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Archive for January, 2011

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010


A new small study has discovered treating clinical depression via the telephone is nearly as effective as face-to-face consultations.


Brigham Young University scientists followed 30 people newly diagnosed with major depression.


Instead of eight scheduled visits to the clinic, the participants covered the same material during a series of phone calls with the therapist. Calls varied in length, ranging from 21 to 52 minutes.


The patients did not receive antidepressant medication.


At a six month followup, 42 percent of participants had recovered from depression. For comparison, similar therapy conducted in person has a 50 percent recovery rate.


“Offering a phone or webcam option for psychotherapy does appear warranted from an efficacy point of view,” said Diane Spangler, a BYU psychology professor and a coauthor on the study.


“It’s more user-friendly – no commutes, more flexibility of place and time – and has no side effects.”


Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/telephonic-therapy-effective-for-depression/13701.html



 Wise Owl

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 10, 2010 

Wisdom may be the most valuable virtue associated with life and the aging process.

Knowledge, judgment, compassion, and common sense are words that describe some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued.

In fact, there is no enduring, consistent definition of what it means exactly to be wise. It is a virtue widely treasured but essentially unexplained, a timeless subject only now attracting rigorous, scientific scrutiny.

In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis.

In other words, that wisdom is wired.

In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/10/researchers-look-to-define-wisdom/13658.html



 Wise Owl

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 10, 2010 

Wisdom may be the most valuable virtue associated with life and the aging process.

Knowledge, judgment, compassion, and common sense are words that describe some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued.

In fact, there is no enduring, consistent definition of what it means exactly to be wise. It is a virtue widely treasured but essentially unexplained, a timeless subject only now attracting rigorous, scientific scrutiny.

In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis.

In other words, that wisdom is wired.

In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/10/researchers-look-to-define-wisdom/13658.html



by Satoshi Kanazawa



Some people are night owls, and others are morning larks.  What makes the difference may be their levels of general intelligence.


Virtually all species in nature, from single-cell organisms to mammals, including humans, exhibit a daily cycle of activity called circadian rhythm.  The circadian rhythm in mammals is regulated by two clusters of nerve cells called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the anterior hypothalamus.  Geneticists have by now identified a set of genes that regulate the SCN and thus the circadian rhythm among mammals.


However, humans, unlike other mammalian species, have the unique ability, consciously and cognitively, to override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs.  In other words, at least for humans, circadian rhythm is not entirely a matter of genetics.  Within broad genetic constraints, humans can choose what time to go to bed and get up.  Humans can choose to be night owls or morning larks.


While there are some individual differences in the circadian rhythm, where some individuals are more nocturnal than others, humans are basically a diurnal (day-living) species.  Humans rely very heavily on vision for navigation but, unlike genuinely nocturnal species, cannot see in the dark or under little lighting, and our ancestors did not have artificial lighting during the night until the domestication of fire.  Any human in the ancestral environment up and about during the night would have been at risk of predation by nocturnal predators.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201005/why-night-owls-are-more-intelligent-morning-larks



by Satoshi Kanazawa


Some people are night owls, and others are morning larks.  What makes the difference may be their levels of general intelligence.


Virtually all species in nature, from single-cell organisms to mammals, including humans, exhibit a daily cycle of activity called circadian rhythm.  The circadian rhythm in mammals is regulated by two clusters of nerve cells called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the anterior hypothalamus.  Geneticists have by now identified a set of genes that regulate the SCN and thus the circadian rhythm among mammals.


However, humans, unlike other mammalian species, have the unique ability, consciously and cognitively, to override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs.  In other words, at least for humans, circadian rhythm is not entirely a matter of genetics.  Within broad genetic constraints, humans can choose what time to go to bed and get up.  Humans can choose to be night owls or morning larks.


While there are some individual differences in the circadian rhythm, where some individuals are more nocturnal than others, humans are basically a diurnal (day-living) species.  Humans rely very heavily on vision for navigation but, unlike genuinely nocturnal species, cannot see in the dark or under little lighting, and our ancestors did not have artificial lighting during the night until the domestication of fire.  Any human in the ancestral environment up and about during the night would have been at risk of predation by nocturnal predators.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201005/why-night-owls-are-more-intelligent-morning-larks



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010 

Dyslexia is a relatively common learning disability characterized by problems in reading, writing and spelling.

