Saturday, January 12, 2013

Brain Waves and the Flynn Effect

Andre Willers

12 Jan 2013


 

Synopsis:

Human IQ tests have been rising by about 0.3 points per year since the 1930's . Mainly because increase in speed of correlations .

Changed Brain wave frequencies would reflect this .


 

Discussion :

1.The speed increase correlation is proportional to the (increase in white-brain)^3 matter (ie the interconnectivity)

2.This translates into greater scores on the IQ tests (speed of solving a puzzle) .

3.This means that something like the alpha brain waves have drifted since the 1930's

It was slower then . the 3% rise was per 100 IQ per decade . . Quite hefty . Present alpha waves are about 8-12 Hertz .

This is an approximation . The white brain matter is in a 3-dimensional space . Hence the (1/3) power .

The 1930 alpha waves were about 8.064 Hz=8*( (1.003)^8 ) ^(1/3) in the 1930's . It drifted from 8.064 Hz to 8.0 hz . About a 0.8 % drift over 80 years .

I have been unable to find historical data of the required at this level of accuracy .

4. But sports records should show the effect . I am too bored to do it . The Dear Reader can see if sports records have increased by 0.8% over the last 80 years , on average .

5.How to be smarter :Zone

Use entrainment to drive frequency's lower . I would advise burst episodes . Sustained higher frequencies will cause all sorts of problems . But most humans can handle the Zone .

See Appendix III .

6. If you are only 0.8 % better than the norm , use burst systems as set out in Appendix III to get a momentary advantage .

Do not try to maintain it . You will burn yourself out . Literally . I have discussed synapse Temperatures before (Pity I can't remember the reference . Oh well)

The synapse spaces have to cool down .

ATP spin generates too much energy . See Appendix IV .

7. Even a tiny advantage like 0.8% is enough for First-past-the-post systems .

Do you want to win , or be right ?

The two seems to be diverging in extreme competition .

A stupid competition .

Both will lose .


 

8. Your species will go extinct , regardless of smartness or evolutionary fitness .


 

You know what to do .

Do it .


 

I am tired of you lot of puling children .


 

No more nappies for me .


 

What ! No brownie points ?


 

Andre


 

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Appendix I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effectFlynn Effect


 

The average rate of increase seems to be about three IQ points per decade in the U.S. on tests such as the WISC.


 

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Appendix II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_oscillation

 The first discovered and best-known frequency band is alpha activity(8–12 Hz) that can be detected from the occipital lobe during relaxed wakefulness and increases when the eyes are closed.[4] Other frequency bands are: delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–70 Hz) frequency band, where faster rhythms such as gamma activity have been linked to cognitive processing. Indeed, EEG signals change dramatically duri


 

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Appendix III

Zone Technology

Andre Willers

10 Mar 2011


 

Synopsis :

Neuromagic Zone technology is now commercially available .

No sports- or academic person will be able to compete without it .


 

Discussion :


 

Commercial availability :

Costs about 1 700 pounds UK

See http://www.freerlogic.com/


 

Detailed discussion in Appendix A


 

Addendum to Appendix A:

An Exit strategy is needed :


 

The discussion in Appendix A is fairly comprehensive , but done before an actual piece of hardware was available . Ie , just theory .


 

Zone Addiction :


 

ADHD individuals .

Where there is a family history of Aspergers , ADHD might be an adaptation to counter it .

Zone addiction might then more easily occur .(See below)

Monitoring would be needed .


 

In general , do not spend more than 2-3 hours in the Zone .


 

Optimization :

Since long-term nerve potentiation is at most 10 minutes , optimum results should be obtained by a Zone episode of ten minutes , followed by a rest .

The rest period is unknown , since this apparatus was not available before .

Lacking experimental data , use the general 1/3 principle and rest for 2/3 : ie 20 minutes .

Snack on brainfood in the rest period .

If the rest-period is not used , unpredictable Zone-destabilization will occur .

