Medicine & Health
neurophilosophy | June 18, 2008The authors of Trick or Treatment? The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine have thrown down the gauntlet to homeopaths:
We challenge homeopaths to demonstrate that homeopathy is effective by showing that the Cochrane Collaboration has published a review that is strongly and conclusively positive about high dilution homeopathic remedies for any human condition.
Or, we challenge homeopaths to have such a review published within 12 months of the first publication of extracts from Trick or Treatment? (8 April, 2009).
The Prize will be £10,000 - it will be paid by Ernst and Singh out of…
neurophilosophy | June 18, 2008The Boston Globe has an infographic containing tips on how to nap effectively.
But why would you want to run the risk of being thought of as lazy by sleeping during the day? Recent research shows that power napping enhances memory consolidation and increases alertness and productivity.
neurophilosophy | June 17, 2008I just logged in to my email to find this worrying comment on my post about trepanation:
I have been very interested in this procedure for quite some time and I am curious to find someone that has had the procedure done. I am a Reiki Master I work with stones and crystals as a form of intigrated [sic] healing and also African D'jembe for Shamanic sound therapy. I find the information that I am reading very pertanant [sic] to my work and have given very serious thought to having it done but can't seem to find out more about it from someone that has had it done.
Namaste,
Kevin
I am not a…
neurophilosophy | June 12, 2008A reader sent me a link to this report on today's NPR Morning Edition, about the potential benefits of voluntary work for patients with Alzheimer's Disease.
The program describes the work of Peter Whitehouse, who founded a school in Cleveland, Ohio 8 years ago, which regularly engages people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia in voluntary work with the pupils.
Voluntary work necessarily involves social interactions, which Whitehouse believes has significant health benefits for the patients. There is some evidence to support his claim - recent research shows…
neurophilosophy | June 6, 2008
Photo by Einat Adar
Our feathered friends provide us with some beautiful examples of the link between brain and behaviour. In some bird species, groups of cells involved in seasonal behaviours die after they have performed their function, but are regenerated by neurogenesis as and when they are needed.
Male songbirds, for example, serenade females; the brain nuclei which produce the vocalizations die when the mating season ends, and regenerate as the next one approaches. Similarly, the Clarke's nutcracker stores tens of thousands of pine seeds in many different caches spread across a…
neurophilosophy | June 5, 2008Researchers report today that human stem cells can rescue mice from an otherwise fatal neurological condition caused by the brain's inability to conduct nervous impulses. The findings, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, raise the possibility of cell transplantation treatments for a number of neurological diseases in which the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other has been compromised.
The new study, led by Steven Goldman, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center, used glial progenitor cells (GPCs) obtained from the brains of…
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008Imagine listening to a piece of music, and perceiving a rattle of pots and pans instead of the harmony of the combined component sounds; or developing an insatiable desire to play the piano after being struck by lightning; or to be able to reproduce a complex piece of music after hearing only once, despite being blind, autistic and needing round-the-clock care.
People with these conditions are among those encountered by Alan Yentob, in a documentary called Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain, which was broadcast on BBC1 last night. As its title suggests, the programme features…
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008MIT Tech Review reports that a San Diego-based pharmaceuticals company BrainCells Inc. is carrying out a phase II clinical trial to test the efficacy of a neurogenesis-stimulating compound as a treatment for depression.
It has been known, for about 20 years, that the brains of mammals (including humans) contain stem cells which are capable of dividing to generate new neurons. This process, called neurogenesis, occurs throughout adulthood in several discrete areas of the brain (the hippocampus and olfactory bulb), but the exact function of the newly-generated cells remains unclear.
Reduced…
neurophilosophy | June 1, 2008
From Lithographische Abbildungen nebst Beschreibung der vorzuglicheren alteren und neueren chirurgischen Werkzeuge und Verbande, nach dem Handbuche der Chirurgie von Chelius geordnet, und am Schlube mit einer systematischen Zusammenstellung sammlicher abgebildeter Geratschaften versehen, by Franz Andreas Ott, 1829, Munich (via BibliOdyssey).
The book contains a total of 48 plates, and is just one of about 100 digitized monographs available at the Edoc database at Humboldt University in Berlin. Among the instruments in the plate above there appear to be several trepans; earlier today, at…
edyong | May 31, 2008
Children can be fed with good food but they will only become productive members of society if they're raised in a rich, nurturing environment. Now scientists have shown that the same is true for stem cells.
Our bodies are made up of hundreds of different types of cells, but stem cells can become all of them. For example, one group - the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) - can give rise to nerve cells, muscle-building cells, and bone-building cells.
