Physiological Psychology Course Blog

Original Article:  http://neurosciencenews.com/appetite-control-mechanism-6536/ This study identified a new molecule involved in appetite. This molecule, known as NPGL increases one’s appetite during a period of fasting and decreases it while eating. It is thought that this molecule aims to keep body mass at a constant and to maintain homeostasis. NPGL plays a very important role in what scientists believed to be the thoroughly understood process of appetite and hunger. This substance was first discovered in chickens but now is known to be present in all vertebrates. The research of this study aimed to explore NPGL in mice. One group of mice were fed a very low calorie diet for 24 hours. Another group was given a very high fat diet over the span of five weeks. The last group was fed on a very high fat diet as well but for 13 weeks. The mice that were on the low calorie diet had a drastic increase in the NPGL expression while the other group of mice on the five week high fat di...

A researcher at USC discovered why some people experience more intense emotions while listening to music than others. The study found that people who get the chills from music have structural differences in the brain than those who do not get the chills from listening to music. A researcher found that these people have a higher value of fibers that connects their auditory cortex to the areas associated with emotional processing. This means that these two areas communicate better in these individuals. People who get the chills while listening to music have an enhanced ability to experience intense emotions. The researchers also stated that they only focused on the auditory cortex, but they also seek to find out if these intense emotions are related to any other stimulus as well. I thought this article was very interesting. I never thought that getting the chills while listening to music meant that your brain was different. I have definitely had the chills while listening to m...

Original Article: http://neurosciencenews.com/heartbreak-placebo-effect-6486/ The research done by the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that a placebo may ease the emotional pain of heartbreak. The study took 40 volunteers who had recently been broken up with by their significant other. This study utilized fMRI machines in order to track brain activity during applications of stimuli. Each participant was shown a picture of their ex and a picture of their friend of the same gender. They were also given a hot stimulus on their arm to expose them to physical pain. These three stimuli were alternated and participants were asked to rate how they felt on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being very bad and 5 being very good. The fMRI also followed their brain activity during this time. It was found that the regions of the brain that lit up in the fMRI were similar for both physical and emotional pain. After the initial testing, participants were split into two groups. Both were given the sa...

Researchers at Aarhus University and Aarhus Hospital found that Parkinson’s disease begins in the gastrointestinal tract, moves through the vagus nerve, and ends up in the brain. Parkinson’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that affects the nervous system, mainly the motor system. Over time, people with Parkinson’s develop involuntary shaking, slowness, and difficulty with movement. Researchers conducted a study of 15,000 patients who have had the vagus nerve in their stomach severed. This used to be a common procedure about 30-40 years ago as a method to treat stomach ulcers. The prediction of the researchers was that if Parkinson’s disease really does originate in the stomach and moves through the vagus nerve, then the people with a severed vagus nerve should be protected from the disease. Their prediction was correct; these people were protected against Parkinson’s. To further prove this to be true, they found that the patient’s who only had a small part of the vagus ...

Link to original article: http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/healthtrending/brain-freeze-has-nothing-to-do-with-your-brain/ar-BBzNnpx                       Summary:    In a recent article from the New York Daily News, a medical perspective was given as to how brain freeze is cause while eating cold food. As it turns out, brain freeze has little to no impact from the brain. As reported by neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin, a brain freeze is caused by a change in temperature in the arteries when a cold treat is consumed quickly. As a result, the blood vessels on the outsider coving on the brain feels the change and cause brief but vicious feeling that people have when eating. According to Dr. Godwin, "The brain itself doesn't have brain receptors, the brain's covering does." In closing, the article posts remedies if someone were to experience a brain freeze, such as doing rapid breathing and pushing the tongue to the roof of ...

            https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170412091228.htmhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170412091228.htm           This article suggested that oxytocin, a hormone of the brain linked to childbirth and breastfeeding as well as effects on social behavior and emotion, could be helpful for preventing relapse among addicts. The research suggests that oxytocin which has an anti-anxiety effect could be an important component to the treatment of addictions such as opioid. The researchers reviewed all the published evidence on oxytocin and the benefits that social support programs such as AA and NA to further their claim for the use of oxytocin in effective preventative therapy. The article indicates the need for more clinical studies on the topic.              Despite the fact that the research was only based on reviewing previously published research I f...

