Mind Hacks: September 2005 Archives

September 29, 2005

The psychology of religion:

Online boffin club Edge has an article by psychologist Daniel Gilbert that discusses a psychological approach to understanding religious belief.

One of the difficulties with combining science and religion is that science typically deals with predictions that can be falsified by experiment (allowing theories to be created and tested) whereas the main spiritual tenants of religion tend to take the form of non-falsifiable hypotheses.

For example, many forms of the hypothesis that 'there is a God' cannot be falsified, as it is not clear what evidence would constitute a refutation.

This is in contrast to many other hypotheses associated with religion, such as creationism, that makes specific predictions that can be falsified - e.g. in one of its forms, that the world was created only a few thousand years ago.

Gilbert starts off his article with a commonly produced but mistaken assumption: "no one has yet produced a shred of empirical evidence for the existence of God".

Here he mistakes 'empirical' for 'experimental', as empirical evidence is that which is based on experience and observation, of which experiments are only a certain type (albeit ones that are formalised and highly valued).

There is certainly plenty of empirical evidence about. Many religious people will be able to provide examples of how they have personally experienced the effect or presence of 'supernatural' influence in their lives, or can provide examples where many people witnessed a supposed example of divine intervention.

The question is not over whether there is evidence, but whether it is valid (the phenomena was genuinely as experienced) and how it should be interpreted (whether it supports the concept of the divine, or a particular idea of 'God').

Link to article "The Vagaries of Religious Experience".

—Vaughan.

September 28, 2005

Population control - for hire:

Slate reports on the rise of psychological population control, often called PsyOps, as a form of commercial service.

According to the report, a company called Strategic Communications Laboratories Ltd was advertising itself at a notable London arms fair, suggesting that it could fool the population into believing any number of things in an attempt to divert attention from a presumed 'actual' catastrophe or similar dangerous situation.

When the Slate reporter suggested it sounded like propoganda, a member of staff was quoted as denying the fact, saying:

"If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do something that's going to save lives, that's fine," says Mark Broughton, SCL's public affairs director. "That's not a word I would use for that."

The company's website suggests otherwise though, stating they can provide training "for up to 250 staff, including specialised (and tailored) persuasion and propaganda courses."

Their entry in the Defence Suppliers Directory further outlines the sort of work they're willing to undertake:

Campaigns may range from homeland security and compliance issues to humanitarian and healthcare behaviour changes. In special circumstances the company will undertake political projects, especially if the sovereignty of the country is at stake, and - very occasionally - corporate campaigns.

Research has shown that attitudes and behaviour correlate poorly. However, SCL claim they can specifically influence behaviour: "for instance - you require a significant number of the electorate to vote for you, it is far more important to get their vote than it is for them merely to hold a favourable attitude towards you."

The PsyOps field is certainly a murky one. As a tool it could be used both to prevent public panic during an emergency, and to prop up a failing government that would otherwise fall.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to judge whether such companies are having a positive or negative effect on society, because by their very nature, it is difficult to see how and where they are influencing public behaviour.

Link to Slate article "You Can't Handle the Truth: Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream".
Link to SCL website.
Link to SCL entry in Defence Suppliers Directory.

—Vaughan.

September 27, 2005

Synapse wins Science visualisation contest:

The National Science Foundation and the journal Science recently ran a competition to produce the best scientific images. The winner in the illustration category was an image of a neuron, moments before it transmits a signal across the synapse.

The full size version of the image is both strangely beautiful and visually stunning.

Science also has a short article to accompany the image, that describes how it was created and the biological techniques it was based on.

Link to Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

—Vaughan.

Stoned again:

Slashdot: "Turns out, those endless news reports and blog entries in April about 'texting makes you stupid' were inaccurate".

Didn't we have this back in April? Maybe all that weed is affecting my memory...

—Vaughan.

September 26, 2005

'Subliminal' marketing ploys of tobacco giants:

The Sunday Observer reports on the increasingly subtle (or perhaps, desperate) ways in which tobacco firms are aiming to advertise their product in light of the increasing bans on explicit tobacco advertising.

'All that former advertising money has to go somewhere,' said one industry insider. 'The tobacco firms are looking to create extensive "design languages" in bars and clubs and other venues through the use of particular types of furniture or material which will make people think of their brands.'

Link to article "Tobacco firms' subtle tactics lure smokers to their brand"

—Vaughan.

September 25, 2005

On believing that you are dead...:

This week's edition of Radio National's All in the Mind examines the curious phenomena of delusions - the unusual beliefs that sometimes arise during mental illness or after brain injury.