(ie , loss of focus and form)


 

Nutritional supplements :

All this activity places a heavy strain the nuts-and-bolts of necessary molecules .

Eg essential fats , some vitamins and elements .

Strange urges for some foods will arise , especially fishy ones .


 

As for the Poor :

Watch "The Bold and the Beautiful" and scarf fatty snacks during the commercials . The effect will be about 67% the same .


 

Soapies make you smart !


 

Andre


 


 

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Appendix A

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com Feb 2009


 

NeuroMagic , The Zone , Sports and Exams.

Andre Willers

7 Feb 2009


 

NeuroMagic is a hot new science .

It is the fusion of NeuroScience and Stage Magic .

The exact neurological mechanisms of effective stage magic tricks are explored . The process is synergistic . Both sides benefit to an quite an extraordinary degree .


 

The Synergy :

Stage Magic exploits processes (flaws , weaknesses , or just the way it is done) in the perception and cognitive processes . It has a repertoire of tricks built up over thousands of years . Tried and tested in the real world .


 

Neuroscience explains them and suggests new approaches .


 

An explosion of applications is only now starting .


 

Sports.

"Watch the ball ! "

"Pay attention!"

"Concentrate!"

Heartfelt imprecations from generations of coaches .


 

But how do these mechanisms work ? More importantly for competitive sports , how to take advantage of them .


 

NeuroMagic manipulates the mechanics of the visual system , as well as the more important attention and concentration mechanisms at the neural level .


 

Examples

1.Mental lapses :

Change blindness , inattentional blindness , choice blindness .

The cognitive system is manipulated at a neural level .

2.Visual lapses

Curved and straight motions activate different neural systems at sub-retinal level and cognitive level .


 

The details can be found in the works of S Martinez-Conde , SL Macknik et al .

A good summary is in ScientificAmerican Dec 2008 p44 "Magic and the Brain" .

NewScientist has also run a good article .

See www.mindscience.org/magicsymposium


 

Misdirection in sport .

This old standby of stage magicians is allowed (feints) .


 

The Zone .

Being "In Form" .

Well known in sport . Usually described as a state of relaxed concentration .

The meta-feedback processes in the brain are confident that they can handle anything because the processes they monitor are functioning well .

You can be in the Zone and still get wiped . It is an internal state .

But it is fragile .

Neuromagic techniques will be aimed at usable techniques to induce , maintain and recover it , while disrupting the opponent's Zone .


 

Is the Zone delineated ?

Yes .

It is a whole mess of feedback-systems coming together in a system recognized internally by the meta-monitoring systems as distinct .

So , yes , you do wake up in the morning knowing that everything is tip-top .

But it varies .

If you don't , neuromagic is supposed to develop techniques to kick-back into the Zone-state .

If all else fails , try rebooting . Go back to sleep thinking positive thoughts . Waking up is a fairly random initiation process of feedback loops .

This is where being part of a Team helps . The team acts as a flywheel , kickstarting the process if possible .


 

Zone Collapse .

If you are in the Zone , and it is then collapsed , a whole host of feedback processes are initiated that reduces effectiveness drastically . This is a neurological effect . Like dropping a spanner in watch-gears . The player's game collapses .


 

Disrupting Teams .

This is possible by inducing false narratives .

Eg in soccer:

This is done using misdirection and visual-system cues to make a ball disappear and reappear somewhere else from the opposing player's viewpoint . This induces a false narrative , collapsing their Zone .


 

Building teams can and is being done using similar techniques ,

but on an ad hoc basis , without a deep neurological-level theoretical background .

A quantum-physicist would be handy . The Zone-state is very much like a fragile quantum state generated from a number of players .


 

Virtualities .

Does anybody train in SecondLife?

It seems the obvious mechanism .


 

It is not physical responses that need training , but mental ones . A virtuality is better than real life , because plays can be replicated exactly and repeatedly , identifying and correcting mistakes . Levels of difficulty can be adjusted . Opposing teams can be modeled using agents . Tie it to Wii .


