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Scratching Brings Mental Satisfaction
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Results tagged “neuroscience” from 60 Second Science
Scratching Brings Mental Satisfaction [podcast]
New CDC memo: don't go around snorting pig brains
Autoimmune diseases have become the third biggest category of disease in the U.S. after cancer and heart disease, and some say that the prevalence is still rising. Now the CDC tells us we've got another gem to add to the mix: "progressive inflammatory neuropathy." It's a fancy if vague name for a collection of symptoms ranging from mild weakness to total short-term paralysis, and it's thought to be caused by the inhalation of pig brain. Yep, you read that right.
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Sex can sometimes cure headaches; world's housewives still 'not in the mood'
"Not to tonight, honey — I have a headache." Is there a more dreaded phrase in common parlance? I think not. But the wifey is either going to have to get more creative or buy a chastity belt, because recent research points to the idea that sex might actually cure migraine headaches, especially in women.
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center neurology professor James Couch first thought sex might cure headaches back in 1988, based on the context clues of a perhaps particularly randy patient.
"This lady said 'I really don't need a pill, I need a guy's phone number," [he said]. [...] The patient told Couch she had trouble curing her headaches since her husband had divorced her and she'd signed up for a pain treatment study.
Couch thought this was interesting, in a scientific way, of course. "A physiologic process — the climax — is turning off another physiologic process," said Couch.
The inquisitive Couch soldiered on, asking 84 female migraine patients what happened when they had sex during migraines. 61 percent reported some relief, which means for them, sex was comparable to modern migraine medications called triptans, which are thought to ease 60 to 80 percent of migraines. Even more impressively, 20 percent of women reported that sex cured their migraines completely, while triptans may cure migraines 30 percent of the time.
"Four women said it literally stopped the headache, period," said Couch. "No matter when the headache occurred, it stopped the headache cold."
Score one for...scoring! But there is some bad news, especially for men.
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Brain science may prove why sucky Michael Bay movies are hits
Cognitive Daily points to a really cool research paper documenting the cognitive consequences of watching video with frequent cuts. Turns out that cuts may briefly disorient the viewer and make them less likely to remember details of what they just saw.
One of the commenters made an interesting note about how filmmakers use this to their advantage.
I'm thinking of one in particular. This may be the breakthrough we've been waiting for -- a blizzard of fast cuts keeps you in a suspended state of amnesia about the absolute shite constantly emanating from the screen! This certainly explains how I got through Transformers.
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It's official: Guys like video games (and territory) more than girls
My girlfriend plays video games--it's awesome. She likes to joke that somewhere inside of her is trapped the mind of a 16-year-old boy, just trying to express himself (video games, jamming on the drums, wearing awesome pageboy hats, gender studies)--it can be weird. Guess what, honey? Things just got more awkward.
A Stanford study has shown that video games activate the reward zone in men's brains more intensely than in women's, which I suppose means I'm more likely to get cancer, but learn a lot more about physics. So... it's a wash?
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Today's future craze: Inducing autism to enhance concentration
Lots of us have trouble concentrating on specific tasks for a focused period of time; I know whenever I'm performing community service (it happens a lot), any stray bird or shiny object distracts me enough to get me punished by my chain gang.
Annalee Newitz at sci-fi blog io9 posits that in the near future, temporary autism could serve as a solution: Basically, people take a pill to induce autism when they want to shut out the outside world and focus obsessively on work, and then take another pill to bring them out of their autistic state when they're ready to stop being savants. She cites work undertaken by German scientists in inducing autism in rats and reversal of autistic symptoms in mice done by researchers at MIT as inspiration for her predictions.
Even wilder, she suggests people may pursue "recreational autism" to "take a break from having messy emotions about other people decide to unplug and enter a state where human relationships are no more important than inanimate objects."
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Same Old Song May Sound Different To Individuals [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by Ken Andrews and Steve Albini:
Same Old Song May Sound Different To Individuals
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Naps Improve Memory of New Tasks [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Psych Podcast is brought to you by my nap-time helper, NyQuil:
Naps Improve Memory of New Tasks
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You're so Psychic, Bet You Know This Podcast is About You
Today's 60 Second Psych Podcast is brought to you by Carly Simon:
You're so Psychic, Bet You Know This Podcast is About You
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Want a better memory? Take more naps!
Anyone who has ever spent time with a 1-year-old both pre-nap and post-nap knows that a midday doze is good for everyone. In a recent Nature Neuroscience article, a team of Israeli and Canadian researchers provide reason #314159 for why naps are a force for good:
Two groups of participants were each taught a new skill; afterward, the people in one group were sent off for 90 minutes of zzzzz’s. From the Haifa press release:
The group that slept in the afternoon showed a distinct improvement in their task performance by that evening, as opposed to the group that stayed awake, which did not exhibit any improvement. Following an entire night's sleep, both groups exhibited the same skill level. "This part of the research showed that a daytime nap speeds up performance improvement in the brain. After a night's sleep the two groups were at the same level, but the group that slept in the afternoon improved much faster than the group that stayed awake," stressed Prof. Karni.
