328 posts · 199,610 views
Brain Blogger covers topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives. It reviews the latest news and stories related to neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology. It serves as a focal point for attracting new minds beyond the science of the mind-and-brain and into the biopsychosocial model.
Brain Blogger
328 posts
Sort by Latest Post, Most Popular
View by Condensed, Full
- September 1, 2008
- 01:51 PM
- 1,057 views
Laughter is the Best - and Possibly Oldest - Medicine
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
We have all heard the old adage before: laughter is the best medicine. But, it might just be among the oldest medicine. In a report published by the University of Wolverhampton, and commissioned by the British television channel Dave, the world’s oldest joke can be traced back to 1900 BC. Not surprisingly, the list of [...]... Read more »
M. P. Bennett. (2006) Humor and Laughter may Influence Health. I. History and Background. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 3(1), 61-63. DOI: 10.1093/ecam/nek015
M. P. Bennett, & C. Lengacher. (2007) Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: III. Laughter and Health Outcomes. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 5(1), 37-40. DOI: 10.1093/ecam/nem041
- November 2, 2008
- 09:09 AM
- 1,003 views
Obama and McCain - Friend or Foe of Science?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
In the last presidential debate there were only a few zingers. One came from John McCain who, after Barack Obama compared him to G. W. Bush, emphatically stated, “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
Since the debate Obama’s running mate, Joe Bidden, responded to McCain’s implications with, [...]... Read more »
D. Kamerow. (2008) Politics and science: a cautionary tale for the presidential candidates. BMJ, 337(oct14 4). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a2093
- November 17, 2008
- 10:21 AM
- 990 views
School Bullies - Is the Amygdala to Blame?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Countless studies have focused on the subject of bullying, and the latest even suggest an interesting paradox: is bullying caused by a lack of empathy for others or, surprisingly, by too much empathy? Because, although all of us react in some way to seeing others in pain, we don’t all react in the same way. [...]... Read more »
J DECETY, K MICHALSKA, Y AKITSUKI, & B LAHEY. (2008) Atypical empathic responses in adolescents with aggressive conduct disorder: A functional MRI investigation. Biological Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.09.004
- November 14, 2008
- 10:18 AM
- 972 views
Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Hand Motor Skills
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Since its discovery many years ago, harnessing the power of electricity has been an ongoing endeavor. Benjamin Franklin’s eighteenth century experiments with electricity ushered in the evolution of the modern battery. In the middle of the last century, electricity was introduced as a remedy for difficult psychiatric disorders. “Shock treatment,” as it was known then, [...]... Read more »
Bradley W Vines, Carlo Cerruti, & Gottfried Schlaug. (2008) Dual-hemisphere tDCS facilitates greater improvements for healthy subjects' non-dominant hand compared to uni-hemisphere stimulation. BMC Neuroscience, 9(1), 103. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-9-103
- October 1, 2008
- 11:37 AM
- 964 views
Sleep Deprivation, Behavior, and the Young
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
These days, sleep is often seen as an expendable resource. With so much work to do and limited time to accomplish tasks, going to sleep later and waking up earlier seems so natural. For some people, lack of sleep was used to prove toughness and stamina. It was common for physician trainees to boast (in [...]... Read more »
S. Okie. (2007) An Elusive Balance -- Residents' Work Hours and the Continuity of Care. New England Journal of Medicine, 356(26), 2665-2667. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp078085
J. John Mann. (2003) Neurobiology of suicidal behaviour. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(10), 819-828. DOI: 10.1038/nrn1220
- December 23, 2008
- 11:34 AM
- 955 views
Look Me in the Eyes - From Eye Contact to “Fear Blindness”
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Eye contact is commonly considered a sign of self-confidence and a means for emotional connection. In contrast, a person who averts their gaze is often considered shy, fearful, embarrassed or lying. Many a self-help manual has touted the power of eye contact, with direct eye contact suggested to help one quickly gain an individual’s attention, [...]... Read more »
MARK R. DADDS, YASMEEN EL MASRY, SUBODHA WIMALAWEERA, & ADAM J. GUASTELLA. (2008) Reduced Eye Gaze Explains "Fear Blindness" in Childhood Psychopathic Traits. Journal of the American Academy of Child , 47(4), 455-463. DOI: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31816407f1
Kim M Dalton, Brendon M Nacewicz, Tom Johnstone, Hillary S Schaefer, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, H H Goldsmith, Andrew L Alexander, & Richard J Davidson. (2005) Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/nn1421
N GEORGE, & L CONTY. (2008) Facing the gaze of others. Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology, 38(3), 197-207. DOI: 10.1016/j.neucli.2008.03.001
- September 8, 2008
- 11:30 PM
- 948 views
Planning for Postnatal Depression
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Depression is a subtle thing. It can easily take on the disguise of other illnesses or temporary conditions.
