There is a better speaker then me to convey this message. So please, by all means take a 15 min. break and attend Mr. Robert Gupta and his talk+performance on TED. This is what real therapy should be about.
Georges
28 maart 2010
Neuroplasticity
Last week I was invited to give a talk in the beautifull city of Bruges on Neuroplasticity. Of course I talked about Cajall, Merzenich, Ramachandran, Bach-Y-Rita, Eric Kandell and so many other pioneers of this fascinating field that bridges the gap between mind and brain. However I did not talk about arts and music and unfortunately nobody came up with a question about the essence of this. Yet if one recalls Bob Thatchers talk of resonance we know intuitively what causes the "good vibrations" that tickle our our pyramidal cells and make us feel "good".
There is a better speaker then me to convey this message. So please, by all means take a 15 min. break and attend Mr. Robert Gupta and his talk+performance on TED. This is what real therapy should be about.
Georges
There is a better speaker then me to convey this message. So please, by all means take a 15 min. break and attend Mr. Robert Gupta and his talk+performance on TED. This is what real therapy should be about.
Georges
21 maart 2010
17 maart 2010
When it all begun...
People who are deep into neurophysiology and clinical neurosciences do realise the power of our social brains, that perhaps more then anything else have shapen the world of culture and communication as we know it today. Endeavour, bravery and adventure have been the endophenotypes of these instantiations. But sometimes it is good to grasp the dimensionality of this marvelous adventure of mankind by embedding in it's journey and sailing with the pioneers that explored the seven seas. What better guide could one wish then Mr Luc Cuyvers who will point out those pages in history that no one else has shown us before. This is not only a guide of high intelligence, expert knowledge and life long experience but also a man who is fully conscious of the marvel and has the unique talent to share this with us. Let's sail away to MN films and ... turn on your sound system (hear that splendid music).
http://www.mnfilms.com/MN-Films.html
12 maart 2010
Let but the CREW get into Your head
WHAW !!!
These guys can get into Your head and the chances are that You will not "mind" at all. On the contrary. They explore in VR what happens when You live this "out of mind" experience. Could drive the best shrink completely mad ! BTW, the is by far the best that neurofeedback can get !!
Congratulations CREW !! This is really outstanding work.
These guys can get into Your head and the chances are that You will not "mind" at all. On the contrary. They explore in VR what happens when You live this "out of mind" experience. Could drive the best shrink completely mad ! BTW, the is by far the best that neurofeedback can get !!
05 maart 2010
fMRI: in thoug we trust ?
From the authors of the death Salmon fMRI comes a new eye opening study on the test-retest reliability of fMRI.
Maybe that is why I stick to EEG (and because it is a whee dram cheaper). Read all about it in Mindhacks. Fabulous blog !
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/03/how_reliable_are_fmr.html
For example, if you're measuring an adult's height you want to make sure that your tape measure gives you similar results each time you use it on the same person. Of course, you may have readings that vary by a millimetre or two each time, but if you get wildly different results on Monday and Tuesday, you probably want to bin your tape measure.
In fMRI there are two types of results. One is 'where in the brain' and the other is 'how strong' is the activity.
We can examine the first by looking at how well the active brain areas overlap in scans taken at two different times, and we can examine the second by looking at the similarity of the strength of the results using a statistical test like a correlation.
The better the overlap and the statistical relationship between the results from the same test on the same people at different times, the more we can rely on our measurement technique.
This new analysis reviewed all the previous studies that have looked at the test-retest reliability of fMRI and found that overall, active brain areas overlap about 30% of the time and the correlation for the strength of the activity was about 0.5. To get some perspective a result of 1 would indicate perfectly reliable and reproducible results while a result of 0 would indicate no reliability at all.
An overlap of 30% and a correlation result of 0.5 shows fMRI has moderate reliability, but is much poorer than most people assume.
However, this overall result is perhaps a little too broad, and the authors make the point that the reliability varies depending on the type of scanner being used, what test is being carried out by the participants, what brain areas are being investigated and how the results are analysed
Maybe that is why I stick to EEG (and because it is a whee dram cheaper). Read all about it in Mindhacks. Fabulous blog !
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/03/how_reliable_are_fmr.html
For example, if you're measuring an adult's height you want to make sure that your tape measure gives you similar results each time you use it on the same person. Of course, you may have readings that vary by a millimetre or two each time, but if you get wildly different results on Monday and Tuesday, you probably want to bin your tape measure.
In fMRI there are two types of results. One is 'where in the brain' and the other is 'how strong' is the activity.
We can examine the first by looking at how well the active brain areas overlap in scans taken at two different times, and we can examine the second by looking at the similarity of the strength of the results using a statistical test like a correlation.
