Auto-Activation Deficit Patients Dream When Minds Are Blank

Case studies of patients with Auto-Activation Deficit who reported dreams when awakened from REM sleep, even when they demonstrated a mental blank during the daytime, have been documented by Isabelle Arnulf and colleagues from the Sleep Disorders Unit at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC). The paper proves that even patients with Auto-Activation Disorder…

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Does Texting About Bad Behavior Predict Bad Behavior?

When teenagers send text messages it is mostly as harmless. But when the texting is antisocial, it can actually predict deviant behavior, according to a new study from the University of Texas at Dallas involving more than 76,000 text messages. “We were interested in how adolescents use electronic communication, particularly text messaging,” said Dr. Samuel…

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Mindfulness Meditation Anxiety Relief Linked to 2 Brain Regions

Science has known that meditation can reduce anxiety for some time. Now, a study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has identified the brain functions involved. Activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex correlated with anxiety relief during meditation. “Although we’ve known that meditation can reduce anxiety, we hadn’t identified the…

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Lack of Sleep Increases Anticipatory Anxiety

Lack of sleep is common in anxiety disorders, but it may play a key role in revving up brain regions that contribute to excessive worrying, UC Berkeley researchers have found. Being deprived of sleep, neuroscientists have found, boosts anticipatory anxiety by sparking the brain’s amygdala and insular cortex, areas linked to emotional processing. The ensuing…

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Why More Complicated Lies Are Easier To Remember

Everyone lies, whether consciously or not. But if we could put aside moral concerns one moment and watch what happens when you tell a lie, what would we learn about ourselves? What happens in the brain later, when you try to access the memory of your deception? According to a new study from Louisiana State…

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The More Successful Women Are, the Worse Their Male Partners Feel

Although men may feel like they enjoy basking in the glory of their successful wives or girlfriends, their subconscious self-esteem may be taking a direct hit when a spouse or girlfriend excels. Interestingly, women’s self-esteem was unaffected by their male partners’ successes or failures, according to new research. “It makes sense that a man might…

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How Anxiety Changes Your Personal Space Size

The space around your body, (‘peripersonal space’, to all you neuroscientists) has always been seen as having a gradual boundary. New research into the link between anxiety and personal space has now shown real physical limits to the space. The boundary of the ‘peripersonal space’ surrounding the face as 20-40cm away (about 8-16 inches). Also,…

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Will That Sugar Rush Help You Get Stuff Done?

That afternoon candy bar may not be necessary if you’re trying to finish a tough task. Believing you have the willpower can do the trick, researchers say in a new study. “The dominant theory about willpower is that it’s easily depleted and depends on a consistent supply of glucose from the outside,” says Carol Dweck,…

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Does Volunteering Benefit your Mental and Physical Health?

Survey says… Yes. Volunteering can improve mental health as well as help you live longer, finds a large meta-analysis from University of Exeter Medical School. Gathering and comparing data from multiple experimental trials and longitudinal cohort studies, researchers found about 20 per cent reduction in mortality among volunteers compared to non-volunteers in cohort studies. The…

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