Jan30

Island cells and the...

Island cells and the formation of episodic memory  News Editor: Tina Pentland The ability to correctly associate temporal information in episodic memory is an essential tool for survival.  For example, animals must be able to control the fear response, based on information in memory, in...

Insights into decision-making processes that may lead to improved treatment for depression Dec01

Insights into decisi...

Insights into decision-making processes that may lead to improved treatment for depression News Editor: Tina Pentland Our capacity for decision-making is influenced by a little-known and poorly understood region of the brain called the lateral habenula (LHb)—one of the oldest regions of the...

Early to bed? Nov15

Early to bed?

Early to bed? Tina Pentland: News Editor What does “bedtime” mean? Is it a truly restful time—for children and their parents—or is it a time of restlessness and unease? Without a doubt some parents of young children struggle nightly with their offspring at bedtime and, for them,...

The mu-opioid system: the brain’s natural painkillers Oct23

The mu-opioid system...

The mu-opioid system: the brain’s natural painkillers Tina Pentland: News Editor Could the brain’s natural pain relievers, the opioids, offer a new way of treating depression and anxiety? The results of a recent study carried out at the University of Michigan Medical School suggest this is...

Bilingualism encourages mental agility Sep30

Bilingualism encoura...

Bilingualism Encourages Mental Agility  Tina Pentland: News Editor An active brain is a healthy brain. This is the message to be learned from recent studies of advanced bilinguals who use a different kind of mental process, called “parallel activation”, to access a word in two languages...

Compulsive drinking in rats linked to hyperactive NMDARs in the prefrontal cortex Aug19

Compulsive drinking ...

Compulsive drinking in rats linked to hyperactive NMDARs in the prefrontal cortex Tina Pentland: News Editor A team of scientists at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco have identified a molecule that can—quite literally—turn off or on the compulsion to drink...

Childhood trauma causes long-lasting changes in brain architecture Jul14

Childhood trauma cau...

Childhood Trauma Causes Long-lasting Changes in Brain Architecture News Editor: Tina Pentland   While it is generally well-recognised that various forms of childhood abuse are risk factors in the development of psychological problems including mental illness and sexual dysfunction in...

Outpatient Treatment Saves Taxpayer Funds Jul02

Outpatient Treatment...

PROVIDING OUTPATIENT TREATMENT TO THE MENTALLY ILL POST-HOSPITALIZATION HAS MULTIPLE BENEFITS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY News Editor: Tina Pentland It is quite well established that people with serious mental illness make up a disproportionate percentage of people who are involved with the...

sMRI ‘sees’ Bipolar Disorder Jul01

sMRI ‘seesR...

THE PREDICTIVE VALUE OF NEUROANATOMICAL DATA FROM MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN DISCRIMINATING SUFFERERS OF BIPOLAR DISORDER FROM HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS A landmark study published in the Journal Psychological Medicine has found that MRI can correctly distinguish bipolar patients from healthy...

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALITY HAS A NEUROBIOLOGICAL FOUNDATION May17

THE DEVELOPMENT OF I...

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALITY HAS A NEUROBIOLOGICAL FOUNDATION News Editor: Tina Pentland A startling new study, using an animal model to investigate brain plasticity as a measure of individual difference, has found that the adult brains of mice have the capacity to develop new cells as a...

Psychopaths Not Hardwired to be Empathic May05

Psychopaths Not Hard...

Psychopaths Not Hardwired to be Empathic News Editor: Tina Pentland Empathy, unlike sympathy, is the capacity among individuals to literally feel another person’s emotions. This ability to reflect another person’s emotional experience as if it were one’s own experience – be it pain,...

Carrying your baby: why is it important? Apr27

Carrying your baby: ...

Carrying your baby: why is it important? News Editor: Tina Pentland Many of us have experienced the daily or nightly routine pacing the floor to settle a distressed child and so it would come as no surprise to be told that human infants like to be carried. What would be a little more...