Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Great new blog on combating stress, depression and addiction is now online and accepting new readers!
‘Singing for the Brain‘ shows remarkable results in helping people with Alzheimer’s communicate by using song.
Makes for a great story but probably best taken with a pinch of salt: Naked statue triggers mental imbalance, supposedly.
Emotional deprivation and neglect in childhood has long lasting effects on neurohormones. The Guardian also has the story.
Therapy for anxiety disorders can be successfully conducted over email.
People with mild symptoms of depression are better at perceiving details of their social environment than those who are not depressed.
Brain imaging study show ‘first ever’ images of stress in the brain.
People best able to filter out irrelevant information are better at remembering.
Relatives of people diagnosed with autism show similarities in brain structure and behaviour.
Tom Cruise’s on-air anti-psychiatry tirade recreated by talking aliens (via BoingBoing).
Mind Hacks 
The art overdose story sounds very like a story you had some time ago of people being overcome when visiting sites of great religious significance, doesn’t it?
i love the david mental imbalance story.
DID YOU KNOW: if you walk around behind the david statue in the cast hall at the V&A, you’ll find a *little* fig leaf that they used to employ when sharing david to nice little ladies. to save them from mental imbalance no doubt.
Hi Mollydot,
I think the similarities between ‘Jerusalem syndrome’ and the story you are allude to are well made.
In fact, both have been described in the literature by quite similar criteria. Look at ‘Jerusalem syndrome’ and ‘Stendhal syndrome’ on wikipedia.
It is not clear whether these categories are clinically useful at all, or whether they are just interesting names for novel, yet rare occurences.
‘Airport psychosis’ is another example in this category. More information here:
http://tinyurl.com/bakyr