BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Making people move in slow motionMaking people move in slow motion
Science reporter, BBC News
Brain waves appear to have a direct effect on behaviourResearchers have used electrodes to make people move in slow motion.
The scientists "boosted" human subjects' brain waves - applying a small alternating current via electrodes on the volunteers' scalps.
These waves are patterns generated naturally by groups of neurons, or brain cells, firing in a rhythm.
In the journal Current Biology, the researchers described how their finding shows that brain waves directly affect human behaviour.
The results also reveal clues about movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, sufferers of which have difficulty making voluntary movements.
Lead author Professor Peter Brown, from University College London in the UK, said: "We induced the same patterns as you see in normal brains via electrodes."
He and his team boosted one specific form of relatively low frequency brain wave called a beta oscillation.
"Different parts of the brain work together and generate certain frequencies," he explained, "and the movement areas of the brain come together in beta activity.
"That activity is suppressed just prior to and during movement, so we think the body gets rid of it to prepare to make a new movement."
Boosting beta brain waves slowed people's movement by 10%To investigate the effect of this beta activity, the research team gave healthy human subjects electrical stimulation through their scalps.
"The currents we use are very small... but [they] shape the likelihood of neurons firing in the imposed rhythm," he told BBC News.
During the test each volunteer was shown a dot on a computer screen. They were able to control another marker on the same screen with a joystick.
"The dot jumped to a new location and when they were signalled to by an alarm they had to move [their marker] to that new location as quickly as they could," Professor Brown explained.
"When we applied the beta stimulation that quick movement was slowed by 10%.
"So we have a direct experiment showing a causal link between the oscillations and the behaviour," he said.
Professor Brown explained that beta activity was important in Parkinson's disease.
"So this information is very helpful," he said. "Since we've shown that this slows people down, it tells us what Parkinson's disease treatments should be trying to suppress."
Professor John Stein, a neuroscientist from the University of Oxford pioneered the theory of what he refers to as a "beta straitjacket" - a pattern of brain activity that prevents Parkinson's disease patients from making voluntary movements.
"The theory is that... in Parkinson's disease when people try to move they cannot suppress beta [brain waves] and therefore cannot move," he told BBC News.
"This study is the first to show... in normal subjects that beta activity actually slows movement. This supports a causal role for [the] activity in causing a fixed posture and tending to prevent voluntary movements."
October 4, 2009
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Making people move in slow motion
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Court reveals Polanski settlement
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Court reveals Polanski settlementCourt reveals Polanski settlement
The film-maker has not set foot in the US since 1978Roman Polanski agreed to pay his victim of sexual assault $500,000, 15 years after he fled the US, according to court documents released to the media.
The French-Polish director is being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant over his 1977 conviction for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The confidential deal between Mr Polanski and the victim, Samantha Geimer, was reached in October 1993.
It was disclosed because of a two-year struggle to get the film-maker to pay.
Mr Polanski - who faces extradition to the US - was detained in Switzerland as he travelled from France to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.
The last court filing in August 1996 stated that he owed Ms Geimer $604,416.22, including interest. The documents were made available to the media on Friday.
The court records did not reveal whether the 76-year-old director had ever paid, according to the Associated Press.
The director pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with an under-age girl following a plea bargain - he had originally been charged with six offences including rape and sodomy.
Victim sued
He left the US in 1978 before he could be sentenced and has not returned to the country since.
David Finkle, the film-maker's lawyer, said he was unable to recall details of the case and declined comment. Ms Geimer and her family have also been unavailable for comment.
She sued Mr Polanski in December 1988, alleging sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress and seduction.
But in January this year she asked a US court to drop charges against him, saying the continued publication of details "causes harm to me, my husband and children".
Schwarzenegger speaks out
The arrest of Mr Polanski, who won an Oscar in 2002 for The Pianist, a harrowing story of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, has prompted an outcry among some politicians and 0Hollywood heavyweights.
But on Friday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the film-maker should not get special treatment because he is a "big-time movie director".
A petition has been signed by film-makers including Pedro Almodovar and Stephen Frears, and actors including Monica Bellucci and Fanny Ardant, expressing dismay at Mr Polanski's arrest.
Other Hollywood luminaries, including film producer Harvey Weinstein, have called for Mr Polanski's release.
On Tuesday, US prosecutors said the 76-year-old had been on an Interpol "wanted list" for years.
