May 31, 2006

Bonkersfest!:

Camberwell Green in London will be home to Bonkersfest! on Saturday 3rd June as mental health agitators and arts collective Creative Routes host a festival that embraces every aspect of the human mind.

The festival will be kicked off by the Mayor of Southwark and the Southwark Town Crier by the firing of a banana laden cannon, while DJs, bands, artists, performers and dancers will entertain the crowds.

Also included in the line-up is a Big Top, caberet café, cinema, talking lamposts and whispering trees, all in the spirit of bringing madness to the masses.

Camberwell is a significant location because it is home to the Maudsley Hospital, the spiritual home of British psychiatry and one of the world's leading centres for psychiatric training and research. It is also within the same NHS Trust as the Bethlem Royal Hospital - the world's oldest psychiatric hospital, founded in 1247.

The festival aims to promote an alternative to the psychiatric view, suggesting that unusual experiences and distressing emotions are part of life's rich tapestry rather than signs of disease or illness.

Creative Routes is run by people who have experience of the mental health system and has promoted healthier happier lives through successful and innovative arts projects and collaborations. Bonkersfest! will be one of their biggest events to date.

See you there!

Link to Bonkersfest! website.

—Vaughan.

Destructive impact:

This week's Science News has a cover article on the psychology, neuroscience and genetics of how violence and anti-social behaviour develops in young people.

The article examines how human biology and the influence of family and social life interact to increase the chances of violence and bullying in some, while leaving others able to control their actions despite being subject to hostile experiences.

Henry's story highlights a theme that is attracting increasing scientific attention: Like all children, chronic troublemakers and hell-raisers respond to a shifting mix of social and biological influences as they grow. Some developmental roads arc relentlessly toward brutality and tragedy. Others, like Henry's, plunge into a dark place before heading into the light of adjustment.

Developmentally minded researchers are now beginning to map out violence-prone paths in hopes of creating better family and school interventions. New evidence indicates that a gene variant inherited by some people influences brain development in ways that foster impulsive violence, but only in combination with environmental hardships. Other studies explore how family and peer interactions build on a child's makeup to promote delinquency. Separate work examines ways to counteract the malign effects of bullying rituals and other types of coercion in schools.

"Violence is such a complicated issue," Twemlow says. "There's always a set of preconditions to violent behavior and never just one cause."

Science News have kindly made the full article freely available online.

Link to 'Destructive Impact' from Science News.

—Vaughan.

Understanding consciousness easier than we think:

Philosopher Alex Byrne writes about the problem of consciousness in the Boston Review. Against the current trend of labelling it 'the hard problem', Byrne argues that it may be easier to understand than we think.

Byrne does a fantastic job of touring us through some of the classic problems and thinkers in the area, using Thomas Nagel's famous article on consciousness 'What is it like to be a bat?' as a starting point.

The problem centres around the link between our own subjective conscious experience and the biological function of the brain, and whether it is possible to explain one in terms of the other.

You'd be hard pressed to find a better introduction to the area, and Byrne does a great job of telling an engaging story.

Link to article 'What mind-body problem?' (via 3QuarksDaily).
Link to Alex Byrne's webpage (with publications online).

—Vaughan.

May 30, 2006

Wanted: eating disorder experts for Wikipedia:

I've spent most of the last caffeine-fuelled 24 hours re-writing the Wikipedia page on anorexia nervosa which now seems to be in better shape than it was. It needs some well qualified stewards to keep an eye on it though, could this be you?

If you are a clinician, researcher or enthusiastic student with an interest in anorexia, this page could do with your input.

Otherwise, the bulimia nervosa article is in urgent need of attention, which is in a similarly poor state as the anorexia article was.

Wikipedia is currently one of the most visited sites on the internet, meaning millions of people get their information from it. The need for free, high-quality, accurate information is essential.

You could contribute your expertise to the world. Eating disorders have the highest mortality of any psychiatric disorder, so your time could literally save lives.

Unlike other forms of scientific writing, Wikipedia articles are a process rather than a product. The best pages have well-informed, open-minded and diplomatic 'regulars' who maintain the article in good shape, steer other contributors into best practice, and back up the information with references to academic studies.

Often this means challenging your own pre-conceptions and point-of-view (no matter how much you know) and getting a broad understanding of the subject, so the article can reflect this rounded approach.

It is an incredible learning experience, but can also be a little frustrating at times, as you meet people with a wide variety of agendas.

I'll be keeping an eye on the anorexia article, but it also needs adopting by some specialists in the field, as I'm not an eating disorders specialist by any means.

If you're intending to 'adopt' an article, it's good practice to say hello on the discussion page and discuss your intentions as you go, and if you've never edited a Wikipedia page before, now's your chance to learn.

Link to Wikipedia page on anorexia nervosa.
Link to Wikipedia page on bulimia nervosa.

—Vaughan.

Eric Kandel talks memory to Scientific American:

Nobel prize winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel is featured on Scientific American's weekly podcast where he discusses his past and current work and his speculations for the future of brain research.

Kandel has just published his autobiography In Search of Memory (ISBN 0393058638) which has got positive reviews in both the mainstream press and scientific journals.

He was also recently interviewed for Science and the City, where you can also get audio and video and a Q&A session with Kandel, and read Chapter 4 of his book.

Link to Scientific American podcast page.
mp3 of Scientific American interview.

—Vaughan.

May 29, 2006

Flat lined:

After a short and rather unspectacular life, I take it Action Potential is dead then...

—Vaughan.

Why sex matters for neuroscience:

Neuroscientist Larry Cahill has written an in-depth review article for Nature Reviews Neuroscience arguing that understanding the difference between men and women is essential if we are to fully comprehend brain function and behaviour.

Traditionally, research in this area focused largely on sex behaviour, and it has only been during the last decade when the sex differences have been found in other areas.

Cahill notes that this includes "emotion, memory, vision, hearing, processing faces, pain perception, navigation, neurotransmitter levels, stress hormone action on the brain and disease states. Even otoacoustic emissions (audible 'clicks' made by the inner ear) differ reliably between the sexes, being both louder and more frequent in female than male adults, children and infants".

The review examines the increasing amount of research in this area, and dismisses some myths regarding sex differences, including the myth that sex differences are small and insigificant, and that they can largely be explained by the action of sex hormones (such as oestrogen or testosterone) on the brain.

The article is available online as an open-access paper.

Link to Cahill's article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

—Vaughan.

May 28, 2006

Ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ceremony:

National Geographic sent a reporter to take part in an ancient Peruvian shamanic ritual where the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca is used.

The article describes the reporter's account of what sounds like a profound and terrifying experience, and discusses the culture, traditions and interest from Western science that ayahuasca has inspired.

The taking of ayahuasca has been associated with a long list of documented cures: the disappearance of everything from metastasized colorectal cancer to cocaine addiction, even after just a ceremony or two. It's thought to be nonaddictive and safe to ingest. Yet Western scientists have all but ignored it for decades, reluctant to risk their careers by researching a substance containing the outlawed DMT. Only in the past decade, and then only by a handful of researchers, has ayahuasca begun to be studied.

At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA's School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a native church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. In addition, blood samples revealed a startling discovery: Ayahuasca seems to give users a greater sensitivity to serotonin—one of the mood-regulating chemicals produced by the body—by increasing the number of serotonin receptors on nerve cells.

Link to article 'Peru: Hell and Back' with video clip (via MeFi)
Link to excellent Wikipedia page on ayahuasca.

—Vaughan.

May 27, 2006

Deep thoughts:

I just found a couple of Flickr groups that have caught my imagination. The first is the 'Brains' group for "fans of neuroscience, cognitive science, and other studies of how the mind and brain work", and the second is 'Deep Thoughts' which has some beautiful portraits of pensive people.

The Brains group is not without its striking images though, including this photo of 'the apical tufts of 2 cortical layer V pyramidal cells'.

By combining the groups you can move from the level of biological action of the brain to the moment of intellectual discovery revealed on the face of the thinker.

Link to Flickr 'Brains' group.
Link to Flickr 'Deep Thoughts' group.

—Vaughan.

May 26, 2006

Illusions of taste:

A curious comment just added to the discussion page of Wikipedia's illusion entry has really got me thinking:

the beginning of the article claims that all human senses can be fooled. I've yet to expirence an illusion of taste/smell. i.e. something salty tasting sweet. it may follow that consumption is the 'truest' of human expirences... [sic] Andrew

The only example that I could find on PubMed suggests that we experience taste in areas of the mouth without taste receptors, because we are fooled by the touch sensations of the food in our mouths. I could find no similar 'smell illusions'.

If anyone knows of any examples of taste or smell illusions I'd be very interested to hear about them.

