All posts; Tags Include "Cognitive Neuroscience"
- June 4, 2014
- 10:12 AM
- 765 views
Types of Mathematics Learning Disorders
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Learning mathematics is a complex process that forms a key element in modern education.Significant mathematics learning difficulties emerge in 5 to 10 per cent of all elementary and secondary education students.Struggling to acquire skills in mathematics is more than a single deficit and appears to involve multiple cognitive skills.Giannis Karagiannakis and colleagures recently summarized what is known about mathematics learning disorders and proposed four subtypes. I will summarize these subtyp........ Read more »
Karagiannakis G, Baccaglini-Frank A, & Papadatos Y. (2014) Mathematical learning difficulties subtypes classification. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 57. PMID: 24574997
- June 3, 2014
- 11:14 AM
- 746 views
Executive Cognition in Autism Sprectrum Disorder
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Executive functions (EF) of the brain are processes used to make complex decisions and plans.Deficits in EF can produce significant impairment in the ability to successfully many daily life challenges.EF are felt to be primarily a reflection of workings of the frontal lobe although additional brain regions contribute this cognitive skill.Simonetta Panerai and colleagues from Italy recently examined the key components of EF in a group of children with autism sprectrum disorder (ASD). They adminis........ Read more »
Panerai S, Tasca D, Ferri R, Genitori D'Arrigo V, & Elia M. (2014) Executive Functions and Adaptive Behaviour in Autism Spectrum Disorders with and without Intellectual Disability. Psychiatry journal, 941809. PMID: 24829905
- June 2, 2014
- 02:41 PM
- 1,088 views
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Much like this posts namesake, the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind asked what if you could erase memories? Want to forget your ex, no problem. Better yet, what PTSD? I’m sure that […]... Read more »
Sadegh Nabavi, Rocky Fox, Christophe D. Proulx, John Y. Lin, Roger Y. Tsien, Roberto Malinow. (2014) Engineering a memory with LTD and LTP. Nature. info:/10.1038/nature13294
- May 29, 2014
- 09:51 PM
- 855 views
The neurobiological origins of pedophilia
by neurosci in Neuroscientifically Challenged
Although many within the scientific community believe that pedophilia has its origins in the brain, the neurobiological underpinnings of the disorder are still very unclear. It is hoped, however, that technologies that allow for the observation of brain activity in real-time, like positron-emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), will provide us with more information about potential abnormalities in the brains of pedophiles (for more abou........ Read more »
Ponseti, J., Granert, O., van Eimeren, T., Jansen, O., Wolff, S., Beier, K., Deuschl, G., Bosinski, H., & Siebner, H. (2014) Human face processing is tuned to sexual age preferences. Biology Letters, 10(5), 20140200-20140200. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0200
- May 29, 2014
- 10:45 AM
- 653 views
The Aging Political Brain: Hillary's Advantage
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
There has been significant public discussion on the topic of politicians running for office at an older age. I wanted to add a few comments to this discussion from a neuroscience perspective on the aging brain.I think there are three key elements in this topic. The first is pretty universal effect of age to produce a reduction in psychomotor speed. The graph above shows norms for the completion of the Trails B Test by age. This test involves connecting an alternating number/letter series of dots........ Read more »
Tombaugh, T. (2004) Trail Making Test A and B: Normative data stratified by age and education. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 19(2), 203-214. DOI: 10.1016/S0887-6177(03)00039-8
Ganguli, M., Dodge, H., Chen, P., Belle, S., & DeKosky, S. (2000) Ten-year incidence of dementia in a rural elderly US community population: The MoVIES Project. Neurology, 54(5), 1109-1116. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.54.5.1109
- May 29, 2014
- 06:16 AM
- 920 views
Think Before You Speak: The Mental Process
by RAZ Rebecca A. Zarate in United Academics
“The erroneous theory is: to speak is to understand. Tell that to Stephen Hawking” - Speech is one of the quickest and most efficient methods of communication, but not as easy for everyone to understand.... Read more »
Houde, J., & Nagarajan, S. (2011) Speech Production as State Feedback Control. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00082
Uecker, M., Zhang, S., Voit, D., Karaus, A., Merboldt, K., & Frahm, J. (2010) Real-time MRI at a resolution of 20 ms. NMR in Biomedicine, 23(8), 986-994. DOI: 10.1002/nbm.1585
- May 28, 2014
- 11:32 AM
- 790 views
Physical Abnormalities in Adults with Autism Spectrum
