- November 19, 2008
- 07:51 AM
- 38 views
Deep Brain Stimulation Cures Urge To Break Glass
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is in. There's been much buzz about its use in severe depression, and it has a long if less glamorous record of success in Parkinson's disease. Now that it's achieved momentum as a treatment in psychiatry, DBS is being tried in a range of conditions including chronic pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's Syndrome. Is the hype justified? Yes - but the scientific and ethical issues are more complex, and more interesting, than you might think.Biological Psy........ Read more »
I NEUNER, K PODOLL, D LENARTZ, V STURM, F SCHNEIDER. (2008) Deep Brain Stimulation in the Nucleus Accumbens for Intractable Tourette's Syndrome: Follow-Up Report of 36 Months. Biological Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.030
- November 19, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 53 views
How to give directions
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
You've probably been there. You're late, lost, and you ask an innocent passer-by for directions. It begins undauntingly enough: "Left at the lights, straight ahead, third right," ... but then your head starts to spin ... "then follow the corner round until you reach the park, then second right, then first left, you can't miss it" ... You nod and thank them politely while panic privately sets in. There's no way you can remember all those details.According to Alycia Hund and colleagues at Illinois........ Read more »
Alycia M. Hund, Kimberly H. Haney, Brian D. Seanor. (2008) The role of recipient perspective in giving and following wayfinding directions. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(7), 896-916. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1400
- November 18, 2008
- 12:18 PM
- 34 views
Optogenetic therapy for spinal cord injury
by Mo in Neurophilosophy
Optogenetics is a recently developed technique based on microbial proteins called channelrhodopsins (ChRs), which render neurons sensitive to light when inserted into them, thus enabling researchers to manipulate the activity of the cells using laser pulses.
Although still very new - the first ChR protein was isolated from a species of green algae in 2002 - optogenetics has already proven to be extremely powerful - it can be used to switch neurons on or off in an extremely precise manner ........ Read more »
W. J. Alilain, X. Li, K. P. Horn, R. Dhingra, T. E. Dick, S. Herlitze, J. Silver. (2008) Light-Induced Rescue of Breathing after Spinal Cord Injury. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(46), 11862-11870. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3378-08.2008
- November 18, 2008
- 09:27 AM
- 64 views
Alcohol 101 - the Best Class on Campus
by brainblogger 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
- November 18, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 23 views
Avatars, Identity, and Walkies
by David Bradley in Sciencetext
In the early days of the web, the phrase “No one knows you are a dog on the Internet” became popular, as members of virtual worlds hid behind virtual masks. Today, the advent of web 2.0 and the emergence of…... Read more »
Angela Adrian. (2008) Avatars: a right to privacy or a right to publicity?. Int. J. Intellectual Property Management, 2(3), 253-260. DOI: http://www.inderscience.com/search/index.php?action
- November 18, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 2 views
Why We Love To Hate Spiders
by Hesitant Iconoclast in NeuroWhoa!
An article in a recent issue of New Scientist about what is responsible for fear of spiders led me to slightly disagree with the explanations afforded by the researchers. Have a quick read:"Movies starring the superhero Spiderman may rake in millions at the box office, but the humble spider inspires fear and loathing quite unlike that of other creepy-crawlies. A third of women and a fifth of men admit to being scared of spiders. And an obvious explanation is that we have evolved a dread of spide........ Read more »
A GERDES, G UHL, G ALPERS. (2008) Spiders are special: fear and disgust evoked by pictures of arthropods☆. Evolution and Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.08.005
- November 17, 2008
- 11:35 PM
- 35 views
Electronic Game Players No Couch Potatoes
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
Gaming among college-aged men may provide a healthy source of socialization, relaxation, and coping.