UPDATE: There's some great answers on the comments page. Keep 'em coming. Thanks!

—Vaughan.

Sleeping pill wakes brain-injured from coma-like state?:

Controversial findings were recently published in the journal Neurorehabilitation suggesting that the insomnia drug zolpidem roused three severely brain-injured patients from the coma-like persistent vegetative state (PVS).

Zolpidem is better known by its trade name Ambien, and has also been in the news recently for causing unusual sleep behaviour such as sleep-driving.

The study published by Drs Ralf Clauss and Wally Nel reported on three patients diagnosed as being in PVS. All three were temporarily but reliably roused after being given the drug each morning over a period of 3 to 6 years.

It has been suggested, however, that the patients may not have genuinely been in PVS, as this state is thought to be misdiagnosed in up to 40% of cases.

Even if these patients were misdiagnosed, the results would still be interesting for those hoping to find an effective treatment for people who have chronic problems with arousal after brain-injury.

Furthermore, the fact that the treatment was consistent over such a long period is promising. Nevertheless, the drug will need to be tested in comprehensive clinical trials to show that the treatment is widely beneficial and the improvement in these patients was not due to person-specific factors.

Link to abstract of study.
Link to write-up from New Scientist.

—Vaughan.

2006-05-26 Spike activity:

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

Mixing Memory looks at research on how much children believe from what they're told.

Canine Epilepsy Guardian Angels! No really.

A strangely vague news story suggests that measuring 'brainwaves' (EEG / MEG?) explains how optical illusions trick the mind. More details gratefully received.

Smile! You're on CogSci camera! Researcher aims to record every waking hour of his child's first three years to study development of speech. More details at this pdf.

BPS Research Digest reports that the individual characteristics of therapists may have more influence on outcome than type of therapy.

Cognitive Daily reports on the immensely cool SNARC effect.

What would be the psychological strain of immortality?

Developing Intelligence picks up on a video lecture on the mathematics of visual hallucinations.

—Vaughan.

May 25, 2006

Japanese War Tuba Hack:

Via badscience.net, the Japanese War Tuba Hack! (Or maybe we'll call it "improve sound localisation by increasing interaural distance" or something).

Similarly the way your visual system calculates depth from the different images that your two eyes get, you use the difference in when sounds arrive at your ears to calculate their location. Bigger distance between the ears means bigger differences in arrival times, means more sensitivity in detecting sound location. How do you increase the distance between the ears? Ear horns! Don't they look great?

More here and here

—tom.

New brain scan detects 'instant' biological changes:

Brain Ethics have picked up on a new development in fMRI brain scanning technology that has the potential to detect fast changes in brain activity.

Research just published by neuroscientist Denis Le Bihan and his team has found that changes in brain activation can be detected by measuring water diffusion through neurons.

This type of water diffusion is thought to reflect the activity of the cells, but crucially, it seems it provides a more direct and quicker measure of brain activity than conventional methods.

The majority of fMRI studies use a measure of how oxygen-rich certain areas of the brain are, as it is well known that more active areas take more oxygen from the blood.

One disadvantage, is that this Brain Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) measure is relatively slow. It only seems to kick in 1-2 seconds after a brain area has been active and peaks up to 5 seconds later.

The new method from Le Bihan's team has the potential to improve this process but there are still many unanswered questions, including exactly how the measure of water diffusion relates to the known activities of single neurons or synapses.

Link to 'An fMRI revolution?' from Brain Ethics.
Link to abstract of Le Bihan and colleagues' study.

—Vaughan.

May 24, 2006

Psychedelic researcher Alexander Shulgin at 81:

The Sunday Herald sent a reporter out to meet legendary chemist and psychedelic researcher Alexander Shulgin to discuss life, love and phenethylamines.

Shulgin has been the world's foremost researcher of psychedelic compounds for many decades and has written about his research in several engaging books, including the notorious Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved.

The Sunday Herald finds him still with a huge enthusiasm for his work and eager to continue exploring.

"Primarily, it is about the conversion of a structure," he tells me. "It's a fun process and it's tremendously fascinating." He is more animated when speaking about the details of how he managed to alter a drug to change its effect than when asked about the effect those changes had when he tested the new compound on himself. In fact, for a man who has had so many psychedelic experiences, his stories of his 'trips' are disappointingly dull, while listening to him talk about experiments and chemical structures and hearing complex chemical names trip excitedly off his tongue is thoroughly entertaining.

"Chemistry is a music form to me," Shulgin says and, for the past 70 years, he has been composing at a rate Beethoven would have been proud of.

Link to Sunday Herald article.
Link to Wikipedia entry on Shulgin.

—Vaughan.

John Searle on the question of consciousness:

John Searle, one of the most important and controversial philosophers of mind, is featured on this week's ABC Radio The Philosopher's Zone discussing the question of consciousness.

Searle has been active since the 1960s and has made some of the most influential contributions to cognitive science, including the famous Chinese room thought experiment that addresses the question of whether information processing would be sufficient to account for intelligent thought.

Understandably, this has been used in arguments about the possibilities of artificial intelligence and machine consciousness.

Searle has long argued that machines cannot be conscious, and that conscious states can only be supported by biological systems.

In the programme, Searle talks about his own approach to solving the problem of consciousness, the importance of understanding neurobiology, and the dangers of getting in bed with Descartes.

mp3 or realaudio of programme.
Link to transcript.

—Vaughan.

May 23, 2006

The Science of Happiness:

Psychologist Daniel Gilbert writes about the psychology of happiness and pleasure in a new article for Edge.

He argues that science should be striving to understand happiness, both to capture this sublime aspect of human existence, and to enable us to increase happiness as we go about our daily lives.

For the last decade I've been obsessed with one problem: How well can the human brain predict the sources of its own future satisfaction? If the answer were "Very well, thank you," then I'd be out of a job. Research suggests that I will be employed for a long time to come.

We are often quite poor at predicting what will make us happy in the future for two reasons. First, we have been given a lot of disinformation about happiness by two sources: Genes and culture. Both genes and cultures are self-perpetuating entities that need us to do things for them so that they can survive. Because we are interested in our own happiness and not theirs, both entities fool us into believing that's what is good for them is also good for us. We believe that having children will make us happy, that consuming goods and services will make us happy. But the data show that money has minor and rapidly diminishing effects on happiness, and that parents are generally happier watching TV or doing housework than interacting with their children.

This is at a time when the Kingdom of Bhutan has included the goal of 'national well-being' as a part of its constitution, and UK politicians are promoting the science of happiness as the basis of future policy.

Edge also hosts a 2004 video of Gilbert discussing the mental economics of happiness and 'affective forecasting' - the ability of people to predict what will make them happy in the future.

Link to the 'Science of Happiness' from Edge.
Link to BBC News article 'Politics of Happiness'.
Link to Daniel Gilbert's lab homepage (with articles).

—Vaughan.

Developing Intelligence finishes 'seven sins' series:

Cognitive scientist and owner of the Developing Intelligence blog Chris Chatham has finished his series on memory distortions, arguing that common forms of memory failure can be explained within a concise model of maintenance, search, and monitoring.

The 'seven sins' are a reference to a more complex model put forward by psychologist Dan Schacter, in a well-known book on the subject.

Chatham explains each in turn, and gives details of how he feels they can all be explained by more fundamental functions of the mind.

* The Seven Sins of Memory
* The Transience of Memory
* Lost keys: Memory Search Failures
* Lost in the Network: Failures of Memory Architecture
* Memory's Gates: Failures of Monitoring
* Origins of Memory Distortion

The series has been an engaging look at some of the most important theories in contemporary memory research, as well as highlighting a few curious gems, such as the scientific basis for Freudian-style repressed memories.

Even if you don't entirely agree with Chatham's take on the psychology of memory, there's plenty of food for thought in what has been a lucid series on a mysterious human ability.

—Vaughan.

May 22, 2006

Is Morgellons a marketing campaign?:

The comments page of the earlier article on the psychology of Morgellons mention that there are rumours that the whole thing is a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Philip K. Dick movie A Scanner Darkly - it's a theory that PKD would have been pround of, but almost certainly untrue.

It wouldn't be the first time that the idea of a new form of parasite has been used for a marketing campaign, though.

The computer game Cold Fear was marketed by a seemingly genuine website that claimed that a new form of brain parasite had been discovered (with a cleverly doctored brain scan, reproduced on the right). The real purpose of the information was only revealed some weeks later.

If the same is true of Morgellons, however, the marketeers have managed to smuggle an article into a scientific journal and persuade at least one academic scientist to throw away his career for the sake of a quick buck.

