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- July 27, 2011
- 03:27 AM
- 739 views
Brain Connectivity, Or Head Movement?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
"It's pretty painless. Basically you just need to lie there and make sure you don't move your head".This is what I say to all the girls... who are taking part in my fMRI studies. Head movement is a big problem in fMRI. If your head moves, your brain moves and all fMRI analysis assumes that the brain is perfectly still. Although head movement correction is now a standard part of any analysis software, it's not perfect.It may be a particular problem in functional connectivity studies, which attemp........ Read more »
Van Dijk, K., Sabuncu, M., & Buckner, R. (2011) The Influence of Head Motion on Intrinsic Functional Connectivity MRI. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.044
- July 22, 2011
- 11:54 AM
- 761 views
New Antidepressant - Old Tricks
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
The past decade has been a bad one for antidepressant manufacturers. Quite apart from all the bad press these drugs have been getting lately, there's been a remarkable lack of new antidepressants making it to the market. The only really novel drug to hit the shelves since 2000 has been agomelatine. There were a couple of others that were just minor variants on old molecules, but that's it.This makes "Lu AA21004" rather special. It's a new antidepressant currently in development and by all acco........ Read more »
Alvarez E, Perez V, Dragheim M, Loft H, & Artigas F. (2011) A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, active reference study of Lu AA21004 in patients with major depressive disorder. The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology / official scientific journal of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP), 1-12. PMID: 21767441
- July 20, 2011
- 04:02 AM
- 924 views
Blindsight and Consciousness In The Brain
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A new paper claims to show the neural activity associated with consciously seeing something: Awareness-related activity in prefrontal and parietal cortices in blindsight reflects more than superior visual performance. You might think it would be easy to find the neural correlates of seeing stuff. Just pop someone in the scanner and show them a picture.However, it's not that simple, because that wouldn't tell you which brain activations were associated with concious awareness........ Read more »
Persaud, N., Davidson, M., Maniscalco, B., Mobbs, D., Passingham, R., Cowey, A., & Lau, H. (2011) Awareness-related activity in prefrontal and parietal cortices in blindsight reflects more than superior visual performance. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.081
- July 15, 2011
- 04:04 AM
- 800 views
Violent Brains In The Supreme Court
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Back in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Californian law banning the sale of violent videogames to children was unconstitutional because it violated the right to free speech.However, the ruling wasn't unanimous. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a dissenting opinion. Unfortunately, it contains a whopping piece of bad neuroscience. The ruling is here. Thanks to the Law & Neuroscience Blog for noticing this.Breyer says (on page 13 of his bit)Cutting-edge neuroscience has shown that “vir........ Read more »
Weber, R., Ritterfeld, U., & Mathiak, K. (2006) Does Playing Violent Video Games Induce Aggression? Empirical Evidence of a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. Media Psychology, 8(1), 39-60. DOI: 10.1207/S1532785XMEP0801_4
- July 14, 2011
- 05:13 AM
- 804 views
New Brain Cells: Torrent, or Trickle?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
An important paper just out asks, Could adult hippocampal neurogenesis be relevant for human behavior?Neuroscientists, and the media, are very excited by hippocampal neurogenesis - the ongoing creation of new neurons in an area called the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. This is because it was thought, for a long time, that no new neurons were created in the adult brain. It turned out that this was wrong.There's lots of exciting suggestive evidence that the process is involved in learning and m........ Read more »
Snyder JS, & Cameron HA. (2011) Could adult hippocampal neurogenesis be relevant for human behavior?. Behavioural brain research. PMID: 21736900
- July 13, 2011
- 03:56 AM
- 834 views
The Brain Is Not Made of DNA
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A new paper claims to have found A novel functional brain imaging endophenotype of autism.They used fMRI to show that the brains of teenagers with autism showed no activation differences to looking at smiling happy faces, or afraid faces, compared to unemotional ones. In teens without autism, there was strong activation in many emotional and face-related brain regions. The unaffected brothers and sisters of the autistic people showed intermediate effects.This is a fine study. The finding that si........ Read more »
Spencer, M., Holt, R., Chura, L., Suckling, J., Calder, A., Bullmore, E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2011) A novel functional brain imaging endophenotype of autism: the neural response to facial expression of emotion. Translational Psychiatry, 1(7). DOI: 10.1038/tp.2011.18
- July 9, 2011
- 12:23 PM
- 875 views
Depression: From Treatment to Diagnosis?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
In theory, medicine works like this. You get some signs or symptoms. You go to the doctor, and depending on those, you get a diagnosis. Your doctor decides on the best available treatment on that basis.The logic of this system depends upon the sequence. A diagnosis is meant to be an objective statement about the nature of your illness; treatments (if any) come afterwards. It would be odd if the treatments on offer influenced what diagnosis you got.An interesting paper just out suggests that exac........ Read more »
