Welcome to the forty-fifth edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss new trials using stem cells for stroke, the neurobiology of empathy, if brain tonics really work, the connection between obesity and mental illness, and many more topics.

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective. You can check out our archive for past editions.

For future carnivals, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…

It’s All in the Mind…

Brain Stimulant writes Brain Stroke Clinical Trial Using Stem Cells:

Scientists may also use more refined non-invasive brain manipulation tools such as ultrasound or deep TMS to further propel our brain manipulation capacity. This will be coupled with future brain imaging technology that will enable the visualization of the exact details of every molecular brain alteration and super computer brain simulations to run manipulation tests ahead of time.

To The Heart of the Matter writes The Power of Words and Thoughts:

We live in a society that has been referred to as a “psuedo attention deficient disorder” society because of all the stimulus and massive amounts of information we take in every moment, often unconsciously. It comes in forms that are often seemingly benign to us..the sound of a siren, the phone ringing, the child crying, thoughts about paying the bills, etc.. stress has an insidious way of creating internal chaos and may cause an individual to be overly reactive or perhaps make impulsive decisions that they may not have made had they been relaxed and focused.

Sensing Architecture writes Your Brain: How Architecture is “Food for Thought”:

By designing with greater insight into how the human mind processes architecture, design professionals might really be able to influence occupants to live healthier, more meaningful and happier lives as architectural qualities of an environment really do trigger a wide variety of human response.

Highlight HEALTH writes Brain Toniq Review: The Science Behind the Think Drink:

After drinking a can, did I feel any smarter? Well, no, but then again that’s not the point is it? What I did notice was that it was much easier to get in “the zone”. Indeed, there was a evident improvement in concentration over three different days. Absent were the jitters and restlessness that normally accompany my morning cups (yes, cups) of coffee. I was able to achieve mental focus without the side effects of caffeine. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Medical Science writes Benefits of Art Therapy:

Art therapy is also valuable for adolescents and adults who are unable or unwilling to talk about thoughts and feelings. Beyond its use in mental health treatment, art therapy is also used with traditionalmedicine to treat organic diseases and conditions.

Living the Scientific Life writes Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend:

In the following few chapters, the relationship between traditional Machiavellian behaviors and several personality disorders is explored, starting with the American Psychiatric Association’s formal definitions published in their “Bible”; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 (DSM-IV). In a series of particularly well-written chapters, the author begins her discussion by describing the structure of DNA and genes, the relationship between genes and neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and the connection between the various serotonin receptors and transporters and how they influence neurobiology.

World’s Strongest Librarian writes Do We Remember The Event Or The Story?:

If you have never embellished a story, you’re a better human than I. People change things all the time based on the circumstances they’re in or who they are speaking with. You can tell the same story to an attractive person you’re desperate to impress, and again to your grandmother, with different motives for telling it. Not to mention different styles, gestures, words.

Dr Shock MD PhD writes The Neurobiology of Empathy through Pain Research:

Some regions were active in both groups this suggests a generalized or common circuitry for emotional processing. Some regions differ in activation. These differences in activation in regions (medial frontal gyrus and posterior insula and caudate for body parts and the cingulate [mid and posterior]) noted in this study are of greater interest. These four regions are differentially activated in the CIP-group and not in the control group. These regions may provide some interesting insights into the processing of empathy.

Conscious Flex writes How to Access the Other 90% of the Brains Potential:

For example, if you take a rechargeable battery and you don’t let the stored energy of that battery fully die before recharging it again (repeating this process again and again), eventually it will develop a memory and the maximum full range of that battery can no longer be used because it can’t fully charge. This is known as memory effect, it restricts the battery from recharging to its maximum potential. In other words, if you only use 10% of the battery power then recharge it again and repeat this process many times, eventually you will be able to access only 10% of that battery powers potential.

Creation Theory Revised writes Personal perception through our mind:

Most would consider such a thought of free will fallacy, and that what they do in life is based on what they are pushed to achieve. People choose to give their free will away to others saying that they were forced into the world to which they exist, and the boundaries that conform around them. In some ways there is a restriction, this is true, the physical world has limitation within its constructs because of the focus that is created through the matter environment. When we view the world within our minds however, perception is very different.

Teen Mental Health Blog writes Your Brain and the Internet: Use it or Lose it:

Young people today live in an environment that differs fundamentally from that of their parents and their grandparents. People my age (ok – it’s in the fifties) are digital immigrants. If you are 30 years of age and younger, you are a digital native, and the younger you are, the more of a digital native you are. The brains of digital natives are shaped by the digital environments in which they live. What kinds of things may be going on as a result of this?

In My Mind writes Obesity and Mental Illness:

Individuals with Schizophrenia tend to have higher BMI’s than the average population, as was pointed out in the review. There may be a predisposition there, but our treatments do not help the situation. Atypical Anti-Psychotics are known to carry an increased risk of metabolic syndrome. Many patients have told me that they experience an increase in appetite when placed on risperidone, olanzapine, and quetiapine.

DevelopMinds.com writes Brain Games Don’t Make You Smarter!:

It has been debated as to whether brain games actually increase your IQ, and contrary to past beliefs on this subject, brain games do in fact help to increase your fluid intelligence. Research disproved the previous theory that fluid memory is determined at birth and inevitably declines with aging, with no chance for an increase past your original “birth level”.