BrainBlog

From the BBC : Brain area 'more than just motor' A brain area presumed to be involved only in co-ordinating movement also controls higher functions, such as vision, mounting evidence suggests. [ ... Read the article ... ] - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

This week's British Medical Journal includes a short review of, definitely, the best recent book about mitochondria: Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane (published by Oxford University Press). - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

An excellent piece in tomorrow's New York Times : Memorizing Her Lines Is Out of the Question By DAVID CARR The New York Times Published: October 9, 2005 THE first time I met Caris Corfman after her one-woman show at the Flea Theater, she looked - almost stared - into the very backs of my eyes as I told her how I enjoyed her performance. She was flattered and incredibly gracious. The second time I met Ms. Corfman, she again stared and responded graciously. But she had no idea who I was. It was exactly five minutes later. She can't remember. Ten years ago doctors detected a benign tumor in her brain. A series of four operations removed the tumor but damaged the part of the brain that regulates short-term memory. As a result, she not only forgets who she met five minutes ago, but she also can't remember if she took her medicine, if she ate, if she should go right or left or just stay put. The long-term memory remains, which is both a sad and a wonderful thing. [snip] She is ...

Also from the CDC: Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings . Among other material, the page includes links to the "Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings - 2002" . From the site: "The hand hygiene guidelines were developed by the CDC's Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), in collaboration with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). The hand hygiene guidelines are part of an overall CDC strategy to reduce infections in health care settings to promote patient safety." - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has put together a "tool kit" of material and resources for high school coaches called Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports , which is accessible at this link on the CDC website . The material includes content for students and their parents, too. According to the CDC introductory webpage for the topic: "Concussions can happen to any athlete—male or female—in any sport. Concussions are a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), caused by a blow or jolt to the head that can range from mild to severe and can disrupt the way the brain normally works. More than 300,000 people sustain sports- and recreation-related TBIs every year in this country. Coaches, athletic directors and trainers play a key role in helping to prevent concussion and in managing it properly if it occurs. To reduce the number of this type of injury, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the support of partners and experts in the fiel...

Busch RM, McBride A, Curtiss G, & Vanderploeg RD. The components of executive functioning in traumatic brain injury. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 2005 Nov; 27(8): 1022-1032. James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, Florida, USA. Theorists have proposed models of executive functioning, and functional neuroimaging and factor analytic studies have attempted to examine the components of executive functioning. These studies have arrived at different conclusions and many empirical studies are wrought with methodological confounds. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the subcomponents of executive abilities while addressing some of the limitations common in previous studies. Neuropsychological test data were obtained from a sample of individuals with a history of TBI seen at one-year follow-up (n=104). Principal components factor analysis was conducted and yielded three factors that accounted for 52.7% of the variance. The first factor...

A UC Berkeley Press Release: Jeff Hawkins, computing pioneer, endows new center to develop model of brain By Robert Sanders, Media Relations 06 October 2005 BERKELEY – Jeff Hawkins, creator of the first commercially successful handheld computer and author of the book "On Intelligence," has endowed a new research center at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop mathematical and computational models of how the brain works. The founding of the new Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, which will operate within the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, is being celebrated this Friday, Oct. 7, with a day-long symposium at the campus's Faculty Club. Read the full press release - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

The cover story of the October 2005 issue of the American Psychological Association Monitor is one of several articles in the issue about mirror neurons: "The Mind's Mirror" by Lea Winerman. - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

Here are some references that I would recommend for Pandemic Flu Awareness Week , which is promoted by the folks at FluWiki and which we are in the middle of right now: Background and historical references:   Barry, John M. (2004). The great influenza. NY: Viking. [comment: A very readable account of what happened and why in the 1918 pandemic, with an emphasis on the political expediencies and cronyism of the day and on the concurrent media complacency - along with accounts of the public-health leaders who needed to fight not only the virus, but politicians and newspaper editors, in order to eke out ways of dealing with the pandemic. Also, the book offeres a good description of how this type of influenza differs from the typical, yearly bouts of influenza that most all of us are aware of.]   Department of Health and Human Services (2004). Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan [Executive Summary - Draft August 2004]. Garrett, L. (2005). The next pandemic? Foreign Affair...

The 25th Annual Conference of the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) will be held in Tampa, Florida from the 19th of October through the 22th. The conference will take place at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina. Information about the conference program and registration can be found at the NAN Conferences webpage . - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

Congratulations to blogs The Loom by Carl Zimmer and Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford, Matt Webb, and Vaughan Bell and Harvard's website The Whole Brain Atlas for being three neuroscience-related sites among 25 scientific sites chosen for recognition by Scientific American . Read the announcement - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

From The Scotsman : Passwords add up to information overload for brain FIONA MACGREGOR The Scotsman 03 October 2005 INCREASING use of PIN numbers and passwords has left the average person struggling to remember at least 20 digits or characters on a daily basis. With codes necessary to access e-mails and internet sites, pay for goods while shopping with chip and PIN cards, telephone banking, accessing voice mails and numerous other common activities, a new study by ICM found that one in five people has lost money, important data and even their job as a result of forgetting important pass details. According to a survey of more than 1,000 adults, the average person now has to instantly recall 21 digits or characters from memory, but at least 40 per cent of people say they have forgotten codes at vital moments. [snip] Michael Saling, head of neuropsychology at Melbourne University, calls it "busy-line syndrome" and has reported that a growing number of those who can't keep up...

