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Guest Blog for August
Read my guest post today on the Neuroscience Ireland website.
Neuroscience Ireland Guest Blog
THE SECRET TO A HAPPY LIFE – STAY FOCUSSED
Relying on our memories leaves us open to chronic unhappiness – so what can we do about it?
Each person is actually two ‘selves’
Daniel Kahneman’s 2011 book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ is a brilliant, wide-ranging summary of decades of research into how people make decisions and is well worth a read. Kanehman proves in a series of ‘thought experiments’ conducted on literally millions of individiuals over many years that – odd as it may seem – we are not our moment-to-moment ‘experiencing selves’ who actually do our living but are in fact our ‘remembering selves.’
Relying on our memories can be a major cause of suffering
Chronic unhappiness is due to what he regards as a deeply unfortunate disjunction between the ‘experiencing self’ and the ‘remembering self.’ He argues that when it comes to it – our ‘experiencing self’…
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Inside The Extrovert Brain
Dopamine Pathways. In the brain, dopamine plays an important role in the regulation of reward and movement. As part of the reward pathway, dopamine is manufactured in nerve cell bodies located within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and is released in the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. Its motor functions are linked to a separate pathway, with cell bodies in the substantia nigra that manufacture and release dopamine into the striatum (Image Source: Wikipedia)
A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience focused on the neurotransmitter dopamine – —the “pleasure chemical” – in the extroverted brain, finding that the reason extroverts seem to experience stronger positive emotions may be all about how their brains process the memory of rewards.
Reference:
Depue R.A. and Fu Y. Front. On the nature of extraversion: variation in conditioned contextual activation of dopamine-facilitated affective, cognitive, and motor processes. Hum. Neurosci. 13 June 2013
Robot Uses Steerable Needles to Treat Brain Clots
This image shows the robotic needle test with phantom blood clot made out of gelatin. Credited to Joe Howell / Vanderbilt.
Surgery to relieve the damaging pressure caused by hemorrhaging in the brain is a perfect job for a robot.
That is the basic premise of a new image-guided surgical system under development at Vanderbilt University. It employs steerable needles about the size of those used for biopsies to penetrate the brain with minimal damage and suction away the blood clot that has formed.
The system is described in an article accepted for publication in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. It is the product of an ongoing collaboration between a team of engineers and physicians headed by Assistant Professor Robert J. Webster III and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery Kyle Weaver.
20 Potential Technological Advances in the Future of Medicine: Part II.
As I mentioned in the first part of this series, the job of a medical futurist is to give a good summary of the ongoing projects and detect the ones with the biggest potential to be used in everyday medical practices and to determine the future of medicine. Here is the second part of the list of 20 technological advances:
11) Switching from long and extremely expensive clinical trials to tiny microchips which can be used as models of human organs or whole physiological systems provides clear advantages. Drugs or components could be tested on these without limitations which would make clinical trials faster and even more accurate (in each case the conditions and circumstances would be the same). The picture below shows a microchip with living cells that models how a lung works. Obviously, we need more complicated microchips that can mimic the whole human body, but this…
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The Brain Science Of Learning (Podcast)
Earlier this year I was interviewed by Radio Adelaide’s Ewart Shaw, host of the weekly ORBIT – the ideas in education radio show on what we already know about the learning process in the brain.
During the course of the interview I discussed recent scientific findings linking education with neuroscience around the emerging field of neuroeducation, including the educational relevance of factors such as exercise, motivation and stress and how they are informing the teaching/learning process in the classroom.
Why you shouldn’t cram your brain before an exam
Synapses
It’s well known that synapses in the brain, the connections between neurons and other cells that allow for the transmission of information, grow when they’re exposed to a stimulus. Now new research from the lab of Carnegie Mellon Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Alison L. Barth has shown that in the short term, synapses get even stronger than previously thought, but then quickly go through a transitional phase where they weaken.
“When you think of learning, you think that it’s cumulative. We thought that synapses started small and then got bigger and bigger. This isn’t the case,” said Barth. “Based on our data, it seems like synapses that have recently been strengthened are peculiarly vulnerable — more stimulation can actually wipe out the effects of learning.”
