Cytoarchitectonic mapping of the human amygdala, hippocampal region and entorhinal cortex: intersubject variability and probability maps
Music is good for the brain
The study conducted by researchers at McGill University in Montreal and published in January 2011 issue of Nature Neuroscience showed that the music increased dopamine levels in certain areas of the brain. Various types of music were shown to be effective depending on individual preferences. (1). On the other hand, dopamine is crucial in the brain system of movement organization, deficiencies of brain cells producing dopamine, as we know, result in Parkinson’s disease, and the only reliable method of treatment is the L-DOPA medication having severe side effects and gradually losing its efficiency as the disease progresses.
Other studies revealed that music (e.g., exposure to Mozart’s music) can decrease the blood pressure in hypertensive patients and even experimental animals. Increased dopamine levels improve dopaminergic neurotransmission in epilepsy (2), dementia (3), and ADHD (4).
The beneficial effects of music are thought to work through brain structures involved in reward processing including the nucleus accumbens* and the ventral tegmental area**, hypothalamus*** and insula****
Sources
1. Music – it does a body and mind good, Baxterbulletin.com
2. Brain Res. Rev. 25 (1997), pp. 1–26
3. Exp. Aging Res., Volume 27, Issue 3 July 2001 , pp. 215 – 228
4. J. Learn. Disabil. 29 (1996), pp. 238–246
Footnotes
* also known as “center of motivation”
** a component of the reward pathway in the brain
*** a very important brain area responsible for many bodily functions as well as instincts for basic survival, fight or flight, mating, eating, and drinking, etc.
**** linked to emotions, perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience.
Schrödinger’s One Mind
“I should say: the overall number of minds is just one.” — Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founder of modern physics, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 for his revolutionary work in quantum physics. On the other hand, he was attracted to the ancient Greek and Hindu philosophies, e.g., Vedanta, and Upanishads.
Larry Dossey in his editorial “CAM, Religion, and Schrödinger’s One Mind” wrote about “new” view of the nature of mind:
” [A] new view of consciousness — not actually new, but an ancient view that is being newly supported through solid science. This is where the views of the physicist Schrödinger … become useful” (2). Dossey continued, “the extent of Schrödinger’s holism can be shocking; … he quotes a Sufi mystic of 13th-century Persia:”
The spiritual world is one single spirit who stands like unto a light behind the bodily world and who, when any single creature comes into being, shines through it as through a window. According to the kind and size of the window less or more light enters the world. The light itself however remains unchanged.”(1)
1. Schrödinger E. What is Life? (and Mind and Matter). London, England: Cambridge University Press; 1969
2. Explore, V 7, 1, Pp. 1-7 (Jan 2011)
Non-local mind bibliography
- S R Hameroff. Quantum coherence in microtubules: A neural basis for emergent consciousness? – Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1994
- S R Hameroff. Conscious events as orchestrated space-time selections- Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1996
- I N MARSHALL*CONSCIOUSNESS AND BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES. New Ideas in Psychol. Vol. 7, No. 1. pp. 79-83, 1989
- D M SNYDER. CONSCIOUSNESS AND PHYSICAL THEORY: A RESPONSE TO MARSHALL. New Ideas in Psychol. Vol. 6, No. 3. pp. 381-382, 1990
- Quantum approaches to consciousness. H Atmanspacher – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006
- E R John. The neurophysics of consciousness – Brain Research Reviews, Volume 39, Issue 1, June 2002, Pages 1-28
- H Hu, M Wu. Let All Truth Seekers Be the Vessels to Carry Consciousness Research to New Heights – Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, Vol 1, No 1 (2010)
Larry Dossey’s Editorials
- L. Dossey. Mind-Body Medicine: Whose Mind and Whose Body? EXPLORE May/June 2009, Vol. 5, No. 3
- L. Dossey. PEAR Lab and Nonlocal Mind: Why They Matter. EXPLORE May/June 2007, Vol. 3, No. 3
- L. Dossey. Nonlocal Knowing: The Emerging View of Who We Are. EXPLORE January/February 2008, Vol. 4, No. 1