From The Cornell Daily Sun : Father of Hum Ec Dies September 27, 2005 By Melissa Korn Sun Senior Editor Urie Bronfenbrenner ’38, longtime Cornell professor, co-founder of Head Start and one of the world’s most renowned developmental psychologists, died in Ithaca Sunday of complications from diabetes. He was 88. Bronfenbrenner was the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Human Development and Family Studies and of psychology. He retired in 1987. A giant in the field of psychology, Bronfenbrenner is credited with creating the discipline of human ecology with his 1979 theory of “human bioecology.” This breakthrough forced sociologists, economists and psychologists to reconsider child development through a more holistic lens that considered community, race and other factors. The rise of human ecology led to the drastic revision of national and international child and family development programs. Bronfenbrenner was described by long-time colleague Prof. Stephen Ceci, the Helen L. Car...

I'm looking forward to reading this paper, to see how well the details mesh with this media account. For example, one has to look carefully are how subjects were labelled as "compulsive liars" and whether other behavioral characteristics might account for performance on the scale used to rate subjects. However, this is a curious association to ponder, to say the least. From The Los Angeles Times : Study: Adept Liars' Brains Are Built Differently By Robert Lee Hotz, Times Staff Writer The Los Angeles Times 30 September 2005 In the lexicon of lying, there are white lies and bare-faced lies. Facts can be fudged, forged or shaded. There are fibbers, fabricators and feckless fabulists. By whatever clinical term, the truth simply is not in some people. Now scientists have an anatomical inkling why. A new study from the University of Southern California, published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry , suggests that the talent for compulsive deception is...

Zack Lynch (Brain Waves) blogs about an analysis by Dr. Rashmi Sinha, "A cognitive analysis of tagging (Or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)" . - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

Psychometric data relevant to the use of common neuropsychological cognitive test instruments are presented and discussed in the current issue of the journal, The Clinical Neuropsychologist (Volume 19, Issue 3-4; September-December 2005). The issue deals with data collected as part of the Mayo's Older Americans Normative Studies (or "MOANS" for short). Specific attention is paid toward whether test performance is more closely related to general intellectual functioning than to years of formal education, an important concern in the use of this normative data set in understanding the performances by individuals. Here are the paper titles and their DOIs: Brett Steinberg and Linas Bieliauskas Introduction to the Special Edition: IQ-Based MOANS Norms for Multiple Neuropsychological Instruments pp. 277 - 279 DOI: 10.1080/13854040590948992 Brett A. Steinberg, Linas A. Bieliauskas, Glenn E. Smith, Christopher Langellotti, Robert J. Ivnik Mayo's Older Americans Normative Stud...

A press release from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE P05-65 September 29, 2005 Media Inquiries: Susan Cruzan, 301-827-6242 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA FDA Issues Public Health Advisory on Strattera (Atomoxetine) for Attention Deficit Disorder The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today is issuing a Public Health Advisory to alert physicians of reports of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents associated with Strattera, a drug approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). FDA has also directed Eli Lilly and Company, manufacturer of Strattera, to develop a Medication Guide for patients and caregivers. FDA is advising health care providers and caregivers that children and adolescents being treated with Strattera should be closely monitored for clinical worsening, as well as agitation, irritability, suicidal thinking or behaviors, and unusual changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of the...

A daily read of the following blog has been, for me, one of several useful ways I have of keeing up with avian influenza events: H5N1 . Obvious additional resources include the World Health Organization (WHO) website section on the topic . - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain H5N1 | Avian Influenza

Of potential interest to all, including the broad neuroscience medical and scientific communities: The 29 September 2005 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine includes the full-text content of a review paper about Avian ("Bird Flu") Influenza [H5N1]. The Writing Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Consultation on Human Influenza A/H5. Avian Influenza A (H5N1) infection in humans. The New England Journal of Medicine . 2005; 353: 1374-1385. [ ... Access the full text ... ] Abstract An unprecedented epizootic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus that is highly pathogenic has crossed the species barrier in Asia to cause many human fatalities and poses an increasing pandemic threat. This summary describes the features of human infection with influenza A (H5N1) and reviews recommendations for prevention and clinical management presented in part at the recent World Health Organization (WHO) Meeting on Case Management and Research on Human Influenza A/H5, which was ...

From The Daily Californian : Distractions Cause Memory Loss By OMEED ELBOUDWAREJ Contributing Writer Wednesday, September 28, 2005 UC Berkeley researchers have used brain imaging to confirm that, contrary to popular opinion, short-term memory loss common in older adults is not associated with a lack of focus on relevant information. Rather, short-term memory loss lies with an inability to filter out surrounding distractions. Although previous studies have used neuropsychological tests to investigate how aging changes memory patterns, this study is the among the first of its kind to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the impact of normal aging on the enhancement and suppression of sensory processing in the brain. "The degree that older patients suppressed unnecessary information correlates with the degree that they remembered the relevant information," Adam Gazzaley, UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience, said. "So what we are seeing is that they h...