Studies show rich people are more selfish and less caring

The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest - Health - Behavior - msnbc.com
Is anyone surprised by this?
Read the link for the details.

Brain News - Are we getting stupider, or is our brain becoming more efficient?

The Archaeology News Network: Are we becoming more stupid? Human brain has been shrinking for the last 20,000 years

Tourette's may be linked to histamine levels

Treating Tourette's: Scientific American
Excerpts:
...
Tourette’s syndrome is most pronounced in children. The physical and
vocal tics, which can alienate kids from peers, are difficult to treat.
First-line drugs are limited in their efficacy, whereas more effective
antipsychotics have many potential long-term side effects, including
weight gain and movement disorders. Investigators may be moving closer
to a new treatment option involving drugs that already exist.

Last year researchers identified a new gene mutation associated with
the disorder. Known mutations have only explained a small number of
Tourette’s cases, so the investigators, led by Matthew State,
co-director of the Yale Neurogenetics Program, studied a rare family in
which the father and his eight children all had Tourette’s. In these
family members, the gene involved in the production of histamine in the
brain was shorter than normal, generating lower levels of the compound,
which is involved in inflammatory response. State believes these lower
levels can cause tics, and he is looking for this and further
histamine-related mutations in other people with Tourette’s.

Now scientists have found parallels between this family and
histamine-deficient mice, which furthers the connection to Tourette’s.
Most individuals with Tour­ette’s have low prepulse inhibition, meaning
that they are more easily startled or distracted than the average
person, says Christopher Pittenger, director of the Yale OCD Research
Clinic. In May he was to pre­sent new data to the Society of Biological
Psychiatry that both this family and mice missing the histamine gene had
low prepulse inhibition and tics. Other experiments have shown that
histamine-boosting drugs decrease ticlike behaviors in mice.

...
Drugs that increase histamine are already being tested to treat other
neurological conditions, as well as attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder, which is often found in people with Tourette’s.

The Cult of Apple - It IS a religion (not a computer company)

Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists


Excerpt:

In a recently screened BBC documentary, UK
neuroscientists suggested that the brains of Apple devotees are
stimulated by Apple imagery in the same way that the brains of religious
people are stimulated by religious imagery.

People have
often talked about “the cult of Apple”, and if a recent BBC TV
documentary is to be believed, there could be something in it.

The program, Secrets of the Superbrands,
looks at why technology megabrands such as Apple, Facebook and Twitter
have become so popular and such a big part of many people’s lives.

In
the first episode, presenter Alex Riley decided to take a look at
Apple. He wanted to discover what it is about the company that makes
people so emotional. Footage of the opening of the Cupertino company’s
Covent Garden store in central London last year showed hordes of Apple
devotees lining up outside overnight, while the staff whipped up
customers (and themselves) into something of an evangelical frenzy. This
religious-like fervour got Riley thinking – he decided to take a closer
look at the inside of the head of an Apple fanatic to see what on earth
was going on in there.

Click the top link to read the rest.

Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs

Dangerous Minds | Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs
Excerpt:
Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis,
the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more
intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to
consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children.  Net of sex,
religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education,
earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth,
mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are
more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume
psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.

Gullibility may be early sign of dementia

Gullibility may be early sign of dementia - Boing Boing
This makes sense

People with Tourettes syndrome have tremendous cognitive motor control

People with Tourettes syndrome have tremendous cognitive motor control
Excerpt:

The motor outputs of children with Tourettes syndrome are under
greater cognitive control. You might view this as their being less
likely to respond without thinking, or as being less reflexive.

This helps explain why some people may have many tics as children,
but as adults have very few. Over time, their brains have developed ways
to control these tics. Jackson points out that this may mean people
with Tourettes need mental exercises rather than brain surgery or drugs,
because their brains will naturally develop compensatory mechanisms.

Toronto school start hour later and sees improvement to grades and well-being of students

Toronto school starts hour later and grades improve - Parentcentral.ca
Starting high school at 10am instead of 9am makes sense to me. I was always tired in high school.

LSD makes a comeback as a possible clinical treatment

LSD Returns--For Psychotherapeutics: Scientific American
Excerpt:

The preliminary study picks up where investigators left off. It
explores the possible therapeutic effects of the drug on the intense
anxiety experienced by patients with life-threatening disease, such as cancer.
A number of the hundreds of studies conducted on lysergic acid
diethylamide-25 from the 1940s into the 1970s (many of poor quality by
contemporary standards) delved into the personal insights the drug
supplied that enabled patients to reconcile themselves with their own
mortality. In recent years some researchers have studied psilocybin (the
active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) and MDMA (Ecstasy), among
others, as possible treatments for this “existential anxiety,” but not
LSD.

