Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Nov 3, 2009, 6:00 am
You have seen movies in which characters have acted violently. Many times, these characters also have a mental illness. Violence is one common stereotype of psychological disorders, along with rebelli...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 31, 2009, 7:00 am
The completion of the sequencing of the human genome in 2003 was an outstanding scientific accomplishment. This achievement, together with advances in technology and the forces of capitalism and compe...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 28, 2009, 7:00 am
Do you grind your teeth at night? Bruxism is the technical term for teeth grinding or teeth clenching that usually occurs in sleep. Bruxism may lead to jaw pain, shoulder pain, ear ache, and all sorts...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 25, 2009, 7:00 am
Dizziness is responsible for nearly 3 million emergency room visits every year in the United States. In most of the cases, the dizziness is caused by a benign inner ear problem, or is the result of sh...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 22, 2009, 7:00 am
Cognitive enhancers, also known as nootropics, are a category of drugs with the ability to increase mental performance. Many rave about such “smart drugs” helping them to study, take tests, or inc...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 19, 2009, 7:00 am
A solution to an abnormal neurological movement problem can perhaps be abnormal as well. The irregular wiring of the brain may actually eliminate dystonia — repetitive movements and atypical pos...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 16, 2009, 7:00 am
Recently, the UK Government announced a consultation on whether practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine should become subject to statutory regulation. Unsurprisi...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 13, 2009, 7:00 am
Men and women of the United States military are suffering from mental illnesses at an increasing rate. Among service members involved in the on-going conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, recent research...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 10, 2009, 9:07 am
Most people would agree that culture can have a large effect on our daily lives — influencing what we may wear, say, or find humorous. But many people may be surprised to learn that culture may ...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 6, 2009, 8:45 am
Depression is a major health concern worldwide, and is the second leading cause of disability for people of reproductive age (15 to 44 years), according to the World Health Organization. Women experie...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Oct 1, 2009, 12:16 pm
The existence of post-partum psychosis and post-partum depression has been hotly contested publicly. Tom Cruise’s denouncement of Brooke Shields’ diagnosis of post-partum depression is perhaps the...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 28, 2009, 7:00 am
In the mid 1950s, Dr. Bedford reported on a number of older adults who exhibited cognitive problems (memory or planning or being able to sustain attention) following surgery where anesthesia was used....
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 25, 2009, 8:38 am
All human societies have some phenomenon that can be described as religion. It is difficult to understand why religion is so pervasive in human culture. Some theories suggest that religion is a byprod...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 22, 2009, 7:00 am
In “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,” Julian Jaynes suggested back in 1976 that schizophrenia — like spirit possession and imaginary playmates — was ...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 19, 2009, 7:00 am
Perhaps the most personal and most quintessentially human aspect of our existence is the experience of our ‘self.’ What contemporary philosopher Daniel Dennett has described as the unitary narrati...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 16, 2009, 7:00 am
The human brain undergoes rapid development from late gestation to early childhood. The brain structures that are developing or undergoing age-related changes are more vulnerable to the effects of str...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 13, 2009, 7:00 am
The explosion of the Internet allows people to use their computer for things that previously needed to be done in person. Now, communicating with friends and family, networking with business contacts,...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 11, 2009, 12:58 pm
Welcome to the seventeenth edition of Drugs and Pharmacology. Today, we discuss how banning over-the-counter drugs to thwart drug abuse could affect you, how bacteria respond to antibacterials, the li...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 10, 2009, 7:00 am
Groucho Marx once said, “A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.” Indeed, research suggests that humor can minimize our perceptions of physical pain. Various theoretical e...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 7, 2009, 7:00 am
More than 50 years ago, the first antipsychotic medications appeared in the United States. While these drugs -– fluphenazine, haloperidol, chlorpromazine, and others — were effective in treati...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 4, 2009, 7:00 am
The first doses of vaccine for the Influenza A H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) should be available in October of 2009. Due to an initial limited supply, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends tha...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 2, 2009, 10:06 am
Welcome to the forty-seventh edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss whether science is in need of another cognitive revolution, how to reinforce our cognition, how reduced hippocampal ne...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Sep 1, 2009, 7:00 am
Emotional or mood problems are more frequent in people with disabilities (of any severity or duration) than in the general population. Rates range from about 20% to 50%, depending on the study and the...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Aug 29, 2009, 7:00 am
While illicit drug use in the United States is certainly a public health concern, the increasing use of legal, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for non-medical use is alarming. The most recent data availa...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Aug 26, 2009, 7:00 am
Any parent can attest that the “Terrible 2’s” are a moody, temperamental time in the life of a toddler. Many kids are irritable and seem to throw temper tantrums for no reason, and some engage i...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Aug 23, 2009, 7:00 am
After the great SARS terror of 2002 which was predicted to cause more devastation than AIDS, and the bird flu panic of 2006 when we were warned that a quarter of Britons might die, we now have the gre...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Aug 20, 2009, 7:00 am
Dr. Henry Markram recently announced that he expects to have a computer model of the human brain in ten years. As part of the Blue Brain Project, he is part of a team trying to “reverse-engineer...
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Shaheen L. posted an article on GNIF Brain Blogger - Aug 17, 2009, 7:00 am
The prospect of universal health coverage for all Americans is weighing heavily on lawmakers right now. But, if the current proposals pass Congress, Americans may be looking at an even “weightier”...
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