Randy Wymore, a genuine professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University, has made several public statements about his ongoing research into the condition. If it were found that he was fuelling interest into a fake disease purely for marketing purposes, he would be booted out of his profession faster than you could say 'free popcorn'.

Secondly, if it is a viral marketing campaign, it's not a very good one. The claimed symptoms of Morgellons are quite different from the Scanner Darkly scene where where Charles Freck and Jerry Fabin believe themselves to be infested with 'aphids' and are attempting to capture them in glass jars.

Nevertheless, delusional parasitosis is a link. Morgellons is claimed to be a manifestation of this psychotic syndrome, and the fictional scene is a fine description of how the clinical condition can present.

If you were going to create a covert marketing campaign though, you'd probably want a closer match, unless you only wanted to advertise to those with an interest in obscure psychopathology.

One of the best suggestions is that the rumours themselves are a marketing campaign, capitalising on the recent media interest.

Truly, this is a rumour worthy of PKD himself, a true connoisseur of conspiracy theories and mass media scepticism. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether we are living in Philip K. Dick's reality, or if he is living in ours.

—Vaughan.

Neurochemistry of street drugs - animated!:

Omni Brain managed to find a wonderful Dutch website where the neurochemistry of common street drugs is illustrated as step-by-step animations.

If you ever wondered exactly how ecstasy, cannabis, speed, cocaine, heroine, alcohol or nicotine have their effect in the brain, now's your chance to find out.

The animations give the detailed effects of the drugs on the neurotransmitter systems with an explanation of each of the main effects of the compounds.

Link to Drugs and the Brain animation site (via Omni Brain).

—Vaughan.

Neurosurgery on BBC Book of the Week:

Just a quick note to say that BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week this week is Brain Matters by Katrina Firlik (mentioned previously here and here on Mind Hacks).

The book tackles Firlik's work as a neurosurgeon and will be broadcast in five parts. Each will be available online for a week after broadcast.

—Vaughan.

May 21, 2006

World's radio on mental health:

This week's BBC Radio 4 world radio roundup show A World in Your Ear featured highlights from recent broadcasts on mental health from around the globe.

In an excerpt from Sudan Radio counsellor Moses Mayuen Akuein discusses his work with trauma victims caught up in Darfur conflict, while Real Jamaican Radio discusses maintaining good mental health on a phone-in programme.

The show features numerous other highlights, including the incredibly moving story of Howard Dully (featured previously on Mind Hacks), who was lobotomised at the age of 12 and attempts to make sense of his experiences as an adult.

Link to A World in Your Ear webpage.
realaudio of programme.

—Vaughan.

May 20, 2006

The curious case of Morgellons disease:

Morgellons is claimed to be a new form of skin disease by its sufferers but has been largely ignored by the medical community and some have claimed it is, in reality, a psychotic syndrome akin to delusional parasitosis.

Outraged by the accusation that their symptoms may be a result of mental illness, proponents are producing fibrous outgrowths from their troubling skin lesions as evidence of its reality.

Although previously just a fringe concern, in the last few weeks Morgellons has gained a huge amount of publicity, with TV reports, magazine articles, newspaper stories and posts on some of the internet's most popular sites.

Nevertheless, Morgellons challenges more than just the ability of the medical community to make sense of physical symptoms, and is a classic example of a syndrome on the borderlands of medicine.

The only peer-reviewed article on Morgellons indexed by PubMed, the international database of medical research, was published this January in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology. It defines the condition as "characterized by fiber-like strands extruding from the skin in conjunction with various dermatologic and neuropsychiatric symptoms" and goes on to describe a coherent theory, but no conclusive evidence, for its existence as a genuine skin condition.

The paper was co-authored by biologist Mary Leitao (left) and funded by the Morgellons Research Foundation, an organisation Leitao founded after she became concerned about a rash on her son that seemed to contain fibres, subsequently dismissed by the doctors she consulted.

In contrast, after concerns about the disease were first widely broadcast in the media, Duval County Health Department investigated a series of cases and concluded in their report that those reporting Morgellons in fact suffered from delusional parasitosis, a form of limited psychosis diagnosed as a subtype of delusional disorder.

Interestingly, the fact that self-reported Morgellons is associated with mental illness is not in dispute. Both sides of the debate find evidence that sufferers have significant levels of psychological, and sometimes, neurological disorder.

What is at stake is cause. The debate is over whether pre-existing mental disorder is leading people to believe that they have been infested with parasites, or whether these parasites cause so much distress as to cause a mental or neurological disorder.

However, the medical community has many reasons to doubt the existence of Morgellons as a new form of previously undetected parasite or infection.

The first is that medicine is very good at detecting specific pathogens - infectious organisms that cause disease or illness. They can be measured, quantified, analysed and give a definite indication whether the person has the disease or not.

Mad cow disease, and its human equivalent, is a classic example of this. Cases of the disease were relatively rare, produced non-specific neurological symptoms, and turned out to be caused by prions, a form of infectious protein virtually unknown until a few years before. Despite these hurdles, the disease was recognised and quantified very quickly.

Further Morgellons research is underway, however. Randy Wymore, a professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University, might yet find a conclusive pathogen for Morgellons, but the fact that no widely accepted findings have been forthcoming, especially from something that supposedly produces such visible symptoms is bound to cause suspicions about a psychological cause for the disorder.

Secondly, the symptoms of Morgellons are indeed consistent with delusional parasitosis, even down to finding fibres in the skin.

Producing dubious evidence of the supposed infection is so common in delusional parasitosis as to be used one indication of the diagnosis (known as the 'matchbox sign' as people often bring such fragments in small containers such as matchboxes).

Psychiatrist Alistair Munro, author of one of the only books to specifically address delusional disorder, notes that patients with delusional parasitosis may dig into their flesh and retrieve small fibres - most likely to be the ends of peripheral nerves that form a network under the surface of the skin.

Other fibres such as trapped hairs, or even keratin, a fibrous protein recently found to be a component of normal human skin, might be found by those examining skin lesions in detail and used as evidence for a Morgellons-like infection.

Indeed, some people claiming to have Morgellons produce such a wide range of fibres as evidence that it is hard to believe that they could all come from a single infectious disease, especially when the majority resemble man-made fibres (right) and human tissue.

However, there is an important discrepancy between the delusional explanation preferred by the medical profession and the presentation of people who claim to be affected by the condition.

Delusions are defined as false, fixed beliefs, not held by members of the person's culture or subculture. Although online subcultures of psychotic individuals are not unknown, the fact that there is a well-organised Morgellons community, and that cases seem to peak with media interest, suggests that not everyone who believes they have Morgellons is frankly psychotic. Of course, there may be sufferers who are, but cases of people who have delusions of HIV infection do not causes HIV doctors to doubt their diagnoses.

Morgellons seems to be a disorder on the borderlands of medicine - what is being increasingly called a 'medically unexplained symptom'. Here, the interplay between belief and the body is thought to be key, as the mind has long been known to produce genuine physical symptoms, a process known as somatisation.

At the time of writing, exactly such a disorder is sweeping Portugal. Large numbers of school children are reporting physical symptoms of a mysterious condition. Curiously, the symptoms mirror those suffered by characters in a recent edition of a soap opera, where a life-threatening virus caused an outbreak in a school.

This is not an unknown situation, and has been extensively studied by sociologist Robert Bartholomew who has reported on numerous occasions where physical symptoms spread through populations, only to disappear without trace when the social concern subsides.

Sometimes this can take quite a dramatic form, famously with koro, where sufferers believe they are afflicted with a life-threatening disorder which causes the penis to shrink into the body.

Often, the interaction between belief and symptoms is far more mundane and relatively commonplace. A recent study estimated that about 50% of consultations to hospital outpatients departments have no associated disease. One difficulty with such problems is that doctors have traditionally dismissed them as 'all in the mind' - implying that they are no concern to busy physicians.

More recently, however, there has been an acceptance that belief plays an essential role in the course of illness, whether they have been traditionally classified as 'physical' or 'mental' disorders.

The famous distinction between mind and body is seeming increasingly redundant, and disease-related disability is now being widely-treated with psychological therapies as well as physical medicine.

The beliefs at work are not just those of the patient, however, and the conclusions and thoughts of the people around them, including medical professionals are also known to influence how symptoms progress.

The common belief that 'symptoms must have a definite physical cause' is one of the strongest of such beliefs, and is often played on by drug companies aiming to market seemingly simple fixes for simple causes. The virtually evidence-free claim that depression is 'caused' by low-serotonin in the brain, is one of the most notorious examples.

The fact that the array of symptoms attributed to Morgellons could be caused by a range of factors which could differ between individuals, such as media-inspired worry, other skin conditions, psychosis, and yes, even a new form of parasite (however unlikely), seems counter-intuitive to those holding the belief that 'symptoms must have a definite physical cause'.

