MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'accumbens'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:26:35 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3339622&cid=t_252902_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F03%2Fschizophrenia%2F Pathophysiology 1) group of disorders marked by disturbances in thought patterns, speech, behavior, and perception 2) subtypes – paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, and residual 3) cause is unknown, but major risk factors are genetic susceptibility, early developmental insults, in utero viral influenza exposure, and winter birth (possibly related to influenza exposure) Signs and Symptoms Positive symptoms – 1) disorganized thought 2) delusions 3) hallucinations Negative symptoms – 4) social withdrawal 5) loss of functioning 6) flat affect 7) anhedonia Histology/Gross Pathology 1) enlarged third and lateral ventricles 2) cortical atrophy 3) decreased size of hippocampus, amygdala, right prefrontal cortex Associated Conditions 1) birth complications 2) Rh factor incompatibil... Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3339622 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:56:09 +0100 3339622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2828262&cid=t_252902_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2F24%2Feverything-has-a-neurobiological-correlate%2F This study tells us nothing about how these dopamine receptors got the way they did. Instead, it joins the growing number of studies that analyze the brain and tell us things like, the structure of the brain may influence ADHD, or that hundreds of gene variations are linked to ADHD, or that, it’s not that people with ADHD’s brains don’t have enough dopamine, it’s that the brain pushes dopamine in the wrong direction influencing a ‘speed’ response between nerve cells. I could go on, but I hope you get the point. Hundreds of studies have now been done analyzing the brains and genes of people with mental illness, but it doesn’t feel like we are any closer to the truth than we were 10 years ago. One of the reasons is because none of these kinds of studies she... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2828262 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:55:44 +0100 2828262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2326620&cid=t_252902_136_f&fid=37846&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthinfoispower.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F04%2F04%2Fjohns-hopkins-discovers-a-protein-that-contributes-to-ovarian-cancer-recurrence-by-causing-chemoresistance%2F ” … Ground-breaking work on an ovarian cancer-related protein in the lab of Ie-Ming Shih at the [Johns Hopkins] School of Medicine is leading to new insights into cancer biology. … They have revealed a novel protein that creates cancer cells that are resistant to traditional cancer chemotherapies and partially revealed its mechanism of action. [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*) Libby's H*O*P*E* blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2326620 Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:57:57 +0100 2326620 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1605867&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2008%2F7%2F11%2Fquitting-is-hard-staying-clean-is-hell.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D We all heard this refrain; drug addicts kicking the habit, only to go through a lifetime of a constant battle to stay clean. Why is it so hard? Why is it getting progressively harder within days after quitting? Who is the “devil that made them do it”? The received wisdom for many years was that the reward system in the brain, which is the seat of all manners of addiction, is driven exclusively by dopamine receptors. But frankly, this belief had some problems. Here is a big one: the dopamine system is geared to maintaining homeostasis, which is the property of a living organism to regulate its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition. For example, exposure of dopaminergic neurons to increased concentrations of cocaine results i... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1605867 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:46:40 +0100 1605867 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1603388&cid=t_252902_109_f&fid=35671&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anxietyinsights.info%2Fhairsbreadth_separates_pleasurable_reward_from_feaful_drea.htm This study changes our thinking about what dopamine does," said Howard Fields, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, an expert unaffiliated with the study. "There is a huge body of evidence out there to support the idea that dopamine mediates positive effects, like reward, happiness, and pleasure. This study says, it does do that, but it can also promote negative behaviors through actions in an adjacent brain area," Fields said. Kent Berridge, PhD, and his colleagues at the University of Michigan, identified dopamine's dual effect on the nucleus accumbens, a brain region that motivates people and animals to seek out pleasurable rewards like food, sex, or drugs, but is also involved in fear. They found that inhibiting dopamine's normal function prevented the nucleus accum... Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1603388 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:53:00 +0100 1603388 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1603391&cid=t_252902_109_f&fid=35671&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anxietyinsights.info%2Fsome_foods_can_improve_your_mental_health_and_your_grandkid.htm This study was also conducted with 394 children in Indonesia. The results showed higher test scores for boys and girls in Australia, but only for girls in Indonesia. Getting omega-3 fatty acids from food rather than from capsule supplements can be more beneficial, providing additional nutrients, Gómez-Pinilla said. Scientists are learning which omega-3 fatty acids seem to be especially important. One is docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, which is abundant in salmon. DHA, which reduces oxidative stress and enhances synaptic plasticity and learning and memory, is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in cell membranes in the brain. "The brain and the body are deficient in the machinery to make DHA; it has to come through our diet," said Gómez-Pinilla, who was born and raised in salmo... Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1603391 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0100 1603391 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1454668&cid=t_252902_151_f&fid=35823&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FAddictionInbox%2F%7E3%2F293650390%2Fchemistry-of-cocaine-addiction.html Crack, free-base, and powderThe cocaine high is a marvel of biochemical efficiency. Cocaine works primarily by blocking the reuptake of dopamine molecules in the synaptic gap between nerve cells. Dopamine remains stalled in the gap, stimulating the receptors, resulting in higher dopamine concentrations and greater sensitivity to dopamine in general.Since dopamine is involved in moods and activities such as pleasure, alertness and movement, the primary results of using cocaine--euphoria, a sense of well being, physical alertness, and increased energy—are easily understood. Even a layperson can tell when lab rats have been on a cocaine binge. The rapid movements, sniffing, and sudden rearing at minor stimuli are not that much different in principle from the outward signs of cocaine intoxic... Addiction Inbox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1454668 Mon, 19 May 2008 17:40:00 +0100 1454668 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1371910&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2008%2F4%2F15%2Fwe-are-the-only-animals-that-cry.