The Brain and Mental Health

Notes from a Dragon Mom

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:07:00 -0400

Notes from a Dragon Mom:

One of my all-time favorite reads off news media. It’s a really touching and powerful piece.

neurolinguist: TED: Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:57:34 -0400

neurolinguist:

TED: Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is celebrating...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:39:00 -0400

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is celebrating Autism Awareness month by putting on various events throughout one week, including a historic first lighting of Geisel Library in blue light! Benefit concert featuring Josh Damigo on April 22nd. Participate! Most importantly, be aware. Be educated. Appreciate those on the spectrum and those who love them =).

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is the most under-served of all...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:06:00 -0400

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is the most under-served of all medical specialties. With 10% of America’s youth suffering a severe psychiatric disorder, the need for qualified physicians, in addition to psychologists, social workers, special education teachers, and nurses who work with kids, is greater than ever before. This 10 minute film is produced by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Campaign for America’s Kids documents a “day in the life” of four young and engaging child and adolescent psychiatrists. Watch the video, see what we do - join our ranks!

On Schizophrenia Pt. 1

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:47:00 -0500

Here’s a topic that’s been dear to my heart lately. Not because I have any personal relations with anyone who has been recently diagnosed. Rather, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching this topic for various projects. I presented a poster back in early November at a conference on the role of self efficacy* in moderating real world functioning and functional outcomes in older Schizophrenic patients. I also did a presentation on the neuropsychological profiles of schizophrenic symptoms for a seminar class. Upon reading books, articles, and papers on this disorder, it really strikes me just how debilitating this disease really is. People with schizophrenia not only suffer from the fragmentation of their own mind, but also with the stigma placed upon them by society and difficulties carrying out everyday tasks.

* Self efficacy - a person’s belief in one’s own abilities to complete a task to satisfaction

Schizophrenia affects 1.1% of US adults. That prevalence rate is relatively high. Not to mention, schizophrenia is an extremely expensive disease, appearing in the top four most expensive diseases billed to Medicaid. That obviously isn’t helping our current crippled health care system with its soaring costs.

What causes it? It is generally agreed that there is a genetic predisposition, working in tandem with an environmental stressor. There is tons of research being done to find the genetic basis of schizophrenia. It has even been suggested that it may share some similarities with bipolar disease (particularly considering the manic state). There are several hypotheses for what causes schizophrenia. An example of a popular theory is the dopamine hypothesis. Basically, your brain has excess dopamine: a neurotransmitter important for reward, emotion, and movement. Too much dopamine can cause schizophrenic symptoms. Therefore, many treatments have been geared to combat this (more to come later).

Caption: this sequence of cat paintings shows one artist’s progression into schizophrenia and how his perception and imagination have been altered for the worse.

How does it present itself? If you’re a big fan of Carl Jung, you’ve probably heard the term Dementia Praecox, which is an archaic term for “modern day” schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic symptoms are categorized in three groups: positive (what shouldn’t be there), negative (an absence of normal functioning), and disorganized (particularly involving thought processes).

Schizophrenia itself is also categorized in different subtypes: disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, and non-specified. There is also schizoaffective disorder (presented with depressive symptoms) and Axis II personality disorders: schizotypal and schizoid.

Keep in mind: these symptoms must be present for 6 months. Anything less (but usually within one month) would warrant a diagnoses of schizophreniform disorder instead.

The most well-known symptom of schizophrenia is the psychosis. Hallucinations and delusions haunt patients with schizophrenia. This could range from voices in your head to a false belief that someone is trying to steal your thoughts or that the government is after you. Other symptoms of schizophrenia include negative symptoms like alogia (lack of speech), anhedonia (lack of pleasure), avolition (lack of motivational behavior), catatonic behaviors (rigidity and bizarre limb positions), impaired working memory and executive functioning, and poor decision making.

In the spirit of this blog, there are of course neuroanatomical bases for these symptoms. Auditory hallucinations can arise from a deficit in your temporal lobe. The working memory and impaired thought process can arise from deficits in the prefrontal cortex. There is also much research that shows the orbitofronal cortex (the area of the frontal lobe directly behind your eye sockets) is important for decision making. Deficits in the schizophrenic brain are profound. Over time, a brain scan can literally show the brain deteriorating in function, and in some areas, even volume.

