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Mad Neuroscience - The "Trust Me" Drug That Makes You Take Social Risks
2008-05-22 14:53:00 What if you could convince people to trust you and take risks for you with just a few drops of liquid surreptitiously placed in their water? There would be no drunkenness, no rufie-esque glazed eyes: just pure, human trust created via chemicals. The person wouldn't even know they'd been dosed. A study coming out tomorrow in the journal Neuron explains how this scenario is possible today, with just a small dose of the brain chemical oxytocin. Oxytocin is a chemical associated with many of the "pleasurable" feelings you have, from basic trust, to love and orgasm. Researchers in Switzerland theorized that people playing social trust games might change their behaviors if given doses of oxytocin, since the chemical might artificially enhance their willingness to trust someone. Indeed, they were right: subjects dosed with Oxytocin were willing to trust people even after they'd been explicitly told that those people had behaved in untrustworthy ways in the past. People who had no...
By: Curious? Read
The NeuroScience of the Groove
2008-03-24 15:00:00 "Do you get the uncontrollable urge to shake your hips when James Brown's "I Feel Good" comes on the radio? Ever wonder if your brain is hardwired to do so? Columbia University neuroscientist Dave Sulzer (a.k.a. composer Dave Soldier) with colleague John Krakauer, co-director of the Motor Performance Laboratory at Columbia University, discuss the brain activity that makes us groove to the beat of music. Following the discussion, a premier performance, where percussionists using an electroencephalographs (EEG) instead of instruments conduct a live experiment of sound manipulation that explores brain activity. Lead by Dave Sulzer, the musicians will use an EEG as a ?prosthetic? instrument composing sounds in real time according to their brain waves." Read More...Digg this | Email to a friend | Reddit
By: FreeNYC
Neuroscience : on pourra peut-être bientôt lire dans les p
2008-03-06 03:28:00 Des chercheurs américains, en s'aventurant dans l'exploration du fonctionnement du cerveau, ont franchi un pas de plus vers ce rêve (ou cauchemar): l1 Vote(s)
By: JeQQ it
The Neuroscience of Sexual Addiction: Carnes Leads the Way
2008-03-03 00:00:00 Patrick Carnes and Team Raise the Bar for Addiction Medicine and Recovery: Brain Evidence Enters the Evaluation and Recovery Process
By: CorePsychBlog
The Neuroscience of Motherhood
2008-02-09 07:02:00 Forget the “decade of the brain”: it’s becoming evident that the modern fascination with neuroscience is not going away anytime this century. The fact is, thanks to the neurobiological revolution, nothing is what it used to be. Including motherhood. More: continued here If you like this post, buy an ad and drive visitors to ...
Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy - Neuroscience is conf
2008-01-28 13:35:00 I think your suggestion is, Can we do two things at once? Well, we?re of the view that we can walk and chew gum at the same time.?Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, June 2, 2004To do two things at once is to do neither.?Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.Full Article on Multitasking
Stem Cell Issue Resolved? ‘Fraid Not [Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience
2007-12-01 07:46:00 Time has a great article about the recent breakthrough in stem cell research (that certain types of skin cells can regain pluripotency)–specificall-y on whether this so-called resolution to the stem cell debate might help the GOP. Stem cell research has been the albatross around the neck of Republicans for a while now. Its getting harder and harder to feign outrage over the moral ambiguity over a clump of cells, when thousands of Americans (who, unlike blastocysts, vote) die of varied diseases that may benefit from stem cell therapy. Bush’s repeated vetoes of federal funding for embryonic stem cell (ESC) research flies in the face of popular support, and is a act of hypocrisy by an administration who complains America is losing its innovative edge. As someone interested in research to test potential ESC therapies (specifically for deafness and Alzheimer’s), I look on with sadness as the US falls farther and farther behind more progressive nations who welcome the o...
The Danger of Counseling
2007-11-29 12:00:00 It’s raining and it’s so dark that I have lights on in the afternoon. Weird in Hawaii! I drank hot jasmine tea and have a great working buzz going. I’m reminded of a story that I’ve been using a lot recently that was one of the inspirations for Men Are Easy: For a while, twenty-five years ago, ...
By: Men Are Easy
Post-Turkey Snacks:Theory of Moral Neuroscience, and more [Retrospectacle:
2007-11-26 16:21:00 Well I arrived back in Michigan after a deep-fried Thanksgiving in Florida, hope you all had an as opulently greasy and delicious a meal as I did. I have to share a funny anecdote from my drive to the airport yesterday. My parents drove me to the Orlando airport, and we had to drive through the now-infamous Polk County. On the highway, my dad pointed out this dog (a “hunten-dawg”) standing on top of what can only be described as a huge cage on wheels. We saw that the dog’s collar was tied to the top of the cage so he wouldn’t fall off. As I was voicing protest as to how mean that was (traffic was moving fast) somebody noticed what was *IN* the cage– three huge black wild hogs (”hawgs”) on one side and two more dawgs on the other side of a wire partition in the cage. The dogs were furiously barking at the hogs, which were barely fazed by being in a cage, or on a road, or next to the dogs. My sister says, “Only in the South.” Yup. ...
