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Damn, so when I'm having a really slow response day I should try doing sudoko puzzles or something to get my brain moving faster.

The smarter the person, the faster information zips around the brain, a UCLA study finds. And this ability to think quickly apparently is inherited.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, looked at the brains and intelligence of 92 people. All the participants took standard IQ tests. Then the researchers studied their brains using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging, or DTI.

DTI is a variant of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that can measure the structural integrity of the brain's white matter, which is made up of cells that carry nerve impulses from one part of the brain to another. The greater the structural integrity, the faster nerve impulses travel.

"These images really give you a picture of the mental speed of the brain," says Paul Thompson, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at UCLA School of Medicine.

Haier says the good news is that we're not necessarily stuck with the brain, or the brain speed, we inherit. He says thinking is like running or weightlifting. It helps to have certain genes. But anyone can get stronger or faster by working out.

The brain is like a muscle, Haier says: "The more you work it the more efficient it gets."

So people who practice the violin, or do math problems, or learn a foreign language are constantly strengthening certain pathways in their brains.

And Thompson notes that our brains, unlike our bodies, peak relatively late in life.

"The wires between the brain cells, the connections, are the things that you can modify throughout life," he says. "They change and they improve through your 40s and 50s and 60s."

Woohoo!

Labels: brain, intellect, neurology

I knew this would happen in the future and I'm so glad it was sooner rather than later. All the reading I have done on the brain's amygdala has made it clear to me it plays a huge role in your body's immune system and neurological behavior, but of course I have no proof of means of finding proof.

For the first time, scientists at Children's National Medical Center have successfully identified a key developmental program for the amygdala - the part of the limbic system that impacts how the brain creates emotional memories and responses.

Using studies of embryonic mice, Corbin and his team located two specific pools of precursor cells marked by the transcription factor Dbx1 that migrate from both the ventral pallium and the preoptic area-a previously undiscovered pool of migratory cells-to create the requisite mix of excitatory and inhibitory neurons that ultimately comprise the amygdala. Remarkably, the preoptic area precursor cells are exclusive contributors to the development of the limbic system, and no other portion of the brain.

"Altered function of the amygdala is a hallmark characteristic of disorders such as autism," said Dr. Corbin. "A more clear understanding of the normal development of this important brain structure provides a roadmap to understand the consequences of altered brain development in neurodevelopmental disorders."

The Dbx1-positive, POA-derived population migrated specifically to the amygdala and, as defined by both immunochemical and electrophysiological criteria, generated a unique subclass of inhibitory neurons in the medial amygdala nucleus. Thus, this POA-derived population represents a previously unknown progenitor pool dedicated to the limbic system.

I can't wait until they publish the complete research.

SOURCE

To further explain the importance of understanding the amygdala you should know what it is suspected the amygdala controls.

"Compared with young adults, older adults had greater functional connectivity between the right amygdala and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, a possible reflection of increased emotional regulation of negative pictures, but decreased functional connectivity between the amygdala and typical subsequent-memory regions such as the hippocampus, a possible reflection of decreased modulation by the amygdala and decreased memory retrieval for negative pictures."

A new study appearing online January 2, 2009 reports that high levels of brain activity in an emotional center called the amygdala reflect patients' hypersensitivity to anticipation of adverse events. At the same time, high activity in a regulatory region known as the anterior cingulate cortex is associated with a positive clinical response to a common antidepressant medication.

The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Labels: amygdala, brain, children, Immune System, neurology

I'm currently reading a book about autism which is written by the mother of a child who has autism. She mentioned all the research she has done to better understand the disorder. So of course in her studies she came across the famous H.M.

H.M. died this past Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at the age of 82. His real name was revealed after his death: Henry Gustav Molaison. A lot of what we now know about memory, we learned from studies on H.M. H.M. suffered from epilepsy and his entire life became a study; an experiment in real-time.

Epilepsy is something which many children with autism have been wrongly diagnosed with first. This is because the workings of the brain are very much a mystery even today with the advancements in modern medicine. In the book I'm reading the little boy had seizure after seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy but the epilepsy medicine wasn't working and the neurologists (at first) were useless.

I am sure there are many connections and theories about how epilepsy and autism are related. How they can go hand in hand, but it is very clear that is a child has autism that treating just epilepsy will not help.

Experiments in the last century found that by breathing carbon dioxide (CO2), an epileptic patient boosted acid levels in the brain and could terminate a fit, although the molecular switch for achieving this was veiled in mystery. So if there is an oxygen overload of some kind could it cause neurological damage or just a moment of euphoria? I know there are places with actual oxygen bars where people go to purposefully inhale pure oxygen.

Further studies are in the works for finding the exact area of the brain which registers these balances and how to administer a drug which will stop the process and therefore stop a seizure. I wonder if this new research will also benefit people with autism. It will be interesting to see the correlations if there are any.

Labels: autism, epilepsy, neurology

Do you know someone who has been diagnosed with psychiatric condition called borderline personality disorder (BPD)?

