Word: brained
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...nationwide show (originally called Sneak Previews) with Siskel on PBS in 1978. The show changed its name to At the Movies and moved to syndication in 1982, and soon became the most popular movie-review show on television. Despite Siskel's death in 1999, from complications related to a brain tumor, the show continued to flourish, first with a series of fill-in critics and finally with Roeper as Ebert's sparring partner...
...centuries artists have tried to capture the essence of love, and now scientists may have found it in the brain...
Without oxytocin people would be far less inclined to seek social interaction, let alone fall in love and mate for life (or, as scientists call it, "pair bond"). The brain releases gobs of it during orgasm, mothers are awash in it during breastfeeding and, in clinical trials, a spritz of oxytocin has been shown to reduce anxiety, increase feelings of generosity and even ease the symptoms of shyness. Conversely, researchers are beginning to discover that low levels of the hormone - or the body's faulty response to it - may contribute to severe social dysfunctions like depression and autism...
Most previous research on oxytocin has focused on animals. (Prairie voles are famous for their oxytocin-inspired behavior: they're fiercely monogamous lovers and caring parents.) But more recently, scientists have begun to determine how oxytocin functions in the human brain - or, more specifically, how it malfunctions. Studies have shown that people with autism tend to have low levels of oxytocin, as well as hyperactivity in the amygdala, where most oxytocin receptors are located. The amygdala is also where memories are formed, and where our brains process and assign emotional meaning to sensory information - that is, where we turn perception...
...these aren't classified as drugs, so they aren't evaluated by the FDA - but, at least in theory, it ought to make love, lust or trust bloom a little faster. That's not unlike the drug ecstasy, which triggers the release of serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin in the brain and heightens users' feelings of trust and intimacy, even among complete strangers. Concerns that oxytocin might be similarly abused as a recreational drug seem unfounded, however, given that the hormone doesn't produce a high, says zoologist Sue Carter of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who pioneered oxytocin research...