Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
The #Neuroscience of the Virginia Shooting – YouTube
Chicago Council on Science and Technology (c2st.org) Artist in Residence Aaron Freeman muses on the neurobiology underpinning the murders of Virginia newspeople Allison Parker and Adam Ward by should-have-been mental patient Vester Lee Flannagan (aka Bryce Williams) via the introductory lecture of Professor Robert Sapolsky’s Stanford University course Human Behavioral Biology.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
“Visceral disgust” at #allisonbechtel “Fun Home” prob involves the brain’s insula – Insula and Disgust
The disgust emotion [which some experience at the very THOUGHT homosexuality, the so-called “ik factor”] is elicited by a variety of stimuli ranging from rotten food to immoral persons. When we encounter such disgusting stimuli, whether they are physical or social, we commonly experience rejection responses by the body such as nausea and revolt. In fact, since the time of Darwin, it has been argued that disgust has its origins in a rejection response to offensive food, and that the sensations of tastes and odors play a crucial role in the experience of disgust. This view predicts that the insula is closely related to disgust because it serves both gustatory and visceral motor functions including the control of vomiting. Indeed, the insula is activated by a broad range of disgust-related stimuli such as disgusted facial expressions, unpleasant odors, pictures of rotten food, and unfair acts. However, increasing evidence indicates that the insula plays an important role in the experience of not only unpleasant but also pleasant bodily feelings. In brief, the insula seems to be involved in the conscious perception of emotional bodily feelings in general, or somatic markers, and assist in our decisions as to approach vs. avoidance. READ MORE @ NCBI
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Introducing the Psychology Hub
This looks like a good addition to the discussion pool
Originally posted on Psychology Hub :
Welcome to the Psychology Hub.
This is a new blog with a simple purpose, to provide an insight into psychology. This blog will talk about studies currently being carried out in the field, debates in psychology and much more.
Firstly A little information about myself. My name is Dan and I am a first year Bsc (Hons) psychology student at the University of Chester. My studies are what inspired me to create this blog. I am very new to blogging and as this is my first ever blog, there will certainly be a large learning curve for me but hopefully I will master it over time.
I look forward to growing this blog and have many ideas on the direction to take it. For now I hope you enjoy everything this page has to offer …
Monday, August 24, 2015
What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain? – SciAmBlog #motivationmonday
As you read this, wiggle your toes. Feel the way they push against your shoes, and the weight of your feet on the floor. Really think about what your feet feel like right now – their heaviness.
If you’ve never heard of mindfulness meditation, congratulations, you’ve just done a few moments of it. More people than ever are doing some form of this stress-busting meditation, and researchers are discovering it has some quite extraordinary effects on the brains of those who do it regularly.
Originally an ancient Buddhist meditation technique, in recent years mindfulness has evolved into a range of secular therapies and courses, most of them focused on being aware of the present moment and simply noticing feelings and thoughts as they come and go.
via What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain? – Guest Blog – Scientific American Blog Network.
#blackmonday is trending but is it rational? – The Psychophysiology of Real-Time Financial Risk Processing
The Psychophysiology of Real-Time Financial Risk Processing
A longstanding controversy in economics and finance is whether financial markets are governed by rational forces or by emotional responses. We study the importance of emotion in the decision-making process of professional securities traders by measuring their physiological characteristics (e.g., skin conductance, blood volume pulse, etc.) during live trading sessions while simultaneously capturing real-time prices from which market events can be detected. In a sample of 10 traders, we find statistically significant differences in mean electrodermal responses during transient market events relative to no-event control periods, and statistically significant mean changes in cardiovascular variables during periods of heightened market volatility relative to normal-volatility control periods. We also observe significant differences in these physiological responses across the 10 traders that may be systematically related to the traders’ levels of experience.
via MIT Press Journals – Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience – Abstract.
Friday, August 21, 2015
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity #neurosciene
Graphic shows areas of the brain affected by autism, which stems from abnormal brain development; new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates say 1 in 88 U.S. children has autism spectrum disorder. MCT 2012
Within two generations, the popular and scientific understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related conditions have undergone a massive shift in some parts of the world. We have moved from routine institutionalization (or worse) of people with ASD to an appreciation of a spectrum of social communication.
How did this sea change come about? Journalist Steve Silberman has been writing and commenting on autism for years, notably with a 2001 feature in Wired magazine on ASD rates in California’s Silicon Valley. He has compiled his exhaustive research into NeuroTribes to try to answer that question.
… The clinicians most often credited with discovery are Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner. Asperger’s clinic in 1930s Vienna embraced the full range of ASD. But Silberman asserts that to protect his charges from euthanasia by the Nazis, Asperger focused his case reports on gifted children ostracized by their peers, later termed high-functioning. Eventually, these cases would be called Asperger’s syndrome; in the DSM-5, controversially, this diagnosis is folded into ASD.
Autism: Seeing the spectrum entire : Nature : Nature Publishing Group.
Friday, August 14, 2015
To rebuild takes optimism – How Dopamine Enhances an Optimism Bias in Humans #katrina #neuroscience
When predicting financial profits [1], relationship outcomes [2], longevity [3], or professional success [4], people habitually underestimate the likelihood of future negative events (for review see [5]). This well-known bias, termed unrealistic optimism [6], is observed across age [7], culture [8], and species [9] and has a significant societal impact on domains ranging from financial markets to health and well being
How Dopamine Enhances an Optimism Bias in Humans.
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