Some of these beliefs can be quite striking, such as believing you are dead or don't exist - known as Cotard's delusion, or believing that a close relative, usually a spouse, has been replaced by an identical looking impostor - known as the Capgras delusion.

These forms are relatively uncommon though, with the more prevalent types including (for example) the belief that you are being persecuted, or that people on the television or radio are talking about you.

Although the diagnostic criteria that define delusions describe them as false, fixed and culturally out-of-place beliefs, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not an adequate definition.

For example, you can be pretty sure that 'being dead' is a false belief, but it's much more difficult for a clinician to judge whether someone is or isn't the subject of a conspiracy.

Furthermore, psychiatrist and philosopher Bill Fulford has pointed out that some cases of delusion may turn out to be true beliefs, noting that about 10% of cases of delusional jealousy involve actual infidelity.

Some beliefs diagnosed as delusional may not even be falsiable. For example, someone who has the distressing and unshakeable belief that "The devil is listening to my thoughts" cannot be proved wrong on the basis of any objective evidence.

All in the Mind tackles these and other fascinating aspects of the topic by visiting the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science who are focusing on delusions with their belief formation project.

The programme visits the researchers and discusses some of the pressing scientific issues and unusual beliefs they encounter.

mp3 or realaudio of programme audio.
Link to further information and transcript (to appear later in the week).
PDF of article 'Beliefs about delusions'.

—Vaughan.

September 23, 2005

SciAm Mind: 'Smart drugs' and consciousness:

The new edition of Scientific American Mind has hit the shelves and two articles are freely available online: one on 'smart drugs' and the other on the problem of consciousness.

The article on 'smart drugs' or 'cognitive enhancers' is by neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga - most renowned for his work on split-brain patients.

Gazzaniga examines the ethical implications of having a society cranked-up on pharmaceutical brain enhancers, and looks at the science behind some of the most recent developments in the field.

He makes one particularly interesting point in relation to the relatively developed field of memory enhancing drugs, which have the potential to make the important process of forgetting more difficult:

For a society that spends significant time and money trying to be liberated from past experiences and memories, the arrival of new memory enhancers has a certain irony. Why do people drink, smoke marijuana and engage in other activities that cause them to take leave of their senses? Why are psychiatry offices full of patients with unhappy memories they would like to lose? And why do victims of horrendous emotional events such as trauma, abuse or stressful relationships suffer from their vivid recollections? A pill that enhances memory may lead to a whole new set of disorders.

The article on consciousness is by Christof Koch, who highlights recent research which has looked for the 'neural correlates of consciousness' - i.e. which parts of the brain are active when conscious experience is known to occur.

This is a common but controversial approach to understanding consciousness, and one that has been championed by Koch in his own work.

Additional articles that appear in the print edition only include a discussion of the developing mind of infants and what it could tell us about the differences between men and women, the psychology of child-parent interaction and how it is understood (or misunderstood) by the courts, plus an exploration of synaesthesia.

Link to Scientific American Mind.

—Vaughan.

2005-09-23 Spike activity:

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Tiny protein tubes in the brain known as 'microtubules' may be linked to mental illness say neuroscientists. One for Penrose to wave around in the next consciousness debate.

Men and women not so psychologically different claims US psychologist.

Large-scale study finds older and newer antipsychotic medication of broadly equal effectiveness (via ScienceBlog).

The first face transplant is considered anew. A 2002 article (PDF) asks what might the psychological effects of such a transplant be ?

New York Times considers what swearing tells us about the organisation and development of the brain (grabbed from BoingBoing)

A microsensor is being developed that could be injected into the brain of a person with motor neurone disease to transmit important information to doctors.

Cognitive Daily has a great article on the interaction between race and the perception of attractiveness in others.

—Vaughan.

September 22, 2005

Will science explain mental illness?:

The latest issue of Prospect magazine features a juicy debate - "Will science explain mental illness?", with Peter McGuffin, director of the social, genetic & developmental psychiatry centre at King's College London, arguing 'yes', and Steven Rose (pictured right), director of the brain and behaviour research group at the Open University, arguing 'no'.

McGuffin opens the debate by outlining how science has led to some major advances in the treatment of mental illness, including the development of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), anti-depressant medication and anti-psychotics. He also points to the potential of new technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging, and the promise of psychiatric genetics, with at least one gene implicated in the uptake of serotonin (a neurotransmitter that depressed people don't seem to have enough of) already identified. "Real advances have been made, and the pace is quickening", McGuffin says.