Tired? Who isn’t? Sad? Well, the world can be depressing. Worried? Yeah, that’s why we all have grey hairs. Can’t sleep well? Join the club. Aren’t hungry? You’re just too busy. Unfocused? You just need to simplify. Irritable? [...]... Read more »
R. V Reed. (2008) Don't forget children and fathers. BMJ, 337(aug27 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1414
- December 13, 2008
- 09:27 AM
- 941 views
New Option for the Management of Acute Pain
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Acute pain affects more than 25 million Americans each year, and is one of the primary reasons that people seek medical care. Acute pain may result from injury, trauma, surgery, or medical procedures, and can have significant emotional, cognitive, and sensory consequences. Though acute pain, by definition, is short-lived, it can have significant and detrimental [...]... Read more »
Regina Kleinert, Claudia Lange, Achim Steup, Peter Black, Jutta Goldberg, & Paul Desjardins. (2008) Single Dose Analgesic Efficacy of Tapentadol in Postsurgical Dental Pain: The Results of a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study. Anesthesia , 107(6), 2048-2055. DOI: 10.1213/ane.0b013e31818881ca
Jens-Ulrich Stegmann, Horst Weber, Achim Steup, Akiko Okamoto, David Upmalis, & Stephen Daniels. (2008) The efficacy and tolerability of multiple-dose tapentadol immediate release for the relief of acute pain following orthopedic (bunionectomy) surgery. Current Medical Research and Opinion, 24(11), 3185-3196. DOI: 10.1185/03007990802448056
- November 20, 2008
- 11:50 AM
- 932 views
Are We Worshipping Celebrities or Heroes?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The American historian and educator Daniel Boorstin once wrote, “Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.”
We have just experienced an historic presidential campaign of unprecedented proportions, our economy is in peril, our military struggles to fight two wars, and our health care system is facing impending collapse. With all of these pressing issues weighing on the [...]... Read more »
M DALTON, J SARGENT, M BEACH, L TITUSERNSTOFF, J GIBSON, M AHRENS, J TICKLE, & T HEATHERTON. (2003) Effect of viewing smoking in movies on adolescent smoking initiation: a cohort study. The Lancet, 362(9380), 281-285. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13970-0
John Maltby, Liza Day, Lynn E. McCutcheon, Raphael Gillett, James Houran, & Diane D. Ashe. (2004) Personality and coping: A context for examining celebrity worship and mental health. British Journal of Psychology, 95(4), 411-428. DOI: 10.1348/0007126042369794
JOHN MALTBY, JAMES HOURAN, & LYNN E. MCCUTCHEON. (2003) A CLINICAL INTERPRETATION OF ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED WITH CELEBRITY WORSHIP. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 191(1), 25-29. DOI: 10.1097/00005053-200301000-00005
Lynn E. McCutcheon, Rense Lange, & James Houran. (2002) Conceptualization and measurement of celebrity worship. British Journal of Psychology, 93(1), 67-87. DOI: 10.1348/000712602162454
Adrian C. North, Victoria Bland, & Nicky Ellis. (2005) Distinguishing heroes from celebrities. British Journal of Psychology, 96(1), 39-52. DOI: 10.1348/000712604X15473
John Maltby, David C. Giles, Louise Barber, & Lynn E. McCutcheon. (2005) Intense-personal celebrity worship and body image: Evidence of a link among female adolescents. British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(1), 17-32. DOI: 10.1348/135910704X15257
- September 6, 2008
- 12:30 PM
- 927 views
A Baby’s Smile - Mom’s Natural High
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Many people, at one time or another, have witnessed this ritual: a beaming new mother enters with baby pictures. A group of genuinely excited women gather around the new mother admiring the pictures as they are passed around. The new mother is oblivious to the fact that she has showed dozens of pictures at different [...]... Read more »
L. Strathearn, J. Li, P. Fonagy, & P. R. Montague. (2008) What's in a Smile? Maternal Brain Responses to Infant Facial Cues. PEDIATRICS, 122(1), 40-51. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2007-1566
- October 14, 2008
- 07:18 AM
- 917 views
Hope for Huntington’s Disease - Xenazine for Chorea
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a fatal, inherited neurodegenerative disease. It affects approximately 30,000 people in the United States, with another 200,000 at risk of developing the disease. There is currently no cure.
