June 30, 2006
Children with half a brain:
The New Yorker magazine has an article on hemispherectomies - surgical procedures which remove half of the cortex, usually in an attempt to cure otherwise life-threating epilepsy.
These operations are usually carried out on children, as remarkably, those in their early years can often develop normal adult skills and abilities if surgery is carried out early enough.
For example, a 2001 book by Antonio Battro (sample chapter: pdf) describes a three year old boy named 'Nico' who had the whole of his right hemisphere removed to control life-threatening epilepsy.
Nevertheless, he has developed with very little impairment and has turned out to be a bright and engaging child, despite the fact that a similar operation in adults would be profoundly disabling.
The New Yorker article charts the development of this procedure from the first operation on a human in 1923, to the latest in neurosurgical technology and practice.
Two of the pioneers of the procedure, Dr John Freeman and Dr Ben Carson are also featured, who explain how the team at John Hopkins first tackled a left hemispherectomy. Potentially hazardous, because the left side of the cortex has the majority of the language function in most people.
The article also introduces us to some of the patients who have had the procedure. Christina now drives, graduated from high-school and is studying at university, despite on having only one hemisphere of her brain left.
Link to New Yorker article 'The Deepest Cut'.
pdf of sample chapter from 'Half a brain is enough'.
Link to 'Half a brain is enough' book details.
—Vaughan.
2006-06-30 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Science News on how the ageing brain changes in its processing of emotions over time - do we mellow in old age?
A computer system that can 'read' emotional expressions from the face is to be exhibited and tested at a London exhibition.
Male sexual orientation may be influenced by number of older brothers from the same biological mother owing to the increasing production of antibodies with additional children.
American Scientist has an in-depth review of "The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer".
Pure Pedantry has a concise explanation of recent experiments on the neuroeconomics of dread.
People more likely to give correct money for payment when they have the 'feeling of being watched' - induced by putting a pictures of a pair of eyes nearby.
New BPS Research Digest!
—Vaughan.
June 29, 2006
Plastic brains and seeing the light:
There's an intriguing letter in today's Nature by Oliver Sacks and Ralph Siegel who report on a patient who has developed stereopsis (3D binocular vision) after 50 years of stereoblindness.
It is generally thought that most visual abilities develop in the first years of life, and if they do not get a chance to develop (usually through eye problems), they cannot be gained later.
For example, people who have had severe congenital cateracts from birth that prevent light from entering the eye, often have trouble making sense of objects if this condition is cured later in life, because the brain has not developed the necessary functions to make sense of objects.
Sacks and Siegel's letter follows a previous report in Nature that reported on the development of useful vision after 30 years of blindness.
Both of these reports suggest that the brain is more 'plastic' (able to reorganise) than was previously thought. This is contrast to ten years ago, when it was largely accepted that the brain developed few new functions after early adulthood.
Link to letter 'Seeing is believing as brain reveals its adaptability'.
—Vaughan.
Is the US already using brain scan lie detection?:
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to try and find out whether the US goverment is using brain scan lie detection technology on suspected terrorists.
The most likely technology to be used for anti-terrorism purposes is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which can produce live, real-time images of people's brains as they answer questions, view images, listen to sounds, and respond to other stimuli. Two private companies have announced that they will begin to offer "lie detection" services using fMRI as early as this summer. These companies are marketing their services to federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the CIA, and to state and local police departments.
While fMRI is certainly a hot-topic at the moment, EEG-based lie detection technology based on the same principle has been around for almost two decades now, and has the advantage of being more portable and considerably cheaper.
It's interesting that it's still not clear (publically at least) whether fMRI has any advantages over the existing EEG method, so it will be interesting to see if anything comes out of these enquiries.
Link to ACLU press release (via /.)
Link to actual Freedom of Information Act request.
—Vaughan.
New series of BBC All in the Mind:
New presenter Claudia Hammond kicks off a new series of BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind with a programme that includes features on decision making, synaesthesia and psychiatric patients writing their own medical notes.
The section on decision making particularly focuses on decisions that involve predicting how the future will turn out and how prior knowledge can both help and hinder our choices.
Neuroscientist Catherine Mulvenna discusses her work on synaesthesia, the condition where the senses are often connected, so, for example, words can be experienced as colours. Mulvenna is using fMRI to look at brain activation in synaesthetes to understand how this happens in the brain.
Finally, clinical psychologist Dr Susan Grey discusses a project where psychiatric patients are asked to contribute to their own medical notes when they are admitted to hospital.
I had the pleasure of working with Dr Grey on the ward she works on, and it's great to see some of her innovations are becoming recognised. Patients often appreciate the chance to make their own contributions to the medical record, as hospitalisation can sometimes seem disempowering and coercive to many.
Link to All in the Mind webpage with audio.
—Vaughan.
June 28, 2006
NPR on brain scan lie detection:
As an update to our previous post on new neuroscience-based technology for lie detection, thanks very much to Swivel Chair Psychologist for pointing out that National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation science programme just had a programme on fMRI lie detection with Penn psychiatrist Daniel Langleben and bioethicist Paul Wolpe.
Link to NPR Talk of the Nation on 'The Future of Lie Detecting'.
—Vaughan.
Reality monitoring and psychosis:
Mixing Memory has a fantastic account of recent research on memory distortions in schizophrenia that might explain the unusual experiences and strange ideas that characterise the condition.
