20 items | 3 visits
Juliet Gore's List: Science and research stuff
-
Dec 16, 09
sense of touch in womens fingers
-
-
-
-
Jan 20, 10
"
Have you ever felt the touch of someone’s hand on your shoulder and found yourself letting go of tension you didn’t even know you were holding? We can probably all remember the impact a touch has had on us, whether casually or in a therapeutic setting. As practitioners, we have daily experiences of the effects of touch on our clients. Current research in neuroscience is looking directly at the brain’s response to touch. Lucy Brown, a neuroscientist interested in studying alternative therapies, presented recent findings at a talk at Harvard Medical School. What follows is primarily my summary of her talk with a few comments from the point of view of a practitioner.
Functional MRI
Current research tracks the impact of touch on the brain with functional MRI (fMRI). FMRI can detect activity in different brain areas by measuring the increase in blood flow that is correlated with an increase in neuronal activity. While this research is still in its infancy, it holds some promise for elucidating what we intuit from our experience as practitioners and recipients of therapies based on touch. The studies are part of a new trend: to look for integration of response rather than investigating each part/function separately. The fMRI studies show that touch has a wide impact on the brain, influencing our sensations, our movements, our thought processes and our capacity to learn new movements. " -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
May 20, 10
"A team of German researchers have developed a technique for transforming support cells in the brain called astroglia into functioning neurons, according to a study published yesterday in the Public Library of Science Biology.
Scientists hope the findings help lead to new therapies that use existing cells to repair damage to the brain or spinal cord caused by stroke, injury, or neurodegenerative disease."
1 - 20 of 20
20 items/page
List Comments
(0)
List Info