The better the overlap and the statistical relationship between the results from the same test on the same people at different times, the more we can rely on our measurement technique.
This new analysis reviewed all the previous studies that have looked at the test-retest reliability of fMRI and found that overall, active brain areas overlap about 30% of the time and the correlation for the strength of the activity was about 0.5. To get some perspective a result of 1 would indicate perfectly reliable and reproducible results while a result of 0 would indicate no reliability at all.
An overlap of 30% and a correlation result of 0.5 shows fMRI has moderate reliability, but is much poorer than most people assume.
However, this overall result is perhaps a little too broad, and the authors make the point that the reliability varies depending on the type of scanner being used, what test is being carried out by the participants, what brain areas are being investigated and how the results are analysed
03 maart 2010
Nakasendo
Something that can ticle neurons to
http://546km.blogspot.com/2009/02/sixty-nine-stations-of-kiso-kaido.html
Walk the Nakasendo.
http://546km.blogspot.com/2009/02/sixty-nine-stations-of-kiso-kaido.html
Walk the Nakasendo.
02 maart 2010
28 februari 2010
Talk on Brain Function
This is talk 02 (of 15) at the Neurocognitive Networks 2010 Conference held at the Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida on January 29-30, 2010. Speaker is Marcus Raichle, of Washington University School of Medicine. The title of this keynote address is: "Two Views of Brain Function".
24 februari 2010
22 februari 2010
The sad Houben story
Steve Novella wrote:
"I have been covering the story of Dr. Steven Laureys, a Belgium neurologist whose research involves disorders of consciousness, and his most famous patient, Rom Houben. Houben is a 46 year old man who is the victim of a car accident at the age of 23. For the latter half of his life he has been in an apparent persistent vegetative state -except recently it was discovered that he has more brain activity (almost normal) than expected.
So Dr. Laureys attempted to establish communication with Houben as if Houben were in a locked in state – someone who is conscious but paralyzed. All they could get Houben to move was his foot to depress a pedal, and that could theoretically be used to answer yes/no questions. But Houben has too much spasticity and he could not lift his foot off the pedal.
This is where the story gets interesting, and where it became an international controversy. Enter Linda Wouters – a speech therapist who uses facilitated communication (FC). She claimed that after months of training she could communicate with Houbens by sensing the subtle movements of his right hand, which he could use to direct her across a computer screen keyboard.
FC, unfortunately, is pure pseudoscience. It was introduced in the late 1980s as a wonderful new method for communicating with children with cognitive disorders, on the assumption that they were more verbally than mentally impaired. Many therapists were convinced, and many parents were overjoyed as their previously non-communicative children starting writing poetry expressing their love for their parents. (And there was also a dark side as some children, through FC, started reporting physical and sexual abuse by parents and caretakers.)
When people got around to actually testing FC scientifically it turned out, rather unequivocally, that all the communication was being done subconsciously by the facilitator – a phenomenon called the ideomotor effect. They were not just supporting the hand of their client, they were directing it. Well-designed studies showed that the facilitator was always doing all the communication. FC then shrank to a fringe phenomenon – but its adherents would not give up, and FC continues to this day (even sometimes in courtroom testimony), hoodwinking the unawares and having to be debunked all over again and again.
It is very unfortunate that Dr. Laureys was unfamiliar with FC. Had he known more about it he could have nipped this travesty in the bud. But he was taken in by it, claiming that he tested Wouters and it looked to him as if Houben was doing the communication. This story, in fact, is a good cautionary tale about why mainstream scientists need to be familiar with the pseudosciences that touch their specialty.
Regarding Rom Houben video showing Wouters performing FC with Houben clearly showed that he could not be doing the communication. In one video Houben was not even looking at the keyboard, and may not have even been awake. But in every video Wouters was moving his hand across the keyboard at unbelievable speeds – not even a neurologically intact person could direct another to keystrokes with such speed an accuracy by just moving one finger.
But to Laureys credit he promised a more thorough test – although he seemed confident such test would validate the FC communication with Houbens. Well finally we have the results of this further testing. Spiegel Online reports:
Laureys has now carried out those tests, and his results hold that it wasn’t Houben doing the writing after all. The tests determined that he doesn’t have enough strength and muscle control in his right arm to operate the keyboard. In her effort to help the patient express himself, it would seem that the speech therapist had unwittingly assumed control…
In the more recent test, Houben was shown or told a series of 15 objects and words, without a speech therapist being present. Afterward, he was supposed to type the correct word — but he didn’t succeed a single time.
