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Manchester Metropolitan University sleep deprivation study
An excerpt from chapter 1 of Left in the Dark that includes data from the only sleep deprivation or brain function experiment ever to study subjects on a long term primate like raw diet.
This kind of nutrition is rich in a unique cocktail of powerful chemicals that shaped the early development and structure of the brain as well as regulated its function. In addition the same cocktail provided the building materials and fuel for the most complicated piece of equipment we know. It is accepted that these chemicals were present 24/7 for tens of millions of years during the evolution and development of the brain. The untested presumption is that these factors are not relevant when conducting research into how the brain works. (see Theory of human evolution pdf below)
| Manchester Metropolitan University 5 day sleep deprivation experiment | A short excerpt from chapter one including results from the 5 day sleep deprivation experiment. |  |
| Reduction and elimination of sleep as a means of accessing an enhanced state of mind has been practised for thousands of years. From vision quest to the Buddhas weeklong vigil under the Bodi tree, staying awake has long been used as a technique to expand consciousness. | One of the earliest examples of writing The Epic of Gilgamesh records the journey of the initiate in his quest for the lost state of immortality and divinity. His final challenge is to remain awake for seven days and nights. Of course staying awake to improve function seems to makes little sense in the wake of recent sleep research. However it makes perfect sense if the dominant side of our brain is dysfunctional, inefficient and requires a lot of sleep while the suppressed side is more functional, efficient and requires very little sleep. Saying awake long enough to tire out the inefficient side so it has to give way to the efficient side would result in a shift from delusion to reality, quite literally swapping one self for another. | |
| Polysomnographic Diagnosis of Sleepwalking: Effects of Sleep Deprivation Antonio Zadra et al. |
When we are tired we sleep, yet sleep walking can include activities as complex and demanding as when we are awake (driving sex eating etc) where does the tiredness go? Oddly enough sleepwalking and slow brain wave activity go hand in hand the kind of brain activity that can occur during deep meditation. Even more bizarre is that sleep deprivation makes sleep walking more likely. | |
Plant Chemicals
| The Effects of Plant Flavonoids on Mammalian Cells:Implications for Inflammation, Heart Disease,and Cancer. Elliott Middleton, Jr.,Chithan Kandaswami, and Theoharis C. Theoharides |
Flavonoids were abundant in our evolutionary diet for millions of years, their hormonal and neuroactive properties were an integral part of our biochemistry significantly modifying the activity of our hormones and neural function. |
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| Soy formula can reduce testosterone levels | This article demonstrates the principle of plant hormones to significantly alter key growth and development windows. While Soya is not likely to have been an influence in the evolution of our brain, hormones similar to those found in Soya were abundant in our forest diet for millions of years. While I do not condone the feeding Soya to infant primates the hormonal effects it produces may have been normal for most of our evolutionary past. | |
| Fruit for health: the effect of flavonoids on humoral immune response and food selection in a frugivorous bird |
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Compounds from soy affect brain and reproductive development
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Further demonstration of the permanent effects induced by the presence plant hormones during foetal development, as discussed elsewhere Soya flavonoids are unusually powerful as are their effects. | |
Nutrition/Diet
| Archaic versus modern diets | A somewhat technical summary looking at the problems caused by the relatively sudden switch in the human diet. No comment on how this might affect the developing brain but at least it's suggesting that such major and rapid changes can have serious implications. | |
| The Best Medicine |
An article by science writer and biologist Colin Tudge highlighting the biochemically impoverished lives we now lead compared to our ancestors, the key section is highlighted in bold type. |
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| Study Of Raw Vegetarian Diet | A rare study of humans eating a raw diet, it highlights the inability of research based on a 'normal' cooked diet to predict the bochemical effects of a raw diet. | |
| Construction Materials | This early draft chapter was omitted from ‘Left in the Dark’ as the depth of preconception around food and nutrition etc risked the book being too easily categorised/dismissed as just another diet book. | |
| Dental Microwear and Diet of the Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Paranthropus boisei. | The use of dentition to predict diet in fossil hominids has thrown up several contradictory theories, this paper highlights some of the current thinking. As ever several possible interpretations. One might be... if thick enamel/large jaws/teeth etc are in many cases adaptive for seasonal or occasional fallback/survival situations and whenever possible softer nutrient high fruit is preferred then what can be inferred from species with relatively thin enamel and a fine jaw and small teeth? Possibly that for evolutionary time scales there was very little if any requirement to eat fall back foods? |
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| Age at puberty linked to mother's prenatal diet |
Further demonstration of the permanent effects of diet during foetal development.
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Delusion Anosognosia
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A brief introduction to 'Anosognosia' |
Anosognosia, a psychological condition that is an integral part of the 'normal' functioning in the left side of our brain. The orthodox view is that Anosognosia is adaptive, could it be a symptom of degeneration? | |
| On the perception of incongruity Bruner and Postman 1949.
