Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences. Comment with TBI … this I can confirm. It is impossible to imagine. You live in the now. Professor Eleanor Maguire only aged 54 passed away in January 2025. When I had cancer in 2018, I came across her work and that of D. Hassabis and how it related to my case history. I wrote to her and explained and she sent me links to her work, which I keep near me. I outlined her findings in the book I wrote about having breast cancer. Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007•pnas.org

Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences

D Hassabis, D Kumaran, SD Vann, EA Maguire

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007•pnas.org

Amnesic patients have a well established deficit in remembering their past experiences. Surprisingly, however, the question as to whether such patients can imagine new experiences has not been formally addressed to our knowledge. We tested whether a group of amnesic patients with primary damage to the hippocampus bilaterally could construct new imagined experiences in response to short verbal cues that outlined a range of simple commonplace scenarios. Our results revealed that patients were markedly impaired relative to matched control subjects at imagining new experiences. Moreover, we identified a possible source for this deficit. The patients’ imagined experiences lacked spatial coherence, consisting instead of fragmented images in the absence of a holistic representation of the environmental setting. The hippocampus, therefore, may make a critical contribution to the creation of new experiences by providing the spatial context into which the disparate elements of an experience can be bound. Given how closely imagined experiences match episodic memories, the absence of this function mediated by the hippocampus, may also fundamentally affect the ability to vividly re-experience the past.


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  • Fortune Favours the Brave

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Fortune Favours the Brave Paperback – 13 Dec. 2018

by Michelle Marcella Clarke (Author), Prof John Crown MB (Foreword)

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Michelle Clarke takes us on an extraordinary journey, through challenges most of us would never know, were it not for her courage to write this story. In 1993, aged 32, she suffers a fractured skull in a horse-riding accident in Zimbabwe, an event which changes her life forever. The traumatic brain injury adds to her existing conditions of Bipolar, Anxiety and Chronic Fatigue. Her marriage fails and she returns to live in Ireland. In 2003, she meets KT at a bus stop in Dublin. He invites her for coffee, and they have been together ever since. The third member of their team is Freddie, a very special little rescue dog. In July 2017, the shocking diagnosis of breast cancer arrives via a routine mammogram and she enters the next phase of ill-health, but this time with the loving support of KT and Freddie. She records her journey through this cancer, primarily to help others, who are experiencing cancer, and their supportersand loved ones, but in doing so she also reaches out to all of us who care about the rare life story of a fellow human being.

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Excellent: BBC Newsnight: Former M16 boss on Trump, Putin and a ‘new era’ for international relatoins

466,176 views Feb 21, 2025 #trump#putin#ukraine

As Donald Trump calls Ukraine’s President Zelensky a “dictator” and the US enters peace negotiations with Putin’s Russia, former MI6 boss Sir Alex Younger and former Financial Times Moscow Correspondent Catherine Belton discuss how the White House is paving the way for a “new era” of international relations.

#trump#putin#ukraine#russia#usa#america#uk#starmer#europe#eu#zelensky#news#latestnews#politics#newsnight#victoriaderbyshire Newsnight is the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs TV programme – with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews. Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight

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Eurasia Review follow it: Bureaucrats Tossing Gold Bars Off The Titanic – OpEd

Money Cash Burning Burning Cash Dollar Bills Inflation

Bureaucrats Tossing Gold Bars Off The Titanic – OpEd

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By Craig Eyermann

During its last four months in power, the Biden-Harris administration opened the U.S. government’s money spigots as wide as they could. Appointed officials and bureaucrats across the federal government frantically spent money at a rate never before seen outside of pandemics and wars.

But there was no national emergency in these months. A very different motive drove their frantic spending. For the outgoing officials and the bureaucrats who supported them, it was their “insurance policy” against losing power in Washington, D.C.

That claim was made by a member of the Biden-Harris administration who served as a special adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency. It was captured in a undercover investigation by Project Veritas and reported nearly a month after former Vice-President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election.

