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Spirituality Correlates to Better Mental Health Regardless of Religion, Say MU Researchers

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2012Culture, Healthbelief, buddhists, cancer, catholics, christian monk, correlation, dan cohen, dong yoon, forgiveness, guy mccormack, Health, jesus christ, jews, laura schopp, mental health, muslims, Nirvana, personality trait, phenomena, positive, protestants, religion, spinal cord injury, spiritual belief, spiritual inclination, spirituality, stress, stroke, traumatic brain injury, university of missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Despite differences in rituals and beliefs among the world’s major religions, spirituality often enhances health regardless of a person’s faith, according to University of Missouri researchers. The MU researchers believe that health care providers could take advantage of this correlation between health – particularly mental health – and spirituality by tailoring treatments and rehabilitation programs to accommodate an individual’s spiritual inclinations.

“In many ways, the results of our study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait,” said Dan Cohen, assistant teaching professor of religious studies at MU and one of the co-authors of the study. “With increased spirituality people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe. What was interesting was that frequency of participation in religious activities or the perceived degree of congregational support was not found to be significant in the relationships between personality, spirituality, religion and health.” (more…)

UCLA Researchers Map Damaged Connections in Phineas Gage’s Brain

By Guest PostMay 18, 2012Science1848 case, alzheimer's disease, andrei irimia, arthur w toga, behavioral change, brain, brain disorder, carinna m torgerson, cerebral cortex, computed tomographic data, emotional function, famous case, frontal temporal dementia, gage skull, history, human connectome project, jack van horn, laboratory, limbic structure, loni, mark wheeler, micah c chambers, microscopic links, model, myelin sheath, nerve fibers, neuro imaging, neurons, neuroscience, phineas gage, railroad, rod, san francisco, skull, south america, trajectory, traumatic brain injury, vermont, white matter

Famous 1848 case of man who survived a terrible accident has modern parallel

Poor Phineas Gage. In 1848, the supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont was using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7-inch rod to pack blasting powder into a rock when he triggered an explosion that drove the rod through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. As reported at the time, the rod was later found, “smeared with blood and brains.”

Miraculously, Gage lived, becoming the most famous case in the history of neuroscience — not only because he survived a horrific accident that led to the destruction of much of his left frontal lobe but also because of the injury’s reported effects on his personality and behavior, which were said to be profound. Gage went from being an affable 25-year-old to one that was fitful, irreverent and profane. His friends and acquaintances said he was “no longer Gage.” (more…)

Distinct Brain Cells Recognize Novel Sights

By Guest PostApril 16, 2012Sciencebrain area, brain cell, brown university, cell type, david orenstein, david sheinberg, excitatory neuron, inferior temporal cortex, itc, luke woloszyn, novel sight, plasticity, repair circuit, skull, traumatic brain injury

The brain’s ability to learn to recognize objects plays out in the inferior temporal cortex. A new study offers a possible explanation of how two classes of neurons play distinct roles to help that happen.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — No matter what novel objects we come to behold, our brains effortlessly take us from an initial “What’s that?” to “Oh, that old thing” after a few casual encounters. In research that helps shed light on the malleability of this recognition process, Brown University neuroscientists have teased apart the potentially different roles that two distinct cell types may play.

In a study published online in advance in the journal Neuron, the researchers document that this kind of learning is based in the inferior temporal cortex (ITC), a brain area buried deep in the skull. Scientists already knew the area was important for visual recognition of familiar items, but they hadn’t figured out the steps required to move from novelty to familiarity, a process they refer to as “plasticity.” (more…)

At a Loss for Words

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2011Health, Scienceaphasia, aphasia research project, biological and cognitive processes, brain, brain damage, brain impairs, bullet, celeste barajas, communication impairments, gabrielle giffords, human communication problems, inability to speak or write, language and hearing sciences, language impairment, language recovery, loss of phonology, magnetic resonance imaging, mechanisms of recovery, mri, national institutes of health, network of brain regions, neuroimaging, pelagie beeson, pima county, rehabilitation, scanner, speech, speech language pathology, steven rapcsak, stroke, traumatic brain injury, university of arizona

*Research into aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is strong at the UA. Researchers have received $2 million toward the study of the condition.*

The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Arizona’s Aphasia Research Project in the department of speech, language and hearing sciences a $2 million grant to research communication impairments in adults who have suffered brain injury.

Aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is a common result of a stroke or a traumatic brain injury such as the one suffered by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head earlier this year. The bullet damaged regions of the brain that are critical for language and control of the right side of the body. (more…)

New CU Study Shows Acupressure Effective in Helping to Treat Traumatic Brain Injury

By Guest PostMarch 1, 20111 commentHealthacupressure, acupuncture treatments, afghanistan, complementary medicine, digit span test, effective, energy pathways, enhanced cognitive function, fingertips, Iraq, jin shin, jin shin treatments, kristina mcfadden, meridian, mild traumatic brain injury, military veterans, neuropsychological tests, placebo treatments, stimulate, stroop task, tbi, theresa hernandez, traumatic brain injury, treatment, u s war veterans

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some U.S. war veterans returning home.

The study involved a treatment known as acupressure in which one’s fingertips are used to stimulate particular points on a person’s body — points similar to those stimulated with needles in standard acupuncture treatments, said CU-Boulder Professor Theresa Hernandez, lead study author. The results indicate a link between the acupressure treatments and enhanced cognitive function in study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. (more…)

Tag Archives: traumatic brain injury

Spirituality Correlates to Better Mental Health Regardless of Religion, Say MU Researchers

UCLA Researchers Map Damaged Connections in Phineas Gage’s Brain

Distinct Brain Cells Recognize Novel Sights

At a Loss for Words

New CU Study Shows Acupressure Effective in Helping to Treat Traumatic Brain Injury