Memory Contaminates Perception

The piece of news that I´m going to write about today is about how our brains conforms an idea of the world using the information perceived by our senses and we don’t always see what is really there. Optical illusions are a proof that our brains make mistakes sometimes in the interpretation. This usually happens when we can´t perceive all the information and our brain has to fill the blanks, but it can be affected by other things like our feelings  too.

Now we need to clarify some terms used in the papers referenced in this news: Working memory is our ability to retain and manipulate a small amount of information for a short period of time, and visual working memory is our ability to retain visual information as mental images in the mind´s eye.

In two studies published in 2009, the results suggested that brain mechanism for perception and working memory are closely linked. This finding motivated another research team to investigate if the information retained in visual memory can change our perception of things. The results of this study showed that visual working memory and perception interact with each other, and this may be because the same parts of the brain are used for both of them.

I choose this piece of news because it was the most interesting one of the ones I could find. Perception is a really interesting topic for me. To think that each one of us sees the world in a completely different way fascinates me.

You can find the news in here http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2011/aug/17/memory-contaminates-perception

Feedback :)

The Mysterious(WF) of Sleep Process

Now i(v)m not reading a specific book or paper, i usually read different papers, because i don't need a lot of time to read one, a big paper have mm maybe 60 pages, when is a review, but, today in science you can find papers with only 2 or 3 pages. If i need to speak about a specific genre, i always read neurosciences papers in general, sleep; memory and learning process are my favourite(’s)(WF) topics. For example, i enjoying read (WF o WT) about the influence of sleep in memory consolidation. In this point (WE), we need to understand the basic process of the brain. We have different dynamics in our brains where the influence of electrical activity and chemical interactions are the base for all process in a person, in the case of the electrical activity we can identify different waves, like beta, alpha, theta and delta, but in sleep, we can find a common activity denomination, the slow wave sleep (SWS) and REM sleep (Rapid eyed movements). For(WW)memory consolidation the researches from the past 5 years have a consensus (mmm maybe) about the influence of the SWS, because in this specific moment of the sleep, the hippocampus is working on consolidation. In other part (WE), the influence of odors and the facilitation of odor stimulation for memory consolidation are so interesting too. This area of research is very exciting for me, and i hope dedicate my life for new discoveries in the area, maybe in the future we can find a solution for memory problems and increase the understanding of the sleep and every function in relation with that wonderful and mysterious process. 

WF= Wrong Form                       WW = Wrong Word               v = Something Missing

(WO) = Word Order                    Sp = Spelling                          P = Punctuation

WE = Wrong Expression             T = Wrong Tense                   ? = Not sure 

 C= Concordance  between subject/determiner  and verb           (  )  = Not necessary

It is Vicious

I recently finish a book I have wanted to read for a while. It is called Vicious, it was written by an American author named Victoria Schwab and it was published in 2013. I read it in English because it has not been translated to Spanish yet and I could not wait so I thought I´ll try to read it on its original language and I could.

It´s a fantasy novel about two friends in college that learn how to get supernatural powers but later become archenemies. It starts in the middle of the story and is continuously going ford and back in time until you get to the event that changes everything. In every chapter you´ll get all these pieces of information that you may not understand completely in the moment but it will make more sense the further you read. So in the past you´ll see these two roommates, best friends, and their life in college and in the present you´ll see them trying to haunt each other. The two main characters have really interesting personalities and their interactions as best friends are as interesting as their interactions as archenemies.

I enjoyed it very much, I didn´t want to stop reading and I was really sad when it ended. I think reading it again, now knowing everything that happened, will be a really different experience than the first time. I can´t wait.

Stuff I have been listening to lately

Today is free topic again so I will write about what I have been listening to lately. My phone doesn´t have a lot of memory so I can´t put as much music as I would like on it. Because of this I get bored of listen the same songs and I change them often. I´ve had been really into  soundtracks of movies and series these days so right now in my phone I have The nightmare before Christmas and 500 days of Summer complete soundtracks, and the intro themes of Vikings, Black Sails and Sherlock. 

I think I like to listen the soundtrack of The nightmare before Christmas because it remains me of moments of the movie, which I like a lot. About the 500 days of Summer soundtrack, I think I like it because is like the perfect music to listen when I am on the bus or on the subway in my way to somewhere.

I love the series Vikings and I can’t wait for the fourth season premiere next year, besides the intro theme is so epic, I just love it. I stopped watching Black Sails because I wanted to watch other things more but I really like the main theme so maybe I will try to watch the series again. Sherlock will take forever to come back but I´ll wait always and listen to the main theme meanwhile.

English exercises

Today I’ll write about my performance in a serie of different mini tests. In the first part, reading, I did pretty well I think. I just had one mistake and it was because I didn´t understood the meaning of “Free estimates” in the context of a building company. In the second part, listening, I only had one mistake too and it was because I didn´t understood the images of the options.  In the last part, vocabulary, I had two mistakes, one because I confused niece with nephew and the other because I didn´t knew the expression “traffic jam”. Overall I would say I did well but it could be better.

J. R. R. Tolkien

Today's topic is to write about a person we admire. I haven’t thought about it before so it’s been difficult for me to decide the one. So I am going with J.R.R Tolkien I guess. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in South Africa but moved to England as a child. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, an anti-communist and a nationalist; he even got to compare Stalin with the Dark Lord, one of the greatest evils of his novels. His work was inspired by British adventures histories, European mythology and Catholicism. Even when I don’t share his ideals I do admire his creativity. 

I got to knew him by watching the movie adaptation of Lord of the rings and fell in love with the world he created. He didn’t just write a novel, he  constructed more than three different languages and a whole lore and cartography for the world he created. Tolkien is one of the most renowned fantasy writers, but his work has been widely criticized. One of the most criticized thing about his work, with which I agree, is the lack of female protagonist characters. He has been dead since 1973, but if he were alive I would ask him about the inspiration behind his work and all the things he didn’t got the chance to write because of his death.

Human's Impact

I don’t think of myself as a green person but I do worry about the actual condition of our planet and all the damage we have done as specie along the years. I think we should try to make as little negative impact as possible while we live here. Sadly there is nothing we can do to repair the damage that has already been done but we can stop its progression. From this perspective there is a really good point in being green. I think that people in our society doesn't know or just don’t care. We live in the right now and don’t care much about others that might come after us, or the consequences that our actions as specie might bring to other species. 

As I said in the beginning I don’t consider myself as a green person but I tried to do things to reduce the impact. In my daily life I try to not to use plastic bags and to reuse anything that can be reuse, I don’t own or drive a car so I use public transportation and if I can walk to a place I’ll do it.  I haven’t joined or supported any eco-organization yet, I guess because I’m not really the kind of people that join to things at all if that makes any sense. I would like to do more things to reduce the impact of my life here and create conscience about this subject in the people around me; maybe if we all do that we could make some change