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What is cerebellar ataxia? How is it caused? And how does it affect the people who suffer from it? “Ataxia describes poor muscle control that causes clumsy movements. It can affect walking and balance, hand coordination, speech and swallowing, and eye movements. Ataxia usually results from damage to [or degeneration of] the part of the brain called the cerebellum or its connections. The cerebellum controls…
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“Just as birth certificates note the time we enter the world, death certificates mark the moment we exit it. This practice reflects traditional notions about life and death as binaries. We are here until, suddenly, like a light switched off, we are gone. But while this idea of death is pervasive, evidence is building that it is an outdated social construct, not really grounded in…
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Naomi S. Baron, American University (from The Conversation) When the company OpenAI launched its new artificial intelligence program, ChatGPT, in late 2022, educators began to worry. ChatGPT could generate text that seemed like a human wrote it. How could teachers detect whether students were using language generated by an AI chatbot to cheat on a writing assignment? As a linguist who studies the effects of…
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What are the connections between the food we eat and how we behave? In particular, is there a connection between diet and aggressive behavior? Can this connection be used to help reduce the aggressive behavior that leads to criminal acts? Featured article: *Tcherni‐Buzzeo, Maria. (2023). Dietary interventions, the gut microbiome, and aggressive behavior: Review of research evidence and potential next steps. Aggressive Behavior, 49(1), 15-32….
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“Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia — a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that affects a person’s ability to function independently” (from the Mayo Clinic). Featured article: *Tang, Y., Zhang, D., Gong, X., & Zheng, J. (2022). A mechanistic survey…
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A different perspective on the factors that cause Alzheimer’s disease? Will it help bring about successful treatments? Featured article: *Pannuzzo, M. (2021, May 29). Beta-amyloid pore linked to controlled calcium influx into the cell: A new paradigm for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia : The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. [PDF] “Despite tremendous worldwide efforts, clinical trials assessing Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related therapeutics have been relentlessly…
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An update to the Generalized Anxiety Disorder–a sign of the times bibliography … Featured articles (these articles have been added to the Bibliography and to the Science Primary Literature database): *Carl, E., Witcraft, S. M., Kauffman, B. Y., Gillespie, E. M., Becker, E. S., Cuijpers, P., . . . Powers, M. B. (2020). Psychological and pharmacological treatments for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): A meta-analysis of…
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Whipping up fear is a common tactic in politics. Providing stark, seemingly life or death choices, us versus them, scapegoating, creating a false bogeyman to distract from real problems, using lies and disinformation … fear is used because it often works. The invoked fear is often based on racism and bias. It’s those “other people”–with a different skin color, from another place, who follow a…
See moreWhite, M. P., Pahl, S., Ashbullby, K., Herbert, S., & Depledge, M. H. (2013). Feelings of restoration from recent nature visits. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 35, 40-51. [Cited by] “Exposure to natural environments can help restore depleted emotional and cognitive resources. However, investigation of the relative impacts of different natural environments among large samples is limited. Using data from 4255 respondents drawn from Natural England’s…
See moreAutism represents a wide spectrum of disorders that impact how a person relates to and communicates with other people. Effects include a variety of social difficulties, “atypical” uses of language, and “restricted or repetitive behaviors.” Autism is not new; examples of individuals can be found throughout history. In recent years, there has been controversy over the causes and antecedents of autism spectrum disorder. What does…
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