Link to the original article-  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brain-has-its-own-ldquo-autofill-rdquo-function-for-speech/      In the article The Brain Has Its Own "Autofill" Function for Speech , author Mo Costandi explains the human brain automatically attenuates the level of surprise we feel when facing an unpredictable world. In essence, the brain is able to take in only part of a sensory experience and, based on previous experience, fills in the rest so we can quickly identify what we are seeing or hearing. Costandi then reports that new research has found a similar mechanism exists for predicting which sounds will occur next when someone is speaking to us.      Neuroscientists in England recently performed a series of experiments on both humans and macaques. The researchers taught the participants a nonsense language until the humans and monkeys had learned the artificial grammatical rules of the language. Then, they measured ...

Link to original article -  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-tell-their-hosts-what-to-eat/      In the article How Gut Bacteria Tell Their Hosts What to Eat , author Knvul Sheikh explains that bacteria living in our guts have been shown to impact our mental and physiological health. Sheikh then reports that a team of neuroscientists has recently discovered certain types of bacteria living in the digestive tract which can sense missing nutrients in the host's diet and communicate those deficits by modulating cravings for specific foods. The team demonstrated the impact of these gut bacteria by performing several experiments on a species of fruit fly. The researchers lowered the levels of  different essential amino acids contained in the fruit flies' diets and found that, when offered their choice of foods, the fruit flies instinctively chose the meals containing the missing nutrients. Next, the researchers increased the quantity of se...

I read the article "Risk of Psychosis From Cannabis Use Lower Than Previously Thought" by Samantha Martin from the University of York.  http://neurosciencenews.com/cannabis-use-psychosis-6472/ Although there is a risk of developing psychosis from cannabis use, the risk is small compared to the number of total cannabis users. However, research conducted by the University of York published in the journal Addiction showed that there is evidence that patients who smoke cannabis and have schizophrenia can experience worsened symptoms. Research has also shown that banning cannabis would not have a large impact on mental health because there is low risk of increased psychosis and the chances of developing serious mental health problems as a result of cannabis use are relatively rare. Although the risk remains low, high potency cannabis does increase the risk more so than low potency cannabis, and individuals who already had schizophrenia prior to smoking cannabis experienced e...

Colin Neff 4/24/17 PSYC 465-002             I chose to read the article “Is Soda Bad for Your Brain?” by Matthew Pase at Boston University. This article examines the results of recent studies which focused on the effects of regular and diet sodas on the human brain. This focus is particularly relevant in the U.S. where we consume approximately 11 million metric tons of sugar per year, a large portion of which is in the form of sugar/ sweetened drinks. This article discussed findings which show that individuals who consume high-sugar beverages frequently are more likely to have poorer memory, smaller brain volume, and a smaller hippocampus. Furthermore, those who drink diet sodas are three times as likely to develop dementia or suffer from strokes. These findings were unexpected as those who drink sugary drinks that are not diet are not at a similar risk for stroke as those who drink diet soda, while the risk for Alzheimer’s...

Schizophrenia happens to be caused by an imbalance of chemical reactions within the brain. While this disorder stems from genetics, environmental factors can contribute to the onset of this disorder. Researchers at TSU Sackler's School of Medicine, Dr. Ran Barzilay, and led by Professor Dani Offenm are conducting a study to see how cannabis plays a role in mental disorders. They now consider cannabis (weed) as a trigger to people that already have the gene for Schizophrenia. By smoking weed, there is a higher chance that schizophrenia will develop if one is already susceptible to the disorder. They conducted research that proves cannabis has a different effect on people that are susceptible for developing the disorder versus people that are not. In their study, they used mice to see both effects on the brain. Mice that were exposed to THC, were found to be at higher risk for brain deficits with the onset of schizophrenia. They also discovered a protective mechanism in the non-sus...

