Neuroscientist Raymond Tallis has a barn-storming and somewhat bad tempered article in The New Humanist where he rails against the increasing tendency to explain everything from beauty to crime in terms of brain function.He begins by criticising how neuroscience is now appearing as a handy 'neuro-' prefix to more and more areas of human society, leading to the likes of "neuro-jurisprudence, neuro
11 Vote(s)
November 13, 2009
Taking the neurotrash out
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October 20, 2009
First-time Internet Users Find Boost In Brain Function After Just One Week
Scientists have found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web. The findings suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults.
16 Vote(s)
16 Vote(s)
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September 14, 2009
Splintered sexuality as a window on the brain
Carl Zimmer has an interesting article in Discover Magazine on brain function and sex, one of the most neglected areas in contemporary neuroscience.We know scandalously little about the neuroscience of sex. For example, we know more about the what the brain does during hiccups than during orgasm and yet very little sex research is completed in comparison to studies on other areas of human life.Zi
9 Vote(s)
9 Vote(s)
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September 9, 2009
Trauma Alters Brain Function… So What?
According to a new paper in the prestigous journal PNAS, High-field MRI reveals an acute impact on brain function in survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China.The earthquake, you'll remember, happened on 12th May last year in central China. Over 60,000 people died. The authors of this paper took 44 earthquake survivors, and 32 control volunteers who had not experienced the disaster.The v
17 Vote(s)
17 Vote(s)
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September 3, 2009
Acute Impact On Brain Function In Earthquake Survivors
New research has found that the Wenchuan, China earthquake that occurred on 12 May 2008 had an acute impact on the brain function of physically healthy survivors and poses a risk to the mental health of these survivors. The results of the study, which was carried out by the Institute of Psychiatry in collaboration with colleagues from universities in China, the US and Liverpool, have been publish
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
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August 25, 2009
Learning reality in the first few months of life
RadioLab has just released an excellent brief podcast on how babies' experience of the world is quite different during the first months of life due to some startling differences in brain function that they rapidly lose.It's a discussion with developmental psychologist Charles Fernyhough who has pieced together the perceptual world of young children from studies on newborns.It's full of fascinatin
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
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July 23, 2009
Close Caregiver Relationship May Slow Alzheimer’s Decline
A particularly close relationship with caregivers may give people with Alzheimer's disease a marked edge over those without one in retaining mind and brain function over time. The beneficial effect of emotional intimacy that the researchers saw among participants was on par with some drugs used to treat the disease.
8 Vote(s)
8 Vote(s)
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July 17, 2009
New Research Shows: Neurofeedback Is An ‘Evidence-Based’ Treatment For ADHD
Neurofeedback - also called EEG Biofeedback - is a method used to train brain activity in order to normalize Brain function and treat psychiatric disorders. This treatment method has gained interest over the last 10 years, however the question whether this treatment should be regarded as an Evidence-Based treatment was unanswered until now.
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
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May 7, 2009
Spontaneous Activity Found In The Idling Brain
Researchers have uncovered new information about portions of the brain that spontaneously activate together when a person is at rest. The latest research demonstrates how the interactions of certain brain regions at rest become more distributed as a person ages. It is believed that an increased understanding of normal brain function will allow researchers to better characterize mental disorders s
13 Vote(s)
13 Vote(s)
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May 1, 2009
Extreme altitude climbs and the Sherpa brain
It's know well known that high altitude mountain climbing damages the brain and causes a marked reduction in mental functioning.I naively assumed this was true for everyone but I just found an intriguing 1996 study that compared brain function of lowland mountain climbers and Nepalese Sherpas after ascent to high altitude, which found that the Sherpas suffer few of these neurological problems.Are
13 Vote(s)
13 Vote(s)
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