The brains of psychopaths are anatomically different from healthy brains in a specific set of ways, says a new study. Areas of the brain that enable us to feel guilt and fear, and to understand other people’s emotions – particularly the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and the temporal poles – are significantly smaller in psychopathic [...]
Posts Tagged ‘fear’
Becoming Bad
May 13th, 2012 
The Connectome 
Posted in Brain News, Featured 
Tags: emotions, fear, neuroanatomy, psychology, psychopathy 
2 Comments »
5 Ways to Fight the Blues…with Science!
February 22nd, 2012 The Connectome So you’re stuck in that mid-week slump…the weekend lies on the other side of a scorching desert of work, and you have no canteen because you gave up water for Lent (in this metaphor, “water” refers to alcohol…just to be clear). But fear not! Neuroscience knows how to cheer you up! Nope, this isn’t another [...]
Posted in Feature Stories, Featured Tags: anxiety, depression, fear, psychology, science to the rescue!, senses 3 Comments »Stress Intervention
December 15th, 2011 The Connectome Scientists have discovered a way to shut down the brain’s “stress process” before it gets going, says a new study. By blocking the brain’s ability to manufacture certain chemicals called neurosteroids, researchers have managed to temporarily cut off a biological process crucial for stressful behavior – and for many stressful feelings as well. Animals from amphibians [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: anxiety, biochemistry, depression, emotions, fear, neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, stress 1 Comment »Psychopathic Anatomy
November 30th, 2011 The Connectome The brains of psychopaths have a significant physical difference from those of non-psychopaths, says a new study. In a psychopath’s brain, white matter (connective neural tissue) links between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala are unusually weak. This means a major brain area involved in anticipating risk (the vmPFC) is only weakly connected with an area [...]
Chemical Parasites
November 7th, 2011 The Connectome A certain brain parasite actually turns off people’s feelings of fear by increasing levels of the neurotransmitter chemical dopamine, says a new study. Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoan (a kind of single-celled organism), mostly likes to live in the brains of cats - but it also infects birds, mice, and about 10 to 20 percent of people in the U.S. [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: biochemistry, biology, emotions, fear, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology 2 Comments »The Sound of Fear
October 14th, 2011 The Connectome A certain inaudible sound frequency may directly trigger feelings of “creepiness” and physical symptoms of fear, one scientist says. A sound frequency of around 19hz – just below the range of human hearing – has been detected in several “haunted” places, including a laboratory where staff had reported inexplicable feelings of panic, and and a pub [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: biology, emotions, fear, neurophysiology, psychology, senses, technology, technosophy 2 Comments »Facing Fear
July 6th, 2011 The Connectome New neuroscientific studies are shedding light on the allure of dark forests and eerie old houses…and cliff diving. In psychology, this drive to explore the unusual is one manifestation of the behavior pattern known as “sensation-seeking” – the tendency to pursue intense, novel experiences out of curiosity, or just for the sheer joy of excitement. Though the [...]