After the report, the Biden-Harris EPA spokesman denied any wrongdoing. In the weeks and months that followed, the allegation was not confirmed. It seemed the story was at a dead end.

Evidence Emerges of a Wild Spending Spree

That changed on February 12, 2024. The new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, confirmed in a video announcement that the EPA rushed large amounts of cash out the door in the Biden-Harris administration’s waning days.

Here’s a transcript of the portion of the video directly addressing the allegation:

One of my very top priorities at EPA is to be an excellent steward of your hard-earned tax dollars. There will be zero tolerance of any waste and abuse.

An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were “tossing gold bars off the Titanic”, rushing to get billions of your tax out the door before Inauguration Day. The “gold bars” were tax dollars and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden Administration knew they were wasting it.

Following this revelation, during my meetings with members of Congress, I made a very important commitment to them and to the American people, which I reiterated at my confirmation hearing that if confirmed, I would immediately get a full accounting.

Fortunately, my awesome team at EPA has found the gold bars. Shockingly, roughly 20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA.

This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.

Even further, this pot of $20 billion was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion with far less transparency. Just under $7 billion was sent to one entity called the Climate United Fund.

I’m sure you and I now have some of the same questions.

  • How do these organizations decide how to allocate funding?
  • How much money have they given out so far and to whom?
  • Are there any former Biden EPA staff offers who are now working at these entities?

Let me make one thing abundantly clear. At this point there is zero reason to suspect any wrongdoing by the bank.

Here’s my position as EPA administrator. The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden Administration tossed off the Titanic.

EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door. I will be referring this matter to the Inspector General’s office and will work with the Justice Department as well.

The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over.

The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years. We take our obligations under the law as seriously as it gets.

I’ve directed my team to find your gold bars and they found them. Now we will get them back inside of control of government as we pursue next steps.

To get so much money out the door so quickly, Biden-Harris EPA officials circumvented safeguards intended to prevent government officials from wasting taxpayer money. They were indeed“throwing gold bars” off their “sinking Titanic.” Their actions to short-cut these spending controls gave them away.

Potential Criminal Dimensions

In addition to circumventing the EPA’s accounting controls, the officials and bureaucrats may also have tripped over other laws restricting government employees from exploiting their positions for personal gain.

For example, if any officials improperly moved taxpayer funds to groups where they later got jobs after leaving public service, that feather-nesting could represent a kind of embezzlement or racketeering. The Justice Department will very likely investigate that potential.

I suppose the most amazing part about the story is the original claim made by the Biden-Harris special adviser to the EPA. Their brazenness following their election loss suggests they didn’t think they would ever face any consequences for their actions. It’s a remarkable dimension in the annals of bureaucrats behaving badly.

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Craig Eyermann

Craig Eyermann is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is also the creator of MyGovCost.org: Government Cost Calculator. He received his M.S. in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix, having received a B.S. in both mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Missouri University of  Science and Technology.

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Forget the AI APOCALYPSE— we’re in a MORAL crisis! | Michael Shellenberger. Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

7,613 views Feb 19, 2025

AI is advancing at breakneck speed, but will it actually solve our biggest challenges—or just make them worse? From mass censorship to the rise of digital IDs, intelligence alone may not be enough to fix what’s broken. In this compelling speech, Michael Shellenberger suggests that the problems we face will require something other than more data to solve – they will require a renewal of our morality. __ Reserve your 1st edition copy of our new book, The Best of Our Inheritance. Pre-Order open until March 14, 2025: https://www.arcforum.com/store/p/the-…

With the return of the ARC Conference this February, we are launching our first book — a work that encapsulates the values and ideas that shape ARC’s mission. The Best of Our Inheritance brings together fifteen of the sharpest minds of our time to make a bold case for remembering the values of our civilisation. From Barry Straussʼ account of the Classical Tradition, Ayaan Hirsi Aliʼs personal reflections on the values of the West and its Christian roots to Nigel Biggarʼs chapter on human dignity and Joseph Laconte’s call to the artists, reading this book will give you a tangible vision for civilisational renewal. __ Michael Shellenberger is the C.B.R. Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech at the University of Austin, a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment”, Dao Journalism Prize winner, Founder of Public.News, and the bestselling author of Apocalypse Never and San Fransicko. __ Go deeper with ARC Research. Read reports, articles, and academic papers underneath our talks – all pointed towards advancing education, promoting research, and developing ideas about the keys to human flourishing and prosperity. https://www.arcforum.com/research-papers

