Mind Hacks: August 2007 Archives

Frith free will froth:

The letters page of this week's New Scientist contains a lively debate about the neuroscience of free will, inspired by neuropsychologist Chris Frith's recent article on the topic.

Frith's article (sadly, closed-access) was discussing a classic experiment in neuroscience that seems to suggest that our brains generate an action before we're consciously aware of making the choice to move, suggesting our experience of having complete conscious control over our actions may be mistaken:

Curiously, considering it is over 20 years old, a single experiment dominated our discussions. Reported in 1983 (and replicated variously) by Benjamin Libet at the University of California, San Francisco, the experiment is crucial because it seems to show we don't have free will. Using an electroencephalogram, Libet and his colleagues monitored their subjects' brains, telling them: "Lift your finger whenever you feel the urge to do so." This is about as near as we get to free will in the lab.

It was already known that there is a detectable change in brain activity up to a second before you "spontaneously" lift your finger, but when did the urge occur in the mind? Amazingly, Libet found that his subjects' change in brain activity occurred 300 milliseconds before they reported the urge to lift their fingers. This implies that, by measuring your brain activity, I can predict when you are going to have an urge to act. Apparently this simple but freely chosen decision is determined by the preceding brain activity. It is our brains that cause our actions. Our minds just come along for the ride.

In response, two of the correspondent's question the appropriateness of the experimental task (is finger lifting a good example of free will?) and whether the result equally applies to the situation where we can stop an intended action.

Another draws parallels between our concept of free will and the influence of peer pressure and conformity, while two letters discuss how compatible free will is with a model of a physical deterministic universe.

In other words, if physics can, in principle, mathematically model the interaction of every atom to predict what will happen, how can we influence this process if we're nothing more than a collection of atoms?

Finally, two other correspondents highlight some weakness in Frith's ideas, and indeed many current theories of free will, that arise out of more fundamental problems in understanding fully the best way of linking mind- and brain-level theories.

Just reading the letters gives a good overview of some of the major problems when trying to understand both the concepts and science of conscious control of action.

Link to excellent Wikipedia page on free will.

—Vaughan.

2007-08-31 Spike activity:

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

Fantastic article in The Boston Globe on the neuroscience of gambling by Frontal Cortex author Jonah Lehrer.

PsyBlog has wonderful post on the neglected area of the psychology of courage.

Scientific American reports that 'perfect pitch' - the ability to identify a musical note without reference to other notes on the scale - is partly genetic, and might be accounted for by a single gene. NPR has a radio segment on the same.

Psychiatrist David Olds writes in SciAm Observations and discusses whether 'bad genes' can be adaptive, or whether they always raise the risk for mental disorder.

BBC News reports that a clinical trial has found hypnosis to be effective in easing discomfort during breast cancer surgery.

OmniBrain finds sailing-close-to-the-wind humorous video from The Onion: World's Oldest Neurosurgeon Turns 100.

BBC News reports on an Afghan community drug addiction clinic that treats opium addicted women.

Cognitive Daily recommends some fresh new psychology and neuroscience blogs.

Study tracks brain during different levels of fear, reports SciAm.

Suicide by ball-point pen. Retrospectacle finds a most remarkable brain scan.

Phantom erection after penis amputation. Neurophilosophy discovers a most remarkable case study.

—Vaughan.

August 30, 2007

Is Russia entering another dark age of psychiatry?:

Recent Western press reports have indicated that the Russian psychiatric system might be experiencing a return to the 'bad old days' when it was used in part to suppress political dissidents.

President of the human-rights focused psychiatrists' organisation the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (IPA), Dr Yuri Savenko, has kindly agreed to talk to Mind Hacks about the current situation.

In 1983 the main Russian psychiatric association, the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists resigned from the World Psychiatric Association before it could be expelled.

While the the Society claimed it was being 'slandered', evidence was presented to the WPA of high-profile dissidents being sent to psychiatric hospitals on the basis of their political beliefs.

At the end of the 1980s, the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia was formed by psychiatrists and health professionals wanting to expose abuses in the system and provide an alternative to the existing professional organisation. They gained independent admission to the WPA in 1989.

As the Soviet Union became more open in the period of Glasnost reforms, a delegation of American psychiatrists were invited to assess Soviet psychiatric facilities in 1989 and reported significant evidence [pdf] that political dissidents had been subjected to "excessive and inappropriate" detainment and treatment.

