Neuroscience Letters
April 6, 2012
Fadel Zeidan, J A Grant, C A Brown et al.
The cognitive modulation of pain is influenced by a number of factors ranging from attention, beliefs, conditioning, expectations, mood, and the regulation of emotional responses to noxious sensory events. Recently, mindfulness meditation has been found attenuate pain through some of these mechanisms including enhanced cognitive and emotional control, as well as altering the contextual...
Brain structure & function
April 2012
Kara Kittelberger, Elizabeth E Hur, Saba Sazegar et al.
The proper organization and function of GABAergic interneuron networks is essential for many cognitive processes and abnormalities in these systems have been documented in schizophrenic patients. The memory function of the hippocampus depends on two major patterns of oscillations in the theta and gamma ranges, both requiring the intact functioning of the network of fast-firing interneurons...
Psychopharmacology
April 2012
Rowan P Ogeil, David J Kennaway, Mark D Salkeld et al.
±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'ecstasy') is a psychoactive drug that has marked effects on the serotonergic system. Serotonergic agonists are known to interact with the circadian pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Given changes reported in the behavioral activity rhythm following MDMA treatment, the effects of MDMA on core clock gene (Per1, Per2) and c-fos...
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
April 2012
Barbara Treccani, Roberto Cubelli, Roberta Sellaro et al.
Prevalent theories about consciousness propose a causal relation between lack of spatial coding and absence of conscious experience: The failure to code the position of an object is assumed to prevent this object from entering consciousness. This is consistent with influential theories of unilateral neglect following brain damage, according to which spatial coding of neglected stimuli is...
The Philosophical Review
April 1, 2012
Robert van Gulick
In “Absent Qualia and the Mind-Body Problem,” Michael Tye (2006) presents an argument by which he claims to show the inconceivability of beings that are functionally equivalent to phenomenally conscious beings but lack any qualia. On that basis, he concludes that qualia can be fully defined in functional terms. The argument does not suffice to establish the claimed results. In particular it...
Neuropsychological Trends
April 1, 2012
Michela Balconi
Neuropsychological studies have underlined the significant presence of distinct brain correlates deputed to analyze facial expression of emotion. It was observed that some cerebral circuits were considered as specific for emotional face comprehension as a function of conscious vs. unconscious processing of emotional information. Moreover, the emotional content of faces (i.e. positive vs....
Psychopharmacology
April 2012
Tibor M Brunt, Maarten W Koeter, Raymond J.m. Niesink et al.
Most studies on the subjective effects of ecstasy are based on the assumption that the substance that was taken is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). However, many tablets sold as ecstasy contain other substances and MDMA in varying doses. So far, few attempts have been made to take this into account while assessing subjective effects. This study aims to link the pharmacological content...
The FASEB Journal
April 1, 2012
Pai-Kai Huang, Shawn. M. Aarde, Tobin J. Dickerson et al.
A recent DEA report and ongoing media accounts show increasing recreational use of 4‐methylmethcathinone (4‐MMC, mephedrone) and 3,4‐methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). Some severe sympathomimetic symptoms, hallucinations, psychoses, and even deaths have been reported. Recent studies showed that 4‐MMC and MDPV enhanced DA neurotransmission, while 4‐MMC also increased 5‐HT neurotransmission, much...
The FASEB Journal
April 1, 2012
Kevin Sean Murnane, Leonard Lee Howell
The neuropharmacology of the sleep and arousal systems involves a complex interplay between multiple neurotransmitter systems. Previous work has downplayed the role of dopamine in sleep and wakefulness, at least in part, because dopamine neurons do not appear to change their firing rates across arousal states. In the present study, we examined the wake promoting effects of amphetamine and...
Cambridge University Press eBooks
March 26, 2012
Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose
THE PROBLEM The world is a construct of our sensations, perceptions, memories. It is convenient to regard it as existing objectively on its own. But it certainly does not become manifest by its mere existence. Its becoming manifest is conditional on very special goings-on in very special parts of this very world, namely on certain events that happen in a brain. That is an inordinately peculiar...