When is Stress Good for You?

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In this piece for Aeon, Bruce McEwen discusses how "good stress," "tolerable stress," and "toxic stress" act epigenetically on our brain structure, and how we can...

“fMRI and False Positives: A Basic Flaw?”

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For Discover Magazine, Neuroskeptic covers the pioneering work of Anders Eklund, which points to flaws in the analysis of psychiatric and neurological research using...

Is Autism a “Deficit” or a Super Sensitivity?

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Salon has reprinted an excerpt from a book by University of California cognitive neuroscientist Gregory Hickok, in which Hickok argues that common diagnostic tests...

Scientists Fight Against the Myth of the Normal or Optimal Brain

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A new study out of Yale University uses evolutionary biology to debunk the idea that there is a “normal” or “optimal” brain.

Researcher Acknowledges His Mistakes in Understanding Schizophrenia

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Sir Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London, states that he ignored social factors that contribute to ‘schizophrenia’ for too long. He also reports that he neglected the negative effects antipsychotic medication has on the brain.

Neurosexism: Study Questions Validity of Gender-based Neuroscientific Results

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Neuroscientific results that class humans into two categories, “male” and “female,” tend to reify gender stereotypes by giving them the appearance of objective scientific truth.

“‘I Wrote a New Story for My Nervous System’ — Neurosculpting, Neuroplasticity”

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In the words of Monica Cassani; "This is so EXCITING. I listened to this with such complete and total delight. This interview with Lisa...

No Brain Connectivity Differences Between Autism, ADHD, and “Typical Development”

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Neuroscience researchers find no differences in brain connectivity between children with diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and those with no diagnoses.

Neurobabble Proves to be Highly Persuasive

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-Adding irrelevant information about neuroscience made psychological theories seem much more convincing to psychology students.

United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care

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In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius Pūras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and “excessive use of psychotropic medicines.”

Adverse Effects: The Perils of Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression

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Hundreds of people have been given remote control deep brain stimulation implants for psychiatric disorders such as depression, OCD and Tourette’s. Yet DBS specialists still have no clue about its mechanisms of action and research suggests its hefty health and safety risks far outweigh benefits.

Childhood Maltreatment Alters Neurobiology of Emotion Perception and Regulation

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Martin Teicher, noted researcher of the neurobiology of child abuse, finds in an MRI study of 265 maltreated 18-25 year-olds that "Maltreatment was associated...

Madness and the Family, Part III: Practical Methods for Transforming Troubled Family Systems

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We are profoundly social beings living not as isolated individuals but as integral members of interdependent social systems—our nuclear family system, and the broader social systems of extended family, peers, our community and the broader society. Therefore, psychosis and other forms of human distress often deemed “mental illness” are best seen not so much as something intrinsically “wrong” or “diseased” within the particular individual who is most exhibiting that distress, but rather as systemic problems that are merely being channeled through this individual.

Contemplative Neuroscience, “Like Valium Without the Side Effects”

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Scientific American's Gary Stix has posted links to two video lectures about meditation and its effects on the human mind. Ricard Matthieu, a Buddist...

On the Quest to Understand Computational Psychiatry

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Boston WBUR public radio intern Suzanne Jacobs goes on a journey to find out what “computational psychiatry” is, and has some difficulty determining if...

“Brains Aren’t Actually ‘Male’ or ‘Female,’ New Study Suggests”

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New research on gender and the brain found that only a very small number of people have brains that are “entirely male, female, or intermediate between the two.” “The vast majority,” they write, have “a mosaic.”

Doidge Releases New Book on Neuroplasticity

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The Toronto Star interviews the man "who brought neuroplasticity to the masses."

Consciousness: An Object Lesson

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In this interview for The New York Review of Books, Riccardo Manzotti puts forth a view of existence as relative. However, he argues, the fact that...

Animal Study Supports Influence of Probiotics on Resilience to Stress

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Researchers experimenting on mice found that Lactobacillus—the probiotic commonly found in yogurt—may help reduce depressive symptoms in reaction to chronic stressors. But human studies have found mixed results.

“The Tantalizing Links between Gut Microbes and the Brain”

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Nature magazine reports on recent discoveries by neuroscientists that microbes that live in the intestinal track may have an influence on brain development and behavior. “Researchers have drawn links between gastrointestinal pathology and psychiatric neurological conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders—but they are just links.”

“Constructing the Modern Mind”

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Psychiatrist and historian George Makari tries to illuminate the historical evolution of our understanding of the conscious mind and how it relates to the...

Genetic Tests Marketed to Psychiatrists Not Supported by Research

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With the explosion of genetic testing and the emerging field of pharmacogenetics, patients can now take a DNA test and receive psychiatric drug recommendations customized to fit their genetic makeup. In an editorial for the latest issue of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Columbia University Psychiatrist Robert Klitzman warns that clinicians need to be aware of the limitations of these genetic tests being marketed to them.

“Sebastian Seung’s Quest to Map the Human Brain”

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-A neuroscientist hopes to identify the exact place inside a brain where a particular memory is held.

Neuroscientists Too Often Exceed Chance Levels Only By Chance

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-The findings of many neuroscientific studies are really just random background noise.

Findings Linking Depression to Abnormal Brain Activity Questioned

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Meta-analyses fail to replicate findings linking abnormal brain activity to depression.