Description: You drop into your doctor’s office and tell them you are not feeling well. Assuming COVID is not the issue (which would likely be picked up at the front desk of the clinic using screening questions) what is one of the first things the doctor will likely do? Take you temperature, right? (Or ask… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Physiology
The Scream We Need Now and Then
Description: Does this sound like an emotionally balanced movie plotline? A cute beagle puppy is killed in a home invasion robbery, but that event leads to the vengeful killing of a large number of Russian mobsters. You may recognize this as the plot of the first John Wick movie which may or may not been… Read more »
Reactivating Stem Cells: Possbile Key to Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders
Description: When I first started teaching introductory psychology a few decades ago I used to tell students that they had most of the largest number of brain neurons they would ever have at the time they were born. After their birth the number of brain cells dropped due to things like attrition and pruning (neurons… Read more »
What is Your Brain For? Maybe NOT for Thinking!
Description: When you experience a flair of stress or anxiety what is your first thought? I suspect it is some version of “What is going on in my world that is stressful or challenging”. Especially these days with a raging pandemic, that is not a bad first thought as it can lead to problem focused… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Your Behavioral-Immune System
Description: You are wearing a mask when you need to right? Its has become clear that mask wearing is perhaps the most important thing we can do to limit exposure to Covid-19 until a vaccine become readily available. What is also clear is that there are many factors involved in determining when people feel more… Read more »
Your Brain on Dissociation
Description: What does dissociation involve? At its “simplest” level, it an involve a sort of out of body experience sometimes described as being out of the pilot chair of your body or consciousness and watching things happening to you from a third-party perspective. More complex forms of dissociation include amnesia (often related to trauma), identity… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: The Loss of Touch
Description: OK, what is the point of staying two arms lengths (one bicycle length) away from each other in these days of Coivd-19? Well, so we do not pass the virus but in effect, so we do not touch, even via a few drops at a short distance. While we are self-isolating, we can stay… Read more »
Do You Know Enough About the Vagus Nerve?
Description: Do you know what the Vagus nerve is and what it does? Well, to begin with, it is not a single nerve cell but rather a complex nerve network with connections throughout the body. In terms of what it does, we are still working on that one, but it could be loosely described as… Read more »
Yoga, Pilates and Stress: Selling to Neuroscientists
Description: Have you heard the exercise is good for reducing stress? How about Yoga? How about Pilates? How about deep breathing? Of course, you have, but do they REALLY lower stress levels and if they do HOW do they do that? How would a neuroscientist approach these questions? Well, he or she would likely NOT… Read more »
Left-handedness: A Good Way to Look at NatureNurture
Description: There are fewer left-handed people than right-handed people in the world, right? Yes, that is true, but the proportions vary from place to place and maybe from time to time. So, how does handedness play out from an evolutionary perspective? It is often difficult to think through how the interaction of nature (genetics) and… Read more »
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