What may PET scans reveal beyond what we know
 

Tue., June 29, 2010 4:33am (EDT)
GPB News

A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret
By Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Updated: 1 week ago

The criminal brain has always held a fascination for James Fallon. For nearly 20 years, the neuroscientist at the University of California-Irvine has studied the brains of psychopaths. He studies the biological basis for behavior, and one of his specialties is to try to figure out how a killer's brain differs from yours and mine. ..........

to read more please go to
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=127888976

[Copyright 2010 National Public Radio]

The mean streak in all of us
 

Sheryl
This is very interesting and helps us understand why there is a black sheep in every family. I believe it is the cause of sweet little school teachers who go on wild streaks and pose nude and send pics to their students, or the reason that the local minister runs off with the town's lady wearing the scarlet letter. It can help us understand the church secretary who embezzles thousands from her own church, and the list goeso on nanda on. By nature I think everyone has a mean streak in us - we just suppress it because of our upbringing or fear that we will be caught.

This would be a wonderful project for 23andme.com to take on. They are in the business of finding genes or mutations that MAY leadl to various illnesses, and with a few surveys, I bet they c ould come up with some interesting connections.

So why are PWP more susceptible to such behaviors (and we are)? Because we are stirring all sorts of mind-altering chemicals into our already oversaturated brains. I brought up this at a meeting at NIH last week. Is any researcher out there measuring both mood and movement simultaneously? If not, we aren't getting a true measure of the treatment's effacy. As I told them, we will never find a cure until we do parallel assessments of both behavior and motor ability.

Again, I must toot the horn of Laura Marsh who knows and has spread the non-motor news everywhere she speaks. But is anybody listening? Apparently noot very well.

Let Sheryl and me hear your comments, and thanks for posting this.
Peggy

validation for role of triggers
 

Peg, what I found particularly interesting was that his findings (below) give further validity to the idea that 'triggers" -- be they environmental, emotional, etc. -- are the defining factors in who develops PD even with all the same genetic predictors. Should we be looking hard down this road as well? How many triggers might there be?

"... evidence is accumulating that some people's brains predispose them toward violence and that psychopathic tendencies may be passed down from one generation to another.


He once believed that genes and brain function could determine everything about us. But now he thinks his childhood may have made all the difference.

"We'll never know, but the way these patterns are looking in general population, had I been abused, we might not be sitting here today," he says.

triggers? Hmmmm
 

Yep, this puzzle seems to be fitting together. It is rarely that a newly diagnosed PWP hasn't had some traumatic event or stressful situation prior to PD onset. I also see career connections - lots of teachers (stress) and pilots (fuel fumes?).

You know, Sergey Brin (Google) may be onto something after all. Guess we'll know about the time I am being admitted to long-term care.
Peg

friends don't let friends go quietly into the night
 

Peg, we all have bad days (some more than others), but we have not fought this long and hard to give up now. We've come full circle with GDNF after years of battling and pleading, and our insight and experience should be valued this time around. Our work is not done.

We're going to Mike's dance together... some of us crawling, others being dragged or carried, but we ARE GOING. We will live to see and benefit from the cure. That, my friend, we must believe.

Thank you, Chemar.