The magazine that can change your mind.

September 2010

Fear in Love

Fear in Love

Attachment, Abuse, and the Developing Brain

by Regina Sullivan, Ph.D., with Elizabeth Norton Lasley

Dr. Regina Sullivan explains how her research with rat pups has led to greater understanding of the infant brain, and how negative early experiences can cause long-term genetic, brain, behavioral, and hormonal changes that can affect not only the abuse victim but also the victim’s descendants.

August 2010

Promoting Brain-Science Literacy in the K-12 Classroom

Promoting Brain-Science Literacy in the K-12 Classroom

by Michaela Labriole

Michaela Labriole, a science instructor at the New York Hall of Science, provides tangible examples of how teachers can encourage brain-science literacy in students at a time when growing knowledge of the brain is shaping our understanding of how to best foster learning.

In a complementary article, “The Brain in Science Education: What Should Everyone Learn?,” Dr. Jo Ellen Roseman and Mary Koppal, from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), discuss how brain science fits into national classroom curricula, explaining that what students actually learn in the classroom varies greatly from state to state.

July 2010

Enhancing Brains

Enhancing Brains

What Are We Afraid Of?

by Henry T. Greely, J.D.

In 2008, Henry T. Greely, a professor at Stanford Law School, co-authored a commentary in Nature; it concluded that “safe and effective cognitive enhancers will benefit both the individual and society.” Here, he argues that only some concerns about the use of cognitive enhancements are justified; proper attention is needed to address these issues. He contends that rather than banning cognitive enhancements, as some have suggested, we should determine rules for their use.

June 2010

Uncovering Awareness

Uncovering Awareness

Medical and Ethical Challenges in Diagnosing and Treating the Minimally Conscious State

by Marie-Aurélie Bruno and Steven Laureys, M.D., Ph.D.

Eight years ago, an interdisciplinary group of scientists representing several institutions worked together to codify criteria for the minimally conscious state. Today, technology, such as functional neuroimaging, is beginning to change the way medical professionals diagnose, treat, and communicate with patients once considered to have no or very little conscious awareness.

See also

June 2010

Placebo Versus Antidepressant

Placebo Versus Antidepressant

Book Review: The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth

by Floyd E. Bloom, M. D.

Dr. Floyd Bloom takes apart Dr. Irving Kirch's arguments as to why antidepressants are ineffective, using decades of biomedical literature to explore just how effective antidepressants are for a large number of depression sufferers.

April 2010

Solving the Puzzle of Autism

Solving the Puzzle of Autism

To find reliable treatments, we first need to untangle its myriad causes

by Alan Packer, Ph.D.

Desperate to understand and to cure autism, many activists argue that the disorder can be traced to a single source. But in order to understand autism, writes the author, we first need to determine the genetic, neuronal, and behavioral elements at play. Researchers will then need to translate their understanding of autism into treatments, an undertaking that will require a long-term, interdisciplinary approach.

March 2010

How Music Helps to Heal the Injured Brain

How Music Helps to Heal the Injured Brain

Therapeutic Use Crescendos Thanks to Advances in Brain Science

by Michael Thaut, Ph.D., and Gerald McIntosh, M.D.

The use of music in therapy for the brain has evolved rapidly as brain-imaging techniques have revealed the brain's plasticity--its ability to change--and have identified networks that music activates. Research has shown that neurologic music therapy can help patients who have difficulty with language, cognition, or motor control, and the authors suggest that these techniques should become part of rehabilitative care.

February 2010

A Decade after The Decade of the Brain

A Decade after The Decade of the Brain

by Directors of the National Institutes of Health

In this seven-part series, directors of neuroscience-related institutes at the National Institutes of Health take stock of how brain research has progressed in the past 10 years and provide insight into what the next 10 hold in store. Look for a new installment each weekday.

December 2009

Brain-Based Suggestions for Teaching Reading
Book Excerpt

Brain-Based Suggestions for Teaching Reading

by Stanislas Dehaene

In this excerpt from Reading in the Brain, French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene suggests how teachers might draw from scientific advances to help their students learn to read, though he notes that caution is necessary.

December 2009

Religion and the Brain

Religion and the Brain

A Debate

by Dimitrios Kapogiannis, M.D., Jordan Grafman, Ph.D., and Andrew B. Newberg, M.D.

Two scientists suggest that religious experiences arise from brain networks that evolved for other purposes. A psychiatrist counters that the brain may be a medium for religious experience without necessarily generating it.

November 2009

The Science of Education

The Science of Education

Informing Teaching and Learning through the Brain Sciences

by Mariale M. Hardiman, Ed.D., and Martha Bridge Denckla, M.D.

