Neurology Diagnostics

Posts Tagged ‘brain’

How to know if it really tastes are developed essentially the same class of those innate? The brain mechanisms, roughly, have been described as the same for both cases. The communication between the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) , two neural centers belonging to the limbic system, is the orchestra in the modulation of pleasure. The axonal projections of AVT release the neurotransmitter known as dopamine (DA), a large number of neurotransmitter receptors that are found in dendritic branches and the soma of neurons in the NAc. When dopamine receptors such contacts take place a series of biochemical processes that result in the excitation of NAc. Emotional displays produced by the latter event, are beautifully illustrated by a classic experiment conducted in 1954. This year, scientists Olds and Millner electrically stimulated the NAc surrounding areas in experimental rodent models. What they found was that subjects were able to even risking their physical integrity microdescarga obtain power. Studies of MRI have found that humans also have a great Nac activation when presented with pleasurable stimuli.
Memory and pleasure

Having the ability to feel pleasure not only motivates us to perform different behaviors, but it makes possible the storage of strategies that can be used in future situations, ie generates memory. The hippocampus (HPP) is the brain structure that achieves the above is done. Known as the storage center relevant in the short and medium term. It has indirect connections with the VTA and NAc, which is why when activated, say by means of electrochemical processes to HPP that something pleasurable is happening, this in turn conceptually subtracted from the event. In other words, our body is designed so that the trigger of memories is the pleasure, most likely without any remembrance would not have him.

Depression and anhedonia

A clear example of the usefulness of pleasure, is the depression that is strictly disease accompanied by anhedonia. If anhedonia in depressed patients is not opposed and abolished the possibility of suicide increases dramatically. Antidepressants, among whose main functions is to attack the anhedonia, are made mainly of psychoactive substances in the spaces that increase synaptic levels of catecholamines, a group of neurotransmitters within which is dopamine.
Evolutionary altruism

Why, if the pleasure far from being ostentatious is inexcusable, tends to generate guilt when there is too much? Evolutionary theories suggest that, at some point in our development as a species, not yet elucidated neural mechanisms were created to ensure that all members had on average the same amount of pleasure, which translates as the same chance of survival and thus increase the likelihood that transcend species.
Conclusion

The pleasure ensures our existence on Earth, not only species but also as individuals. The physiological mechanisms that produce it have evolved over time, thus adapting to environmental variability. The guilt that arises in peculiar times, when you have too much pleasure in comparison of individuals surrounding an evolutionary mechanism is activated to ensure the survival of the species.

Music is part of our life and is good for the development of our brain, but also has its “negative.”

The pleasure we play music is because our brain is producing large amounts of dopamine , a neurotransmitter which also is released when having sex or when we eat.

Benefits of music

It has been shown that listening to music promotes the creation of neural networks that stimulate our creativity. In this sense, the researcher Nina Kraus, Northwestern University (USA) showed that while a person playing a musical instrument establishing neural connections that promote verbal communication. That is why children who have received musical training tend to speak better than those who have received it.

The music is also good for our circulation. So when we hear music that is pleasing the diameter of our blood vessels dilate, thereby improving blood flow, or at least that’s the conclusion we have reached Medical Center researchers at the University of Maryland (USA)

The music has a lot of math and this relationship has been demonstrated by a group of researchers at the University of Toronto (Canada). The scientists conducted a study in children 6 years, noting that those who received musical training increased their math skills and IQ .

In this research, Professor Gordon Shaw, University of California Irving (USA) conducted a study in 19 preschool children and found that when children listened to classical music cortical neurons exercised and strengthened some of the circuits that are used to perform mathematical reasoning. Since we found that at 8 months into the study, children who received music lessons improved their reasoning and their ability to do puzzles, compared to those children who received no music lessons.

Also, listen to music while practicing some form of sport makes it rise to 15% physical performance, according to a report by scientists at Brunel University in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.
“Iniquities” of music

But not everything is good, music has its “evil”. Thus, in an article published in Applied Cognitive Psychology the authors concluded that the background music reduces job performance, regardless of the type of music you’re listening to (classical, rock, pop …). It is true that this rule is not always true. Thus, it is said that the American writer Stephen King wrote some of his best-selling listening to rock music blaring in the background.

Finally, have you ever wondered why many bars have music so loud? Well, apparently, and according to an article published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, the higher the sound more drink is consumed in less time.

In short, the benefits of music on the brain occur in different brain areas, but especially those related to solving mathematical tasks.

Not all people respond similarly to a stressful situation, some of them manifested a more intense fear.

The amygdala is an area of our brain with almond-shaped and receives a large amount of information in our environment, for example, smells, sights, sounds … We could say that the amygdala is our sentinel.