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“We talk about the culture war. I worry about actual war” – Niall Ferguson’s Sobering Warning – Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

34,639 views Feb 20, 2025In this sobering talk, Niall Ferguson warned of the dangers of the out-of-control public spending and debt in many parts of the Western world. At a time when the West faces threats in the form of a new authoritarian axis, a ‘Cold War II’, and the looming risk of World War III, Western nations are trapped in a cycle of debt and declining productivity. __ Reserve your 1st edition copy of our new book, The Best of Our Inheritance. Pre-Order open until March 14, 2025: https://www.arcforum.com/store/p/the-…

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Eurasia Review follow it: Peace In Europe Is Only Possible Under Trump – OpEd

US President Donald Trump. Photo Credit: POTUS, X

US President Donald Trump. Photo Credit: POTUS, X

Peace In Europe Is Only Possible Under Trump – OpEd

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By Collins Chong Yew Keat

After depending on America as its ally for decades, the European leaders at the Munich Security Conference this week now see first hand the continent’s decades old norms and dogma of the American security umbrella now crumbling in front of them.

The U.S. and Russia have begun talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at improving diplomatic ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, without the involvement of Europe and Ukraine. This is only made possible under Trump, and will signal a new path towards peace. If Biden defeated Trump in the elections, this conflict will only prolong with greater amounts of lives lost and money pumped in unnecessarily. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, signaling a potential thaw in U.S.-Russia relations after years of tension following the Ukraine conflict, and after years of limited engagement thanks to Biden’s old school approach. 

Trump criticised Zelensky for his disapproval of this direct meeting without Ukraine, and Trump is right when he argued that Zelensky has for three years been here but practically the war has seen no signs of abating. Only Trump has the capacity in the world now to halt this previous stalemate of the West’s stubborn old school approach, and to end the war now.

This first formal talk will set up nicely the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin, which will mark a new chapter of ties between Moscow and Washington, where it will no longer be constrained by past status quo and conventional approaches of the Biden administration.

This meeting is very much overdue, and this will pave the way for the end of the Ukraine conflict, and this also brings much certainty to long term bilateral ties and a reset of relationship with Russia, away from the past entanglements of traditional European factor and trap. 

Since the conflict started, America has been confined to two principles: that Ukraine’s future should not be decided without the involvement of Ukraine; and that America and its Western allies must come together to face Putin. ⁠

In came Trump and this changed entirely. 

European leaders now face a scramble to reorient their security setting amidst the new shake-up and the risks of an American pullout or using that as a pretext to force Europe to ease on its conventional barriers to Ukraine peace talks. European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday to align their position after they are left out of the talks for Ukraine. 

The outcome of the eventual Trump-Putin meeting also will transcend the impact on Ukraine alone, as a new set of improved ties with the US will lessen the necessity for Moscow to increase reliance on China and the DPRK as a trade off for higher bargaining chips with the US. 

Without external influences and forces and with Trump’s new distinct mantra of self push for peace, with the doubling down on the reality that Zelensky will not be naively expecting the same territorial ownership before the war, and in shutting down any idea of Ukraine joining NATO, this meeting will mark a new beginning in long term peace deals for Russia.

Europe will also now be left with a more self independent defence approach without the easy reliance on American power presence, which will further limit its potential for escalations or provocations with Russia.

With Trump’s warning that Europe will be left alone, the talks of the creation of the Army of Europe will not in any way embolden European powers to challenge Russia, knowing how without the US involvement, it is in no way able to sustain any aggressive confrontation.

