Placebo Effect & Brain Function ?
Q.Placebo Effect & Brain Function ?
A.Study shows short-term changes in brain activity in patients who have positive responses to placebos. The article didn't say if they knew whether these 'brain wave' changes (via the quantitative electroencephalography) are 'normally' due to the anti-depressant medications being in the person's system; or if they believe that the 'brain wave' changes are simply due to the cessation of the person's clinical depression (for whatever reason). In other words, If someone came out of a serious depression: wouldn't it be reasonable to expect these similar 'brain wave' changes, even if a different method was used to relieve the depression? (i.e. other non-evasive methods) Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain. This theory emerged from those mouse studies at the Salk Institute. After conducting maze tests, the neuroscientist Fred H. Gage and his colleagues examined brain samples from the mice. Conventional wisdom had long held that animal (and human) brains werenąt malleable: after a brief window early in life, the brain could no longer grow or renew itself. The supply of neurons ‹ the brain cells that enable us to think ‹ was believed to be fixed almost from birth. As the cells died through aging, mental function declined. The damage couldnąt be staved off or repaired.
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