Until science finds otherwise, Morgellons seems to be an example of this process at work. Only believers seem to find conclusive evidence of it as a physical infestation. Of course, this makes it no less disturbing to those who suffer from it, but leaves medicine at a loss of how best to help those distressed by their self-reported condition.

—Vaughan.

May 19, 2006

Reactive Colours launches:

Innovative autism community software project Reactive Colours had its official launch the other day, and is now sporting a new website and numerous 'reactivities' to download and play online.

The project is designed to encourage individuals with autistic spectrum differences and learning disabilities to use computers, through which they can develop mouse, keyboard, programming and screen skills and deliberately emphasise the characteristics of computing that are of potential significance to people on the autism spectrum.

The project is based on open-source principles and intended to be more than just a free download. Interested people are encouraged to contribute their own programming skills to the project.

The input of people with autism and Asperger syndrome is particularly encouraged, as they are likely to have the best insight into what sort of activities will engage those on the autism spectrum.

Mind Hacks covered Reactive Colours last year where we interviewed project leader Wendy Keay-Bright about the development of the idea.

Link to Reactive Colours website and community.
Link to Reactive Colours project description.

Disclaimer: I am an open licensing advisor to the project.

—Vaughan.

Open-access science moves forward:

A couple of encouraging pieces of news for those following the progress of open-access science journals: The open access medical journal PLoS Clinical Trials has just launched, and recent research shows that science published in open journals is more widely cited and distributed.

PLoS Clinical Trials aims to publish studies into the effectiveness of treatments, regardless of whether they show an effect or not (to avoid the publication bias whereby trials showing 'no effect' are dismissed as uninteresting).

The journal also demands that trials are registered before they are submitted for publication, to avoid organisations hiding the results of trials which don't support the effectiveness of their treatment.

Furthermore, PLoS Clinical Trials does not rely on advertising from drug companies or other vested interests, meaning they are less likely to be influenced by any outside commercial pressure.

In particular, these biases have been seen as a major problem for the effective evaluation of psychiatric drugs in particular, leading to the reform of procedures for publishing and registering drug company funded studies by some journals.

The article on the advantage of publishing on open-access journals is appropriately published in PLoS Biology, and shows that the advantage even holds over journals that make their articles freely available after a delay of 6 months.

Link to PLoS Clinical Trials.
Link to editorial 'Open Access Increases Citation Rate' from PLoS Biology
Link to research article from PLoS Biology.

—Vaughan.

2006-05-19 Spike activity:

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

As much sci-fi brain art as you can shake a stick at (via BrainWaves)

...and one amazing picture of neuronanoart (via Neurofuture).

Professor Alan Harvey discusses neural transplantation on ABC Radio's In Conversation.

The New York Times on the neuroscience of chronic pain.

BBC Five Live broadcasts an investigation into illicit drugs on UK psychiatric wards (called 'Drugs on the Brain').

1 in 20 neothlithic skulls show evidence of early neuroweapon injuries.

This week's New Scientist has a letter on the treatment of ADHD and the ethics of conformity.

PLoS Biology has a paper on how a relatively simple computational model can produce a realistic simulation of the brain's visual system.

Cognitive Daily's Dave Munger writes on how the psychology of uncertainty can effect the economics of conservation.

—Vaughan.

May 18, 2006

Chocolate is cold comfort:

A review of scientific studies has found that chocolate, long used as an emotional pick-me-up, more often prolongs a bad mood rather than helps it.

In an article currently in press for the Journal of Affective Disorders, psychiatrist Gordon Parker and his team gathered evidence from decades of studies into the mood-altering effects of the cocoa-based confectionary.

Sadly, for those hoping for a high-street mood lift, they conclude that any positive effects are limited to the anticipation and sensory properties of the popular foodstuff. Carbohydrate-heavy sweets are likely to prolong any feelings of low mood.

Link to abstract of study 'Mood state effects of chocolate'.
pdf of full-text article.

—Vaughan.

Flash back:

I'm always impressed by the way Cognitive Daily manage to break down sometimes quite complex research into straightforward explanations, and their and try-it-yourself experiment on visual working memory is no exception.

Their article is a wonderful tour through a recent paper that examines visual memory for briefly presented scenes.

—Vaughan.

Frontiers of time perception:

BBC Radio 4 science programme Frontiers examines the psychology and neuroscience of time perception and considers how the sense of time can be warped when we're put under stress.

In one part, the programme talks to psychologist David Eagleman who's been running experiments with people doing 'SCAD diving' - an activity where you jump free-fall off a 50 metre crane into a waiting net below.

He asks participants to try and judge time during the jump to see whether the stress of the situation genuinely affects people's time perception - in an attempt to understand if things really go 'in slow motion' during emergency situations.

When a person's life is in danger, a phenomenon known as 'time-dilation' can occur. This is when, during a car crash for example, time seems to slow down or become frozen.

In these cases the body's internal clock speeds up when facing a potential catastrophe, so that it can take in more information more quickly and function more effectively in an emergency.

This is also a phenomenon actively sought by elite sportspeople, when they get 'in the zone'.

Some of the chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine, can affect our perception of time. Deficiencies in these chemicals can lead to brain disorders.

In today's technological age, the body's natural clocks are being hijacked by timetables, schedules and diaries. By paying more attention to our watches, rather than our internal clocks, could we be losing touch with time as it should be perceived?

Link to Frontiers special on time perception.
realaudio of programme.

—Vaughan.

May 17, 2006

Philosophy of Mind on Wikipedia:

The Wikipedia article on the Philosophy of Mind is featured on the online encyclopaedia's front page today, demonstrating how the philosophy articles have greatly improved during the last year.

The article gives a clear and comprehensive overview of this key field and is beautifully illustrated throughout.

Philosophy has a bit of an image problem among scientists. Some dismiss it as self-indulgent, but nowhere could it be farther from the truth than in cognitive science.

Philosophers now make up essential team members in many neuropsychology research groups, valued for their critical insight and knowledge of how certain types of difficult conceptual problems can be overcome.

I'm most familiar with the work of Professor Martin Davies who works with the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science and usefully makes all his work available online.

This is a good place to start if you want an introduction to how philosophy can contribute to the understanding of brain-injury, mental illness and the neuropsychological function of the health individual.

If you want a general introduction to the field, the Wikipedia article is your first port of call.

Link to Wikipedia article on Philosophy of Mind.
Link to Martin Davies' publications.

—Vaughan.

Case Notes epilepsy special and Wada musings:

Just in case you're still looking for ways to mark National Epilepsy week, a recent edition of Case Notes had a special on epilepsy, outlining the science and impact of this curious condition.

In one particularly interesting section, they discuss research on using neuroimaging to replace the Wada test - the procedure where the barbiturate drug sodium amobarbital is injected into the carotid artery to temporarily disable one hemisphere of the brain.

This is used in people about to undergo neurosurgery to remove a brain area that may be causing uncontrollable and dangerous epileptic seizures.

It is particularly important to know which hemisphere of the brain is most involved in language, so the surgeons know where to tread carefully to make sure the patient's language ability isn't damaged.

Obviously, injecting strong sedative drugs directly into major brain arteries has its risks; both to the patient (there is a small risk of stroke), and the clinicians - such as the occasional patient going bezerk on the drugs.

This has led researchers to try and replace the Wada test with something less invasive and somewhat safer, namely scanning the brain with fMRI (e.g. see this pdf).

The technology is still being developed, however, as the results of the Wada test and an fMRI scan don't always match, although new developments are improving the accuracy of these brain scan techniques as time goes on.

Link to webpage on Case Notes special on epilepsy.
realaudio of programme.
Link to information on the Wada test from epilepsy.com

—Vaughan.

May 16, 2006

Five minutes with neurosurgeon Katrina Firlik:

Neurosurgeon and author Dr Katrina Firlik has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her interest in brain surgery and neuroscience.

She also tells me that her new book (featured previously on Mind Hacks) has been released in the UK under the name Brain Matters (ISBN 0297848070).

Apparently, she will be in the UK to talk about her work in the near future, so we'll post details as soon as we know them.

Anyway, on to the interview...

Why neurosurgery?

What could be more interesting than the brain? Once I realized that, there were only a few career possibilities in medicine: neurology, neurosurgery, or psychiatry. I liked the mechanical aspects of neurosurgery, and the more immediate results of the work.

You've observed the behavioural, emotional, cognitive and physical effects of brain changes in numerous patients. Is there anything that still amazes you in your day-to-day work?

Observing a head injury victim awaken from a coma. As to what exactly goes on in the brain to mediate this flip of the switch, we're still not sure.

