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62 Comments
- IOhBot, on 06/10/2009, -1/+31It might also just make you faster at being stupid....
- dougfunny, on 06/11/2009, -2/+18its like brain defrag
- inactive, on 06/11/2009, -0/+14That's what caffeine is like for me. I do stupid things more quickly and with far more confidence.
- SexyGeekGirl, on 06/10/2009, -2/+15and the more intelligent you are the worse your brain freeze is when you drink a slurpee
- walker4bc, on 06/10/2009, -1/+13So basically this article is saying that if the wiring in your brain is good, you are likely to be smarter. Well duh! But to think that drugs may help enhance intelligence ... now we're talking!
- DirtyVicar, on 06/11/2009, -1/+13“Alright brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But lets just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer.” -- Homer Simpson
- pingpants, on 06/10/2009, -0/+8There are times when I would like my biology manipulated and other times when the thought terrifies. In this case, I'd give it a whirl.
- wannaBdug, on 06/10/2009, -2/+9So if you drink alot of coffee and get wired you're smarter?
- aptanalogy, on 06/11/2009, -0/+7The brain is NOT a "wet computer"!
- a Neuroscientist - mimimiaou, on 06/11/2009, -0/+4Yeah, it sounds obvious NOW.. but people used to think it was the size of the brain,or the number of neurons, or the number of connections that predicted how smart people were. NOW we know all those things aren't as important as the efficiency of connections. Hindsight, pplz.
- 408train, on 06/11/2009, -0/+4like posting on digg?
- inactive, on 06/11/2009, -0/+3This is a weird comment, imo.
- Intenseboredom, on 06/11/2009, -0/+3Sounds like alcohol to me.
- poidh, on 06/11/2009, -3/+6No *****.
- robbiedo, on 06/11/2009, -0/+3I wouldn't mind being smart.
- dougfunny, on 06/11/2009, -1/+4jokes are a series of characters that induce laughter in hominids.
- EnTaroTassadar, on 06/11/2009, -0/+3I don't like the idea of speeding up my brain. I overclocked my CPU to achieve the same effect, and it overheated and exploded.
- charlietuna, on 06/11/2009, -0/+3I knew that all that cocaine I was tooting was good for something!
- aptanalogy, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2@sndream:
"But physically alter and remap the brain gone a bit too fast, isn't our memory and our way of thinking define who we are, basically our soul, if we change that are we still who we are?"
You've set up a bit of a strawman there.
Think about it for a second. Are you REALLY the same person you were years, months, or even a few seconds ago? Our brains are naturally plastic anyway....there is no "I", no "essence" that defines some sort of fixed "self". Your memory is remapping itself all the time, and it's faulty and easily changeable to begin with. When you do things you make new memories and alter the brain; some of those "doings" are experiences, and others might be surgical or chemical changes to the brain.
Obviously we'd like to believe in this fixed "self" because we like to think of ourselves as unique beings.
And, to this end, we posit the existence of an unchanging "soul" or "mind", but that doesn't mean that such things are anything other than mere reifications. Furthermore, they're redundant...saying "I have a soul" is just another restatement of "I am an individual". Such ideas easily break down when the functioning of the brain is examined.
-a Neuroscientist - LaughingMan89, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2More importantly, it said that the researchers had a method of quantifying how "good" the wiring in your brain is; it's not as easy as opening someone's skull and saying "Well that's your problem right there: the synapses are all tangled up."
- spectecjr, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Simple solution: Put your bare feet on something cold. (No, seriously, it works).
- SaxophoneGOD, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Now if they could only get a drug that does this with a nice bubbly after taste.
- aptanalogy, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2I'd like to suggest that axonal qualities, such as myelination (and therefore conductance variables), innervation, length- in short, anything that improves saltatory conduction- is a large part of this "much more going on somewhere". Axons are like really leaky hoses; genetics giving them fewer holes could be a factor in increasing the rate of impulses. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/more-proof-th ...
