Clipmarks | wildcat's 'neurology' clips

Marijuana, the wonder drug

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:44:00 GMT

clipped by: Thr4ll

A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.

It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.

Tags: marijuana

Your Brain Boots Up Like a Computer

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:22:24 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

As we yawn and open our eyes in the morning, the brain stem sends little puffs of nitric oxide to another part of the brain, the thalamus, which then directs it elsewhere.

Your Brain Boots Up Like a Computer

By Abigail W. Leonard
Special to LiveScience
posted: 17 August 2006
09:39 am ET

Like a computer booting up its operating system before running more complicated programs, the nitric oxide triggers certain functions that set the stage for more complex brain operations, according to a new study.

In these first moments of the day, sensory information floods the system—the bright sunlight coming through the curtains, the time on the screeching alarm clock—and all of it needs to be processed and organized, so the brain can understand its surroundings and begin to perform more complex tasks.

"The thinking part of the brain is applying a sort of stencil to the information coming in and what the nitric oxide is doing is allowing more refinement of that stencil," says Dwayne Godwin, an associate professor at Wake Forest University and lead author of the study, which was funded by the National Eye Institute.

Tags: neurology, health, science, brain, brain theory, thinking, psychology

A No Brainer?

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:57:43 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Amazing!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Tiny brain no obstacle to French civil servant

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, caused by a fluid buildup in his skull, French researchers reported on Thursday.

Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.

Reuters Photo: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of a 44-year-old man's brain show a huge fluid-filled chamber...

The man went to a hospital after he had mild weakness in his left leg. When Feuillet's staff took his medical history, they learned he had had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away hydrocephalus -- water on the brain -- as an infant.

the man had an IQ of 75

but not considered mentally retarded or disabled,

"What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life,"

Tags: neurology, hydrocephalus, odd, amazing, brain

Moderate drinkers end up better thinkers

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:42:08 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Moderate drinkers end up better thinkers

Moderate drinkers have been found to be better thinkers than heavy drinkers and those who do not drink at all, according to the Australian National University research. In a study of more than 7000 people aged 20-24, 40-44 and 60-64, participants were asked about their alcohol use, and to perform a series of tests to measure cognition - verbal skills, memory and speed of thinking.

ANU researchers Dr Kaarin Anstey and Dr Bryan Rodgers found that people who had drunk moderate amounts of alcohol (14-28 standard drinks a week for men and 7-14 standard drinks a week for women) performed significantly better than those who were heavy drinkers (over 28 and 14 standard drinks for men and women respectively) and those who rarely or never drank. This relationship was found in participants in their 20s, 40s and 60s.

“We found that people who did not drink were more likely to have poorer mental and physical health, less education, and poorer lifestyles,” Dr Anstey said. “However, these factors are not sufficient to fully explain the results and further research is required to obtain a clearer picture of exactly what this means for our thinking abilities.”

Tags: addiction, science, alcohol, drinks, drinking, study, research, health, mental, brain, neurology, cognition, cognitivism, think, thinking

Looking at the Sun Can Trigger a Sneeze

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:26:15 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Have you ever emerged from a matinee movie, squinted into the sudden burst of sunlight and sneezed uncontrollably? Up to a third of the population will answer this question with an emphatic "Yes!" (whereas nearly everyone else scratches their head in confusion). Sneezing as the result of being exposed to a bright light—known as the photic sneeze reflex—is a genetic quirk that is still unexplained by science, even though it has intrigued some of history's greatest minds.

Aristotle mused about why one sneezes more after looking at the sun in The Book of Problems: "Why does the heat of the sun provoke sneezing?" He surmised that the heat of the sun on the nose was probably responsible.

Bacon's best guess was that the sun's light made the eyes water, and then that moisture ("braine humour," literally) seeped into and irritated the nose.

So neurology steps in: Most experts now agree that crossed wires in the brain are probably responsible for the photic sneeze reflex.

Tags: sneezing

The Daydreaming Brain

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:58:10 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.mindpowernews.com

Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it

When people are given a specific task

they focus on that task

other brain regions get busy during down time

When Mason asked people what was happening during this down time, the answer was clear.

"It's daydreaming," she said. "But I find that the vast majority of time, people aren't having fanciful thoughts. People are thinking about what they have to do later today."

Her team has chosen to call it stimulus-independent thought or mind wandering.

Mason's team set up an experiment using the relatively new technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI to see what is going on

volunteers

did a variety of tasks

volunteers were also imaged when they were sitting there, waiting between tasks

"In the absence of a task that requires deliberative processing, the mind generally tends to wander, flitting from one thought to the next with fluidity and ease,"

Now they know what that looks like.

