Coming Soon to a Psychiatrist's Office Near You?

Take a look at a video clip that really should be called awesome...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dAIQeTeMJ-I

Using extraordinary analytic tools available today, future psychiatrists will be able to offer diagnostic and treatment services that will revive and give new meaning to the field of psychoanalysis.  Some of this technology is currently being used to create brain to machine interfaces that permit the restoration of function to seriously disabled patients.  

From mentally moving cursors on computer screens by comatose patients, to understanding human cognitive and emotional experience, the future reads more like science fiction than science fact.

That is, if the currently disabled world political system can waken from its collective coma and provide the will and financing to permit human evolution to return to a focus on evolving.

Penetrating the Blood-Brain Barrier: New Frontier in Drug Delivery Strategies

Brain "Window" To Permit Pharmaceutical Access via Nasal Spray

Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. Consequently, these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier. 

Credit: Garyfallia Pagonis and Benjamin S. Bleier, M.D.

More Data Supporting Oxytocin Nasal Spray

http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2015162a.html

The effect of oxytocin nasal spray on social interaction deficits observed in young children with autism: a randomized clinical cross-over trial

Abstract

Interventions for autism are limited. The synthetic hormone oxytocin may provide a potential treatment to improve core social and behavioral difficulties in autism, but its efficacy has yet to be evaluated in young children who potentially may benefit to a greater extent. We investigated the efficacy, tolerability and safety of oxytocin treatment in young children with autism using a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover, clinical trial. Thirty-one children with autism received 12 International Units (IU) of oxytocin and placebo nasal spray morning and night (24 IU per day) for 5 weeks, with a 4-week washout period between each treatment. Compared with placebo, oxytocin led to significant improvements on the primary outcome of caregiver-rated social responsiveness. Overall, nasal spray was well tolerated, and the most common reported adverse events were thirst, urination and constipation. This study is the first clinical trial to support the potential of oxytocin as an early intervention for young children with autism to help improve social interaction deficits.

Thinking and Feeling: An Electro-Chemical Process in the Brain

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/542176/a-shocking-way-to-fix-the-brain/

Look Up Between the Swan and the Lyre: Is Someone Watching Us?

Are these the evidence of intelligent life out there?

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/

Robot Baby May Help Identify Origins of "False Self"

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/299983.php

Human Brains May Deal with Moment-to-Moment Emotional Awareness via Quantum Cognition

The human brain as a probability statement generator may rely on this model to avoid the fear of the reality that it may not exist in the next moment.  Moment-to-moment emotional awareness requires the "courage" to continue to take that risk while permitting our feelings to become conscious without "freaking out."  A theory of Quantum Cognition may provide a reasonable explanation of how we do that:

Quantum cognition: a new theoretical approach to psychology

Peter D. Bruza

,

 Zheng Wang

,

 Jerome R. Busemeyer

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.05.001

 

 

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• Highlights
• •Quantum cognition models are founded on principles drawn from quantum physics.
• •Quantum models parsimoniously address puzzling cognitive phenomena.
• •Standard probabilistic models and quantum models are contrasted and compared.

What type of probability theory best describes the way humans make judgments under uncertainty and decisions under conflict? Although rational models of cognition have become prominent and have achieved much success, they adhere to the laws of classical probability theory despite the fact that human reasoning does not always conform to these laws. For this reason we have seen the recent emergence of models based on an alternative probabilistic framework drawn from quantum theory. These quantum models show promise in addressing cognitive phenomena that have proven recalcitrant to modeling by means of classical probability theory. This review compares and contrasts probabilistic models based on Bayesian or classical versus quantum principles, and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Keywords:

quantum probability, Bayesian probability, complementarity, incompatibility, superposition, human judgment

Mind Games: First Demonstration of Non-Invasive Human Brain-to-Brain Communication

Playing 20 Questions with the Mind: Collaborative Problem Solving by Humans Using a Brain-to-Brain Interface

• Andrea Stocco , 
• Chantel S. Prat,
• Darby M. Losey,
• Jeneva A. Cronin, 
• Joseph Wu,
• Justin A. Abernethy,
• Rajesh P. N. Rao 

• Published: September 23, 2015
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137303

We present, to our knowledge, the first demonstration that a non-invasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) can be used to allow one human to guess what is on the mind of another human through an interactive question-and-answering paradigm similar to the “20 Questions” game. As in previous non-invasive BBI studies in humans, our interface uses electroencephalography (EEG) to detect specific patterns of brain activity from one participant (the “respondent”), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to deliver functionally-relevant information to the brain of a second participant (the “inquirer”). Our results extend previous BBI research by (1) using stimulation of the visual cortex to convey visual stimuli that are privately experienced and consciously perceived by the inquirer; (2) exploiting real-time rather than off-line communication of information from one brain to another; and (3) employing an interactive task, in which the inquirer and respondent must exchange information bi-directionally to collaboratively solve the task. The results demonstrate that using the BBI, ten participants (five inquirer-respondent pairs) can successfully identify a “mystery item” using a true/false question-answering protocol similar to the “20 Questions” game, with high levels of accuracy that are significantly greater than a control condition in which participants were connected through a sham BBI.

Washington Post Tabloid Journalism Challenged by Doctors

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/02/24/lay-off-the-mega-doses-of-vitamin-d/

Physicians responding to an article sensationalizing criticism of prescribing large doses of vitamin D to correct inadequate serum levels take on the media giant.  Read the article and the comments section for an example of doctors calling out tabloid journalism designed to "frighten an already terrified citizenry."

http://dgnews.docguide.com/drug-restores-brain-function-memory-early-alzheimers-disease?overlay=2&nl_ref=newsletter&pk_campaign=newsletter

Drug Restores Memory in Early Alzheimer's Disease

BALTIMORE, Md -- March 11, 2015 -- A novel therapeutic approach for an existing drug reverses a condition in elderly patients who are at high risk for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published this week in NeuroImage: Clinical.

Levetiracetam, commonly used to treat epilepsy, calms hyperactivity in the brain of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).

Hippocampal over-activity is well-documented in patients with aMCI and its occurrence predicts further cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer's dementia.

“What we've shown is that very low doses of the atypical antiepileptic levetiracetam reduces this over-activity,” said Michela Gallagher, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. “At the same time, it improves memory performance on a task that depends on the hippocampus.”

The team studied 84 subjects; 17 of them were normal healthy participants and the rest had symptoms of aMCI. Everyone was aged older than 55 years. Patients were randomised to varying doses of levetiracetam or placebo.

The researchers found that low doses of the drug improved memory performance and normalised the over-activity detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that measures brain activity during a memory task. 

“What we want to discover now, is whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer's dementia,” said Dr. Gallagher.

SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University

Hippocampal over-activity is well-documented in patients with aMCI and its occurrence predicts further cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer's dementia.

“What we've shown is that very low doses of the atypical antiepileptic levetiracetam reduces this over-activity,” said Michela Gallagher, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. “At the same time, it improves memory performance on a task that depends on the hippto varying doses of levetiracetam or placebo.

The researchers found that low doses of the drug improved memory performance and normalised the over-activity detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that measures brain activity during a memory task. 

“What we want to discover now, is whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer's dementia,” said Dr. Gallagher.

SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University

GEN | News Highlights: Inflamed Brain Is a Depressed Brain

GEN | News Highlights: Inflamed Brain Is a Depressed Brain