Brain Buddies are the official support force for the GrayMatters Foundation. Brain Buddies are people impacted by brain tumors as patients, caregivers, family and friends, and people who may not have a direct connection but want to be involved in the fight against brain tumors.
If you are between the ages of 20 and 40 years old, living with a brain injury, and want to be part of an engaging group of young social individuals, the Brain Buddies organization may be right for you.
Brain Buddies
Brain Buddies is a social group bringing together those who have sustained a brain injury. We encourage our members to branch out, meet new people, and create new relationships through safe and exciting activities.
Eight years ago, on one of my travels to Valencia, Spain I fell 6 stories down an open stairwell at a hostel. I landed on a marble floor, miraculously surviving. I landed on my feet, but hit my head on banisters on the way down breaking my fall, but giving myself a severe traumatic brain injury. I was flown home on a medivac flight, a month after my accident. I was still in a coma, as I was in a coma for 6-8 weeks. My accident occurred on March 17, 2013. After I came out of my coma I had to learn to eat, talk and walk again.
During a 2013 business trip to Los Angeles, Lauren, an avid runner, was struck by a car and critically injured during a morning run. Unidentified for several hours, she remained in critical condition for weeks, and because of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), she had only a slim chance of survival. Doctors suspected that if she did survive, she would most likely not be able to feed herself, walk, talk or understand spoken words.
At the Society for Neuroscience' 2018 meeting in San Diego Ca. #SFN2018 Brain Buddy Aaron Freeman talks with Dr. Bob Schafer of Lumosity about the real science behind \\\"experience assisted neuroplasticity\\\" and the controversy surrounding the product being marketed as a brain health, IQ-raising, Alzheimer's fighting, neuro super tool.
Dr. Jules Lobel teaches law at the University of Pittsburgh. At the 2018 Society For Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, Ca Chicago Brain Buddies co-host Aaron Freeman talks with him about why he looked to neuroscience for a novel tool to persuade the criminal justice system to end solitary confinement. The courts have always drawn a sharp line between physical and psychological torture, the former is forbidden. Collaborating with neuroscientist Huda Akil Dr. Lobel demonstrated that social isolation damages the brains of prisoners, in some cases, for decades after their release.
Your brain's cerebellum is not just for fine motor movements anymore! \\\"The Great One,\\\" Dr. Peggy Mason & Chicago Brain Buddy Funnyman Aaron Freeman and our live online friends engage in a learning chat about the latest research from Princeton U on our \\\"little brain\\\"
New research reveals that human brains can predict sounds before they are spoken. A study of the auditory cortex shows that experimental subjects shown pictures have activation of their auditory cortices related to the specific sounds related to those images. In this Chicago Brain Buddies episode UChicago neuroscience Professor Peggy Mason & Chicago Council for Science and Technology Comedian Aaron Freeman joke about and explore the audio prognostications of our gray matter and what it may mean for medical science.
There is a large body of evidence indicating that, in most people, the two halves of the human brain are specialized for different functions. In other words, there is evidence for lateralization (sidedness) of brain function. The goal of this project is to look for evidence of lateralization in another animal, man's best friend. By studying the behavior of animals besides humans, we can hope to gain an understanding of when and how lateralization of brain function evolved. This broad approach is called comparative neuroscience, because comparisons are made between the brains and behavior of different species. The remainder of the Introduction is a brief synopsis of the evidence for brain lateralization in people, and a general description of the tail-wagging experiment for dogs.
The earliest evidence for lateralization of brain function in humans came from studies of people who had brain damage on one side of the brain due to injury or stroke. The most obvious finding was that each side of the brain controlled the opposite side of the body. Damage to the left side of the brain can cause loss of sensation, weakness, or paralysis in body parts on the right side of the body. Conversely, damage to the right side of the brain can cause loss of sensation, weakness, or paralysis in body parts on the left side of the body.
Another finding was that damage to the left hemisphere of the brain frequently caused the injured person to experience difficulty in producing or understanding language. Some patients might be able to understand language (as evidenced by their ability to act in response to a question or request), but be unable to give a spoken response. Other patients might be able to speak, but when they did, the grammar was so garbled that they could not be understood. Collectively, these different types of problems with language production, comprehension, or both are called aphasia. In the majority of people, the brain areas specialized for language are in the left side of the brain. Some people (anywhere from 5 to 40% of the population) have a right-hemisphere specialization for language, or both hemispheres involved in language production and comprehension (Chudler et al., date unknown, Brain Australia, 2003).
Damage to the right side of the brain tended to cause problems with spatial perception. For example, patients with damage to the right hemisphere might ignore sensory stimulation that occurred on their left side. When asked to draw a clock face, they might draw a complete circle, but then put all of the clock numbers on the right-hand half of the clock face. The symptoms could even extend to the patient's perception of their own body. For example, they might neglect to shave the left side of the face, or to dress the left side of the body. They might not even recognize the limbs on the left side of the body as their own. Patients with right hemisphere strokes may also lack awareness of or insight into their condition (Brain Australia, 2003).
New Brain Blasterz products include a surprise egg filled with sour candy (10 g, RRP 0.89); a collectable Sour Brainz mini tins bursting with sour candy (22 g, RRP 1.00); an Oozing Brain gum in a brain dispenser (30 g, RRP 1.00); and a collectible hard candy coin bank (144 g, RRP 2.69) consisting of seven fruity flavors and triple the amount of sweets than the standard Hard Candy tub, according to the company.
The soldiers of the future might controversially boost their brains with drugs and prosthetics, augment their strength with mechanical exoskeletons, and have artificially intelligent "digital buddies" at their beck and call, according to the U.S. Army's Future Soldier Initiative.
The project is the latest attempt from the U.S. Army research lab in Natick, Mass., to brainstorm what soldiers might carry into the battlefield of tomorrow. A special emphasis of its concept is augmenting mental performance.
One contentious way science and technology might help provide the upper hand in warfare is through mind-enhancing drugs or prosthetics for a soldier's body or brain, the initiative suggested. These could yield dramatic improvements in soldier performance and provide a tremendous edge in combat, it noted, but would require the Army to grapple with very serious and difficult ethical issues.
These programs could sift through information to alert soldiers to vital details, provide reminders as memory joggers, monitor levels of ammunition and other supplies for automated calls for resupply, communicate with other "digital buddies" to better weave soldiers into teams, and even adapt to an individual soldier's personality, strengths and weaknesses.
Future headgear might not only incorporate audio and video units and radio transceivers, but also sensors to keep track of brain activity. These, along with other devices on the body to monitor heart rate, hydration levels and other data, might help leaders track a soldier's mental and physical status to help determine how fit he or she is for duty and see if medical or psychological intervention is warranted.
The IDD community that Best Buddies serves includes, but is not limited to, people with Down syndrome, autism, Fragile X, Williams syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and other undiagnosed disabilities.
Beginning September 2019, Smart Buddies will be available for purchase in customizable four-packs throughout the US and Canada, exclusively through Pitsco Education at Pitsco.com/SmartBuddies (opens in new tab). Additional buddies can be individually purchased to best fit the demographic of every classroom, every year. To see Smart Buddies in action prior to release, visit Pitsco Education at ISTE 2019 in booth 2215.
In fact, pressure can be exhilarating. It pushes one to the limits of intellectual capacities. It boosts even the tiny successes and forgets the sleepy mistakes. It lets one test the extent of knowledge, and the efficiency with which the brain extracts and processes it. 2ff7e9595c
Comments