PANDAS. PANDAS is an acronym for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections, a rare disease that usually appears in children. This term describes a hypothesis that there exists a subset of children with rapid onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or tic disorders and these symptoms are caused by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) infections.[1] The proposed link between infection and these disorders is that an initial autoimmune reaction to a GABHS infection produces antibodies that continues to interfere with basal ganglia function, causing symptom exacerbations.[2][3] PANDAS has not been validated as a disease entity;[4] it is not listed as a diagnosis by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Classification[edit] Characteristics[edit] Proposed mechanism[edit] Diagnosis[edit] Treatment[edit] See also[edit] Best Online Psychology Tests. Want to know what’s really going on in your own head? The mental health Web site PsychCentral offers a list of the best online psychology tests. Some of these are used to collect data for research experiments, while others are skill tests or quizzes that offer personal insights. Here are a few of the best. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. And for even more insight, take PsychCentral’s own Sanity Score quiz, which is designed to assess aspects of your mental health, including your risk for depression, anxiety and other emotional disorders. For additional tests and more information about online psychology assessments, read the full PsychCentral article by clicking here.
Explanation: How Brain Training Can Make You Significantly Smarter. Last Updated: 5/23/2013 04:24 PST As many people hit middle age, they often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be. We suddenly can't remember where we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old acquaintance's name, or the name of an old band we used to love. As the brain fades, we euphemistically refer to these occurrences as "senior moments. " While seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a detrimental impact on our professional, social, and personal well-being. It happens to most of us, but is it inevitable? Neuroscientists are increasingly showing that there's actually a lot that can be done. Now, a new San Francisco Web-based company has taken it a step further and developed the first "brain training program" designed to actually help people improve and regain their mental sharpness.
Lumosity , is far more than an online place to exercise your mental skills. Does it work? Apparently it does. Fear Can Be Erased from the Brain. Newly formed emotional memories can be erased from the human brain. This is shown by researchers from Uppsala University in a new study now being published by the academic journal Science. The findings may represent a breakthrough in research on memory and fear. Thomas Ågren, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Psychology under the supervision of Professors Mats Fredrikson and Tomas Furmark, has shown, that it is possible to erase newly formed emotional memories from the human brain. When a person learns something, a lasting long-term memory is created with the aid of a process of consolidation, which is based on the formation of proteins.
When we remember something, the memory becomes unstable for a while and is then restabilized by another consolidation process. In other words, it can be said that we are not remembering what originally happened, but rather what we remembered the last time we thought about what happened. Notes about this fear and anxiety research. Brain Functions and Diagram. Brain Functions and Diagram Recognizing where damage is located and understanding the effects Neuro Point of View by: Dr. William Winslade Among the most devastating effects of head injury is the secondary damage that can follow hours and days later. Like other parts of the body, the brain responds to bruising by swelling. Scientists still don't understand how the brain heals itself, so long-term recovery from any traumatic brain injury is uncertain, and its course is difficult to predict.
Recovery from traumatic brain injury may be quick or slow; it may be complete, partial, or absent. People who do recover from traumatic brain injury must be highly motivated and persistent. The most comforting stories about recovery from traumatic brain injury have the timeless power of great myths. Dr. Diagram of Brain. In this diagram of the brain the different sections are shown. The Cerebrum are the two large hemispheres of the brain. Each hemisphere is further divided into lobes. Above is the break up of where each lobe is located and the structures under the cerebrum that make up the rest of the brain. Click here for the functions of these parts.
Diagramed above are some of the major cortexes and their locations. This is what's known as a sagittal view of the brain. We recommend investing in this guide to human physiology and anatomy. We recommend investing in this guide to human physiology and anatomy. The Brain - Diagram and Explanation. THE BRAIN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. Short-term memory is based on synchronized brain oscillations.
