A new meta-analysis study, “The Neuroimaging of Love,” conducted by Syracuse University Professor Stephanie Ortigue, reveals that falling in love can elicit not only the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine, but also affects intellectual areas of …
In people with Alzheimer’s, the brain becomes riddled with clumps of protein, forming what are known as amyloid plaques. Now, a report appearing in the September 17th print issue of Cell appears to have found a function for the amyloid precursor pro…
A common genetic variant influences individual responses and adaptation to pain and other stressful stimuli and may underlie vulnerability to many psychiatric and other complex diseases, reports David Goldman, M.D., Chief, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and colleagues at NIAAA and the University of Michigan. COMT val158met Genotype Affects m-Opioid Neurotransmitter Responses to a Pain Stressor appears in the February 21 issue of Science.
Depression is more dangerous for elderly men than women, with depression starting in old age representing the greatest risk for men, according to a long-term study. “Depression may be an early sign of impending physical decline,” says study author Kaarin Anstey, Ph.D., of the Center for Mental Health Research at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. “Or it may incur a physiological response that predisposes individuals to cardiovascular disease or cancer.”