This spurred a reform in Russian psychiatry and after much debate the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists were re-admitted to the WPA, leading to new hopes for a renewed Russian psychiatric system and, indeed, further revelations about past-abuses.

However, recent press reports have suggested that both people who fall foul of criminals and high profile dissidents have been subject to 'punitive psychiatry', suggesting a return to the dark days of Soviet psychiatry and 'psikhuska' hospitals.

The case of journalist Larisa Arap has been of particular concern recently, after she was admitted to psychiatric hospital and forcibly medicated after she wrote about alleged abuses in the same clinic only weeks earlier. Her friends and relatives protested that she showed no evidence of mental illness.

IPA President and psychiatrist Dr Yuri Savenko agreed to give his views on the current situation in Russia.

Note: Dr Yavenko answered the questions in Russian which were translated into English by an IPA member. The translation is left unaltered, but the original Russian version is available here.

What evidence is there that people are currently being subjected to "punitive psychiatry" in Russia?

Such tendency does exist and the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia has been working on this issue for the past 18 years. Since 1995, regardless of the protest of Russian psychiatric society, psychiatry became a tool to close religious organizations. This method quickly became a routine and led to corruption as well as the loss of independent judicial powers.

From 1997, members of NPA were also not allowed to take any part in the forensic psychiatric examination commission of the Serbski Center, even though it was never officially ruled. In addition, the Serbski Center legitimized their actions and this evolved into a total state control of the forensic psychiatric evaluation. Therefore, no outside party could be a part of the expertise commission.

With the introduction of the new "extremism" law, which is considered as rather vague, we find ourselves retreating back to the Soviet times. The law is very broad and any form of criticism against the state or public institutions may be considered as "extremism". It's just the same situation as we had in soviet time with the former law Article of "slandering of the soviet powers" and cases handled by the authority. Therefore, it is not surprising that over the years, the number of unsatisfied Russian citizens who had once crossed paths with the authority, has soared.

Many of them are sent to forensic psychiatric evaluation. They often are members of human rights groups and civic society organizations. Although these members are usually qualified by psychiatrists adequately, they would not have been examined by psychiatrists if not for the distaste for the article mentioned above. In addition, we have also been confronted with an abuse of legal regulations, specifically pertaining to the widening of the medical term, "danger or threat to the public."

With respect to the cases of Larissa Arap from Murmansk, Olga Popova in Moscow, Andrei Novinka from Rybinska and others, people were hospitalized under the pretense of being a "danger to the public," when in fact, not one of these cases showed any signs aggression, danger or threat. This example shows that people with mental disorders are the most vulnerable group of population; they become the first victims of politization of society and the first indicators of critical level of such politization.

What reasons might people be subject to unjustified psychiatric treatment?

This is the most convenient way to make opposition keep silence, to intimidate it, more over that there is unforgotten experience of such actions. The newly formulated articles of the laws of "extreme measure" and "maltreatment of people of different ethnicity and race" is a continuation of the old system in the Soviet times. The first victims are critics of authority, public protesters, people who often apply to court, etc.

Newspaper reports have suggested that some of the alleged cases have been politically motivated. Is there evidence of systematic political influence on the psychiatric system or on individual clinicians?

Everything in politically oriented society takes on political sound, especially – as it was in the case of Larisa Arap – when it draws the attention of international society. Any criticism of the state power and any grafts of "orange opposition" are considered as political danger.

This will then have an effect on the psychiatric services and the work of doctors. The professional public is frightened by the authoritative atmosphere in the country and it is difficult to find a professional willing to stand in the opposition of the powers.

What action can be taken against clinicians who abuse their position?

Theoretically, professional society can express censure on them, they can be deprived of medical diploma or found themselves under criminal prosecution, but in the end, doctors generally tend to go unpunished

What needs to be done to improve Russian psychiatry?

Other democratic countries could play an important role in developing proper use of psychiatry in Russia under the conditions that:

1) Russia must adhere to the international conventions and recommendations on psychiatric health and Russia’s actions must be supervised under a special commission

2) It's necessary to demonstrate to the main supporters of punitive psychiatry in Russia, first of all, administration of the Serbski Center of Social and Forensic Psychiatry inadmissibility of their position, to force them to make appropriate statements

3) All Russian psychiatric organizations must stress on maintaining equal relationship with one another

What are the positive development in the Russian mental health system?

Positive changes in Russian mental health system consist of:

1) The adoption of the law: On psychiatric care and guarantees of citizens' rights in its provision.

