The Mental Hazards of City Living - ScienceNOW

22 Junho 2011

 Provocative new study says urban life alters the way the brain handles social stress.
 Psychiatrist Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg and collaborators at the Central Institute of Mental Health and the University of Heidelberg Medical Faculty in Mannheim, Germany, have previously used brain-imaging methods to search for abnormalities in the brains of people with genetic risk factors for mental illness. In the new study, Meyer-Lindenberg says, the group wanted to apply the same approach to environmental risk factors, which can be even more powerful than genetic factors. "Urbanicity ... has a much higher associated risk than any gene," he says. "The idea was to take people with that risk factor and see if there's anything different in their brains."
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The Mental Hazards of City Living - ScienceNOW
The Mental Hazards of City Living - ScienceNOW - June 22, 2011 - fhcflx