Latest Anterior cingulate cortex Stories
A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought.The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander. It also finds that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving "“ previously thought to go dormant when we daydream "“ are in fact highly active during these episodes."Mind wandering is typically...
Faculty from the University of Michigan, University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto key collaborators in study DETROIT, April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wayne State University medical researchers recently discovered a chemical that plays a major role in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). David Rosenberg, M.D., the Miriam L. Hamburger Endowed Chair of Child Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Wayne State, collaborated...
Researchers trying to uncover the mechanisms that cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder have found an abnormality in the brains of adolescent boys suffering from the conditions, but not where they expected to find it.Boys with either or both of these disorders exhibited a different pattern of brain activity than normally developing boys when they played a simple game that sometimes gave them a monetary reward for correct answers, according to a new study by a...
Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task "“ a well-known test of cognitive control "“ while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity.Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in...
In a new fMRI study conducted in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Laboratory (Montpellier I University, France) and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of Cortex, researchers found differences among male and female groups on activation strength linked to verbal fluency (words generation).Results from previous fMRI studies identifying the neural basis of sex differences in language production are still in debate. Particularly, the question of group differences...
A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.A new study appearing online Jan. 2 reports that high levels of brain activity in an emotional center called the amygdala reflect patients' hypersensitivity to anticipation of adverse events. At the same time, high activity in a regulatory region known as the anterior cingulate cortex is associated with a...
Some people would rather receive clear negative information than deal with ambiguity or uncertainty, University of Toronto researchers said. Study authors Jacob Hirsh and Michael Inzlicht looked at the response of the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area associated with error-monitoring and conflict-related anxiety. The researchers found that individuals with high levels of neuroticism -- a personality trait related to negative emotion and anxiety -- showed stronger responses in this...
Having a lower social standing increases the likelihood that a monkey faced with a stressful situation will choose cocaine over food, according to a study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. More dominant monkeys undergoing the same stressful situation had fewer changes in brain activity in areas of the brain involved in stress and anxiety and were less likely to choose cocaine. Robert Warren Gould, a graduate student in the laboratory of Michael A. Nader, Ph.D., presented the study...
In the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving "“ and why it can be hard to stop. The work is reported online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and will appear in a future print issue."Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch," said lead author Gil Yosipovitch, M.D., a dermatologist...
The area of the brain that controls whether you keep rooting around the refrigerator or actually start chowing down has now been discovered. This brain region — which seems to help govern the "eureka" moment or turning point between exploration and mulling over one's discovery — is also linked to urges that malfunction in addiction and certain mental disorders, scientists added. The scientists presented two rhesus monkeys with a choice of four targets...
