Don Mangus Now on YouTube

I've now posted a series of my "Don-umentaries" on YouTube. I'm the new Oscar Levant. View at your own risk.

"Smirk: The Don Mangus Story"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6r9p6AaqGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttKVQD5--ZY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRsZhmdVclI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVH-p4HaS58

RSA Video: How Does Experience Influence the Brain?

Elizabeth Gould presents her findings on the fascinating, always-changing mammalian brain.

http://www.thersa.org/events/video/archive/elizabeth-gould

Brion Gysin: Dreamachine at the New Museum Youtube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7HeGWsnqAw&feature=related

"The Head Trip," A Tour Through Your Mind, Youtube Video



Author Jeff Warren.


A tour through sleeping, dreaming and waking consciousness with Jeff Warren, at the Toronto launch of his "The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness" (Random House, 2007). For author contact, speaking information and reviews of the book, go to: www.headtrip.ca

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhZ4yo1vfwA

Albert-László Barabási at TEDMED 2012

Networks guru and author Albert-László Barabási says diseases are the results of system breakdowns within the body, and mapping intracellular protein networks will help us discover cures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10oQMHadGos


Q & A video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkurtDHFnac&feature=relmfu

Neuroplasticity Pioneer Paul Bach-y-Rita Video

Paul Bach-y-Rita (1934-2006) was an neuroscientist whose most notable work was in the field of neuroplasticity. Bach-y-Rita was one of the first to seriously study the idea of neuroplasticity (although it was first proposed in the late 19th century), and to introduce sensory substitution as a tool to treat patients suffering from neurological disorders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCM4UBM8wTM&feature=related

Mark Hyman on Functional Medicine at TEDMED 2010

Here's a 19-minute Mark Hyman TEDMED video on Functional Medicine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhkLcpJTV9M

From yee Wiki:

Functional medicine is a form of Western alternative medicine unrelated to the Western biomedical approaches.

It focuses on treating individuals who may have bodily symptoms, imbalances and dysfunctions. Functional medicine seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties.

Functional medicine practitioners provide chronic care management with the belief that "diet, nutrition, and exposure to environmental toxins play central roles in functional medicine because they may predispose to illness, provoke symptoms, and modulate the activity of biochemical mediators through a complex and diverse set of mechanisms."

It was developed and originated by Dr. Helmut W. Schimmel.

NOVA Program: Epigentics

Epigenetics
Environmental factors can alter the way our genes are expressed, making even identical twins different. Aired on July 24, 2007 on PBS.

Once nurture seemed clearly distinct from nature. Now it appears that our diets and lifestyles can change the expression of our genes. How? By influencing a network of chemical switches within our cells collectively known as the epigenome. This new understanding may lead us to potent new medical therapies. Epigenetic cancer therapy, for one, already seems to be yielding promising results.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html

Heritage Auction Signature Sale #7063 Comic Art Auction Video

Here's a video of the recent Heritage Auction comic art heavy-hitters, made by a member of comicart-l.


http://player.theplatform.com/p/tZkY5B/7dhLfRUiJByl

Michael Merzenich on Re-Wiring the Brain TED Video

Michael Merzenich is a pioneer in neuroplasticity research.

One of the foremost researchers of neuroplasticity, Michael Merzenich's work has shown that the brain retains its ability to alter itself well into adulthood -- suggesting that brains with injuries or disease might be able to recover function, even later in life. He has also explored the way the senses are mapped in regions of the brain and the way sensations teach the brain to recognize new patterns.
Merzenich wants to bring the powerful plasticity of the brain into practical use through technologies and methods that harness it to improve learning. He founded Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes educational software for children based on models of brain plasticity. He is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Posit Science, which creates "brain training" software also based on his research.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN0Y7aoosvE

On Screen: Antonio Damasio

This is not Antonio Damasio -- it's the fabulous Dr. R., specialist in Anxiety, Asperger's, ADHD, and more.

My psychologist Dr. R. often reminds me that most of his patients would rather watch a video than read. I enjoy the pastime of reading so much, I sometimes forget that most folks spend more time watching shows. For example, I shared with my pals that I was enjoying Michael Lewis' book, The Blind Side, and was nonplussed when they countered, "Have you seen the movie? Julia Roberts was great." The film was nominated for Academy Awards, yet until then I didn't even know it existed. The same thing happened when I finished off Niall Ferguson's Ascent of Money, only to find that it was a highly-celebrated PBS show.

