he recounts in his memoir In Search of Memory, Kandel demonstrated that reductionist techniques could be applied to the brain, so that even something as mysterious as memory might be studied in sea slugs, as a function of kinase enzymes and synaptic proteins. (The memories in question involved the “habituation” of the slugs to a poke; they basically got bored of being prodded.) Because natural selection is a deeply conservative process – evolution doesn’t mess with success – it turns out that humans rely on almost all of the same neural ingredients as those inveterbrates. Memory has a nearly universal chemistry. But Kandel is not just one of the most important scientists of our time – he’s also an omnivorous public intellectual, deeply knowledgeable about everything from German art to the history of psychoanalysis. In his marvelous new book, The Age of Insight, Kandel puts this learning on display. He dives into the cultural ferment of 19th century Vienna, seeking to understand why the city was such a fount of new ideas, but he also explores the neuroscience of aesthetics, attempting to explain why some works of art, such as Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” continue to haunt us. In many respects, the book imitates those famous Viennese salons, in which artists, scientists and doctors exchanged ideas and gave birth to a new way of thinking about the mind. (The city was a case-study in consilience.) If you’re interested in the intersection of art and science, the book is a must-read. © 2012 Condé Nast.

Keyword: Attention; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 16622 - Posted: 04.09.2012

By LISA SANDERS, M.D., Columnist On Thursday, we challenged Well readers to figure out the diagnosis for a 27-year-old woman with an odd walk and slowly progressive weakness of her hips and thighs. The correct diagnosis is… Adult-onset Tay-Sachs disease The first person to get it right was Jason Maley, a third-year medical student at Tulane University. His answer came in just after 1 a.m., an hour after the case was posted. He says that all the clues were there; he just had to put it all together. He’s planning to go into internal medicine. (I certainly hope that he will!) Tay-Sachs is an inherited disease in which the inability to get rid of discarded parts of the cell membrane causes the death of certain nerve cells. There are several forms of the disease. The most common affects infants. Babies born with this version of the disease usually die by age 4. Another form of the disease affects children who usually die before reaching adulthood. Late-onset Tay-Sachs, the form of the disease this patient has, doesn’t manifest itself until adolescence or young adulthood and causes a slow loss of strength and coordination. While the form seen in children was first described over a century ago, this version wasn’t recognized until the 1970s. Patients with this form of the disease can get rid of some but not all of the fatty components of the cell wall and so have a much slower rate of cell death and disability. The degree of disability varies widely in this group, and there are patients who have the disease but appear to be completely asymptomatic. For many with this disease, life expectancy is normal, but most eventually require a wheelchair. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16621 - Posted: 04.07.2012

by Michael Marshall One of the most important things any animal can do is to tell potential mates about themselves. They have all sorts of ways to do it, from peacocks' ridiculously large and ornamented tails to the sharp suits and gym-honed bodies of posing human males. If it weren't a matter of life and death, it would all seem very, very silly. Many of these signals come in the form of secondary sexual characteristics: parts of the body that aren't directly involved in producing offspring, but are nevertheless associated with the process. The peacock's train is one example; in humans, male body hair is a signal of reproductive maturity, and large female breasts are renowned for attracting male attention. But female red-spotted newts may need to look a little more closely when they choose their mates. Specifically, if they want a good one, they would be well-advised to take a look at his kidneys. The same may be true of many salamanders. Kidneys before sex Red-spotted newts have a peculiar way of mating. In common with many other salamanders, the male produces a blob of jelly called a spermatophore, which carries a consignment of sperm. The female stores it until she is ready to reproduce. But according to Dustin Siegel of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, before all this happens, the male's kidneys have to do their bit. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 16620 - Posted: 04.07.2012

By Laura Sanders CHICAGO — Certain brain areas are sluggish in people who eat too little and hyperactive in people who eat too much, a new study finds. The results, presented April 3 at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, are based on brain activity in people who ranged from dangerously thin to morbidly obese. The findings help clarify the complicated relationship between the brain and food, and may even offer ways to treat conditions such as anorexia and obesity, said study coauthor Laura Holsen of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Although scientists have looked for brain differences among particular groups of people with disordered eating habits, no previous study had compared responses to food across such a wide spectrum. “It’s important to study the extremes, because the biology is clearer in those individuals,” said psychologist Susan Carnell of the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University. “That helps us understand normal weight variation.” One of five groups studied by the researchers consisted of people with anorexia, defined as being 85 percent or less of a healthy weight. A second group enlisted people who formerly had anorexia but had recovered to a healthy weight. Healthy people with a normal weight formed the third group; the fourth was composed of people who were obese. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Obesity; Attention
Link ID: 16619 - Posted: 04.07.2012