Psychologists know that for long-lasting memory, spaced training — like studying for your classes after very lecture, all semester long — is superior to cramming all night before the exam. This study shows why. Right after plasticity, synapses are almost fragile — more training during this labile phases is actually counterproductive.
Weekly Neuroscience Update
Composite of the scans of 20 individuals. Regions in yellow and red are linked to the parietal lobe of the brain’s right hemisphere.
Scientists say they have published the most detailed brain scans “the world has ever seen” as part of a project to understand how the organ works.
Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have discovered that changes in patterns of brain activity during fearful experiences predict whether a long-term fear memory is formed.
New findings about how the brain functions to suppress pain have been published in the leading journal in the field Pain, by National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) researchers. For the first time, it has been shown that suppression of pain during times of fear involves complex interplay between marijuana-like chemicals and other neurotransmitters in a brain region called the amygdala.
Some of the dramatic differences seen among patients with schizophrenia may be explained by a single gene that regulates a group of other schizophrenia risk genes. These findings appear in a new imaging-genetics study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
Research published in the March 2013 journal GENETICS explains a novel interaction between aging and how neurons dispose of unwanted proteins and why this impacts the rising prevalence of dementia with advancing age.
The brain adds new cells during puberty to help navigate the complex social world of adulthood, two Michigan State University neuroscientists report in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The first large, population-based study to follow children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder into adulthood shows that ADHD often doesn’t go away and that children with ADHD are more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults. They also appear more likely to commit suicide and to be incarcerated as adults.
The infant brain does not control its blood flow in the same way as the adult brain, researchers have discovered.
Hypnosis has begun to attract renewed interest from neuroscientists interested in using hypnotic suggestion to test predictions about normal cognitive functioning. To demonstrate the future potential of this growing field, guest editors Professor Peter Halligan from the School of Psychology at Cardiff University and David A. Oakley of University College London, brought together leading researchers from cognitive neuroscience and hypnosis to contribute to this month’s special issue of the international journal, Cortex.
The Art of the Brain
Hippocampus
Greg Dunn swapped the life of a scientist for that of artist when he finished his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Penn in 2011.
Cerebellum – a region of the brain important for movement, balance, and motor memory
He has sold commissioned works to research labs and hospitals, and he says his prints are popular with neuroscientists, neurologists, and others with a special interest in the brain, including people with neurodegenerative disorders.
This painting shows the developing human cerebral cortex, at about week 15 of gestation.
Did roid rage lead Oscar Pistorius to murder his girlfriend?
Oscar Pistorius, the South African Paralympic athlete has reportedly been tested for steroids after the banned drug was found at the home where he is accused of murdering his girlfriend. According to newspaper reports, police asked for blood taken from Mr Pistorius to be tested for steroids, in anticipation that his defence team might claim he acted in “roid rage” – an aggressive condition associated with taking large doses of performance-enhancing drugs.
Reading these reports prompted me to re-visit a blog I wrote in 2011 on Anders Baring Brevik’s Oslo killings. . In a 1500-page manifesto, which he wrote in advance of his attack, he describes how he will be on a “steroid rush”and describes the extensive use of steroids and protein drinks to provide him with more energy for his killing spree.
Playing with fire
Steroids are dangerous drugs, and when used inappropriately, they can cause serious behavioural and psychiatric problems – possibly by interfering with the brain’s ability to regulate a hormone called vasopressin – which is linked to aggression1. Research has shown that the inappropriate use of anabolic steroids – man-made versions of the male sex hormone testosterone – can have catastrophic behavioural consequences including aggression (also known as roid rage or the “steroid rush” mentioned in Brevik’s manifesto) such as fighting, physical and sexual assault, armed robbery and property crimes such as burglary and vandalism. The full-blown aggression can last for up to two weeks after withdrawal. As if this is not bad enough, the psychiatric consequences of inappropriate use of anabolic steroids include jealousy, irritability, deluded thinking, mood swings and bad judgement due to a feeling of invincibility. Why would anyone even dream of taking such a drug – I hear you ask?