In college-aged males:
there were no significant correlations between participants’ BMI and frequency of electronic game play
there were no significant correlations between academic performance and frequency of electronic game play
there were no significant mean differences between other variables related to social [...]... Read more »
Elizabeth Wack, Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. (2008) Relationships between Electronic Game Play, Obesity, and Psychosocial Functioning in Young Men. CyberPsychology , 2147483647-4. DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2008.0151
- November 17, 2008
- 07:34 PM
- 40 views
Adding graded exposure or graded activity makes no difference…
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
A phenomenon well-known in academic circles is called publication bias. This is where negative or equivocal findings are not published in favour of studies where results are positive. Today I’m going to counter this bias by discussing a study in which physiotherapy based on treatment classification with either graded exposure or graded activity was compared [...]... Read more »
S GEORGE, G ZEPPIERIJR, A CERE, M CERE, M BORUT, M HODGES, D REED, C VALENCIA, M ROBINSON. (2008) A randomized trial of behavioral physical therapy interventions for acute and sub-acute low back pain (NCT00373867). Pain, 140(1), 145-157. DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2008.07.029
- November 17, 2008
- 06:46 PM
- 36 views
Dopamine and obesity
by Charles Daney in Science and Reason
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that's well-known for its involvement in several notable medical and behavioral problems, such as Parkinson's disease and drug addiction. But it is connected with many other issues of medical and psychological importance.Perhaps the main reason that dopamine is so interesting is that it plays a big role in the brain's pleasure and reward systems. And therefore it is inevitably involved in reward-motivated behaviors of all kinds, from gambling, investing, substance ........ Read more »
E. Stice, S. Spoor, C. Bohon, D. M. Small. (2008) Relation Between Obesity and Blunted Striatal Response to Food Is Moderated by TaqIA A1 Allele. Science, 322(5900), 449-452. DOI: 10.1126/science.1161550
- November 17, 2008
- 02:00 PM
- 58 views
On fraud detection
by iayork in Mystery Rays from Outer Space
“The issue of data integrity should not be left to chance and probability. This is scholarly publishing, not blackjack.”
–M. Rossner (2008). A false sense of security. The Journal of Cell Biology, 183 (4), 573-574 DOI: 10.1083/jcb.200810172... Read more »
M. Rossner. (2008) A false sense of security. The Journal of Cell Biology, 183(4), 573-574. DOI: 10.1083/jcb.200810172
- November 17, 2008
- 01:18 PM
- 48 views
Does involving parents really help students learn? Depends on how they're involved
by Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily
One of things I was taught over and over again when I was in education school was the importance of getting parents involved in kids' learning. If you get the parents on your side, my professors insisted, then you're going to be much more able to get through to the students. I didn't last long enough as a teacher to see how well this advice worked, but as a parent, I've certainly experienced the process from the other end. From an early age, our kids were given "homework" that they couldn't poss........ Read more »
Jessica A. Sommerville, Amy J. Hammond. (2007) Treating another's actions as one's own: Children's memory of and learning from joint activity.. Developmental Psychology, 43(4), 1003-1018. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.43.4.1003
- November 17, 2008
- 10:21 AM
- 42 views
School Bullies - Is the Amygdala to Blame?
by brainblogger 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 17, 2008
- 08:30 AM
- 40 views
Testosterone skin patches improve sex drive in postmenopausal women
by Helen Jaques in In Sickness and In Health
A considerable proportion of women - between 25% and 53% in fact - suffer from sexual problems, with libido taking a nosedive after the menopause as estrogen levels drop. Although low libido isn't a health problem per se, it has been shown to have a negative effect on sexual relationships and overall wellbeing.It has been known for several years that testosterone, administered as a skin patch, improves sexual function in postmenopausal women. Previous studies on sex drive in women have only lo........ Read more »
Davis SR et al. for the APHRODITE Study Team. (2008) Testosterone for Low Libido in Postmenopausal Women Not Taking Estrogen. N Engl J Med, 359(19), 2005-2017. DOI: 18987368
- November 17, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 38 views
Virtual Rehabilitation
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
I recently wrote about how social media might help scientists do their work, so a paper in IJWBS on how those on the receiving end of medical science - patients and healthcare practitioners - might benefit from web 2.0 caught my eye.
IT specialist and disability consultant Maire Heikkinen of University of Tampere, Finland, has focused [...]... Read more »
Maire Heikkinen. (2009) Power and support from the net: usability and sociability on an internet-based rehabilitation course for people with multiple sclerosis. IInt. J. Web Based Communities, 5(1), 83-104.
