Clik here to view.
Good Brain / Bad Brain
'Wiring diagrams' link lifestyle to brain functionHuman Connectome Project finds surprising correlations between brain architecture and behavioural or demographic influences.The brain’s wiring patterns...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A few more words about good brains and bad brains
My previous Good Brain / Bad Brain post may have been a little out there, so here are four brief comments.(1) HCP database. The entire Human Connectome Project database (ConnectomeDB) is an amazing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On the Long Way Down: The Neurophenomenology of Ketamine
Is ketamine a destructive club drug that damages the brain and bladder? With psychosis-like effects widely used as a model of schizophrenia? Or is ketamine an exciting new antidepressant, the “most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ophidianthropy: The Delusion of Being Transformed into a Snake
Scene from Sssssss (1973).“When Dr. Stoner needs a new research assistant for his herpetological research, he recruits David Blake from the local college. Oh, and he turns him into a snake for sh*ts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buried Alive! The Immersive Experience
Ryan Reynolds in Buried (2010)The pathological fear of being buried alive is called taphophobia.1 This seems like a perfectly rational fear to me, especially if one is claustrophobic and enjoys horror...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Obesity Is Not Like Being "Addicted to Food"
Credit: Image courtesy of Aalto UniversityIs it possible to be “addicted” to food, much like an addiction to substances (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, opiates) or behaviors (gambling, shopping, Facebook)? An...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Neuroscience of Social Media: An Unofficial History
There's a new article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences about how neuroscientists can incorporate social media into their research on the neural correlates of social cognition (Meshi et al., 2015). The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happiness Is a Large Precuneus
What is happiness, and how do we find it? There are 93,290 books on happiness at Amazon.com. Happiness is Life's Most Important Skill, an Advantage and a Project and a Hypothesis that we can Stumble On...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carving Up Brain Disorders
Neurology and Psychiatry are two distinct specialties within medicine, both of which treat disorders of the brain. It's completely uncontroversial to say that neurologists treat patients with brain...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Week in Neuroblunders: Optogenetics Edition
Recent technological developments in neuroscience have enabled rapid advances in our knowledge of how neural circuits function in awake behaving animals. Highly targeted and reversible manipulations...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Week in Neuroblunders: fMRI Edition
My entire body of work has been called into question!And what a fine week for technical neurogaffes it is. First was the threat that many trendy and important studies of neural circuits may need to be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Pain Revisited: Opioids for Severe Suicidal Ideation
Does the pain of mental anguish rely on the same neural machinery as physical pain? Can we treat these dreaded ailments with the same medications? These issues have come to the fore in the field of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Opioid Drugs for Mental Anguish: Basic Research and Clinical Trials
The prescription opioid crisis of overdosing and overprescribing has reached epic proportions, according to the North American media. Just last week, we learned that 91% of patients who survive opioid...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Neuroimaging Method Has 100% Diagnostic Accuracy (or your money back)
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0129659.g003Did you know that SPECT imaging can diagnose PTSD with 100% accuracy (Amen et al., 2015)? Not only that, out of a sample of 397 patients from the Amen Clinic in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How do you celebrate 10 years of an anonymous blog?
Today, The Neurocritic celebrates ten years as a blog. Given the ongoing use of a pseudonym, how should I commemorate the occasion?1. Should I finally update my blog template? (“Hey, 2004 wants their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Was I Wrong?
In honor of The Neurocritic's 10th anniversary, I'd like to announce a new occasional feature:Was I Wrong?In science, as in life, we learn from our mistakes. We can't move forward if we don't admit we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Brain at Rest
As you might have gathered, my brain is taking a rest from blogging after the excitement of The Neurocritic's tenth anniversary. Regular blogging will resume shortly.Thank you for your patience.Fig. 1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Writing-Induced Fugue State
Who is this, wandering around the crowded street, afraid of everything, trusting no one? “There must be something wrong, somewhere.”But maybe I’m safer since I look disheveled. Who are these people?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Detached Sense of Self Associated with Altered Neural Responses to Mirror...
Our bodily sense of self contributes to our personal feelings of awareness as a conscious being. How we see our bodies and move through space and feel touched by loved ones are integral parts of our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everybody Loves Dopamine
Dopamine is love. Dopamine is reward. Dopamine is addiction.Neuroscientists have a love/hate relationship with how this monoamine neurotransmitter is portrayed in the popular...
View Article