2) Negotiating a separation from the universal psychiatry

3) The formation of a human rights oriented psychiatric organization, The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (the member of he World Psychiatric Association since 1989).

4) There are a greater number of medical and psychotherapeutic resources available to improve the rehabilitation of the mentally ill.

UPDATE: I emailed Dr. Valery Krasnov, President of Russian Society of Psychiatrists, to request a commentary on this article but received no response.

—Vaughan.

August 29, 2007

Story time predicts child's understanding of other minds:

The BPS Research Digest has an intriguing post on a study that found that a mother's use of verbs like 'think', 'know' and 'remember' when reading picture books to their children predicted the child's later ability to understand other people's mental states.

The researchers recorded mothers reading to their 3-6 year-old children, and tested each child's 'theory of mind' - the ability to infer other people's beliefs, intentions and mental states.

A year later, the same procedure was repeated with the same mothers and children.

The researchers discovered that the more mothers used cognitive terms when telling the story (e.g. Mother says: "...this boy sees so many people and thinks, 'I'll pretend I don't know what's going on and I'll push to the front of the queue'") the better the child's later 'theory of mind' abilities.

There's more on the study over at the BPSRD. Importantly, it raises some compelling questions about how early interaction could affect the development of a child's mental abilities.

Link to BPSRD post.

—Vaughan.

Believing and understanding:

Nothing is easier than believing we understand experiences we've never had.

A quote from Gwen Bristow found written on a wall in Covent Garden.

—Vaughan.

August 28, 2007

Gender differences in human orgasm:

An interesting excerpt from a recent scientific paper entitled "Toward an understanding of the cerebral substrates of woman's orgasm", published in the August edition of Neuropsychologia:

Since the pioneering research of Kinsey and then of Masters and Johnson, there has been considerable discussion about the differences between female and male orgasm. While orgasms are physiologically the same in males and females, it has often been assumed that there are two distinct and easily distinguishable kinds of subjective experiences (Vance & Wagner, 1976).

This assumption is mostly based on the basic physical disparities between male and female orgasm concerning the orgasm duration. For example, it is agreed that a man's orgasm is often more sudden and explosive in nature while a woman's orgasm is more prolonged and less violent (Meston et al., 2004; Vance & Wagner, 1976).

However, a study investigating the basic differences between a man's and a woman's orgasm experience by submitting 48 written descriptions of orgasm (24 men and 24 women) to 70 judges, demonstrated that subjective experience of orgasm do not differ by gender (Vance & Wagner, 1976).

In this study, the judges (obstetrician-gynecologists, psychologists, and medical students) had to sex-identify the descriptions and to discover whether sex differences could be detected. The judges could not correctly identify the sex of the person describing an orgasm. Furthermore, male judges did no better than female judges and vice versa.

This suggests that men and women share common mental [cognitive] experiences during orgasm. Whether this is the case at the neurological level is a matter for current neuroimaging data.

An interesting paper which I shall try and write about more when I get the chance.

Link to abstract of scientific paper.

—Vaughan.

Statistical self-defence over at idiolect.org.uk:

Readers of mindhacks.com might be interested to read my review of the last chapter of Darrell Huff's classic How To Lie With Statistics, over at my personal blog idiolect.org.uk. The last chapter gives Huff's rules of thumb for interrogating statistics and I've provided some slim commentary on the workings of science, reason and whatnot. See you there!

—tom.

Everywhere like such as:

I just recorded an interview on psychology and the internet for ABC Radio National's All in the Mind. Natasha Mitchell was completely charming, the questions informed and on target, but as for me, Miss South Carolina, I know how you feel.

Also, I'm off to the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience conference for a couple of days, as I've kindly been asked to speak in the cognitive neuropsychiatry symposium in honour of the late great Prof Hadyn Ellis. Apologies if the updates are a bit patchy. Not sure how internet access is going to work out.

—Vaughan.

Brain scan entrepreneurs:

The New York Times has an article on the burgeoning business of commercial fMRI brain scan services - that offer to do everything from detecting lies to managing pain.

fMRI is a type of scan that can map levels of oxygen-rich blood across the brain. As brain areas need more oxygen the harder they work, fMRI can produce a map of inferred activity.

fMRI is a relatively new technology. Although its now the most popular technique for tracking brain function, it only became widespread in the mid to late-1990s.

We've just got to the stage where commercial companies are beginning to sell fMRI-based services.

