BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

HOW DO BRAINS GET DIFFERENT? by Kathy Krajco How on earth does one "demonize" a psychopath? If 20 times a day you think, "I love milk and all the milk in the world belongs to me," the little pathway of connecting brain cells that lights up to think that thought dumps transmitter substance into those connections 20 times a day. The amount of this chemical builds up, because it is being added to faster than it degrades. This is called MEMORY. It's what we LEARN with. Keep thinking 20 times a day, every day, "I love milk and all the milk in the world belongs to me." There will soon be so much transmitter substance between the connections along that pathway that it will take almost nothing to stimulate that thought. In other words, every time you see something white, it could make you think that thought. In other other words, the connections get touchy. See what I mean? You are acquiring a habit. There gets to be so much of that transmitter substance in th...

Do Many Political Reporters Not Have Brains? by Barry Yourgrau So Ron Brownstein, the longtime (now former) LA Times political beat reporter, has a new book out about our "polarized" American political scene: The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America . Ours is the age of "hyperpartisanship"--left as well as right, as Brownstein sees it, according to the reviews (Sunday and today) in the NY Times. Ain't it awful? I don't mean to knee-jerk here, but what is so brain-numbingly tedious --so thrashing-about-bug-eyed-with-fury demoralizing--is the fatuousness of Brownstein's analysis. It is an analysis which I'm sure is widely regarded as "thoughtful." Which shows just how not up to the job our Big Media press by and large is. Brownstein seems incapable of registering the reality of American politics: That the "partisanship" and "principles" of the right are turning this coun...

RIGHT-WING BRAIN vs. LEFT-WING BRAIN Interesting... Homo politicus: brain function of liberals, conservatives differs by Marlowe Hood The brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices, suggesting that some political divides may be hard-wired, according a study released Sunday. Aristotle may have been more on the mark than he realised when he said that man is by nature a political animal. Dozens of previous studies have established a strong link between political persuasion and certain personality traits. Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more consistent in the way they make decisions. Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, and adapt more easily to unexpected circumstances. The affinity between political views and "cognitive style" has also been shown to be heritable, handed down from parents to children, said the study, published in the British...

New Study Links Fibromyalgia to Reduced Brain Dopamine ORANGE, Ca - The National Fibromyalgia Association today announced that a new study published in the January issue of The Journal of Pain provides new scientific evidence demonstrating for the first time that there is a fundamental difference between the brains of fibromyalgia patients and healthy individuals not afflicted with the disorder. The study’s lead author, Dr. Patrick Wood, is a nationally recognized researcher and authority on the cause and treatment of fibromyalgia. This groundbreaking study supports Dr Wood’s “Dopamine Theory of Fibromyalgia,” which proposes that people with fibromyalgia produce less dopamine—a natural chemical in the body that functions as a neurotransmitter—in the very areas of the brain where dopamine is needed to process painful bodily sensations. The reduction in the activity of dopamine neurons, believed to result from a combination of environmental factors, including chronic stress, as well as ...