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a previous post, I reviewed a study of minor physical abnormalities in a group of children with autism.This study found that children with autism were more likely to show a variety of physical features including a gap between the large and second toe, facial asymmetry, a high arched palate and attached ear lobes.A more recent Swedish study has been published examining physical features of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).In this study, Irina Manouilenko and colleagues used a scale t........ Read more »
Manouilenko I, Eriksson JM, Humble MB, & Bejerot S. (2014) Minor physical anomalies in adults with autism spectrum disorder and healthy controls. Autism research and treatment, 743482. PMID: 24782925
- May 21, 2014
- 01:04 PM
- 693 views
Testing Boosts Memory: Brain Region Involvement
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Taking tests provides one method to assess the level of learning in a subject matter.Testing may also be an aid to improving memory and learning.Studies support periodic testing as a superior strategy to restudying learned material. Testing may promote learning by activating memory retrieval.The mechanism for the beneficial effects of testing on memory have received limited research attention.However, a recent fMRI study provides some insight into the specific brain regions involved in memory im........ Read more »
Liu XL, Liang P, Li K, & Reder LM. (2014) Uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying learning from tests. PloS one, 9(3). PMID: 24647122
- May 15, 2014
- 09:54 PM
- 1,117 views
Magic mushrooms and the amygdala
by neurosci in Neuroscientifically Challenged
People have been eating psychedelic mushrooms since ancient times. There are indications (although they are impossible to verify) that psychedelic mushrooms played an important role in cultures like the Mayan civilizations of South America thousands of years ago. Of course, the use of "magic" mushrooms has continued into modern times. In 1958, Albert Hofmann (the discoverer of LSD) isolated psilocybin as the active hallucinogenic compound in psychedelic mushrooms.Recently,........ Read more »
Kraehenmann, R., Preller, K., Scheidegger, M., Pokorny, T., Bosch, O., Seifritz, E., & Vollenweider, F. (2014) Psilocybin-Induced Decrease in Amygdala Reactivity Correlates with Enhanced Positive Mood in Healthy Volunteers. Biological Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.04.010
- May 13, 2014
- 11:05 AM
- 584 views
Sleep Manipulation to Enhance Cognition
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In the next series of posts, I will focus on research related to learning, learning disabilities and education.Sleep is known to play a key role in consolidation of memories and and learning.However, there has been relatively little discussion of how the effect of sleep on learning might be enhanced.Susanne Diekelmann reviewed this issue in a recent manuscript published in the journal Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.In this review, two theories for sleep enhancement of memories are proposed:Ac........ Read more »
Diekelmann, S. (2014) Sleep for cognitive enhancement. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00046
- May 12, 2014
- 12:59 AM
- 701 views
The Seductive Allure of Spintronics™ Neuroimaging mock mind reading scanner
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Spintronics™ Neuroimaging mock scanner used in experiment by Ali, Lifshitz & Raz (2014)A new study has tricked undergraduates into believing that “Spintronics,” a whimsical new “mind reading” technology constructed using an old hair dryer, was able to accurately read their thoughts (Ali et al., 2014). This held even for students enrolled in a class on the pros and cons of neuroimaging methods taught by the senior author (McGill Professor Amir Raz). The paper coined the phrase........ Read more »
Sabrina Ali, Michael Lifshitz, and Amir Raz. (2014) Empirical Neuroenchantment: From Reading Minds to Thinking Critically. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. info:/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00357
- May 11, 2014
- 05:52 AM
- 1,170 views
Changing the landscape of psychiatric research
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
NIMH has expressed dissatisfaction with psychiatric categories as embodied in DSM5 and is focused on a new approach that aims to understand mental illnesses in terms of genes and neural circuits. I have reservations about whether this approach will live up to expectations.... Read more »
McLaren, N. (2011) Cells, Circuits, and Syndromes: A Critical Commentary on the NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 13(3), 229-236. DOI: 10.1891/1559-4343.13.3.229
- May 7, 2014
- 08:05 AM
- 1,010 views
Everybody Wants To Be Cool
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Capsaicin activates TRPV1 ion channels. Why do we care? Because that’s makes our mouth burn when we eat spicy food. But TRPV1 also senses noxious heat. On the other end of the scale, there are also ion channels for sensing cool and cold temperatures. But the TRPM8 cool receptor is also activated by menthol. This is much of the reason for menthol being added to cigarettes.