Good for Laureys for doing proper tests and sharing the results with the world. This is, of course, what skeptics like myself predicted would be the results of proper testing. We also warned about the pitfall of doing less than rigorous testing, like those that initially convinced Laureys. Once again pseudoscience fails under properly designed scientific testing.
Unfortunately, is appears that Laureys’ conversion to FC skeptic is not yet complete. He is also quoted as saying,
This doesn’t necessarily discredit facilitated communication altogether. Laureys analyzed another paralyzed test subject who answered all 15 control questions correctly despite having a comparable brain-damage diagnosis. “That means it is really necessary to verify every single case,” Laureys says.
Laureys does not seem to appreciate that he is claiming here that he has overturned 20 years of FC research showing that it is not legitimate. You cannot casually claim from a single case that you have demonstrated a highly implausible phenomenon that has previously been rejected by carefully controlled studies. What are the details of this new case he is referring to? Is it really FC? I could find nothing published, and there are no further details in the report. It is possible that the reporting itself is inaccurate – this requires further follow up.
The rest of the Spiegel article deals with the very legitimate and interesting research of Laureys and others involving attempts at using various brain imaging technology to better assess, and possibly even communicate with those who are locked in or in a minimally conscious state. I discussed this research recently here. This article adds a discussion of the research of Marie Bruno – who is using EEGs (electroencephalogram) to communicate. The idea is that the EEG can detect difference in brain wave activity in different brain states voluntarily created by the subject. The method is still crude, and will likely require years of research to become useful. But it is promising.
Rom Houben’s story has grown to encapsulate the plight of those with disorders of consciousness, our attempts to better assess and communicate with them through advancing technology, and the mischief that can still be caused by lingering pseudosciences. It is truly a scandal that FC is still around. Like homeopathy, therapeutic touch, and many similar medical pseudosciences – their persistence is not a failure of science, which has adequately shown them to be nothing but illusions, but rather of collective rationality.
read comments
20 februari 2010
First time
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love,
To the dark and the empty skies.
The first time ever I kissed your mouth
And felt your heart beat close to mine
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command.
And the first time ever I lay with you
I felt your heart so close to mine
And I knew our joy would fill the earth
And last till the end of time my love
It would last till the end of time my love
The first time ever I saw your face, your face, your face, your face
A wee dram of Formol ?
Drunk on Alcohol?
When you drink alcohol and get drunk, are you getting drunk on alcohol?
Read on the neurosceptic Blog (cfr see comments)
My comment:
There is much evidence for "Acetaldehydism" instead of "ethylism" but other evidence still supports a mutual cause (ethanol + acetaldehyde). In testing the effect on people one should take care as dose effects are important and very different in younger versus older people. Where in older people the sedation effects tend to become more important (at higher dose) in youngsters the excitation effects continue even in higher dose levels.
Then again we all know those patients who on disulfiram have managed to take small dosoes of it together with low dose alcohol to experience that ebriety effect at much lower "cost" (depend on how one defines "cost". :-). it is rare but exists. So maybe the acetaldehyde story could be a lead to consider for therapeutic implications ?
Facilitated Communication
Facilitated communication with coma patient is fabricated
The ‘faciliated communication’ with Rom Houben, a Belgian man who allegedly was trapped in his body for 23 years, turns out to be fictional, new tests by the Belgian skeptical organization SKEPP have confirmed. Neurologist Dr. Steven Laureys and his team, who presented Houben’s case in the international press in November 2009, seem to have rushed to premature conclusions.
According to doctors, Rom Houben has been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for over 20 years. In November 2009, however, Dr. Laureys declared that three years ago his PET-scans had shown signs of consciousness in Mr Houben’s brain, and that now the patient was able to communicate. All over the world video footage showed the man fluently typing complex messages with one finger, with the help of a ‘facilitator’. This trained assistant guides his hand over a keyboard, trying to feel and amplify (facilitate) the patient’s minute intentional movements. In interviews Dr. Laureys claimed that his scans showed that up to 40% of patients, previously diagnosed as PVS, were trapped in a paralyzed body and could be “released”.
Many commentators expressed disbelief, and so did SKEPP, for several reasons, medical and others. The method of facilitated communication (FC) has since long been discredited. Controlled experiments have consistently demonstrated that none other than the facilitator is directing the ‘conversation’. In The Times and Der Spiegel, Dr. Laureys claimed that he had performed controlled experiments, which had convinced him of the reliability of FC. Later he expressed doubts and planned new tests, but by then the news of the miraculous rebirth after 23 years had already circulated the globe. How many new tests are needed and why wait months? Apart from some medical objections, one single observation should have been sufficient to discard the whole story: many of the videos show that the patient is typing with his eyes closed. Nobody can blind-type whole sentences with one finger. If you can, the €10.000 SKEPP-prize will be yours, and perhaps you can also apply for the $ 1.000.000 Randi prize.