For children with autism, it's a confusing world. Trying to communicate with these kids can be a struggle as they often seem to be locked inside their own impenetrable worlds. Therapists who work with autistic children are constantly on the lookout for ways to get them to engage with others. Now, researchers at York University in Toronto are carrying out the first study of a play-based therapy program that has had some remarkable success in drawing some autistic children out of their solitary worlds and into a shared one. In this video, the CBC's Ioanna Roumeliotis offers a moving look inside floortime therapy ... and how it's given one Ontario family new hope for their son. © CBC 2012

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16618 - Posted: 04.07.2012

By Susan Milius Watching coworkers in paper masks swim among the office cubicles acting out fish personalities turns out to be pretty informative. Admittedly, “informative” didn’t seem to be the word on the tip of the tongue of Science News’ editor in chief when, in the grip of urgent editorial business, he charged up the stairs and happened upon writers neglecting their keyboards for make-believe group swims. After some hasty smoothing over, though, he joined in as a virtual predator, sending fish of all personality types scattering for shelter. Predators, information, group-ups and even games all have their place in studies of animal personality, including the mosquito fish research that inspired the office fish simulation. Even though fish dynamics over generations were mimicked by just a few terrestrial mammals between deadlines, the mix of personalities proved as important for animal welfare in cubicles as in real waterways. Differences in the ways individual fish act, once groaned about as the inevitable messiness of gathering data on real animals, have in recent years become their own topic of research. Geese, hissing cockroaches, cichlids, great tits, mallards, sparrows and European rabbits have all starred in such studies. Now that the idea of individual animals having a version of personality — or, more formally, “behavioral type” — has become unsurprising in scientific discourse, the next wave of research is looking at the consequences of the mix of personalities in a group. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 16617 - Posted: 04.07.2012

By Phyllis Richman, Parkinson’s disease is a thief. It robbed me of the ability to turn over in bed. I can no longer take a long walk. Opening a plastic bag or turning a newspaper page has become a challenge. We PWPs (Persons With Parkinson’s) become familiar with loss. In my case, though, Parkinson’s has also granted one of my keenest desires. After decades of hopelessly wishing on birthday candles and turkey collarbones that I could carry a tune, suddenly I can unashamedly join in family singalongs. I can sing. That’s thanks to fellow PWP Judy Dodge. A retired church music director and organist, she arranged with the Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area to lead a weekly PWP choir class. I would never have signed up, but she persuaded me that the voice exercises would be good for my stiffening vocal cords, and my tunelessness would not be a drag on the group. While some had signed up simply for a chance to do choral singing, the class was designed to be therapeutic as well, to counterbalance Parkinson’s softening our voices and flattening our tone, to strengthen our lungs and our enunciation. Mine wasn’t the worst among the hesitant and scratchy voices, and there were some talented singers to drown us out. But even they needed to practice projecting their voices and keeping their muscles supple. Every Wednesday afternoon for about a year now, a dozen or more PWPs gather in a Chevy Chase church hall where the heating system breathes more loudly than we do. We warm up our throats by humming and singing scales. We try to breathe slowly and project strongly. We massage our cheeks, stretch out our tongues and read poetry. We belt out folk songs, gospel and show tunes. It isn’t always tuneful, but it is fun. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 16616 - Posted: 04.05.2012

By Susan Milius The first big study of daily rhythms in fruit flies outdoors doesn’t match some of the basic results from decades of lab tests. Fruit flies flittering in lab containers have revealed much about how light can set the master molecular clock that ticks out a daily beat in living organisms. Yet watching daily rhythms in fruit flies caged outdoors reveals regular surges in activity not seen in the lab, says geneticist Rodolfo Costa of the University of Padova in Italy. And certain patterns of activity seen in the lab don’t show up in the real world, he and his colleagues report online April 4 in Nature. A major difference, he says, is that the typical increase in fruit fly motion as day dawns doesn’t seem to need a built-in clock in the real world. Flies with genetic mutations that disable their biological clocks don’t join in the usual laboratory bustle of activity before lights-on. Yet outdoors they perk up and get moving just like clock-normal flies. “This was something really unexpected,” Costa says. “We are not saying that everything that has been done until now is useless,” he adds. But some of the assumptions based on laboratory experiments, he says, should be expanded to account for behavior in nature. “The new study very nicely illustrates the risks of extrapolating from laboratory studies to natural conditions,” says neuroscientist and chronobiologist F. Rob Jackson of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Evolution
Link ID: 16615 - Posted: 04.05.2012

