The Wall Street Journal reports on how Emory University scientists studying teenagers listening to new music have discovered tell-tale brain responses that could help predict a song’s commercial success.

The new finding offers an insight into the hit-making machinery of the adolescent brain, by documenting involuntary neural reactions to pop music. At the level of cells and synapses, teen-age brains simply find some songs more rewarding to hear, even when the listeners say they don’t like the tunes on questionnaires and surveys, the scientists said. So far, no one knows why.

“The punch line is that brain responses correlated with units sold,” said neuro-economist Gregory Berns at Emory’s Center for Neuropolicy, who conducted the study with Emory neuroscientist Sara Moore. That makes these neural cells in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens, normally involved in reward, pleasure, and anticipation, an effective focus group. “It is far from being a hit predictor, but it was statistically significant.” Curious? Continue reading

Source: Wall Street Journal

A new screening tool could help primary care physicians manage their depressed patients by evaluating how much an individual’s condition has improved, according to new research by the developers of the test.

The study authors recommend that primary care physicians use the new Remission Evaluation and Mood Inventory Tool in conjunction with the widely administered nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire.

he PHQ-9 was developed by physicians who received a grant from Pfizer Inc. The questionnaire helps doctors diagnose depression in patients who might be presenting symptoms and select the appropriate treatment by gauging the extent of an individual’s depression. For example, the PHQ-9 asks a patient how often in the last two weeks he or she has felt down, depressed or hopeless.

PHQ-9 measures improvement in symptoms by evaluating if patients are showing fewer of them, with less severity. REMIT is designed to measure positive aspects of a depressed patients’ recovery, with questions about whether patients are feeling happy or in control. The research for this tool was partially supported by a grant from Eli Lilly & Co. Curious? Continue reading

Source: amednew

Every now and again, a women’s book comes along that promises to change our thinking forever. In the Sixties it was Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl; in the early Seventies,Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch hit the spot, and later on, Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room got us all talking about why we put up with bad treatment from men. Now it is the turn of Jill Shaw Ruddock to shake us all up and ask new questions about our lives.

Her book, The Second Half of Your Life.is about the menopause and after. At this point, you may yawn and say: oh no, not again. Haven’t there been a million books about the menopause and growing old gracefully (or disgracefully)? Why should I clutter up my shelves with yet one more? Well, you should certainly read this one. Because in common with all the best life-changing books, the author’s startling message transmits itself from the page with a kind of electricity. Read the article (PDF, 140kb)

Source: The Second Half of Your Life. The Lady (Feb 2011 Issue)