What recent development in neurosurgery have you been most excited about?

The possibility of enhancing neuroplasticity via cortical stimulation. A clinical trial is underway to use such technology to enhance recovery following stroke.

What is the most important thing you've learnt from your work so far?

An older brain can learn new tricks. Plasticity is not exclusive to young brains.

Name three underrated things.

Seatbelts in New York City cabs.
The influence of the mind in controlling pain.
The world of Japanese cuisine beyond sushi.

---

If you're interested in a career in neurosurgery or just want to find out more about the specialty, you could do far worse than checking out the neurosurgery section on the British Medical Journal Careers website.

—Vaughan.

May 15, 2006

Developing Intelligence on the seven sins of memory:

The first part of a series on memory failures has just appeared on the increasingly compulsive cognitive science blog Developing Intelligence.

The site is run by cognitive neuroscientist Chris Chatham who summarises the 'seven sins of memory' - Daniel Schacter's famous description of the seven ways in which memory can become distorted or degraded.

Schacter first described his ideas in a landmark paper and later in an accessible book of the same name.

Chris has a different approach, however, and will be setting out his alternative views over the coming week:

In contrast to Schacter’s “seven sins of memory” (1999), I argue that all types of memory inaccuracy arise from three distinct types of memory system failure: those of maintenance, of search, and of monitoring. Failures of maintenance include problems involving prospective memory (“forgetting to remember”), rapid forgetting, and absent-mindedness. Failures of search include retrieval-induced forgetting, tip-of-the-tongue phenomena, and amnesia. Failures of monitoring include source misattribution, memory biases, and suggestibility. Finally, other memory inaccuracies may actually result from interactions among multiple sources of failure.

In this week's upcoming posts, I will review each of these categories of memory failure in turn, and describe how they can account for all types of memory inaccuracy when taken together.

Link to post at Developing Intelligence.

—Vaughan.

Dread pool:

Neurofuture has collected a range of recent posts that have been inspired by recent research on the 'neurobiological basis of dread', although a particularly clear description of the study posted to Brain Ethics is, perhaps, a good one that's missing.

The research was probably best summarised in the mainstream media in an article from Science.

The New York Times had slightly different angle on the story and asked the researchers about how you would go about avoiding feelings of dread.

The first study ever to look at where sensations of dread arise in the brain finds that contrary to what is widely believed, dread does not involve fear and anxiety in the moment of an unpleasant event. Instead, it derives from the attention that people devote beforehand to what they think will be extremely unpleasant.

So the solution to dread, the researchers say, is self-distraction.

Link to abstract of original scientific paper.

—Vaughan.

May 14, 2006

National epilepsy week focus on children:

UK education and support charity Epilepsy Action has launched this year's National Epilepsy Week, running from 14th-20th May.

The theme of the 2006 event is children and young people and the charity is focusing on encouraging schools to maximise the potential of pupils with epilepsy.

In a recent survey, only 19% of schools felt that staff knowledge of epilepsy was good.

Consequently, Epilepsy Action has produced a raft of information to support parents and teachers in their care of affected pupils, including an online guide: Essential Information for Teachers.

Even if you're not involved with children or schools you can learn how to help someone who has a seizure. You could save their life.

Link to information on National Epilepsy Week.
Link to Essential Information for Teachers.
Link to first aid for seizures.

—Vaughan.

May 13, 2006

Another day in the frontal lobe:

Katrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon. She's one of the few female neurosurgeons in a largely male dominated profession and has written a book about her work and experiences called Another Day in the Frontal Lobe.

She's recently been featured on numerous radio programmes and newspaper interviews (listed here), the best of which is probably an in-depth discussion about her work on an NPR radio show entitled A Surgeon's-Eye View of the Brain.

An short excerpt of her book is available online:

The brain is soft. Some of my colleagues compare it to toothpaste, but that’s not quite right. It doesn’t spread like toothpaste. It doesn’t adhere to your fingers the way toothpaste does. Tofu -- the soft variety, if you know tofu -- may be a more accurate comparison. If you cut out a sizable cube of brain it retains its shape, more or less, although not quite as well as tofu. Damaged or swollen brain, on the other hand, is softer. Under pressure, it will readily express itself out of a hole in the skull made by a high-speed surgical drill. Perhaps the toothpaste analogy is more appropriate under these circumstances.

The issue of brain texture is on my mind all the time. Why? I am a neurosurgeon. The brain is my business. Although I acknowledge that the human brain is a refined, complex, and mysterious system, I often need to regard it as a soft object inhabiting the bony confines of a hard skull. Many of the brains I encounter have been pushed around by tumors, blood clots, infections, or strokes that have swollen out of control. Some have been invaded by bullets, nails, or even maggots. I see brains at their most vulnerable. However, whereas other brain specialists, like neurologists and psychiatrists, examine brain images and pontificate from outside of the cranium, neurosurgeons boast the additional manual relationship with our most complex of organs. We are part scientist, part mechanic.

She's also an obvious neuroscience geek and has an online gallery of neuroanatomy drawings and a Cafepress store where you can buy t-shirts with them on!

Link to interview and discussion on NPR radio.
Link to Katrina Firlik's website with book details.

—Vaughan.

May 12, 2006

Neuroweapons:

More neurologisms abound, as Zack Lynch posts about a recent conference on 'neuroweapons'.

In a previous post, he mentioned concerns about neurowarfare - the use of weapons that target the human central nervous system.

Presumably this means nerve agents, neurotoxins and the like, rather than simply being bashed on the head with a rock (perhaps, the earliest example of a neuroweapon?).

However, the more recent discussions seem to focus on the use of technology and drugs to enhance the cognitive function of soldiers and other military personnel.

Link to Brain Waves post on neuroweapons.

—Vaughan.

Neurologism spotting:

I just read the recent New Sci article on mind reading with fMRI that Vaughan flagged up recently, and couldn't help noticing two more neurologisms coined by the writer of the article, Douglas Fox.

Neuronaut: Fox describes getting ready to enter the brain scanner - "As they prepared the experiment this morning, I felt like an astronaut - a neuronaut you might say - getting ready for launch". So a neuronaut is a virgin neurosi experimental subject.

Neuro-legible: The researchers had managed to read Fox's brain with 90 per cent accuracy. "As I hang up, I'm strangely glad to know my brain is neuro-legible...". So neuro-legibility describes how easily your brain can be read by brain scanning technologies.

Link to Vaughan on the New Sci article.
Link 1, 2, and 3 for Mind Hacks posts on the search for neurologisms.

—christian.

2006-05-12 Spike activity:

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

The New York Times examines the factors that contribute to exceptional talents and 'expert performance'.

Cognitive Daily analyses research that shows that hypnotism can abolish the Stroop effect.

New Scientist reports that women can pick out which men are child-friendly by looking at their faces. See also pdf of scientific paper. (via BB).

People with autism show different brain activity during resting or 'day dreaming' times than others, reports brain-imaging study.

Nobel-prizewinning neuroscientist Eric Kandel is profiled by The Loom's Carl Zimmer. With audio interview and sample chapter of Kandel's memoir.

Coventry University starts a two-year postgraduate degree course in parapsychology (via anomalist)

BrainEthics looks at the contribution of genetics to cognition, inspired by a special issue on the topic from the journal Behavior Genetics.

YouTube video of newly developed android woman!

—Vaughan.

May 11, 2006

Psychoanalysis at the Institute of Contemporary Arts:

London's swanky Institute of Contemporary Arts has an ongoing series of "psychoanalytic exploration of films representing various forms of psychopathology and other emotional conditions".

It's been happening for a while and seems to be an ongoing project, but had totally passed me by.

Films are shown, and then discussed by members of the Institute of Psychoanalysis to try and better understand the social meaning of the movie and motivations of the characters.

The next film is Roman Polanski's Repulsion, to be shown Sunday 14th May.

—Vaughan.

New infant language lab at Liverpool Uni:

Liverpool University’s new Child Language Study Centre hopes to become the first UK-based lab to replicate and expand upon American findings published in the 90’s that led to the ‘syntactic bootstrapping’ hypothesis – the idea that children as young as two use their innate understanding of syntax to help them learn new words.

With a team of six researchers led by Professor Julian Pine, the Centre is one of the largest of its kind in the UK. And after launching last Summer, the centre is now ready to start experimenting.

“In essence the syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis assumes the child has an innate predisposition to understand the syntactic properties of language. We want to know if this is true or not”, Dr. Javier Aguado-Orea, a researcher in the lab, told Mind Hacks.