Memory distortions are often tested by the use of 'source monitoring' or 'reality monitoring' experiments (largely invented by Marcia Johnson), where participants are given a list of words and asked to read some of the words out loud, and imagine themselves reading the others out loud.
Afterwards, participants are given a recognition test where they are shown each word and asked whether they read it out, or imagined reading it out.
There are many variations on this theme, but a consistent finding is that those with symptoms of psychosis are more likely to confuse words they imagined reading out with those they said out loud.
The Mixing Memory article tackles a recent study which ran a similar experiment while brain-scanning participants to see which areas would be active when distortions were present.
It turns out that less activity in an area of the frontal lobe called the the medial anterior pre-frontal cortex was linked to more memory distortion errors.
One difficulty though, is that this form of memory distortion is also present in people who have no signs of mental illness but have some delusion-like ideas or experience sensory distortions, suggesting that this effect cannot explain psychosis completely.
Link to 'Was it Real or Did I Imagine It? Source Monitoring, Schizophrenia, and Our Grip On Reality'
—Vaughan.
In Conversation on the psychology of dreams:
ABC Radio National's In Conversation has an interview with psychologist Susan Gilchrist who has been studying the psychology of dreams and emotion.
As part of her research, she's been asking people to record and rate and emotional content of their dreams, as well as the emotional impact of the events during the week.
One interesting finding is that the emotional theme of a dream may be more influenced by the average emotional experience during the past week, rather than just the day before.
Gilchrist seems to be taking an empirical approach to an area that was traditionally tackled by Freudian analysis, and was subsequently
ignored as unresearchable.
Link to transcript and audio of Susan Gilchrist interview.
—Vaughan.
June 27, 2006
Will someone please muffle Cliff Arnall:
Petra Boyton has an article on yet another piece of useless pop psychology from Cliff Arnall - the guy who specialises in making up 'formulas' about the happiest day of the year and other such banalities.
These press releases are usually on behalf of a PR company and usually make the headlines, despite being complete nonsense.
Cliff, stop it.
—Vaughan.
First Synapse arrives:
The first neuroscience writing carnival Synapse has hit the net. It should be coming round every two weeks, and if it continues as it has started, should be a welcome biweekly read.
If you're thinking of submitting something you've written, there are details here.
—Vaughan.
Brain-based 'lie detection' now commercially available:
Brain Waves is reporting that two companies are now advertising brain-based lie detection services based on fMRI brain-scanning technology.
This technology works differently from traditional polygraph-based techniques which measure arousal in the body and are based on the idea that we become more stressed (and hence, more aroused) when telling lies.
Polygraphs are notoriously unreliable and are known to be easily fooled.
In contrast, newer 'lie detection' technology typically uses an approach called the Guilty Knowledge Test (pdf) which relies on recognition.
It is known that there are distinct patterns of brain activation when someone recognises a previously seen piece of information, compared to when they do not.
In the Guilty Knowledge Test, a suspected murderer might be shown items from the crime scene to see whether these particular patterns of activation are found. If a recognition pattern is found, this might suggest that they were present at the scene.
The potential use of this technology has raised some serious ethical concerns, however, (see this pdf on neuroprivacy) as it has been touted for use on people without their consent, such as in cases of terrorism or goverment intelligence gathering, and it is still not known exactly how accurate or how easily fooled such tests are.
UPDATE: I've just discovered Brain Ethics also has an engaging post on this topic.
Link to Brain Waves on fMRI 'lie detection' services.
pdf of paper on Guilty Knowledge Test.
pdf of paper on 'neuroprivacy'.
—Vaughan.
June 26, 2006
Even paranoids have enemies:
Ohio's Free Times has an article on people who believe they are being targeted by top-secret mind-control technology. They regularly lobby government to legislate against such technology, while others claim they are, in fact, experiencing psychosis.
Although distressed, many of the people who have such experiences do not seem particularly disabled by them and are able to run their lives quite effectively, even creating complex websites to make their case.
This, and the fact that many believe that these experiences are due to top-secret technology (which, by it's nature, can't be checked out) means that these experiences are not clear-cut signs of psychosis, despite the fact that they resemble some experiences found in people with schizophrenia.
To muddy the waters further, people who are very likely to be mentally ill and experience similar things are likely to be also part of online 'mind control' communities (as mentioned previously on Mind Hacks).
Meanwhile, proponents of the existence of mind-control technology point to the CIA's MKULTRA project which genuinely did test (mainly drug-based) mind manipulation techniques on unsuspecting members of the public.
This leaves a huge grey area for the DSM diagnostic manual, that defines a delusion as a belief that is (among other things) false. In this case, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find out whether beliefs in secret mind-control technology are true or not.
Link to Ohio Free Times article 'Insanity, Defense' (via anomalist).
—Vaughan.
June 24, 2006
Evo-psychiatry:
Brain Ethics has just picked up on the recent development of "evolutionary psychiatry" (evo-psychiatry for short) that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of how we have evolved to become susceptible to disabling thought and behaviour patterns.
Evolutionary approaches to disease - including mental disease - is an attempt to describe and explain the design characteristics that make us susceptible to the disease (from Nesse & Williams, 1996). The evolutionary trajectories of humans is far from a travel towards perfection. We are full of errors and somatic and mental shortcomings - and the appendix, near-sightedness, and a bottleneck attentional system and the like are examples of this.
Another important issue is that the border between normal and abnormal psychology is becoming increasingly muddled. That may sound as a problem, but it’s actually caused by a change in our understanding of how our minds come to be, and especially how normal variation extends into pathological domains. In this sense, it’s hard to draw waterproof boundaries between normal and abnormal psychology. We work on a continuum, and the branch of modern evolutionary psychiatry makes a good case for such an approach.
