Lifeboat Foundation

People with depression also tend to “visit primary care physicians more often than others,” explains Prof. Lorenzo-Luaces. “They have more medical problems, and their depression sometimes gets in the way of their taking their medication for other medical problems.”

So, for the new review, the team examined 21 existing studies using meta-regression analysis. The analysis concluded that CBT apps were effective for treating mild, moderate, and severe depression.

Some of the trials included in the review compared a CBT app with a sham app. In these studies, the real apps were also significantly more effective at treating depression.

Continue reading “Internet-based CBT effective for treating severe depression” »

The human brain needs to suppress obvious ideas in order to reach the most creative ones, according to scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Goldsmiths, University of London.

Creativity requires us to break away from more common and easily reached ideas but we know little about how this happens in our brain.

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that brainwaves play a crucial role in inhibiting habitual thinking modes to pave the way to access more remote ideas.

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When we die, our energy is redistributed throughout the universe according to the law of conservation of energy. While this should not be confused with our consciousness living forever, our energy continuing after we’re gone could make death a less scary prospect.

Past experience matters too. For example, if the last time a person felt a twinge in their lower back it developed into sciatica, with significant pain that took months of therapy to come right, the next time they experience a twinge in their back the person is likely to experience more anxiety and pain. Pain, you see, isn’t an input to the body, rather pain is an output of the brain’s threat detection system.

Another major factor is a person’s current state of mind. They may rate a noxious stimulus differently from day to day, or even within a day. Indeed, from your own experiences, you might appreciate that pain associated with an injury isn’t constant throughout the day.

There’s also significant variation in pain sensitivity and tolerance between people.

Continue reading “Unpacking pain: what causes it and why it’s hard to measure” »

Some patients were even able to indicate that they were happy.

A brain-computer interface records “yes” and “no” answers in patients who lack any voluntary muscle movement.

Take this NASA IQ test and see if you’ve got the brains to be an astronaut.

Whether we will ever find a way to overcome the physiological trade offs that hold back immortality, or whether we will really be able to replicate human consciousness in a computer are questions too difficult for us yet to answer. But are those leading the charge against death at least inspiring us to lead healthy lives, or are they simply rallying against an inevitable fate?

Long read: How nature is fighting our attempts to use biohacking to live forever.

The seeds of Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted through medical procedures, scientists have found, leading experts to call for the monitoring of blood transfusions from the elderly and those with a family history of dementia.

In 2015, researchers at University College London discovered that people who developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) following treatments with human growth hormone also showed signs of Alzheimer’s in their brains after death.

The scientists tracked down vials of the same hormone and found that it did indeed contain misfolded amyloid-beta proteins, capable of setting off the deadly chain reaction which can lead to dementia.

Continue reading “Alzheimer’s could be triggered by medical procedures, study suggests” »

New test proposal… Do you experience stress, entropy, decoherence? Yes? Ofcourse you do. Well, I declare you self- aware 😁🙈.

A report that a fish can pass the “mirror test” for self-awareness reignites debates about how to define and measure that elusive quality.