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder with no complete cure. I believe it is so important to educate the layman on the basics of schizophrenia. That’s step one to removing the stigma of severe mental illness, especially one that presents itself in the form of psychosis. It is a medical illness and these patients deserve our respect and care.

This post has barely scratched the surface of schizophrenia. Look out for the next post where treatments and final personal thoughts will be discussed.

- Dan

ucsdhealthsciences: Dr. Eric Courchesne explains how an...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:50:12 -0500

ucsdhealthsciences:

Dr. Eric Courchesne explains how an over-abundance of neurons in the front cortex of the brain leads to autism. He recently published an important research paper revealing that children with autism have 67 percent more neurons in the frontal cortex. Courchesne explained that scientist must now work to discover why this overgrowth occurrs.

My alma mater.

On Neurons: The Anatomy

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:26:00 -0400

I apologize for the brief hiatus. I assure you this blog is well and alive!

In order to truly dive into neuroscience, one must have a solid groundwork in the basic anatomy of the brain cell. Neurons are cells in the nervous system that communicate with each other in a network via electrical or chemical signaling. Neurons can further be differentiated into sensory, motor, and interneurons. Two neurons can communicate with one another in specialized regions called synapses. As mentioned before, neuronal communication can be electrical (action potential) or chemical (neurotransmitters) in nature.

It is impossible to cover all the intricacies of neuronal function and mechanism in a simple Tumblr post. I could talk about anatomy, action potentials, chemical signaling, neurotransmitters, consolidation, potentiation, proliferation, pruning, etc..

Many neurological and psychiatric disorders can be broken down into some dysfunction with neuronal communication. For example, seizures, simply put, are neurons misfiring at random (like an “electric storm”). Parkinson’s Disease is a dearth of dopaminergic activity in the substantia nigra. The dopamine hypothesis states that schizophrenia may be the result of hyperactive dopamine signaling. ADHD may be caused by too little dopamine in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Depression may be caused by too little serotonin to regulate normal mood and sleep. The examples are ENDLESS.

But for the sake of the laymen, I digress and present to you the basic components of a neuron.

Using the model above:

The branch-like dendrites are where the signal from the last neuron are received. In this case, the neuron before is known as the “pre-synaptic” neuron and this neuron is the “post-synaptic”. The signal then travels through the….

The soma is the cell body of the neuron. Then the signal arrives at the….

Unlabeled is the axon hillock, which just refers to the specialized area between the soma and the axon. Here the signal is gathered before it begins travel down….

The axon is a long, slender projection that conducts the electrical signal down towards the terminal buttons.

There are layers of myelin that cover most of the axon. These are called the myelin sheath. They ensure the efficiency of the electrical signal, and minimize the “leakage” of the signal. (Think of the axon as a long open road, any traveler free to veer off course, but the myelin sheath is the barriers on either side of the road ensuring the traveler stays on course).

Also unlabeled are the spaces in between the myelin sheathes called the nodes of Ranvier. These are important to have because electrical signals can be generated at these unmyelinated portions. Thus, the signaling mechanism is often called “saltatory” conduction, meaning the electrical signals essentially “jump” from one node of Ranvier, through the myelin sheath, to the next node.

Finally, the signal reaches the terminal buttons, which will release a neurotransmitter to latch onto a receptor in the next post-synaptic cell to continue the communication of the network (which could lead to you move your arm to reach for your coffee or pick up the phone to speak with your mother).

I would love to continue to type until my fingers fall off and cover the basic principles of an action potential, the dopamine hypothesis, each neurotransmitter and its implications in neuropsychiatric disorder, long term potentiation and memory, so forth and so on. I truly believe that each topic is inherently interesting and totally relevant to anyone who is interested in studying the neural bases of psychiatric disease.

But alas, I leave you with this! I must get back to my studies. More to come in the following days/weeks/months.

- Dan

If you want to see what other Neuropsych topics I’ve covered, please feel free to peruse the “Find a Specific Topic” link at the top.

neuropsy: Interactive Human Brain in 3D Heathline now offers a...