So far, the offerings are almost entirely based on experimental results that most scientists find interesting but preliminary, and to different degrees, the glitz of neuroscience, and impressive but scientifically meaningless publicity stunts.

This isn't really a problem with the technology itself. It's common for companies to sell their product while its still in development, but its worth bearing in mind when you hear the more outrageous claims for what it can do.

You might think that this business is so new and specialised as to be a target for easy-money investors, but it's surprisingly cut-throat.

For example, VSM MedTech, makers of MEG brain scanners, seem to be running as a support only company after a serious nose dive.

However, this still leaves two other companies who can currently manufacture and install these multi-million pound devices.

The NYT article surveys the sorts of commercial brain scan services currently being offered, and has a critical commentary on some of the companies' claims.

Link to NYT article 'Mind Over Matter, With a Machine’s Help' (via BB).

—Vaughan.

August 27, 2007

Encephalon 30 sends off Neurofuture:

The 30th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just hit the net - as the last ever post on brain blog Neurofuture.

Luckily, Neurofuture author Sandra is still going to be writing for Omni Brain, PsychCentral and print publications, so it's less a departure and more a regrouping.

A couple of my favourites from this month's edition include a post on the how hemispheres of the brain can be specialised for certain tasks, and a video discussion on 'Is Consciousness Definable?'.

There's more at the link below.

Link to Encephalon 30.

—Vaughan.

Girls with autism:

The New York Times has an in-depth article on autism in girls, a topic largely neglected in the research literature owing to the fact that males are much more likely to be diagnosed with the condition.

It's only recently that researchers have started to look in earnest into differences between boys and girls with autism.

Generally, the studies find that there are no major differences in the core aspects of autism between the sexes. But as a diagnosis of autism relies on these aspects, by definition, they're going to be largely the same.

Studies looking at brain structure, cognitive abilities, and other types of everyday problem and emotional disturbance, have found some key differences though, and it seems they sometimes affect girls particularly negatively:

No doubt part of the problem for autistic girls is the rising level of social interaction that comes in middle school. Girls' networks become intricate and demanding, and friendships often hinge on attention to feelings and lots of rapid and nuanced communication — in person, by cellphone or Instant Messenger. No matter how much they want to connect, autistic girls are not good at empathy and conversation, and they find themselves locked out, seemingly even more than boys do. At the University of Texas Medical School, Katherine Loveland, a psychiatry professor, recently compared 700 autistic boys and 300 autistic girls and found that while the boys' "abnormal communications" decreased as I.Q. scores rose, the girls' did not. "Girls will have more trouble with social networks if they're having greater difficulty with communication and language," she says.

The article is a well-researched tour through some of the latest research on girls with autism, but also has some wonderful illustrations of how girls with autism experience the complex world of social interaction.

Link to NYT article 'What Autistic Girls Are Made Of'.

—Vaughan.

Addicted to food?:

Scientific American has an interview with neurobiology of addiction tsar Dr Nora Volkow discussing whether we can understand overeating as a form of addiction.

Volkow describes how the reward system, of which the dopamine rich mesolimbic pathway is particularly important, is involved in signalling desire and predicting pleasure.

Needless to say, it plays a key role in addiction. But as it's involved whenever we do anything pleasurable, from taking drugs to eating to laughing, it's also central to many non-pathological situations.

In fact, we presume it kicks in when we desire anything pleasurable, to any degree.

So it may be crucial to understand what happens in this pathway in people who have difficulties with over-eating.

Volkow mentions that people with obesity tend to have fewer D2 dopamine receptors in the striatum, perhaps suggesting more food is needed for the same pleasurable response, which could promote over-eating.

A similar thing has been found in addicted drug users, which raises the question, is obesity a 'food addiction'?

Although not without controversy, drug addiction is usually described as having three main components (the 'three Cs'): Compulsive use (wanting to do it again), loss of Control (feeling you can't stop yourself), and continued use despite adverse Consequences (even when you know it's damaging).

The difficulty is, normal eating fulfils all three criteria. We're compelled to eat, stopping ourselves is incredibly difficult, and we all continue to eat things we know are bad for us, even when our health suffers.

Notably, Volkow is careful not to describe obesity as an addiction in the interview, although the magazine is quite happy to label it a 'food addiction'.

Increasingly, we're finding that problems labelled as separate in the diagnostic manuals can actually have some core features in common.

In this case, similar differences in the reward system in addiction and obesity seem to be important.

However, we always have to beware of over-simplifying complex problems.