Hope is on the horizon, however, with the FDA’s approval of the first drug to treat HD in August of 2008. The drug, Xenazine [...]... Read more »
Huntington Study Group. (2006) Tetrabenazine as antichorea therapy in Huntington disease: A randomized controlled trial. Neurology, 66(3), 366-372. DOI: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000198586.85250.13
Aubeeluck A, & Brewer H. (2008) Huntington's disease. Part 2: treatment and management issues in juvenile HD. Br J Nurs, 17(4), 260-263. DOI: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000198586.85250.13
Andrea Williams, Sovan Sarkar, Paul Cuddon, Evangelia K Ttofi, Shinji Saiki, Farah H Siddiqi, Luca Jahreiss, Angeleen Fleming, Dean Pask, Paul Goldsmith.... (2008) Novel targets for Huntington's disease in an mTOR-independent autophagy pathway. Nature Chemical Biology, 4(5), 295-305. DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.79
Heitz F, La Rosa S, Gonzalez-Couto E, Gaviraghi G, & Terstappen GC. (2008) Drug discovery and development for Huntington's disease - an orphan indication with high medical need. IDrugs, 11(9), 653-660. DOI: 18763216
- September 18, 2008
- 07:04 PM
- 916 views
Water - How Much is Too Much?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
A few years ago, my friend encouraged her father to drink large amounts of water through hot and sultry summer afternoons in India in a bid to sustain hydration in him — with solely good intentions. The next year, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — which meant that his heart muscles were not pumping efficiently; [...]... Read more »
Irene Baldoni, Rosanna Cordiali, Mauro Jorini, Mohamad Maghnie, & Fernando M. de Benedictis. (2007) Case 1: An infant with water intoxication. Acta Paediatrica, 96(6), 926-927. DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00312.x
- November 27, 2008
- 09:07 AM
- 914 views
Should Doctors Engage in Racial Profiling?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The time was June 2000. Scientists with the Celera Genomics Corporation, in conjunction with the international Human Genome Project, announced that they had successfully derived the entire sequence of the human genome. Furthermore, they noted that humans share 99.9% of their genetic code with one another. This discovery served as the platform for the medical [...]... Read more »
P CARSON, S ZIESCHE, G JOHNSON, J COHN, & FORTHEVASODILATORHEARTFAILURE. (1999) Racial differences in response to therapy for heart failure: Analysis of the vasodilator-heart failure trials1, 2. Journal of Cardiac Failure, 5(3), 178-187. DOI: 10.1016/S1071-9164(99)90001-5
A. V. Chobanian. (2003) Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension, 42(6), 1206-1252. DOI: 10.1161/01.HYP.0000107251.49515.c2
- November 18, 2008
- 09:27 AM
- 913 views
Alcohol 101 - the Best Class on Campus
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Alcohol use by underage college students has increasingly grown as a large issue across the United States. Excessive, or binge drinking among college students is associated with a variety of negative consequences, such as a decrease in academic productivity, unwanted sexual encounters and an increase in violent behavior.