This direct meeting between Trump and Putin is the most beneficial and strategic in any ways, in keeping away the European forces that have for long been a main barrier. With Trump’s own tariff strategy and reorientation of security ties with Europe, plus the new thaw of ties between Russia and the US, Europe will be forced to scale down on its Russian pushback, seeing how fragile cross Atlantic ties will further limit its trade and economic options, which it will now have to rely more on the Indo Pacific and China as a result, although both are still risky for Europe’s shaky Indo Pacific push.

Can Europe defend itself without American support? Not a chance. This will force Europe to spend more on its defence, including its NATO commitment. This will require a spike in defence spending and especially on targeted key defence areas and deterrence capacity, something which Europe lacks now with its stagnating economy coupled with the tariff threat from Trump.

Last year, only 18 NATO allies just spent the target of 2% of GDP in defence. What Europe really lacks is the proper defence and deterrence capacity against Russia, and will be left as sitting ducks without the holistic American military deterrent capacity especially in nuclear and high technology missiles. 

What does Europe really lack? It is the basic military technology and capability that make armed forces credible, capable and most importantly, lethal. Europe has outdated and outnumbered ships and missiles. It has ships without the proper missiles, planes without the needed technological capacity including jamming capabilities, and even troops without adequate ammunition. 

The disparity of Western and Eastern European military capabilities and intra Europe power gap are glaring, and lacking the combined holistic military spectrum including intelligence, space security and satellite capabilities, cyber and digital warfare, and missiles and nuclear first and second strike capacities, Europe cannot afford to defend itself without America. But it has for decades been piggybacking on America’s back, banking on the conventional and assured American military and financial support in securing its interests and security needs without the urgent need to bolster these capabilities. 

The nature of European arsenals cannot match with the overall nuclear and military umbrella that America provides. 

The American nuclear umbrella and nuclear forces have protected Europe for decades, serving as the ultimate assurance and guarantee against a Russian invasion. 

This easy ride on security assurances for Europe made it easier for it to focus deeper on its economic and trade needs, and pivoting to Africa and Asia. However, even this is ineffective, with its Global Gateway strategy and the Indo Pacific push all failed to pull Europe out of its stagnation,even in post Brexit recovery.

With Trump now reversing decades of free ride, European security suddenly looks in shambles, even without the Ukraine pretext in the first place. 

Compare that to Russia, who enjoys higher volume advantage both in conventional and nuclear capacities. France and Britain both have a combined nuclear warheads of around 500, while the US has around 5000, and Russia has the highest number at approximately 6000. The Ukrainian experience portrayed how the conflict there should not have been started in the first place, and if Trump was in power at that time, in his own words and Putin’s, this would not have started.

Trump has chastised the decision for Ukraine to take the fight with Russia, despite knowing the huge and glaring disparity of firepower and military capacity between Moscow and Kiev, while hoping for Washington to continue to provide military aid in the hundreds of billions, all while Europe is happy to just contribute enough, albeit little. 

Trump’s further tariff threat on Europe should it continue hijack Trump’s direct Putin deal remains a strategic and brilliant pull off from Trump, and open are the doors to new economic, trade and security reorientation with Russia in a gradually positive tone, especially if new future sanctions are withheld or waived in tandem with Russia’s own reciprocal sweetener in the Ukraine peace deal. 

This new shake-up in the European security sphere where it is now finding itself suddenly exposed and vulnerable will mean that it is left with no choice but to placate Trump, and to avoid further tariff and risks of entire pullout of US security. This will push Europe to accept that the Ukrainian peace deal will need to go through, and there will be no more barriers to continue the financial wastages on the war and the ever mounting toll of lives lost on both sides. 

Europe has always singled out Russia as the main threat to its security, and yet before Trump 1.0, has continued to rely heavily on Russian oil and gas for its energy security, while soliciting American military and nuclear support at the same time. It will take Europe at least ten years to properly defend itself without America, and it will need America more than ever. 

In future thaw of ties and the upcoming negotiations, Russia is expected to demand for more considerations from the West, including possible prisoner swap and also the ease of sanctions on Iran which will allow for more Iranian oil export that will ease oil prices, and eventually help with Russia’s post recovery. 

