Description: Ok here we go…. This sounds like science fiction BUT … what if we could implant electrodes into our brains into specific locations and then, when necessary, such as when were are clinically depressed, we could use the implanted electrodes to stimulate those areas of the brain and by doing so normalize the functioning… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Clinical Neuropsychology
Biology and Mental Illness: Why No Cures Yet?
Description: We have drugs that treat mental disorders like schizophrenia and depression so do we have cures for those disorders? One of the reasons given for the focus shift taken by Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others to Positive Psychology (optimizing things for everyone) is that we have addressed mental illness and can move on…. Read more »
Moving Towards Transplant Fixes for Some Forms of Blindness
Description: The prospect of vision loss is scary and while my parents and grandparents would say things like don’t run with scissors or you cannot have a BB gun (for fear of “putting out an eye”) or make sure you have a good light on when you are reading because “those are the only set… Read more »
Concussions in Hockey and Football and CTE: What do we know and what do we still need to find out?
Description: Ok, so what do you think we “know” about the long-term impact of concussions on athletes who play hockey or football? Let’s see, concussions and inappropriate responses to how such injuries are managed or followed up have lead to a serious issue that the sports of hockey and football are now only staring to… Read more »
Vegetative States and the Grey Zone: Neuroscience Raises Needs for Ethical and Legal Reflection
Description: Do you know what to means to say someone is brain dead or to say that someone is in a vegetative state? If you see or hear a news story about someone being in a vegetative state what do you think that person’s future looks like, or do you think they really do not… Read more »
The Opioid Crisis: Is a Broader Perspective Needed?
Description: There is an opioid overdose epidemic in North America. In 2017, 4,000 people in Canada and 72,000 people in the United States died of opioid overdoses. I don’t know what you have been hearing or reading about what is behind these astonishing and terrifying numbers, but there is a lot to consider and a… Read more »
Autism, Epilepsy, and catnap2: Possible New Undertsandings
Description: Consider this well supported research finding. One third of individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are also diagnosed with epilepsy. Epilepsy is the unregulated firing of neurons in the brain, sometime limited to small brain areas (petite mal seizures) and sometime spreading throughout the entire brain (grand mal seizures). Folks with ASD are… Read more »
Aging Brains: Fewer Neurons or Other Things?
Description: What were you told about the cells in the human brain and aging? That our neurons die off as we age and are not replaced? That we have the most neurons we are ever going to have at birth and things go downhill from there? Well if so, it may be time to rethink… Read more »
Treating PTSD: Something About Horses
Description: Two posts ago I talked about and posted links to a general article about PTSD – about its signs and symptoms and about its treatment, in general terms. In that article the two main approaches to treatment were described as medication and talk therapy. Both approaches most certainly fall in the domains of accepted… Read more »
PTSD: What is it and How New is It? (it goes WAY back)
Description: You have most certainly heard of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). PTSD is listed as a diagnostic option within the area of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in the section containing Anxiety disorders (many disorders are grouped based on common presenting symptoms rather than underlying neuropsychological commonalities (though there are… Read more »
Books for Success!
