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POPSInfant pain, adult repercussions
Continuation: To test this hypothesis, LaPrairie and Murphy gave adult animals that were injured at the time of birth a drug called naloxone. This drug blocks the actions of endogenous opioids. After animals received an injection of naloxone, they behaved just like an uninjured animal. The scientists then focused on the periaqueductal gray region to see if inflammation at birth altered the natural opioid protein expression in this brain region. Using a variety of anatomical techniques, the investigators showed that animals that were injured at birth had endogenous opioid levels that were two times higher than normal. While it's beneficial to decrease pain sensitivity in some cases, it's not good to be completely resilient to pain. ------------------------------------------- Wow, I had now idea of that. The feeling of pain fascinates me. It's just so interesting how important it is and to think how it works... Sometimes we may not even pay attention to it, but many of
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POPSHearing Voices – Underpinnings of Auditory Hallucinations
What exactly is going on in the brain during auditory hallucinations? And is the act of hearing voices inside one’s head always incontrovertible evidence of psychosis? In recent years, the use of MRIs, PET scans and other imaging technologies has given researchers some specific clues about these and other questions. This is very interesting, so far there was nothing that confirmed that there are any kinds of brain tissue abnomalities in schizophrenic people, this research, done by a group of researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway can help in the development of new therapy techniques on people with auditory hallucinations. They spotted an abnormal activity on a brain's area which is related to external speech (the right middle temporal gyrus), which can be the cause of language processing dysfunctions. Most notably, the group of British researchers hypothesized that if such language dysfunction “has its origins in early brain development, it might be possible to dete
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POPSEarly Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late More important, these regions included the suprachiasmatic area, which is home to the body’s circadian clock. This area sends signals to boost alertness as the pressure to sleep mounts. Unlike night owls, early risers didn’t get this late-day lift. Peigneux says faster activation of sleep pressure appears to prevent early birds from fully benefiting from the circadian signal, as evening types do. Wait wait, did he just say the night owls showed no difference in attention-related brain activity and instead, after 10 hours they had grown more alert? This is great! I always worried about that, now seems like I don't have to, anymore. :D
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POPSFacial attractiveness explained. I guess it explains a lot. And good to know that: When it comes to potential mates, women may be as complicated as men claim they are, according to psychologists. Yeah... that's what I always thought. :) I recommend reading the full article, it's pretty good!