Monthly Archive for July, 2009
The Curse of the Nocebo Effect
The placebo effect is a universally acknowledged phenomenon. In essence, if you think something is going to make you better, it probably will. If you believe that three tablets will do you more good than two, this may prove to be the case; if you believe that capsules are more effective than tablets, this may become your experience; and if you believe that expensive branded medicine must be better than the cheaper generic; this may turn out to be money well spent.By contrast, the placebo’s darker cousin, the nocebo, is much less well researched and is rarely considered in clinical practice.
I Can Read Your Mind!
Mind reading or delving into a person’s conscious experience is a concept only science fiction consists of. Though it sounds improbable, recent strides in neuroimaging have made it a reality, at least partially.Visual stimuli are captured through the eyes and relayed into the brain for perception. Decoding this process involves a systemic mapping between the visual stimuli and brain activity. Scientists have previously used brain activity patterns from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique for reconstruction of images as perceived by the cortex of the brain.
Brain Blogging, Forty-Sixth Edition
Welcome to the forty-sixth edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss the difference between thoughts and intuitions, the power of exercise on memory and neurogenesis, and a proposal for a new psychiatric diagnosis: Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED).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.
Natural Good, Chemical Bad – Right?
Arsenic sandwich anyone? Mercury soup, deadly nightshade surprise? No? Really? Well, I’m baffled! They’re all natural you know. And as we know, natural is good; natural is pure. Best of all, natural is healthy.Such is the creed that has grown up around natural products. You want to market a new range of face cream –- make sure everyone knows it is natural. You want your expensive new yogurt to sell –- include the word "natural" on the packaging. The word "natural" has become byword for purity, health and goodness.
Popular Posts
- The Love Drug
- Women After Sex
- Fatty Acids and Suicide Risk
- Mind Games - Science's Attempts at Thought Control
- Risks of Personalized Medicine
- Is Giftedness Nothing More than Good Genes?
- Intelligence - Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
- Behind the Masks - The Mysteries of Dissociative Identity Disorder
- The NeuroSocial Network
- Inside Your Brain on Holiday
Future Posts
- Drug-Induced Mystical Experience
- Facebook – Coming to a 12-Step Program near You?
Latest Posts
- Therapeutic Analysis of Dreams – A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach
- Small Groups Make Women Stupid
- Psychotherapy and Clinical Boundaries
- The Brain’s Buying Power
- Aging Intelligently
- A Nicotine Patch a Day Keeps the Cognitive Impairment Away
- The Many Emerging Roles of Astrocytes
- Diabetes Impairs Cognition
- Media Violence Leads to Real Violence
- Intelligence – Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
Comments
- Psicologos Barcelona: Richard, tu español es muy bue
- Lage: Alexis,What evidence do yo
- Adi: Hi, with my best intentions an
- Tamara G. Suttle, M.Ed., LPC: Thanks so much, Richard, for d
- PhD: The title of this article is o
- Niobe Chacks: Well;the article is good but i
- Alexis Remm: LageI think that you don´t
- Lage: Alexis,You still never ans
- JamMiester1711: Be careful not to be miss info
- Ron: If there is such a thing as a
- Cory: How about how TV commercials t
- Caoimhin: This was extremely satisfying