 

It can even generate revenue . Fancy yourself playing against Rinaldo ?

For $100 you can play against his model avatar . For $10 000 you can train against/with him in a real training exercise in SecondLife . This might even be advisable , to add randomness to the training regimen .


 

In effect , a player can play the opponent repeatedly before the actual tournament .


 

Of course , both sides will be forced to do this . SecondLife tournaments will grow in importance . Maybe even old , obese , cocaine-addicted brilliant players will make a come-back . (Or their avatars will . )


 

Business Team Building

This can be done cheaply , interchanging same company or a competitor's personel .

Headhunters can employ it to get a dreamteam .


 

Concentration .

The techniques of concentration developed for sport are applicable to scholastic pursuits .


 

Exams .

The scholastic equivalent of the sports tournament .

There is definitely a Zone for writing exams (personal experience) .

When there is no hesitation . An optimal utilization of known resources . Data flows unimpeded from memory .

The opposite , alas , also happens . The individual usually knows that he is not in top-notch shape (not in the zone , not in form) , but has no choice but to take part .

The results are then also well below expectation .


 

The scholastic Zone uses the same neurological mechanisms as the sports Zone .

Training mechanisms developed for sports can be used for academic purposes .


 

The Team and Zones .

At first sight , it would seem more difficult to induce a Zone state in a number of individuals than in one individual . But it is paradoxically easier , and is used on industrial scale all over the world .


 

This is the highest-paid skill in the world .

What coaches and CEO's are extravagantly rewarded for . The ability to use a team to induce the Zone state in the most talented members of the team .

Note the emphasis on the most talented members of the team . The team is a tool to get the best out the most talented . It also induces Virtual Teams in them .

Think of it as a Socratic method involving mirror-neuron networks .

("What will my team think" , etc)


 

The traditional tools are well-known : entrainment under mild stress , mimetic emulation , isolation , exposure to carefully vetted social influences , etc .


 

Neuromagic has expanded on this toolkit , and will enhance it further in the normal competitive manner .


 

Note that Learned Helplessness is most emphatically not included . The idea is not to crush the most talented members of the team , but to induce them into the Zone , thus also dragging along many in the team not so talented .


 

Most Universities , especially in South Africa , (Stellenbosch in particular) , still crushes the best students under the misapprehension that they are building teams . They are just creating mediocrity . The talented are supposed to uplift the others , not join them .


 

Study Teams .

An interesting adaptation of the sports team idea . Widely used in US universities . Note that by pruning , the talented surround themselves with a supporting mimetic pool . This helps to maintain them in the Zone , and also drag along the many others who would not make it on their own .

A natural outflow is FaceBookism , now gathering momentum (see previous posts)


 

Virtual Teams .

Humans have the neurological means to form Virtual Teams .

Mirror-neuron networks .


 

Mild Asperger's persons are rich in Mirror Networks . They are also most prone to being crushed by social learned-helplessness techniques forced on them . The few that do survive this process do so via Virtual Teams . Usually characters they read from history .

It is no accident that Napoleon , Hitler , Stalin , Mao to name a few were avid readers of history . It was not primarily to learn from it (since they did not) , but to fuel their virtual teams . (One of the major reasons why spectacles fueled social change)


 

A Virtual Dream Team composed of Alexander , Caesar , Genghis , etc will result in a Supernerd of a different ilk than a Virtual Dream Team composed of Buddha , Jesus , Mohamed , etc .


 

From an overview , supernerds like these are useful to give the whole system a shake-up now and then .

Those who can't keep up , will have to learn to run a bit faster . Is that not what was drummed into them ?


 

Choosing your Virtual Team .

As you can see from above , choosing a well-balanced virtual team is essential to anybody's successful and happy functioning as a composite entity .


 

Techniques for doing this has been known for a long time (meditation , study , role-playing , getting married , etc)


 

But we now have drugs (eg Ritalin) , electronics (biofeedback , fMRI) , neuromagic that give us easy-to-use methods of precisely forming a Virtual Team .