But in his initial retort, Rose takes aim at the fuzziness of psychiatric diagnoses and argues that finding treatments for an illness doesn't necessarily mean you've explained it. "Aspirin alleviates toothache, but we don't conclude that the cause of toothache is too little aspirin in the brain", he says. Rose is particularly unconvinced of the value in looking for genes implicated in mental illness. "Today's attempts to locate causes in genes will, in 100 years, seem as misguided as Freud's classifications", he predicts.

Non-subscribers can click here to purchase online access to the debate.

—christian.

NewSci on Coffee, Smell and Intelligence:

This week's New Scientist has three articles for those interested in human behaviour: An article on the effects of coffee, one on the effects and possible treatments for losing the sense of smell, and Ray Kurzweil speculates on the future interaction between technology and human biology:

One benefit of a full understanding of the human brain will be a deep understanding of ourselves, but the key implication is that it will expand the tool kit of techniques we can apply to create artificial intelligence. We will then be able to create non-biological systems that match human intelligence. These superintelligent computers will be able to do things we are not able to do, such as share knowledge and skills at electronic speeds.

Steady on. I think Ray may have been at the coffee himself while writing that one.

Link to New Scientist table of contents.

—Vaughan.

Self affection:

The Times has just published an article by neuropsychologist Paul Broks on the concept of the self and how it becomes distorted when affected by mental illness or brain injury.

The self has a fascinating history in mind and brain science as the concept has changed considerably over the years.

In the first chapter of the book The Self in Neuroscience and Psychiatry Berrios and Marková track how our modern-day idea of the self shows only traces in the thinking of the early Greek philosophers. It wasn't until St Augustine that the self was defined as a 'private inner space'.

17th century philosopher John Locke doubted the self was anything more than the ability of memory to give the illusion of continuity, when in reality, the mind was being bombarded with constantly changing thoughts and perceptions.

The 'self' has become a key concept in psychiatry where psychosis, and particularly schizophrenia, were first defined by many influential psychiatrists as a breakdown in the integration of the self.

Perhaps for this reason, schizophrenia is often confused with 'multiple personality disorder', although the two are considered distinct by psychiatrists.

Nevertheless, people who 'hear voices' - an experience that also occurs in people who aren't considered mentally ill - often experience them as having distinct personalities. In effect, these are distinct and autonomous selves within an individual's self-consciousness.

On the more mundane level, phrases like "I'm not feeling myself today" suggest that we hold multiple ideas of who and what our self is, and that we can experience other forms of self-hood.

Broks' article deals with some of the ways the self has been explained by notable neuroscientists and psychologists, and how this abstract notion can arise from the seemingly mechanical function of the biological brain.

Link to Broks' article on the self.
Link to excerpt from The Self in Neuroscience and Psychiatry.

—Vaughan.

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September 21, 2005

Beware the Jabberwack, my son:

A chat program named Jabberwacky, designed by British AI researcher Rollo Carpenter, has won the Loebner Prize - the annual contest to see the most human-like chat software.

The contest takes the form of the Turing Test where human judges have to work out whether they are chatting to humans or software by typing responses into a computer.

Computer scientist Alan Turing, the designer of the contest, argued that if the judges couldn't distinguish between humans and software, the software could be thought of as simulating human intelligence. No software has yet passed the full Turing Test (although some has passed limited versions).

The Loebner Prize is awarded to the software that the judges think creates the best simulation, regardless of the fact that it may not pass for human.

Jabberwacky is different from previous winners in that it works out its conversational rules by interacting with humans.

It has a website where visitors can chat to the software, but crucially, they can correct the software when it gives odd or meaningless responses, so the software can adapt to the correct rules of conversation.

Results of its ongoing learning process can be seen in the transcripts of the 2005 contest. Jabberwacky does surprisingly well in some instances but not so great in others.

Link to "Brit's bot chats way to AI medal" from BBC News
Link to Jabberwacky website and chat.
Link to Loebner Prize website and 2005 transcripts.

—Vaughan.

September 20, 2005

Giant Squid - woah!:

The giant squid has the largest eye in the natural world. Although squid's eyes evolved on a separate branch of the tangle bank of life, they are remarkably like ours, except that they don't have the blind spot that human eyes have (Hack #16). This picture is from a book 'Extreme Nature' by Mark Carwardine (which the Guardian Weekend ran a piece on two weeks ago). This immature female is 17 foot long, but they go up to 49 foot apparently.