Obesity, like high-blood pressure, is simple to define, but is caused by many different things acting together.

Highlighting overlaps can be incredibly powerful, but inappropriately lumping problems together often means missing the other factors which may be equally important.

Scientists are usually pretty good at this, typically discussing the similarities or talking about shared factors, but it's worth looking out for when the message gets simplified when retold in the press.

Link to SciAm interview on obesity and addiction.

—Vaughan.

Sufficiently advanced madness:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from madness."

Ashley Pomeroy, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke's third law.

—Vaughan.

August 26, 2007

Read this, you sex machine: the birth of PR:

I've just found a concise piece from NPR radio on Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, who used his uncle's ideas on the unconscious to transform advertising into its current form.

Bernays pretty much invented the idea that you can sell products, not by making their practical advantages known, but by associating them with the satisfaction of desires - to be sexy, successful, a good husband or wife, the need to feel safe, well-regarded and so on.

Every time you see razors sold as babe magnets, or perfume sold as booty dust, that's Bernays' ideas at work.

He also invented the idea that marketing was more than just adverts. It could also be presented as 'education' that had no direct connection with a product but made people more receptive to other marketing.

Almost any sponsored survey or research you see in press, especially if masquerading as science, is based on this idea.

For example, Pfizer fund a survey that says people over 40 are having the best sex. People over 40 not having great sex wonder what they could do about it.

Hey, that's my favourite B-list celebrity! And he's telling me that Pfizer sell a pill aimed at the over-40s that claims to improve my sex life. My problem solved, through the power of science!

Of course, it's not just hard-on pills [note to self: that's not a phrase I get to use often enough]. It's now a tried and tested technique that has been used for selling everything from igloos to ideologies.

Indeed, Bernays was personally involved in selling political ideas as well as commercial products. Notably, in his book Propoganda, he argues that this form of manipulation is essential for managing the inherent chaos and destructive forces of society.

Film-maker Adam Curtis cited Bernays as one of the most influential people of the 20th century in his persuasive, if not slightly polemic, four-part series Century of the Self (available online: 1, 2, 3, 4). It contains many more examples of Bernays' often ingenious PR campaigns.

The NPR piece is a short 10 minute introduction to Bernays' life and work, and the site has a some additional audio clips of Bernays himself discussing his ideas.

Link to 'Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations'.
Parts one, two, three, four of Century of the Self.
Link to online Bernays exhibit from the Museum of Public Relations.

—Vaughan.

August 25, 2007

Pink slip, feeling blue:

Ben Goldacre over at Bad Science has written a great analysis of a recent study that suggested we have the traditional 'pink for girls, blue for boys' because of evolutionary differences in colour preference.

However, it seems not only are the study's findings not strong enough to make an evolutionary claim, but that the 'pink for girls, blue for boys' idea is relatively recent and hardly as traditional as we like to think.

The data itself is interesting if not a little unspectacular. Men and women from the UK showed different colour preference curves with men showing a preference for bluer shades over women.

In a sample of Chinese participants the preference was much less pronounced and peaked at more redder shades overall.

One of the curses of evolutionary psychology, the science that attempts to work out whether any of our psychological preferences are the result of natural or sexual selection, is that any sex difference is fodder for an evolutionary explanation.

Actually, we know there are definite differences in colour perception between men and women. There's a great paper that summarises the scientific evidence which available online as a pdf.

There are sex-linked differences in specific genes that are linked to colour perception, which is why men are more likely to be colour blind and perhaps 1% of women may have four, rather than three, colour receptors in the retina.

But as Ben points out, simply finding a sex difference in colour preference really doesn't tell us anything about genetics or evolution. It could easily just be an effect of culture or fashion.

Link to Bad Science on pink-blue study.
pdf of paper on genetics, sex differences and colour perception.

—Vaughan.

August 24, 2007

Dennett on chess and artificial intelligence:

Technology Review has published an article by philosopher Daniel Dennett looking at what the development of computer chess tells us about the quest for artificial intelligence.

AI and chess have an interesting and intertwined conceptual history.

It used to be said that if computers could play chess, it would be a genuine example of artificial intelligence, because chess seemed to be a uniquely human game of strategy and tactics.

As soon as computers became good at chess, it was dismissed as a valid example because, ironically, computers could do it. A classic example of moving the goalposts.

Similarly, I've recently heard a few people say "If computers could beat us at poker, that would be a genuine example of artificial intelligence". Recently, a poker playing computer narrowly lost to two pros.

