Psychopaths, Touch & Sleep!

We love to promote brain awareness in classrooms and public venues all year long, but a definite highlight is  the extraordinary lecture series organized by the OHSU Brain Institute during Brain Awareness Season! Our outreach volunteers look forward to hearing from experts invited by OHSU, and presenting brains and brain-related art to lecture attendees……

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Touched in the head

Touch is just one of Aristotle’s original “five senses,” but it involves much more than gentle pressure perceived when holding an apple, or tapping a screen.  Our “somatosensation” (sensation from the body) encompasses many specific impressions  –  heat, cold, hair deflection, poke  –  each dependent on a specific neuronal “micro-machine.”  It is also utterly…

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Psychopathy & brains

What is a psychopath?  What drives a Ted Bundy, or a Diane Downs, to be so cold blooded  –  and to lie, manipulate, and commit horrific crimes without experiencing remorse?  Do the brains of psychopaths differ?  Can we identify changes in specific brain regions that might predict or diagnose this condition?  How should efforts to understand the biological basis…

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