Learning, Arts, and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition

Reports findings from multiple neuroscientific studies on the impact of arts training on the enhancement of other cognitive capacities, such as reading acquisition, sequence learning, geometrical reasoning, and memory

2008 Progress Report on Brain Research

Highlights new research on various disorders, nervous system injuries, neuroethics, neuroimmunology, pain, sense and body function, stem cells and neurogenesis, and thought and memory. Includes essays on arts and cognition and on deep brain stimulation

Monitoring Postoperative Opioid Use Following Simple Arthroscopic Meniscectomy: A Performance-Improvement Strategy for Prescribing Recommendations and Community Safety.

Background: Orthopaedic surgeons are confronted with a difficult dilemma: managing acute pain postoperatively and balancing the risk of prescription opioid use. To our knowledge, a prospective performance-improvement project providing opioid-prescription recommendations based on the actual amounts of usual and customary medication consumed following simple knee meniscectomy has not been described. Methods: One hundred and two patients undergoing arthroscopic knee meniscectomy prospectively recorded postoperative pain medications in a pain journal. Arthroscopic procedures were performed at 2 centers by 9 fellowship-trained senior surgeons. Various usual and customary prescribing protocols were observed, and the amount of medication consumed was recorded. Prescription and over-the-counter pain medication, quantity, frequency, and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were collected. Results: One hundred and two patients filled a prescription opioid medication and were included in the study. A total of 3,765 pills were prescribed, and a total of 573.5 were consumed. For the 102 patients who filled a prescription, the average time consuming opioid medication was 2 ± 2 days (range, 0 to 13 days) postoperatively. No cases of persistent use were recorded. Of the 102 patients who filled a prescription, 29.4% did not take any prescription opioids postoperatively. A total of 3,191.5 pills (or 22,183.75 morphine milligram equivalents [MME]) were unused and were potentially available to the community. Conclusions: Following simple knee arthroscopy, the amount of prescribed opioid medication exceeds the need for postoperative pain management. In general, 68% of patients require a maximum of 13 pills postoperatively for 6 days. Surgeons should adjust prescribing standards accordingly to limit the amount of prescription opioids available to the community. Furthermore, a comprehensive response to include increased patient screening and monitoring as well as opioid use and disposal education is recommended

Visual and tactile interhemispheric transfer compared with the method of Poffenberger

In a simple manual reaction time task, reaction times are longer if the responding hand and visual field of the stimulus are contralateral than when the hand and field are ipsilateral. This small crossed vs. uncrossed difference (CUD) has often been attributed to the interhemispheric transmission time incurred when the hemisphere receiving the sensory input is not the one initiating the motor response. We assessed the generality of the visual CUD by comparing it to the CUD for tactile stimuli. Visual and tactile CUDs did not differ significantly in magnitude, and in both modalities the CUD showed a strong asymmetry, with a positive CUD occurring only for the left hand. This outcome indicates that the properties of the visual CUD are not determined by neural pathways, or hemispheric asymmetries, that are specific to the visual system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46538/1/221_2004_Article_1873.pd

Bidirectional control of saccadic eye movements by the disconnected cerebral hemispheres

The present investigation demonstrates that callosotomy patient J.W. can generate either leftward or rightward saccades in response to color cues presented unilaterally. When asked to name the colors, performance was at chance for left visual field presentations, demonstrating a disability in interhemispheric transfer of chromatic information. The successful control of saccadic direction based on discriminative color cues that appear confined to a single hemisphere may suggest a capacity for bidirectional control of saccadic eye movements in the disconnected cerebral hemispheres.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46564/1/221_2004_Article_BF00231667.pd

Neuroprediction of future rearrest

Identification of factors that predict recurrent antisocial behavior is integral to the social sciences, criminal justice procedures, and the effective treatment of high-risk individuals. Here we show that error-related brain activity elicited during performance of an in- hibitory task prospectively predicted subsequent rearrest among adult offenders within 4 y of release (N =96). The odds that an offender with relatively low anterior cingulate activity would be rearrested were approximately double that of an offender with high activity in this region, holding constant other observed risk factors. These results suggest a potential neurocognitive biomarker for persistent antisocial behavior

Emergence of qualia from brain activity or from an interaction of proto-consciousness with the brain: which one is the weirder? Available evidence and a research agenda

This contribution to the science of consciousness aims at comparing how two different theories can explain the emergence of different qualia experiences, meta-awareness, meta-cognition, the placebo effect, out-of-body experiences, cognitive therapy and meditation-induced brain changes, etc. The first theory postulates that qualia experiences derive from specific neural patterns, the second one, that qualia experiences derive from the interaction of a proto-consciousness with the brain\u2019s neural activity. From this comparison it will be possible to judge which one seems to better explain the different qualia experiences and to offer a more promising research agenda