Monday, October 17, 2016

ONE NATION POLICIES DISPROVED

I am concerned about the angry and discontented people in the world - the hate and most of all the ignorance.

Click this link -  www.FactCheckOneNation.com.au.

The world seems to be running on a tide of emotion and picking on the Other - people who are different.

I set about researching the policies of One Nation for my common-sense told me they were wrong but I needed the documented proof which I found had already been done.  www.FactCheckOneNation.com.au.

Thank you to whoever saved me a load of research.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

How music and moving develop new brain pathways

Science News

October 5, 2016

Concordia University

Dance and music training have even stronger effects on the brain than previously understood -- but in markedly different ways, say researchers.

NeuroImage - A team of researchers from the the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, proves that dance and music training have very strong and differing  effects on the brain than previously understood.

The researchers used high-tech imaging techniques to compare the effects of dance and music training on the white matter structure of experts in these two disciplines. They then examined the relationship between training-induced brain changes and dance and music abilities.

"We found that dancers and musicians differed in many white matter regions, including sensory and motor pathways, both at the primary and higher cognitive levels of processing," says Chiara Giacosa, Concordia PhD candidate and the study's lead author.
In particular, dancers showed broader connections of fibre bundles linking the sensory and motor brain regions themselves, as well as broader fibre bundles connecting the brain's two hemispheres -- in the regions that process sensory and motor information --. In contrast, musicians had stronger and more coherent fibre bundles in those same pathways.

"This suggests that dance and music training affect the brain in opposite directions, increasing global connectivity and crossing of fibres in dance training, and strengthening specific pathways in music training," Giacosa explains. "Indeed, while dancers train their whole body, which has a broader representation in the neural cortex, musicians focus their training on some specific body parts, such as hands, fingers or the mouth, which have a smaller cortical representation in the brain."

'This work has major potential'

Interestingly, dancers and musicians differed more between each other than in comparison to the group of control subjects who had no extensive formal training in either field.

According to Giacosa, this can happen because a range of uncontrolled variables influenced the control subjects in different ways, making them more similar to one group or the other. "Contrary to that, our samples of dancers and musicians were specifically selected to be pure groups of experts, which makes it easier to differentiate between them."

Virginia Penhune is a professor and chair of Concordia's Department of Psychology and the study's senior author. She notes that this research deepens the current knowledge about how regions of the brain are connected in networks, and how these structural networks change with training.

"This work has major potential for being applied to the fields of education and rehabilitation," Penhune says. "Understanding how dance and music training differently affect brain networks will allow us to selectively use them to enhance their functioning or compensate for difficulties and diseases that involve those specific brain networks."

Some studies have already shown how music training at a young age can improve various cognitive skills, but dance has yet to be used in a similar way.

"Recent research has started to show some improvements with dance and music therapy in patients affected by Parkinson's disease and children with autism respectively, but much more can be done with these and other diseases," says Penhune.
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Story Source:
Materials provided by Concordia University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Journal Reference:
Chiara Giacosa, Falisha J. Karpati, Nicholas E.V. Foster, Virginia B. Penhune, Krista L. Hyde. Dance and music training have different effects on white matter diffusivity in sensorimotor pathways. NeuroImage, 2016; 135: 273 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.048

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Do You Complain a Lot?

I stumbled upon this article today so I am sharing it with the world. I have shortened it to make it easier to read.

The full article can be found here 


How Complaining Rewires Your Brain for Negativity


TRAVIS BRADBERRY

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Research shows that most people complain once a minute during a typical conversation.

 Complaining is tempting because it feels good, but like many other things that are enjoyable - smoking or overeating - complaining isn’t good for you.

When you repeat a behaviour, complaining, your neurons branch out to each other to ease the flow of information to make easier to repeat that behaviour in future. You don't realize you’re doing it
 Your neurons grow closer together, and the connections between them become more permanent. Scientists describe this process as, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”

Repeated complaining rewires your brain to make future complaining more likely. Over time, you find it’s easier to be negative than to be positive, regardless of what’s happening around you. This changes how people see you.

Complaining damages other areas of your brain as well


Research from Stanford University has shown that complaining shrinks the hippocampus - an area critical to problem solving and intelligent thought. Damage to the hippocampus is scary, especially when you consider that it’s one of the primary brain areas destroyed by Alzheimer’s.

Complaining is also bad for your health


When you complain, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol shifts you into fight-or-flight mode, directing oxygen, blood and energy away from everything but the systems that are essential to immediate survival. Cortisol, raises your blood pressure and blood sugar so that you’ll be prepared to either escape or defend yourself.

The extra cortisol released impairs your immune system and makes you more susceptible to high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, infections and obesity.

Complaining is infectious


Since human beings are inherently social, our brains mimic the moods of those around us, this process is called neuronal mirroring, and the basis for empathy. However, this makes complaining a lot like smoking - you don’t have to do it yourself to suffer the ill effects. You need to be cautious about spending time with people who complain about everything.

Complainers want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. Like inhaling the second-hand smoke you suffer the consequences.

The solutions to complaining


1.  Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.


Shift your attention to something that you’re grateful for. This reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis, found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood and energy and substantially less anxiety due to lower cortisol levels. When you experience negative or pessimistic thoughts think about something positive. Your positive attitude will rewire your brain

2.    Solution-oriented complaining


When you have something that is truly worth complaining about - poor customer service -  look for away to solve the problem in solution-oriented complaining. Think of it as complaining with a purpose.


Solution-oriented complaining should do the following:


Have a clear purpose


If you can’t identify a purpose, you probably just want to complain for its own sake.

Start with something positive


It may seem counterintuitive to start a complaint with a compliment, but starting with a positive helps keep the other person from getting defensive. For example, before launching into a complaint about poor customer service, you could say something like, “I’ve been a customer for a very long time and have always been pleased with your service...”

Be specific


When you’re complaining don't  dredge up every minor annoyance from the past 20 years. Just address the current situation and be as specific as possible. Instead of saying, “Your employee was rude to me,” describe specifically what the employee did that seemed rude.

End on a positive.


 If you end with, “I’m never shopping here again,” the person has no motivation to act on your complaint. You’re just venting, with no purpose but to complain. Instead, restate your purpose, as well as your hope that the desired result can be achieved, for example, “I’d like to work this out so that we can keep our business relationship intact.”

Bringing It All Together


Just like smoking, drinking too much, and lying on the couch watching TV all day, complaining is bad for you. Put my advice to use, and you'll reap the physical, mental and performance benefits that come with a positive frame of mind.


version of this article appeared on TalentSmart.