What do you do with all those signs? Responds to them by primitive signs thanks to his connections with the spinal cord, such as heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. This explains that when someone comes to us at night and the fact that our life is in danger, we increase the heart rate, blood pressure and breathe in a jerky fashion. In addition, the pupils dilate and increases sweating. The amygdala has just activated the alarm.
Connections of the amygdala

The signals from the amygdala reach the hypothalamus, the area where corticotropic releasing hormone (HCT), which in turn is responsible for the release of cortisol (stress hormone). Cortisol is the substance responsible for leading the fight or flight through connections with our metabolism, since it directly influences the amount of glucose you should get the muscles.

There are connections from the amygdala that go to the cingulate cortex and other fibers that go directly into specific muscles. Such connections are what make the dog growl, arching your back and tighten cat musculature of the human vocal cords. So when we fear we get a high-pitched voice.

The information is also directed toward the locus coeruleus, an area in the brainstem, which is responsible for producing norepinephrine and disperse throughout the brain. The result? All of our brain is alert, the smallest of the stimulus can make us tremble in fear.

These connections bypass the cerebral cortex, what does this mean? We can not control. Our rational brain is outside the control of all these kinds of responses.

Neurotransmitters and fear

Being afraid is not bad. It is natural and positive, inherent in all animals. What is your role? Alerted to the danger, the defense planning and ensure our survival. Now, one of the characteristics of fear is anxiety and this depends basically on the interrelationship between two neurotransmitters, oxytocin and vasopressin at the level of the amygdala.

When the amygdala oxytocin dominates the person is calmer in situations of danger, while if more vasopressin increases anxiety, uncertainty and, ultimately, fear grips us. Our body prepares for fight or flight.
Fear Gene

Experience shows that not all people react the same way to a dangerous situation and, in part, our genes have much to say. Some scientists believe they have discovered the gene for fear. It is called COMT and directly regulates anxiety. It has been shown that this gene has two variants: Met 158 ​​and Val 158, ie, at position 158 can be methionine or valine. Those with two copies of Met 158 have a greater degree of anxiety when viewing unpleasant pictures and those with two copies of Val 158 to better control their emotions .

In short, the amygdala is the conductor of the responses of fear and its score are oxytocin and vasopressin.

From the 40 years starts on brain aging, often associated with a gradual decline in memory.

Our brain consists of about 100,000 million neurons that are “surrounded” by a trillion supporting cells. These cells are set trillion synapses (connections), that are modulated by different chemicals that are known by the name of neurotransmitters. One of the neurotransmitter is acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine and hippocampus

Acetylcholine is associated with memory , attention, learning and sleep. It has been observed, for example, that people with Alzheimer’s disease have low levels of acetylcholine at cerebral cortex can have up to 90% less than normal people. This decrease in acetylcholine is directly responsible for memory impairment experienced by patients with Alzheimer’s.

In any case, a person has memory lapses or forgetfulness does not necessarily mean you are at the beginning of a process of dementia, most cases of memory lapses are simply due to the existence of inattention. Does having many slip indicates that our brain acetylcholine concentration is low? Nor is this relationship in 100% of cases.

Anatomical level, lapses of memory are caused by defects in the functioning of the hippocampus , the area of the brain responsible for storing our memories. You could say that the hippocampus is the “memory of our brain.” This region is involved in some psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or depression.

Memory lapses and excess glucose

In one study, by MRI, the size of the hippocampus was correlated directly with the memory function. This study was conducted in 102 elderly, aged between 81 and 94 years, they showed that the best results in the neuropsychological tests correlated with people who had larger volumes of the hippocampus. In other words, the larger the size of our hippocampal memory works best for us. This could explain why patients with schizophrenia or depression, which have decreased the size of the hippocampus, have impaired memory.

In another study, also conducted magnetic resonance imaging in the elderly was found that the higher the concentration of glucose in the hippocampus was his worst performance, especially in an area called the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. This area is responsible for episodic memory control-unlike similar situations and places. Alterations of the dentate gyrus is what produces the famous déjà vu (the inability to differentiate between two similar situations). The dentate gyrus is the one that plays the tricks to have the sensation of having lived there before.
Memory lapses and exercise

In a study of 60 adults aged between 60 and 80 years found that aerobic exercise (brisk walking) at least 30 minutes three times a week, increased hippocampal volume, which resulted in improved memory. Moreover, increased hippocampal volume was also associated with higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

In conclusion, limiting consumption of sugar, treating glucose intolerance and increasing aerobic exercise could limit the number of forgetfulness.

Since its concept and its timing, falling in love is not synonymous with love. Psycho-brain processes associated with such states explain the difference.

