The Science of Psychotherapy August 2021
I recently saw a post at space.com, titled “How many atoms are in the observable universe?” The author, Harry Baker, presented a compelling case which takes into account the 13.8-billion-year age of the universe, the 300 million years before light existed, and how the...
Book Giveaway – How We Practice Therapy Now
Learn more as a member of The Science of Psychotherapy! Get access to hundreds of articles, videos, and a community of mental health professionals to help you understand the art and the science of psychotherapy.
Andrew Thomas talks about the Rainbow Map
Andrew Thomas (MBACP in the UK) has developed a tool he calls the Rainbow Map that is being used by therapists in many modalities for trauma and anxiety. Richard Hill meets Andrew and talks about the development and use of this rather useful therapeutic tool. To find...
Remember more by taking breaks
Longer breaks during learning lead to more stable activation patterns in the brain We remember things longer if we take breaks during learning, referred to as the spacing effect. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology gained deeper insight into the...
Giveaway – 101 Trauma-Informed Interventions
Learn more as a member of The Science of Psychotherapy! Get access to hundreds of articles, videos, and a community of mental health professionals to help you understand the art and the science of psychotherapy.
Brain Repair Discovery Could Lead to New Epilepsy Treatments
School of Medicine researchers have discovered a previously unknown repair process that takes place in the brain that they hope could be harnessed and enhanced to treat seizure-related brain injuries. Common seizure-preventing drugs do not work for approximately a...
Long COVID and Mental Health with Dr John Arden
Today we catch up with long-time contributor and friend Dr John Arden and talk about the long term mental health impacts of COVID-19. It was a long conversation so we give you a 30min segment here, but if you want to listen (and watch) the entire conversation please...
The Whole-Brain Child Book Giveaway
Contgrats Sue for winning this book! Learn more as a member of The Science of Psychotherapy! Get access to hundreds of articles, videos, and a community of mental health professionals to help you understand the art and the science of psychotherapy.
Dr Carl Erik Fisher talks addiction
Dr Carl Erik Fisher is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, where he teaches topics related to psychiatry, law, ethics, neuroscience, and society. He also has a private psychiatry practice, primarily focused on substance use problems...
What does the sleeping brain think about?
Thanks to a unique system that decodes brain activity during sleep, a UNIGE team is deciphering the neuronal mechanisms of memory consolidation. We sleep on average one third of our time. But what does the brain do during these long hours? Using an artificial...
Brain functional connectivity in Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, causes motor and phonic “tics,” or uncontrollable repeated behaviors and vocalizations. People affected by Tourette syndrome can often suppress these tics for some time before the urges become overwhelming, and...
Brain Mapping Method Illuminates Targets for Treating Neuropsychiatric Symptoms
Researchers have made significant advancements in correlating aberrations in specific brain circuits with neuropsychiatric conditions like depression. However, it remains difficult to prove that damage to these circuits causes the symptoms themselves and that...
The Brain Bible Giveaway
Congrats Seian from New South Wales for being our winner! Learn more as a member of The Science of Psychotherapy! Get access to hundreds of articles, videos, and a community of mental health professionals to help you understand the art and the...
Mythic Imagination Today with Terry Marks-Tarlow
Today we catch up with regular contributor to The Science of Psychotherapy, Dr Terry Marks-Tarlow, who talks to us today about her latest writing Mythic Imagination Today: The Interpenetration of Mythology and Science. For more about Dr Marks-Tarlow go to her website...
Memory making involves extensive DNA breaking
To quickly express genes needed for learning and memory, brain cells snap both strands of DNA in many more places and cell types than previously realized, a new study shows The urgency to remember a dangerous experience requires the brain to make a series of...
Impulsiveness tied to faster eating in children, can lead to obesity
Children who eat slower are less likely to be extroverted and impulsive, according to a new study co-led by the University at Buffalo and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The research, which sought to uncover the relationship between temperament and eating...
The Key Role of Astrocytes in Cognitive Development
Astrocytes are cells in the brain which have long been considered only as mere support cells for neurons. In recent years, the study of astrocytes has grown, gradually revealing their importance in brain function. Researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Collège de France at...
Scientists discover a new class of neurons for remembering faces
Scientists have long searched in vain for a class of brain cells that could explain the visceral flash of recognition that we feel when we see a very familiar face, like that of our grandmothers. But the proposed “grandmother neuron”—a single cell at the crossroads of...
Don’t count on caffeine to fight sleep deprivation
Rough night of sleep? Relying on caffeine to get you through the day isn’t always the answer, says a new study from Michigan State University. Researchers from MSU’s Sleep and Learning Lab, led by psychology associate professor Kimberly Fenn, assessed how effective...
The Gateway to Conscious Awareness
Researchers find out how some sensory information breaks through to conscious experience. During our waking hours, the brain is receiving a near-constant influx of sensory signals of various strengths. For decades, scientists have wondered why some signals rise to the...
The Science of Psychotherapy July 2021
As COVID-19 vaccines roll out around the globe there is a feeling that something about the way we have lived has ended and a new way of life is beginning. How many times in history has this been true for the whole world: that a single event has irrevocably changed the...
Evidence-based Patient-Psychotherapist Matching Improves Mental Health Care
In first-of-its kind research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst psychotherapy researcher, mental health care patients matched with therapists who had a strong track record of treating the patients’ primary concerns had better results than patients who were...
Bacteria are connected to how babies experience fear
New research from MSU shows that an infant’s gut microbiome could contain clues to help monitor and support healthy neurological development Why do some babies react to perceived danger more than others? According to new research from Michigan State University and the...
Feel-good hormone dopamine affects passion and autism
Dopamine is often called the “happy” or “feel-good” hormone. It can help explain both autistic behaviours and men’s need for passion in order to succeed. Men – more often than women – need passion to succeed at things. At the same time, boys are diagnosed as being on...