Kerala - Kochi   

Demystifying the brain

Shyama Rajagopal

New methods of brain imaging have helped researchers

KOCHI: "There are more cells in the brain than stars in the sky or people on the earth,'' says Joel J. Silverman, professor and chairman of psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University. "Each cell has a specialised function too. It is not the heart that makes music after all."

Dr. Silverman was speaking at a workshop on `New Science of Mind: Demystifying Psychiatry' in Kochi recently.

Research has been slow on the subject, as medical professionals had shunned the science for long, say psychiatrists.

Isaac K. Wood, Associate Dean for Medical Education, and Anand K. Pandurangi, Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology of Virginia University; Chittaranjan Andrade, Professor of Psychopharmacology, NIMHANS; E. Mohandas, Senior Consultant and Faculty in Psychiatry, Thrissur Medical College; and Philip John, Senior Consultant of Psychiatry and co-ordinator of the workshop, addressed the medical students on a gamut of issues related to the science.

With evidence gathered from new methods of brain imaging, researchers have been able to assess how mood is regulated, how stress affects the neurons (the brain cells), how physical disorders affect mind and how disorders of the mind affect the mind.

Technology has made it possible to see live brain cells and application of basic neurosciences to study behaviour patterns.

The World Health Organisation has listed psychiatric as one of the four top illnesses across the world. It is seen as the disability to lead a normal life, just like the disability caused by other physical illnesses.

The workshop introduced the undergraduate students to new technologies and the new concept of psychiatry.

The biological basis of the mind and the evolution of psychiatry as neuroscience was the focus of the workshop.

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