The post discusses a recent special issue of the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (snappy title!) that discusses the various approaches in the field, and how they could help better understand mental illness.
Link to Brain Ethics on evo-psychiatry.
—Vaughan.
June 23, 2006
2006-06-23 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Science reports that researchers have found an inhibitor for the most potent known neurotoxin.
Brain-scanning for the effect of car brands. Brain Ethics casts a skeptical eye over the research.
Rare nerve disease gene found to be caused by mutation in a single gene.
Interesting new blog on psychology and neuroscience seems to be going strong.
Neuroscientist Shelley Batts analyses Red Bull's effect on the brain.
New study suggests that the antidepressant paroxetine (also known as Seroxat or Paxil) doesn't seem to increase birth defects as previously thought.
Cognitive Daily look at the psychology of love, happiness, and arranged marriage.
Scientific American on the suprising ability of young babies to predict the actions of others.
Wonderful posts from Pure Pedantry on the genetics and heritability of mental attributes and a follow up from Gene Expression.
—Vaughan.
June 22, 2006
Asylum from the modern world:
PBS have put an award winning documentary about the number of mentally ill people in America's prisons online.
The programme recently won the Grand Prize in the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and asks difficult questions about why so many people with severe mental illness are inmates in the US prison system.
Fewer than 55,000 Americans currently receive treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Meanwhile, almost 10 times that number -- nearly 500,000 -- mentally ill men and women are serving time in U.S. jails and prisons. As sheriffs and prison wardens become the unexpected and often ill-equipped caretakers of this burgeoning population, they raise a troubling new concern: Have America's jails and prisons become its new asylums?
The programme makes an interesting contrast to Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum written in 1885 by Mary Huestis Pengilly, and now available online as a Project Gutenberg EBook.
Pengilly describes the experience of being treated like a prisoner in the asylum, which used handcuffs and restraints for the 'patients' resident there.
While a century ago, asylums were virtually prisons, it seems increasingly, that prisons are now becoming asylums.
Link to PBS show The New Asylums.
Link to Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum (via Dana Leighton).
—Vaughan.
June 21, 2006
it's your brain, stupid:
Language Log presents a post that acts as a case study of the danger of taking neuroscientific evidence, essentialising it and extrapolatating to policy. On this occasion, policy relating to how you teach reading in schools to the two sexes.
Link: Language Log on David Brooks, Cognitive Neuroscientist
—tom.
Psyche on consciousness and self-representation:
A new issue of respected online consciousness journal Psyche has just been published with a special issue on self-representation and consciousness.
The issue debates the idea that mental states are only conscious when they are structured both to represent a particular object of thought and themselves.
Take the ticking of a clock. The brain will support a mental representation of this sound, even when you're not conscious of it.
The self-representation hypothesis argues that for the ticking to be consciously available, the mental representation must 'describe' both the sound, and itself ("I'm a mental state of a ticking clock") so the rest of the conscious mind can access and manipulate it.
However, some have argued that this theory requires an infinite number of descriptions and redescriptions and so can't be plausible.
The various articles in the issue are written by some of the most active philosophers of mind and make for fascinating reading.
By the way, the use of 'iff' in the introduction is not a typo, it's a shorthand used by philosophers for if and only if.
Link to Psyche journal.
pdf of introduction to special issue.
—Vaughan.
Pentagon memo lists homosexuality as mental disorder:
According to a news report from NBC, it seems the Pentagon are still stuck way back in 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders:
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.
The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.
Link to article 'Pentagon memo: Homosexuality a disorder' (via BB).
—Vaughan.
June 20, 2006
The science of empathy:
The Times recently published a curious article on the science of empathy after a case where an eight year-old girl broke her leg and several drivers apparently drove past without caring to stop and help.
Apart from the grating "empathy has a physical location" (the spirit of phrenology lives on...) it's a brief but interesting look at some of the emerging research into empathy, although doesn't do a great job of tying it together into a coherent overview.
For those wanting a more in-depth (and more accurate) look at the neuroscience of empathy, a 2003 review article (pdf) by Drs Jean Decety and Philip Jackson is a fantastic four-page romp through the recent research in the area.
Link to article 'In a sorry state of mind'.
Link to Decety and Jackson article on empathy.
—Vaughan.
June 19, 2006
Kandinsky's roaring colours:
The Telegraph has an article on an upcoming exhibition at London's Tate Modern gallery that shows how Kandinsky used his synaesthesia to create the world's first truly abstract paintings.
Kandinsky discovered his synaesthesia at a performance of Wagner's opera Lohengrin in Moscow: "I saw all my colours in spirit, before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me." In 1911, after studying and settling in Germany, he was similarly moved by a Schoenberg concert and finished painting Impression III (Konzert) two days later. The abstract artist and the atonal composer became friends, and Kandinsky even exhibited Schoenberg's paintings in the first Blue Rider exhibition in Munich in the same year.
The exhibition will run from June 22nd to October 1st and has a number of accompanying educational events.
Link to article 'The man who heard his paintbox hiss' (via 3Quarks).
Link to details of exhibition from Tate Modern.
—Vaughan.
Better living through neurochemistry?:
The use and abuse of psychiatric medication has been a hot topic in the news recently with discussion about whether we are too keen to medicate ourselves, and too keen to medicate our children, all in the hope of improving performance and behaviour.
