The vibratory chair for Parkinson's disease
There's a curious historical snippet in the latest edition of Neurology about how the famous French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot designed a shaking chair for patients with Parkinson's disease after...
View ArticleWeaponized drugs: armed and delirous
Today's Nature has a fantastic article about how psychoactive drugs are being developed into a new generation of chemical weapons design to have specific psychological effects on the enemy. This has...
View ArticleFootage of neurosurgery from 1933
The Wellcome Trust is putting its archive of medical films online which includes some fascinating footage of some 1933 neurosurgery to remove a tumour from the frontal lobe. The film says the tumour is...
View ArticleThe dark matter of the brain
Discover Magazine has an excellent Carl Zimmer article on glial cells. They make up the majority of the brain's volume but they get relatively little attention from the neuroscience community who would...
View ArticleBrains of Obese Limited
As if we needed any more information on why we should get to a healthy weight, here’s yet one more reason. Your brain depends on it. That’s right, new evidence suggests that obesity can adversely...
View ArticleHow to Ensure the Grass is Always Greenest on Your Side of the Fence
Every generation has had it’s own big world events and challenges, and of course, that’s what’s shaped the values, personality characteristics and lifestyle choices of each generation. One of the...
View ArticleA kick in the guts for Parkinson's disease
Your gut has its own neural network. Called the enteric nervous system, it controls digestion and has as many neurons as the spinal cord. Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that has been long...
View ArticleInstant reflex may reveal brain injury after knock out
I've just found a fascinating video clip reporting on newly discovered reflex action that occurs after a knockout blow. The researchers scoured YouTube for videos of nasty bangs the head and found many...
View ArticleA flight simulator for brain surgery
Gizmodo has picked up on an interesting new neurosurgery simulator that not only provides virtual reality skills training but also allows doctors to use data from MRI scans to practice on the brain of...
View ArticleStunning brain scans of 500-year-old mummies
The Llullaillaco mummies are the spectacularly preserved bodies of three sacrificial children from a 500-year-old Inca civilisation found at more than 6,500m above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. I've...
View ArticleBrain scanning unborn babies
I've just had pick my jaw up from the floor after reading an article on the brain scanning of unborn babies. I was idly wondering whether anyone had attempted to do an MRI scan of the fetal brain only...
View ArticleLaughing into unconsciousness
I just found a curious article from the Journal of the American Medical Association about a case of 'laugh syncope' - a condition where the patient passes out when they crack up with laughter. Syncope...
View ArticleNot your first choice of painkiller
I've just found this alarming case study [pdf] from the Singapore Medical Journal about a patient who had a nail banged into their head by a local healer in an attempt to treat persistent headaches....
View ArticleA history of the brain frame
Neurosurgical Focus has an excellent article on the development of stereotactic neurosurgery where an external frame is usually screwed into the skull and fixes the head in place to allow surgeons to...
View ArticleMigraine as inspiration
I've just found a brief but interesting study finding that migraines are much more common in neurologists than the general public which inspired an interesting reply by Oliver Sacks. The prevalence of...
View ArticleAnxiety, an unauthorised biography
The New York Times has an absolutely fantastic article on the psychology and neuroscience of anxiety and how an anxious temperament at birth can ebb and flow during our lifetime. It's an in-depth...
View ArticleLightning-induced robotic speech
I just found a curious case study of a man who developed 'robotic speech' after being hit by lightning. Rather than the "I am a Dalek!" style mechanical sound it seems to be more like the very....
View ArticleSpike at the end of the tunnel
Electrical readings from seven patients who died in hospital suggest that the brain undergoes a surge of activity at the moment of death, according to a study just published in the Journal of...
View ArticleStairway to loving
There's a curious case published in the medical journal Epilepsy and Behavior of a young man who had his epilepsy triggered by the sight of stairs. This would cause seizures that would trigger...
View ArticleScience of slumber
Science News has a brilliant special issue on the 'science of slumber' that tackles sleep disorders, the mental impact of sleep deprivation, how sleep differs across species and the still mysterious...
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