We humans are a judgemental lot. We make spontaneous personality trait inferences based on the behaviour of others almost every day. Think about that person that you saw throw rubbish out their car window – you probably immediately thought of that person as selfish or inconsiderate. These first impressions may not always be accurate, but they are … [Read more...]
Oh my goodness….how embarrassing!
December 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Ever watched a TV show and been overwhelmed by a need to quickly change the channel because the humiliation experienced by the main character is so painful it hurts to watch? Have you noticed how other members of the family don’t seem to mind as much as they shout ‘TURN IT BACK’? This study by Krach et al (free to download) provides some … [Read more...]
Timing is everything
December 22, 2011 By 4 Comments
Human brain mapping doesn’t go back as far as one might think. The first brain activation studies used positron emission tomography (PET) back in the late 1980s. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, followed in the early 90s and went on to radically change neuroimaging [1]. Given that it’s such early days for brain mapping, … [Read more...]
Not just another empathy study
December 13, 2011 By 5 Comments
In this paper, Lamm and colleagues investigate what might modulate empathy. While there have been loads of neuroimaging studies in empathy, many have failed to recognise that empathy is highly malleable by a number of factors. With two fMRI experiments, this group studied two cognitive mechanisms of top-down control—attention and cognitive … [Read more...]
Regret, empathy, espresso
December 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
I’ve got news for those of us who thought that Italians just sat around wearing designer sunglasses and drinking fine coffee; it turns out we were wrong. This fMRI study by a group in Milan is a pearler, and I urge anyone who’s interested to have a look at it.[1] First was a look into empathy: these investigators wanted to know whether … [Read more...]
Findings on imaging for whiplash? It’s a miracle! What does it actually mean?
November 11, 2011 By 9 Comments
Whiplash is one of those conditions that often strikes fear into the hearts of clinicians, mainly because chronic whiplash is very hard to treat. This not helped by the fact that there is scepticism regarding the condition itself due to its lack of objective findings. Whiplash associated disorders (WAD) are largely diagnosed based on mechanism of … [Read more...]
Is it time the memory worked again?
November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I was reading Valery Legrain’s blog and it caused me to reflect on what sort of daily use I give my working memory. Have I needed to mentally rehearse a phone number while dialling it? No, my phone dials whoever I ask it to. Have I bothered to calculate the amount of change I’m going to get at the checkout because the young assistant looks like … [Read more...]
Someone else’s pain—Are you in or out?
October 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
One of the bits of the brain I find the toughest to understand is the insula. We hear about it when the “pain matrix” is discussed. The insula is part of what is currently understood as the medial pain system— involved in assigning meaning, emotion and affect to the pain experience[1]. Various neuroimaging studies have found activity in … [Read more...]
Good for the goose, good for the gander. Heidi Allen talks about BiM.
September 29, 2011 By 8 Comments
So, we have spent the last weeks introducing you to the BiM team at UniSA in Adelaide and Neuroscience Research Australia in Sydney. Well, I got my own back and grabbed Heidi's phone and asked her a few questions. Here she is: httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2M_RxKa_g … [Read more...]
What happens when systematic reviews tell us different things?
September 27, 2011 By 6 Comments
Conventional wisdom tells us that when we want an answer to a clinical question, such as what is the evidence for treatment ‘X’, we should look to systematic reviews because they collate all the available evidence on that topic. Problematically though, sometimes systematic reviews on the same topic don’t all give us the same conclusions. This … [Read more...]
There is no such thing as a new idea continued
September 22, 2011 By 5 Comments
(continued from last post)…Socio-cognitive models have been used by health psychologist to increase our understanding of a variety of health behaviours. What about disability associated with low back pain? If we can think of disability as made up of specific behaviours then and if these behaviours are intentional it follows that people with … [Read more...]
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