Category: Neuroscience/Mental Health
Brain Wave Pseudoscience
iSynchrony has put together a plausible-sounding bit of bafflegab to justify what it sells. The reality of neurology is against their claims.
Another ADHD Denier
John Rosemond, a self-help columnist, denies the science of ADHD with the usual invalid and outdated arguments.
The ADHD Controversy
ADHD was already a controversial diagnosis; are Jerome Kagan's recent criticisms of it warranted?
Daniel and Tana Amen’s Book The Brain Warrior’s Way: Standard Health Advice Mixed with Misinformation and Fanciful Ideas
Daniel Amen, the media-savvy psychiatrist and promoter of SPECT scans, has teamed-up with his wife Tana to write a self-help book that hopelessly muddles good medical advice with misinformation and speculation.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. promotes an awful epidemiology study linking vaccines and neurological conditions from…Yale?
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has never seen a lousy study linking vaccines to bad things that he didn't like. This is no exception. Oddly enough, this study was funded and carried out by a lawyer and an investment banker, with the help of an eminent Yale pediatrician. Of course, the study doesn't show what RFK Jr. thinks it shows.
Communicating with the Locked In (update)
Researchers have made an incremental advance in using imaging and computers to communicate with patients who are completely locked-in. Let's review the state of this technology.
The Medical Director of The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute spewed antivaccine misinformation last week. Why is anyone surprised?
A social media firestorm erupted over the weekend after Dr. Daniel Neides, Director of The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, posted an article full of antivaccine misinformation. The Cleveland Clinic promptly disavowed it, but shouldn't have been surprised that one of its "integrative medicine" leaders is antivaccine. If you "integrate" medicine that teaches that "toxins" cause disease and "detoxification" is the cure, antivaccine...
BrainPlus IQ: Lying with Advertising
I got an email urging me to check out a wonderful new product that boosts brain performance: it “doubles IQ, skyrockets energy levels, and connects areas of the brain not previously connected.” It is BrainPlus IQ, a dietary supplement that falls into the category of nootropics, substances that enhance cognition and memory. After looking into it, my first thought was that if...
Declining Dementia
Dementia is a significant health burden of increasing significance as our population ages. Worldwide the prevalence of dementia is 5-7% in people 60 years and older, with risk doubling every 5 years after age 60. About 5.4 million Americans are living with dementia. Dementia is a general category referring to a chronic decline in overall cognitive function. The most common cause of...
A New Collaborative in Neuroscience
A recent comment in the journal Nature makes a bold proposal – to form a true multi-lab cooperative to perform collective research into the deep questions of neuroscience. There are two aspects of this proposal that are extremely interesting: the potential to make significant progress in answering the biggest questions in neuroscience, and the collaborative approach to research being proposed. How does...