Wow, now this is fascinating. Not wild about getting a shot in the spine, but if it can make a powerful difference . . . well I guess I would have to seriously consider it!

-Zack

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ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

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 “It is a misconception that the differences between men’s and women’s brains are small or erratic or found only in a few extreme cases, Dr. Larry Cahill of the University of California, Irvine, wrote last year in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Widespread regions of the cortex, the brain’s outer layer that performs much of its higher-level processing, are thicker in women. The hippocampus, where initial memories are formed, occupies a larger fraction of the female brain.”Original Article . . . 

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: July 31, 2007

In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee.The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee — and asked for a hand with the cup.That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.

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Swearing regularly at the workplace can be quite productive since it may boost team spirit among staff members — allowing them to better express their feelings, researchers say.

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Economists and psychologists
—and the rest of us—have long wondered if more money would make us happier. Here’s the answer….

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When selecting color for a room, keep in mind that each color has a psychological value. Think about how those colors make you feel. The main color of your room can have an effect on your mood. These colors can make you feel anything from tranquil to rage. So when trying to create peace and harmony in your home choose your colors wisely. Some colors in large amounts will have just the opposite affect on you and your loved ones’ moods.

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New study shows different regions of the brain kick into action depending on the perceived threat level
By Nikhil Swaminathan

William James, the late 19th- through early 20th-century philosopher, once proposed that people do not fear a bear when they see it but, rather, become frightened when running from it.
One hundred years later, a new brain-imaging study proves James may have been right. Using a Pac-Man–like video game and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scans, scientists showed that when a fear-provoking stimulus (say, a bear) is detected in the distance, the human brain switches on circuitry that analyzes the threat level and ways to avoid the animal or harm. Should the bear move closer—increasing the threat—other, more reactive regions of the brain jump into action, triggering an immediate protective response, whether it be to fight, flee or freeze in one’s tracks.

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Harvard researchers prove that being part of a social network of people getting in shape can help you lose weight. A groundbreaking study released by the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that weight loss can spread from person to person through social networks of friends and families.

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The LA Times just completed a wonderful 4-part series on how learning and memory work. The NYT re-emphasized the importance of physical exercise for neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons). To put this news in better perspective, let’s review some good lifestyle options we can follow to maintain, and improve, our vibrant brains.

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The a little voice in your head that warns you not to do something you were just about to do is real, brain researchers say.

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What creates a great artist like Gentileschi, Van Gogh or Manet? Talent or training?

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The problem with being constantly bombarded by information, as we web workers are, is not so much that we can’t deal with it, or that it distracts us from our work, or that it shortens our attention spans or stresses us out. It’s that we have allowed that information to control our lives. Here are 21 tips on how to deal with it.

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In such a finely tuned cognitive engine, only a small part must start to sputter before the whole machine comes crashing down. When that happens, reason and function come undone, rarely as dramatically as in the neurochemical storm that is obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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A new study is reporting that very young children are highly susceptible to the daily onslaught of branded fast food advertising: “most 3- and 5-year-olds who taste-tested a variety of foods said they preferred the ones in the McDonald’s wrapper — even though the foods were exactly the same.”

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Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team . . .

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“Most of us are interested in improving something about ourselves: our productivity, our sanity, our organization, our happiness, our effectiveness, our impact on the environment, our minds, our dreams.” A great list of tips (and resources) to help keep yourself at your best.

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After three years on the ADHD drug Ritalin, kids are about an inch shorter and 4.4 pounds lighter than their peers, a major U.S. study shows.

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Sleepsex is considered a sleep disorder and people who engage in this activity are unaware of their actions.

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By Robin Lloyd, LiveScience Senior Editor
posted: 24 May 2007 02:00 pm ET

Babies might seem a bit dim in their first six months of life, but researchers are getting smarter about what babies know, and the results are surprising.

The word “infant” comes from the Latin, meaning “unable to speak,” but babies are building the foundations for babbling and language before they are born, responding to muffled sounds that travel through amniotic fluid.

Soon after birth, infants are keen and sophisticated generalists, capable of seeing details in the world that are visible to some other animals but invisible to adults, older children and even slightly older infants.

Recently, scientists have learned the following:

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Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness “synthetic happiness,” and he says it’s “every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for.”