In one study, the researchers will present young children with sentences containing an unfamiliar verb (e.g. ‘the boy strokes the girl’). Either side of the speaker playing the pre-recorded sentences will be two video screens showing a boy and girl, with one of them matching the action described in the spoken sentence. In this example, the structure of the sentence reveals the boy as the active player and the researchers want to know if the children can use that information to guide them to look at the correct video screen, thus facilitating their learning of the meaning of the verb ‘to stroke’.

“It can be tricky, for six months we’ve been piloting our stimuli – for example, you have to make sure that the child is looking at the correct screen based on the structure of the sentence, not because one of the characters or objects is more attractive to them”, Aguado-Orea explained.

“But if we are able to replicate this finding it would be quite powerful because it would be an indication of a very early stage in the development of language, and it would illustrate learning mechanisms that there is no other way, in our knowledge, to detect” he said.

The Centre have tested 11 children on this particular experiment so far, but they need at least 12 more. Parents willing to volunteer their child should email childlanguage[@]liv.ac.uk for further information.

--
Link to lab.

—christian.

'Send in the Idiots' author interviewed on NPR:

Kamran Nazeer, author of a new book on being a child in a school for kids with autism, called Send in the Idiots, is interviewed on NPR radio.

Nazeer was mentioned earlier this week on Mind Hacks, and there's some commentary and ongoing discussion about the interview on a post over at Autism Diva's blog.

Link to NPR interview with Kamran Nazeer.

—Vaughan.

Trephination set on EBay:

Someone has an EBay auction about to close in which they're selling a genuine set of surgical tools for trephination - the surgical practice of drilling holes through the skull.

The practice, also known as trepanation or trepanning, has been carried out since ancient times and has been thought to cure all sorts of conditions we would now know as mental or neurological disorders - such as epilepsy or psychosis.

It is thought that it was carried out to release 'evil spirits' or similar from the head, by creating a way for them to escape.

The practice hasn't died out, however. It is occasionally practised by peoples outside the reach of modern medicine, and some people in industrialised countries do it as a form of body modification for its supposed consciousness modifying properties.

In fact, there's a whole trepanning subculture on the internet.

For example, the Body Modification EZine has an article about someone who undertook a trepanning procedure (warning, if you're a bit squeamish, the article and images are a bit icky):

I awoke the next morning still very much wanting to move forward with the operation. I thought to myself, "The key to more consciousness is sitting in the next room over. How can I know this and not unlock the door?" I explained my sincere desire to my girlfriend, and though she was still apprehensive, she agreed to try to be there for me if it was really what I wanted to do.

We had coated every wall of a room in plastic sheeting, had a placement tray ready (a sterilized tray to set the instruments on), had the drill sterilized and ready to go, autoclaved bits set out, etc and proceeded to trepan me. One person was to do the drilling and another was to help by passing instruments, turning the drill off and on, by holding a light in the right place at the right time, and by irrigating the wound every so often.

UPDATE: Grabbed from the comments page (thanks Anders!)...

Personally I need trepanation like I need a hole in my head (sorry,couldn't resist), but there is actually a trepanation advocacy group called ITAG their site is at www.trepan.com (Warning: site uses excessive amounts of flash, a possible side effect of trepanation?) which has documents and videos on the procedure and it's supposed benefits that are both enlightening and a little scary.

Link to auction on EBay (via BoingBoing).
Link to Wikipedia article on trepanation.
Link to BMEZine article on trepanation procedure.

—Vaughan.

NewSci on human optimisation:

New Scientist has had a run of neuroscience-related articles recently, and this week's cover story is no exception as it looks at developments in the science of human enhancement.

For those seeking that advantage, more opportunities are just around the corner - a lot more. Around 40 cognition-enhancing drugs are in development right now, designed to improve wakefulness, attention, memory, decision making and planning (see "Smarter minds"). Gerontologists are starting to believe we could directly intervene in the process of senescence to significantly increase the average human lifespan.

There have also been rapid advances in brain-machine interfaces, such as retinal implants, communication devices for paralysed and locked-in patients, and even memory prostheses, hinting at the possibility of neural implants that enhance normal functioning. Progress in genetic engineering and gene therapy suggests that we will soon be able to rewrite our own genetic code, and that of future generations, removing broken genes, correcting errors and even inserting new ones...

Unfortunately, not available online unless you're a subscribed, unfortunately, but your library shop or library should have a copy kicking around.

Link to table of contents.

—Vaughan.

May 10, 2006

Experimenting with theatre:

The Soho Theatre in London's West End hosts an event on Monday 15 May where a production will be staged after several days of intense collaboration between scientists and writers, exploring the theme that both science and theatre are essentially driven by experiment.

The event is being run by Tassos Stevens, who did his PhD in developmental psychology before moving on to theatre production.

He's since been keen to integrate the two fields, and hopes to illustrate and explore a scientific experiement as part of the production.

There's also a blog with an ongoing discussion about the project for those not able to see the production in person.

Link to details of event at London's Soho Theatre.
Link to blog with ongoing discussion.

—Vaughan.

Are you comfortably numb?:

This friday the Royal Insitution is asking Are you comfortably numb?, with an event about what we can learn about consciousness from unconsciousness:

Until very recently it was thought that consciousness couldn't be studied scientifically, but now the drive to find out how your brain can make you self-aware is one of the most significant areas of new research. What's more, scientists are now making headway with some of the big questions. What is consciousness? How can we hope to study it empirically when it's all about each person's subjective experience?

Some clues to these answers may come from studying anaesthesia. When you go under anaesthesia you're in a strange position with regard to consciousness. It's a much deeper oblivion than sleep, but we all know stories of people becoming aware during surgery. It even appears that patients under perfectly adequate anaesthesia can still hear, and in one experiment, patients were able to learn while under!

The event features Prof Mike Alkire & Prof Peter Sebel and is Chaired by Baroness Susan Greenfield. Date & Time: Friday 12 May 2006, 7.00pm–8.30pm, and tickets are £8/£5 for members and concessions.

If you’d like an even more in-depth look at the topic, you can join the preceding day-long Consciousness and Anaesthesia meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine.

—tom.

Solaris and the philosophy of consciousness:

Stanislaw Lem was a reknowned science fiction writer. It is less known that his books are repleat with carefully thought out philosophy about the nature of consciousness and knowledge acquisition.

ABC Radio National's The Philosopher's Zone recently had a special examining Lem's view on consciousness as demonstrated in his richly descriptive sci-fi works.

The novel Solaris has as a central plot, something not unfamiliar to readers of science fiction, and is replicated in many novels, and that is the notion of first contact with a completely alien intelligence. We have a central protagonist, Chris Kelvin, who goes to a space station that is orbiting a planet, Solaris, and has been orbiting this planet for hundreds of years. So by the time the novel begins the planet has been well known and it's been the subject of scientific inquiry for over 100 years, and hundreds of volumes have been written about this planet, because it has a peculiar being inhabiting it, which is the ocean that covers most of the planet seems to be sentient, seems to be a rational being, but something completely different from anything else that human beings have encountered.

As the novel progresses, we realise that the inhabitants of the space station have all gone crazy or have died because of their continued proximity with this alien being. And our hero of course, Kelvin, and listeners who have seen either the Tarkowski film or the more recent film, will know that one of the peculiarities of this plasmatic ocean, as Lem calls it, is that it produces replica human beings, that it seems to have sourced from the deepest submerged memories of the scientists on board the space station.

mp3 or realaudio of programme.
Link to transcript.

—Vaughan.

May 09, 2006

Lightning is always seen, thunder always heard:

An old suggestion that crossing the visual and auditory pathways to the brain would lead to light being experienced as sound, and vice versa, has been tested and found to be false.

Nicholas Swindale, in Current Biology, 2000

Okay, so this isn't new news, but it was new to me and too good a story not to share.

If, from birth, the information from the eyes is routed to the auditory cortex then the brain learns to see like normal - at least in ferrets, with whom they've done these experiments. The cortex has the potential to cope with whatever information it is provided with during development. So, it seems, the regional specialisations of the brain aren't genetically predetermined. But a question remains: if your auditory cortex is processing visual stimuli, how are they actually experienced? The brain might be processing the information well enough to guide behaviour, but how do the stimuli actually feel? Are they experienced as visions or as sounds? Or, as Swindale puts it:

are the types of sensory processing that ultimately give rise to qualia innately determined properties of different cortical areas, or are they the secondary outcome of a general purpose learning algorithm applied to sensory inputs which have a different information content?

And, crucially, is there any way of working this out in a ferret? Is there a way of telling what a ferret's experience is really like? Well, there is, and it involves rewiring just half of the brain - so that visual inputs to one side go to the 'auditory cortex' and visual inputs from the other go to the visual cortex as normal. Now if you train the animal to go left to visual inputs on the intact side and right to sounds, which way will it go to a visual input presented to the rewired side? If it experiences the visual input as most like a sound it will go right, but if it experiences it as most like a light it will go left. The animals go left - so visual stimuli are experienced as visual whereever in the brain they are initially processed.

