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Large neuroimaging study finds social isolation to be an early indicator of increased dementia risk

June 23, 2022 by The Conversation Leave a Comment

Why do we get a buzz from being in large groups at fes­ti­vals, jubilees and oth­er pub­lic events? Accord­ing to the social brain hypoth­e­sis, it’s because the human brain specif­i­cal­ly evolved to sup­port social inter­ac­tions. Stud­ies have shown that belong­ing to a group can lead to improved well­be­ing and increased sat­is­fac­tion with life.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly though, many peo­ple are lone­ly or social­ly iso­lat­ed. [Read more…] about Large neu­roimag­ing study finds social iso­la­tion to be an ear­ly indi­ca­tor of increased demen­tia risk

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: brain-structure, chronic-stress, cognition, cognitive, cognitive thinking, cognitive-reserve, cognitive-tasks, frontal-lobe, hippocampus, human-brain, memory, mental health, neuroimaging, neuroscience, physical-health, reaction-time, social brain, social isolation, social-interactions, wellbeing

Q&A with Dr. Wendy Suzuki on the parasympathetic nervous system and harnessing anxiety for good

February 7, 2022 by Greater Good Science Center

Anx­i­ety can feel like a heavy weight that we didn’t ask to car­ry. Who wouldn’t love to get rid of it?

But neu­ro­sci­en­tist Wendy Suzu­ki wants to chal­lenge the way we look at our anx­i­ety. In fact, her new book is called Good Anx­i­ety: Har­ness­ing the Pow­er of the Most Mis­un­der­stood Emo­tion.

If you’re skep­ti­cal, so was I. But Suzuki’s point is that anx­i­ety is a nat­ur­al human emo­tion, one that evolved to serve a pur­pose. We feel anx­ious when there is some kind of dan­ger; it primes our body to fight or flee from that dan­ger, in hopes that we’ll end up bet­ter off (i.e., alive). In the same way, our mod­ern anx­i­eties can be a warn­ing sig­nal for things that are wrong: not enough rest, too much mul­ti­task­ing, iso­la­tion from oth­ers. Our anx­ious ener­gy alerts us to change our lives for the bet­ter, she argues. [Read more…] about Q&A with Dr. Wendy Suzu­ki on the parasym­pa­thet­ic ner­vous sys­tem and har­ness­ing anx­i­ety for good

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: anxiety, chronic-stress, deep breathing, hippocampus, human emotion, neuroscientist, parasympathetic nervous system, prefrontal-cortex, Stress Response, uncertainty

Promote brain plasticity and keep your mind at ease by taking your daily “exercise pill”

July 14, 2021 by The Conversation

As with many oth­er physi­cians, rec­om­mend­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty to patients was just a doc­tor chore for me – until a few years ago. That was because I myself was not very active. Over the years, as I picked up box­ing and became more active, I got first­hand expe­ri­ence of pos­i­tive impacts on my mind. I also start­ed research­ing the effects of dance and move­ment ther­a­pies on trau­ma and anx­i­ety in refugee chil­dren, and I learned a lot more about the neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy of exer­cise. [Read more…] about Pro­mote brain plas­tic­i­ty and keep your mind at ease by tak­ing your dai­ly “exer­cise pill”

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: anxiety, BDNF, brain-cells, Brain-Plasticity, cognitive-performance, exercise, exercise pill, hippocampus, memory function, neurobiology, Neurons, neuroplasticity, neuroscientist, neurotransmitters, neurotrophic factor, Physical-activity, psychiatrist

The neuroscience behind why our brains will need time to adjust to ‘un-social distancing’

July 6, 2021 by The Conversation

With COVID-19 vac­cines work­ing and restric­tions lift­ing across the coun­try, it’s final­ly time for those now vac­ci­nat­ed who’ve been hun­kered down at home to ditch the sweat­pants and reemerge from their Net­flix caves. But your brain may not be so eager to dive back into your for­mer social life. [Read more…] about The neu­ro­science behind why our brains will need time to adjust to ‘un-social distancing’

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: anxiety, brain-teaser, cognitive-function, cognitive-skills, COVID-19, hippocampus, mental health, neuroscience, social distancing, social homeostasis, social memory, Stress

Debate: Are depression and dementia two sides of the same coin? And, if they are, how to best approach treatment?

May 21, 2021 by The Conversation

Every sev­en sec­onds, some­one in the world is diag­nosed with demen­tia. A typ­i­cal case that I often see in my prac­tice is as fol­lows: A 76-year-old woman has a two-year his­to­ry of pro­gres­sive wors­en­ing of short-term mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tive decline. She can’t recall the names of her grand­chil­dren and is dev­as­tat­ed by her dete­ri­o­rat­ing abilities.

How­ev­er, this is not the first time in her life that she has had feel­ings of loss and despair. Over the past 30 years, she has inter­mit­tent­ly strug­gled with depres­sion and anx­i­ety. Her fam­i­ly has many ques­tions: Does she have demen­tia or Alzheimer’s? Could her depres­sion have led to a demen­tia diag­no­sis? Is it only depres­sion and not demen­tia? These are all good ques­tions and the col­lec­tive answer to them is “yes.” [Read more…] about Debate: Are depres­sion and demen­tia two sides of the same coin? And, if they are, how to best approach treatment?

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: Alzheimers-disease, antidepressants, brain, cognition, cognitive decline, Cognitive-impairment, coronavirus, COVID-19, dementia, depression, hippocampus, memory, mental health

Neurostimulation device GammaSense by Cognito Therapeutics secures FDA Breakthrough Device Designation to explore Alzheimer’s Disease applications

January 14, 2021 by SharpBrains

Cred­it: The Picow­er Insti­tute @ MIT

Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics nets FDA break­through label for light, sound ther­a­py for Alzheimer’s dis­ease (Fierce Biotech):

Using spe­cif­ic fre­quen­cies of flash­ing lights and sounds to stim­u­late the brain’s elec­tri­cal activ­i­ty, Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics believes it can help treat Alzheimer’s dis­ease by ener­giz­ing neu­rons and reac­ti­vat­ing the immune system.

[Read more…] about Neu­rostim­u­la­tion device Gam­maSense by Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics secures FDA Break­through Device Des­ig­na­tion to explore Alzheimer’s Dis­ease applications

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: amyloid plaques, breakthrough device, breakthrough therapy, cognitive-symptoms, Cognito Therapeutics, digital therapeutics, FDA, GammaSense, hippocampus, neurodegenerative-diseases, neuromodulation, Neurons, neurostimulation, Neurotechnology, treat Alzheimer’s disease

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