Children with dyslexia often struggle despite getting an appropriate education and demonstrating intellectual ability in other areas.

New neurological research has found that these children’s difficulties with written language may be linked to structural differences within an important information highway in the brain known to play a role in oral language.

Vanderbilt University researchers Sheryl Rimrodt and Laurie Cutting used an emerging MRI technique, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to discover evidence linking dyslexia to structural differences in an important bundle of white matter in the left-hemisphere language network.

White matter is made up of fibers that can be thought of as the wiring that allows communication between brain cells; the left-hemisphere language network is made up of bundles of these fibers and contains branches that extend from the back of the brain (including vision cells) to the front parts that are responsible for articulation and speech.

“When you are reading, you are essentially saying things out loud in your head,” said Cutting.

“If you have decreased integrity of white matter in this area, the front and back part of your brain are not talking to one another. This would affect reading, because you need both to act as a cohesive unit.”

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/brain-differences-linked-to-dyslexia/13706.html



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010 

Dyslexia is a relatively common learning disability characterized by problems in reading, writing and spelling.

Children with dyslexia often struggle despite getting an appropriate education and demonstrating intellectual ability in other areas.

New neurological research has found that these children’s difficulties with written language may be linked to structural differences within an important information highway in the brain known to play a role in oral language.

Vanderbilt University researchers Sheryl Rimrodt and Laurie Cutting used an emerging MRI technique, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to discover evidence linking dyslexia to structural differences in an important bundle of white matter in the left-hemisphere language network.

White matter is made up of fibers that can be thought of as the wiring that allows communication between brain cells; the left-hemisphere language network is made up of bundles of these fibers and contains branches that extend from the back of the brain (including vision cells) to the front parts that are responsible for articulation and speech.

“When you are reading, you are essentially saying things out loud in your head,” said Cutting.

“If you have decreased integrity of white matter in this area, the front and back part of your brain are not talking to one another. This would affect reading, because you need both to act as a cohesive unit.”

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/brain-differences-linked-to-dyslexia/13706.html



 DNA

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010

Analysis of the genetic pattern of individuals with schizophrenia has discovered numerous variations in DNA that increase the risk of developing the disease.

Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells.

“When we compared the genomes of patients with schizophrenia to those of healthy subjects, we found variations in genes that regulate brain functions, several of which are already known to be perturbed in patients with this disorder,” said study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/genetics-similar-for-adhd-autism-schizophrenia/13704.html



 DNA

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010

Analysis of the genetic pattern of individuals with schizophrenia has discovered numerous variations in DNA that increase the risk of developing the disease.

Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells.

“When we compared the genomes of patients with schizophrenia to those of healthy subjects, we found variations in genes that regulate brain functions, several of which are already known to be perturbed in patients with this disorder,” said study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/genetics-similar-for-adhd-autism-schizophrenia/13704.html



 

By Dr Carolyn Bernstein
Last updated at 10:00 AM on 10th May 2010

An Egyptian medical scroll dated 1500 to 3000BC is the first known mention of a migraine, and throughout the centuries they have been one of the least understood but most common diseases.

Yet despite its longevity, the single biggest misunderstanding is that a migraine is just a severe headache. It is, in fact, a complex neurological disease that affects the central nervous system and is accompanied by a range of physical and emotional symptoms.

I had my first migraine when I was a medical student in my early 20s. At first I thought I was just having bad headaches and it didn’t occur to me to talk to my doctor. The pain would always resolve, although sometimes I had to sleep it off.

But as I began to study neurology, I realised I was having migraines. I was shocked at the absence of solid medical data and horrified by the lack of sympathy. I learned what many migraineurs already knew: people who don’t get migraines – including many doctors – have a hard time believing how debilitating they are. Indeed, countless patients tell me their friends or employers have ordered them to ‘just deal with it’.

I’d already decided to specialise in neurology. But it was my own experience, and the realisation that we in the medical world still had so much to learn, that led me to investigate this fascinating disorder.

Migraines are caused by abnormal brain biochemistry and are not, as some believe, self-induced. They are not the consequence of psychiatric problems, nor a sign of hypochondria, nor the fault of the sufferer. They are a chronic, neurological illness that is present from birth and is in most cases inherited from one or both parents.

Read in Full:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1275419/Migraines–headaches-born–best-cure-cup-coffee-two.html?ito=feeds-newsxml