Toxoplasmosis linked to suicide attempts
Spread through contact with cat feces or eating undercooked meat, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) has been linked to…
Capitalism on the couch: psychoanalyzing the credit crisis
Corporations and entire Western economies displayed the same kind of manic behavior as psychologically disturbed individuals during the 2008 credit…
Energy poverty linked to cognitive deficits
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Pitzer College say they have found children exposed to open-fire cooking in…
Parkinson’s treated with Victorian era device
A 19th century “vibration chair” has been found by Rush University researchers to significantly improve some of the symptoms of…
Researchers mull tobacco’s restorative effects on self control
A new study that indicates smoking has a restorative effect on an individual’s self-control resources has researchers pondering other self-control…
Art therapy not so therapeutic for schizophrenics
For people with schizophrenia, UK national treatment guidelines recommend group art therapy to improve mental health and social functioning, but…
Female brain frazzled by mild dehydration
Mild dehydration – which occurs when the body has lost just 1.5 percent of its normal water content – can…
Calorie intake linked to cognitive impairment
Consuming more than 2,100 calories per day appears to double the risk of cognitive impairment in the elderly, according to…
Scientists scope effects of marijuana ingredients via MRI
MRI brain scans of marijuana users under the influence of either tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD) show that one chemical…
Scientists mull brain size-Facebook correlation
People with more Facebook friends have more grey matter in their brain, but University College London (UCL) scientists aren’t sure…
Software identifies psychopaths
Using computer software to analyze the speech patterns of psychopathic killers shows they make readily identifiable subconscious word choices when…
Zinc’s role in the brain revealed
Researchers have discovered that zinc plays a critical role in regulating how the neurons in our brain communicate with one…
Single dose of magic mushrooms “may create lasting personality change”
After a single dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, lasting personality changes in volunteers occurred that were larger in magnitude than…
High incidence of placebo use in psychiatry
Doctors may not like talking about it, but it’s becoming much more prevalent. A recent McGill University survey found that…
Mirror neuron development reversed in autistic brain
The brain’s mirror neuron system enables us to better understand and anticipate the actions of others, leading researchers to posit…
Drink to remember (subconsciously, at least)
According to researcher Hitoshi Morikawa, repeated ethanol exposure enhances synaptic plasticity in the brain, providing further evidence toward an emerging…
Novel psychiatric drugs aimed at gut bacteria
Communication between the bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness,…
Collecting items can trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder
Whatever you collect – porcelain dolls, precious stones, shoes, thimbles, watches or fans – your hobby could easily become a…
Liver, not brain, may originate Alzheimer’s
Unexpected findings from a Scripps Research Institute study could completely alter prevailing notions about Alzheimer’s disease – pointing to the…
Study finds no brain damage among ecstasy users
Prior studies that identified cognitive impairment in ecstasy (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) users were flawed, say the researchers behind a new study that…