The Washington Times Post recently published a widely circulated article, on the extent of 'smart pill' abuse on US college campuses. These 'smart pills' are largely pharmaceutical drugs designed to treat conditions where attention or alertness is impaired, such as ADHD and narcolepsy.
They include amphetamine-related drugs such as Adderall, Dexedrine and Ritalin; and non-amphetamine drugs such as Provigil and Strattera. These are often acquired from people who have genuine prescriptions.
The other side of the coin is that these drugs are available illicitly, partly because of the massive increase in prescriptions of these sorts of drugs to children and young people.
NPR's Talk of the Nation show discussed the extent and effects of prescribing psychiatric drugs for young people in a recent show with guests David Cohen, professor of social work from Florida International University and Jeffrey Lieberman, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Link to Washington Post article 'A Dose of Genius'.
Link to NPR Psychiatric Medication Debate (via World of Psychology)
—Vaughan.
June 18, 2006
Swimming in bottomless lakes:
"Our whole past experience is continually in our consciousness, though most of it sunk to a great depth of dimness. I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way."
Philosopher Charles Peirce in Vol VII of his Collected Papers.
—Vaughan.
June 17, 2006
Is psychology a science?:
One of the most common questions faced by psychologists is answered on video by 11 year old Professor Henry A. Waldorf while he skillfully plays the cello and wears a hat.
Bravo Professor Waldorf! I look forward to your forthcoming presentations to the Royal Society.
Link to 'Is psychology a science?' on YouTube.
—Vaughan.
June 16, 2006
Not tonight honey...?:
Although headaches are a traditional turn-off for amorous couples, new research published in the journal Headache suggests that people susceptible to migraines actually report greater levels of sexual desire.
The authors suggest that the link may be levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin - which are linked to libido and have also been found to increase during migraine onset.
Luckily, greater levels of sexual desire tend to be a general trait in those susceptible to migraine, rather than being linked to the experience of headache itself.
Link to study abstract.
—Vaughan.
2006-06-16 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
The Boston Globe has a review of Walter Benjamin's collected writings on drugs and intoxication.
Study finds Prozac worse than placebo at treating anorexia (via AADT)
South America's indigenous Aymara people have a 'reverse concept' of time.
The Phineas Gage Group apply behavioural science to legal education.
Older people do mellow with age - they're quicker to perceive happiness, slower to perceive fear.
World of Psychology report that child abuse may be a causal factor in schizophrenia.
Psychologist Dana Leighton is recording and podcasting her general psychology lectures.
Developing Intelligence looks at recent research which is trying to determine the main alogorithms of the prefrontal cortex.
One I missed in a previous post... Chronobiology blog Coturnix has now moved to A Blog Around the Clock.
—Vaughan.
June 15, 2006
Shy children more sensitive to life's subtleties:
Science have an interesting snippet on a study that shows that shy children may not only be more sensitive to unpleasant things, and also to pleasurable and rewarding experiences as well.
A brain scanning study led by Dr Amanda Guyer showed that areas of the brain sensitive to both anxiety and reward were more strongly activated in shy children than other children.
The study subjects - who were classified as either shy or outgoing based on psychological testing - were instructed to press a button as quickly as possible after being shown a signal. If they pressed the button in time, they won money, or at least prevented themselves from losing it.
Both groups performed similarly, and there was no difference in the activity of their amygdalas - the brain region that governs fear. Shy children, however, showed two to three times more activity in their striatum, which is associated with reward, than outgoing children, the team reports in the 14 June issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "Up until now, people thought that [shyness] was mostly related to avoidance of social situations," says co-author and child psychiatrist Monique Ernst. "Here we showed that shy children have increased activity in the reward system of the brain as well."
Link to article 'The Rewards of Being Shy'.
Link to study abstract.
—Vaughan.
Sexy images engage the female brain fast:
A recent study examining how the brain reacts to different types of image has found that women show a quicker reaction to erotic images than other image types. This is the first time that a difference in brain activity for erotic images has been found in women.
The research was led by neuroscientist Andrey Anokhin and used a technique that measures electrical activity from the brain by recording event-related potentials or ERP.
ERP is not very good at detecting which exact areas activity comes from, but can detect changes over very short periods of time (less than a millisecond). This makes it very good for determining differences in when the brain reacts.
Previous studies have found that men tend to show a stronger physiological response to erotic images than other images, as well as having larger areas of brain active when viewing such images.
Until now, no difference between erotic and non-erotic images had been found in women.
The study found that erotic images differently activated the mid part of the female prefrontal cortex (the red area in the image on the left) when compared to other images, within 185ms. Interestingly, this was regardless of how arousing or emotionally strong the images were.
185ms is an incredibly short time for the brain to differentiate between image types, and is almost certainly an automatic response. The prefrontal cortex is known to be involved in attention, and the authors suggest this activity reflects a vigiliance for socially relevant visual scenes.
When taken with the other research in the area, these findings suggests that men and women show differences in both where and when brain activity occurs when viewing erotic images.
However, it is still not clear what these differences might mean, and more extensive studies will need to be conducted to better understand this response.
It is also interesting that Anokhin and colleagues didn't ask the female participants about sexual activity, orientation or a number of other things (such as stage in the menstrual cycle) that might affect reaction to erotic images.
It may be that these might have their own unique effect upon the new form of response reported in this study.
Link to study abstract.
Link to write-up from Live Science.
—Vaughan.
