Ok, so maybe you won't necessarily become a professional bodybuilder just by using your thoughts, but new research suggests that regular mental imagery can help muscles sustain strength when immobilized for several weeks. The article, entitled The power of the mind: the cortex as a critical determinant of muscle strength/weakness, was published in the Journal … Continue reading Findings Friday: Using your brain to become Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Manic Monday: Harlow’s Pit of Despair, the Rape Rack and Iron Maidens
“One of six monkeys isolated for three months refused to eat after release and died five days later…the effects of six months of total social isolation were so devastating and debilitating that we had assumed initially that twelve months of isolation would not produce any additional decrement. This assumption proved to be false; twelve months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially.”
Mirrored-Self Misidentification: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who I See is not Me at all
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who I see is not me at all. When you look into a mirror, who do you see? Yourself? Not if you have Mirrored-self misidentification, a delusional belief that your reflection in a mirror belongs to a stranger’s. The stranger just happens to look like you. The disorder might be … Continue reading Mirrored-Self Misidentification: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who I See is not Me at all
Split-Brain Patients
The corpus callosum is the bundle of never fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain. It’s the largest single structure in the brain, with some two hundred million fibers. As a last resort for epilepsy, this bundle can be cut in a procedure known as a callostomy. When this happens, a split-brain patient … Continue reading Split-Brain Patients
Somatophrenia
Look at the right side of your body. It’s yours, right? Or maybe it’s your neighbor’s… Somatoparaphrenia is caused by damage to the right parietal lobe. The similarity of this disorder to BIID, coupled with the childhood onset of these disorders, suggest both may be congenital disorders, that is, present from birth. The disorder is a … Continue reading Somatophrenia
Alien Hand Syndrome
Imagine cruising down the highway, wind in your hair, sunshine on your face. You have the radio on, your favorite songs are playing, and your hands seem fine. That is, until they start taking over the steering wheel and trying to crash you.Or you are sitting in your chair and your hand is repeatedly slapping … Continue reading Alien Hand Syndrome
Body Integrity Identity Disorder
Ever felt like cutting off your own leg? I didn’t think so. Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), also known as Amputee Identity Disorder, is one in which the sufferer is adamant that a limb of theirs does not belong to them and needs to be amputated. There is a sort of alienation of the limb, usually … Continue reading Body Integrity Identity Disorder
Ancient Egypt and Neuroscience
When you think of Ancient Egypt, you probably conjure up images of hieroglyphics, the Sphinx, pyramids. Maybe you’ll imagine an embalmer burning the midnight oil, hunched over a corpse, candles flickering all around, casting shadows.And if you think of the brain in relation to the Egyptians, you’ll most likely imagine a hook going up a … Continue reading Ancient Egypt and Neuroscience
Brain Imaging Alphabetical Soup: Making Sense of CAT, PET, MRI, fMRI, SPECT: CAT Scans
We've all heard the abbreviations: CAT, PET, MRI, fMRI, SPECT.Now what the heck do they all mean? Brain imaging has an interesting start. But generally, brain imaging techniques fall into two broad categories: Structural imaging, and Functional imaging. Structural imaging does just what its name implies: it provides images of the structure of the brain. … Continue reading Brain Imaging Alphabetical Soup: Making Sense of CAT, PET, MRI, fMRI, SPECT: CAT Scans
Mosso and Bertino: Brain Injury to Imaging Inventions
The earliest ways of peering into the brains of people was invasive, and sometimes, fatal. Consequently, most subjects were those who were mentally disabled, those who had mental illnesses. Therefore, we now know more about dysfunction than we do function. However, this isn’t a bad thing, considering that it’s through dysfunction that we can better … Continue reading Mosso and Bertino: Brain Injury to Imaging Inventions
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