Is there a specific memory for events involving people? Researchers in the Vulnerability, Adaptation and Psychopathology Laboratory (CNRS/University Paris VI France ) and a Canadian team at Douglas Hospital, McGill University (Montreal), have identified the internal part of the prefrontal cortex as being the key structure for memorising social information. Published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, February 2007
Social events such as a party with friends, a work meeting or an argument with a partner form an integral part of daily life. Our ability to remember these events, and more precisely to remember the people and the relationships we had with them, is essential to ensure satisfactory adaptation to our social existence. At a cerebral level, various regions of the brain, and particularly the hippocampus, are directly involved in learning and memory. Some of these regions are specialised in learning certain types of information, such as the amygdale and our memory for emotions.
BBCFri, 30 Mar 2007 13:52 UTC
Scientists have revealed details of the world's only known case of "semi-identical" twins.
The journal Nature says the twins are identical on their mother's side, but share only half their genes on their father's side.
They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.
Each stage is unlikely, and scientists believe the twins are probably unique.
More than 100,000 elderly people with dementia are being sedated with drugs linked to increased risk of pneumonia, strokes and heart attacks.
The first long-term study of a class of drugs called neuroleptics found patients taking them died on average six months earlier than those switched to placebos.
So you had a child with a monster. If this monster happens to be a psychopath you have a challenge on your hands. Now what do you do. Take control. How do you that?
First, and foremost, take control of your self. Every time you react to something they do, they are in control. Over and over I hear stories about these monsters and the story teller is stressed out over the whole thing. Wrong answer. You are playing into their hands.
For the purpose of this writing I will assume you are dealing with a court case. Psychopaths are master manipulators and you will not win without help.
Your role in protecting your child from a negative influence is to be the fact gatherer for your attorney. You can not do a good job if you are mentally strung out. Grab a hold of your self and focus on your mission.
Are you, or someone you love, so damn frustrated by a stalker you just want to scream. Adding insult to injury most recommendations come in the form of things you must do. You, not the stalker, are advised to turn your world upside in hopes it might stop. Law enforcement tells you there is not enough to make an arrest. Nobody or nothing seems to help. When you are at your wits end I suggest you stalk the stalker.
No, I don't me literally go out and follow them around. Nor do I mean gather all the personal information you can get your hands on. What I do mean is learn as much as you can about them. You need to become your own expert on how they think.
Distractions turn on different part of our brains and do so more quickly than the daily grind of paying attention, neuroscientists have discovered.
Separate regions are responsible for the different ways our brain focuses on the world around us, according to the study by MIT researchers, and our brain waves even pulsate at different frequencies depending on the type of outside stimulus.
"Neural activity goes up and down in a regular periodic way, with everything vibrating together," said study co-leader and neuroscientist Earl K. Miller. "It is faster for automatic stimulus and slower for things we choose to pay attention to."
New research from Columbia University Medical Center may explain why people who are able to easily and accurately recall historical dates or long-ago events, may have a harder time with word recall or remembering the day's current events. They may have too much memory - making it harder to filter out information and increasing the time it takes for new short-term memories to be processed and stored.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (March 13, 2007 issue), the research reinforces the old adage that too much of anything - even something good for you - can actually be detrimental. In this case, the good thing is the growth of new neurons, a process called neurogenesis, in the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
Results of the study, conducted with mice, found that the absence of neurogenesis in the hippocampus improves working memory, a specific form of short-term memory that relates to the ability to store task-specific information for a limited timeframe, e.g., where your car is parked in a huge mall lot or remembering a phone number for few seconds before writing it down. Because working memory is highly sensitive to interference from information previously stored in memory, forgetting such information may therefore be necessary for performing everyday working memory tasks, such as balancing your check book or decision making.
Autistic children are able to interpret the mental state of others by looking at their eyes, contrary to previous research, a new University of Nottingham study has found.
In findings that contradict previous studies, psychologists found that autistic children can 'read' a stranger's mental state based on that person's eyes. Autistic children have long been thought to be poor at interpreting people's mental states based on facial expressions, especially expressions around the eyes.
Some researchers believe that this lack of ability could be central to the social problems experienced by autistic children and adults.
But the latest findings cast doubt on this hypothesis. A study at The University of Nottingham found that autistic children were able to interpret mental states when looking at animated facial expressions. The findings also suggest that the use of moving images, rather than conventional still pictures, gives a much more accurate measure of the abilities of autistic children.
Staff
ReutersThu, 29 Mar 2007 15:00 UTC
Japanese scientists have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proven effective and safe in mice, the director of a research institute behind the project said on Thursday.
The team is preparing to move to small-scale clinical trials in humans, possibly this year, said Takeshi Tabira, director of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences in Aichi, central Japan.
Lawrence Burgh has a sober outlook on life. A 48-year-old physician whose career has centred on treating seriously ill patients, Burgh was diagnosed with cancer in December 2006. Yet despite his clinical experience, he has taken an extraordinary step to try to rid himself of his illness, a step many would consider to be a medical heresy.
Comment: Sounds like the Cancer Industry is going into damage control. Can't have cheap, safe drugs usurping investors profits.
Comment: Sounds like the Cancer Industry is going into damage control. Can't have cheap, safe drugs usurping investors profits.