Research into the role of the brain in chronic pain
Scientific conferences usually have a poster section which provide a rich and condensed source of some of the research that is currently being done around the globe. The International Association for the Study of Pain congress in Milan had a huge array, hundreds of new posters every day, ranging from sleep disorders to the genetic determinants … [Read more...]
Ever put down a copy of Explain Pain, or some other highly valuable text, and asked 'So how do I integrate all this stuff when I assess a patient and plan treatment?' You might have felt exasperated after reading yet another article on pain mechanisms, or central sensitisation, or cortical reorganisation, and said to yourself 'yes but how do I … [Read more...]
I think my 7 year old son knew that if he used this phrase enough it would eventually sneak into a blog post. Well congratulations Lord Adorable SqueakyPants, it has! It has made it in because we are pretty excited that a project we have been working on for some time is almost done - it is at the printing press as we speak. The Graded Motor … [Read more...]
The University of South Australia runs these public lectures called the Knowledge Works series. The community here seems to enjoy these lectures and it is, in my view, a terrific thing for the Uni to be doing. What is more, I love the opportunity to get a look at a big room, chock-a-block full with bonafide, card-carrying, members of the … [Read more...]
In reviewing 2010 for BiM, we wanted to gather together in one place the gems and nuggets that have been written in the last year.A big big THANK YOU to the 40 writers who have taken time out to explain their research and thinking as well as the many readers and commenters to the posts in various places on the interweb - the blog, facebook, … [Read more...]
I have just been in Montreal for the World Congress on Pain - numerous presentations and about 1600 posters. It is the posters I really like - can be intimidating but there are always a few gems. Here is some preliminary work that I thought was interesting and which is relevant to work that our group is aiming to do with Mike Farrel and Kim … [Read more...]
Watch out America - Lorimer is coming. I am grabbing a handful of ketchup and mustard sachets, whitening my teeth and heading on over.I will be teaching a two day Understand & Explain Pain course at:The University of Las Vegas Nevada, in Las Vegas on August 21st/22nd (contact - [email protected]).Heading east, perhaps in a … [Read more...]
We are lucky enough to have three rather clever and certainly friendly med students working on some research studies. This post is from Rahul - it is about a paper we thought was interesting. We wonder if there might be something in it for our quest for better treatments. Here's Rahul-After a nauseating movie-going experience, I find … [Read more...]
We were chuffed and impressed to see the slideshow about amputees learning impossible movements on Mike Nelson's extreme human performance blog. We agree that our study has implications for elite sport and human performance, particularly when one considers that elite athletes are asking the absolute most of their brain as well as their body. … [Read more...]
With a gin and tonic in hand, David was planning the conference sessions for the upcoming NOI conference 2010 in Nottingham when I met him and began to talk about what some of the speakers had chosen to speak on and why it excited him:I can't help but get excited when I look at the calibre of speakers that we've managed to attract to our … [Read more...]
Further evidence to suggest we should learn something novel every decade
I remember sitting my folks down and sternly counselling them to make sure they learnt a completely novel skill once per decade, to ensure that their brain doesn't turn to mush. There is plenty of evidence to support such advice (well, aside from the 'mush' bit), but here is a new finding that adds to that evidence, with a whole new level of … [Read more...]