Symptoms in Schizophrenia, ca. 1930

This silent motion picture documented symptoms of schizophrenia using 18 patients, revealing the lack of understanding of the cause and nature of the disease at the time. The origins of schizophrenia are still poorly understood today.

CREDIT: James D. Page

Images courtesy of Blast Books, New York, from the book Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, edited by Michael Sappol. Captions adapted from the book.

Ahh, the days before depression’s reign.

neurolove:

“No Lie MRI”

Feedthecrows asked me through a submitted question, “[I] have heard sociopaths are psychopaths that [haven’t] been caught, do you think that their brainwaves will catch them?”  It’s a great question, and it starts to get at the ethics of MRI.  Can we use MRI as a diagnostic tool for psychiatric disorders?  Could we scan the brains of people and be able to tell if they are psychopaths by their brain images?

I would argue that we aren’t there yet.  MRI is a great tool, and it helps us to see where in the brain different disorders might manifest (which could help develop treatments), but I don’t think MRI can diagnose disorders.  It can merely observe them.

Along the same lines, can we use MRI to tell what people are really thinking and if they are telling the truth?  I have attached an image from the homepage of No Lie MRI… which claims that MRI can be used as a lie detector test.  I think theoretically, this is interesting.  Brain regions involved in memories are different than those used in creating a story (or lie), BUT what if a person has told a lie so many times that they are pulling it from memory?  Or what if the memory is so faint or so emotionally involved that it activates regions that we think would be involved in lying?  I think that this raises a lot of ethical questions and quite frankly, as someone who does MRI research, I think we just simply are not there yet.  But maybe in the future… who knows?  Anything is possible.

A sagittal view of brain development in terms of typical gray matter volume. (Based off this chart) Here’s a smoother, yet smaller view:

northsuite:

Shell Shock was a term used during the First World War to describe the psychological trauma suffered by men serving on the war’s key battlefronts - France, Flanders, along the Isonzo and in Gallipoli.

The intensity of the essentially artillery battles fought along these war fronts - most notably in France and Flanders; hence the tag popularly applied to the disorder - often caused neurotic cracks to appear in otherwise mentally stable soldiers.

Men who saw service of any great length on an active front quickly came to recognise the symptoms of shell shock among their fellow men.  Recognition in the form of military authority was rather slower to develop.  At first shell shock victims were believed to be suffering from the direct physical effects of shell blasts, or from a form of monoxide poisoning.

Symptoms varied widely in intensity, ranging from moderate panic attacks - which sometimes caused men to flee the battlefield: a crime which was invariably regarded as rank cowardice and which resulted in a court martial for desertion - to effective mental and physical paralysis.

Sent home to recover many shell shock victims recovered over time, whereas many others continued to feel its effects for years afterwards.

Treatment for shell shock was primitive at best and dangerous at worst; psychological theories governing its treatment developed only gradually.  Reliable figures relating to the total number of shell shock sufferers are not available.

Speech-Jamming Gun That Can Silence Mid-Sentence

We all have that one friend who just doesn’t know when to shut up. Doesn’t it make you want to shoot them with a gun that scrambles their thoughts, thereby preventing speech? Well, Japanese inventors have a product to offer!

Researchers have manufactured a “SpeechJammer” that allows you to silence people up to 30 meters away, without an instance of pain. Developed by Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University, this device records the target’s speech and fires their own vernacular back at them with a delay just long enough that it affects the brain’s cognitive processes, causing speakers to stutter before finally silencing them.

Though the device works best on those who are reading aloud, it has been suggested that this could be utilized in such every-day scenarios as avoiding interruptions or chatty-Cathys in the library. Or maybe even superfluous politicians? 

Self Harm is not always obvious. March 1st is self harm awareness day.

What an incredible representation, and really tastefully done. Self-harm isn’t something you can always see or assume about someone. There are tons of people who struggle with it every single day, but you would never know from looking at them.

Pictured here is a colored X-ray of a 60 year-old schizophrenic woman’s chest after inhaling a foreign body that was 24mm diameter. The object is visible lodged in the bronchus of the lung. (via)

mothernaturenetwork:

Women who get migraines more likely to develop depression
Scientists remain uncertain about what links depression and migraines together.

Ecstasy is big on the party scene, used to enhance rave experiences and such, but what really is going on with those “happy pills”?

General Background: Certain variations of ecstasy, or N-methyl3,4methylenedioxy-amphetamine, namely MDMA, have been around since 1914, when it was synthesized in a lab and rather promptly forgotten. That is, until the 70’s when the general populous got their hands on it, but it’s popularity never peaked until the 80’s. Once the DEA caught a whiff of the extensive use and possible neurological effects, they finally declared it a Schedule I controlled substance in 1985, meaning it has no legitimate uses and is illegal under any circumstances.

The Good Stuff: For a mere $20 or $30 a pill, an ecstasy tablet will light up your brain’s pleasure-reward system. The user will feel more confident, have a quicker heart-rate, and feel more alert and aroused while remaining relaxed, due to boosts in the brain in levels of both norepinephrine and dopamine. Even therapists commend ecstasy for its ability to boost insight, enhance empathy and communication, and aid patients in overcoming emotional blocks without the unpredictability of LSD, suggesting possible usefulness in depression and PTSD treatment.

The Bad Stuff: While MDMA causes less dissociation and fewer panic reactions than other psychedelic drugs, studies have shown that the drug attacks areas in brain cells that manufacture serotonin. In these studies, researchers found that half of serotonin producing neurons still remained damaged eight weeks later, and even low-dose first time usage could lead to long-term memory problems. Other side-effects of normal dosages include hyperthermia, as the drug raises body-temperatures to excessively high levels, heart attacks in cardiac arrhythmia patients, and liver damage after long-term repeated use. Upon overdose, minor side-effects include anxiety, delusions, and paranoia.

jadenow:

A form of “treatment” used up until the mid 1900s was to put patients of female asylums in these baths, zip them in from the outside so they are unable to get out, and leave them in these baths for several hours, usually in a dark room. This was considered ‘therapy’

mothernaturenetwork:

Give us some space and respect, proud introvert argues
Rather than work to make introverts something they’re not, parents and teachers should encourage the dreamier among us, new book says. Author Susan Cain says Western — and in particular, American — culture is dominated by what she calls the “Extrovert Ideal,” described as “the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha and comfortable in the spotlight.”

AMEN. Now leave me be.