New research shows that menthol in cigarettes adds to the cytotoxicity of tobacco smoke, while menthol alone causes ........ Read more »
Eccles R, Du-Plessis L, Dommels Y, & Wilkinson JE. (2013) Cold pleasure. Why we like ice drinks, ice-lollies and ice cream. Appetite, 357-60. PMID: 24060271
Noriyasu A, Konishi T, Mochizuki S, Sakurai K, Tanaike Y, Matsuyama K, Uezu K, & Kawano T. (2013) Menthol-enhanced cytotoxicity of cigarette smoke demonstrated in two bioassay models. Tobacco induced diseases, 11(1), 18. PMID: 24001273
Brody AL, Mukhin AG, La Charite J, Ta K, Farahi J, Sugar CA, Mamoun MS, Vellios E, Archie M, Kozman M.... (2013) Up-regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in menthol cigarette smokers. The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology / official scientific journal of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP), 16(5), 957-66. PMID: 23171716
Ashoor A, Nordman JC, Veltri D, Yang KH, Al Kury L, Shuba Y, Mahgoub M, Howarth FC, Sadek B, Shehu A.... (2013) Menthol binding and inhibition of α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. PloS one, 8(7). PMID: 23935840
- May 1, 2014
- 01:22 PM
- 759 views
Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury
by Vivek Misra in Uberbrain Research Frontier
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is brain injury resulting from the application of an external physical force to the brain, including acceleration/deceleration and/or blast-related forces , that produce immediately apparent physiological disruption of brain function and/or structure, usually evidenced by an alteration of mental state and/or sensorimotor impairments, that result in at least transient functional disability. This definition of TBI excludes brain injuries due to perinatal trauma, hypoxi........ Read more »
Roozenbeek B, Maas AI, & Menon DK. (2013) Changing patterns in the epidemiology of traumatic brain injury. Nature reviews. Neurology, 9(4), 231-6. PMID: 23443846
Silver JM, McAllister TW, & Arciniegas DB. (2009) Depression and cognitive complaints following mild traumatic brain injury. The American journal of psychiatry, 166(6), 653-61. PMID: 19487401
Coronado VG, Xu L, Basavaraju SV, McGuire LC, Wald MM, Faul MD, Guzman BR, Hemphill JD, & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2011) Surveillance for traumatic brain injury-related deaths--United States, 1997-2007. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries (Washington, D.C. : 2002), 60(5), 1-32. PMID: 21544045
- April 21, 2014
- 04:08 AM
- 678 views
The Life and Brain of H.M.