June 14, 2006
Home transcranial magnetic stimulation:
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique whereby magnetic fields are used to temporarily alter the function of the brain by inducing an electrical current in the brain tissue.
In neuroscience research, TMS usually refers to the use of powerful magnetic fields (about 1.5 tesla or 40,000 times the earth's magnetic field) focused on approximately 1x1cm areas of the cortex.
Repetitive TMS (rTMS) can be used either to make the area more active or less active over a specific time period (often 30 minutes or so), while single pulse TMS is used to harmlessly 'knock out' an area for approximately 100ms.
Much weaker magnetic fields (about the strength of a loudspeaker) but much more complex in form, have also been used to induce unusual experiences by stimulating the temporal lobes, most notably by neuroscientist Dr Michael Persinger.
A new project called Open-rTMS aims to develop this latter type of system (actually, generally not referred to as TMS in the neuroscience literature) and publish the plans and software online.
They're currently looking for people to sign up to the mailing list and kick the project off, so if you're looking for a way to alter your state of consciousness with magnets, this might be your chance.
The project is similar in approach to the OpenEEG project, which aims to provide software and plans for a home EEG system, so you can read the brain's electrical activity.
Link to Science News article on high-strength TMS.
Link to low-strength Open-rTMS project page.
—Vaughan.
Imitating the sacred disease:
New Scientist reports on a recent study that looks at the differences between epilepsy and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures - a mysterious condition that looks like a standard epileptic seizure (e.g. falling to the floor, limb shaking and unconsciousness) but does not seem to involve any disturbance in brain activity and instead is linked to underlying emotional issues and psychological distress.
It has been suggested that patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures consciously fake their attacks, but it now seems that although not related to a disturbance in brain function, the attacks are not under conscious control and seem to be related to conversion hysteria, where psychological stress leads to otherwise unexplained medical symptoms.
There's more on these type of seizures in a previous post on Mind Hacks, for those that are interested.
A recent study by Dr Steve Chung and his colleagues attempted to distinguish between epileptic and non-epileptic seizures by carefully watching videos of people when they have a seizure.
They noticed that in genuine generalised epileptic seizures, the patients had their eyes open during the attack, whereas those with non-epileptic seizures had their eyes closed.
This can be seen in their video of a genuine epileptic seizure (WMV file) when compared to a non-epileptic seizure (WMA file).
The head and eye turning that occurs at the start of the genuine seizure is typical in some forms of epilepsy, and usually indicates that the seizure starts in the side of the brain opposite to the side of turning.
The ability to easily distinguish between seizure types is important, as genuine seizures are best treated with anti-epileptic drugs, whereas non-epileptic seizures can be treated with psychological therapy.
Link to New Scientist story.
Link to abstract of study from Neurology.
Link to previous Mind Hacks post on non-epileptic seizures.
—Vaughan.
June 13, 2006
Being subjected:
Fox TV have just started a new reality TV show called 'Solitary' where contestants are put into solitary confinement and stressed until their physical or mental health can't take any more.
According to the website, "a test may include repetitive cycles of number games, conducted while being subjected to loud sirens and during times of sporadic sleep deprivation".
When did psychological abuse become entertainment?
Link to Solitary website (via World of Psychology).
—Vaughan.
Remembering Kitty Genovese:
Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her apartment block in 1964 by a stranger. The story of her death had a massive influence on psychology, leading to the description of the bystander effect - where people are less likely to intervene in an emergency when they're in groups as when they are alone.
This arose from the reports that Kitty was killed in sight of 38 of her neighbours, who all assumed that someone else would help or phone the police while she was being fatally stabbed. In the event, she died shortly after.
Like several other founding myths in psychology (such as the stories of Phineas Gage and Little Albert) the truth of Kitty's murder is not as clear-cut as the textbooks make out.
The 'bystander effect' itself is considered to be real. With additional people comes a 'diffusion of responsibility' that makes it less likely that individuals feel a personal responsibility to take action.
Nevertheless, the popular story of the the murder is likely to have been muddied.
Joe De May, a current resident of the same apartment block that Kitty lived in, has pieced together a careful account of the murder from news reports and court documents.
It turns out that it is unlikely that Kitty's murder was witnessed by nearly 40 people who did not act. In fact, only two clear witnesses to the attack were ever found. There are many more details which seem to have made their way into the media, and then into psychological myth, that probably never occurred.
A recent twist saw Kitty's story told by her girlfriend and lover, Mary Ann Zielonko, in a recent radio interview. Mary Ann describes the Kitty Genovese that is missing from the textbooks, and how her death affected those left behind.
Sadly, Kitty's death is no less tragic for this historical debunking, and it is no less tragic that the 'bystander effect' occurs all too often when people are in trouble.
Link to audio of radio programme 'Remembering Kitty Genovese'.
Link to Joe De May's investigation into the case (via MeFi).
Link to Wikipedia page on Kitty Genovese.
—Vaughan.
June 12, 2006
Science of Happiness on the air:
The Canadian science radio show Quirks and Quarks had a recent special on the Science of Happiness - an area that has seen an upsurge of interest in recent years.
The show interviews some of the leading psychologists in the field and discusses the sometimes counter-intuitive findings about how our happiness is affected by our experience of the world.
We mentioned work by Professor Daniel Gilbert, one of the show's contributors, previously on Mind Hacks.
Link to show webpage.
mp3 or ogg of programme audio.
—Vaughan.