Presumably, 'genuine intelligence' is just whatever computers can't do yet.

Dennett is a big proponent of the "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck" school of behaviour.

In other words, if something can perform a certain task (like playing chess), then objections about it not using the same mechanism as humans to do the task are irrelevant as to whether its doing the task 'genuinely' or not.

One of his related ideas is the intentional stance. It says that things like belief, intention and intelligence are not properties of a creature, computer or human, they're just theories we use to understand how it works.

So if it makes sense for us to interpret a chess computer as having the belief that "taking the queen will give an advantage", then that's a good theory for us to work on, but it doesn't necessarily tell us anything about how that behaviour is implemented in the system.

Link to TechReview article 'Higher Games' (via BoingBoing).

—Vaughan.

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Ancient Egyptian post-mortem neurosurgery:

Retrospectacle has a great post that describes how the Ancient Egyptians removed the brains of the dead before mummification and notes some of their neurological knowledge.

The Ancient Egyptians described a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders in their writing that would be recognisable today.

One major source is the Edwin Smith papyrus, another is the Ebers papyrus which has quite a significant section on psychiatric disorders, including what we would now class as depression, dementia and psychosis.

Needless to say, the remedies were often magical in nature, but the observation of the clinical features can be quite astute.

The article on Retrospectacle has some great brain scan images and a link to a video of how embalmers would remove the brain through the nose, using a metal tool to go up into the frontal lobes.

Link to Retrospectacle article.

—Vaughan.

2007-08-24 Spike activity:

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

Why are visual memories so vivid when visual memory is so limited? Cognitive Daily has another fantastic breakdown.

Science and Consciousness Review has a new feature article on whether language is necessary for self-awareness.

The New York Times has an article on the potential of physical exercise to boost memory and cognitive processing speed. Pure Pedantry picks up on its off-kilter interpretation.

The BPS Research Digest looks at why we're rubbish at predicting how what happens will affect us emotionally.

Read the latest and 'in progress' research on cognitive training and brain fitness at Sharp Brains.

Apparently, we have taste receptors in the gut!

Drug company AstraZenenca have been whitewashing the entries for their drugs on Wikipedia. Bears still shitting in woods.

PsyBlog notes that pessimists have good reason to be pessimistic. People prefer optimists and realists!

The New York Times discusses the importance of getting a therapist you click with to get the most out of psychological treatment.

Mr. Freeze, the Iced-Time Demon. A thought-provoking thought experiment from philosopher Pete Mandik

Is there anything good about men? Psychologist Roy Baumeister's speech notes that males are much less likely to reproduce than females, and wonders what evolutionary effect this has had on gender psychology.

Jose Padilla's conviction raises questions about whether detainees who undergo extreme isolation can be given fair trials, according to In These Times.

More on the wonderful ACHOO syndrome that won our AAICS competition.

—Vaughan.

August 23, 2007

Induced out-of-body experiences: Do try this at home:

Science has just published two short papers where researchers induced a touch sensation that that seemed to be felt in a 'fake' body that appeared to be several metres in front - similar to an 'out-of-body-experience'.

The two studies were developed independently but both involved the same idea. In one study, the person was filmed from behind while they had their back stroked. They also wore a special head-mounted display that showed them what the video camera saw.

In other words, they saw their back being stroked as if they were sitting behind themselves and their body was in front of them. After a while, the sensation seemed to be move from their own back to be located in the projected body in front.

Neurophilosopher has found a fantastic video of Prof Olaf Blanke explaining the experiment, which is a wonderful introduction.

The other study did something very similar but used touches to the chest.

While these two studies have demonstrated the effect in a most striking way, the effect isn't new, as it's often been demonstrated with the 'rubber hand illusion'.

In fact, you can do something similar at home, and make touch sensations seem as if they are located in inanimate objects:

This is taken from Hack #64 ('Mold your Body Schema' [pdf]) from the Mind Hacks book, but was originally inspired by a similar exercise in Ramanchandran and Blakesee's book Phantoms in the Brain:

Sit at a table with a friend at your side. Put one hand on your knee, out of sight under the table. Your friend’s job is to tap, touch, and stoke your hidden hand and—with identical movements using her other hand—to tap the top of the table directly above. Do this for a couple of minutes. It helps if you concentrate on the table where your friend is touching, and it's important you don't get hints of how your friend is touching your hidden hand. The more irregular the pattern and the better synchronized the movements on your hand and on the table, the greater the chance this will work for you. About 50% of people begin to feel as if the tapping sensation is arising from the table, where they can see the tapping happening before their very eyes. If you're lucky, the simultaneous touching and visual input have led the table to be incorporated into your body image.