Falling in love is considered by some scholars psychologists as a state of temporary psychosis, a crazy, to the surprise of a feeling that overpowers and confounds, which pushes to want to run faster than the wind and eat the world. Logic, reason trial and never could come into play in the psyche of a person in love. As stated by the psychiatrist and writer Irvin Yalom , a leading proponent of contemporary humanistic psychology, psychologists do not want to meet people in love, at least not during the short time that this state away from the clouded reason, because, simply, is useless to try to reason with them.

However, the person who has reached the certain conclusion that his sentiment is reflected in the verb to love , regardless of the intensity of acute and falling in love, logic, reasoning and self-analysis play important roles in decision making and the impact of each step to take. You can retain some impulsivity, if this is part of the personalities involved, but the long term are sought, as opposed to falling in love, in which the next thing to live is important.

In each process, the brain behaves differently, and thus the psyche of the individual, intimate relationship with the brain circuits activated express different behaviors.

The brain mechanisms involved in infatuation and love

According to researchers Bianchi-Demicheli, Grafton and Ortique University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, the site of brain processing of love “romantic” correlates with subcortical structures involved in reward, motivation and the development of emotions . This finding suggested that love as a feeling, have a clearly directed toward complacency and is much more than a simple and spontaneous emotion .

In the early stages, when the attraction is overpowering and unmanageable from reason, mediate goals and long term can not be defined, although, paradoxically, is often the most time fantasizing the future. The intense emotions beyond any process of maturation and the words flow without a rationale or strong mental processing.

The behavior of a person in love, Bianchi-Demicheli state and its partners, once the love is transformed into a feeling, it becomes predictable and intended for a particular purpose. The authors demonstrated that brain function in cognitive tasks markedly rises to relate, even subliminally, by the name of the loved one, suggesting a facilitative action of love over many brain circuits, including that of cognition.

During the crush, the brain seems sunk to an obsession or addiction unmanageable related intimately to the idea of being that has captivated not seem to have cognitive processing circuits involved, but emotions and feelings associated with passionate instinctive behavior.

When love calls for decisions

Decisions made during the period of infatuation ethereal usually no real decisions. They are, however, fits with the feet not anchored to the mainland.

The feelings of joy and spiritual well-being confused with the physical excitement and euphoria of falling in love causes, and the mixture of the four emotions up to a conscious decision but a strong desire expressed as a plan equivalent to an imperfect future model of a real decision.

Over time the “madness of love” or transient psychosis, as Yalom calls it, the sudden feeling of love begins to take root on land and only then, decisions decisions or processes can be considered complete brain.

Being loving, he starts to feel their emotional needs, and not only physical or instinctive, and that which should fill in a period of infatuation could become an incomplete project according to their basic needs for shelter, company, projection and joint plans. This is the time in which reality imposes on the imagination.

The left brain (logical, thinking and the benefits and risks sopesante) begins to play a leading role on any decision to take. The vision of the beloved is expanded markedly, beginning the stage of real vision of others and their circumstances. The analysis of the reality surpasses the words heard.

The brain circuits that are involved and are more cognitive, including mathematical, speculative gains and losses of their own.

The right brain tends to balance the logical analysis of the left hemisphere, keeping emotions in a space supremacy over rational thought, until the latter rigidly imposed to save the self-esteem based on unmet needs, and preserve the emotional health of those who may be damaged if not met as scheduled or expected. The expectations are confronted with promises, to the facts. The thought process takes over bottom and emotional figure in a game of self-defense and conquest.

The limbic system, processor par excellence of the emotions, and empathy , the supreme condition of man, mark the route and destination of each connection once both hemispheres participate in the analysis of the appropriateness of that love as an emotion experienced before overpowering.
Conclusion

The infatuation excites the senses and clouds the reasoning but does the cycle in a few months to produce, or not, the true feeling of love, which is based on processes anchored in both hemispheres.

During the infatuation of the reasons or logical theories have no place whatsoever, nor self-analysis, but after initial instinctive emotion processed to become a feeling rooted and projects, such love demands from basic needs of those who love, the reason amalgamates the feeling and focus on the limbic and cortical areas and processing suborticales than evaluating every aspect of that feeling with full power to alter human behavior.

Virtually all the energy consumed comes from our brain glucose consumption is 20% of basal metabolism.

For about four decades we have accurate methods that allow us to quantify what is cerebral oxygen consumption in a living being. With this information we can calculate the energy consumption and compare it with the rest of the body (basal metabolism). So we know that the brain of a 70 kg person weighs about 1,400 g (2% of total body weight) and consumes 20% of the energy of our body. The brain is very glutton !

But what about other animals? When the same calculation is done in other animals see that your brain uses less power. Thus, the brains of our cousins ​​the monkeys consume only 9% of basal metabolism and a horse, a pig or a dog is reduced to 3%.

