Tag Archives: neuron

Your brain is messing with your mind, or is it the other way around?

Cloudy Media, Medical Musings, Scientific Pondering, TV & Movies,

dress-color-illusionSo, we’ve all seen this stupid dress.  It’s beaten us over the head with the white & gold or blue & black debate that I won’t belabor anymore now, we’re over it.  But the truth is, this was a great optical illusion, probably the best I’ve ever encountered.  Unlike all of the colored circles and squares, lines and zig zags that make up most of the illusions out there, this is a dress.  It’s something that someone could wear out on the town.  How often have you turned to a girlfriend and remarked, “wow, I really love that white & gold dress,” just to be rebuffed, “thanks, but it’s black & blue”? Could we really interpret colors differently out in the real world?

 

 

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How to thaw your brain

Medical Musings, ,
Courtesy of derek@
Courtesy of derek@abnormalbrain.com

Yesterday in the hot, hot sun, I sucked down a mango smoothie.  Immediately I stopped in my tracks, squinted my eyes, and put my hand to the pain in my forehead as I regretted my choice of beverage. In the July/August 2015 issue of Men’s Health, Dr. Jorge Serrador explains how cold beverages and foods cause this rapid-onset headache more widely known as “brain freeze”.

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MY Age of Anxiety (and a bit of Scott Stossel’s too)

Books, Medical Musings, , , ,

On June 23, 2014 at the age of 33, I had my first panic attack.  It was, without a doubt, the most terrifying day of my life.

stosselIn his new book, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, hope, dread, and the search for peace of mind, Scott Stossel examines the history of anxiety disorders.  This account of anxiety and panic disorders in America is a welcomed departure from the mind vs body debates of similar literature.  And Stossel uses his memoir to “come out” as a successful author, editor, father, and husband who just happens to suffer from social anxiety and a host of various phobias.  I appreciate the courage that it took for Stossel to publish this book and praise his ability to discuss anxiety, not as a weakness, but as an illness much like diabetes or cancer.

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