Better than coffee smile
___ A great way to learn more about our brains and minds is to look at how we can trick them—that is, to see how we react to brain teasers and visual illusions. Below are four fun optical illusio…
Category: neuroscience – Page 1,008
The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans
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‘Smile, it’s the Future!’ — Emotions, Mixed Reality, and Techno-Telepathy
Let me propose a hypothetical future scenario: Let’s say that we’ve since developed an advanced method of brain-to-brain (B2B) communication, to which, naturally, has become quite popular among the younger generation of that time.
How might we judge futuristic societies using our present day standards? Better yet, how might the past have judged us today and would there be a difference?
Probiotics may help boost mood and cognitive function
Probiotics can do more than improve your gut health. They also may indirectly enhance your brain, too.
Research shows that the gut and brain are connected, a partnership called the gut-brain axis. The two are linked through biochemical signaling between the nervous system in the digestive tract, called the enteric nervous system, and the central nervous system, which includes the brain. The primary information connection between the brain and gut is the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body.
The gut has been called a “second brain” because it produces many of the same neurotransmitters as the brain does, like serotonin, dopamine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid, all of which play a key role in regulating mood. In fact, it is estimated that 90% of serotonin is made in the digestive tract.
When Healthcare ignores Mental Health: 200 common prescription medications increase depression risk
Why is no one talking about this? — “More than one-third of U.S. adults are taking prescription medications that may lead to depression, new research finds. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, warns that depression is a potential side effect of more than 200 commonly prescribed medications, including beta blockers for blood pressure, birth control pills, antacids, and painkillers.”
___ Many Americans taking common meds that may cause depression, study finds (CBS News): “More than one-third of U.S. adults are taking prescription medications that may lead to depression, new research finds. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, warns that depression is a potential.
Traumatic Memory Study Reveals How Our Darkest Fears Can Be Rewritten
Deep-seated fears, like the memory of a death or war-time trauma, can be crippling. They’re also notoriously hard to study and treat, says neuroscientist Ossama Khalaf, Ph.D. But finally, we’re making progress: In a Science paper published Thursday, Khalaf and his team show new evidence suggesting that fearful memories that dwell deep in the brain’s neural circuitry don’t have to be a burden forever. It’s possible, the paper suggests, that they can be rewired.
The paper is rooted in the science of engrams — the idea that memories leave a physical trace in the brain. In this case, Khalaf, a researcher at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and his team traced deep-seated fear memories in rats back to the activity of specific neurons. They found that the way those neurons fire — and thus the fearful memory they encode — can be reprogrammed.
“In our study, we are providing the first experimental evidence that fear memory attenuation is mediated by the re-engagement of the original fear re-writing it towards safety,” Khalaf tells Inverse via email.
