Mind over data

Of Mind Over . . . Matter

Mind over matter

As an invited speaker at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Manfred Eigen once stood by as his host ran through an impressive list of accolades: his work as a young researcher measuring the rates of ultrafast chemical reactions, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967; his directorship of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Chemistry in Göttingen; his contributi...

Mind over Matter: Inside Hypnobirthing

In order to examine hypnotherapy, the psycho-physiological science underpinning the practice is an important issue and is significant for the use of hypnotherapy by women in labour and birth. Contemporary literature regarding hypnotherapy and its’ side effects and limitations focuses on the culture inherent in hypnotherapy ideology, whilst the pertinent ethical issues that arise and question it...

Mind over brain, brain over mind: cognitive causes and consequences of controlling brain activity

Brain activity is considered the physical correlate of mental activity. Accordingly, a change of the state of mind implies a change in the state of the brain and vice versa. This homology between brain activity and cognitive tasks is very difficult to measure due to their very high complexity, temporal and spatial dynamics, as well as individual variability. However, the advancing of technology...

Turning over DNA methylation in the mind

Cytosine DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic modification with established roles in regulating transcription, imprinting, female X-chromosome inactivation, and silencing of transposons. Dynamic gain or loss of DNA methylation reshapes the genomic landscape of cells during early differentiation, and in post-mitotic mammalian brain cells these changes continue to accumulate throughout the phas...