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D We are the Only Animals that Cry. By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D I recently came across a news item about a tearless onion developed by scientists in New Zealand . I, for one, shed many tears over the chopping board, and all because of a substance called the lachrymatory factor. Now, using molecular engineering techniques, the Kiwi scientists silenced the gene that codes for this factor, and voilá – a tearless onion. This got me thinking: this kind of crying is really all reflex, a direct reaction to irritation. It is the same type of reflex that causes our eyes to well up when we are poked in the eye. Another type of tears is the so-called basal tearing, which bathes our eyes every time we blink. Now, these two types of tearing are common to many animals, and the... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1371910 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:52:02 +0100 1371910 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1336896&cid=t_252902_151_f&fid=35823&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FAddictionInbox%2F%7E3%2F260513567%2Famphetamine-blues.html How meth addiction happensIf alcohol’s impact on brain cells is wide-ranging and diffuse, and marijuana’s impact is selective and subtle, the impact of cocaine and amphetamine is much more straightforward. “There is certainly lots of evidence for common neurological mechanisms of reward across a wide variety of drugs,” said Dr. Robert Post, chief of the biological psychiatry branch at NIMH.Animals will readily administer cocaine and amphetamine, Dr. Post once explained to me, but when researchers surgically block out areas of the brain that are dense with dopamine receptors, the picture changes dramatically. “The evidence definitely incriminates dopamine in particular,” said Dr. Post. “In animal models, if you make selective lesions in the dopamine-rich areas of the brain, pa... Addiction Inbox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1336896 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:46:00 +0100 1336896 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1327591&cid=t_252902_109_f&fid=35671&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anxietyinsights.info%2Fhow_suffering_and_happiness_are_merged_to_create_depression.htm In Love and Death, Woody Allen wrote: "To love is to suffer...To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer." The paradoxical merging of happiness and suffering can be a feature of depression. A new study of regional brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which may help further our understanding of how happiness and suffering are related in depression. Stanford University researchers recruited both depressed and non-depressed volunteers to undergo brain scans, via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while they participated in an activity where they won and lost money. Dr Brian Knutson, the study's lead author explains their findings: "When they anticipated winning money, both depressed and nondepressed individuals showed neural activation in the nuc... Latest entries from www.anxietyinsights.info blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1327591 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:27:00 +0100 1327591 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=933960&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F10%2F8%2Fbinge-eating-my-brain-made-me-do-it.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.DHave you ever wondered why do people reach for food, any food, when they are under stress? With most people, this stress reaction is mild and episodic. But in others, it is extreme and frequent; they can consume 6, 7, 8 thousand calories in a single day. This syndrome of binge eating has attracted much attention among psychologists for a long time; and now neurobiologists have taken notice as well.What’s going on?I remember from my marathon racing days that at about 18-20 miles I would hit a psychological low. I would be dragging my feet, having lost my motivation to make a new personal best, struggling with my rationalizations that I should just quit, even vowing to myself to never again engage in this idiotic effort. But then I would pop something sweet (cal... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=933960 Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:37:47 +0100 933960 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=909358&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F9%2F28%2Fhuman-eating-behavior-its-the-leptin-stupid.html  By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.DLeptin is a hormone secreted from fat cells that provides information to the brain about energy stores. If energy stores are abundant, circulating levels of leptin are high, and the brain’s response is reduced food intake. On the other hand, in the fasted state leptin levels are low, and the response is increased food intake. It had been known that the regions of the brain where leptin exerts its influence are the nucleus accumbens and the associated nerve bundles called the striatum, regions where the reward/pleasure centers are located (and are the seat of addiction as well). However, there is little or no information about how these  brain centers integrate leptin’s signal with the rewarding properties of food. Now a group of scientists fro... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=909358 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:10:14 +0100 909358 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=674818&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2Fmusings-on-billie-jean-king-tennis-and-dopamine.html  We were watching tonight a great program on PBS about Billie Jean King and her wonderful tennis career. Her 1973 match, or dare I say grudge match, against Bobby Riggs, was a delight to the eyes and the soul. We relished her strategy of running ragged this aging fool from one end of the court to the other. There she was: a skilled, rebellious young woman facing a male chauvinist who taunted her to test her mettle against his. But the match had a much larger meaning; it was emblematic of the new generation, of a new world upending the old order and its tired prejudices, not in a bloody revolution fought in the streets—but in a fair, civilized match on the tennis court. How many of you remember a single feminist demonstration? but we all remember this historic... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=674818 Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:42:17 +0100 674818 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=498494&cid=t_252902_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F3%2F23%2Fmoral-behavior-is-hardwired-in-your-brain.html A recent paper in the Journal Nature, Damage to the Prefrontal Cortex Increases Utilitarian Moral Judgments  (Nature, advance online publication 21 March 2007),  has provided strong evidence that we are indeed moral animals, and that certain aspects of our moral behavior are hardwired in our brain. The institutions involved in this research (U. Iowa Dept. of Neurology, Harvard U. Dept. of Psychology, and the Brain and Creativity Institute at the U. Southern California) reflect the multi-disciplinary approach required for such a study. Where in the brain is Morality? Our brain is organized in layers, somewhat like an onion. The deepest layer, like the brain stem and the structures around it, is the most ancient, or primitive, from an evolutionary point of view. These structures co... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=498494 Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:21:09 +0100 498494