 

For a sportsman , this means he can be in the Zone on demand . But it is addictive .

Ditto for academics .


 

Zone-Addiction .

Remember , being in the Zone is only in internal optimal state (Feel-good . Endorphin release .) . If this conflicts with external events , then depression or mania or both will result . (Eg Hitler when reality and the model in his mind parted company.)


 

The definition of addiction is that it freezes out other behaviours .

Like sleep , non-zonal states might be necessary for other behaviour-states to have a look-in . Research is needed .


 

Off-hand , from reserve considerations ,

(see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "New Tools: Reserves")

I would estimate that about of 1/3 of waking time is needed for non-Zonal activity . About 2-3 hours . The trick is to use neuromagic techniques to be in a Zonal state when the tournament occurs .


 

Toujours !


 

Andre .


 

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Appendix IV

Too much energy .

ATP and Catalytic Motors

Andre Willers

4 Dec 2008


 

The Catalytic Motor.

See Annexure A below .

This is a new concept to me .


 

The basic principle :

The chemical equilibrium of a reaction is biased in a certain direction by dynamical , rotational processes .


 

And not in a trivial way either . A whopping 40 kg per day production and consumption of ATP for a sedentary human (of say mass 80 kg) means a very finely balanced mechanism . (Half of body mass per day)


 

The logistical demands almost necessitate a multi-cellular organism .


 

Where does the rotor come from ?

From bacterial flagellae . They work by rotation of the flagella .(Google it)

The rotor is driven by proton gradients , caused by electron-flow balances between inflowing nutrients and usage .


 

Putative evolution :

The ur-mitochondrium was a free organism whose flagellae by chance could beat two poisons (oxygen and alcohol) into harmless ATP . As if protein-folding was not complicated enough , now dynamics have to be considered as well .

As the concentrations of these poisons increased , ur-mitochondria did the usual plaque - freeform alternation of bacteria . In every colony episode , the efficiency of the conversion was enhanced . At some stage , a freeform colonized some other bacterium . The host learned to use ATP as an energy source . Multicellular forms were force-formed .

The motors of the mitochondria cannot stop spinning . (If they do , apoptosis results: see Appendix B) . The ATP has to be used .


 

Rotor-spin speed:

This seems to be quite slow . (As expected from a flagella heritage) . About one to three milliseconds per revolution . ( About 1 to 0.3 kHz) . The ATP production is not smooth either . There are three units physically opening and closing (see Appendix A).


 

A very useful analogue:

We can use an national electricity grid operating at 1 kHz alternating current of three-phase current as an tool for understanding the meta-energy flow in the body . Every cell would be like a municipality with its own powerstation .

The voltage and transformers ? Nobody has looked , but a guess would be ATP concentration regulators , like the reticular cellular formations , antioxidants (see Appendix B) , ATP chaperones , cellular-wall ports , etc . You get the drift .


 

The advantage of this approach is that we then have an immediately usable box of tools to analyze and suggest fruitful new approaches .

Our electricity networks would also gain , since evolution has been at this problem for a tad longer than humans .


 

Melatonin for ESKOM ? Some would say they are asleep at the switch in any case .


 


 

Throttles .

There seems to be a wee problem here .

The problem seems to be too much energy , not too little .

Most organisms normally spend 1/9 to 1/3 of 24 hours actually getting enough to eat . The rest is spent having fun or sleeping .

But a certain reserve needs to kept (see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "Infinite Probes" et al )


 

Sleep:

There is a strong suspicion that melatonin throttles down the production of ATP , but not the usage of ATP (cf fMRI scans of sleeping brains) See Appendix B . Sleep would then be necessary to keep the organism out of trouble (ie quiescent) while surplus ATP is used up . (1/3 : eg 8 hours per day)


 

Obesity epidemic:

As can be seen from the above , the problem is not a sudden influx of energy-rich food .This has been a trouble since the first mitochondrium took up housekeeping in a host cell .

