Using MRI imaging it is now possible to picture in detail the nerve connections between different parts of the brain – the ‘connectome’, the wiring diagram. This Scientific American article describes some studies comparing connections in different animals. One huge seven year study by Yaniv Assef and Yossi Yovel compares the brains of 123 mammalian species. Another by Martijn van den Heuvel compared our brain connections to those of chimpanzees and found that, although we share 255 connections, 33 connections…..
FIVE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE BEHAVIOURS have been found to be associated with a LOWER RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. A recently published study confirms previous evidence that the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is reduced in people who follow some or all of 5 ‘healthy lifestyle’ behaviours: (a) not smoking (b) 150 minutes or more per week of moderate/vigorous-intensity physical activity (c) light to moderate alcohol consumption (d) a MIND diet (see below) and (e) engagement in late-life cognitive activities. https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2020/06/16/WNL.0000000000009816 The MIND…..
“MUSIC, ESPECIALLY THE MUSIC THAT MOVES US MOST, CAN BOND PEOPLE TOGETHER” wrote the authors of this study who demonstrated (unsurprisingly) that music listener’s cortical brain activity mirrored the music performer’s activity. This study went a step further however to show that the greater the mirroring (‘inter-brain coherence’) the more the listener was “fond of the performance”. The researchers (based in Shanghai, Harbin and Stockholm) used an imaging technique (functional near infra-red spectroscopy) and recorded levels of activity in the…..
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE LINKED TO CITY POLLUTION?. Cause and effect?. If a cause then what is the mechanism?. More and more recent studies show a strong connection between exposure to airborne particles from car exhausts and Alzheimer’s disease (and possibly Lewy Body disease). The tiny airborne particles (Particulate Matter or PM 2.5), 1/30th diameter of a human hair) probably enter the brain via the nose, olfactory (smell) nerve and olfactory bulb or via a weakened ‘blood-brain barrier’. They may act by…..
HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE (HD) PIONEER, ADVOCATE AND RESEARCHER ACKNOWLEDGES DEVELOPING HUNTINGTON’S HERSELF. Dr Nancy Wexler, PhD, Professor of Neuropsychology, has spent the last 40 years researching, co-ordinating research, campaigning for and initiating care and counselling services for Huntington’s sufferers and their families. In order to further the cause of reducing stigma associated with the diagnosis, she recently acknowledged that she has developed features of this progressive brain disorder. She continues to work. Dr Wexler cared for her mother when her mother…..
PERSONAL EFFECTS OF THIS CORONAVIRUS THING AND COPING WITH IT. A helpful article which frames our response as ‘grief’, as described by Kubler-Ross years ago. “There’s denial, which we say a lot of early on: ‘This virus won’t affect us’. There’s anger: ‘You’re making me stay home and taking away my activities’. There’s bargaining: ‘Okay, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right?’ There’s sadness: ‘I don’t know when this will end’. And finally there’s acceptance……
It has been known for some time that when we hear a song its lyrics are mostly processed on the left side of the brain, while the melody is mostly processed on the right side. Some very recently published research (Phillipe Albouy, Canada) may have clarified how this happens: The auditory (hearing) network on the left is particularly able to analyse the time-based aspects of lyrics. Similar networks on the right side are particularly good at analysing frequencies. We already…..
SOCIAL ROAD MAPS IN OUR BRAINS. There is firm evidence that our brains use ‘maps’ to understand and work with social relationships – how distant or close individuals are to one another (affiliation) and where we and others sit on our social network (hierarchies and other relationships). The ‘structural school’ of family therapy observed and described this in the nineteen sixties and seventies but now we know some of the basis in brain function for these essential functions and skills……
CONNECTING CUT/BROKEN NERVES. New hope. If a nerve is injured (eg. industrial or battle injuries), the nerve ends can often be rejoined with microsurgery, or, if there is a gap, with a nerve taken from another part of the person’s body. These researchers may have found a way to bridge the gap between the remaining nerves without taking a nerve from elsewhere in the person’s body. Their technique uses a biodegradable tube to guide the regrowing nerve and microspheres containing…..
A DRUG THAT CAN SLOW ALZHEIMER’S DETERIORATION; OR MAYBE NOT! ‘Aducanumab’, which may clear from the brain the protein (beta amyloid) which forms the Alzheimer ‘plaques’, has been tested in several trials, some of which were carried out in Australia. Earlier this year a trial was stopped because there did not appear to be any or sufficient benefit demonstrated. Now the drug company has shown data that appears to show a benefit when the drug is given at higher doses…..