Ron Huber came across some information concerning research on behavior modification. Well, augmentation? Here are his comments and the link to the story. Very very interenting.
Mc-Soma?
Mushroom-champing berserkers, hashish-puffing Assassins, the drunkard's hazy courage, Popeye the sailor man after downing a can of spinach, the cowardly lion with his medal; humankind has, for better or worse, sought biological or at least mechanistic ways to instill bravery on the unbrave.
And, just as importantly, ways to RESTORE courage and peace of mind to the war-traumatized and the tortured.
Now, in the July 15 online edition of Nature Neuroscience. A team of MIT scientists report that they may have discovered how to do both of those things. How? In their report A hippocampal Cdk5 pathway regulates extinction of contextual fear (abstract), researchers Farahnaz Sananbenesi, Andre Fischer, Xinyu Wang, Christina Schrick, Rachael Neve, Jelena Radulovic & Li-Huei Tsai explain that reducing the amount of an enzyme named 'cdk5' that is naturally present in the brain's hippocampus region reduces the intensity of traumatic-stress-induced fear, and may actually extinguish it.
Actually in the story, the scientists only report on the fear-reducing quality that decreasing the amt of the enzyme in the hippocampus has on the courage of mice. But of Mice and Men, they, you and I know, there are similarities (viz Algernon)....
TechDigest takes things a bit farther, claiming bluntly that mice without Cdk5 brain enzyme are smarter.
Just as important: What happens when the amount of cdk5 in the brains of mice or people is INCREASED beyond natural levels?
Some interesting possibilities emerge:
(1) Decreasing the amt of cdk5 in the hippocampi of 'normal' non-traumatized persons should create 'chemically courageous' smarter people. Even recklessly so at really low levels. Isn't that the continuum? From not-fear to anti-fear? Maybe suicide bombers have zero cdk5 in their noggins. Hard to test for, though, after the fact.
(2) Increasing the amount of cdk5 present in the hippocampuses of non-traumatized people should _create_ generalized fear and stress in them, that will be related to whatever they are doing when the fear chemically imprints. Hmmm...They must _already_ be putting it in
America's drinking water.
Maybe. Read the article below.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/mit-ids-mechanism-behind-fear-13703.html
Mc-Soma?
Mushroom-champing berserkers, hashish-puffing Assassins, the drunkard's hazy courage, Popeye the sailor man after downing a can of spinach, the cowardly lion with his medal; humankind has, for better or worse, sought biological or at least mechanistic ways to instill bravery on the unbrave.
And, just as importantly, ways to RESTORE courage and peace of mind to the war-traumatized and the tortured.
Now, in the July 15 online edition of Nature Neuroscience. A team of MIT scientists report that they may have discovered how to do both of those things. How? In their report A hippocampal Cdk5 pathway regulates extinction of contextual fear (abstract), researchers Farahnaz Sananbenesi, Andre Fischer, Xinyu Wang, Christina Schrick, Rachael Neve, Jelena Radulovic & Li-Huei Tsai explain that reducing the amount of an enzyme named 'cdk5' that is naturally present in the brain's hippocampus region reduces the intensity of traumatic-stress-induced fear, and may actually extinguish it.
Actually in the story, the scientists only report on the fear-reducing quality that decreasing the amt of the enzyme in the hippocampus has on the courage of mice. But of Mice and Men, they, you and I know, there are similarities (viz Algernon)....
TechDigest takes things a bit farther, claiming bluntly that mice without Cdk5 brain enzyme are smarter.
Just as important: What happens when the amount of cdk5 in the brains of mice or people is INCREASED beyond natural levels?
Some interesting possibilities emerge:
(1) Decreasing the amt of cdk5 in the hippocampi of 'normal' non-traumatized persons should create 'chemically courageous' smarter people. Even recklessly so at really low levels. Isn't that the continuum? From not-fear to anti-fear? Maybe suicide bombers have zero cdk5 in their noggins. Hard to test for, though, after the fact.
(2) Increasing the amount of cdk5 present in the hippocampuses of non-traumatized people should _create_ generalized fear and stress in them, that will be related to whatever they are doing when the fear chemically imprints. Hmmm...They must _already_ be putting it in
America's drinking water.
Maybe. Read the article below.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/mit-ids-mechanism-behind-fear-13703.html
3 comments:
oh I am lovin this Ron....sign me up~!
Fascinating...I think I'll be using some of this science in the 'Mallcity' prequel.
Now there is somewhere I didn't even go! Brilliant!
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