Monthly Archives: August 2014

Post Of The Week – Thursday 28th August 2014

August 28, 2014 · by · in Attitudes To Mental Illness, Cognition And Development, Depression, Early Social Development, Memory, Models Of Abnormality, Neuroscience, Treating Mental Disorders · Leave a comment

1) Synaptic Pruning And Autism When we study biological explanations of social cognition, we look at the process of synaptic pruning which happens during adolescence. The brain seems to go through a process of reorganisation where connections between synapses are reduced and the amount of grey matter declines. The idea is that this happens in […]

Post Of The Week – Thursday 21st August 2014

August 21, 2014 · by · in Attitudes To Mental Illness, Cognition And Development, Depression, Early Social Development, Eating Behaviour, Memory, Nature - Nurture, Neuroscience, Obedience, Social Influence, Stress, Treating Mental Disorders, Uncategorized · Leave a comment

1) Uta Frith On The History Of Autism http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/blog/2014/guest-blog-london-as-a-crucible-for-autism-in-the-1950s In this article, Uta Frith explains some of the background to the development of autism as a diagnosis. Three important ideas emerge from this. Firstly, it is worth reminding ourselves how recent the classification and diagnosis of autism is. Uta Frith started a PhD in 1964 at […]

Post Of The Week – Friday 15th August 2014

August 15, 2014 · by · in Addictive Behaviour, Depression, Early Social Development, Memory, Nature - Nurture, Neuroscience, Research Methods, Stress, Treating Mental Disorders · Leave a comment

1) Robin Williams Robin Williams, the film actor and comedian, died this week. Much has been said about his experience of depression. Some of the reporting has been sensationalist and irresponsible. Of all the things I have seen, I think Alastair Campbell does the best job. http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2014/08/12/may-robin-williams-tragic-end-herald-the-start-of-new-attitudes-to-depression/   2) Asylum History I have had the […]

Psychology And Employability

August 8, 2014 · by · in Uncategorized · Leave a comment

This is a link to the website of the Higher Education Academy. Their role is to provide advice and support to universities. They have a Psychology specialist https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/3269 This is the document they have produced about Psychology and employability. Click to access psychology-dept-employability-guide.pdf With UCAS on the horizon, people thinking about Psychology degrees inevitably want to […]

Post Of The Week – Thursday 7th August 2014

August 7, 2014 · by · in Addictive Behaviour, Attitudes To Mental Illness, Eating Behaviour, Neuroscience · Leave a comment

1) PPAR Gamma Receptors And Obesity Our knowledge of neural mechanisms which control eating is increasing rapidly. The model which appears in the text books we use at A Level has a very simple account. We have a dual process system inside our brains. When there aren’t enough nutrients in our system, the LH kicks […]

Post Of The Week – Saturday 2nd August 2014

August 2, 2014 · by · in Addictive Behaviour, Depression, Models Of Abnormality, Neuroscience, Relationships, Research Methods, Treating Mental Disorders · Leave a comment

1) Insel And Others – The BRAIN Project http://www.hulu.com/watch/511512 This is a discussion programme based on President Obama’s BRAIN initiative. The speakers, including Thomas Insel, are big hitters in the field. There are many gems in this wide ranging discussion. I’m struck by how quickly the technology is changing, which enables rapid advances in knowledge. […]