The obesity is caused simply by a lack of sleep .

Present generations sleep less . Artificial lighting , computers , cinema , etc . The extra waking time is also usually spent eating .

The equilibrium is upset . (This has been going on for about 100 years on a large scale) .


 

An interesting result is the generational increase in IQ measurements . The system is trying to soak up the extra energy in more complex nervous structures (for which it has the evolutionary tools) . An epigenetic feedback loop is suspected .


 

Kids who stay up late for three generations will be fatter and smarter .


 

Diabetes .

Melatonin has many effects . Lack of it causes neuro-degenerative complications (see Appendix B) . Included is peripheral neuropathy . This is where we can use our useful little model of an electricity grid above . Without the feedback from the damaged nerves , the system cannot shift loads . Just monitoring the glucose level is too coarse. Fluctuations build up . Future load estimations cannot be made . Fat builds up .


 

Old Age

Lack of sleep during old age leads to glucose metabolic complications for all the reasons mentioned , regardless whether the person is obese or not .


 

Other throttles are rendered less effective by lack of materials:

Specifically , sulfur (H2S hibernation throttle) , chrome (cytochrome oxidase : see Appendix B) , alpha lipoic acid(nerve repair) , melatonin .


 

Homeostasis is another useful little energy soak .

Large brains ditto .


 

But Culture , hot or cold , is master of them all .

Nothing soaks up energy like culture . Fashion is by far the largest industry on the planet , outstripping even food production .

Eg sports is a fashion . Clothes .Entertainment . Tourism . Even lies . (JK Rowling is the most fashionable and richest professional liar in Britain .)


 

What is the culture of your mitochondria ?


 

An Actual , Physical ATP generator you can buy .

See www.apstherapy.com

This is a well-known and clinically proven machine usually touted for pain-relief .

It works .

But the theory is rather patchy . There used to be a lot of mumbo-jumbo about the gate theory of pain .


 

It actually works by alleviating the underlying causes of the pain (see scans on website) . It does this by pumping energy into the ATP-rotors from the outside at the damage site .


 

It does this by sending 3-millisecond square pulses which decay exponentially (see wave-form on web-site .) This spins up damaged rotors and transfers energy (a non-food source of energy) . Most importantly , it re-establishes timing mechanisms . Cells on the point of mitochondrial apoptosis can be salvaged . (The apoptosis mechanism is very sensitive , due to all the feedback mechanisms involved.)

While the energy input here is small , the energy of an ATP molecule is not exactly large . And the ATP is targeted exactly at the damage site . This helps to stop the cascade effect of trauma-shock .


 

Your attention is drawn to the well-known effects of aligned magnetic fields on bone-healing . A similar thing happens here .

Notice the effects of zero electro-magnetic fields on early astronauts .(Their metabolisms went haywire) . They had to be supplied with artificial fields .


 

Speculations:

Energise organisms directly by high-energy em-waves .

Are there any like that already ? The planet is awash with em waves and organisms with flagellae .

Deep ocean , moons of Jupiter or Saturn springs to mind .


 

An actual cure for diabetes by re-establishing communications between cell-groups to do proper load-sharing .

Also useful for cases of paralysis or strokes .


 

Fat-loss without dieting or exercising . Fashionable .

Targeted , too .

Spin up the mitochondrial rotors with em-waves , then wash out the surplus ATP in urine after fixing this ATP with something like a mono-clonal anti-body .

Get rid of that cellulite !


 

Cheating at sports . (Even more fashionable)

A focused em-wave of the right form will boost ATP production of an athlete or horse at that critical instant , and is nearly undetectable .


 

Muscle building for the gym-brigade .

Eg the machine for training the biceps can have an em-generator focused on the biceps while training . Saturation by ATP will hopefully rapidly increase muscle mass.


 

MRI problems .