Scientists have now discovered how different brain regions cooperate during short-term memory. Holding information within one's memory for a short while is a seemingly simple and everyday task. We use our short-term memory when remembering a new telephone number if there is nothing to write at hand, or to find the beautiful dress inside the store that we were just admiring in the shopping window. Yet, despite the apparent simplicity of these actions, short-term memory is a complex cognitive act that entails the participation of multiple brain regions. However, whether and how different brain regions cooperate during memory has remained elusive. A group of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany has now come closer to answering this question. They discovered that oscillations between different brain regions are crucial in visually remembering things over a short period of time.
Schizophrenia diagnosis associated with progressive brain changes among adolescents. Adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses appear to show greater decreases in gray matter volume and increases in cerebrospinal fluid in the frontal lobe compared to healthy adolescents without a diagnosis of psychosis, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. “Progressive loss of brain gray matter (GM) has been reported in childhood-onset schizophrenia; however, it is uncertain whether these changes are shared by pediatric patients with different psychoses,” the authors write as background information in the study.
Celso Arango, M.D., Ph.D., of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain, and colleagues, examined the progression of brain changes in first-episode early-onset psychosis and the relationship to diagnosis and prognosis at two-year follow-up among patients at six child and adolescent psychiatric units in Spain. Brain analysis can help predict psychosis: study. Hippocampus plays bigger memory role than previously thought. Human memory has historically defied precise scientific description, its biological functions broadly but imperfectly defined in psychological terms.
In a pair of papers published in the November 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California, San Diego report a new methodology that more deeply parses how and where certain types of memories are processed in the brain, and challenges earlier assumptions about the role of the hippocampus. Specifically, Larry R. Squire, PhD, a Research Career scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego and professor of psychiatry, neurosciences, and psychology at UC San Diego, and Christine N. Smith, PhD, a project scientist, say that contrary to current thinking the hippocampus (a small seahorse-shaped structure located deep in the center of the brain and long associated with memory function) supports both recollection and familiarity memories when these memories are strong.
Squire, Smith and John T. Paul Zak: Trust, morality - and oxytocin. October is Lewy Body Dementia Awareness Month. To be honest, I didn’t really learn about Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) until I read a press clipping from New York University Langone Medical Center. I typically associate October with falling leaves, the sudden appearance of pumpkins everywhere, and my birthday, so I was surprised to learn that this month is also dedicated to raising awareness for a disease that affects about 1.3 million people in America. Despite its prevalence, LBD is under-treated and under-recognized. It’s often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s disease, despite being the second most-common form of dementia (surpassed only by AD). People with LBD typically experience a more rapid functional decline than those with Alzheimer’s, and there is a shorter interval between placement in a nursing home and death.
Raising awareness is important because it leads to proper diagnoses, more research, and better treatments. --Caitlin Schneider Source: NYU Langone Medical Center fact sheet and definition page. Frontal Lobe Syndromes. Psychology Press Search Subject Neuropsychology. High Brainwaves Critical for Learning and Memory. Scientists at MIT were studying the brains of rats as they learned how to navigate through a maze. They found that during the first few trials there was a lot of activity in high-frequency brainwaves, including beta waves (between 13-30 cycles per second) and gamma waves (between 30-100 cycles per second). Once the rats learned the maze, activity in these brainwaves decreased. This suggests that high frequency brainwaves are associated with learning and memory. And once the task was learned, future trials showed the rats were in a much more relaxed and low frequency brain state. This is because the brain no longer needed those high frequency brainwaves to help focus on the task.
In other words, it has became second-nature. Remember when you first learned how to tie your shoes and you really had to focus? This fits well with other research on brain waves. A binaural beat is when you play one frequency in one ear and another frequency in another ear. New imaging after strokes opens doctors', victims' eyes at Edison hospital.
Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerDr. Jawad Kirmani looks into the eye of Rob Schneider during a neurological check up at JFK Medical Center in Edison. EDISON — Nausea and dizziness descended on Jasal Amin one Monday last June. Three days later, the 45-year-old East Brunswick man lay in a hospital, where he slowly slipped into a coma. Doctors discovered multiple strokes around his brain stem. Though Amin was unresponsive, advanced imaging showed his brain was still very much alive. So doctors at JFK Medical Center in Edison decided to push the limits of treatment. The recovery was dramatic. The onset of a stroke begins a race against the clock to limit damage. But recent advances in imaging technology are giving some severe stroke victims a chance outside the traditional time frames. In the past two years, doctors at JFK’s comprehensive stroke center have operated on 66 patients like Amin who have suffered massive strokes but whose brains refuse to die.
Noah K. Noah K. Noah K. More Edison news. Brain Free Lecture. My Account > Free Content Free Video Lecture: Memory and the Brain Taught by Dr. Jeanette Norden Vanderbilt University Ph.D., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine It's almost impossible to accurately describe the power and importance of memory. Whether you're fondly reminiscing over an event from a childhood vacation, quickly memorizing a phone number or address, or learning a new skill on the job, memory is so interwoven into our everyday lives that we can sometimes take it for granted. So how does memory actually work? Modern neuroscience has uncovered a wealth of new insights into the fascinating ways our brains create and harness the power of memory, so that understanding this process is no longer a mystery.
In Memory and the Brain, you explore the different categories of memory;the areas of the brain involved in creating and shaping memories; andthe ways that our synapses change based on experiences in the world. Neuroscientists identify how the brain remembers what happens and when. New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions. Previous research has shown the brain's medial temporal lobe (MTL) has a significant role in declarative memory—that is, memory of facts and events or episodes.
Past studies have shown that damage to the MTL causes impairment in memory for the timing of events within an episode. More specifically, declarative memory is impaired in patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. However, little is known about how individual structures within the MTL remember information about "what happened when" within a particular episode, such as the order of the toasts at a wedding reception or what preceded a game-winning hit in a baseball game. Alzheimer's and Cognitive Decline Prevention Conference - Panel Statement. NIH State-of-the-Science Conference Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Decline April 26–28, 2010 Bethesda, MarylandReturn to Conference Home Final Panel Statement For Printing and Download: [PDF Version-109KB] Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®.
If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®. An abridged version of this statement was also published in Annals of Internal Medicine: June 15, 2010, 152: 792-796. The statement reflects the panel’s assessment of medical knowledge available at the time the statement was written. Contents Abstract Introduction Conclusions Panel Speakers Planning Committee Sponsors Additional Information Abstract Objective: To provide health care providers, patients, and the general public with a responsible assessment of currently available data on prevention of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline.
Introduction Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. What We Know. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association - Current Issue. Your lying brain: The quest for a reliable lie detector test | Science. Neuropsychology. Brain Plasticity: How learning changes your brain. ADHD: Brain Training, Neurofeedback, Diet, and More. Whether "Beast" or "Virus" Metaphor Is Powerful Stuff. Your Brain in Love. Bjoern.brembs.blog: What can the spinal cord teach us about learning and memory? The woman who knows no fear : Neurophilosophy. Brain Collector Seeks Trump-Like Donors to Probe How Personality Is Formed. Perceiving a Stranger's Voice as Being One's Own: A ‘Rubber Voice’ Illusion? The neuroscience of murder.
The Brain's Dark Energy. Some blind people 'see' with their ears, neuropsychologists show. Looking into Ramachandran's broken mirror : Neurophilosophy. Brain's 'reward' center also responds to bad experiences. Using EEGs to diagnose autism spectrum disorders in infants: Machine-learning system finds differences in brain connectivity. High cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age tied to early memory problems. The Brain—Information about the Brain.
Warm weather may hurt thinking skills in people with multiple sclerosis. New imaging method developed at Stanford reveals stunning details of brain connections. Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Body - Brain Map. Brain Anatomy and Functions. Did My Genes Make Me Do It? The Power to Change a Mind. Antipsychotics for schizophrenia associated with subtle loss in brain volume. Occasional offers on Academic Psychology journals and articles published by Psychology Press. The Twitter Spot in Your Brain.