Title: What Happens To Your Brain When You Give Up Sugar Link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/health/sugar-brain-diet-partner/index.html Summary: Food is a "natural reward". We as a species would not survive if eating was not pleasurable to the brain. Most people would rather have sweeter foods rather than sour or bitter foods because sweeter foods are more rewarding. The average person is consuming approximately 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day. It's hard to find foods that do not have added sugar in it for flavor or preservation. There is evidence that suggests that sugar can be addictive in the same way as nicotine, cocaine, and heroine. An experiment was done where they gave rats access to sugary foods and regular food for 12 hours and then took the food away for 12 hours which went one every day for a month. The rats chose to binge eat the sugary food rather than the regular food. They also showed signs similar to someone whom abuses drugs. Anxiety and depress...

Title: Sound Waves Enhance Deep Sleep and Memory Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/pink-noise-sleep-memory-6508/ Summary:  It is suggested in this article that deep sleep and memory can be improved when falling asleep to pink noise, for example the sound of a rushing waterfall or rain. A study was done and published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience where 13 participants who were all ages 60 and older had one night sleeping with an acoustic playing in the background and another night with sham stimulation but no background noise. They were given a test at night before they fell asleep and were given the same test once they woke up to test their recall ability. Results showed more improvement on taking the test the morning after they slept with the pink noise in the background. Another study suggests that each brainwave slows down to one oscillation per second when in a deep sleep. Giovanni Santostasi created an algorithm that produces sound while slow wave oscillations a...

Title: Genetics and Environment Combine to Give Everyone a Unique Sense of Smell Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/genetics-environment-smell-6504/ Summary:  A recent study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has shown that smell receptors can be different in genetically identical mice depending on the environment that they develop in. This research suggests that every individual has a different sense of smell. The sense of smell originates in the olfactory organ of the nose and has about one thousand types of receptors making it the most complex sense compared to sight and taste. It is known that we can experience many different types of odors, but what is unknown is the variation between peoples smelling abilities. The mice study showed that the environment that the individual had lived in has a remarkable effect on the number of cells that the individual was able to identify. New findings conclude that the molecular and cellular construction of the o...

As you all know, the amygdala is responsible for mostly negative emotions. In the article, Facial Expressions: How the Brain Processes Emotion, researchers found that the amygdala is involved in making judgments about intense and/or extreme emotions. The research was done in Los Angeles by the Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Ralph Adolphs and The Professor of Biology, Ueli Rutishauser. They measured the activity of cells in patients while they were shown images that had intense fear or happiness. They were asked which degree of happiness or fear is being shown and Adolphs and his group measured the activity in the brain in relation to different degrees of emotions. The amygdala fires electrical "spikes" when we see faces. They discovered two separate neurons that responded to these emotions. The first neuron is the emotion-tracking neurons. These neurons detect a single emotion such as anger, happiness or fear. If the emotions were intense, the amygdala would fire...

Title: Altered Perceptions   Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/perc eption-neurotransmission-6313/ Summary:  A recent study from Caltech shows how manipulation of particular regions in the brain called “face cells” can alter perception of faces and face-like objects. Face cells produce a maximum response when the subject is looking at a face but also a small response when looking at round or face-like objects. Through studying monkeys, researchers were able to discover that perception is drastically different when face cells are being manipulated. The monkey from the study was trained to look left when shown 2 identical images and look right when the images were different. When stimulating the face patches, the monkey almost always indicated that the two identical images were different. This proves that the face patch neurons are very important in the perception of faces. Another interesting discovery was made that stimulating face cells also effect p...