syrinx

Song running through your head? Now scientists are converting brain waves to music in the name of national security. Read all about it.

tags: music research brain

When it comes to keeping brains alive, it seems nature has deemed that females are more valuable then males

At least that's the conclusion of R.S.B. Clark in Pittsburgh, who's been fooling around with brain cells in petri dishes. You gotta use some caution in extrapolating the results to real live brains inside of real live mammals, but that's the general assumption.
On the one hand, it's known that a restricted calorie diet over the years contributes to longevity. On the other hand,

A study last month in the journal Neuron found that slow, chronic starvation of the brain as we age — caused when it does not get enough glucose due to cardiovascular disease restricting blood flow — can trigger a biochemical process that causes some forms of Alzheimer's disease.

To quote Grace Slick and the Door Mouse: Feed Your Head!

tags: gender brain nutrition

Geriatric computer users with prior internet experience can take heart with this newly published report on the findings of what happens when you put together some people between the ages of 55 and 76, tasks related to reading books and searching the internet, match the participants into groups with the studied variable being prior internet experience, and stick them into the latest favorite toy of brain researchers, the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) device.

"Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading — but only in those with prior Internet experience," said Small, who is also the director of UCLA's Memory and Aging Research Center.

tags: science research internet brain fmri search geriatrics voxels star trek reference

Contrary to what was previously believed to be the case, even adult brains can generate new cells and neural networks, which turns out to be important to developing treatments for depression.

Chronic stress can affect the brain and lead into depression: Environmental stressors (e.g. job and family situation, neighborhood) and especially stressful life events such as trauma or abuse are amongst the most potent factors to induce depression. ... Neurogenesis or nerve regeneration can be modified by positive modulators such as learning, physical exercise, and hormonal influence, as well as negative modulators such as acute and chronic stress.

It turns out that glial cells are important for the support and nutrition and regeneration of neurons, and that stress and depression inhibits them as well. Antidepressant therapy counteracts this for both neurons and glial cells.
I guess the take home message is:

• Learn how to keep from getting stressed out by life events through exercise, meditation, etc.
• Get out of stressful environments (job, neighborhood, etc. before they depress you)
• Get help to deal with trauma and abuse and get away from it
• Make sure your psychiatrist is a neuropsychopharmacologist

The EuropeanCollege of Neuropsychopharmacology is the source of the story, and provides several consensus papers on depression and other topics.
Psych Central reported on the story.

tags: stress psychology depression brain therapy

Today we opened three cereal boxes (Kashi Cinnamon Harvest ["beautifully delicious organic whole wheat biscuits, baked with cinnamon and natural sweetness"], Kashi Good Friends ["trio of flakes, twigs & granola"], and Uncle Sam ["toasted whole-wheat flakes & flaxseed"] into one big container and mixed them together with a big wooden spoon.

Next we opened the half gallon of soy milk and started pouring it into the big container of cereal. After a fairly short while, as whiles are measured, the thought occurred that this was not the single portion of cereal that was originally intended as a short term goal or task.

tags: pain brain reality neuro dinky pinky