The West in turn is expected to push Russia to be disassociate more with China and North Korea, and to lower its role in BRICS and other anti-West mechanisms, barring the potentiality of Trump to further lavish higher tariff and sanctions on Moscow and also the risks of a fallout in the peace talks. 

However, both have more to gain from an eventual peace and a thaw in ties, and even Europe will reap more benefits in the future. The peace plan might also include the resumption of greater energy flow into Europe from Russia, which it needs. Most gas deliveries ceased in 2022, when Russia closed down Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The EU now receives just 10% of its gas from Russia, down from 45% in 2021. This affected Moscow’s supply chain as well, and a heavy financial toll. 

Europe is feeling the pinch from continuing high prices, and this year it will need to buy more than usual to fill its storage which is now only 48% full compared to 66% at the same time last year.

The limit on the supply and flow by Russia also affected both sides, in both navigating through this barrier while others tried to circumvent it. Hungary and Slovakia still receive piped Russian flows from Turkey; while others also get regasified Russian LNG that flows through northern Europe. 

Ukraine is adamant it will not renew its deal with Russia, but turnarounds are being studied. The EU’S most Russia-wary members would strongly oppose greater dependence on the country’s energy, but that hinges on the outcome of the peace deal. 

At the same time, Trump would have wanted Europe to buy more of American oil and gas, but if the peace deal goes through, Russia will be able to supply more, which will lower prices around the world that might put American oil drillers and capacities at a disadvantage. However, the peace plan is more pressing, and will bring greater financial and security savings for Washington and Brussels. 

It is time to stop this madness of the Ukraine war, with the common sense and sensible approach taken by Trump to begin talks and negotiations, which will benefit all nations. 

Like what Trump has long argued, this should not have started in the first place, and would not have started should he still be in power, a fact where even Putin concurred, but at least Trump has now kept his promise to end this, cleaning up Biden’s mess. 
Hopes are high for the return of peace at long last.

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Collins Chong Yew Keat

Collins Chong Yew Keat has been serving in University of Malaya, the top university in Malaysia for more than 9 years. His areas of interests include strategic and security studies, American foreign policy and power analysis and has published various publications on numerous platforms including books and chapter articles. He is also a regular contributor in providing op-eds for both the local and international media on various contemporary global issues and regional affairs since 2007.

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New Atlas: How listening to nostalgic music could stave off dementia

https://32af5e0e1eba37f3bf81e2eca140f415.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-41/html/container.html

Alzheimer’s & Dementia

How listening to nostalgic music could stave off dementia

By Rich Haridy

February 19, 2025

Eight weeks of daily focused music-listening was found to improve connectivity in several brain regions

Eight weeks of daily focused music-listening was found to improve connectivity in several brain regions

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In 2020 an incredible video went viral. It featured a former ballet dancer named Marta Cinta González Saldaña, suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease in her senior years. In the video, Saldaña listens to a piece of music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and suddenly flashes awake beginning to move to a dance routine she presumably rehearsed over and over in her younger days.

These types of clips have been shared for years, and they highlight the stunning way music can rekindle dormant neural pathways in elderly subjects experiencing serious forms of dementia. And while music therapy is now a common practice in nursing homes, little research has actually zoomed in on the neural mechanisms behind the phenomena, or in particular, what kinds of music could optimize the potential brain benefits. https://www.youtube.com/embed/owb1uWDg3QM?enablejsapi=1

Bailarina con Alzheimer baila El Lago de los Cisnes – Música para Despertar

Editor’s note: Readers often ask us for follow-ups on memorable stories. What has happened to this story over the years? This piece was originally published in 2022 but has been re-edited and updated with new information current as of Feb 18, 2025. Enjoy!

