Neuroscience

You may think that your diet soda tastes the same (maybe even better) than the sugar-sweetened variety, but your brain has a mind of its own when it comes to recognizing and discriminating calories.

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Our sense of body image, of our ownership of our own bodies, is integral to our sense of identity. At first blush then, you might think that we maintain a stable, robust body image throughout life, but a few easy experiments show that this is not the case. Read More

Sometimes our feelings and thoughts seem to go rogue on us. Previous blogs have focused upon the neuroscience and psychology behind these tendencies. Here are some ideas about how to actually master the problems that result. Read More

 Depression during medical school? Read More

Inside/Out was about a compulsive gambler (Jimmy Morgan, played by Eliott Gould), who, while being agoraphobic, (powerful fear of going outdoors) nonetheless managed to live a rather diversely occupied life with the aid of high technology in the Internet's Paleolithic period.

I was reminded of this movie after my second hemorrhagic stroke last October, when, in my left hand, I lost ... much of my sense of touch as well as fine motor coordination. It left me feeling like there is a quarter-inch callous on my fingers. Read More

Read or watch a story, and your brain plays tricks on you. You know the action isn't really happening, but your brain takes liberties precisely because of that. ... Read More

The active ingerdient in Cannabis, THC, has been shown to activate opioid receptors, the same ones activated by opiates like heroin, oxycontin, and morphine. The question is: What does that mean for marijuana's addictive potential? I think it means a lot. Far from decrying marijuana "evil," I think the objective reality about the drug should be acknowledged. Read More

Here's the polite version of a question I received recently about my support of mindfulness meditation as a practice for well-being in relationships: "Why are you encouraging people to zone out? Sitting around pretending they're above it all, and avoiding real feelings? Who wants to be in a relationship with a self-involved bliss-ninny?" Wow. There are an awful lot of misconceptions about mindfulness meditation. This one, about how people who meditate are just using it as a place to "hide out" by just getting zoned, escaping into some blissed-out, checked-out place, is why a lot of people mistakenly decide that meditation is useless, or worse. There are some merits to asking the question, though, because it's true that some people who meditate use it in ways which aren't beneficial, sometimes making them pretty obnoxious to spend time with. Read More

It may seem easier to deal with conflicts with email, because you don't have to see the recipient's angry facial expressions or hear their seething voice tone, but we miss a lot of information about what the other person is feeling and experiencing. Read More