Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatic herbaceous plant belonging to the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to southwest India (also cultivated in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and most of Southeast Asia), where plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes and propagated from some of those same rhizomes in the following season. When not used fresh (like ginger), the rhizomes are … Read more
This appears to be the first good research showing why SSRIs do not work for most people in treating depression and anxiety. It appears that early life stress increases serotonin levels in the brain to the point that a negative feedback loop develops, reducing the brain’s sensitivity to the serotonin. The resulting depression and/or anxiety … Read more
From Frontiers in Cognitive Science, Thomas Widlok offers a very information-dense original research article on causal cognition. Causal cognition is based on the premise that “the human cognitive system is built to see causation as governing how events unfold” (Sloman and Lagnado, 2014). In this article, Widlok contends that considerable inter-cultural variability remains when the … Read more
The video included here is of “Baroness” Susan Greenfield speaking at The RSA about her new book, Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains (to be released in the U.S. in January, 2015). Her talk was mired in controversy before she ever opened her mouth (see the details in the … Read more
This hit the news a couple of weeks ago (Oct. 16), but I am just now getting around to posting it. This is a huge breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms of consciousness, and it also provides a way to identify true brain death from “locked-in” syndrome. I include here a summary of the research from … Read more
This study looked specifically at inhibitory synapses – “The signal it transmits hinders activation of the postsynaptic neuron, making it less likely for it to become activated and emit its action potential,” according to Paola Zacchi, a SISSA [International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, SISSA) researcher who coordinated the … Read more
From Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, this is an interesting and geeky article on how we might begin to measure metacognition (the ability to recognize our own successful cognitive functioning). Full Citation: Fleming SM and Lau HC. (2014, Jul 15). How to measure metacognition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience; 8:443. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00443 How to measure metacognition Stephen M. … Read more
From Pacific Standard, this is a brief review of new research around the efficacy of deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of various types of psychological distress (depression, bipolar, and so on). Their results suggest that brain networks might be used to understand why brain stimulation works and to improve this … Read more
In recent years, science is finally beginning to grasp the obvious fact that the human body is a system, so that when something goes wrong in one part of the organism, it has effects in other parts of the organism as well. The most obvious example of this is the new focus on the microbiome … Read more
Paul Whiteley, who blogs at Questioning Answers (mostly on autism research), posted this intriguing research summary from Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry on the relationship between the “gut-brain axis” and schizophrenia, which is not a new avenue of research, but is nonetheless still considered a fringe notion in the mainstream schizophrenia research. It only … Read more