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Popular Google Searches - Trends and Reviews: Killing Albino People for Profit in TanzaniaSources and Additional Reading:
http://visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com/2009/09/bbc-news-africa-albino-killers-be.htmlKilling Albino People for Profit in Tanzania
The Tanzania Albino Society (TAS) has called for the men found guilty of killing an albino boy to be hanged publicly as a warning to others.A court sentenced them to death for attacking the boy and severing his legs for use in witchdoctors' potions.The BBC's John Ngahyoma in Dar es Salaam says there are more than 100 people on death row, but no-one has been executed in more than 15 years. But TAS chairman Ernest Kimaya urged the president to endorse the sentence."I want other perpetrators to learn - seeing is believing," he told the BBC.Mr Kimaya told Tanzania's Citizen newspaper that a public execution would also "show that the government is serious in its war on albino killers".In the past two years, 53 albino people have been murdered in Tanzania. For example, one teacher in the northern town of Arusha has been arrested for killing his own child, who was albino. As well as the four killings, the body of an albino has also been exhumed. It was found with its limbs cut off.Albino people, who lack pigment in their skin and appear pale, are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth. Renegade witch doctors have convinced locals that there are magical properties in the blood, bones and skin of people with albinism, which has created a sickening black market where the limb of an albino can bring in anywhere from $500 to $2,000. In a country where the per capita income is roughly $450 a year, that's a macabre fortune.The Tanzanian government has publicly stated its desire to end the killings. In March, President Jakaya Kikwete called on Tanzanians to come forward with any information they might have.Reprisal fearsOfficials banned witchdoctors from practicing, however many have continued to work. Many of Tanzania's estimated 17,000 albino people are now living in fear, especially in villages in the north-west where the majority of the murders have occurred. The case in Kahama on Wednesday was the first conviction in Tanzania for an albino killing.Correspondents say there is also a fear of reprisal killings as witchdoctors and their clients wield a lot of power in their communities. Witchdoctors in Tanzania and other parts of East Africa have made tens of thousands of dollars from selling potions and other items made from the bones, hair, skin and genitals of dead albino people. They pay a lot of money for body parts.In July a court in neighboring Burundi sentenced one person to life in prison and eight others to jail for the murder of albino people whose remains were sold in Tanzania.Historical PerspectivesIn the early 2000s similar incidents of trading in human organs were reported to have surfaced in the country. At that time six people were believed to have been killed and skinned in Mbeya Region, south-west of Tanzania.There was, according to media reports, a high demand for human skin in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and one human skin would sell at between Sh168,000 (approximately US$134.4) and Sh672,000 (approximately US$537.6) at the time.Ever since independence in 1960, Tanzania has been known as a haven of peace and political stability. Yet, this fame is slowly fading away as rampant corruption, mismanagement of national resources, poverty, the cost of living and despicable crimes are also increasing.Although superstitious beliefs may fall under the category of complex phenomena in the society, they are, however, about control and survival mechanisms. The more powerful one is the more influential and successful one is believed to become socially, economically and politically.
Sources and Additional Reading:
Кинодеятели требуют освободить Романа Полански
Роман Полански
Полански арест режиссер
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Полански режиссер арест
Кинодеятели требуют освободить Романа Полански
IDIVIDI: Саманта Гејмер вознемирена од веста за апсењето на Роман Полански
Саманта Гејмер вознемирена од веста за апсењето на Роман ПоланскиIDIVIDI: Саманта Гејмер вознемирена од веста за апсењето на Роман Полански
Саманта Гејмер, која беше силувана од Роман Полански, е вознемирeна од веста за притворањето на славниот режисер во Швајцарија, бидејќи тоа ја врати на насловните страни на медиумите, триесет години по нејзиното болно искуство, соопшти денеска нејзиното семејство.
Саманта го запознала Полански на едно снимање за познатото модно списание „Vogue“ во далечната 1977, кога имала 13 години.Полански беше обвинет дека ја дрогирал Саманта и потоа ја силувал во куќата на својот пријател Џек Николсон во Холивуд.
Таа денес е мајка на три деца, работи како книговодителка на хавајскиот остров Кауиа и сака да го заборави целиот настан што и се случил пред повеќе од 30 години.Незадоволна од начинот на кој се води целиот случај, таа во јануари побара од Судот во Лос Анџелес да прекине процесот против режисерот, бидејќи, како што наведе во образложението, истражните органи и судството и нанеле штета, не само нејзе, туку и на нејзините сопруг и мајка, а последици трпат и нејзините три деца.
- Веќе немам 13 години. Поминав преку сите тешкотии преку кои поминуваат жртвите, ги надминав и ги преболев сите освен една - секој пат кога случајот ќе се најде на суд, јас и моето семејство сме во фокусот на медиумите, а тоа искуство не е ниту малку пријатно, изјави Саманта, која своевремено го тужеше Полански и доби отштета, чиј износ досега не е соопштен.
Саманта во јануари 1997 година јавно му прости на Полански, сметајки дека платил за тоа што и го направил.
