Gaming the system

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Researchers are pokin’ around in our dreams, buh bye Lambo EV, and Buzz and Woody are coming to rescue us from tech 🤓 

Let’s get into it!

Researchers at Northwestern University conducted a study in which participants were tasked with solving puzzles right before going to bed, and then prompted to solve them while they were dreaming.

The study was published in Neuroscience of Consciousness, and looked at how much a person can control what they’re dreaming, and if lucid dreaming (being aware of what you’re dreaming) can be used to help with mental health conditions like PTSD and diseases like Parkinson’s.

The researchers recruited 20 participants experienced and had them attempt to solve logic puzzles for three minutes at a time while a different soundtrack played during each puzzle. When the last 4 puzzles were left, they were told to go to bed.

While they slept, the researchers played soundtracks for two of the four puzzles, and when the participants woke up, 75% reported dreaming of at least one of the puzzles when one of the soundtracks was played.

One participant was cued with the ‘trees’ puzzle soundtrack and woke up dreaming of walking through a forest.

“These were fascinating examples to witness because they showed how dreamers can follow instructions, and dreams can be influenced by sounds during sleep,” said lead study author Karen Konkoly.

Even with on-and-off federal incentives to lower prices, the electric vehicle market has struggled and still isn’t affordable enough to compete with gas-powered cars.

Standing in the way of broader adoption is also the love of enthusiasts for the internal combustion engine, especially when it comes to luxury sports cars.

So it’s not surprising Lamborghini just announced it’s killing the fully electric Lanzador three years after announcing it, and probably still three more from its release.

“EVs, in their current form, struggle to deliver this specific emotional connection,” Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann told The Times the other day, saying the project was costing too much money and wasn’t getting close to enough attention from dealers, who know their customers’ preferences better than anyone.

Lamborghini still plans to produce a hybrid-electric plug-in Lanzador, but it appears the long road to the fully electric version has reached a dead end.

A study conducted by researchers at Toronto’s Rotman Research Institute measured the neuroplasticity of novice and expert birders, and found the experts had denser brain regions associated with working memory, spatial awareness, and object recognition.

The authors recruited 58 adults between 22 and 79 from the Toronto Ornithological Club and the Ontario Field Ornithologists, half of whom were expert birders and the other half were novices.

They conducted diffusion MRIs and functional MRIs on each participant during a bird-matching exercise in order to measure brain structure and brain activity, respectively, while the participants worked away.

“It gives us a window into how these regions might be important for developing the expertise in the first place,” said lead author Erik Wing, a postdoctoral fellow at Rotman. “Then we can see [birders] actually deploy those types of skills to help them identify new, unfamiliar species of birds.”

The brains of the expert birders were found to be denser and more active in the regions associated with the cognitive functions mentioned above.

Wing and his team conceded it’s not clear if birding leads to better neuroplasticity, or if having better neuroplasticity makes someone more likely to be an expert birder. Still, other research has supported the theory that birding may be good for brain health, given its venue in nature, along with the required abilities to pay attention, motion-track, and cognitively match the exterior world to images stored in one’s memory.

Big shout out to Karen Clark for sharing this gem.

Don’t look now but the price for a ticket to see Rush in Toronto in 1981 was about the same as a couple of Dunkin coffees and some and a box of munchkins!

The modern obsession with technology and the loss of free play are likely having a lasting and detrimental impact on the imaginative development of children. Toy Story 5 will tackle the subject with a plotline about how Woody, Buzz, Jesse, Rex, and co. save their new human and themselves from a tablet.

“It’s not even really about a battle so much as the realization of an existential problem: that nobody’s really playing with toys anymore,” director Andrew Stanton told Empire Magazine in November. “Technology has changed everybody’s lives, but we’re asking what that means for us—and to our kids.”

The topic is certainly appropriately contemporary, but can the film’s message resonate in a way that convinces kids to get off—or at least to take a break from—their screens? According to child psychiatrist and author of Why We Suffer and How We Heal, Suzan Song, it depends on how the message is articulated.

“Children are more cooperative when they understand what the purpose is,” says Song. “Explain to kids that their brains need practice being bored, awkward, and figuring things out, just like muscles need exercise.” 

The 5th and possibly final instalment of the beloved franchise that began at a Pizza Planet in 1995 arrives in theaters June 19.

Nothin’ but the classics

Let’s have some fun with movies in today’s trivia. We’re quizzin’ you on the classics so grab a seat, sit back, and let’s get to it!

Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Amazon eGift Card ;)

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