Photo from from here, some more on Giant Squid here

—tom.

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Is the internet making us more intelligent?:

CNET has put the first in a series of articles online about whether new technology is making us more intelligent.

There are several ways of asking the question:

Is the use of new technology shaping our minds and brains so they are better able to process information in all situations ? Essentially this is the 'technology as a mental gym' idea.

Alternatively, perhaps technology doesn't change our basic mental performance at all, but gives us practice solving problems that provides techniques that can be applied more widely. For example, selecting the most appropriate keywords for a web search might involve quickly summarising a topic into some key concepts - something that is useful in everything from day-to-day conversation to public speaking to writing essays.

Another approach is asking whether technology simply makes us pragmatically more intelligent. For example, we can 'remember' more because we can offload a lot of the work to personal organisers or we 'know' more because we have instant access to the web and Wikipedia.

The CNET article has quotes from technology leaders who, perhaps understandably, plug the benefits of technology. Psychologists also chime in, and conclude that technology itself does nothing except give us useful tools, rather than boost our brains specifically.

The article does raise some interesting questions, however, particularly in light of evidence suggesting that mental 'exercise' can prevent cognitive decline in the elderly.

Link to CNET article 'Intelligence in the Internet age'

—Vaughan.

September 19, 2005

Madness in literature:

In light of the new book by novelist Sebastian Faulks that focuses on psychiatry and madness, the BBC have put a piece online about the history of mental disturbance in literature.

Many highly regard authors have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness, not least of whom is Faulks himself, who has been treated for depression in the past.

Other famous examples, such as poet Sylvia Plath and novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, wrote about their own experiences and played a significant part in de-stigmatising mental distrsss.

Faulks discusses his own experiences and the development of his new novel, entitled Human Traces, in a recent newspaper article.

Link to BBC article " Literature's love affair with the mind"
Link to article and interview with Faulks.

—Vaughan.

September 16, 2005

Focus on the cerebellum:

Today's featured article on Wikipedia is a fantastic piece on one of the most mysterious areas of the brain - the cerebellum.

There are more connections in the cerebellum than in the whole of the rest of the brain put together, yet it is still not clear what sort of contribution it makes to thought and behaviour.

It is known that it is essential for movement, as damage to this area can produce tremor and other movement disorders - such as a condition called cerebellar ataxia.

Curiously, it also seems to be involved in almost every other form of mental activity.

If you want a reliable way of annoying anyone presenting results from a brain scanning study, put your hand up and ask what the activity in the cerebellum signifies. It almost always occurs, but is very difficult to explain with our current understanding.

The Wikipedia article is a great summary of current knowledge though, and gives an insight into an area where neuroscience is increasingly going to focus its sights as time goes on.

Link to Wikipedia article on the cerebellum.

—Vaughan.

2005-09-16 Spike activity:

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Survey finds that women are more likely to try bisexuality, particularly in their late teens and early twenties.

Keeping your emotions in check during a distressing event may impair memory for the details.

People who score highly on measures of schizotypy show greater right hemisphere activation, and are branded 'weird', 'odd', 'quirky' and 'awkward' by a clumsy write-up.

Science News discusses research on links between brain areas implicated in experiencing pain and the thought of pain.

Older people are less tactful suggests new study.

Physically abused children remain sensitive to even subtle signs of anger and find it hard to 'relax' even after the situtation has resolved.

—Vaughan.

September 15, 2005

The 'inchoate' science of consciousness:

Neuroscientist Christof Koch manages to write an odd article on consciousness and gets an obscure word into the title of a piece published in The Scientist.

Apparently 'inchoate' (I had to look it up) means "partially but not fully in existence", which pretty much sums up the article.

It starts with a brief overview of the history of consciousness and then gives a few snapshots of recent research projects, all of which seems fine until there's a strange paragraph on a study of mice who have had their nicotine receptors altered...

While the β2 knockout animals move rapidly through a novel terrain with little exploration, animals in which nicotinic transmission has been restored in the VTA [ventral tegmental area] show more adaptive behavior that, if observed in humans, would be associated with planning and consciousness.

Quite how exploratory behaviour in laboratory mice is 'associated' with human consciousness eludes me right now.

As one of the few talking mice in existence, perhaps we should ask Mickey about his conscious experience and extrapolate to his smaller cousins?

Link to article 'The Inchoate Science of Consciousness'.

—Vaughan.

September 14, 2005

The art and expression of mental distress:

UK mental health charity Mind challenged their members to express the contradictions of mental turmoil and the self through artwork. The resulting pictures are colourful, diverse and striking.

