Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo. New Western University research shows that neurons in the part of the brain found to be abnormal in psychosis are also important in helping people distinguish between reality and imagination. The researchers, Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo, principal investigator and professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Dr. Diego...
Category: <span>Mental health</span>
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How hard is it to recognise that you are experiencing a delusion?
When people experience delusions or hallucinations there is usually some loss of contact with reality whereby normal processes of thought and perception are disturbed. As humans, we are all susceptible to experiencing anomalous mental states such as this. In everyday life, for example, mentally healthy people distort reality to enhance their self-esteem and maintain beliefs about...
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Telehealth reduces wait time, improves care for children with autism living in remote areas
Long wait times have been a persistent issue for families waiting to see an autism specialist, with waits often exceeding a year. Additionally, children with autism living in rural areas have added costs associated with traveling long distances for health care. To address these issues, ECHO Autism, a University of Missouri program, has been successfully training...
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Non-invasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Interfering High Frequency Signals
Researchers at MIT have developed a new technique to stimulate deep brain regions without the need for invasive implants. Currently, clinicians perform deep brain stimulation by placing electrodes into the brain to stimulate specific areas. As the therapy is so invasive, only patients with serious conditions like Parkinson’s disease undergo treatment. The MIT scientists have developed...
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Can a single exercise session benefit your brain?
What is the relationship between the central neurochemical changes following acute exercise that have mainly been described in rodents and the behavioral changes seen after acute exercise that have mainly been described in humans? In a new review of the effects of acute exercise published in Brain Plasticity, researchers not only summarize the behavioral and...
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Brain scans reveal for the first time that eating plenty of salmon, mackerel and sardines protects against Alzheimer’s by boosting blood flow and memory
Omega-3 makes people better at acquiring and understanding new information Eating oily fish boosts our overall mental and emotional health, study reveals Simple dietary changes could prevent our risk of developing the condition Past research suggests dementia could even be treated via high omega-3 intake Brain scans reveal for the first time that eating plenty...
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Connecting the dots between dreams and brain disease
Dr. John Peever at the University of Toronto has been working to answer one of humanity’s greatest questions: how do we dream? He has found a certain area of the brain is responsible for this phenomenon and that troubles with normal dreaming may be an early warning sign for ailments such as Parkinson’s Disease. His...
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No evidence that brain-stimulation technique boosts cognitive training: study
Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)—a non-invasive technique for applying electric current to areas of the brain—may be growing in popularity, but new research suggests that it probably does not add any meaningful benefit to cognitive training. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our findings suggest that applying...
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Nasally administered oxytocin increases emotion perception in autism
A recent study has demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin can influence how individuals with autism perceive emotion in others. This is an important first step for a potential pharmacological treatment of autism. Autism is characterized by difficulties in social functioning. Individuals with autism are generally less sensitive to social information, which can influence their interactions with others as...
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Elon Musk’s Neural Lace Could Use Brain-Stimulating Tech to Make Us Smarter
IN BRIEF Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has great potential to help those with neurological diseases. It may also help enhance humans and our intelligence, and serve as a checkpoint on the road toward Elon Musk’s neural lace. STIMULATING THE BRAIN We are now poised at a time in history when brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are...