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:21:40 -0400

neuropsy:

Interactive Human Brain in 3D

Heathline now offers a cool interactive Human Brain in 3D you can play with, as part of their overall Body Maps.

On Cranial Nerves

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:17:00 -0400

Hopefully this comes in handy to all you people studying anatomy!

We all know that the brain communicates to the rest of your body through an extensive system of nerves. With this sophisticated network with neurons, our brain can send output commands to keep our complex body systems running and for us to engage in movement; In return, the brain receives input from the rest of the body in terms of environment, sensation, and pain. Most of the nerves travel through the spinal cord before reaching the brain (thus, the terrible consequences of spinal cord injuries). However, there are twelve pairs of nerves that emerge directly from the brain, without having to go through the spine. These twelve “cranial” nerves are essential for communication and control of very fine sensations in the facial region, especially when it comes to sight, smell, hearing, eye movement, eating, and speech. They can also be divided by their function: sensory, motor, or both.

The twelve, with its general function, are as follows:

1. Olfactory nerve: smell (sensory)

2. Optic nerve: visual information to the brain (sensory)

3. Oculomotor nerve: eye movement (motor)

4. Trochlear nerve: eye movement (motor)

5. Trigeminal nerve: jaw movement, face and mouth pain (both)

6. Abducens nerve: eye movement (motor)

7. Facial nerve: facial expression, tears, some taste (both)

8. Vestibulocochlear nerve: hearing and balance (sensory)

9. Glossopharyngeal nerve: taste, carotid (neck) blood pressure (both)

10. Vagus nerve: parasympathetic, stimulates digestive system (both)

11. Accessory nerve: head movement, swallowing (motor)

12. Hypoglossal nerve: tongue movement for speech and swallowing (motor)

Some fun facts: The trigeminal nerve is the largest cranial nerve. The longest one is the vagus nerve because it goes all the way down to the digestive and urinary systems. As you can see, there are multiple nerves responsible for eye movement (more complicated than you would think).

A fun mnemonic device to remember cranial nerves:

To remember the names: OL’ OPus OCcasionally TRied TRIGonometry And Felt VEry GLOomy, VAGUe, And HYPOactive.
(Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, Hypoglossal)

To remember what TYPE of nerve, another easy sentences: Some Say More Money But My Brother Says Big Books Matter More. (Just match the sequence to cranial nerves 1-12 in order, S = sensory, M = motor, B = both)

Autographed by Dr. Ramachandran. Yeahhh~ I love this book. If...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:41:00 -0400

Autographed by Dr. Ramachandran. Yeahhh~ I love this book. If you want to gain a foundation in brain science, this is a pretty good book to start with. It’s an easy and interesting read, free of any convoluted neuro-jargon or technicalities. Ramachandran covers very intriguing cases in neurology and has an uncanny ability to come up with logical explanations for even the most puzzling of nuances.

Annals of Medicine: The Way We Age Now

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:36:00 -0400

Annals of Medicine: The Way We Age Now:

For those interested in medicine and/or geriatrics, this is an excellent article on the realities of aging and its care. Geriatrics is a struggling field with a patient base that will soon overwhelm the limited number of specialized professionals. We’re all doomed to age, but does that mean we’re destined for our final decades to be full of suffering?

Growing old means the breakdown of our bodies and our minds. But good specialized primary care can ensure that our elderly can enjoy the end of their lives and extend the “quality” years they have, merely by engaging with geriatricians who are trained to provide holistic treatment for a myriad of physical and mental problems. Geriatricians must exhibit great patience and care with each patient, never omitting even the most diminutive of detail. Examining a bad back, high blood pressure, arthritis, limited vision, shoulder pain, and dry mouth (yes, all in one patient) does not take precedent over the seemingly mundane examination of the feet. But as one doctor puts it, ‘“You must always examine the feet.” He described a bow-tied gentleman who seemed dapper and fit, until his feet revealed the truth: he couldn’t bend down to reach them, and they turned out not to have been cleaned in weeks, suggesting neglect and real danger.”