A 2022 study, led by Psyche Loui from Northeastern University’s Music Imaging and Neural Dynamics Lab, answered two specific questions in regards to this incredible music-triggered phenomenon. How does a controlled eight-week music therapy program influence the activity and connectivity between auditory and reward areas of the brain? And, are the beneficial effects of music amplified when the music is self-selected, focusing on songs that are particularly meaningful to an individual?

https://32af5e0e1eba37f3bf81e2eca140f415.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-41/html/container.html

To investigate, the research team recruited a small cohort of cognitively healthy older adults. In conjunction with a music therapist, each volunteer created two playlists of music – one dubbed “energizing” and the other “relaxing.”

The cohort was tasked with listening to music from their self-selected playlists for one-hour every day, over the course of eight weeks. The one-hour daily music experience was designed to be focused, so each subject was asked to pay attention to their moods, emotions, and memories while listening to their playlists. This wasn’t merely playing tunes in the background while doing daily chores.

https://32af5e0e1eba37f3bf81e2eca140f415.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-41/html/container.html

At the beginning and end of the study, each participant also took part in a brain imaging test where they listened to 24 different audio excerpts. Six of those excepts were self-selected by the participant, while the rest were other pieces of music spanning many different genres selected by the researchers.

In a conversation with New Atlas in 2022, Loui explained how her team’s findings revealed the eight-week music intervention did result in increased connectivity across some key brain regions.

“We saw changes in auditory connectivity to the reward system, specifically the connectivity between the auditory network and the medial prefrontal cortex (which is part of the reward system) was increased after intervention,” Loui noted. “We also saw that the right executive control network, which includes regions that are important for attention and executive function, became more accurate at representing music after the intervention.”

According to Loui, this study was the first time a music-based intervention had been shown to cause longitudinal improvements in connectivity between these particular brain networks. From a clinical standpoint these findings are exciting, as decreased connectivity and activity in the medial prefrontal cortex is seen in a number of neurodegenerative conditions, as well as psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and depression.

The other major finding in the study was that self-selected music was much more effective at engaging these brain pathways, compared to other kinds of more unfamiliar music. Loui also added, the most effective self-selected music seemed to be songs linked to a participant’s younger years.

“… we had participants listen to about one third self-selected music, and two-thirds researcher-selected music, while getting their brains scanned, so that we could compare brain activity between self-selected and other-selected music, [and] we found that self-selected music was much more effective at engaging the brain,” Loui explained in 2022. “The most effective music tends to be from adolescent and early adulthood for the participant.”

The finding that the most effective music for rekindling neural pathways in older age is what was listened to in one’s youth interestingly recalls a large body of study illustrating how music and cultural taste is fundamentally formed in a person’s teenage years. Film theorist David Bordwell once referred to this phenomena as “the law of the adolescent window,” and these brain imaging findings certainly affirm that certain neural pathways linked to cultural experiences are really locked down in these key formative years.

“Between the ages of 13 and 18, a window opens for each of us,” Bordwell wrote. “The cultural pastimes that attract us then, the ones we find ourselves drawn to and even obsessive about, will always have a powerful hold. We may broaden our tastes as we grow out of those years – we should, anyhow – but the sports, hobbies, books, TV, movies, and music that we loved then we will always love.”

A key takeaway from the 2022 study is that there cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy to music therapy, Loui pointed out. So listening to music you like is important, but what this study could not answer is exactly how clinically effective music therapy may be as treatment for patients with dementia.

… music is an access key to your memory, your pre-frontal cortex

Michael Thaut

A study published in 2021 from researchers at the University of Toronto explored a similar intervention to Loui’s work, but in Alzheimer’s patients with very early-stage cognitive decline. It was a small study, and compared the effect between musicians and non-musicians of three-weeks of daily hour-long listening sessions with familiar music.

While brain activity was slightly different in those participants with a history of playing music, there were distinct signs of cognitive improvement in both groups after three weeks of music therapy. Senior author on the study Michael Thaut said listening to familiar music in one’s senior years could be thought of as a kind of brain gym.

“Whether you’re a lifelong musician or have never even played an instrument, music is an access key to your memory, your pre-frontal cortex,” Thaut said. “It’s simple: keep listening to the music that you’ve loved all your life. Your all-time favorite songs, those pieces that are especially meaningful to you. Make that your brain gym.”

