Neuroscience Student Shows How Meditation Can Vanquish Mental Disorders Can mindfulness practice (meditation) help vanquish mental disorders? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 7.7 million Americans suffer from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – approximately 3.3% of the US population when combined. Of these, approximately 40% of the individuals with schizophrenia and 51% of those with bipolar are untreated in any given year, but with the new studies being presented by Juan Santoyo and his peers, there could be strong scientific proof that meditation could help even the most debilitating psychological disorders. Juan Santoyo is studying neuro and contemplative sciences, and he isn’t doing it ‘just to tickle his fancy,’ but to solve the real problem of mental disorders in our society. He presented his findings at the 12th Annual International Scientific Conference of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Mindful Meditation Featured image credits: PsyBlog
Serotonin Deficient Brains More Vulnerable to Social Stress Mice provide clues for alleviating treatment-resistant depression. Mice genetically deficient in serotonin — a crucial brain chemical implicated in clinical depression — are more vulnerable than their normal littermates to social stressors, according to a Duke study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Following exposure to stress, the serotonin-deficient mice also did not respond to a standard antidepressant, fluoxetine (Prozac), which works by boosting serotonin transmission between neighboring neurons. The new results may help explain why some people with depression seem unresponsive to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most common antidepressant drugs on the market today. The findings also point to several possible therapeutic strategies to explore for treatment-resistant depression. The exact causes of depression are unclear. The exact causes of depression are unclear. About this psychology research
Do viruses make us smarter? Endogenous retroviruses in neural progenitor cells A new study from Lund University in Sweden indicates that inherited viruses that are millions of years old play an important role in building up the complex networks that characterise the human brain. Researchers have long been aware that endogenous retroviruses constitute around five per cent of our DNA. For many years, they were considered junk DNA of no real use, a side-effect of our evolutionary journey. In the current study, Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues show that retroviruses seem to play a central role in the basic functions of the brain, more specifically in the regulation of which genes are to be expressed, and when. The findings indicate that, over the course of evolution, the viruses took an increasingly firm hold on the steering wheel in our cellular machinery. The reason the viruses are activated specifically in the brain is probably due to the fact that tumours cannot form in nerve cells, unlike in other tissues.
What has neuroscience ever done for us? | The Psychologist Mental health problems exert an enormous social and economic burden. By way of example, the cost of depression alone to the British economy is over £9 billion annually (Thomas & Morris, 2003), and more than twice as many people die from suicide each year in the UK than are killed on its roads (Office for National Statistics). These stark figures are surprising given that depression is treatable, with strong evidence supporting both pharmacological and psychological interventions. Why have these social and economic costs remained so high even as treatments have improved? Access to treatment, in particular psychological therapy, has increased in recent years (Layard & Clark, 2014), but of course could be better. And while the stigma associated with mental health problems is greatly reduced from what it was a generation ago (Office for National Statistics), we are still far from the point where public perceptions of mental health problems equate to those of physical conditions. A new era?
Why People Fail to See The Aura and How to Learn to See It digg HJ: Learning to see the Aura is like riding a bike — it takes skill and practice that is developed through trial and error. It may be a bit more frustrating and slightly less exhilarating, but certainly no less useful. Imagine being able to get an instant visual read on anyone or anything that comes into your field of view — after learning to understand what the various colors and patterns represented, it would open up an entirely new field of perception that could be highly useful for any number of things. Surely it is worth the effort involved. Although we all have the ability, very few learn to use it in any significant way, which is an interesting reflection. - Truth Easy New Way to See Auras By Robert Bruce | Astral Dynamics All colours have a uniquely coloured aura of their own that are of a completely different colour. You can, in the early stages of learning to see auras, cause an after image that is still seen when you look away. What is an Aura? How to see the Aura 1. 2. 3. 4.
DARPA Wants Brain Implants For Restoring Memories The U.S. Department of Defense is spending $40 million to develop implantable devices to restore memories in people suffering from trauma and neurological disorders. More than 270,000 military servicemembers have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury since 2000, and 1.7 million U.S. civilians are affected every year. The goal is to develop wireless neuroprosthetics to bridge the gaps that interfere with the ability to form new memories or retrieve old ones, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced this week. To that end, teams from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pennsylvania were selected to begin leading the agency’s Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program, part of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative. Both teams will start with the basics: explore new ways to decode neural signals to understand what sorts of stimulation could help reestablish the brain’s ability to process new memories after an injury. Image: DARPA
How Mind Changes Genes through Meditation ISIS Report 21/05/14 The mind-body divide has been breached in conventional Western medicine thanks to new research findings in molecular genetics that not only bridges mind and body but also East and West Dr Mae-Wan Ho A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members website and is otherwise available for download here Please circulate widely and repost, but you must give the URL of the original and preserve all the links back to articles on our website. Psychosomatic is real Conventional western science and medicine has long held that one’s mind or psychological state cannot have physical effects on the body; so much so that subjective feelings of being ill are generally dismissed as ‘psychosomatic’ and hence not a real indicator of how physically unwell the body is. This mind-body divide has truly broken down, as researchers are identifying hundreds and thousands of genes that are affected by our subjective mental states. A second study was particularly interesting.
Oxytocin Enhances Pleasure of Social Interactions by Stimulating Production of “Bliss Molecule” UCI study uncovers role of oxytocin in triggering marijuana-like neurotransmitters. The hormone oxytocin, which has been associated with interpersonal bonding, may enhance the pleasure of social interactions by stimulating production of marijuana-like neurotransmitters in the brain, according to a University of California, Irvine study. The research provides the first link between oxytocin – dubbed the “love hormone” – and anandamide, which has been called the “bliss molecule” for its role in activating cannabinoid receptors in brain cells to heighten motivation and happiness. To investigate the role of anandamide in social contact, UCI’s Daniele Piomelli – the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences and founding director of the drug discovery & development department at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, Italy – and his colleagues measured levels of this marijuana-like neurotransmitter in mice that had been either isolated or allowed to interact. Abstract
How Our Thoughts Control Our DNA By Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D Guest Writer for Wake Up World The common idea that DNA determines so much of who we are — not only our eye or hair color, for example, but also our addictions, disorders, or susceptibility to cancer — is a misconception. This concept “says you are less powerful than your genes. The problem with that belief system is that it extends to another level … You find yourself to be more or less a victim of your heredity. In reality, a person’s perception, not genetic programming, is what spurs all action in the body. The human body is comprised of 50 to 65 trillion cells. 5-Step Explanation 1.The cell is like a human body and it functions without DNA The cell is like a human body. Yet, when the nucleus is removed, the cell continues with all of its life functions and it can still recognize toxins and nutrients. Scientists assumed some 50 years ago that genes control biology. 2. Proteins carry out the functions in cells and they are building blocks of life. 3. 4. 5. Dr. Dr.
Scientist: Most complete human brain model to date is a ‘brain changer’ | News Room - The Ohio State University COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists at The Ohio State University have developed a nearly complete human brain in a dish that equals the brain maturity of a 5-week-old fetus. The brain organoid, engineered from adult human skin cells, is the most complete human brain model yet developed, said Rene Anand, professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State. The lab-grown brain, about the size of a pencil eraser, has an identifiable structure and contains 99 percent of the genes present in the human fetal brain. Such a system will enable ethical and more rapid and accurate testing of experimental drugs before the clinical trial stage and advance studies of genetic and environmental causes of central nervous system disorders. “It not only looks like the developing brain, its diverse cell types express nearly all genes like a brain,” Anand said. Anand reported on his lab-grown brain Tuesday (Aug. 18) at the 2015 Military Health System Research Symposium in Ft. Related images