USA - Postdoctoral Position in Cellular and Systems Neuroscience
2007-10-11 12:00:00 Howard University College of Medicine, USA Postdoctoral Position in Cellular and Systems Neuroscience, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA A post-doctoral position is available immediately to study neurons and circuits of the olfactory and limbic system. We are looking for an independent and energetic scientist to join our fast growing laboratory to perform electrophysiological (patch-clamp) and imaging studies in olfactory bulb and amygdala slices from rats and mice. Experiments will examine mechanisms of neuronal interactions and signaling. Experience with electrophysiology is required. Initial appointment is for 1 year with possible renewal contingent on performance. (more…) Share This
By: free scholarship
Where Brain Cancer Hides
2007-10-10 03:56:00 Six months ago, I chatted about maintaining germinal niches in the adult brain, focusing on the protected spots near oxygen-rich blood vessels where neural progenitors reside, from which fresh neurons are born to replenish the neurocircuitry in adults. Well it just so happens that one of the prominent types of brain cancer, called glioblastomas, ...
By: Migrations
Neuroscience & Religious Fundamentalism
2007-10-07 22:58:00 “Could this same logic begin to offer some insight into why, today, some people seem unwilling to break free from certain beliefs or ideologies which are contrary to sound science, or worse, lead to terrible acts of inhumanity? Especially when those beliefs stem from an unconditional adherence to religious fundamentalism? While there have been many ...
By: Bannaga
Navigating by Sight During Bird Migration
2007-10-01 21:13:00 Neuronal tracing reveals that Cluster N receives input through the thalamofugal visual pathway. Schematic side view of the bird’s brain indicating the locations of tracer application. Retrograde tracer (BDA, shown in green) was iontophoretically applied into Cluster N (shown in magenta). Anterograde tracer (CtB, shown in red) was injected into the vitreous of the contralateral ...
By: Migrations
DISC1, Schizophrenia, and Neurogenesis
2007-10-01 15:13:00 I’d be remiss for not mentioning the recent paper on disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and adult neurogenesis in Cell. DISC1 was originally identified as a schizophrenia-susceptibility gene, with early work on its role in development. Not much is really known about it yet, but Duan et al. found that DISC1 downregulation led to accelerated ...
By: Migrations
The Neuroscience of Nirvana
2007-09-24 00:34:00 “The brain is set up in such a way as to have spiritual experiences and religious experiences,” said Andrew Newberg, a Philadelphia scientist who wrote the book “Why God Won’t Go Away.” Belief and faith, believers argue, are larger than the sum of their brain parts: “The brain is the hardware through which religion is experienced,” ...
By: Bannaga
Quick Neurotransmitter Refresher
2007-09-13 16:21:00 What are they and how do they work? Of course everyone reading this already knows :) But it helps to have a quick reminder to refresh our memory every once in a while. Having a basic understanding about these special chemicals in our brain and how they work helps us to understand memory, learning, behavior, addiction, how drugs work, and emotions. First we'll quickly go over some of the most important neurotransmitters. Acetylcholine: The first neurotransmitter to be identified. It allows nerve cells to communicate with each other. Noradrenalin (Norephinephrine): Acts as a stress hormone and affects the parts of our brain where attention and responding actions are controlled. It is what is behind the fight-or-flight response. Dopamine: Plays an important role in motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention, motor activity, cognition and learning. Endorphin: Helps modulate pain ("natural opiates"), cardiac, gastric and vascular function. Ser...
Free Access to a Variety of Neuroscience and Neurology Journals From Sage P
2007-09-07 13:18:00 Free access to: Journal of Biological Rhythms here (https://online.sagepub.com/cgi-/register?registration=FTN72663-) (requires registration)
Neuromatrix from Morphonix - A Neuroscience Game for Kids
2007-08-18 00:26:00 This looks like a great new game for teaching children how their own brains work. The game is called NeuroMatrix from Morphonix. In the game you play a secret agent infiltrating a top-secret neuroscience research facility. Morphonix released another game that teaches kids about their brains called Journey into the Brain. Here's a video trailer from Morphonix:
Using beams of light to activate sets of cells in the brain
2007-08-16 08:52:00 New experiments in light stimulation are helping scientists learn more about neural systems. Optical excitation using fiber optics can be used to stimulate specific areas of the brain and is an alternative to electrode stimulation. Electrode stimulation is unable to target single types of neurons and instead activates the firing of all neurons in one neural area. This new technology may allow us to uncover what roles specific neurons play. Light stimulation every 200 milliseconds generates electrical activity in an area of the brain associated with depression.
Seeing the Brain in a New Light
2007-08-16 08:51:00 Here is another article on using focused beams of light to stimulate neurons from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The illustration, which comes from a painting by Duke University student Yifan Xu, conceptually illustrates a beam of light shining into the olfactory bulb activating a mitral cell. HHMI investigator Michael Ehlers and colleagues report they have developed mice that express channelrhodopsin-2, a light-gated cation channel from the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, in neurons of the central nervous system. This enables researchers to trigger neural activity with high spatial and temporal precision—a powerful tool for those striving to map functional circuits in the brain. Researchers have devised a clever way to activate neurons in a living mouse by shining light on the surface of the animal's brain. The “light switch” that turns neurons on is actually a light-sensitive protein that is produced by algae. When this protein is genetical...