Discoveries about how the brain learns are fueling interest in applying neuroscience in the classroom. In the new field of neuroeducation, scientists and educators should join forces to develop goals for learning-related research, the authors argue.

October 2009

Wired for Hunger

Wired for Hunger

The Brain and Obesity

by Marcelo O. Dietrich, M.D., and Tamas L. Horvath, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Because food is not always plentiful, humans have evolved to eat whenever it is available. Researchers are starting to tease out the brain circuits that elicit this “eat” message, a network that may contribute to today’s widespread obesity. Effective obesity treatment likely will involve combination of drugs, in addition to psychological approaches and exercise—not just a single pill. An accompanying story addresses what goes wrong in people with anorexia nervosa.

October 2009

Weighing In on 'Conditioned Hypereating'
Book Review

Weighing In on 'Conditioned Hypereating'

by Lisa J. Merlo, Ph.D., and Mark S. Gold, M.D.

Author and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David A. Kessler presents a provocative theory of why we overeat, complete with sound (though somewhat limited) science, a pair of addiction researchers write in this review.

October 2009

Updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

by David J. Kupfer, M.D., Emily A. Kuhl, Ph.D., William E. Narrow, M.D., M.P.H., and Darrel A. Regier, M.D., M.P.H.; and Paul R. McHugh, M.D.

How the foremost clinical manual for psychiatric disorders guides doctors to diagnoses has long been controversial. Now, during the early stages of the manual’s revision, complementary articles—one by four scientists involved in the process, the other by a psychiatrist looking in from the outside—address how to make psychiatric diagnosis both more certain and more flexible.

October 2009

What Can Dance Teach Us About Learning?

What Can Dance Teach Us About Learning?

by Scott T. Grafton, M.D.

An action such as a dance move activates the same brain circuitry whether we perform it ourselves or watch someone else perform it, research indicates. This “action observation network” is important for learning.

September 2009

How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition

How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition

by Michael I. Posner, Ph.D., with Brenda Patoine

Sustained training in music, dance or other arts strengthens the brain’s attention system, which in turn may improve cognition more generally. Evidence for such cognitive “transfer” is accumulating.

August 2009

Using Deep Brain Stimulation on the Mind: Handle with Care

Using Deep Brain Stimulation on the Mind: Handle with Care

by Mahlon R. DeLong, M.D.

The success of deep brain stimulation in treating movement disorders has led to investigations of its use for psychiatric illnesses. While the technique shows early promise in the treatment of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Dr. Mahlon DeLong, M.D., a pioneer in the field, cautions both doctors and patients to be aware of the risks in using this yet unproven method.

August 2009

Why So Many Seniors Get Swindled

Why So Many Seniors Get Swindled

Brain Anomalies and Poor Decision-making in Older Adults

by Natalie L. Denburg, Ph.D., with Lyndsay Harshman, B.S.

The elderly often fall victim to scams, but is it more than aged neurons causing the problem? One expert argues that such slips result from gene-based abnormalities in the brain’s emotional processing rather than the normal deterioration that goes with aging.

July 2009

Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse

Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse

by Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D.

Headlines about how video games affect the brain range from upbeat to dire. Psychologist Douglas A. Gentile asserts that although violent games in particular can have negative consequences, well-designed games can teach positive skills. He proposes five attributes of video game design that can help explain findings and guide future research.

May 2009

Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams

Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams

by Russell A. Poldrack, Ph.D.

Researchers and news reports sometimes exaggerate findings from brain imaging, and we should regard “breakthroughs" with caution, writes an experienced interpreter of brain scans.

February 2009

The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

by Jay N. Giedd, M.D.

The changes the brain undergoes during adolescence pave the way to adulthood, priming the young person for life away from home and for finding unrelated mates. But this plasticity also can open the door to poor decision making and risky behavior, writes Jay N. Giedd, a child psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. 

 

See also

December 2008

Working Later in Life May Facilitate Neural Health

Working Later in Life May Facilitate Neural Health

by Denise C. Park, Ph.D.

Evidence indicates that by continuing to perform difficult tasks and engage in new pursuits, the brain remains flexible over time—good not only for the individual but also for society. Denise C. Park theorizes that exercising the brain causes “scaffolding,” which creates new circuits to support pre-existing pathways.

Spotlight
BOOK FROM DANA PRESS: Cerebrum 2010: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

BOOK FROM DANA PRESS: Cerebrum 2010: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

This fourth annual collection brings together the foremost experts in brain science. Jay Giedd, Michael Posner, Mariale Hardiman, David Kupfer and Paul McHugh present their research – and their take – on such cutting-edge topics as the development of the teen brain, how arts education affects intelligence, the limitations of brain imaging, and how to bring more certainty and flexibility to diagnosis in the next edition of the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

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