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A simple experiment in perception that further highlights the inability of the left side of the brain to perceive reality and an inability to update its reality in the face of overwhelming evidence, see under the heading dominance reactions. This classic experiment conducted in 1949 demonstrates the degree to which we are governed by preconceptions or beliefs and the resistance and irrational reactions that emerge when those beliefs are shown to be false. While no reference is made to the left and right side of the brain later research would conclude that the dominant side of the brain is responsible for these perceptual and psychological quirks (see files on Anosognosia). |
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| Anosognosia, another example | Another example of what happens when the left side of the brain is left in charge | |
| Anosognosia re Schizophrenia | This document provides an overview of the left brains delusion in regard to and as part of its dysfunction. If we were all suffering from a neurological condition affecting the left side of our brain and our perception is dominated by its sense of reality how would we know??? | |
Split Brain/Cerebral Dominance
| Savant Syndrome: An Extraordinary Condition. A Synopsis: Past, Present, Future. Darold A. Treffert, MD |
An excellent overview of savant syndrome with particular reference to the neurological evidence supporting a partial switch from the left to the right side of the brain to explain some of the phenomenal abilities that emerge. |
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| Brief split brain introduction | A very short summary with diagrams | |
| Savant for a day | The following article contains a snapshot of the research into latent function in the right hemisphere. Despite the intrigue these experiments have created the results are still considered within the framework of adaptive selection. The highly advanced and specialised left hemisphere is pressumed to have traded its savant like skills for speech and conceptual thought (rather than reality). Of course these are the conclusions of the dominant left hemisphere mmmme, ever wondered why the left can speak yet the right can sing? | |
| Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation |
A brief introduction to TMS |
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| Weird behaviour, creativity linked. | Research that supports the claim for 'creativity' being a right brain function | |
| Creative and Noncreative Problem Solvers Exhibit Different Patterns of Brain Activity, Study Reveals | New study adds further evidence to support the idea of creative thinking being a right hemisphere function. | |
| Evolution of cerebral dominance | This article suggests the theory that the specialist skills ascribed to the left hemisphere are not selected adaptations as generally presumed. | |
| Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left |
Both of these studies highlight the dominance of the left brain and language in how we perceive the world. If there is a flaw in this arrangement then our current perception of colour (and everything else) may be seriously limited. For example there are countless reports of colours being perceived much more intensely during spontaneous or induced altered states. Are these experiences simply a glimpse of how colour at least would be perceived with a more fully functional brain. |
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| Do Infants See Colors Differently? | |
General Interest
| Pictorial overview | A simplified pictorial overview presented at a conference on maths and consciousness in 1998. An attempt to compress several disciplines from neurology and psychology through to culture and ecology into one coherent model. | |
| Theory of human evolution |
Summary of theory re human evolution with |
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| Groves | Colin Groves Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University has proposed that the expanding human brain was not a product of adaptive selection but a consequence of an increasing juvenile phase. He offers no suggestion as to what caused the increase in juvenility. However his perspective is most unusual and highlights the difficulty in explaining the evolution of the human brain through adaptive selection alone. A summary of his thoughts are included in this excerpt from Scars of Evolution by Elaine Morgan. | |
| Chimps beat people in memory task | Quite how humans generally have ended up with such abysmal memory when compared to one of our closest living relatives is a bit of a puzzle. This is particularly intriguing as it is still widely presumed that our large brains and superior intelligence were honed by hostile environments, language and conceptual abilities that required superior neural function including memory. Whether the chimp in the article would have fared so well against a memory savant is unclear. However to presume our memory is fully functional when a few individuals display the same kind of photographic memory exhibited by the chimp, only vastly superior is perhaps a little premature. | |
| Vertical jumping performance of bonobo (Pan paniscus) suggests superior muscle properties Melanie N. Scholz Kristiaan D’Aout Maarten F. Bobbert and Peter Aerts |
The vastly superior physical strength of our closest relatives has long been a mystery, this study seems to confirm that humans are relative weaklings in the ape world and ponders why this might be. Explaining this may depend on a number of factors, what has not been considered is the relative efficiency of the respective neural systems that operate the muscles. It is perhaps significant that bonobos do not appear to suffer from 'muscle' fatigue during repeated tests. Bearing in mind the anecdotal evidence associated with peak athletic performance in humans i.e. a significant shift or breakthrough in psychology it might be worth considering whether it is the neural system that is inefficient rather than the muscle. | |
| The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure |
As with many other studies these findings can have more than one possible explanation, ‘Left in the Dark’ attempts to find the common denominators that must be present if the proposed theory has any validity. In this case there is much information regarding the mechanisms involved in sexual pleasure, however the requirement for the inhibition of fear to facilitate orgasm is of particular interest (See bold text) | |