More recently, a couple of researchers from USC really homed in on what happens in the brain when one listens to nostalgic music. They scanned a number of people’s brains in an MRI machine while they listened music they loved, and Sarah Hennessy, one of the researchers, called the results “amazing.”

“When you hear nostalgic music, there’s activity all over your brain, but most notably in the default mode network, which is normally active when we’re daydreaming,” Hennessy said in 2024. “It is also active when we’re thinking about our own narrative. We also have activity in some visual areas that normally process what you see in front of you. But all these participants had their eyes closed. So, what might be happening is that participants are visualizing what was in front of them during the memory the song evoked.”

Loui’s latest study, published in October 2024, looked closely at how music can help people focus on certain tasks. She found certain types of music can help people with attention difficulties zoom in on a project. Fast music with no lyrics, she suggested, helps focus the brain’s natural rhythmic activity.

“The brain actually oscillates at certain frequencies,” she said recently. “If you insert those frequencies into the music, that might influence your activity in those same frequencies in the brain — we saw that the brain was very clearly ‘phase locking,’ or [working] in time to these amplitude modulations that were inserted in the music.

The 2022 study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

A version of this article was originally published in 2022.

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Robots on the Battlefield…Station Zero Newsletter. Quote and need to know…”According to Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, recent breakthroughs in AI mean that robots can now be trained far more effectively and efficiently than ever before. This could lead to a massive surge in robotic systems impacting everyday life – including on the battlefield.”

Station Zero Newsletter <stationzero@substack.com> 

Robots on the Battlefield

What Happened:

For much of the war in Ukraine, drones have dominated the battlefield, carrying out reconnaissance, targeting enemy positions, and even conducting attacks. But now, another major shift is underway: unmanned ground vehicles are beginning to play a larger role as well.

Ukraine's new unmanned robot tested on front lines

Photo: The Ukrainian ground combat drone Ironclad.

At the same time, AI-driven robotics are rapidly advancing. According to Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, recent breakthroughs in AI mean that robots can now be trained far more effectively and efficiently than ever before. This could lead to a massive surge in robotic systems impacting everyday life – including on the battlefield.

One company, Figure AI, has already announced plans to deploy 100,000 humanoid robots within four years, a development that will almost certainly have military applications.

Why It Matters:

  • While still in its early stages, unmanned ground vehicles and humanoid robots could start playing a significant role on the battlefield in the late 2020s and early 2030s.
  • AI and drones have already made combat deadlier and faster-paced; robots could take this further by replacing humans in the most dangerous roles, particularly in frontline infantry positions.
  • Militaries with advanced AI and robotics will gain a major edge, while those without will struggle to keep up.
  • This shift could be especially crucial for countries like Ukraine or parts of Europe which face demographic challenges and struggle with military recruiting – and may need AI-driven systems to maintain their defense capabilities.

Station Zero Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Scott Ritter: Let Free Speech Reign! “The Biden administration paid the Ukrainian government $140 million a month to counter truth tellers like me who were compensated $250 per article published by RT and Sputnik. $140 million to tell lies, countering $250 to tell the fact-based truth……”

Scott Ritter

@RealScottRitter

The Biden administration paid the Ukrainian government $140 million a month to counter truth tellers like me who were compensated $250 per article published by RT and Sputnik. $140 million to tell lies, countering $250 to tell the fact-based truth. And the FBI came after me as a Russian agent. It’s about time America realizes that the so-called “mainstream media” is as corrupt as the day is long. And outlets like RT and Sputnik are to be trusted over outlets like CNN, MSNBC, BBC and others. It’s time to lift the sanctions. Let free speech reign!

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Exile of Elon Musk will mark Trump’s demise | The Trump Report

Feb 19, 2025“When he dumps Elon, it’s going to be an even worse problem.” The collapse of Trump’s friendship with Musk will put Trump in the danger zone, says Rick Wilson.

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