Scienceblogs 'Brain and Behavior' channel:
ScienceBlogs has just welcomed a slew of new writers in the fold and now has enough to justify a Brain and Behavior Channel which gathers all the posts from the cognitive and neuroscience sites.
The new members include neuroscientists Shelly Batts, Jake Young and, er, The Evil Monkey.
Also part of the collective are Jonah Lehrer, a staff writer for Seed Magazine with an interest in cognitive science, and a site called Corpus Callosum, written by a community psychiatrist from the US.
You may also recognise Mixing Memory and Carl Zimmer's The Loom , both of which have now moved to the expanded science blogging site.
Link to ScienceBlogs brain and behavior channel.
—Vaughan.
From Freud to cognitive therapy:
Prospect Magazine has an in-depth article about the development of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) - one of the most researched and effective forms of modern psychotherapy.
The article tracks how Aaron Beck discovered the principles of CBT after initially starting off as a Freudian therapist himself.
The therapy is now one of the most widely recommended non-drug treatments for mental disorder, as well as a number of other situations where psychological function can be altered to increase quality of life, such as in chronic pain.
The article is one of the best descriptions of CBT I've yet seen in a mainstream publication and does a great job of outlining the history of the practice.
Link to article 'After Freud'.
—Vaughan.
June 11, 2006
Neuroscience carnival:
Medic and researcher Jake Young has started an online neuroscience carnival where anyone can submit their recent writing on neuroscience to see it collected and digested for the dedicated readers.
The first one is due to be published on June 25, so contact Jake if you want to point him in the direction of your online insights.
Link to more details (via A Blog Around the Clock).
—Vaughan.
Suicide itself now an act of war:
A motivation not yet mentioned in the extensive scientific literature on suicide was offered by the US Government for why three inmates killed themselves in Guantanamo Bay - apparently, it was a well-planned "act of asymmetric warfare".
Perhaps, someone could email the organisors of the US Department of Defense 2006 Military Suicide Prevention Conference and let them know that their opening talk on the Theoretical Considerations of Suicide by Dr. David Jobes (powerpoint slides here) obviously missed out this important explanation in an otherwise comprehensive coverage of the medical literature?
UPDATE: Six hours after the first story, the suicides are now being explained as a 'PR move'. Doesn't science move fast.
Link to BBC News Story (via MeFi).
Link to 2006 Military Suicide Prevention Conference homepage and slides.
—Vaughan.
June 10, 2006
Cognitive science podcasts from Science and the City:
New York Academy of Sciences webzine Science in the City has a been archiving a series of interviews, conversations, and lectures by noted scientists and authors, including some of the brightest and best in cognitive science.
Some of the recent events have been:
* Mind Versus Soul panel discussion [mp3]
* Eric Kandel on In Search of Memory [mp3]
* V.S. Ramachandran on Synesthesia and Art [QT]
* How Human Minds Make Human Kinds [mp3]
* The Chemical Roots of Romance [mp3]
* How Trauma Changes Us [mp3]
* Facts, Ethics, and Policy Guiding Neuroscience [mp3]
* Ethics in the Age of Neuroscience [mp3]
The QT link for the Ramachandran talk is an 'enhanced podcast' that displays relevant links and images as the talk progresses if played in Quicktime.
Link to Science in the City podcasts (thanks Ben!).
—Vaughan.
June 09, 2006
SciAmMind on mental workouts and bitter pills:
It's that time again when a new edition of Scientific American Mind has hit the shelves with the customary freely available feature articles available online.
One of the online articles examines the recent trend for mental workout computer games deliberately designed to keep the grey cells ticking over and the mind sharp.
It particularly examines the science behind the Nintendo game Brain Age and whether there is actually hard evidence that these sort of games help maintain mental function into old age.
The other freely available article reminds me of a discussion sparked by a previous Mind Hacks post about whether there are taste or smell illusions, analogous to visual illusions.
Some of the comments on this post were fascinating and one contributor mentioned the properties of miraculin, a glycoprotein from the Miracle Fruit that fools the tongue into tasting sour things as sweet.
The SciAmMind article looks at ongoing research on how food company scientists are developing chemicals to change the taste perception of bitter compounds. It seems it needs an understanding of both the genetic effects of taste perception and the chemical interactions of our sense organs.
The full issue also contains articles on the psychology of burnout, the latest on neuronal communication, savant abilities, controlling epilepsy, getting new generations of drugs into the brain and one reporter's experience of dating Hiroshi Ishiguro's life-like female android.
Link to contents of new Scientific American Mind.
Link to article 'Circuit Training'.
Link to article 'Bitter Could Taste Better'.
—Vaughan.
2006-06-09 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
The Nobel Prize website has an online game to illustrate Roger Sperry's work on split-brain patients - with Mr Split-Brainy!
Brian Ethics has a cutting-edge update on the science of genetic influences on mind and brain.
American Scientist talks to neuroscientist Eric Kandel about his current reads and favourite books.
The synaesthesia-like links between taste and smell are investigated by Cognitive Daily's faultless account of a recent scientific study.
New campaign video for wonder drug Panexa hits the net.
Ultra-sensitive material may pave the way for remote human touch technology.
The increasingly compulsive Developing Intelligence tags up a series of recent posts on neuroscience and transhumanism.
The brain's left caudate may mediate the switch between language in bilingual speakers, reports Science.
—Vaughan.
June 08, 2006
Caffeine makes people more open to persuasion:
Dosing someone with coffee or another strongly caffeinated drink may make them more susceptible to persuasion, according to a recent study, reported in New Scientist.
