Neurology Center

Note: This post is part of a Nature Blog Focus on hallucinogenic drugs in medicine and mental health, inspired by a recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper, The neurobiology of psychedelic drugs: implications for the treatment of mood disorders, by Franz Vollenweider & Michael Kometer. That article will be available, free (once you register), until September 23. For more information on this Blog...

Following on from fMRI in 1000 words, which seemed to go down well, here's the next step: how to analyze the data.There are many software packages available for fMRI analysis, such as FSL, SPM, AFNI, and BrainVoyager. The following principles, however, apply to most. The first step is pre-processing, which involves:Motion Correction aka Realignment – during the course of the experiment subjects often...

Are you addicted to Starcraft? Do you want to get off Battle.net and on a psychoactive drug?Well, South Korean psychiatrists Han et al report that Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction.They took 11 people with "Internet Game Addiction" - the game being Starcraft, this being South Korea -...

An unassuming little paper in the latest Journal of Affective Disorders may change everything in the debate over antidepressants: Not as golden as standards should be: Interpretation of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Bear with me and I'll explain. It's less boring than it looks, trust me. The Hamilton Scale (HAMD) is the most common system for rating the severity of depression. If you're...

Update: Lots of stuff has happened since I wrote this post: see here for more.A major scandal looks to be in progress involving Harvard Professor Marc Hauser, a psychologist and popular author whose research on the minds of chimpanzees and other primates is well-known and highly respected. The Boston Globe has the scoop and it's well worth a read (though you should avoid reading the comments if you...

This was trending on Twitter last night: I feel really groggy and tired in the middle afternoon, but awake and energetic late at night. #idothistooI don't do Twitter but, ugh, fine, #idothistoo. However, in my case, the effect is sometimes more dramatic. If I'm in a depressive episode, my mood follows the same cycle, worse in the afternoon and better later in the evening, often to the point that some...

Wouldn't it be cool if you could measure brain activation with fMRI... right as it happens?You could lie there in the scanner and watch your brain light up. Then you could watch your brain light up some more in response to seeing your brain light up, and watch it light up even more upon seeing your brain light up in response to seeing itself light up... like putting your brain between two mirrors...

Neuroskeptic readers will know that I'm no fan of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-4 system of psychiatric diagnosis. And judging by the draft version, DSM-5 is going to achieve an even lower place in my affections. The way things are going, I see it slotting in there just below pinworms, and just above celery.But while there are many good reasons to criticize the DSM - see my numerous scribblings...