As the initiators were Mind Cymru, the Welsh branch of the charity, the artwork was exhibited at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Europe's oldest cultural festival.

Link to Mind Cymru Art Gallery 2005.

—Vaughan.

September 13, 2005

Addicted to food?:

Science News has an article on studies suggesting increasing links in the brain process involved in drug addiction and obesity, also suggesting that some of the treatments for drug abuse may also be of use in overeating.

When Volkow and her colleagues looked at the brains of 10 obese people, the team found a dopamine-receptor deficiency identical to that in drug addicts. Volkow stresses that obesity seems to be a significantly more complex disorder than drug abuse because many unrelated factors, such as glandular problems, lack of exercise, or a genetic predisposition to storing fat, can lead to weight gain. However, the brains of several of the obese volunteers in Volkow's study seemed to be telling another story: "These people were compulsively driven to eat as if food were their stimulus of choice," she says.

More information on the neuroscience of obesity is available in an issue of Nature Neuroscience made available online as an open-access publication.

Link to article 'Food Fix'.
Link to Nature Neuroscience on 'Feeding regulation and obesity'.

—Vaughan.

September 12, 2005

Psychological seizures:

American Family Physician has an article on the curious phenomena of 'psychogenic nonepileptic seizures'. These can look like tonic-clonic epileptic seizures; that commonly involve falling to the floor, limb shaking and unconsciousness, but are not accompanied by a disturbance in brain activity, and are thought to be related to underlying emotional issues or psychological distress.

Epilepsy is usually diagnosed with the assistance of an EEG assessment, where unusual brain activity is suggestive of the condition. A short burst of disruption (a 'slow wave') is show on the left, from my own epilepsy EEG.

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures can be diagnosed when the person's behaviour suggests a seizure, but no brain disturbance is detected.

The idea that symptoms can appear, but are produced by an underlying emotional conflict rather than the normal process of organic disorder has a long history, most associated with 19th century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot.

The condition was originally labelled 'hysteria', although is now given the less pejorative names of conversion disorder or 'medically unexplained symptoms'.

The condition is often linked to emotional disturbance and a history of physical or sexual abuse and the presence of other psychiatric disorders. It is often considered that they are an unconcious attempt to express distress or resolve internal conflict.

Importantly, however, the symptoms are not 'faked', as is sometimes unkindly suggested. The person concerned typically has little or no conscious control over their symptoms or their effect, which suggests the mind and brain has a capacity for impenetrable self-deception in some cases.

Researchers are now attempting to understand how this happens, with books being published on the psychology and neuroscience of conversion disorder. Nevertheless, despite this recent work, the condition is still largely mysterious.

Link to article on 'Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures' (via BrainBlog).
Link to review of Conversion Hysteria: Towards a Cognitive Neuropsychological Account.

—Vaughan.

September 10, 2005

Hypnotism documentary online:

Australian TV science programme Catalyst has a documentary available online on the science and uses of hypnosis.

In my opinion, it's a little sensationalised and uncritical in places, but does have some interesting comments from scientists studying the effects of hypnotic suggestion on the brain.

Link to website and programme, available as streamed video.

—Vaughan.

September 09, 2005

Are you fMRI experienced?:

The fMRI experience conference kicks off next Monday at Aston University, with the aim of encouraging new or less experienced researchers to mix with established scientists and ask the sort of burning questions that they might avoid in other symposia.

The conference is held annually in places all over the world and provides free training for those interested in psychology and neuroscience research.

I'm going to be there this Monday and Tuesday, and I've been kindly asked to co-chair the 'Cognitive Neuroscience' session on Tuesday morning with Kris Kinsey from Aston University, where I'll certainly be taking the opportunity to question the experts and clear up grey areas in my own thinking.

It's also a great opportunity to meet people and chat informally about mind and brain science. So, if you're going to be there, come over and introduce yourself, as it would be great to meet you.

Link to fMRI experience website.

—Vaughan.

2005-09-09 Spike activity:

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Headlines note that the Chernobyl disaster is "likely to kill 4,000" but most seem to skip over the more surprising conclusion of the report, that the most significant impact of the Chernobyl disaster has been on mental health.

Stay Free! Daily note some recent research about the negative effects of TV on cognitive and educational development in children.

The "brain is still evolving" claims scientists in new study.

Tiredness from working long shifts can affect doctor's judgement as much as three or four beers suggests new research.