All of these experiments synchronise the touch with visual movement, but put these perceptions in conflict with visual information about where the synchronisation is happening.

The brain attempts to resolve this conflict by prioritising the visual system, which is relatively information rich in comparison to our other senses.

Notably, these new studies are the first to demonstrate something akin to an 'out-of-body-experience'.

It's not really the same as the classic experience where you see your body in front of you, perhaps as you float above it, something known as autoscopy or heautoscopy in the medical literature.

However, as we reported last year, Prof Olaf Blanke's team have studied various types of 'out-of-body' and 'projected self' experiences, either caused by direct brain stimulation, or after neurological disorder.

The lab's publications page has many of their papers available as full-text articles if you want more detail.

Link to video interview and explanation of experiment.
Link to New Scientist write-up.
Link to previous Mind Hacks article on Blanke's and colleagues studies.
pdf to Hack #64 'Mold your Body Schema'.

—Vaughan.

Drug testing whole cities:

USA Today is reporting that a toxicology team have developed a method for drug testing a city's water supply, indicating the level at which certain drugs are being used by the population.

The study was reportedly led by environmental toxicologist Prof Jennifer Field and was presented at the 2006 American Chemical Society conference.

The technique apparently involves taking a sample of water from the city's sewer plant, and so doesn't identify individuals, but can estimate the proportions of different drugs in the water to give a guide to which drugs are being used in what quantities.

The science behind the testing is simple. Nearly every drug — legal and illicit — that people take leaves the body. That waste goes into toilets and then into wastewater treatment plants.

"Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete," Field said.

In the study presented Tuesday, one teaspoon of untreated sewage water from each of the cities was tested for 15 different drugs. Field said researchers can't calculate how many people in a town are using drugs.

She said that one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week.

Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers — self-reported drug questionnaires — underestimates drug use.

"We have so few indicators of current use," said Jane Maxwell of the Addiction Research Institute at the University of Texas, who wasn't part of the study. "This could be a very interesting new indicator."

Unfortunately, it seems the American Chemical Society charge for access to the summaries of their conference presentations, but Scientific American has a little more detail on the procedure.

The news is reminiscent of a 2004 Environmental Agency study that found Prozac in UK sewage (incorrectly reported as the 'Prozac found in drinking water' story).

Link to USA Today article (via AADT).
Link to SciAm write-up.

—Vaughan.

Alzheimer's risk gene may boost memory in young:

A fascinating study published in this month's Cerebral Cortex reports that a gene known to massively increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease in later life is associated, in young people, with better memory performance and more efficient use of the brain's memory structures.

The research team, led by neuroscientist Christian Mondadori, looked at the genetics and memory performance of 340 volunteers, all in their early 20s.

The team were particularly interested in which version or allele of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene each person had, because the 'Epsilon 4' allele raises the risk for Alzheimer's disease in old age.

In fact, people with two 'Epsilon 4' alleles are virtually guaranteed to the brain disorder by the age of 80.

Each person took part in a word learning test that involved both short-term and long-term memory. This type of test is known to particularly rely on the function of the hippocampus, a key memory area which is known to decline in Alzheimer's disease.

People who were carriers of the Epsilon 4 allele performed better in the long-term memory test, and no different for short-term memory.

The team decided to do more extensive memory tests while brain scanning 34 participants who were picked specifically to represent equal numbers of the three common genetic combinations.

These tests in the scanner involved learning faces and associations with professions over a number of trials and a target detection task that involved manipulating information in short-term memory (working memory).

There was no difference between the groups in terms of their accuracy on these tests, but people with the Epsilon 4 allele showed decreases in brain activity as time went on, suggesting they were using their brain more efficiently.

In contrast, people without the Epsilon 4 allele showed increases in brain activity, suggesting their brain was having to work harder to keep up.

A key question is why people who carry the Epsilon 4 allele would have a more efficient brain system for memory in early life but are more likely to have these same memory systems degrade in later life, as happens in Alzheimer's disease.

As Alzheimer's typically strikes after the time most people have children, the researchers suggest that the Epsilon 4 allele could confer an evolutionary advantage without adversely affecting chances of reproduction.

