Group items tagged

both siblings had brains unlike those of typical people

longer for a "stop" message to get through.

different parts of the brain were less efficient in both,"

took longer than a typical person to respond to a signal telling them to stop performing a task.

less self-control.

siblings without drug problems also had impaired self-control offers strong evidence that these brain abnormalities are inherited,

Self-control and the ability to regulate your emotions

allows us to succeed,

help researchers figure out how to help susceptible people strengthen their self-control,

significance of these findings cannot be underestimated

the biological basis of psychopathy remains poorly understood

To date, nobody has investigated the 'connectivity' between the specific brain regions implicated in psychopathy.

Earlier studies had suggested that dysfunction of specific brain regions might underpin psychopathy

amygdale

the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy. These results suggest that psychopaths have biological differences in the brain which may help to explain their offending behaviours.

some women develop PTSD after a traumatic childbirth.

PTSD may also occur following a heart attack or diagnosis of cancer.

Avoidance: Avoiding thoughts, feelings, activities, places, and people associated with the trauma. This may result in social withdrawal and becoming numb to positive as well as negative emotions.

Symptoms lasting more than three months are considered chronic PTSD

Occasionally, someone develops “delayed PTSD” six months later or more, following a reminder of the event.

In the June 28, 2004, Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from the Veterans Administration reported that women with PTSD have more medical conditions and worse physical health than non-traumatized women, even those with depression.

“The amygdala appears to be overreactive in PTSD. We’re currently examining whether it is already overreactive, making someone more vulnerable to PTSD, or becomes that way in response to trauma,”

the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex, appear not to function as well in those with PTSD.”

gradual and repeated exposure can reduce symptoms and help change how you respond to the triggering situations.

although not all clinical trials have shown them to work better than placebo.

adrenaline acts to strengthen memories,

testing whether an adrenaline-reducing medication, the hypertension drug propranolol, might help block abnormal memory formation and prevent PTSD.

just the right degree of social strife to facilitate the splitting of overlarge groups in primitive societies

Perhaps some of their executive problems, for example their problems with verbal fluency tests, can actually give rise to creativity?

general agreement that creativity involves the production of novel, useful products"

multi-trait, multi-method analyses

produce novel and quality ideas and products.

over-inclusive thinking, would facilitate originality which, in optimum circumstances, would lead to creativity.

Three quarters of all people inherit a version of this gene; it then enhances the brain’s ability to think by improving the information processing in the prefrontal cortex.

his gene also shapes and controls the nerve circuit closely involved with schizophrenia, hence the connection between genius and madness.

It could be perhaps that although psychosis can cause enhanced creativity, the patient is too inhibited by their condition to use it to their advantage.

Meyer-Lindenberg and colleagues in the NIMH Genes, Cognition and Psychosis program

He seems calm, even normal

his IQ is over 140

The subjects rate whether the picture is a moral violation on a scale of 1 to 5. Kiehl says most psychopaths do not differ from normal subjects in the way they rate the photos: Both psychopaths and the average person rank the KKK with a burning cross as a moral violation. But there's a key difference: Psychopaths' brains behave differently from that of a nonpsychopathic person. When a normal person sees a morally objectionable photo, his limbic system lights up. This is what Kiehl calls the "emotional circuit," involving the orbital cortex above the eyes and the amygdala deep in the brain. But Kiehl says when psychopaths like Dugan see the KKK picture, their emotional circuit does not engage in the same way.

He notes that alcoholics have brain abnormalities. Do we give them a pass if they kill someone while driving drunk?

Neuroscience and neuroimaging is going to change the whole philosophy about how we punish and how we decide who to incapacitate and how we decide how to deal with people

Just like DNA, he believes brain scans will eventually be standard fare. And that, he and others say, could upend our notions of culpability, crime and punishment.