Another interesting aspect is that consumer spending brain power is not equal at all stages of life. In a newborn of 3,400 g weight of your brain is only about 390 g (11% of body weight) but the brain energy consumption rises to almost 50% of basal metabolism. In other words, half of what you eat goes to the brain.

What do you eat your brain?

The major brain fuel is glucose , our brain consumes about 120 g per day (about 420 Kcal). This figure is much higher than needed to meet energy needs from cerebral oxygen consumption. During prolonged fasting ketone bodies (acetoacetate and 3-hydroxybutyrate), synthesized in the liver, partly replace glucose as brain fuel.

Why do you need so much energy our brain? Most, nearly 50% – intended to keep the ions from the cells “in place” so that they can excite neurons and conduction of nerve impulses. A small part used to synthesize the proteins, neurotransmitters , etc..

Where does the brain ” for food “? The brain gets glucose from three different sources:

Foods rich in glucose.
Decomposition of carbohydrates: sugar is broken down and is delivered to the brain.
Since the liver produces glycogen and stores from the breakdown of fats and proteins.

In 2011 a group of researchers from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (USA) published a study in JAMA that showed that 50 minutes of mobile phone use was associated with increased metabolism glucose in the brain. The study conducted in 47 participants and found that the major effect of the metabolic abnormality was located in the brain area closest to the mobile antenna (orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole). This finding demonstrated that our brain is sensitive to the effects of electromagnetic fields. Now, have any significance of this discovery? We do not know if this finding is of clinical importance, both in the neuronal damage as potential carcinogenic effects, we must wait for other clinical trials to evaluate these effects.
Glucose and caffeine: a good partnership

The combination of caffeine and glucose appear to be the perfect combination to study, because they improve performance on attention and working memory by increasing the efficiency of the brain areas related to these two functions. Scientific studies have shown with these two substances is decreased brain activation related to the activity in bilateral parietal cortex and left prefrontal cortex, two regions that are actively involved in the processes of attention and working memory. The decrease in brain activity, coupled with the absence of differences in behavioral performance type, suggests that the brain is more efficient since it requires less resources to get the same performance.

In short, our brain consumes a high amount of glucose daily and the union of the same to caffeine can increase your performance.

Study and work. Keeping the home or help the family. Caring for family and friends. Designing a better future and while surfing today. Today, young people have the full agenda and report, confirmed by experts, begins to fail. The reason for these “blackouts”, has a name: stress, invisible enemy that eats away the heads and bodies, and that he was no longer the exclusive preserve of adults. The concern of the experts is that very few reported that they forget that their activities or have trouble concentrating because they are depleted or too pressured. And if the query is not done in time, is more difficult to reverse the picture. Read the rest of this entry »

Seldom can study the role of different parts of the brain with as much accuracy as when an individual is totally devoid of such structure or their action, something rare. But that is the case of a U.S. citizen known by the initials SM, who suffers from a rare condition that caused the two tonsils were destroyed and lives without fear.

These structures (located one in each hemisphere of the brain) are formed by thousands of cores, as part of the limbic system, involved in regulating emotions. Among them, the fear. Animal studies from rats to monkeys, have shown that the amygdala is crucial to terror, from processing to recognition and induction of a response. “But little is known about its role in inducing aware of behaviors related to fear,” the authors write in the journal Current Biology. Read the rest of this entry »

All research points to the same effect. Fun activities such as completing puzzles, crossword puzzles, reading and listening to the radio may delay the first signs of dementia. A new study published in Neurology has discovered a surprising fact. It concluded that in those cases in which dementia occurs later, the progression seems to be faster.

As explained by the principal author of this work, Robert Wilson, “Our results suggest that the benefit of delaying the signs of cognitive decline could lead to more rapid evolution of dementia in later years, but the question is why this happens.” Read the rest of this entry »

The latest research shows that mental activity changes the brain and leads to what is known as “Wisdom.”

These latest findings are part of what is known:

Neuroplasticity.

For many years it was believed that after a certain age, the provision of neurons and are not renewable.

Recent research in neuroscience shows that the brain can be regenerated through use and promotion.
The key to this is called: “Neuroplasticity“, which is shaping the mind, brain, through the activity.

“The brain changes shape, according to the areas that we use, as mental activity.”

In March 2000, researchers at the University of London, found that taxi drivers in that city, were part of the brain, the hippocampus-region important for spatial memory, “particularly developed, much more than other people.
Taxi drivers developed over the area because exercising more, every day memorizing streets and roads.
In these men and women, their ability to memorize streets and roads not waned but increased with age.
In 2002 German scientists found the same findings in the Heschl gyrus of musicians, cerebral cortex area important for processing music … Read the rest of this entry »