The Reason For Rosecea Solved [Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog]
2007-08-06 10:37:00 If you aren’t personally affected by the skin condition rosacea, you might not even know what it is. However, it affects over 45 million people worldwide, mostly fair-skinned people of European descent. At first, it is characterized by blotchy flushing on the face/neck regions, but eventually causes semi-permanent redness, dialation of blood vessels in the face, itchy eyes, burning sensations, and bumps (see below). Obviously, not pleasant. The reason underlying this condition has only just recently been pinpointed by Richard Gallo’s group, published this week in Nature Medicine. In a nutshell, patients with rosacea have higher than normal levels of a peptide called cathelicidin as well as stratum corneum tryptic enzymes. Most of the cathelicidin that rosacea patients possess is abnormal, the result of incorrect processing steps, and fundamentally different in structure than what normal people have. The stratum corneum tryptic (SCT) enzymes are responsible for the abno...
Film footage of classic neuroscience experiments [Neurophilosophy]
2007-08-06 10:30:00 Here are 5 short clips from a film called The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber, which was made at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the 1970s. One of the clips includes footage of Alan Hodgkin performing patch clamp experiments on the squid axon. Hodgkin, together with Andrew Huxley, used the patch clamp technique to elucidate the mechanism of the action potential. The pair were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1963 for their work. (Via Pharyngula/ Three-Toed Sloth/ Light Reading.) Read the comments on this post… Original post by http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/-ScienceblogsCombinedFeed/~3/141-202060/film_footage_of_classic_-neuros.php
Remote controlled brains: a neuroscience revolution
2007-07-24 12:34:00 N A laboratory in Germany, a tiny worm dances to flashes of light. A flash of yellow and it darts forward. A flash of blue and it jerks back. Yellow, forward, blue, back right on cue every time. read more Bookmark/Search this post with: delicious | digg | reddit | technorati
By: 1984comic.com
Northstar Neuroscience and Neuronetics Settle Dispute Over NEUROSTAR
2007-07-12 04:10:00 Plaintiff Northstar Neuroscience, Inc., and defendant Neuronetics, Inc., appear to have settled their trademark dispute over the mark NEUROSTAR. This is based on the Stipulation of Dismissal the parties jointly filed in the Western District today. Northstar filed its complaint against Neuronetics on March 7, alleging trademark infringement, false designation of origin, cancellation of trademark registration, and common law infringement and unfair competition. The dispute arose out of Neuronetics’ use of the marks NEUROSTAR, NEUROSTAR TMS THERAPY, NEUROSTAR and Design, and NEUROSTAR TMS THERAPY and Design in connection with medical devices used to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders. Northstar had alleged those marks infringed Northstar’s prior rights to NORTHSTAR NEUROSCIENCE, which Northstar also uses in connection with neurostimulation therapies for people suffering from stroke and other neurological diseases and disorders.Terms of the apparent ...
Sad News [Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog]
2007-07-05 15:40:00 I heard this morning that my grandfather died in his sleep last night. He had certainly lived a long life and had had the opportunity to travel across the country with my grandmother in their RV, for the past 15 years or so. Their pet projects involved Habitat for Humanity-type volunteering on various buildings, and they traveled from place to place looking to help where they were needed. Also about 15 years ago, my grandfather began experiencing heart problems and had a pacemaker installed. While he never tried to let it slow him down, eventually the years caught up with him and the last few weeks he’s had several serious bouts of pneumonia. Its hard to describe how I feel, as this is the first time I’ve ever lost a close family member. I suppose “mortal” would sum it up well. Anyway, sometimes life surprises you. I was standing on the deck behind my house which looks over some woods when i saw a mother and baby deer tentatively step out and begin eating th...
Free Books on Neuroscience,Neuroanatomy ,Neurophysiology,Psychiatry
2007-06-30 22:00:00 Psychiatric Diagnosis and ClassificationBook DescriptionThis book provides an overview of the strengths and limitations of the currently available systems for the diagnosis and classification of mental disorders, in particular the DSM-IV and the ICD-10, and of the prospects for future developments.Download Textbook of Biological Psychiatry Textbook of Biological Psychiatry - Jaak PankseppBook DescriptionA Textbook of Biological Psychiatry integrates the basic science concerning brain mechanisms of psychiatric disorders alongside surveys of present standard clinical treatment. Organized in a coherent and easy to follow structure, chapters expand across different levels of analysis, from basic mechanisms to clinical practice.Download High-Yield Neuroanatomy Book DescriptionNow in its Third Edition, this book extracts the most important information on neuroanatomy and presents it in a concise, uncluttered fashion to prepare students for the USMLE. High-Yieldâ„¢ means exactly tha...
Metabolic Moments: 101 Nutrition and Neuroscience at CorePsychPodcast
2007-06-23 00:00:00 At CorePsych we often find in the first visit that clients have had years of trying different meds and "nothing seems to work right." Three basic reasons that happens:
By: CorePsychBlog
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