- November 17, 2008
- 03:30 AM
- 38 views
Digital Piracy Management
by David Bradley in Sciencetext
A new approach to preventing digital piracy of music and video content that sidesteps the need for the privacy compromise associated with DRM (digital rights management) is reported in the International Journal of Intellectual Property Management.
Thierry Rayna of the Internet…... Read more »
Thierry Rayna, Ludmila Striukova. (2008) Privacy or piracy, why choose? Two solutions to the issues of digital rights management and the protection of personal information. Int. J. Intellectual Property Management, 2(3), 240-252. DOI: http://www.inderscience.com/search/index.php?action
- November 17, 2008
- 03:03 AM
- 47 views
On the dangers of using valid placebo controls in clinical trials of acupuncture
by David Gorski in Science-Based Medicine
I don’t recall if I’ve ever mentioned this before on this blog, but there was a time when I was less skeptical of acupuncture than I am now. It’s true. Don’t get me wrong, though. I never for a minute considered that the whole rigamarole about “unblocking” or “redirecting” the flow of that mystical life [...]... Read more »
E. W. S. So, E. H. Y. Ng, Y. Y. Wong, E. Y. L. Lau, W. S. B. Yeung, P. C. Ho. (2008) A randomized double blind comparison of real and placebo acupuncture in IVF treatment. Human Reproduction. DOI: 10.1093/humrep/den380
- November 17, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 51 views
Older people have more black and white dreams
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
If you dream in colour, you're not alone: the majority of people today claim to have colourful dreams. But it wasn't always thus. Research conducted in the early part of the last century consistently found that people reported dreaming most often in black and white.According to Eva Murzyn at the University of Dundee, there are at least two possible explanations for this strange anomaly.The first is methodological. The early studies tended to use questionnaires, whereas more modern studies use dr........ Read more »
E MURZYN. (2008) Do we only dream in colour? A comparison of reported dream colour in younger and older adults with different experiences of black and white media. Consciousness and Cognition. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.09.002
- November 16, 2008
- 09:11 PM
- 42 views
Slow death, fast death
by iayork in Mystery Rays from Outer Space
“Death and the Doctor”
Published by William Humphrey, 1777
Last April I commented on a series of experiments that used intravital microscopy to visualize cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) attacking a tumor. 1 Immensely cool though the movie is, I noted that I was surprised by their estimate of the rate of cell killing:
Another surprising finding — which is [...]... Read more »
V. V. Ganusov, R. J. De Boer. (2008) Estimating In Vivo Death Rates of Targets due to CD8 T-Cell-Mediated Killing. Journal of Virology, 82(23), 11749-11757. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01128-08
- November 16, 2008
- 08:01 PM
- 38 views
Text Coherence & Self-Explanation III
by Joshua Fisher in Text Savvy
So, let's end this series of posts by first reviewing the previous two posts discussing the research.
In the first post, we looked at how Ainsworth and Burcham defined the concepts they were working with--text coherence and self-explanation. Text coherence was defined, in general, as "the extent to which the relationships between the ideas in the text are made explicit" and self-explanation was... Read more »
S AINSWORTH, S BURCHAM. (2007) The impact of text coherence on learning by self-explanation. Learning and Instruction, 17(3), 286-303. DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.02.004
- November 16, 2008
- 06:51 PM
- 37 views
What puts the "co" in coevolution?
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim & Tweed
Coevolution is like the opposite of pornography - lots of scientists can define it with nicety, but most of us have trouble saying for sure whether any given pair of species are actually coevolving. "Coevolution" literally means "evolving together" - more formally, that an evolutionary change in one species causes a reciprocal change in another [$$]. But this process can be quite complicated to... Read more »
C.R. Currie, J.A. Scott, R.C. Summerbell, D. Malloch. (1999) Fungus-growing ants use antibiotic-producing bacteria to control garden parasites.. Nature, 398(6729), 701-4. DOI: 10.1038/19519
DH Janzen. (1980) When is it coevolution?. Evolution, 34(3), 611-2. DOI: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2408229
U.G. Mueller, D. Dash, C. Rabeling, A. Rodrigues. (2008) Coevolution between Attine ants and Actinomycete bacteria: A reevaluation. Evolution, 62(11), 2894-912. DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00501.x
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