Gasser, head of the Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy,
which he joined after his own therapist-administered LSD experience, has
only recently begun to discuss his research, revealing the challenges
of studying psychedelics. The $190,000 study approved by Swiss medical
authorities, was almost entirely funded by the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, a U.S. nonprofit that sponsors
research toward the goal of making psychedelics and marijuana into
prescription drugs. Begun in 2008, the study intends to treat 12
patients (eight who will receive LSD and four a placebo). Finding
eligible candidates has been difficult—after 18 months only five
patients had been recruited, and just four had gone through the trial’s
regimen of a pair of all-day sessions. “Because LSD is not a usual
treatment, an oncologist will not recommend it to a patient,” Gasser
laments.

The patients who received the drug found the experience aided them
emotionally, and none experienced panic reactions or other untoward
events. One patient, Udo Schulz, told the German weekly Der Spiegel
that the therapy with LSD helped him overcome anxious feelings after
being diagnosed with stomach cancer, and the experience with the drug
aided his reentry into the workplace.

The trials follow a strict protocol—“all LSD treatment sessions will
begin at 11 a.m.”—and the researchers are scrupulous about avoiding
mistakes that, at times, occurred during older psychedelic trials, when
investigators would leave subjects alone during a drug session. Both
Gasser and a female co-therapist are present throughout the eight-hour
sessions that take place in quiet, darkened rooms, with emergency
medical equipment close at hand. Before receiving LSD, subjects have to
undergo psychological testing and preliminary psychotherapy sessions.

Another group is also pursuing LSD research. The British-based
Beckley Foundation is funding and collaborating on a 12-person pilot
study at the University of California, Berkeley, that is assessing how
the drug may foster creativity and what changes in neural activity go
along with altered conscious experience induced by the chemical. Whether
LSD will one day become the drug of choice for psychedelic
psychotherapy remains in question because there may be better solutions.
“We chose psilocybin over LSD because it is gentler and generally less
intense,” says Charles S. Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the
University of California, Los Angeles, who conducted a trial to test
psilocybin’s effects on anxiety in terminal cancer patients. Moreover,
“it is associated with fewer panic reactions and less chance of paranoia
and, most important, over the past half a century psilocybin has
attracted far less negative publicity and carries far less cultural
baggage than LSD.”

Study shows conservatives have more capacity for anxiety and emotions but less for courage and positive outlook

Political views 'hard-wired' into your brain - Telegraph
Excerpt:

Scientists have found that people with conservative views have brains with
larger amygdalas, almond shaped areas in the centre of the brain often
associated with anxiety and emotions.

On the other hand, they have a smaller anterior cingulate, an area at the front
of the brain associated with courage and looking on the bright side of life.

New studies into hallucinogens and mental health

Two new scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good for your mental health


LSD and ketamine, two powerful hallucinogens, are also potential cures
for depression, OCD, and anxiety. Two studies published this week, in Science and Nature, confirm that hallucinogenic drugs stimulate healthy brain activity, even promoting the growth of neurons.

Dirt can make you happier and smarter

Bacteria can make you happier AND smarter!


Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria are already known to decrease
anxiety, but it might have even more dramatic properties. Recent studies
on mice suggest the bacteria, commonly found in the soils of people's
gardens, also increases intelligence and the ability to learn.

Listening to prayer halts brain activity

Study Shows that Listening to Prayer Halts Brain Activity - Science - io9
Excerpts:
A team of Danish researchers have found that when listening to a
well-spoken person who claims to have divine healing powers, the regions
of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less
active.
...
Only in the devout volunteers did the brain activity monitored by the
researchers change in response to the prayers. Parts of the prefrontal
and anterior cingulate cortices, which play key roles in vigilance and
scepticism when judging the truth and importance of what people say,
were deactivated when the subjects listened to a supposed healer.
...

Brain Regeneration

Reboot Your Brain? Science Says It's Possible -A Galaxy Classic

Brain quick to adapt

Adult brain can change within seconds - MIT News Office

The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity. ...

Feed your Brain

Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ - life - 09 June 2009 - New Scientist
...
Intriguingly, the researchers found no link between the total number of connections in a subject's brain network and their IQ. "We show that more intelligent people don't have more connections, but they have more efficiently placed connections," he says.
...

Brain diagram

hardi3.jpg (JPEG Image, 4502x2862 pixels) - Scaled (32%)

New discoveries regarding Tourette's Syndrome

New imaging technique reveals structural changes in Tourette's

... The authors conclude, "We suggest that Tourette's is primarily caused by a dysfunction in prefrontal cortex areas rather than the basal ganglia, as has been previously thought". ...

Fraction cells

'Fraction cells' found in human brain

The human brain seems to react directly to fractions and not look at them as ratios. ...

Source of wisdon in the human brain

Scientists 'discover' source of wisdom in the human brain | Mail Online