By Emma Seppala What's the difference between noticing the rapid beat of a popular song on the radio and noticing the rapid rate of your heart when you see your crush? Between noticing the smell of fresh baked bread and noticing that you're out of breath? Both require attention. However, the direction of that attention differs: it is either turned outward, as in the case of noticing a stop sign or a tap on your shoulder, or turned inward, as in the case of feeling full or feeling love. Scientists have long held that attention – regardless to what – involves mostly the prefrontal cortex, that frontal region of the brain responsible for complex thought and unique to humans and advanced mammals. A recent study by Norman Farb from the University of Toronto published in Cerebral Cortex, however, suggests a radically new view: there are different ways of paying attention. While the prefrontal cortex may indeed be specialized for attending to external information, older and more buried parts of the brain including the “insula” and “posterior cingulate cortex” appear to be specialized in observing our internal landscape. Most of us prioritize externally oriented attention. When we think of attention, we often think of focusing on something outside of ourselves. We "pay attention" to work, the TV, our partner, traffic, or anything that engages our senses. However, a whole other world exists that most of us are far less aware of: an internal world, with its varied landscape of emotions, feelings, and sensations. Yet it is often the internal world that determines whether we are having a good day or not, whether we are happy or unhappy. That’s why we can feel angry despite beautiful surroundings or feel perfectly happy despite being stuck in traffics. For this reason perhaps, this newly discovered pathway of attention may hold the key to greater well-being. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Stress; Attention
Link ID: 16614 - Posted: 04.05.2012

by Mark Cohen The five-year-old ran into my exam room with his mother trailing behind. He wore a Transformers T-shirt and jeans that each bore signs of a recent encounter with a chocolate bar. Immediately he took a toy train apart and scattered the pieces all over the floor. “The kindergarten teacher said she doesn’t think Jason belongs in the class,” the mother said to me. “But we’re not sure.”
Jason’s pediatrician had referred him to me because of his hyperactive behavior. “New patient to me,” her note said. “No old records available. Very hyperactive, difficult to examine, possible 
developmental delay: refer to developmental pediatrician.” Having been a general pediatrician for many years before specializing in developmental pediatrics, I sympathized with her. The 20 minutes allotted for a standard exam wasn’t nearly enough to try to figure out what was going on with this child. Jason was now busy with a ball, but then quickly moved to a book and began turning the pages and pointing to every picture, labeling each one: “House! Duck! Train!” Then he was off to crash two trucks together. His mother looked at him uncomfortably, clearly unsure whether she should try to guide him or let him alone. “It’s OK, nothing here is breakable,” I reassured her. “Tell me what he’s like at home.” “He’s into everything, just like he is here,” she said. “He can’t sit still for a minute. That’s probably why the kindergarten teacher doesn’t think he belongs there. But...” She paused, as if trying to decide whether or not to say something. © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: ADHD; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16613 - Posted: 04.05.2012

By Christof Koch What is the relation between selective attention and consciousness? When you strain to listen to the distant baying of coyotes over the sound of a campsite conversation, you do so by attending to the sound and becoming conscious of their howls. When you attend to your sparring opponent out of the corner of your eye, you become hyperaware of his smallest gestures. Because of the seemingly intimate relation between attention and consciousness, most scholars conflate the two processes. Indeed, when I came out of the closet to give public talks on the mind-body problem in the early 1990s (at that time, it wouldn’t do for a young professor in biology or engineering who had not even yet attained the holy state of tenure to talk about consciousness: it was considered too fringy), some of my colleagues insisted that I replace the incendiary “consciousness” with the more neutral “attention” because the two concepts could not be distinguished and were probably the same thing anyway. Two decades later a number of experiments prove that the two are not the same. Stage magicians are superb at manipulating the audience’s attention. By misdirecting your gaze using their hands or a beautiful, bikini-clad assistant, you look but don’t see, inverting Yogi Berra’s famous witticism, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Scientists can do the same, sans the sexy woman. I described a psychophysical technique called continuous flash suppression in an earlier column [see “Rendering the Visible Invisible,” October/November 2008], in which a faint image in one eye—say, an angry face in the left eye—becomes invisible by flashing a series of colorful overlaid rectangles into the other eye. As long as you keep both eyes open, you see only the flashed pictures. Attention is drawn to the rapidly changing images, effectively camouflaging the angry face. As soon as you wink with the right eye, however, you see the face. This technique has been used to great effect both to hide things from consciousness—such as a naked man or woman—and to demonstrate that the brain will still attend to them. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Consciousness; Attention
Link ID: 16612 - Posted: 04.05.2012