Chen SY, & Toh S. (2011) National trends in prescribing antidepressants before and after an FDA advisory on suicidality risk in youths. Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), 62(7), 727-33. PMID: 21724784
- July 7, 2011
- 02:52 AM
- 850 views
The Partly Asleep Brain
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Some animals - such as dolphins and whales - are able to "sleep with half their brain". One side of the brain goes into sleep-mode activity while the other remains awake.But a remarkable new study has revealed that something similar may happen in humans as well - every night.The research used a combination of scalp EEG, and electrodes planted inside the brain, to record brain activity from 5 people undergoing surgery to help cure severe epilepsy. The subjects were then allowed to go to sleep for........ Read more »
Nobili L, Ferrara M, Moroni F, De Gennaro L, Russo GL, Campus C, Cardinale F, & De Carli F. (2011) Dissociated wake-like and sleep-like electro-cortical activity during sleep. NeuroImage. PMID: 21718789
- July 6, 2011
- 03:29 AM
- 803 views
Autism Isn't Very Genetic...Or Is It?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
The environment is more important than genetics in setting the risk for autism, according to a new study that's got the media in a tizzy.The paper, which is free, is here: Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors Among Twin Pairs With AutismIt's a twin study, and like all such research, it aims to estimate heritability, the proportion of the variability in autism risk caused by straightforward genetic effects. A heritability of 0% means no genetics and 100% means purely genetic. No........ Read more »
Joachim Hallmayer, et al. (2011) Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors Among Twin Pairs With Autism. Archives of General Psychiatry. info:/
- July 4, 2011
- 06:06 PM
- 838 views
Gamma Waves: The Brain's Clock, Or Neural Noise?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Gamma waves are very hot at the moment.Gamma band activity is a term for electrical oscillations recorded from the brain that have a frequency of over 25 Hz. In most brains, a peak frequency of about 40 Hz is seen. This makes gamma waves the fastest brain waves.If you believe some recent claims, gamma waves are the answer to all the mysteries of life and the universe. They're said to underlie the symptoms of schizophrenia and autism, and they've been invoked to answer deep questions such as the ........ Read more »
Burns SP, Xing D, & Shapley RM. (2011) Is gamma-band activity in the local field potential of v1 cortex a "clock" or filtered noise?. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(26), 9658-64. PMID: 21715631
- July 3, 2011
- 04:03 AM
- 800 views
The NeuROFLscience of Jokes
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A new paper in the Journal of Neuroscience investigates the neural basis of humour: Why Clowns Taste Funny.The authors note that some things are funny because of ambiguous words. For example:Q: Why don’t cannibals eat clowns?A: Because they taste funny!Previous studies, apparently, have shown that these kinds of jokes lead to activation in the lIFG (left inferior frontal gyrus), although it's also involved in processing ambiguity that's not funny, and indeed, language in general.In this study ........ Read more »
Bekinschtein TA, Davis MH, Rodd JM, & Owen AM. (2011) Why Clowns Taste Funny: The Relationship between Humor and Semantic Ambiguity. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(26), 9665-71. PMID: 21715632
- June 29, 2011
- 05:08 AM
- 701 views
Eagle-Eyed Autism? No.
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
An interesting and refreshing paper from Simon Baron-Cohen's autism group from Cambridge. The results themselves are pretty boring - they found that people with autism have normal vision.But the story behind it is rather spicy.Back in 2009, a Cambridge group - different authors, but led by "SBC", published a report claiming that people with autism have exceptionally acute vision. Their average visual acuity was claimed to be 2.8On this scale, 1.0 is defined as normal, and a sharp-eyed young adul........ Read more »
Tavassoli T, Latham K, Bach M, Dakin SC, & Baron-Cohen S. (2011) Psychophysical measures of visual acuity in autism spectrum conditions. Vision research. PMID: 21704058
- June 28, 2011
- 03:15 AM
- 678 views
Machine-Readable Psychiatry
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
The idea of trawling the internet to discover what people think about medications is a fascinating one and I've covered some attempts to do this in the past, but it's not easy. And there's something worrying about where it could lead.A new paper aims to trawl medical records to work out how well depressed patients responded to treatment. The authors used Natural Language Processing or NLP (not that NLP) to interpret electronic medical records from over 5,000 patients treated at hospitals in New ........ Read more »
Perlis RH, Iosifescu DV, Castro VM, Murphy SN, Gainer VS, Minnier J, Cai T, Goryachev S, Zeng Q, Gallagher PJ.... (2011) Using electronic medical records to enable large-scale studies in psychiatry: treatment resistant depression as a model. Psychological medicine, 1-10. PMID: 21682950
- June 21, 2011
- 04:24 AM
- 829 views
Autism In The I.T. Crowd
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Is autism more common in Silicon Valley?A new study from Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues asked pretty much this question, although rather than California, they looked at Eindhoven in Holland. Eindhoven is the tech hub of the Netherlands:This region contains the Eindhoven University of Technology, as well as the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, where IT and technology companies such as Philips, ASML, IBM and ATOS Origin are based... 30% of jobs in Eindhoven are now in technology or ICT, in Haarlem an........ Read more »
