brain regions

Mapping ‘psychedelic trips’ in the brain to better direct their therapeutic effects

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Image cred­it: Shutterstock

For the past sev­er­al decades, psy­che­delics have been wide­ly stig­ma­tized as dan­ger­ous ille­gal drugs. But a recent surge of aca­d­e­m­ic research into their use to treat psy­chi­atric con­di­tions is spurring a recent shift in pub­lic opinion.

Psy­che­delics are psy­chotrop­ic drugs: sub­stances that affect your men­tal state. Oth­er types of psy­chotrop­ics include anti­de­pres­sants and anti-anx­i­ety med­ica­tions. Psy­che­delics and oth­er types of hal­lu­cino­gens, how­ev­er, are unique in their abil­i­ty to tem­porar­i­ly induce intense hal­lu­ci­na­tions, emo­tions and dis­rup­tions of self-aware­ness. [Read more…] about Map­ping ‘psy­che­del­ic trips’ in the brain to bet­ter direct their ther­a­peu­tic effects

Higher body mass index (BMI) linked to lower blood supply to the brain in large neuroimaging study

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Fig­ure 6 from the study, show­ing 3‑D ren­der­ings of cere­bral per­fu­sion aver­aged across nor­mal BMI (23), over­weight (29), and obese (37) 40-year-old men

Body weight has sur­pris­ing, alarm­ing impact on brain func­tion (Sci­ence Daily):

As a per­son­’s weight goes up, all regions of the brain go down in activ­i­ty and blood flow, accord­ing to a new brain imag­ing study in the Jour­nal of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease … sci­en­tists ana­lyzed over 35,000 func­tion­al neu­roimag­ing scans using sin­gle-pho­ton emis­sion com­put­er­ized tomog­ra­phy (SPECT) from more than 17,000 indi­vid­u­als to mea­sure blood flow and brain activ­i­ty. [Read more…] about High­er body mass index (BMI) linked to low­er blood sup­ply to the brain in large neu­roimag­ing study

The Virtual Brain Web Atlas: How the Mind emerges from the Brain

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The Vir­tu­al Brain Web Atlas by the Human Brain Project offers a beau­ti­ful way to explore the anato­my of brain regions and brain functions.

Feel free to enjoy this inter­ac­tive 3D mod­el to learn much about our brains and our minds! [Read more…] about The Vir­tu­al Brain Web Atlas: How the Mind emerges from the Brain

Neuroimaging study finds extensive brain rewiring–in just six months–among illiterate adults learning to read and write

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Learn­ing to read and write rewires adult brain in six months (New Scientist):

“Learn­ing to read can have pro­found effects on the wiring of the adult brain – even in regions that aren’t usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with read­ing and writing.

That’s what Michael Skei­de of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Human Cog­ni­tive and Brain Sci­ences in Leipzig, Ger­many, and his col­leagues found when they taught a group of illit­er­ate adults in rur­al India to read and write [Read more…] about Neu­roimag­ing study finds exten­sive brain rewiring–in just six months–among illit­er­ate adults learn­ing to read and write

Can Brain Training and Biofeedback Help Prevent Depression

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In two inno­v­a­tive pilot stud­ies, Ian Gotlib and his col­leagues at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Cal­i­for­nia, showed that brain train­ing can be used to help elim­i­nate depres­sion, even before it starts. They stud­ied young girls (10 to 14 year old) whose moth­ers were depressed and who thus were at high­er risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion them­selves lat­er-on. The girls had not expe­ri­enced depres­sion per se but already showed behav­iors typ­i­cal of depressed brains, such as over­re­ac­tion to neg­a­tive stim­uli. [Read more…] about Can Brain Train­ing and Biofeed­back Help Pre­vent Depression