“We all like new medical gizmos and demand that policymakers make sure they are paid for. They feed our hope that the troubles of the body can be fixed for good. But geriatricians? Who clamors for geriatricians? What geriatricians do—bolster our resilience in old age, our capacity to weather what comes—is both difficult and unappealingly limited. It requires attention to the body and its alterations. It requires vigilance over nutrition, medications, and living situations. And it requires each of us to contemplate the course of our decline, in order to make the small changes that can reshape it. When the prevailing fantasy is that we can be ageless, the geriatrician’s uncomfortable demand is that we accept we are not.” (Page 3)

“I asked Chad Boult, the geriatrics professor now at Johns Hopkins, what can be done to insure that there are enough geriatricians for our country’s surging elderly population.“Nothing,” he said. “It’s too late.” Creating geriatricians takes years, and we already have far too few. This year, just three hundred doctors will complete geriatrics training, not nearly enough to replace the geriatricians going into retirement, let alone meet the needs of the next decade.” (Page 7)

How does this relate to neuroscience or psychology? There is a huge need for research efforts directed toward the geriatric population. You have an entire age group that suffers from undiagnosed mental illnesses, some receiving little to no care. There are geriatric psychiatry topics related to successful aging, cognitive function in aging, stress and coping for the elderly (particularly caregivers of spouses who have dementia), and studies on wisdom and resiliency. Also, brain imaging studies on the aging brain are key to understanding the basis of mental decline in various conditions, including “normal aging”.

With the Baby Boomer population soon reaching the ripe age of 65, it’s only a matter of time before we truly understand the importance of aging and how we can improve quality of elderly life.

How Tanning Changes the Brain

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:22:50 -0400

neuropsy:

This is an interesting study comparing the activity of the brain when people who like to tan indoors are exposed to UV light and when the tanning beds didn’t expose them to UV.

A study in 2005 did show that a large proportion of sunbathers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, based on their answers to a variation of a test often used to help diagnose alcohol addiction.

But Dr. Adinoff and his colleagues decided to go a step further. They recruited a small group of people from tanning salons who said that they liked to tan at least three times a week and that maintaining a tan was important to them. The frequent tanners agreed to be injected with a radioisotope that allowed researchers to monitor how tanning affected their brain activity.

Read More

On Visual Systems in the Brain

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:59:00 -0400

Marvel in the majesty that is the mapping of our visual systems:

The common misconception about vision is one that we’ve all heard before. Let’s say you’re in the grocery store and you’re examining a red apple. The red apple reflects to the back of your eye, on the retinal wall, upside down. From there, the cones and rods in your retina transfer this upside down image to the visual processing centers in your brain, which then flip it right side up. The brain reflects this image onto some sort of mental “screen”, which is what you are perceiving. A red apple.

This grossly oversimplified explanation of the visual pathway is what most people assume is the process by which we see and perceive.

However, as shown in the image above, vision is an extremely complex modality, with connections all over the place. There isn’t just one singular module for VISION. There are specific groups of neurons in the occipital lobe that allow you to process motion, color, lines, basic shapes, and orientation of objects. Not only that, your visual systems must contact your parietal lobe to get a good sense of your own proprioception, how far the object is in relation to your body, whether the space between you and the object is close enough that you may act upon it. Furthermore, your visual systems consult areas of your temporal lobe to attribute sentimentality to the salient features of the object or draw from your memory stores to identify the object.

Not only that, there are TWO visual pathways. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call them the “old” and “new” pathways. The “new” pathway is what we consider conventional vision. We see an object —> we perceive the object based on how our brain processes it —> we are free to act upon the object as we wish. This pathway involves the usage of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) in the thalamus. This is our “conscious” vision.

The “old” pathway is an ancient visual system in which we ‘orient’. If there is movement in our visual field, our eyes immediately shoot to where the movement was sensed. If something is flying at you, you immediately orient your attention towards it in order to avoid or catch it. This pathway involves the use of the superior colliculus. It acts “unconsciously”. If the “new” pathway were damaged with the “old” pathway largely intact, you’d get a curious disorder called Blindsight (more on this later).

There is plenty more to talk about when it comes to our visual system in the brain. In fact, the complexity of our visual system is absolutely overwhelming, but yet fascinating to study. Patients who have very specific visual modules damaged have profound and strange deficits. For example, if the MT (motion) is destroyed, a person might find themselves perceiving everything around them as if there were a perpetual strobe light (since the MT area ensures that you visualize the world in smooth motion).