At the request of the medical institution where Mr Houben is cared for, on February 4 2010 SKEPP was present as advisor for a planned test of this controversial method of communication, and we also conducted our own tests. From the staff of the institute we learned that during two years all attempts to establish any form of communication with the patient by detecting and coding minute movements of the eyes or any other body part had failed. With FC he now seemed to produce correct words and elaborate sentences. Indeed, his answers to our simple test questions were intelligible and sometimes elaborate, but when the facilitator did not know the questions, his answers were all completely wrong. Most of the time he typed with his eyes closed, but as soon as the keyboard was shielded from the facilitator’s view the typing produced gibberish and halted. There clearly was no communication with the patient, only with the facilitator. We wonder what world-shaking news there would have been to communicate if it hadn't been for the spectacular answers the facilitator produced.
Our intent was to not to test Mr Houben, but to test FC, and once more we demonstrated that the method is a sham. This is not to deny that Mr Houben may have some limited consciousness. If so, how frustrating must it be for him to hear all the bogus messages being produced in his name, without any possibility to protest ? After our test we had a long conversation with Dr. Laureys. He insisted that we test more facilitators before drawing conclusions. We declined and advised him to clearly distance himself from the FC scam, which he has done today. Out of respect and to allow them time to discuss the results with the family and the dedicated staff, we agreed on a 2 weeks embargo before making the results of our test public. Of course, not everyone is convinced yet. In a phone conversation today Mr Houben’s mother told us that she still believes in FC, because “sometimes it had produced answers that only her son could have known”. She is convinced that Dr. Laureys will ultimately find a method to communicate with her son. His team is experimenting with other methods. Let's hope her wish comes true.
The international news coverage of this case has given many relatives of coma patients false hope, and the advocates of the illusionary facilitated communication got an undeserved publicity boost. The emotional impact on patients’ families can't be underestimated. The decision to present this case before the international media was premature, to say the least.
February 18th 2010
Prof Dr Willem Betz
Belgian skeptics
17 februari 2010
07 februari 2010
Exciting Death ?
Glutaminergic overstimulation can kill neurons by excitocytosis.
See how domic acid and kanaic acid resemble glutamate.
Thanks to the one and only Neurosceptic who brings You the whole story.
Forget about those selfish shelfish
Read all about Domoic acid and its devastating effect on hippocampus in this blog. HM in seafood ? Thanks Neurosceptic: a great blog !!! Visit there often.
Log in !
If you find a heavy dose of skepticism intellectually bracing -- or you're simply weary of headlines touting unproven cures or encouraging unfounded fears -- check out these blogs. They're worth adding to your "favorites" list. Heck, put 'em on RSS feeds.
Read on....
05 februari 2010
Priming rTMS with tDCS ? rather not...
Priming rTMS with tDCS in depression: a pilot study
J ECT. 2009; 25(4):256-60.
Transcranial direct current stimulation priming of therapeutic repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: a pilot study.
Loo C, Martin D, Pigot M, Arul-Anandam P, Mitchell P, Sachdev P.
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. colleen.loo@unsw.edu.au
OBJECTIVES: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to be a safe treatment of depression, and research efforts are now largely focused on strategies to enhance its efficacy. Motor cortex experiments suggest that the effects of rTMS can be enhanced by first priming the same cortical area with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We explored this approach in depressed subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seven depressed subjects were given sessions of combined tDCS-rTMS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, exploring a range of tDCS and rTMS stimulation parameters and interstimulation intervals. Effects of repeated stimulation sessions on mood state and neuropsychological functioning were evaluated. RESULTS: Most of the subjects showed little improvement with cathodal tDCS followed by 10-Hz rTMS, although 2 subjects showed marked improvement, one after a single stimulation session. Anodal tDCS followed by rTMS did not lead to any improvement. Preconditioning with tDCS seemed to greatly exacerbate the pain of subsequent rTMS. No adverse effects on neuropsychological functioning were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, preconditioning with cathodal tDCS followed by rTMS did not result in greater antidepressant efficacy than rTMS given at similar parameters in open trials, although the dramatic response in 1 subject is encouraging. Outcomes may be highly dependent on the exact stimulation paradigm in which tDCS and rTMS are combined. Researchers should be aware that preconditioning with tDCS may greatly increase the pain experienced with subsequent rTMS.
31 januari 2010
Good bye and fare the well
A truly great blog is closing down. They did a wonderfull job for the neuroscience of psychology.
Congratulations and thanks a thousand times !
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