The Guardian has a fascinating profile of influential biologist, anthropologist and contradictarian Robert Trivers.

Gamblers are more likely to be superstitious than the rest of the population.

Younger boys may have trouble perceiving emotional expression in other people's faces.

—Vaughan.

September 08, 2005

A view on hospitalisation:

Erving Goffman spent a year working in St Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital in Washington DC, ostensibly as a physical education assistant. In reality, he was a sociologist studying the social situations of patients and staff.

The following is a thought-provoking view on the reasons for hospitalisation from his classic 1961 book Asylums (p126), which he wrote as a result of his undercover study.

Some of these contingencies [that lead to hospitalisation] in the mental patient's career have been suggested, if not explored, such as socio-economic status, visibility of the offence, proximity to a mental hospital, amount of treatment facilities available, community regard for the type of treatment given in available hospitals and so on.

For information about other contingencies, one must rely on atrocity tales: a psychotic man is tolerated by his wife until she finds herself a boyfriend, or by his adult children until they move from a house to an apartment; an alcoholic is sent to a mental hospital because the jail is full and a drug addict because he declines to avail himself of psychiatric treatment on the outside; a rebellious adolescent daughter can no longer be managed at home because she now threatens to have an open affair with an unsuitable companion; and so on.

Correspondingly there is an equally important set of contingencies causing the person to by-pass this fate. And should the person enter hospital, still another set of contingencies will help determine whether he is to obtain a discharge - such as the desire of his family to return, the availability of a 'manageable' job, and so on.

The society's official view is that inmates of mental hospitals are there primarily because they are suffering from mental illness. However, in the degree that the 'mentally ill' outside hospitals numerically approach or surpass those inside hospitals, one could say that mental patients suffer not from mental illness, but from contingencies.

Link to life and work biography of Erving Goffman.
Link to extracts from Goffman's books (including Asylums).

—Vaughan.

September 07, 2005

An Intelligently Designed Brain:

A letter in the Economist (27th of August) on Intelligent Design:

SIR – The human brain has 100 billion extremely complex neurons connected by 1,000 trillion synapses. It is mathematically impossible for anything this unimaginably complex to have been the product of an unguided evolution, even over limitless aeons. One doesn't have to know the rules of mathematical probability to recognise this. The brain could only have been created by a limitless intelligence, call it what you may.

Aside from the fact that the letter writer is out by a factor of ten on the number of neurons in the brain (there are 1,000 billion neurons, with an average of 1,000 synapses) he is also advancing a fallacious argument. The human brain may be tremendously complex, but it isn't a complexity designed by God. You start your life with exactly one cell, and it's not even a brain cell. In the womb this cell turns into the 1,000 billion cells of the brain and all the other body cells besides, all without the intervention of God at any stage. The complexity of the brain, a staggering complexity which develops under the guidence of natural laws, is actually an argument against 'Intelligent Design', not for it.

—tom.

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UK Psychologies magazine launches:

As an update to a previous story on Mind Hacks - women's psychology magazine Psychologies hit the shelves today and the website is now online.

I've no idea what it's like, as I've yet to get hold of a copy, but I'll post a review when I've had a read.

The website has some of the content from the magazine, including a (dodgy looking) online test entitled "Do you know how to follow your instincts?" and some answers from the magazine's resident 'agony aunts'.

Link to Psychologies website.

—Vaughan.

Reframing mental illness:

A recently concluded confererence at London's Institute of Psychiatry has been debating the classification and boundaries of mental illness and has been challenging the traditional views of psychiatric medicine.

There have been longstanding critics of psychiatry, notably people like R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, who have argued that the medical concepts of mental illness are flawed, or that they are used to unjustly silence society's outsiders.

More recently, psychiatric classification, and particularly the separation of mental disorder into diagnoses such as 'schizophrenia' and 'bipolar disorder' have been challenged by mainstream psychiatrists on the basis of scientific discoveries.

For example, an editorial in May's British Journal of Psychiatry argued that that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are on a continuum, based on genetic evidence that is increasingly showing that similar genes are found in people who receive either diagnosis.

Other criticisms, echoed at the recent London conference, have been based on the coherence of psychiatric definitions and how well they reflect the diverse experiences of people who live through mental distress.

The conference discussed how understanding the first-person conscious experience of mental illness (as opposed to, or in combination with, scientific measures) can make for a more accurate understanding, and hopefully, treatments for those in need.

This approach is known as phenomenology and was championed by a number of continental philosophers who argued that science will only ever give a partial explanation because objective measures always leave something of the 'lived experience' missing.