Because of this ability, many scientists have lauded stem cell treatments as the next big thing in medicine. Injuries and diseases could be…
neurophilosophy | May 29, 2008Neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh report that they have successfully trained monkeys to feed themselves using a robotic arm controlled by a brain-computer interface (BCI). The study has been covered extensively in the media, and I've written quite a lot about these devices in the past, so, rather than elaborate on it here, I'll refer you to my previous posts, and to this post by Ed at Not Exactly Rocket Science.
However, I suggest that the new study is somewhat overhyped in some of the news stories that I've read. According to The Independent, for example, it is "a major…
edyong | May 28, 2008The realm of science-fiction has just taken a big stride towards the world of science fact, with the creation of a prosthetic arm that can be moved solely by thought. Two monkeys, using only electrodes implanted in their brains, were able to feed themselves with the robotic arm complete with working joints.
Bionic limbs have been fitted to people before but they have always worked by connecting to the nerve endings in the chest. This is the first time that a prosthetic has been placed under direct control of the relevant part of the brain.
The study, carried out by Meel Velliste from the…
neurophilosophy | May 27, 2008New research shows that a protein found in green algae can partially restore visual function when delivered into the retina of blind mice, taking us one step further towards genetic therapy for various conditions in which the degeneration of retinal cells leads to imapired vision or complete blindness.
Normally, light entering the eye falls upon the rods and cones at the back of the retina. These are the photoreceptors: they are packed with a light-sensitive protein called rhodopsin, which initiates an electrical signal when struck by photons (the particles which carry light).
The signals…
neurophilosophy | May 26, 2008From this online gallery of modern and vintage psychiatric drug adverts.
COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS Instantaneous Cure! Price 15 Cents. Prepared by the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. 219 Hudson Ave., Albany, N.Y. For sale by all Druggists. (Registered March 1885.)
Cocaine is the new anaesthetic now used so extensively throughout Europe and this country by Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists. This preparation of Toothache Drops contains Cocaine, and its wonderful properties are fully demonstrated by the many recommendations it is daily receiving. Take no other except Cocaine…
neurophilosophy | May 22, 2008
Via Street Anatomy comes this recent case report from Acta Neurochirurgica, of a man who had a paintbrush stuck into his brain - bristly end first - during a fight, but didn't realize until 6 hours later, when he went to hospital complaining of a headache! Even more remarkably, any brain damage that may have occurred was apparently insufficient to cause any behavioural or cognitive deficits.
Mandat, T. S., et al. (2005). Artistic assault: an unusual penetrating head injury reported as a trivial facial trauma. Acta Neurochir. 147: 331-333. [Summary]
The authors report a case of…
neurophilosophy | May 20, 2008
Four representations of Phineas Gage, from Macmillan, M. (2006). Restoring Phineas Gage: A 150th Retrospective. J. Hist. Neurosci. 9: 46-66. [Abstract]
Here's some more neurohistory from the Beeb: following on from last week's episode of In Our Time, which featured a discussion about the history of the brain, is the BBC Radio 4 series Case Study, which looks at - yes, you've guessed it - individual case studies that have made significant contributions to neuroscience and psychology.
In the third episode of the series, which airs tomorrow at 11am GMT is now online, presenter Claudia…
edyong | May 20, 2008 In the late 19th century, asbestos became a building material of choice. Resistant to heat, electricity and corrosion, it found many uses including home insulation, brake pads and ship-building. By the time that the first health problems were reported, the material was commonplace. In the UK, the material was only restricted in 1983 after thousands of people were exposed during the post-war era. The result is a latent epidemic of related diseases including a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma, which is becoming more common and is only expected to peak in incidence over the next decade…
edyong | May 15, 2008Last year, I blogged about an ironic public health strategy - controlling malaria with mosquitoes. The mozzies in question are genetically engineered to be resistant to the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. The idea is that these GM-mosquitoes would mate with wild ones and spread their resistance genes through the natural population.
The approach seems promising but it relies crucially on the ability of the resistant males to successfully compete for the attentions of females in wild populations. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed several failed attempts to control malaria by swamping natural…
neurophilosophy | May 13, 2008
The procedure known as trepanation, in which a hole is scraped or drilled in the skull, is an ancient form of neurosurgery that has been performed since the late Stone Age. Exactly why ancient peoples performed trepanation has remained a matter of debate: some researchers argue that it was performed for medical reasons, as it is today, while others believe it was done for magical or religious reasons.
A new study by two American anthropologists now provides evidence that the Incas performed trepanation to treat head injuries; that the procedure was far more common than was previously…
edyong | May 4, 2008This is a quick follow-up to my other post on fat cells, which as it happens, isn't the only obesity-related story out today. Another paper found a common genetic variant that increases the risk of obesity in its carriers.
A huge team of researchers scoured the genomes of almost 17,000 European people for genetic variations that are linked to obesity. Until now, only one has been found and it sits within a gene called FTO. This new study confirmed that FTO variants have the strongest association with obesity, but in the runner-up position is another variant near a gene called melanocortin-4…