Previous studies have show that consuming caffeine can improve one's attention and enhance cognitive performance, with 200 milligrams (equivalent to two cups of coffee) being the optimal dose.
Moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs, say Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and her colleagues.
In 2005, her team published a paper suggesting that the compound primes people to agree with statements that go against their typical views because it improves their ability to understand the reasoning behind the statements.
After a bit of a search, it seems the full paper is freely available online.
Link to news story from New Scientist.
Link to page with full-text paper.
—Vaughan.
Implanting magnets for a sixth sense:
Wired magazine has an article about reporter Quinn Norton's experience of implanting a magnet in her fingertip to add a magnetic touch sense to her sensory repertoire.
Matt reported on this practice previously on Mind Hacks, where those with the implants say they can detect magnetic fields from electrical devices.
Because of the sensitivity of the finger, different types of electrical current can supposedly be felt as different textures in the air.
The operation is not available from qualified practictioners, so involves risk of infection or the magnet breaking up - both of which Norton experienced after her implant.
Link to Wired article 'A Sixth Sense for a Wired World' (via BB).
Link to previous report on Mind Hacks.
—Vaughan.
Striking castle illusion:
I've just found this very impressive visual illusion linked from metafilter.com that relies on an afterimage to give the impression that you're viewing a colour photo, when in fact it's black and white. Really very striking.
—Vaughan.
June 07, 2006
Anger is an energy - and a mental illness, apparently:
Having 'uncontrollable' angry outbursts meets the criteria for "intermittent explosive disorder" - a diagnosable mental illness. According to a recent study, 7.3% of Americans could be diagnosable within their lifetime - that's 1 in 14 people.
The diagnosis just seems to describe people who have occasional and extreme angry outbursts that are out of proportion to the stresses they experience.
No wonder diagnostic manuals get a bad name when behaviour within the normal spectrum (even if it is only displayed by a minority of people) is pathologised as a 'mental illness'.
I suspect this reflects an increasing attitude than unless something is defined as a 'mental illness' people can't be offered help for their problem, or perhaps, won't be willing to seek assistance.
Link to write-up from New Scientist.
Link to abstract of scientific study.
—Vaughan.
Electric blues stimulation:
The Economist has a short but interesting piece on the use of vagus nerve stimulation to treat depression.
The technique involves implanting a pacemaker-like device into the body that stimulates the vagus nerve (in the neck) at regular intervals.
The technology was originally developed as a treatment for epilepsy, but it was discovered that some patients felt better after the device had been implanted, even if it didn't help control their seizures.
I'm not quite sure of The Economist's claim that the treatment "builds on" deep-brain stimulation, which is newer and more advanced in many respects and directly stimulates areas of the brain with an implanted electrode.
Nevertheless, the article is an engaging look at the increasing interest in this technology, and notes that no-one is really sure how it works - either in treating epilepsy or depression.
Link to Economist article.
—Vaughan.
Beautiful webcasts of Dana debates:
The UK's Dana Centre regularly hosts free science events for the public and has been webcasting them live. They've now put the archives online and there's a fantastic selection of high-quality programmes for mind and brain enthusiasts.
It's now quite common for video of lectures or science events to be put online, but they tend to be filmed by a camera vaguely pointed at the speaker with the audio taken from the PA - making the whole thing quite difficult to watch.
In contrast, I was impressed by the fact that the Dana Centre webcasts are produced like a TV show, meaning you can actually see and hear what's going on.
They've had events touching on eclectic range of mind and brain issues, including:
* Van Gogh: Method in his madness?
* Deep Brain Stimulation
* Creating Brains: the science of genius
* The Origins of Magical Beliefs
* Drugs and the Brain: Pills to make you normal
* Drugs and the Brain: Recreation or Therapy?
* The Ethical Brain
* Is It You or I Who Should Be in the Asylum?
All these events were streamed live before they were archived, and the website has details of whatever the next live webcast will be. The events often take questions via email from people watching over the internet.
A thoroughly impressive use of the internet and video technology. Well done Dana.
—Vaughan.
June 06, 2006
Drug tampering for fun and profit:
New Scientist has put an article online about drug-tampering - the practice of messing with prescription medication so it can be used to get a high or gives a stronger effect.
Stimulant drugs such as Ritalin are being crushed and snorted, and users on internet sites discuss how to take other drugs in similarly non-standard ways.
New Scientist suggests that this is a 'growing health hazard' but prescription drug-tampering is as old as prescription medication itself.
In fact, prescriptions were introduced in many countries to try and control the problem of medicines being used recreationally.
Benzedrine is the classic example. The nasal decongestant was widely abused as its main active ingredient was amphetamine.
It was so widely abused to become part of culture and featured in songs and literature as a result. Even clean-cut James Bond pops the occasional Benzedrine to keep him sharp in the original Ian Fleming novels.
The Addiction Research Unit at Buffalo University have collected many more examples of now prohibited drugs which were widely available over the counter, and similarly abused for their recreational kick.
Link to New Scientist article.
Link to Buffalo University online pre-prohibition drugs museum.
—Vaughan.
Spare change for a brain scan?:
Delivery driver Gary Harris was suffering vomiting and headaches but was told he would have to wait 11 weeks for an NHS brain scan, so his workmates had a whip-round and collected enough money for a private scan - which saved his life.
The scan found a large tumour, and doctors say his life would have been in danger had it not been detected and removed.
Link to story from BBC News.
—Vaughan.