One increasingly popular view of psychosis, the reality-bending mental state that can involve hallucinations and delusions, suggests that it is not an all or nothing state as psychiatric diagnosis suggests, but a range of experiences that are distributed throughout the population.

Recent studies have typically reported that about 10-11% of the general population score about the average of psychotic patients in psychiatric wards, on measures of unusual thinking or perceptual distortion, despite not needing psychiatric help or becoming significantly distressed or disabled.

Link to details of the recent conference on 'Phenomenology and Psychiatry for the 21st Century'.
Link to BBC News on the conference and the boundaries of madness.

—Vaughan.

September 06, 2005

The robots are coming:

The Turing Test is where a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with two other parties, one a human and the other a machine, if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine has passed and is deemed intelligent. Sex, it seems, turns the Turing Test on its head.

Blogger Jason Striegel found out that someone had advertised his instant messager address as belonging to a dirty-talking software sex bot. Frustratingly, no-one believed him when he protested his humanity.

the people who contacted me fell into one of two camps: people who thought they were contacting a celebrity and people who thought they were contacting a robot. As I talked to more and more of these folks, I began to discover something really disturbing about myself:

I consistently fail to be perceived as human.

fratburger86: hey. so you're a sex bot?
jmstriegel: umm, no. who the hell are you?
fratburger86: yeah you are! i found your im online
jmstriegel: that's fine and all, but i'm pretty sure you have me confused with someone else.
fratburger86: just a normal chat bot then?
jmstriegel: nope. i'm human
fratburger86: ok. sure.
...
jmstriegel: seriously, i think you want to talk to someone else.
fratburger86: i knew it!!!
fratburger86: you are totally a robot!

In contrast, real-life sex bot software Jenny18 consistently fools chat-room users who seem oblivious to the fact that she is nothing more than a few hundred lines of code, hacked from the original simulated chat software ELIZA, designed to repeat set phrases and reflect simple sentences back to the user.

jenny18: u r getting me hot =)
GoldenBoy2222: Ride me
jenny18: mmm i want 2 ride you..
GoldenBoy2222: yeah... of course
jenny18: MMmmm.. yes!
GoldenBoy2222: What r ur measures?
jenny18: yep.
GoldenBoy2222: yeah... What r ur measures?
jenny18: yep.
GoldenBoy2222: Say... What r ur measures?
jenny18: i bet lol
GoldenBoy2222: yes? An what r ur measures?
jenny18: mm hmm?
GoldenBoy2222: Good...

The archives of chat sessions contain many more examples of humans exciting themselves at Jenny18's dirty, nonsensical (and definitely not safe for work) sexy chatter.

Link to 'How I failed the Turing test'.
Link to Jenny18 description and chat archives.

—Vaughan.

September 05, 2005

Noel Sharkey on robot intelligence:

ABC Radio's In Conversation has an interview with cognitive scientist and AI researcher Professor Noel Sharkey who discusses his life, his work and the creation of robot intelligence:

"Noel Sharkey left school at 15, became a singer and took substances. It was while reflecting on the effects of an acid trip (he had taken LSD) that he began wondering about the limits of the mind. Since then he has explored the nature of machine intelligence, experimented with robotic evolution and mused on what kind of thinking is beyond computers. Professor Sharkey, from the University of Sheffield, is here for National Science Week."

Realaudio of interview.
Link to In Conversation website.

—Vaughan.

September 03, 2005

Tribute to neuropsychology pioneer David Marr:

Cognitive science site Mixing Memory has a tribute to David Marr, a pioneer in understanding visual perception, and in combining neurological and psychological levels of explanation, who died tragically early at the age of 35.

Marr wanted to understand how the brain could start with two-dimensional arrays of light spots on the retina and subsequently produce a rich three-dimensional visual experience.

He argued that the final visual experience is produced by a series of computations that extract important information, such as edges, object groupings and depth information, from basic visual data.

Crucially, he also gave the mathematical procedures, based on an understanding of the biology of the visual system, that might perform these operations.

As well as producing one of the most influential theories of vision, he also influenced how neuroscientists and psychologists think about how the brain works. He proposed that the biology of the brain serves to process information, and that brain cells can be modelled with accurate computational models.

Marr died of leukemia at the age of 35, and produced his most influential work (the book Vision) in the knowledge he had little time left to complete it.

It was published two years after his death in 1982 and is prefaced by the statement "This book is meant to be enjoyed".