The intricacies of our visual system become even more apparent when you look at illusions. Strangely enough, the stimuli of the illusion NEVER changes. Yet, based on where you focus your attention, you are able to perceive the illusions in two different ways.

Shown: Two black silhouettes or a white vase?

We definitely take vision for granted. The fact that we are looking at our computer screens at this very moment is a miracle. There is just so much that goes into the simple action of looking at an object. Rather than thinking of vision as a linear pathway, we have to recognize that it is an extremely dynamic and web-like connection of more than a dozen areas in your brain. All must activate and work properly for you to enjoy the visually-rich world around you.

Addiction now defined as chronic brain disorder

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:17:18 -0400

Addiction now defined as chronic brain disorder:

Addiction is a chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavior problem involving alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex, experts contend in a new definition of addiction, one that is not solely related to problematic substance abuse.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) just released this new definition of addiction after a four-year process involving more than 80 experts.

“At its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It’s a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas,” said Dr. Michael Miller, past president of ASAM who oversaw the development of the new definition. “Many behaviors driven by addiction are real problems and sometimes criminal acts. But the disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions.”

A Profile on Sigmund Freud

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 06:23:00 -0400

Sigmund Freud is a household name when it comes to psychology. Arguably one of the most influential figures at the dawn of modernism, Freud introduced to us the idea of the “unconscious” and totally smashed novel ideas of human nature in everyone’s faces. If you are still unconvinced of his influence, look no further than that impeccably trimmed beard. And we all know that good beards signify great historical importance (see: Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, artistic depictions of God).

Most of us know his basic theories: the id, ego, and superego, the unconscious, repression, denial, psychoanalysis, projections, etc. Not to mention, most of his theories boiled down to sexual desires being the primary source of motivation for all human behavior (often being repressed, but yet expressed in obscure ways). And despite his revolutionary ideas, Freud receives much criticism and skepticism for his ideas, sometimes even being rejected completely by the “more scientifically sound” neuroscience and modern psychology communities.

But can you deny his genius?

Human nature is such a difficult thing to understand. You think you know someone, but you really don’t. Most people think they have people figured out, that there’s a reason they do that and they do this. But in the end, humans don’t make sense and I think we can all conclude that humans have a tendency to do stupid things all the time (See: Thanatos: a Freudian term to basically say that we all have a tendency to self-destruction and death). Then here comes Freud, emphasizing the fact that human nature can be subject to scientific study and examination, much like how a biologist can study cells or an economist can analyze stock market trends. This is nothing novel to us now, but back in Freud’s day, this was revolutionary and simply shocking.

Freud claimed that what we think is our conscious mind—our thoughts and desires that are at our disposal for “conscious” thought and decision-making— is actually just the tip of the iceberg.

As in real icebergs, the REAL DEAL is the 90% that is “hidden”. Freud called that our “unconscious”. We are unaware of what goes on in our own heads. The id, ego, and superego are animalistic, primal desires that are checked to assess the plausibility of us fulfilling those desires and ultimately shackled because of what our society and culture has deemed “appropriate”. The unconscious is also responsible for our sexual desires, perverse as they may be, manifesting into very common behaviors and defense mechanisms that allow us humans to live our lives without any severe mental catastrophes. The moment the “unconscious” becomes disturbed and a cog from the machinery loosens, we begin to exhibit psychiatric symptoms and become quite “mad”.

Elaborate and well thought out, Freud’s ideas unfortunately are widely rejected. In fact, most of his theories are largely unfounded and impossible to test empirically. But one must respect the fact that he totally blew up the world of psychology and changed people’s perceptions on their own humanity. No longer is man invincible. In fact, man is extremely fragile and bewilderingly unaware of his own “true self”.

And as we see in various neurological cases and everyday life, Freud may have been onto something after all.