As you will have gathered , alignment of mitochondrial rotor-spins by a powerful magnetic field as found in MRI machines can have unfortunate effects if the patient is soon afterwards exposed to em radiation of periods of 3 milliseconds (or beats thereof)


 

Melatonin and DHEA supplements should form part of the old age package (like statins , etc) .


 

Nanotech should be able to do really interesting things .


 

And so it goes round and round .


 

Andre


 

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Annexure A

Sunday, January 21, 2007

ATP Generator Structure – Function


Almost incredibly, a sedentary adult makes and uses 40 kg of ATP per day! ATP is made by the F0-F1 ATPase, a molecular motor with a rotating shaft and fixed "stator". One end of the shaft, F0, is buried in the mitochondrial inner membrane where the proton gradient causes it to rotate. A single gamma subunit connects the F0 to three alpha and beta subunits, together F1, which are responsible for synthesizing ATP from ADP and Pi (H2PO4-). As a catalytic motor and not just a catalyst, the F0-F1 ATPase is able to increase the rate of reaction away from the equilibrium (which strongly favors the reverse reaction, hydrolysis, because the concentrations of reactants and product in mitochondria are similar). The gamma subunit rotates too slowly, in the microsecond-to-millisecond range, for standard molecular dynamics simulation. To solve this, the authors applied "biasing forces" as the motor moved and assumed these forces would not change the mechanism. Positively charged amino acids on the gamma subunit attract negative amino acids on beta subunit, producing smooth and efficient ionic coupling. Rotation of the gamma subunit induces the opening of the beta subunits. The beta subunit closes spontaneously. Synthesis is not the reverse of hydrolysis, explaining why high concentrations of free ATP does not inhibit synthesis. Gao and colleagues propose a detailed model of how the motor harnesses the proton gradient to act against the equilibrium. Their quantitative model is based on the conceptual "binding change mechanism" model proposed by Boyer, where ATP synthesis proceeds by each beta subunit changing from "open", weak nucleotide binding, to "tight", high affinity ATP binding, to "loose", with the release of ATP. The authors used this model to make accurate predictions about synthesis and hydrolysis kinetics and they invite others to test their detailed model.
PubMed :Yi Qin Gao, Wei Yang and Martin Karplus, "A Structure-Based Model for the Synthesis and Hydrolysis of ATP by F1-ATPase" Cell Oct 21, 2005; 123(2):195-205

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Annexure B


 


Melatonin, mitochondria, and cellular bioenergetics.

Acuña-Castroviejo D, Martín M, Macías M, Escames G, León J, Khaldy H, Reiter RJ.

Departamento de Fisiología, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad de Granada, Spain.

Aerobic cells use oxygen for the production of 90-95% of the total amount of ATP that they use. This amounts to about 40 kg ATP/day in an adult human. The synthesis of ATP via the mitochondrial respiratory chain is the result of electron transport across the electron transport chain coupled to oxidative phosphorylation. Although ideally all the oxygen should be reduced to water by a four-electron reduction reaction driven by the cytochrome oxidase, under normal conditions a small percentage of oxygen may be reduced by one, two, or three electrons only, yielding superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, and the hydroxyl radical, respectively. The main radical produced by mitochondria is superoxide anion and the intramitochondrial antioxidant systems should scavenge this radical to avoid oxidative damage, which leads to impaired ATP production. During aging and some neurodegenerative diseases, oxidatively damaged mitochondria are unable to maintain the energy demands of the cell leading to an increased production of free radicals. Both processes, i.e., defective ATP production and increased oxygen radicals, may induce mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic cell death. Melatonin has been reported to exert neuroprotective effects in several experimental and clinical situations involving neurotoxicity and/or excitotoxicity. Additionally, in a series of pathologies in which high production of free radicals is the primary cause of the disease, melatonin is also protective. A common feature in these diseases is the existence of mitochondrial damage due to oxidative stress. The discoveries of new actions of melatonin in mitochondria support a novel mechanism, which explains some of the protective effects of the indoleamine on cell survival.

Publication Types:


PMID: 11270481 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


 


 

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