Link to article on Mixing Memory (including link to Marr's work)
Link to biography of Marr.

—Vaughan.

September 02, 2005

Thumbs down to baby signing:

Last Tuesday’s Independent carried a feature by Lucy Cavendish, mother of one-year-old Jerry, on ‘baby signing’: the idea that teaching and communicating with your (hearing) pre-linguistic child via sign language speeds their language development, enhances their IQ and allows them to communicate with you before they can talk. The UK launch of leading baby-signer Joseph Garcia’s new book also spawned a similar feature in the Guardian, in July, by Lucy Atkins, who also happens to have a baby. The baby signing idea has apparently taken the US by storm, and now, in time-houroured fashion, has come over here to Britain where we've got over 100 baby signing classes of our own.

From reading the movement’s UK website, I gather the idea is that babies have some latent linguistic ability before their vocal chords have developed, which they can tap into using sign.

In the spirit of the Guardian’s Bad Science column I did some database searches on Joseph Garcia and he doesn’t seem to have published any research on baby signing, at least not since 1985.

However, the baby signing website says there’s masses of research and cites a load of articles in support of its claims. Most of the peer-reviewed research that’s directly relevant (for example see free PDF here) seems to have been conducted by California based psychologists Drs Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. Have they got a vested interest? Well, they’ve published over 10 popular books on the subject between them!

In 2003 the Royal College of Speech and Language therapists issued a statement that read “it is not necessary for parents to learn formal signing such as British Sign Language for children with no identified risk of speech and language development… The College is concerned that the use of signing does not replace/take priority over the need for parents to talk to their children".

—christian.

2005-09-02 Spike activity:

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Brain areas associated with pleasure and anxiety are activated when assessing risk.

Early research suggests that emotion can increase the risk of an attack in people with asthma.

The first book on vetinary psychiatry is published.

'Safety Smock' - especially designed clothes for preventing suicide (nicked from BoingBoing).

More on Edinburgh University's Koestler Parapsychology Unit, this time from The Guardian.

Computer scientists devise algorithm to 'learn' languages unaided.

Circadiana discusses the interaction between sleep cycles and Bipolar disorder.

—Vaughan.

September 01, 2005

Iron Maiden's déjà vu:

Whilst looking for an article in the British Journal of Psychiatry I came across this curious letter, noting an accurate description of déjà vu in the lyrics of an Iron Maiden song.

...

Sir: Sno, Linszen and De Jonge have reviewed a number of descriptions of déjà vu in poetry and literature (Journal, April 1992, 160, 511-518). There is another particularly striking example. It is the song "Déjà vu" by Dave Murray and Steve Harris (1986) from the album Somewhere in Time by the rock group Iron Maiden. It vividly illustrates many of the points made by Sno et al in their article. The song gives an accurate phenomenological description of déjà vu. It implicitly suggests reincarnation as an explanation and it refers explicitly to precognition ("And you know what's coming next") and to feelings of depersonalisation ("And you feel that this moment in time is surreal"). The full lyrics are reproduced here with the kind permission of Iron Maiden Publishing (Overseas) Ltd, administered by Zomba Musica Publishers Ltd.

When you see familiar faces
But you can't remember where they're from
Could you be wrong?

When you've been particular places
That you know you've never seen before
Can you be sure?

'Cause you know this has happened before
And you know that this moment in time is for real
And you know when you feel déjà vu.

Chorus:
Feels like I've been here before (rpt. four times)

Ever had a conversation
That you realise you've had before
Isn't it strange?

Have you ever talked to someone
And you feel you know what's coming next
It feel pre-arranged.

'Cause you know that you've heard it before
And you feel that this moment in time is surreal
'Cause you know when you feel déjà vu

Chorus

Sno et al suggest that psychiatrists "should be encouraged to overstep the limits of psychiatric literature and read literary prose and poetry as well" because "novelists and poets excel in [the] ability to depict subjective experiences". While agreeing with this point of view, I would go further. Literature and art are capable of an emotional response in the person who experiences them. This can lead to a far deeper empathic or subjective understanding of an experience than is possible from a scientific description. Wide reading and exposure to the arts enables us to share, if only partially and in completely, the experience of our patients. We can understand them better, not just at an intellectual level, but as people like ourselves.

Bill Plummer
Mental Health Advice Centre, Folkstone, Kent.

...

Rock on Dr Plummer. Even more intriguingly, the following letter in the same issue is about hypnotised lobsters, but I think that will have to wait until another time.

Link to letter's PubMed entry.

—Vaughan.