Brilliant Brain-Related Art

The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art. They even have wood-carved brains. And no, this is not an April Fool's joke.

An Effect of Birth Order on IQ

Over my undergrad and graduate career, I've read a lot about intelligence. It's overall a very controversial topic in psychology. A new Norwegian study published in the journal Science quite convincingly demonstrates that older siblings (in the case of this study, they looked at 241, 310 men) will have a slightly higher IQ than their younger siblings. What is fascinating is that it is not so much the effect of being the first born as the effect of being the eldest in the family, because this effect was also found in boys whose oldest sibling had died during childhood and now found themselves the oldest of the family. A companion article by a psychologist at Berkeley outlines plausible reasons for this effect. The most likely theory is that oldest children find themselves in roles of tutoring youngest children and sharing knowledge and that this role benefits more the oldest child than the youngest. Anyway, there are many more fascinating intricacies to it all, but I thought this was so interesting.

Oh, Wednesday, You're Right In The Middle

Well, it looks like I am back to blogging more regularly. Apparently, I have things to say. Who knew?

Last night, after work, I attended a seminar/networking opportunity. It discussed the long-term cognitive effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy in children who have had leukemia and brain tumours. It was very interesting stuff, given I know very little about child neuropsychology. I work at the other end of the age spectrum.

But, anyway, it made for a long day yesterday, and then I had 2 talks to attend from 8:00 to 9:00 and 9:15 to 10:15 this morning. Plus, I had two severely depressed clients to see this afternoon, which is tough because they're both in a really distressed state. All clients I see for therapy are having clinical depression and/or anxiety, but some of the other ones are not in such a dark place. As much as I am able to have leave that stuff in the office at the end of the day, it is somewhat draining at the moment when you're in the situation. Plus, I am still green, so I sometimes feel like I should be doing something more than what I am doing or that I'm going about therapy all wrong. However, as I have discovered from reading about cognitive-behavioural therapy, I have issues with wanting to do everything perfectly the first time around or else I want to quit, which is not a realistic or adaptive way of approaching things in life because a) it makes me sad and b) it makes me anxious. Instead of thinking "I can't do anything right and I am useless", I need to assess that thought realistically and correct it by saying, "I am human and I am not always going to do things perfectly, especially as I am learning. Even if I don't do it perfectly, it also doesn't have to mean I am doing everything wrong. My clients keep coming back so I am probably doing something right." Once you've been able to reassessed that thought in a realistic fashion, it decreases the amount of negative emotions. They're pretty powerful tools, those CBT techniques.

Work Fun on Friday Night

The department where I work at the hospital empties quickly between 5-6 pm, but none so more than Fridays. I was probably the only person left at 5, especially considering it is a 3-day weekend! It is Yom Kippur on Monday and since this is a Jewish hospital, we have the day off. Plus, Sabbath starts Friday at sunset so we are supposed to be leave before then, but since I am not Jewish, I am staying behind to get more work done, but laying low, of course. I have a couple of reports to write and I need access to the files so I need to stay here. I got myself a Starbucks latte, and it is nice and quiet. I have an office that I adore with big windows. Seriously, I couldn't be happier these days even if work is kicking my butt but good.

Oh, dorky me got all excited because I finally got some books I had ordered ages ago from Amazon. One of them is called Geriatric Neuropsychology, and I can't wait to read it. It looks like it will be so helpful. I also got the new edition of one of my work bibles called A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests. It was like Christmas in September. Oh, and I had also ordered a DVD of a small movie called Lollilove because I am on an everything-Office-related kick and can't help myself when someone dangles a dark comedy in my face. ;) So that is what I will be watching tonight.

Speaking of The Office, they were killing me with the angst this week. It is funny, funny angst, but still... Too many sad/brokenhearted faces. I'll have to come back later to let that all out.

Back to work for me! :)

Favourite Things

Just because it is nice to post positive things once in a while.

My top 35 favourite things:
1. My family
2. Caffe latte
3. My cat Portia
4. Cooking for a whole afternoon
5. Montreal
6. Getting a call from a good friend
7. High speed Internet
8. Falling asleep on the couch
9. Cinnamon buns
10. Reruns of 80s and 90s sitcoms
11. Bookstores
12. My goddaughter
13. Walking randomly around the city
14. Crossword puzzles
15. Spending time talking with patients
16. My iPod
17. Monty Python and The Holy Grail
18. TV series on DVD
19. The first snow
20. Red wine
21. Pride & Prejudice (the book)
22. Shopping for kitchenware
23. Nail polish
24. The sound of rain falling
25. The Office
26. Dictionaries
27. Singing while driving
28. Post-Its
29. The human brain
30. Oregano
31. Green pens
32. Purses
33. Lemon-flavoured anything
34. Pyjamas
35. Making lists!

Brain Matters

My friend Donna sent me a song about the brain. It had me laughing so much. I wanted to share my geekdom on this blog...



I also discovered a blog about neuropsychological matters. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one here. Hee. The blog even talks about the psychology of the Internet. I think I need to investigate this further because that is a topic I find fascinating. :)

IQ Is Related To Development of Prefrontal Cortex

This is the kind of news that gets me all excited! Using neuroimaging, researchers were able to observe that the development of the cortex (the outer layer of the cortex, and the seat of a lot of important cognitive functions) appeared to differ in its rate of maturation in children with different IQs. Very smart children have a comparatively thinner cortex around the age 7 but it peaks later in terms of thickness (aka number of neurons). It peaks at age 11 or 12 whereas brains in children of average intelligence peaks around age 8 in terms of thickness. It's as if the brain of children of superior intelligence is more efficient in its construction, and in determining what is necessary or not and pruning itself down. Fascinating. The brain is one fascinating organ. :)

Wheeeee...

I got an email today that seems to indicate I'll get the internship in Toronto that I wanted. I'll get the confirmation on Monday but it looks like I'm in. I'm so excited! :)

If Everything Were Easy...

life would be boring. I must remind myself of that; otherwise, I'd go crazy sometimes. All my dissertation stuff is stressing me out tremendously. I don't really feel like discussing the particulars, which are not interesting anyway, but let's just say, I have a big ball of stress in my stomach today. Thank God for the relaxing weekend I had; it makes all of this easier to bear.

Some days, I wonder if my head will explode from the stress. You know, like cartoons where a cranium explodes and sends bits and pieces everywhere. LOL

I'm at my old practicum today testing a patient I had previously seen for a follow-up. It was not an overly stressful day but just the weight of everything on my metaphorical plate is enough to send me running for the hills... Anyway, I need to go take a walk in the halls, and get myself a cup of coffee. That always makes the day seem a little better. :)