Swindale's review
The original research von Melchner L, Pallas SL, Sur M: Visual behaviour mediated by retinal projections directed to the auditory pathway. Nature 2000, 404:871-876.

—tom.

Autism podcast:

We seem to be on a run of autism news lately, and here's one more to add to the list. I've just discovered AutismPodcast.org that has regular podcasts about autism science, parenting and people.

The most recent programme has an interview with Autism Diva who has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome herself, has both a child with autism and a neurotypical child to keep her busy. She talks about her own experience of Asperger's and her view on the current state of understanding the condition.

Autism Diva also runs a popular autism blog which we featured previously on Mind Hacks, that keeps tabs on the science and politics of the autism world.

The host of Autism Podcast is a father of a boy with autism, and obviously has a wide interest, as the archive of past programmes demonstrates.

Link to Autism Podcast.

—Vaughan.

Autism in the London Review of Books:

London Review of Books has an in-depth review of two recently released books on autism: Laura Schreibman's The Science and Fiction of Autism and Kamran Nazeer's Send in the Idiots.

The author of the review, philosopher Ian Hacking (picture on the right), starts with some controversial views on autism.

Autism is devastating – to the family. Children can be born with all manner of problems. Some begin life in great pain that can never be relieved, but at least there is a child there. An autistic child – and here I am talking about what's known as core autism – is somehow not there. 'Nobody Nowhere', as the title of Donna Williams's autobiography (1992) has it. Very often physically healthy (though there is a high incidence of other problems) he – and it is usually he – just does not respond. It is not merely that he does not learn to speak until years after his peers, and then inadequately. He has no affect; he never snuggles. He is obsessed with things and order, but does not play with toys in any recognisable way, and certainly does not play with other children. He mercilessly repeats a few things you say. With no comprehension. He has violent tantrums, not the usual sort of thing, but screaming, hitting, biting, smashing. This alternates with a placid gentleness, maybe even a smile – but not really for you. Serious Down’s syndrome is pretty bad too, but despite all the difficulties, physical and mental, there is a loving little child there.

He admits that his views will make many parents angry. Indeed, they represent one of the most emotive debates in the field and centre around the question of whether autism is a disabling disease, or simply another way of experiencing the world.

Those who would argue against Hacking (often autistic people themselves) suggest that the self-absorption and social disinterest often shown by those with autism is considered a disease because of parent's own dissatisfaction with their child's unusual behaviour, rather than out of any genuine concern for the person themselves.

In it's most polarised form, autistic people are being labelled as diseased while parents are accused of being selfish. It is not difficult to see why tempers flare.

The debate is complicated by the wide spectrum of behaviours labelled as autistic. A person diagnosed with autism may be someone who can't look after themselves and needs constant assistance, or a slightly awkward yet top-of-their-field professional.

Indeed, Kamran Nazeer himself was diagnosed with autism as a child, and recounts his experiences and follows up his classmates in his book Send in the Idiots. One law degree and PhD later, he's a policy adviser for the government.

The author of the other book, Professor Laura Schreibman, is a psychologist who works with people throughout the autism spectrum, from the most impaired to the most able.

Hacking obviously has a good knowledge of the science of autism, and does the reader the courtesy of making his own position clear early on, was well as making some insightful points about the books in question.

Link to review in London Review of Books (thanks tallapul!).

—Vaughan.

May 08, 2006

Art and the New Biology of the Mind video online:

BrainEthics has just posted up a couple of news items of interest to those keeping track of developments in neuroaesthetics - the neuroscience of art and creativity.

The first is that video from the recent conference on Art and the New Biology of the Mind is now online. Speakers include David Freedberg, Eric R. Kandel, Antonio Damasio, Ray Dolan, Vittorio Gallese, Joseph LeDoux, Margaret Livingstone, V.S. Ramachandran and Semir Zeki.

The speakers variously discuss 'emotion and consciousness' and 'vision and aesthetics'.

Secondly, Martin Skov writes about the launch of the new Institute for the Study of the Brain and Creativity at the University of Southern California. It will be led by Professors Antonio and Hanna Damasio.

Link to video archive from Art and the New Biology of the Mind conference.
Link to info on Institute for the Study of the Brain and Creativity.
Link to Washington Post on neuroaesthetics.

—Vaughan.

Time Magazine on the autistic mind:

Time Magazine has a cover story entitled "Inside the Autistic Mind" from its upcoming May 15th edition. It is available online (after viewing an ad) and discusses the recent developments in the psychology and neuroscience of autism.

"In the meantime, 300,000 school-age American children and many adults are attempting to get through daily life with autism. The world has tended to hear from those who are highest functioning, like Temple Grandin, the author and Colorado State University professor of livestock behavior known for designing humane slaughterhouses. But the voices of those more severely affected are beginning to be heard as well. Such was the case with Sue Rubin, 27, a college student from Whittier, Calif., who has no functional speech and matches most people's stereotyped image of a retarded person; yet she was able to write the narration for the Oscar-nominated documentary about her life, Autism Is a World."

The article contains material that some people will baulk at (e.g. the suggestion that cases of autism are vastly increasing) and is quite medical in its approach, although does contain some interesting accounts of ongoing research projects.

Link to Time article 'Inside the Autistic Mind'.

—Vaughan.

May 07, 2006

Dana neuroscience radio:

While browsing the ever-vigilant (and mildly addictive) Neurofuture blog I was alerted to the fact that the Dana Foundation have an archive of podcasts online, including their Gray Matters radio series and other in-depth neuroscience discussions.

They include a conversation with Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, Nancy Andreasen on the creative brain and a number of other wide-ranging programmes on everything from neuroethics to mental illness.

Also available is a page with all the programmes as realaudio files.

Link to Dana Foundation podcasts directory.
Link to Dana Foundation realaudio archive.

—Vaughan.

Online communities in the 1800s:

Adam Joinson discusses the process of community building via technology in his book Understanding the Psychology of Internet Behaviour (p11, ISBN 0333984684), noting that there is nothing new under the sun:

The cost and lack of privacy tended to inhibit personal communication between members of the general public using the telegraph. However, for the telegraph operators the network provided an 'online community encompassing thousands of people, very few of whom met face-to-face' (Standage, 1999, p122-3). The sense of community among telegraph operators was heightended by their own norms and customs, vocabulary, the use of short (usually two or three letters) signatures or 'sigs' and the sense of ownership of a particular line. According to Standage, experienced operators could even recognise their on-line friends simply from their style of morse code.

pdf of Joinson's chapter on the history of tech-mediated communities.
Link to Adam Joinson's homepage.
Link to Tom Standage's homepage.

—Vaughan.

May 06, 2006

Freud birthday roundup:

Today is the 150th birthday of the late Sigmund Freud, controversial granddaddy of psychoanalysis who sparked off the modern interest in the unconscious and the use of 'talk therapies' in treating mental distress.

The Times has a critical article examining his legacy and finishing with a tongue-in-cheek quiz to test your knowledge of the great man and his theories.

Alternatively, The Calcutta Telegraph has a piece on Freud's last surviving patient, Margarethe Walter, who spoke at an event to celebrate the anniversary.

The National Ledger starts an article by looking at the amount of kitsch freud merchandise available, and goes on to examine the relationship between Sigmund Freud, and his daughter Anna Freud, in a remarkably well-informed article that muses on the possible impact of this on Freudian theories.

And now's probably a good time to revisit the five-part BBC Radio 4 series Freudian Slips - a series of 15 minute programmes each dedicated to one of Freud's key works. The series is archived online.

—Vaughan.

May 05, 2006

BBC All in the Mind on the impact of combat:

BBC All in the Mind has a special on the psychological impact of combat and military psychiatry.

New presenter and psychiatrist Dr Kwame McKenzie investigates the mental health provisions of the armed forces, and the new developments introduced to support the emotional well-being of soldiers operating under intensely stressful conditions.

Dr Kwame McKenzie takes a look at the mental health of the military. With nearly one in 5 US soldiers returning from Iraq with psychological problems there's growing concern about the mental health of soldiers. Dr McKenzie attends a NATO conference in Brussels looking at psychological support, and talks to Major General Patrick Cammaert, a former Dutch Marine, who now leads 15,000 UN peace keepers in DR Congo. Lieutenant-Colonel Carl Castro and Dr Brenda Wiederhold explain how the US is using predeployment briefings and Virtual Reality to help soliders cope, and Professor Simon Wessely talks about the situation in Britain.