Furthermore, I'd like to mention that this concept of intelligence being "everywhere" is, paradoxically, a bit premature. Even though the entire brain may be involved, in the aforementioned ways, differential density/activity in the frontal lobes (executive function) and the temporal lobes (memory efficiency in storage, retrieval, and encoding) may be more important for higher intelligence than other regions. http://today.uci.edu/iframe.php?p=/news/release_de ... - inactive, on 06/11/2009, -2/+4Oh, really, smart people can generally think faster? Gd it.
- fritzek, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Yes, they make your synapses rebuild for the specific tasks in game(s), so you are less proficient in real life.
- gcnaddict, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2"If you're flying from New York to Amsterdam, you can do it in a direct flight. It's much more effective than going from New York, then to Washington, and then to Amsterdam. It's exactly the same idea in the brain,"
I see what he did there. - ajsmth, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2So can it play Crysis?
- Ben1220, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Another application of graph theory!
- Intenseboredom, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Breaking news:
Better working brains work better. - inevitablity, on 06/11/2009, -0/+2Better living through Chemistry I always say.
- scottknick, on 06/11/2009, -1/+2FTA: This measure proved a decent predictor of each person's IQ, explaining about 30 per cent of the differences between subjects, van den Heuvel says.
Thirty percent? So suggesting that improving brain wiring efficiency will boost intelligence is a little like observing that cars with spoilers go faster than cars without them, so the bigger your spoiler, the faster your car.
I know. It's an analogy. You see them a lot on IQ tests.
Anyway, it seems clear from this data that while brain efficiency plays a role in intelligence, there has to be much, much more than that going on somewhere (or everywhere). - Disclaimer, on 06/11/2009, -1/+2Finally a real way to measure a persons IQ.
- electrikfuzz050, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1Welcome to college psychology.
- 408train, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1i think connections are more on the 'nurture' side of things, as connections physically could be connected to mental comparisons between ideas and concepts, sensations and feelings. have you ever had a smell or sound remind you of a place or person?? connections.
- sndream, on 06/11/2009, -1/+2I am all open for enchaining the human body thru technology, even brain machine interface. But physically alter and remap the brain gone a bit too fast, isn't our memory and our way of thinking define who we are, basically our soul, if we change that are we still who we are?
It's like cloning myself, it's kind of me, but not really myself anymore. - inactive, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1not everyone works for ***** like that.
- inactive, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1Wow thats pessimistic. I'm an american and I work with lots of people that invent things.
- Khirzask, on 06/11/2009, -0/+11. I lol'd at "Blackberry-humping managers"
2. Don't rip on the whoosh.
3. Well... that's it. - ell0bo, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1and the greater your ADD... gotta go
- MattBD, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1Probably. Many games require problem solving, so they do exercise the grey matter, regardless of what some tabloid newspapers may claim. A brainless game won't be as good for your mind as a good book, but I think something fairly mind-stretching (say, the GTA games, since they require elements of lateral thinking and problem solving) is probably better for your mind than watching crap on TV or reading a trashy novel.
- shylove, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1Are they really championing speed. Speed is not a virtue, it is a problem, mentally and physically. Manipulating one's own mind as a object is the ultimate in the mind-body problem!
They won't find a mind in the brain, mind is everywhere with no circuitry, we are all interdependent and interconnected, it is the individual self that can't be found. - FreeTalkLIve, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1Ritalin
- MattBD, on 06/11/2009, -0/+1I think I heard somewhere that you are supposed to get a temporary IQ boost when you consume anything containing caffeine, but it drops below your normal level when you crash afterwards.
- Khirzask, on 06/11/2009, -1/+2wwhhhooooooooosh
- nedzeve, on 06/11/2009, -2/+3" the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people" I bet it took a real smart guy to figure that out.
- inactive, on 06/11/2009, -0/+0Speeding up car might improve time to destination!
- DrJG, on 06/11/2009, -0/+0Remember Charlie?
Flowers For Algernon, in other words. - libbb, on 06/11/2009, -3/+4Really? I thought the LEAST efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people...
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