People who suffer from BPD show erratic mood-swings and find it difficult to trust and understand the motives of others. As a result, they suffer from fraught personal relationships with friends, colleagues and partners.

Brooks King-Casas at Baylor College of Medicine has researched possible activity in the brain that might reflect BPD behavioural tics. Specifically, he searched for areas which respond differently in healthy and BPD brains, in response to the size of the investors' investment. He found one - the anterior insula.

The insula has increasingly become the focus of attention for its role in body representation and subjective emotional experience. Functionally speaking, the insula is believed to process convergent information to produce an emotionally relevant context for sensory experience.

Other psychological studies have suggested that this part of the brain plays a role in assessing fairness, and it has a particular propensity for reacting to injustice. In ultimatum games, where one player offers a share of a pot and the other decides whether to take it, the anterior insula is most active when offers are low and when players reject. When people watch someone else being punished, their anterior insula is most active when the parties are punished after apparent fair play, and least active when the person actually cheated.

Regular meditation has been shown to thicken the cortical region of the brain. This region is related to somatosensory, auditory, visual and interoceptive processing. Regular meditation practice may also slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex. Who knew meditation may be associated with structural changes in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing?

It is amazing how the brain works isn't it? I always say if we understood our brains better and could somehow work on fine tuning our use of our brain imagine all we could do.

Labels: borderline personality disorder, brain, Emotional, neurology

I know I do it. I itch my scalp without even thinking about it. Then I'll realize I'm doing it and be irritated with myself.

Atul Gawande says there are sensory neurons that are specialized for relaying itchy sensations to the brain, which appear to be distinct from the fibers involved in detecting hot and cold temperatures or mechanical pressure.

He explains how research into itching and phantom limb syndrome have led to a new theory of perception, according to which, the brain generates a "best guess" about the world around us and about the sensory information impinging upon us.

So what does this mean? Why do we itch? What could the cause be? Clearly we can't all just have bad and/or dry skin, right?

Other causes of the itchiness can be hyperthyroidism, iron deficiency, liver disease, and cancers like Hodgkin's lymphoma. Sometimes the syndrome is very specific. Persistent outer-arm itching that worsens in sunlight is known as brachioradial pruritus, and it's caused by a crimped nerve in the neck.

Though scratching can provide momentary relief, it often makes the itching worse. Dermatologists call this the itch-scratch cycle. Ah yes, the scratch cycle, I know about this.

How do you explain the "phantom itch" that amputees feel even though they know the limb is no longer there? Doctors will tell you there is nothing wrong. Some people are told they are OCD. Let me tell you right now, leave those idiots, they are throwing excuses out at you to get you to be quiet. They don't know what is wrong and "educated guessing" will not find the root of the problem, you will still be itchy.

I don't have the answers and as I have said before, I'm not a doctor. I do believe the mind is a powerful tool and manipulator. You can make yourself feel bad, you can make yourself feel itchy, this doesn't mean you're crazy. This means you need to find new ways to cope with these sensory feelings.

But how? This I don't know.

Labels: itch, neurology

Inspiring wellness news for you on this Friday morning.

John Schulz of Glastonbury, Connecticut will travel to Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2008, to meet with congressional leaders and gain their support for restoration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, support for epilepsy public health programs and more research toward a cure for epilepsy.

Obviously this is good news, but what makes this even more special is the fact that John Schulz has been named a new National Epilepsy Spokesperson and he is only 13 years old.

Schulz is one of 50 young people with epilepsy participating in Kids Speak Up!, a national program coordinated by the Epilepsy Foundation with support from Abbott. The program rallies young ambassadors with epilepsy between the ages of 7 and 16 to advocate for the more than 3 million Americans living with the condition. There will be a child under the age of 17 in each state who will be nationally recognized as a spokesperson for epilepsy. You can check at the foundation's website to find out who will be sponsoring your state. In my home state of Delaware, Peter Serwik of Middletown has been chosen. Congrats to all of you!

Epilepsy is the most common neurological condition in children and each year approximately 45,000 children under age 17 are diagnosed with the disorder.

Labels: epilepsy, neurology

So it interests me to read the latest releases from ScienceDaily. Don't roll your eyes, I like to be informed! =o)

So when I see a new release entitled "Enabling Nerve Regeneration Means Evicting The Cleanup Crew" I am intrigued and need to sit and read and try to understand it all.

"Macrophages are the immune cells that engulf and destroy the debris of damaged tissue to enable the healing process to begin. Their presence at the scene of damage is critical, but once their task is complete, it is just as critical that macrophages exit rapidly, ending the inflammatory process and making way for regrowth. In fact, the continued presence of macrophages could damage tissue, compromising repair."

Ah yes, maybe you know why this particular scientific release interests me so much. Why? Because it very much relates to multiple sclerosis, since it has to do with the inflammation of myelin (the neural tissue that protects the nerves of the central nervous system). Being able to regulate inflammatory responses so as to aid the repair and rebuilding of immune cells, would be beneficial for not just MS patients, but also survivors of strokes, spinal cord injuries and other CNS pathologies.

Labels: neurology