The upside of anabolic steroids
Anabolic steroids are powerful body-building drugs. They promote rapid growth of muscle bone, the larynx (voice box) and a decrease in body fat leading to increased strength and endurance. For this reason anabolic steroid abuse is widespread among athletes, bodybuilders, weightlifters and football players at all levels. However, in this case anabolic steroids are taken to simply replace the discipline required for the long hours of training needed to build up more muscle – as nature intended – and are thus a “shortcut” to an athletic body. These bulking-up effects of steroids on muscle can boost confidence and strength leading the abuser to overlook the potential serious long-term damage that these substances can cause. These drugs are also abused by people who believe that they look underweight, are the wrong shape, to stop being bullied, beaten up or sexually attacked.
Anabolic steroids are very effective in treating conditions such as delayed puberty, some types of impotence, body wasting in patients with AIDS, and other diseases that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone. However, the doses prescribed to treat these medical conditions are 10 to 100 times lower than the doses that are abused for performance enhancement usually by some athletes, nightclub bouncers and others interested in beefing-up their muscles.
Why are anabolic steroids addictive?
By enhancing certain types of performance or appearance anabolic steroid abuse is increasing in adolescents and most rapidly among females. Abuse of anabolic steroids differs from the abuse of other illegal drugs because the initial use of anabolic steroids is not driven by the immediate euphoria that accompanies most drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, heroin, alcohol and marijuana, but by the desire of the abuser to change their appearance and performance, characteristics of great importance to adolescents and young adults.
Route of administration
They can be taken orally (by mouth) as tablets or capsules (Anadrol® [oxymetholone], Oxandrin® [oxandrolone], Dianabol® [methandrostenolone], Winstrol® [stanozolol], and others), by injection into muscles (Deca-Durabolin® [nandrolone decanoate], Durabolin® [nandrolone phenpropionate], Depo-Testosterone® [testosterone cypionate], Equipoise® [boldenone undecylenate], and others) or by ointment preparations rubbed into the skin and are often taken together with drinks rich in protein – the building blocks of muscle. Health food supplements such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and androsterone (street name Andro) arenot anabolic steroids.
Enough is never enough
Anabolic steroids are legally available only on prescription and for the illegal market are manufactured in illegal laboratories (poor quality), smuggled in from other countries or stolen from hospitals and pharmacies. One of the hallmarks of addiction is an inability to control drug intake and anabolic steroid abuse is no exception to this. Abusers use two ways of maximizing the effect of the drug on muscle growth – stacking and pyramiding. Both can cause very high levels of steroids to accumulate quickly in the body resulting in acute behavioural and psychiatric problems such as the controlled rage or “steroid rush” described by Brevik.
Stack ‘em high
Stacking is the term used when abusers take two or more anabolic steroids together, mixing oral and/or injectable types, sometimes adding drugs such as stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) or painkillers (codeine, morphine, heroin, diazepam). Stacking is thought to produce a greater effect on muscle size than could be obtained by simply increasing the dose of a single drug.
The ultimate pyramid scheme
In a separate procedure called pyramiding at the beginning of a cycle, the abuser starts with low doses of the stacked substances – gradually increasing the doses for 6 to 12 weeks. In the second half of the cycle, the doses are slowly decreased to zero. This is followed by a second cycle during which the person continues to train, but without drugs. Abusers believe that pyramiding allows the body time to adjust to the high doses, and the drug-free cycle allows time for the body’s natural hormonal system to recover.
Life is not just about winning
Most adolescents already know that anabolic steroids build muscles and can increase athletic prowess and a failure to acknowledge these potential benefits creates a credibility problem and can actually make youths more likely to try the drugs. Young people need to see the benefits of working with what nature has provided – such as the importance of proper nutrition and exercise and other techniques for improving performance – and not “cheat” by using steroids and thereby exposing themselves to the negative side-effects associated with these drugs. Participating in sports offers many benefits, but young people and adults shouldn’t take unnecessary health risks in an effort to win. By giving a balanced picture of what these drugs can do for you and to you I hope that this blog post will help in those prevention and education efforts by reaching young people, their parents, and others who may think that anabolic steroids are a harmless way to ‘bulk up’ or achieve athletic goals.
- Plasticity in anterior hypothalamic vasopressin correlates with aggression during anabolic-androgenic steroid withdrawal in hamsters. Grimes, Jill M.; Ricci, Lesley A.; Melloni, Richard H., Jr. Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 120(1), Feb 2006, 115-124. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.120.1.115
For those interested in the topic of steroid abuse more information can be found at:
inside-the-brain.com 