Dinishak.com MindBlog

All things between psychology and technology

May 8th, 2012

authenticity vs verisimilitude

May 6th, 2012

For some inexplicable reason, Endnote for PC does not like to play well with MicroSoft Word. Discussions with others have led me to believe this is a long standing issue.

What happens is that after inserting references, Endnote will mess up the citations even though it is set to conform to APA formatting. For example, as I am finishing editing my dissertation, I notice that many references will have the author’s first name spelled out (e.g., Steve Smith, 2000 instead of Smith, 2000). The problem arises when one tries to hand edit these mistakes that Endnote creates; Word will update the fields in your file and all the screwed up reference fields will go back to normal when you open up Endnote and your Word File. This can be quite annoying.

So, once you are done editing your work and have no more use of Endnote, you can prevent those references from updating (i.e. you are breaking the link with Endnote) by doing the following in Word:

1. Open your file in Word.
2. Select all the text (CTRL-A)
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+F9

April 29th, 2012

Most humans have a clearly dominant hand (usually the right one). What is the lowest form of life that shows such a preference or dominance? Why are most people right-handed?

Birds, which have neuronal populations in the left hemisphere that regulate their song production, are the lowest phylum with a convincing laterality or dominance. The reason for dominance—-its evolutionary or survival advantage—-is unknown.

There are many theories to account for the existence of dominance, but none of them really makes much sense.

March 1st, 2012

2012 AGS Updated Beers Criteria was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society today. Here is the link to that.

The Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication (PIM) Use in Older Adults is one of the most frequently consulted sources of information about the safe prescribing of medications for older adults and is used widely in geriatrics clinical care, training, and research.

For a neuropsychologist, it’s a good idea to check medication interactions and to become aware of potential cognitive side-effects of medication. Multiple drug usage is common in all developed countries. In the U.S., polypharmacy is found in 40% of those older than 65 years. An example of the importance of multiple medications can be seen with drugs that have anticholinergic effects; when more than one drug is taken that has this effect, side effects can include an increase in the patients’ total anticholinergic burden as evidenced by clinical signs such as dry mouth, sedation, confusion and even hallucinations and delirium

February 2nd, 2012

The human eye has 125 million rods, each one containing 1000 folds in its photoreceptor
membrane, with each fold containing 1 million molecules of photoceptor. This extraordinary
light-sensing array can detect one single photon, which is 10 to the (-11 power) watts
(which is 0.00000000001 watts Wow!).

December 7th, 2011

Today in brain cutting didactic we saw a patient who had a massive infarct. It got me thinking about why a stroke is called a stroke.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sudden, inexplicable cerebrovascular accident was first likened to a “stroke of God’s hand” in 1599. The relationship of a cerebral infarction to an act of God exists in other cultures as well: the Greek verb plesso means to “stroke, hit, or beat,” and the derivative plegia gives us our term hemiplegia.
Dirckx JH: Stroke. Stroke 17:559, 1986.

November 16th, 2011

The first description of a neurologic disease appears in the Smith papyrus, which is the oldest known medical text. This ancient papyrus, translated by Edward Smith, consists of a number of “case reports” of different diseases, presented and discussed by an unknown Egyptian author, written about 3300 BC. One of the cases is a person with a traumatic head injury, which is the earliest known description of a neurologic problem.

November 16th, 2011

Doing some reading and I came across a list of people who probably had AD:

1. Ronald Reagan—U.S. president
2. Charlton Heston—actor
3. Rita Hayworth—actress
4. Immanuel Kant—philosopher
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson—writer
6. Maurice Ravel—composer
7. John James Audubon—painter

March 12th, 2011

It is usually considered that the sense of smell is poorly developed in humans, in comparison, for example, to lower vertebrates, such as rats and mice. However, in view of its evolutionary significance, it seems very unlikely that the sense of smell is trivial in guiding human behavior.

The fragility of the fibers in the olfactory mucosa of the nose, their delicate passage through the cribriform plate, and the course of the olfactory tract along the orbital surface of the brain underly the vulnerability of this sensory modality to external trauma—for example, from head injury. This is compounded by the locations of structures receiving the central representations of smell, such as, for example, the primary olfactory cortex and olfactory tubercle, which lie vulnerable on the undersurface of the brain overlying the anterior perforated space.

Smell sensations may occur as part of an aura in temporal lobe epilepsy. Traditionally referred to as uncinate seizures (simple partial seizures in today’s terminology), the seizure focus was thought to be in the uncus, overlying the amygdala. However, olfactory inputs also end in the anterior insula, which thus may be associated with the experience. These aurae therefore have some localizing value, but they are not of lateralizing significance.

The olfactory system is involved in several neuropsychiatric disorders. In depression, for example, the sense of smell can be diminished, as may be other sensory modalities, such as taste or touch. Diminished smell sensation also has been reported in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, especially the Lewy body variant but not sufficiently reliably to be used in any diagnostic way (Hawkes, 2003). Diminished smell also may be observed early in the course of schizophrenia and may be associated with smaller perirhinal cortices as measured with MRI (Turetsky et al., 2003). Thus, disturbances of smell in such disorders may be associated with underlying neuroanatomical deficits, rather than being simply a manifestation of a psychosis or deteriorating intellect.

March 12th, 2011

Stories of interest for March 11th

March 9th, 2011

Stories of interest for March 8th

March 8th, 2011

Stories of interest for March 7th

March 5th, 2011

Stories of interest for March 4th

February 21st, 2011

Stories of interest for February 20th

February 19th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 18th

February 15th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 14th

February 14th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 13th

February 7th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 5th through February 6th:

February 6th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 5th

February 5th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 4th

February 4th, 2011

Stories of interest for February 3rd

January 28th, 2011

Stories of interest for January 27th

December 8th, 2010

Stories of interest for December 7th

December 4th, 2010

Stories of interest for December 2nd through December 3rd:

December 3rd, 2010

Stories of interest for December 2nd