The Army is using the psychological model of Transformational Leadership to reform its training regime, and All in the Mind visits the Infant Training Centre at Catterick to see if it's making any difference to new recruits.

And Dr McKenzie talks to two veterans being treated by Combat Stress about their psychological breakdowns following active service.

Presumably, they mean Infantary Training Centre rather than Infant Training Centre!

Link to All in the Mind webpage.
realaudio of programme.

—Vaughan.

Ripples of yawn:

Seed Magazine has a short but thought-provoking article on the yawn and the mysterious way they are 'transmitted' around a social group.

Scientists maintain that yawning has both social and physiological functions, and may even be useful clinically: Abnormal yawning can be symptomatic of pathology, such as tumors, hemorrhage or drug withdrawal. Researchers know that a system of several neurotransmitters and neuropeptides control yawning, but little is known about the exact mechanism underlying the action.

Until recently, it was thought that only humans and great apes were able to "catch" yawns. While humans yawn in the womb, they don't fall prey to contagious yawning until about two years of age, which suggests a recent evolutionary origin.

The article also tackles the myth that yawns are brought on by lack of oxygen.

Link to 'The Incredible, Communicable Yawn' from Seed Magazine.

—Vaughan.

2006-05-05 Spike activity:

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

Mixing Memory examines evidence that craving a cigarette warps your sense of time.

Researchers have located a gene that they believe contributes towards overall mental performance.

New discoveries might lead to a 'vaccine' for a certain type of brain tumour.

Popular Science looks at the use of beta-blocker drug propranolol in reducing the impact of traumatic memories.

Who's afraid of the third culture? asks Gloria Origgi in boffin clubhouse Edge.

Bring on the replicants! Scientific American on android science.

Boys are being increasingly affected by body image pressure.

Do People Know When They're Overweight? Science News examines the psychology of obesity and insight.

Drug companies accused of producing misleading adverts and advertsing watchdog accused of being inadequate.

—Vaughan.

May 04, 2006

Cognitive science video interviews on Slate:

Slate has a collection of streamed video interviews with significant public figures online, including a couple of cognitive scientists.

A comprehensive interview with Daniel Dennett tackles his views on the supernatural, evolution, consciousness and free will.

Stephen Pinker is also interviewed and discuses evolutionary psychology, consciousness and the limits of science, although from quite a different angle.

Apparently, the interview with Francis Fukuyama also strays onto consciousness, although I haven't listened far enough to discover for myself yet.

For a change, the interviews are in-depth and gives the speakers a chance to develop their ideas and really make their points.

Link to video interview with Daniel Dennett [transcript].
Link to video interview with Stephen Pinker [transcript].
Link to video interview with Francis Fukyama [transcript].

...via 3QuarksDaily.

—Vaughan.

NewSci on reading the mind by measuring the brain:

The cover story on today's New Scientist is about recent efforts to determine what people are thinking by viewing their brain scans.

Although you may think this is what neuroscientists already do, in most brain-scanning experiments the researchers will know exactly what the participants are experiencing in the scanner, and they just link the measured brain activity to the known task.

Recently, researchers have been able to work out what the participants are viewing by only looking at their brain scans.

Although these experiments are quite simple so far - the researchers typically know that the participant is viewing one of several simple options and just have to work out which - the idea that mental states can be 'read' is causing some excitement. Not least because this has been the subject of many science-fiction novels and films.

The accuracy of these experiments is typically much better than chance, although it is far from perfect and so far has largely relied on very simple tasks (viewing lines and the like):

In published results, Tong and Kamitani were able to predict correctly 56 per cent of the time which of eight orientations of lines people were seeing, compared with 12.5 per cent for chance. When subjects were shown a grid of criss-crossing lines, the researchers predicted correctly 80 per cent of the time which lines were being attended to (Nature Neuroscience, vol 8, p679, pdf).

Unsurprisingly, this has sparked some neuroethical concerns. For example, the technology might advance to the stage where it could be used to narrow down what people were thinking regardless of whether they consented (e.g. in interrogations).

The article isn't freely available online, but your local library or newsagent should have a copy.

Link to New Scientist table of contents.
pdf of Kamitani and Tong paper on 'decoding the subjective contents of the brain'.

—Vaughan.

May 03, 2006

Opposite Emotional Expressions:

The Facial Action Coding System is a system for describing facial expression. It is based on 46 defined 'Action Units', which are each the contraction of a facial muscle or group of muscles.

So, the six basic emotional expressions can be expressed in terms of combinations of action units. Disgust is Action Unit 7 + Action Unit 9, for example.

Described in terms of the Action Unit space, each emotion must have an inverse (when all involved action units are inactive, and all action units not involved in the expression of that emotion are active).

Question: What do the Action-Unit Space inverses of the fundamental emotional expressions look like? Are they recognisable in any way as the opposite of the expression in emotional space? Does the action-unit inverse of sadness look like happiness, for example? What is the muscle-opposite of surprise, is it similar to the feeling-opposite (boredom presumably)?

—tom.

An influential psychologist:

Psychologist Richard Davidson (pictured below) of the W.M. Keck lab for Functional Brain Imaging and Behaviour at the University of Wisconsin has been named one of the world's Top 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He's most famous for researching the neural correlates of meditation and for collaborating with the Dalai Lama:

"East and West not only meet in Richard Davidson's laboratory; they are also starting to exchange a great deal of useful information about human experience and human potential".Read more

Freakonomist Steven Levitt also features in the list, with a brief eulogy by Malcolm Gladwell.

Hey Mind Hacks readers - Which psychologists or neuroscientists do you think should have made the list, and why? Comments are open.

Link to Richard Davidson's website.
Link to article in Time magazine.

—christian.

Serotonin charm:

Dr Raven Hanna is a biochemist-turned-artist who makes fantastic jewelry and clothing in the shape of neurotranmitters at Made with Molecules.

If you ever wanted a necklace adorned with dopamine and acetylcholine molecules, or just a simple serotonin charm around your neck, you could do far worse than check out Hanna's online collection.

There's also earrrings, keychains, cards and even clothes for kids appropriately adorned with oxytocin.

A witty and stylish way to display your love for all things brain-related.

Link to Made with Molecules (thanks Mel!).

—Vaughan.

May 02, 2006

What got you going where:

By combining a hand-held global positioning system with a galvanic skin response sensor (that measures the sweatiness of your fingers), London-based artist Christian Nold has created a gadget that measures your arousal as you walk around. Superimposing the data onto your route, using something like Google Earth, allows you to see a kind of 'emotion map' for where you've been.

Nold has tested the device on over 300 people so far (his data is publicly available), and is looking for academic and commercial research partners to explore the project's potential.

Link to Bio-mapping website.
Link to Bio-mapping documentary download.

—christian.

The art and science of autism:

ABC Radio National has a Health Report special on the science, myths and realities of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The show talks to psychiatrists Dr John Constantino and Dr Eric Fombonne who discuss the features and attributes that a diagnosis of autism describes.

They also tackle the evidence for claims of an autism epidemic and the controversial link between autism and mercury-based vaccinations.

On an artistic note, the Wisconsin Medical Society has some online video of artist Stephen Wiltshire MBE who has autism and was featured in Oliver Sacks' book An Anthropologist On Mars.

Wiltshire is taken for a helicopter ride to view Rome, and subsequently demonstrates his startling artistic talents by drawing an almost perfect, four metre long aerial panorama of the city.

mp3 or realaudio of Health Report on Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Link to page with transcript.
Link to page with video on Stephen Wiltshire.

—Vaughan.

May 01, 2006

Electricity, let it rain all over me:

I'm just reading Ray Robinson's breathtaking debut novel Electricity (ISBN 0330444506) about Lily O'Connor - a young woman with epilepsy and a troubled past who's trying to track down her lost brother.

Robinson wrote the novel as part of his PhD in creative writing and spent a considerable amount of time reading scientific literature on epilepsy and interviewing people with the condition.

Although the book doesn't attempt to explain the science behind it, it does brilliantly capture the idiosyncratic experience of epilepsy in the sometimes wonderfully poetic language from the book's protagonist - an otherwise plain speaking northern girl.

the room cracks and shatters, the colours wrapping their arms around me but I can't hold them back, it's like rain running down windows, the air's melting in front of me, colours like feelings inside, suffocating but nice
   like storm clouds up there
   like bullies, black lightning off and on in their fat bellies and I need to pull at everything, need to touch and tug and twist and poke and push because it's all slipping away from me
   and I know
   - Mel?
   I know she's here in my room, but I can't let go of the chair, my fingers crack-cracking the corners and I

   can't catch my
   can't catch my

Link to review from The Guardian.
Link to review by The Independent.
Link to information on the novel from Lancaster University.

—Vaughan.