Here then, is a weblink to an hour-long TV show, Antonio Damasio: This Time with Feeling. I haven't watched it yet, but I'm sure it will be worthwhile if you have an interest and take the time to view it. So, here's a show to watch instead of a book to read:

http://fora.tv/2009/07/04/Antonio_Damasio_This_Time_With_Feeling




This is the dapper Antonio Damasio. Photo Emily Shur for The Wall Street Journal, 2011.



 Here are William Oates Covington Jr.'s Notes on Feelings (made by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio):

The term feeling should be reserved for the private, mental experience of an emotion, while the term emotion should be used to designate the collection of responses, many of which are publicly observable. (Damasio; Feeling of What Happens, 42)

The machinery of feelings is a contributor to the process of consciousness, namely to the creation of the self. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 110)

Feelings of pain or pleasure or some quality in between are the bedrock of our minds. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 3)

All feelings contain some aspect of pain or pleasure as a necessary ingredient. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 123)

Some variation of pleasure or pain is a consistent content of the perception we call feeling. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 85)

Drugs such as valium that remove the affect component of pain but leave the sensation of pain impact -- you "feel" the pain but do not care. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 104)

Feelings are at the very top of the innate automated life governance machine -- the homeostasis machine. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 34)

Feelings are based on composite representations of the state of life in the process of being adjusted for survival. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 130)

Contents of feelings are the configuration of body state represented in somatosensing maps. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 132)

A feeling of emotion is an idea of the body when it is perturbed by the emoting process. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 88)


Perceptions, Objects and Feelings

Visual perceptions correspond to external objects. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 91)

In the case of feelings, the objects and events at the origin are well inside the body rather than outside of it.  Feelings may be just as mental as any other perception, but the objects being mapped are parts and states of the living organism in which feelings arise. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 91)

The "object" of an emotion or a feeling -- the sight of a spectacular seascape is an emotionally competent object.  The body state that results from beholding that seascape is the actual object which is then perceived in the feeling state. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 91)

Feelings are not a passive perception or a flash in time, especially not in the case of feelings of joy and sorrow. For a while after an occasion of such feelings begins -- for seconds or for minutes -- there is a dynamic engagement of the body, almost certainly in repeated fashion, and a subsequent dynamic variation of the perception.  We perceive a series of transitions. We sense and interplay, a give-and-take. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 92)

All feelings are feelings of some of the basic regulatory reactions, or of appetites, or of emotions-proper. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 92)

We react to most, perhaps all, objects with emotions, however weak, and subsequent feelings, however feeble. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 93)


Feelings and Brain Maps

Feelings are related to neural mappings of body state. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 96)

The essential content of feelings is the mapping of a particular body state.  The substrate of feelings is a set of neural patterns from which a mental image of the body state can emerge.  A feeling in essence is an idea. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 88)

Feelings are a mental expression of all other levels of homeostatic regulation. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 37)

Goal of the homeostasis endeavor in humans is to provide a better than neutral life state, what humans identify as wellness and well-being. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 35)

Regulatory reactions that ensure our homeostasis consists of a hierarchy of simple reactions (FAPs) incorporated as the components of more elaborate ones, a nesting of the simple within the complex. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 37)

Somatosensory regions are involved in the feeling process, and the insula is involved perhaps more significantly than any other structure. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 105)

Class of signals most likely to represent the content of feelings -- signals related to pain states; body temperature; flush; pH; tickle; shutter;  viseral and genital sensations; the state of smooth musculature in blood vessels and other viscera; local pH; glucose; osmolality; presence of inflammatory agents; etc.. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 106)

Somatosensory regions appear to be a critical substrate for feelings, and the insular cortex appears to be the pivotal region of the set. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 106)
Feelings become possible because there are brain maps available to represent body states. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 111)

Brain maps become possible because the brain machinery of body regulation requires them in order to make its regulatory adjustments, namely those adjustments that occur during the unfolding of an emotional reaction. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 111)

Mental images we call feelings arise from the neural patterns exhibited in body maps. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 123)


Background Feelings

Background feelings help define our mental state. (Damasio; Feeling of What Happens, 286)

Prominent background feelings include: fatigue; energy; excitement; wellness; sickness; tension; relaxation; surging; dragging; stability; instability; balance; imbalance; harmony; discord. (Damasio; Feeling of What Happens, 286)

Moods are made up of modulated and sustained background feelings. (Damasio; Feeling of What Happens, 286)

Background feelings -- a part of the neural signaling that goes on in the brainstem and hypothalamus is continually made conscious. (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 126)

Background feelings -- the way you feel when you're coming down with a cold, or better still, "on top of the world." (Damasio; Looking for Spinoza, 126)

Martin E. P. Seligman Ph. D.: Ted Talk On Positive Psychology

I was telling a dear friend about Martin E. P. Seligman Ph. D. and Positive Psychology and his video talk on TED and so I decied to post a link to it on my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flqx4zjLljI

 

Martin E. P. Seligman's book.