Tags: brain, thinking, daydream, mind, neurology

Will a Computer “Symbiote” be Implanted in Future Human Brains?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:30:38 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Will future humans have computers implanted in their brains? Researchers are developing a neural implant that can think independently—just like the human brain does. Creepy? Yeah. Cool? Definitely. Scientists at the University of Florida aren’t just creating a neural implant that can translate human brain signals, but one that can act independently to increase its efficiency and synergy with the brain as it learns new things.

"In the grand scheme of brain-machine interfaces, this is a complete paradigm change," said Justin C. Sanchez, Ph.D., a UF assistant professor of pediatric neurology and the study's lead author. "This idea opens up all kinds of possibilities for how we interact with devices. It's not just about giving instructions but about those devices assisting us in a common goal. You know the goal, the computer knows the goal and you work together to solve the task."

These “brain computers” are programmed with complex algorithms that can interpret thoughts

Tags: brain, implants, future, neurology, interface

Women Have No Emotional Feelings During Orgasm

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:45:47 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.godlikeproductions.com

Neuroscientists trying to untangle the riddle of desire and sexual pleasure in the brain have discovered something that turns conventional wisdom on its head. Though most people believe that men are less emotional about sex than women are, the neurology of orgasm says otherwise, at least according to an intriguing article in Scientific American. During orgasm, men experience heightened activity in the emotion-processing centers of the brain. But women's brains, say researchers, are shut down in emotion-processing regions during arousal and orgasm.

when a woman reached orgasm, something unexpected happened: much of her brain went silent

Fear and anxiety need to be avoided at all costs if a woman wishes to have an orgasm; we knew that, but now we can see it happening in the depths of the brain,"

Check out the whole article on orgasm — it's really interesting.

Tags: i, luv, being, non, emotional

Why it's not a crazy idea to be bilingual

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:42:23 GMT

clipped by: gingembre
clipper's remarks: That's it--I'm going to start using my Spanish and continue my French lessons!

Clip Source: www.ctv.ca

Bilingualism may delay onset of dementia: study

Updated Fri. Jan. 12 2007 8:42 AM ET

Lifelong bilingualism can help delay the onset of dementia symptoms by four years, Canadian researchers have found.

Patients who were fluent in two or more languages and spoke them regularly reported dementia symptoms on average about four years after people who spoke only one language, says principal investigator Ellen Bialystok.

Bilingualism may help to stave off cognitive decline because of the mental agility necessary to juggle them in day-to-day life, researchers said.

"Our study found that speaking two languages throughout one's life appears to be associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms of dementia by four years compared to those who speak one language," said Bialystok, also an associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute.

The study followed on the heels of previous reports from Bialystok and colleagues showing bilingualism enhances attention and cognitive control in both children and older adults.

Researchers examined the diagnostic records of 184 Toronto-area patients who came to Baycrest's Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic between 2002 and 2005 with cognitive complaints. Of those patients, 91 were monolingual and 93 were bilingual.

The bilingual speakers spoke a combination of 25 different languages, the most prevalent being Polish, Yiddish, German, Romanian and Hungarian.

The researchers determined that the mean age of onset of dementia symptoms in the monolingual group was 71.4 years, while the bilingual group was 75.5 years. This gap remained even after considering the possible effect of other lifestyle factors such as cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment and gender.

"There are no pharmacological interventions that are this dramatic" in delaying symptoms, said neurologist Dr. Morris Freedman, who is head of the Division of Neurology, and director of the Memory Clinic at Baycrest.

Tags: aging, languages, mental health, research, memory, communication, medicine, health, science, dementia, alzheimer's

Your Nose, Your Brain, Your Faith

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:02:56 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Sam Harris article....very interesting!

Rest of article:

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/my-nose-my-brain-my-faith/

Clip Source: www.samharris.org

By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Jan. 10, 2008

Your nose is one of the less complicated parts of your body, and yet we credit it with considerable intelligence in the area of truth vs. falsehood. We “sniff out a lie.” We say “something smells fishy.” Now studies suggest that something more than metaphor may be at work here--specifically, brain science. The same research may also shed unexpected light on religious faith.

Believing or disbelieving something is always as much about feeling as fact. Sam Harris, a doctoral candidate at UCLA, wanted to see what that means in physiological terms. To many readers, Harris is best known for his antireligious book The End of Faith. But he is also a neuroscientist. In a study reported in the Annals of Neurology, Harris presented 14 people with 360 statements designed to elicit belief, disbelief or uncertainty. He tracked their brain response with a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) and got some very revealing results.

Tags: sam harris, neuroscience, faith, religion

Daydreaming, useful or not?