June 05, 2006
Brain-computer interface video:
Wow. I've just found a corporate video for a brain computer interface device. With spiffy animation and video of the real thing in action.
It seems to be a video of this device currently in development.
I didn't realise the technology was at the stage where slick videos would be necessary.
UPDATE: Thanks to the researchers from the lab who are developing this technology for passing on more info (pdf) in the comments page. I also notice there's more info here and here on the science behind 'BrainGate'.
Link to video (on YouTube).
Link to more info.
—Vaughan.
Research companion competition:
Petra also tells me that there's a competition to promote participation in the free discussion forum for psychology and social science research.
£100 worth of books will be awarded to the most active and helpful member of this site between 5th of May and the 7th of July.
The forum is for anyone undertaking psychology or social science research to discuss their work and exchange ideas, with input from professional researchers and Petra herself.
Link to competition details.
Link to message board front page.
—Vaughan.
Dana and the science of sex:
The London-based Dana Centre will be hosting a number of events on the science of sex over the coming month for those interested in gender, reproduction and passion.
Tuesday 6th of June sees a debate asking can pharmaceuticals improve your love life? and considers the increasing targetting of sexual behaviour by drug companies.
On the following day, there's a discussion about the problems with defining gender and how gender is influenced by social and biological development.
And on Wednesday 14th June the Dana Centre tackles myths and misconceptions about sex and sexual behaviour in a panel discussion.
Psychologist, sex researcher and blogger Petra Boyton will be part of the discussion for the two debates on sex, and will be joined by professionals from the pharmaceutical industry and medical world.
—Vaughan.
June 04, 2006
Bonkersfest! photos:
Photos from yesterday's Bonkersfest! have started to appear online.
It was a beautifully sunny, wonderfully anarchic day in Camberwell.
Congratulations to all involved and I'll look forward to the next one.
—Vaughan.
ABC All in the Mind on mother's little helper:
The excellent ABC Radio National All in the Mind has a special this week on the social impact of psychiatric drugs.
During the 20th century, there was a revolution in the development of mind-altering drugs to the point where useful and viable medicines for mental distress became available.
The widespread prescription of such drugs meant that they became used for more than serious mental illness - they often became self-administered fixes for the stresses and strains of daily life.
All in the Mind discusses the history of the these drugs and how they have affected our ideas of cultural and personal distress.
mp3 or realaudio of programme.
Link to transcript.
—Vaughan.
June 03, 2006
Square eyes, altered states:
The Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments blog has a thoughtful piece on the increasing trend for people with serious mental health concerns being chosen as participants in reality television shows.
Recently, several mental health charities have criticised the UK Big Brother after a contestant threatened to kill themselves on air, and left the show shortly after.
Participants with mental health difficulties have also featured on mainstream US shows, and the article argues that producers are more concerned with having dramatic 'characters' in their show than they are about the mental health of participants.
The article is an incisive analysis of mental illness on reality TV at a time when such concerns have become widely debated.
Link to article 'Reality Corrupted'.
—Vaughan.
June 02, 2006
Mind-brain link questioned:
The idea that the mind is the result of the function of the brain is so widely accepted within neuroscience as to almost be its defining statement. It's suprising then when you find someone who's arguing against this idea in a coherent and thoughtful manner.
The blog Science is a Method not a Position keeps tabs on the world of the cognitive and neurosciences and puts forward alternative interpretations that suggest there may be more to the mind than the firing of neurons.
Even if you don't buy the main argument, the blog highlights how our simple assumptions aren't always as watertight as we believe them to be.
Link to Science is a Method not a Position.
—Vaughan.
2006-06-02 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
BBC radio programme uses computational lingustics on to uncover new patterns in spoken and written english use.
Parapsychology study uses email to test for psychic ability.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy... Intriguing website from Cambridge University about widely circulated internet meme.
New Scientist report on a robot hand controlled by thought alone (and some electronics).
Such a cliché, it's hardly news anymore: Drug company funded studies tend to support the effectiveness of their drugs.
BBC Radio 4 to launch The Memory Experience season this summer.
Tests for 'face-blindness' (prosopagnosia) reveals disorder may not be so rare after all.
Are we addicted to internet porn? No, is the short answer, not that you'd believe it from the newspaper headlines.
"Sexual desire traced to genetics": clumsy headline obscures interesting study showing that a gene coding for a dopamine receptor can account for 5% of reported sexual desire.
—Vaughan.
June 01, 2006
Coma and video deficit in the new Research Digest:
Christian's too modest to mention them, but I notice a new batch of posts on the BPS Research Digest has just appeared.
I was particularly interested to see the post on recent research that has looked at how coma is represented in Hollywood movies - seemingly as a semi-angelic form of restful unconsciousness from which people awake as if they'd never been gone.
—Vaughan.
On the impact of heroin addiction:
The Wall Street Journal has recently published an article on heroin addicition by the pseudonymous Theodore Dalrymple, who argues that heroin is not as life-gripping as it is claimed, and that many addicts simply lack the will to stop using the drug.
Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name of retired psychiatrist Anthony Daniels who has long opposed liberal approaches to mental illness and its treatment.
Conservative writers tend to dismiss mental illness off-hand as some sort of moral failing without ever engaging the topic, while Daniels is one of the few who actually gives the issue some consideration.
Even if you don't agree with his views, Daniels is a thought-provoking writer who tackles a difficult area that others often ignore.
Link to 'Poppycock' by Theodore Dalrymple.
—Vaughan.