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Dr. Suzanne Corkin on H.M.One of the highlights of this year's Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting was Dr. Corkin's keynote address about Henry Molaison the person and his lasting contribution to the neurobiology of memory. In her more timely recap of the meeting, Daisy Yuhas included this moving quote from H.M., who could not remember meeting Corkin even after decades of testing:Corkin also discussed the man behind the initials, describing his gentle and remarkably upbeat disposition, giv........ Read more »
Annese, J., Schenker-Ahmed, N., Bartsch, H., Maechler, P., Sheh, C., Thomas, N., Kayano, J., Ghatan, A., Bresler, N., Frosch, M.... (2014) Postmortem examination of patient H.M.’s brain based on histological sectioning and digital 3D reconstruction. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4122
- April 19, 2014
- 02:54 AM
- 562 views
Brain oscillations bind smell to memory
by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia
Image credit: Pixar As a foodie, one scene in Pixar’s Ratatouille particularly resonated with me: Anton Ego, the acerbic food critic, takes one bite out...... Read more »
Igarashi KM, Lu L, Colgin LL, Moser MB, & Moser EI. (2014) Coordination of entorhinal-hippocampal ensemble activity during associative learning. Nature. PMID: 24739966
- April 18, 2014
- 01:07 PM
- 684 views
Overcomming Social Phobia with CBT and Pharmacotherapy
by Vivek Misra in Uberbrain Research Frontier
photo credit: ParadigmMalibu.comSocial phobia, a type of anxiety disorder, is characterized by persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others (1). The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating. Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a situationally bou........ Read more »
Stein MB, Seedat S, & Gelernter J. (2006) Serotonin transporter gene promoter polymorphism predicts SSRI response in generalized social anxiety disorder. Psychopharmacology, 187(1), 68-72. PMID: 16525856
Domschke K, Stevens S, Beck B, Baffa A, Hohoff C, Deckert J, & Gerlach AL. (2009) Blushing propensity in social anxiety disorder: influence of serotonin transporter gene variation. Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996), 116(6), 663-6. PMID: 18629430
Rybakowski JK. (2008) BDNF gene: functional Val66Met polymorphism in mood disorders and schizophrenia. Pharmacogenomics, 9(11), 1589-93. PMID: 19018714
Xie B, Wang B, Suo P, Kou C, Wang J, Meng X, Cheng L, Ma X, & Yu Y. (2011) Genetic association between BDNF gene polymorphisms and phobic disorders: a case-control study among mainland Han Chinese. Journal of affective disorders, 132(1-2), 239-42. PMID: 21295349
Nahshoni E, Gur S, Marom S, Levin JB, Weizman A, & Hermesh H. (2004) QT dispersion in patients with social phobia. Journal of affective disorders, 78(1), 21-6. PMID: 14672793
Ha J, Lim SW, Shin YC, & Oh KS. (2011) Comparison of anxiety-related traits between generalized and nongeneralized subtypes of social anxiety disorder. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 199(6), 390-3. PMID: 21629017
- April 7, 2014
- 04:12 PM
- 789 views
Did I Do That? Distinguishing Real from Imagined Actions
by Rebecca Schwarzlose in Garden of the Mind
If you’re like most people, you spend a great deal of your time remembering past events and planning or imagining events that may happen in the future. While these activities have their uses, they also make it terribly hard to keep track of what you have and haven’t actually seen, heard, or done. Distinguishing between memories of real experiences and memories of imagined or dreamt experiences is called reality monitoring and it’s something we do (or struggle to do) all of the ........ Read more »
Brandt, V., Bergström, Z., Buda, M., Henson, R., & Simons, J. (2014) Did I turn off the gas? Reality monitoring of everyday actions. Cognitive, Affective, , 14(1), 209-219. DOI: 10.3758/s13415-013-0189-z
- April 3, 2014
- 06:36 AM
- 704 views
19th Century Neuroimaging Experiment Manuscripts Found
by Harsha Radhakrishnan in United Academics
Mosso’s 19th century experiments in cerebral blood flow dynamics found and reproduced.... Read more »
Field, D., & Inman, L. (2014) Weighing brain activity with the balance: a contemporary replication of Angelo Mosso's historical experiment. Brain, 137(2), 634-639. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awt352
Sandrone, S., Bacigaluppi, M., Galloni, M., Cappa, S., Moro, A., Catani, M., Filippi, M., Monti, M., Perani, D., & Martino, G. (2013) Weighing brain activity with the balance: Angelo Mosso's original manuscripts come to light. Brain, 137(2), 621-633. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awt091
- March 30, 2014
- 06:33 AM
- 821 views
The right inferior frontal cortex - The brain’s cognitive brake
by Robert Seymour in NeuroFractal
Whilst go/no-go tasks and stop-tasks have given researchers a lot of information about “pure” inhibition, this is not how people typically stop themselves performing actions in real life. In the past few years a slightly more ecologically valid paradigm has emerged in which participants anticipate they might have to inhibit a response, followed by the normal Go/No-Go signal. Participant’s responses are very slightly slower on go trials if they anticipate having to stop. This ha........ Read more »
Aron AR, Robbins TW, & Poldrack RA. (2014) Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex: one decade on. Trends in cognitive sciences. PMID: 24440116
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