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:38:28 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks:

...The mind may wander simply because it can...

Clip Source: www.iol.co.za

Brain study finds the stuff of daydreams

Washington - Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it, US researchers reported on Friday.

When people are given a specific task to do, they focus on that task but then other brain regions get busy during down time, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Active regions include the superior frontal gyrus, which is one of the main bumps on the front part of the human brain, the insula, which is on the side of the brain, and parts of the temporal lobe, at the back of the brain.

Mason is not sure why this activity occurs, but believes it underlies some of the basic mind functions that define people - although her team has not imaged any animals.

One possibility, her team said, is that the brain always does something so that it is in an active state when quick thoughts or reactions are needed.

"A second possibility is that as a kind of spontaneous mental time travel (stimulus-independent thought) lends a sense of coherence to one's past, present, and future experiences," the researchers wrote.

"Although the thoughts the mind produces when wandering are at times useful, such instances do not prove that the mind wanders because these thoughts are adaptive; on the contrary the mind may wander simply because it can," they concluded.

Tags: daydream, daydreaming, dream, brain, neuroscience, mri, fmri, science, study, neurology

Does Alcohol Kill Brain Cells?

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:02:06 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Cheers!

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

If you've ever been drunk (or even tipsy), or seen someone who is, you know there's definitely some cognitive impairment going on. Reaction time, coordination, and speech are slowed. Judgment and decision-making abilities get a lot worse, sometimes wrongly convincing us that we are more attractive to the opposite sex—or that we can safely drive our car

But is the impairment permanent or temporary?

The truth is that the impairment is usually temporary, not permanent.

It is not the brain cells themselves but the nerve connections between them (called dendrites) which are most affected by alcohol. The communication signals are inhibited, thus slowing down mental processing and the central nervous system. But the brain cells themselves bounce back with no damage for the most part. Long-term alcohol use, however, is another story. There's plenty of research showing that sustained alcohol consumption can and does cause irreversible neurological disorders.

Tags: science, brain, mind, alcohol, neurology, impairment

The Birth of a Brain Cell: Scientists Witness Neurogenesis

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:15:00 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

The Birth of a Brain Cell: Scientists Witness Neurogenesis

New method allows researchers to pinpoint young nerve cells in the living human brain

For the first time, researchers have developed a way to view stem cells in the brains of living animals, including humans—a finding that allows scientists to follow the process neurogenesis (the birth of neurons). The discovery comes just months after scientists confirmed that such cells are generated in adult as well as developing brains.

"I was looking for a method that would enable us to study these cells through[out a] life span," says Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, an assistant professor of neurology at Stony Brook University in New York State, who specializes in neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy that premature and low-weight babies are at greater risk of developing. She says the new technique will enable her to track children at risk by monitoring the quantity and behavior of these so-called progenitor cells in their brains.

Tags: brain, fmri, stem cells, nerve cells

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:38:12 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.

Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”

Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.

They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.

When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.

Tags: science, mind, brain, neurology, emotions, meditation, psychology

Shakespeare is good for your brain

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 11:36:34 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: fascinating, if true

Clip Source: www.lse.co.uk

Shakespeare used advanced brain theories

Reading Shakespeare excites the brain and could help stave off old age forgetfulness, research has shown.

The Elizabethan playwright took advantage of theories of brain consciousness to wow the audience in their heads as well as on stage, claim scientists.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool found the unconventional structure and words of Shakespeare's plays and poetry surprises the brain, which produces a sudden burst of activity, or excitement.

They claim it could help keep the brain healthy and lively.

Professor Philip Davis, from the University's School of English, said Shakespeare's technique was known as a functional shift that puts something regarded as familiar in an unfamiliar situation.

He said: "By throwing odd words into seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches it off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity - a sense of drama created out of the simplest of things.

"It works in a similar way to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. If it is easy to see which pieces slot together you become bored of the game, but if the pieces don’t appear to fit, when we know they should, the brain becomes excited.

"Research has shown that there are parts of the brain that are responsible for the processing of nouns and others for the processing of verbs.

"This is believed to happen automatically, but if you throw something in that looks like a noun, but is used as a verb, a new level of consciousness might have to be created as they talk to each other.

"For example, Shakespeare uses the phrase, ‘he godded me’ in the tragedy Coriolanus. Godded looks like a noun, but is a verb and the brain is confused by the anomaly."

The team of researchers, also from Liverpool's Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre (MARIARC), monitored the brain activity of 30 volunteers as they read passages of ordinary text and compared the results with examples of classic literature.

Tags: science, research, shakespeare, brain, mind, neurology, consciousness