Disease can be seen as the antechamber of death.
Are there reliable tests for predicting disease? The short answer is: not for Alzheimer’s or other common diseases. Tests do exist for some specific diseases, most with known familial predispositions, such as Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, Duchenne’s dystrophy and many more.
When you drive a car, you have to execute several actions at the same time, and also pay attention to traffic. For this to take place, most of your actions are performed automatically. These are laid down in a separate memory in a specific part of the brain: the corpus striatum.
I do not foresee any new medicines for psychiatry coming any day soon.
Everybody wants fast acting psychotropics, but that is not possible for most psychiatric disorders.
But integration of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy can be extremely rewarding.
Our brain controls everything we do and think and what happens in our body. Who directs these complicated brains? “I” do? No, there is no central power or police force, no editor, prime minister or CEO, no leader. The brain controls all without a director.
The basis for most of the severe mental disorders is in your genes and the early development of the brain. But we will not be able to find THE cause of these disorders. Why not?
Successful musicians put in hours of practice from an early age. But is all that practice really necessary? Is talent alone – with a bit of practice – not enough? How does the brain change with practice, and can you create a genius?
Monozygoicic twins share the same genes, but are not exact replicas of each other. How can this be? A result of what they – separately – have experienced? Or is it chance? How then?
Are you sure you see the reality out there? That is the question. The brain does not receive an image like a camera does. The brain is not a passive processor. What you see is constructed in the brain. How do you see with your brain?
Oxytocin in the media: the cuddle hormone or love hormone. But how can a hormone bring about cuddling, induce love, happiness or maternal attachment and social interactions? And does it really do all that?
Free runner Philip van Ees intuitively knows exactly how to jump to master all the obstacles in his way. How does he do this?
