The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Want to Know How Scientists Are "Mapping the Brain"?

Then check out this presentation on the technology and techniques used to physically slice and digitally dice the human brain... and make a marvelous map.

From TED.com:

How can we begin to understand the way the brain works? The same way we begin to understand a city: by making a map. In this visually stunning talk, Allan Jones shows how his team is mapping which genes are turned on in each tiny region, and how it all connects up. 

(Recorded atTEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 15:22.)

The Exquisite Corpse of Science

 

How do different people and groups of people view science? What do they know about it? What do they think is important? In this educational project, Tim Jones, communicatescience.com and two colleagues from Imperial College asked three groups of people what they thought was important about science today......and draw it ! Here is the result expressed as four drawings joined using the Surrealists' technique of 'Exquisite Corpse'.

(via Perrin Ireland)

The Neuroscience of Improvisation

I have always wanted to have my brain scanned while listening and scribing. One limitation is that I'd have to lay immobilized on my back in a giant beige magnet. On a vacation a few years ago, I described what I do for a living to family friend who is a neuropathologist.

When I asked him what happens in my brain while I listen and draw images to capture ideas on large surfaces, he replied: "Why, your whole brain is lit up like a Christmas tree!"

Charles Limb is a doctor and a musician who researches the way musical creativity works in the brain. He wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

WSJ: In the digital age, use your digits!

Via Twitter from Austin Kleon: The @wsj on why handwriting is good for you:

Using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development.

It's not just children who benefit. Adults studying new symbols, such as Chinese characters, might enhance recognition by writing the characters by hand, researchers say. Some physicians say handwriting could be a good cognitive exercise for baby boomers working to keep their minds sharp as they age.

FULL ARTICLE >>

Posted via email from The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Why Scribing Works: Tom Wujec on 3 ways the brain creates meaning

This is probably the most concise, well illustrated explanation of what happens in the brain will we watch graphic facilitation in action!

From TED 2009: Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas?

‘I Love Charts’ from Sid the Science Kid

It's good to see PBS is teaching strong values to grow up with with Sid the Science Kid and this lovely chart song (below). A chart is a handy dandy scientific tool...it gives you information that you can see with your eyes...a chart that you visualize...you get the picture... so do I... Best kid song ever.

From FlowingData.com

NPR: Bored? Try Doodling To Keep The Brain On Task

From NPR:

ABOVE: President Obama's doodle, sketched as part of a "National Doodle Day"

Bill Gates is a doodler, and he's not alone. Lyndon Johnson doodled. Ralph Waldo Emerson doodled. Ronald Reagan drew pictures of cowboys, horses and hearts crossed with arrows. Most of us doodle at one point or another. But why?

To understand where the compulsion to doodle comes from, the first thing you need to do is look more closely at what happens to the brain when it becomes bored. According to Jackie Andrade, a professor of psychology at the University of Plymouth, though many people assume that the brain is inactive when they're bored, the reverse is actually true.

"If you look at people's brain function when they're bored, we find that they are using a lot of energy — their brains are very active," Andrade says.

The reason, she explains, is that the brain is designed to constantly process information. But when the brain finds an environment barren of stimulating information, it's a problem.

FULL ARTICLE >>

WIRED: MIT Students Turn Internet Into a Sixth Human Sense -- Video

LONG BEACH, California -- Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen. The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when they're done.

FULL STORY: http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/ted-digital-six.html

'Minority Report' Interface Controlled by Hand Gestures

"Before Tom Cruise went crazy," notes the unnamed reviewer in this video from WIRED, "he starred in this actually pretty cool movie called Minority Report, where he was controlling this computer interface purely with his hands."

At CES 2009, Toshiba showed off a conceptual computer interface that uses hand gestures for control. With simple motion sensing technology and a software interface, Toshiba hopes to open up applications for video games and other interactive media.

The WIRED reviewer concludes: "I think it is pretty cool. I don't think it'll hit the mainstream anytime soon. I don't think people will be solving crimes or anything with it."

Who knows? Three years ago, Jeff Han blew the roof off at TED 2006 by premiering his touchscreen interface. Then the iPhone came out and made smallscreen multi-touch an expected feature on gadgets.

Oh, there's the Wii which is fast putting the concept of a hardwired game controller in the category of rabbit ear television antenna.

I want to know when we can use it to start painting in virtual 3-D!

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School

The brain is an amazing thing. Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know.

Dr. John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University.

Medina's Brain Rules book, DVD and on-line tutorials make the complexity of our individually wired brains both understandable and fun. Lots of content also available on YouTube--including the location of the elusive Jennifer Aniston neuron!

clipped from www.brainrules.net EXERCISE | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. SURVIVAL | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too. WIRING | Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently. ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things. SHORT-TERM MEMORY | Rule #5: Repeat to remember. LONG-TERM MEMORY | Rule #6: Remember to repeat. SLEEP | Rule #7: Sleep well, think well. STRESS | Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way. SENSORY INTEGRATION | Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses. VISION | Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses. GENDER | Rule #11: Male and female brains are different. EXPLORATION | Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.