Last Wednesday I received a phone call from Portia Larlee, from CKUT radio 90.3 FM who asked if I could to do a phone interview on the subject of creativity and mental health. The questions provided however had more to do with art therapy and my work here at the Douglas. I prepared my answers [...]

Neuroscience is uniquely suited to investigate the biological underpinnings of the features and traits that make us human. These include morality, complex emotions and higher-order cognition. However, as we continually learn more about our behaviour and its origins, one unavoidable and startling possibility is frequently made clear; many quintessentially 'human' characteristics may not be unique to ourselves.

(or, “Where your iPod really came from”) There’s this odd thought I get on a semi-regular basis; let’s say a few times per month. Here’s the gist: I’m walking down a busy street, such as Montreal’s Ste. Catherine Street, on a busy afternoon. I abruptly become aware that there are roughly a hundred thousand or so visible objects in my immediate surroundings; gold watches, sweater zippers, cell phones, noserings, Toyotas, handbags, bricks, iPods, and the like. That’s not the weird part, though...

The now-infamous hit by Zdeno Chara on Max Pacioretty resulted in a serious concussion, as well as a fractured C4 vertebra. Amid the controversy regarding the hit and whether further disciplinary action should be brought against Chara, the incident brings the seriousness of concussion injuries back into the public eye.

I recently saw the Douglas’ new ad campaign, ‘Brains need love too’ (check out the video here). The video is extremely open-ended, with the actual message of the campaign open to the interpretation of the viewer, at least until they visit the campaign’s web site. Here are the interpretations I took away from it.

A recent editorial by Dr. Royce Murray, editor of the journal Analytical Chemistry, has garnered significant attention in its attacks on informal dissemination of scientific information to the general public. Given the topics I've written about previously, I thought it merited a response here.

The recent discovery that the human brain produces new neurons throughout life has led us to re-evaluate how we think about our brains and their plasticity, as well as examine potential new targets for psychiatric treatment.

An essential but often neglected aspect of science is the effective communication of scientific findings and principles to a general audience.

This week is Brain Awareness Week, which includes a series of events undertaken by personnel at the Douglas and elsewhere to educate the public about the brain, and in honor of the occasion I thought I'd try to bring some brain awareness to these articles by dispelling some of the more common or insidious myths about the brain.

There’s nothing particularly new about the New Year from a biological perspective. We have mechanisms inside cells that keep time on a day-to-day basis, but certainly nothing to keep track of the rhythm of the year. Our livers may have felt the consequences of celebrating the passage of 2009, but our DNA hardly records the [...]