Interesting lecture on the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders and their treatment.

Modern psychiatric drugs treat the chemistry of the whole brain, but neurobiologist David Anderson believes in a more nuanced view of how the brain functions. He illuminates new research that could lead to targeted psychiatric medications — that work better and avoid side effects. How’s he doing it? For a start, by making a bunch of fruit flies angry.

 

On May 21, 2005, David Foster Wallace got up before the graduating class of Kenyon college and delivered one of history’s most memorable commencement addresses. It wasn’t until Wallace’s death in 2008 that the speech took on a life of its own under the title This Is Water, and was even adapted into a short book. Now, the fine folks of The Glossary have remixed an abridged version of Wallace’s original audio with a sequence of aptly chosen images

Impressive speech, used parts of it for the white coat ceremony. Students should stay aware of their experiences during their clerkships, stay aware of their situation and learning opportunities. This is water…..

Thanks Brain Pickings

 

An animated video on the history of typography, another hobby of Dr Shock, enjoy. Oh, yes, garamond is my favorite. Do you have a favorite?

 

In Toronto, Canada six women were treated for anorexia nervosa with deep brain stimulation. They had a long period of many years of unsuccessful conventional management. Their average BMI were 11 to 15 in the years before the study.

The electrodes were placed just beneath the corpus callosum.

Complications
One woman had a self limiting panick attack during the procedure. One developed a cardiac air embolus that resolved within 5 minutes during the procedure. One patient had a seizure after the operation when switching the device on. After switching it off and restarting again after one week seizures didn’t reappear.

Three out of the six women gained weight and had an improved quality of live. The BMIs increased from 11.1 to 21, 14.2 to 16, and 15.1 to 20.

The pilot was designed to assess safety, not effectiveness. The authors judge deep brain stimulation to be safe enough for further evaluation

 

Bunkr is a new way of making presentations. It’s an online tool. You can easily collect articles, images, videos, quotes from the web. You can make and organize a whole collection online of images, videos, etc. You can export your presentation as powerpoint of pdf or you can present online on all kind of devices.

We have create a HTML5 presentation format: lighter, faster and no installation required. Say goodbye too heavy presentations that cannot be sent by email. Bunkr HTML5 presentation: simple to share and readable on all devices

There’s a 45 days free trial so probably in the end will cost you some. Will be trying it the next couple of weeks. ( May be a waste of time but a lot of pleasure)

 

Designer Ruben van der Vleuten was curious about the shipping process, so he did what anyone would do. He installed a camera in a cardboard box and shipped it to himself. Below is a time-lapse video of the package’s journey.

Interesting experiment. Enjoy the video and music, thanks to FlowingData

 

Explanation of empathy, the neurochemistry of empathy and how this relates to the power of good stories.

The emotionally charged story recounted at the beginning Dr. Paul Zak’s film—of a terminally ill two-year-old named Ben and his father—offers a simple yet remarkable case study in how the human brain responds to effective storytelling. As part of his study, Dr. Zak, a founding pioneer in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, closely monitored the neural activity of hundreds of people who viewed Ben’s story. What he discovered is that even the simplest narrative, if it is highly engaging and follows the classic dramatic arc outlined by the German playwright Gustav Freytag, can evoke powerful empathic responses associated with specific neurochemicals, namely cortisol and oxytocin. Those brain responses, in turn, can translate readily into concrete action—in the case of Dr. Zak’s study subjects, generous donations to charity and even monetary gifts to fellow participants. By contrast, stories that fail to follow the dramatic arc of rising action/climax/denouement—no matter how outwardly happy or pleasant those stories may be—elicit little if any emotional or chemical response, and correspond to a similar absence of action. Dr. Zak’s conclusions hold profound implications for the role of storytelling in a vast range of professional and public milieus.

Thanks Presentation Zen

 

Found this excellent video on CasesBlog, with advice for doctors and reactions on twitter.

CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, shared this video, titled “Empathy,” with the Cleveland Clinic staff during his 2013 State of the Clinic address on Feb. 27, 2013. The video relates to any person – not only patients and physicians. It’s so worth it 4 minutes of your time

 

With the help of 167 musicians playing anything from the guitar to the harp and 360-degree cameras, Beck delivers the gift of sound and vision during his reimagined performance of David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision.”

Be sure to listen with your headphone