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin E. P. Seligman

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest user-friendly road map for human emotion, the author of the bestselling Learned Optimism proposes ratcheting the field of psychology to a new level. "Relieving the states that make life miserable... has made building the states that make life worth living less of a priority. The time has finally arrived for a science that seeks to understand positive emotion, build strength and virtue, and provide guideposts for finding what Aristotle called the `good life,' " writes Seligman. Thankfully, his lengthy homage to happiness may actually live up to the ambitious promise of its subtitle. Seligman doesn't just preach the merits of happiness e.g., happy people are healthier, more productive and contentedly married than their unhappy counterparts but he also presents brief tests and even an interactive web site (the launch date is set for mid-August) to help readers increase the happiness quotient in their own lives. Trying to fix weaknesses won't help, he says; rather, incorporating strengths such as humor, originality and generosity into everyday interactions with people is a better way to achieve happiness. Skeptics will wonder whether it's possible to learn happiness from a book. Their point may be valid, but Seligman certainly provides the attitude adjustment and practical tools (including self-tests and exercises) for charting the course.

Review

Kay Redfield Jamison author of An Unquiet Mind Authentic Happiness is an excellent book about emotions that are vital, positive, and lend great strength to our lives. Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of positive emotions, has written a book that will make a real difference to many people.

Jonathan Kellerman Martin Seligman is one of the most original thinkers the social sciences have produced in our century. Authentic Happiness is a fascinating, compelling look at a body of ground-breaking research. An important book.

Steven Pinker Peter de Florez Professor of Psychology, MIT, and author of The Language Instinct A highly insightful scientific and personal reflection on the nature of happiness, from one of the most creative and influential psychologists of our time.

Joan Oliver Goldsmith author of How Can We Keep from Singing: Music and the Passionate Life To read this book is to walk with your head floating in clouds of possibility while your feet tread firmly on the ground of scientific research. Dr. Seligman gives us the tools to tap into our greatest strengths, so that we can live more joyously while making a greater contribution to loved ones, work and community.

Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence At last, psychology gets serious about glee, fun and happiness. Martin Seligman has given us a gift -- a practical map for the perennial quest for a flourishing life.

Mary Pipher author of Reviving Ophelia Seligman takes the best, most recent science in psychology and applies it to our oldest, most basic human questions -- how can we be happy? And how can we be good? His book is ground-breaking, heart-lifting and, most importantly, deeply useful. With pun intended, I'm optimistic about its success.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience A revolutionary perspective on psychology, Seligman's Authentic Happiness is a beacon for human behavior in the new century. Laypersons and professionals alike will find this book enormously enriching. It summarizes a huge literature, it provides concrete self-assessment tools, and it speaks with a joyful voice about what it means to be fully alive.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People An amazing book! Absolutely full of practical wisdom and its authentic sources. What depth of understanding! Seligman affirms our power of choice with a perspective on old and new psychology I found compelling and fascinating. This book will help restore the Character Ethic.

Diane Ackerman author of A Natural History of the Senses The Constitution may guarantee the right to pursue happiness, but it doesn't offer clear paths to follow through the wilderness. Seligman does. By turns smart, funny, irreverent, and insightful, he is the perfect guide, someone who can make such a difference in life, and lives. A world hungry for happiness will love his new book.

Cheryl Richardson author of Stand Up for Your Life Authentic Happiness is one of the most important books of our time. It offers a powerful message of hope for millions who long for a deeply satisfying life. Highly accessible and filled with practical advice, if you read it and use it, it will change your life.

Five Stages of Loss: The Cartoon

http://www.maniacworld.com/Giraffe-vs-quicksand.html

Dr. R. turned me on to this wildly amusing animated cartoon demonstrating the Five Stages of Loss. Please note that no giraffes were harmed in the making of this film.