In this article, I will tell you guys about my clinical experience in an extotic and remarkable country. In November 2018, I completed a four-week Mental Health Foundation Placement in Sri Lanka, as a volunteer for the organisation SLV.Global. When I decided to join this placement, I was extremely interested in the culture of this … More Volunteering in Sri Lanka
My final year undergraduate project focusing on attention capture by an emotionally-charged olfactory stimulus, in mice, which is currently ongoing. Once it is completed, this research is aimed for publication, but for now, here is the link to its pre-print version available on BioRxiv.
While most of us would be able to describe what being affectively close to someone feels like, we might find it harder to explain why and how such a connection forms. Why do we love and what makes us love certain people? Why is love so different depending on the subject of our affection? Is … More Oxytocin and Social Bonding
What is fear? Why are we sometimes afraid? Can fear be inhibited? What produces fear – the brain or the heart? It is definitely the brain! More exactly, something in the brain – a tiny, almond-shaped structure, which sits anteriorly to the hippocampus, called the amygdala. This small part of our brain is to blame for … More Fear and the amygdala
If you were to answer the question “What differentiates humans from other organisms on Earth?”, you would probably list a number of things, including the ability of humans to make “free choices” dictated by their consciousness, rather than by something organic. Am I right? What if someone told you that this is not actually the … More Consciousness – Who decides, you or your brain?
I’m warning you, this is going to be a long one! But it’s interesting, I promise. There is a lot of confusion and mixed opinions when it comes to depression. Some people use the term inappropriately, to describe what is in fact grief (the feeling of sadness that humans, and presumably other animals, experience after … More Depression and why some of us are SAD
About a year ago, I posted an article entitled Autism, which was meant to be more of an introduction into autistic spectrum disorders. Since then, I’ve been meaning to come back to this topic and provide more details about the mechanisms leading to autism, but I knew I need to do some proper research, which … More Decoding autism
Sleep is a fascinating process that allows most of the creatures on Earth to function at their normal capacity and survive the environmental challenges. Recent theories support the idea that one of the main functions of sleep is not energy conservation or tissue restoration, as previously thought, but actually, enhancement of brain function. Sleep appears … More Even flies sleep and learn
In a previous article, we talked a bit about narcolepsy as one of the very intriguing sleep disorders. It was perhaps easy to understand why people suffering from narcolepsy could have a pretty hard time performing several normal tasks; however, most of us would probably relate less to narcolepsy. But something which almost everyone can … More Why “sleep”?
I remember when I was a small child and my mum or my uncle would take me out to one of my hometown’s parks or to the shopping centre. For some reason, I so often experienced an unexplainable fear and even dizziness and the terror that I might faint. I also had the feeling I couldn’t walk … More Don’t be anxious about anxiety!