Neuropsy: Little Girl Can't Stop Giggling After Brain Surgery

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:33:42 -0400

Neuropsy: Little Girl Can't Stop Giggling After Brain Surgery:

neuropsy:

Seven-year-old Enna Stephens is facing a daunting 16 months of chemotherapy and radiation after doctor’s removed a tumor from her brain, but thanks to a bizarre side effect of the surgery — all she can do is laugh about it.

Enna suffers from pseudobulbar affect (PBA), a neurological disorder…

An ode to my favorite beers: the IPA

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:37:52 -0400

An ode to my favorite beers: the IPA:

A glimpse into my life outside of academia on my personal blog. IPAs rule!

Divisions of the Brain: An Overview

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:43:52 -0400

One of the goals in my blog is to educate and be a resource for basic neuroscience and psychology. Not everyone will be interested in everything I write, but I will try to explain most things in layman terms. One thing that I wanted to do is write out different posts about neuroanatomy, terms, and basic concepts so that neuro/psych “jargon” will become familiar. Then anyone can decipher a research paper and grasp the basic idea, hopefully kindling more interest for one of the most fascinating frontiers we have yet to explore.

This is a general overview of brain divisions.

You can separate the cerebral cortex and brain stem into three parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain.

But, you can divide the sections even further as follows: Telencephalon, Rhinencephalon, Diencephalon, Mesencephalon, Metencephalon, and Myelencephalon.

(An easy way to remember this using mnemonic device is “I’m TELEN the RHIN-O that I’m DYIN’” and then it’s the three M’s with the next few letters being in alphabetical order: meS, meT, and mY)

FOREBRAIN:

Telencephalon: your cerebral cortex, separated into four lobes: Frontal, Parietal (“walls”), Temporal (“near the temples”), and Occipital (“back”)

Rhinencephalon: your limbic system (“emotion and memory”)

Diencephalon: your thalamus (“relay station”), hypothalamus (“the four Fs: Fight, Fright, Flight, and Sexual behavior”), basal ganglia

MIDBRAIN:

Mesencephalon: your midbrain (“sight, hearing, motor control, alertness, temperature regulation”)

HINDBRAIN:

Metencephalon: your pons (“control of basic life functions”)

Myelencephalon: your medulla oblongata (“autonomic life functions”)

Now that we have basic brain division down. I will be dedicating some posts over the next few weeks to some of the notable parts of the brain.

As always, just remember: Your brain is one of the craziest phenomenon we could ever study. We take our brains for granted. The fact is: this organ has so many different modalities and sectors working in perfect harmony to create this experience that is life. Even if ONE part goes haywire, your entire perception of the world around you and even your inner most thoughts and aspirations will be altered.

It’s going to be quite a journey.

Further Reading for Neuroanatomy: Introduction to Neuropsychology, 3rd Ed. by J. Graham Beaumont

A Good Philosophy

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:15:41 -0400

Regarding Neurological Cases:

If you think someone is crazy and out of their mind, you’re probably not smart enough to figure it out.

Neuropsy: Is there a shortcut to bonding with a romantic partner on a deeper level?

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:16:56 -0400

Neuropsy: Is there a shortcut to bonding with a romantic partner on a deeper level? :

neuropsy:

From Sam Gosling’s book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You:

Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is interested in how people form romantic relationships, and he’s come up with an ingenious way of taking men and women who have never met before…

The Brain and Mental Health

Notes from a Dragon Mom

neurolinguist: TED: Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is celebrating...

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is the most under-served of all...

On Schizophrenia Pt. 1

ucsdhealthsciences: Dr. Eric Courchesne explains how an...

On Neurons: The Anatomy

neuropsy: Interactive Human Brain in 3D Heath­line now offers a...

On Cranial Nerves

Autographed by Dr. Ramachandran. Yeahhh~ I love this book. If...

Annals of Medicine: The Way We Age Now

How Tanning Changes the Brain

On Visual Systems in the Brain

Addiction now defined as chronic brain disorder

A Profile on Sigmund Freud

Neuropsy: Little Girl Can't Stop Giggling After Brain Surgery

An ode to my favorite beers: the IPA

Divisions of the Brain: An Overview

A Good Philosophy

Neuropsy: Is there a shortcut to bonding with a romantic partner on a deeper level?

neuropsy: Interactive Human Brain in 3D Heathline now offers a...