Many colleges have made an attempt to examine [...]... Read more »
John Clapp, & Audrey Shillington. (2001) ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTORS OF HEAVY EPISODIC DRINKING. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 27(2), 301-313. DOI: 10.1081/ADA-100103711
T OEI, & C JARDIM. (2007) Alcohol expectancies, drinking refusal self-efficacy and drinking behaviour in Asian and Australian students. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 87(2-3), 281-287. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.08.019
- October 7, 2008
- 07:57 PM
- 907 views
China’s Tainted Reputation
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Call me paranoid but I am careful about what I allow in my house. When I buy toys for my son I actually look to see where they are made. The same with clothing. And ditto for food items. Although I consider these actions quite sound, there is a kink when it comes to execution.
You [...]... Read more »
J. Parry. (2008) China's tainted infant formula sickens nearly 13 000 babies. BMJ, 337(sep24 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1802
J. H. Tanne. (2008) Efforts to reduce US trainees' hours were ineffective, study says. BMJ, 337(aug05 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1140
- March 28, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 906 views
Curry in a Hurry - The Health Benefits of Turmeric
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Over the past few decades, the emergence of India as an international superpower has been slow and steady. One of the main staples of Indian cooking, turmeric, has been getting a lot of press recently not for its flavoring prowess, but rather for its health benefits. Presented here is some of the current research regarding this amazing yellow spice.... Read more »
Mann, C., Neal, C., Garcea, G., Manson, M., Dennison, A., & Berry, D. (2009) Phytochemicals as potential chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents in hepatocarcinogenesis. European Journal of Cancer Prevention, 18(1), 13-25. DOI: 10.1097/CEJ.0b013e3282f0c090
- September 13, 2008
- 01:08 PM
- 891 views
George Huntington and the Disease Bearing His Name
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
George Huntington was the son and grandson of medical practitioners. He gave rise to a great interest in the origins of this disease which now bears his name.
At the age of 22, the year following his graduation from medical school at Columbia, George Huntington (1850-1916) made his contribution to medical research, publishing his report on [...]... Read more »
T Neylan. (2003) Neurodegenerative Disorders: George Huntington's Description of Hereditary Chorea. Journal of Neuropsychiatry, 15(1), 108-108. DOI: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.15.1.108
- September 13, 2008
- 01:42 AM
- 890 views
Physiological Effects of Alcohol Consumption
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Alcohol (when used commonly refers to ethanol) is consumed widely around the world for numerous reasons. Its properties have been both praised and demonized. In humans it generally acts as a depressant with, conversely, mild stimulating effects of some parts of the brain. At low levels of consumption alcohol has minimal effects on a person; [...]... Read more »
Annlia Paganini-Hill. (2001) Risk Factors for Parkinson’s Disease: The Leisure World Cohort Study. Neuroepidemiology, 20(2), 118-124. DOI: 10.1159/000054770
- August 22, 2008
- 12:09 PM
- 888 views
When It Comes to Health, Adults Shortchange Kids
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The problems of childhood obesity are not exclusive to American soil. Both the U.S. and many European countries face this crisis. Various solutions have been proposed and executed. Everything from promoting exercise to teaching children about the origin of their food to banning candy or sweets on school campuses.
Now the European Commission has put forth [...]... Read more »
R Watson. (2008) European Commission plans free fruit and vegetable scheme in schools. BMJ, 337(jul15 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a829
- September 16, 2008
- 11:09 PM
- 885 views
What Does Your iPod Say About You?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Right now, I have hundreds of songs on my mp3 player. I listen to everything from heavy metal when I run, to classical when I need to relax, to jazz when I am cooking. I listen to Broadway show tunes, movie soundtracks, and classic rock, depending on my mood. I also have tracks of nursery [...]... Read more »
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, & Adrian Furnham. (2007) Personality and music: Can traits explain how people use music in everyday life?. British Journal of Psychology, 98(2), 175-185. DOI: 10.1348/000712606X111177
Peter J. Rentfrow, & Samuel D. Gosling. (2003) The do re mi's of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6), 1236-1256. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.6.1236
Peter J. Rentfrow, & Samuel D. Gosling. (2006) Message in a Ballad. The Role of Music Preferences in Interpersonal Perception. Psychological Science, 17(3), 236-242. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01691.x
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
