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POPSWhew! Good thing people are smarter than rats - grin. We don't need a canary to warn us about trouble in the fast food lane of life - we need a rat! Read on to see that rats react the same to heroin, as they do to bacon, cheesecake and HoHos. So why do you think they tested three of guy's favorite food groups?
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POPSBrain Tumor Survivors Shouldn't Take It Easy The mice that were able to exercise scored just as well on a memory test as normal mice did; however, the mice that did not have access to the exercise wheel did not. "It was remarkable that the irradiated, running mice were just like the normal, non-irradiated mice that didn't exercise," lead researcher and graduate student Sarah Wong-Goodrich of the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, was quoted as saying. "We were expecting some memory retention issues with a longer delay and there weren't any." The researchers believe exercise benefits the mind by improving blood flow to the hippocampus in the brain, a key area for learning and memory.
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POPSWant a brain that bounces back like a super ball? This is looking really good for my running friends - while they may be killing their knees and hips, they are keeping their brains young! (I walk and occasionally job 15 miles a day) One caveat though - the test was done on rhesus monkeys. So if you run a lot, have slightly longer arms than the rest of us and...
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POPSThe Neuroscience of Sin! Why do we do it? Reading this article made me think of the proverbial "chicken and the egg." The article suggests that we sin because our brains are evolutionarily designed to do so. This leaves us to conclude that you cannot manage sin as it is hardwired in. I don't agree with that. I think sin is the chicken! The article does a great job of illustrating how various emotions and motives play out in the brain not the other way around. The good news is the very last paragraph. Read it for yourself...enjoy!
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POPSLaser Retinal Retinal laser surgery is performed as a way of treatment to retinal diseases or eye disorders. It is commonly performed in our office where you must feel comfortable.
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POPSPlay controls impulsive behavior
"46 percent of kindergarten teachers said that at least half the kids in their classes had problems following directions. In another study, Head Start teachers reported that more than a quarter of their students exhibited serious self-control-related negative behaviors, like kicking or threatening other students, at least once a week. Walter Gilliam, a professor at Yale’s child-study center, estimates that each year, across the country, more than 5,000 children are expelled from pre-K programs because teachers feel unable to control them." Do these statistics sounds familiar? If you have a child in elementary school or preschool, you may have to deal with your child being criticized for their impulsive behavior. They might even be given a diagnosis or put in special "resource" education programs. I don't blame the educational programs or even political policy on education for the problems are children are experiencing in schools. I don't blame the mental health professionals f
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POPSSome coma patients able to learn basic responses The fascinating (but preliminary) findings, presented in Nature Neuroscience, may eventually help doctors evaluate coma patients’ potential for recovery. The authors found a strong correlation between cognitively damaged patients who seemed to exhibit such learning and those who showed some level of improvement months after their injury, as measured by a standard coma recovery scale
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POPSYour Child's ADHD Brain Why is that children diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder cannot do their homework, follow through on a chore but can play a video game for hours? The answer, according to this insightful article about the ADHD child's brain, suggests that focused attention, like playing a video game is more highly rewarding to the the child with attentional problems. This increases brain chemicals that stimulate attention and concentration. The other useful point, not explicitly stated in this article, is that this behavior may not be purely manipulation as parents often assume! The reality is that ADHD children are much more difficult to be motivated and rewarded. The better parents and teachers are at getting children engaged the more likely the success of completing a task. Anyone, regardless of their attention abilities, get bored with repetitive tasks like taking out the garbage or practicing vocabulary words. Medications help children compensate for this deficit in their reward trigg
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POPSTraining your brain to multitask! Should you? This article reminds me of when I used to teach Time Management courses for corporate HR programs. No matter how many strategies you would try to teach, it all really came down to a single principle: You can only do one thing at a time well. I used to call it O.T.A.T. meaning "one thing at a time." Multitask basically meant switching activities quickly. Technology supports this speeding up process...read the article and tell my your thoughts.
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POPSBuddhist Neuropsychology: emotions and Awe Keltner is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory. I haven't read this book but will aim to. The whole approach of Buddhist psychology and its accommodation with neuroscience is fascinating, a fascination shared by the Dalai Lama. Awe-inspiring stuff!
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POPSAttacking Alzheimer's with Red Wine and Marijuana "Could people smoke marijuana to prevent Alzheimer's disease if the disease is in the family? We're not saying that, but it might actually work," he said. "What we are saying is it appears that a safe, legal substance that mimics those important properties of marijuana can work on receptors in the brain to prevent memory impairments in aging. So that's really hopeful."
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POPSSense of identity What researchers are finding is that there is no single “identity spot” in the brain. Instead, the brain uses several different neural regions, working closely together, to sustain and update the identities of self and others. Learning what makes identity, researchers say, will help doctors understand how some people preserve their identities in the face of creeping dementia, and how others are sometimes able to reconstitute one.
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POPSThrough Gritted Teeth "This concept of grit is not just perseverance, it's also about keeping relevant long-term goals in mind. When psychologists have researched 'goal-directed action' in the past, they've almost always been thinking about the here and now. Reaching, immediate problem solving and short-term achievement. This is slowly starting to change and some cognitive scientists are now attempting to understand the psychology and neuroscience of what we might call 'life goals'.
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