Roelfsema MT, Hoekstra RA, Allison C, Wheelwright S, Brayne C, Matthews FE, & Baron-Cohen S. (2011) Are Autism Spectrum Conditions More Prevalent in an Information-Technology Region? A School-Based Study of Three Regions in the Netherlands. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. PMID: 21681590
- June 17, 2011
- 03:27 AM
- 842 views
Bipolar Kids: You Read It Here First
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Last year, I discussed the controvery over the proposed new childhood syndrome of "Temper Disregulation Disorder with Dysphoria" (TDDD). It may be included in the upcoming revision of the psychiatric bible, DSM-V.Back then, I said:TDDD has been proposed in order to reduce the number of children being diagnosed with pediatric bipolar disorder... many people agree that pediatric bipolar is being over-diagnosed.So we can all sympathize with the sentiment behind TDDD - but this is fighting fire wit........ Read more »
Van Meter AR, Moreira AL, & Youngstrom EA. (2011) Meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies of pediatric bipolar disorder. The Journal of clinical psychiatry. PMID: 21672501
Axelson DA, Birmaher B, Findling RL, Fristad MA, Kowatch RA, Youngstrom EA, Arnold EL, Goldstein BI, Goldstein TR, Chang KD.... (2011) Concerns regarding the inclusion of temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria in the DSM-V. The Journal of clinical psychiatry. PMID: 21672494
- June 16, 2011
- 03:43 AM
- 824 views
Neuroplasticity Revisited
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A fascinating case report details a remarkable recovery from serious brain injury: Characterization of recovery and neuropsychological consequences of orbitofrontal lesion.The patient "M. S." was a previously healthy 29 year old Israeli graduate student who suffered injuries in a terrorist attack. As the MRI scans above show, she lost large parts of her orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, although the left side was only partially affected. She also lost her right eye.These a........ Read more »
Fisher T, Shamay-Tsoory SG, Eran A, & Aharon-Peretz J. (2011) Characterization of recovery and neuropsychological consequences of orbitofrontal lesion: A case study. Neurocase, 17(3), 285-93. PMID: 21667397
- June 14, 2011
- 03:56 AM
- 927 views
Consciousness? FFS...
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
An interesting paper on the neurobiology of conscious awareness: Unconscious High-Level Information Processing.The authors propose that consciousness may be associated, not with activation in any given area of the brain, but with recurrent information processing between areas, a kind of neural ping-pong.When presented with sensory information, say the sight of an object, signals travel up through the brain from "primary" sensory areas to "higher" areas associated with more complicated proces........ Read more »
van Gaal S, & Lamme VA. (2011) Unconscious High-Level Information Processing: Implication for Neurobiological Theories of Consciousness. The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry. PMID: 21628675
- June 11, 2011
- 01:20 PM
- 445 views
Pharmaceuticals And Violence
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
A French study reveals which medications are most often associated with violence and aggression: Prescribed drugs and violence.The authors trawled the French records of drug side effects from 1985 to 2008. By law, doctors in France must report any adverse event which is either serious, or unexpected, to the authorities.They found a total of 540 reports mentioning "violence", but only 56 of these were clear-cut incidents of physical aggression towards others. Suicide and self-harm were not includ........ Read more »
Rouve N, Bagheri H, Telmon N, Pathak A, Franchitto N, Schmitt L, Rougé D, Lapeyre-Mestre M, Montastruc JL, & the French Association of Regional PharmacoVigilance Centres. (2011) Prescribed drugs and violence: a case/noncase study in the French PharmacoVigilance Database. European journal of clinical pharmacology. PMID: 21655992
- June 10, 2011
- 03:13 AM
- 432 views
Do Pigs Get Autism?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
What happens to a pig if it has a gene for autism?There has been lots of research on mice who carry the same genes associated with autism in humans. Rats and recently monkeys have been studied as well. But the possibility of autistic pigs has been strangely neglected by science.A new paper might just change that: Characterization of porcine autism susceptibility candidate 2 as a candidate gene for the number of corpora lutea in pigs. The authors found that, in female pigs, variation in a certain........ Read more »
Sato S, Hayashi T, & Kobayashi E. (2011) Characterization of porcine autism susceptibility candidate 2 as a candidate gene for the number of corpora lutea in pigs. Animal reproduction science. PMID: 21641132
- June 7, 2011
- 11:49 AM
- 830 views
Britain's Not Getting More Mentally Ill
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
There's a widespread belief that mental illness is getting more common, or that it has got more common in recent years.A new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry says: no, it's not. They looked at the UK APMS mental health surveys, which were done in 1993, 2000 and 2007. Long-time readers will remember these.The authors of the new paper analyzed the data by birth cohort, i.e. when you were born, and by age at the time of the survey. If mental illness were rising, you'd predict that people ........ Read more »
Spiers N, Bebbington P, McManus S, Brugha TS, Jenkins R, & Meltzer H. (2011) Age and birth cohort differences in the prevalence of common mental disorder in England: National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys 1993-2007. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 479-84. PMID: 21628710
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