Snort your way past sleep
Darpa has managed to combine to of my biggest loves — snorting things and lack of sleep — to create positive results. You see, usually when I snort things and don't sleep for days on end, I perform poorly on the various performance tests (job, girlfriend, hygiene) of the following day.
No longer: Researchers at Darpa found that a nasal spray containing the naturally-occurring brain hormone orexin A allowed sleep-deprived monkeys to perform just as well as well-rested monkeys in a series of cognitive tests. Scientists think the drug could first be used to treat narcolepsy, which may come from a lack of orexin A. Darpa also hopes to prescribe it to sleep-deprived soldiers in the field as well as the 70 percent of Americans who the National Sleep Foundation says get less than the recommended 8 hours.
Disturbing research on orphans from Science
I am a huge fan of randomized controlled trials and about as hard-core as it gets in supporting evidence-based interventions whenever possible. But I was nonetheless troubled by the study Science published last week, in which Romanian orphans were randomized to receive either foster care or to stay in an orphanage.
Unsurprisingly, the research found a large 8 point difference in IQ between those given foster parents and those left behind and confirmed all the results from animal research and unfortunate “natural experiments” which show that the longer a baby languishes without specific parental care, the more damaged he is likely to be.
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Immune System Keeps Your Brain Tidy Too [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by the Felco Pneumatic Pruning Shears (not for use on actual neurons):
Immune System Keeps Your Brain Tidy Too
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60 S.S. Giftology: Brain-Mart!
Neuroscientist, neurotic or nerd — everyone's got a brain fanatic/fetishist in the family, and Giftology has got you covered with Brain-Mart.
What's Brain-Mart, you say? You shouldn't have to ask. It's like Wal-Mart...but for brains. Need a brain-shaped pencil top eraser? Brain-Mart. Gelatin brain molds of myriad sizes and flavors? Brain-Mart. Giant brain gummies? Brain-to-the-Mart. A hideous brain-print trucker hat? No, wait, I got this one — Brain-Mart.
Meditation Enhances Attention - Street Science [Video]
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Any choice is good choice [podcast]
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What's the source of empathy in the brain? Mirror neurons, silly vulcan!
Since I'm a cyborg programmed for future battle, I've never fully understood your petty human emotions -- especially empathy. In my experience, the minute you start trying to understand the enemy's feelings, he rails you with a chain gun. But I'm getting closer to understanding where empathy comes from, thanks to the recent observations of mirror neurons in people.
After the recent discovery painting the amygdala as the source of optimism, it's turning out to be a busy month for brain-emotion discoveries.
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Researchers sniff out brain sex differences
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Researchers sniff out brain sex differences
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The General Gist of False Memories [podcast]
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The General Gist of False Memories
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Intense, man... new theory of autism
Although the debate over the causes of autism is still vexed, arguments over the nature of the disorder itself rage, too. In the November 1 issue of Frontiers In Neuroscience [hat tip to Frontal Cortex for blogging it on 10/25], Henry Markram, Tania Rinaldi and Kamila Markram propose a new unifying theory. They call it “The Intense World Syndrome” and the basic idea is that the core problem in autism is not difficulty recognizing other people’s thoughts and motivations (the “theory of mind” theory), but a hyper-responsive brain that encodes most sensory input as overwhelming.
Today in Lite-Brite science: Mountaineering causes brain damage
Just when fMRI told me about why I was optimistic about my chances on Everest, it had to come back and kick me in the nuts. A new article published by a group of Spanish doctors in the American Journal of Medicine uses magnetic resonance imaging to show consistent brain damage in nearly all of the professional and amateur high-altitude mountaineers surveyed.
Only 1 in 13 of the Everest climbers had a normal MRI; the amateur showed frontal subcortical lesions, and the remainder had cortical atrophy and enlargement of Virchow-Robin spaces but no lesions. Among the remaining amateurs, 13 showed symptoms of high-altitude illness, 5 had subcortical irreversible lesions, and 10 had innumerable widened Virchow-Robin spaces. Conversely, we did not see any lesion in the control group.
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Spooky photos of an abandoned Russian brain-research facility
Just in time for Halloween, photographer Alex Klochkov took these photos of an abandoned Soviet-era brain research facility in Russia. Klochkov's photos have a lyrical beauty about them — but then, that beauty gets mitigated by the exposed crania of decomposing, rodentine test subjects. Geesh.
There's plenty of Fincher-meets-Reznor ghoulishness to be found in here, with a touch of Cold-War sadness.
Art Deliverance: Brain Research Facility
Image Credit: Alex Klochkov
Anatomy of a child molester: well, he tends to be short
Pedophilia has been linked to IQ, education, and even handedness—and a new study adds height to the mix. Pedophiles, are, on average, two centimeters shorter than non-pedophiles, according to research published by the University of Toronto's Center for Addiction and Mental Health. But does this tell us anything about the psychology of a child molester? Actually, it may.
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Fish sleep research: Dead in the water
Usually, zebrafish make perfect scientific test subjects. But when they were put to work in a recent sleep study, the fish failed miserably. They stayed awake.
Zebrafish with similar protein deficiencies as narcoleptic mammals suffer from insomnia, according to a study published in last week's edition of the journal PloS Biology.
How do we remember smells?
Those intellectual powerhouses over at Scientific American have done it again.