Some evidence that supports this idea has been found in previous studies where the ApoE Epsilon 4 allele has been associated with higher IQ scores, reduced heart activity under stress, and reduced chance of difficulties during pregnancy and post-birth problems.

Link to abstract of scientific study.

—Vaughan.

Old School Neurophysiology:

The Plymouth Marine Laboratory brings us footage of experiments on the giant axons of the squid --- the work that brought us the action potential. Quoting:

"The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber" was filmed in the 1970s at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England. This is the laboratory where Hodgkin and Huxley conducted experiments on the squid giant axon in the 1940s. Their experiments unraveled the mechanism of the action potential, and led to a Nobel Prize. Long out of print, the film is an historically important record of the voltage-clamp technique as developed by Hodgkin and Huxley, as well as an interesting glimpse at how the experiments were done. QuickTime video excerpts from the film are presented here.

Link: excerpts from The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber

(via Three-Toed Sloth)

—tom.

August 22, 2007

Metal casing, mental illness and masturbation:

The image is taken from the psychiatry section of the Science and Society picture library and depicts a male anti-masturbation device from the late 19th / early 20th century, and, believe it or not, was considered an effective way of preventing insanity.

Masturbation was long linked to madness in both folk and professional medicine and this belief lasted, even among professionals, until the early 1900s.

It was thought a particular mental health risk in children, as illustrated by this excerpt from a 1988 article on the development of child psychiatry in 19th century Britain.

William Acton, trained in surgery and venereal diseases, published The functions and disorders of the reproductive organs, in youth, in adult age and in advanced life in 1857. It gained immediate popularity and went through six editions in 18 years, despite it's many discrepancies, premature conclusions and emotional prejudices (Marcus, 1966).

Typical of most authors of the time, Acton on the one hand postulates that normal childhood is essentially asexual, on the other describes over many pages the many sexual disorders of childhood — a conflict that is never resolved. Again, without further explanation, a causal connection between masturbation and a whole array of consequences is drawn: the boy would become haggard, thin, antisocial, hypochondriacal, would lose his spontaneity and cheerfulness and would turn into a timid coward and liar. The final state was one of idiocy, epilepsy, paralysis and even death.

These prejudices were considered valid scientific facts, so that the Scottish psychiatrist David Skae even created the term "masturbatory insanity" — a separate nosological disease caused exclusively by masturbation, with characteristic features (Skae, 1874). This term was taken up by Henry Maudsley (1868); the 1879 edition of Pathology of mind included a chapter devoted to the insanity of masturbation (Maudsley, 1879), which was later changed to insanity and masturbation (Maudsley, 1895).

I'll save you the gory details, but these beliefs led to supposed 'treatments' and 'preventative measures' that stretched from devices like the one pictured, to what would now be considered brutal genital mutilation of both boys and girls.

If you think that these were fringe beliefs, it's worth remembering that Henry Maudsley was otherwise considered the greatest psychiatrist of his generation.

Link to picture from Science and Society image library.

—Vaughan.

Chasing Memory with romantic science:

Frontal Cortex has just alerted me to a compelling four-part series on the quest to find the molecular basis of memory in Prof Gary Lynch's neuroscience lab.

It's not only an account of the science behind the research, but also of the characters and human drives of the people involved.

Old school Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria wrote case studies of brain injured patients that not only described the neuroscience of their disorders, but also described the people in such sensitive detail that you really felt you got to know them.

He called this 'romantic science' - something which Oliver Sacks cites as a major inspiration for his own work.

These LA Times pieces are not about brain injury, but they have the same quality of human passion intertwined with the story of scientific discovery.

The first time I spoke with the neuroscientist Gary Lynch, the conversation went something like this:

Me: I'm interested in spending time in a laboratory like yours, where the principal focus is the study of memory. I'd like to explain how memory functions and fails, and why, and use the work in the lab as a means to illustrate how we know what we know.

Lynch: You'd be welcome to come here. This would actually be a propitious time to be in the lab.

Me: Why's that?

Lynch: Because we're about to nail this mother to the door.

Link to four-part LA Times special 'Chasing Memory'.

—Vaughan.

August 21, 2007

Psychological continuity and the problem of identity:

Philosophy Now magazine has an interesting article on the problem of identity - how we have the impression that we are the same person, despite the fact that our personality, preferences and even cognitive abilities may change from moment to moment.

It's a problem that was most famously tackled by 17th century philosopher John Locke but is still relevant for understanding the issues of identity and the self in contemporary cognitive science, as well as for informing complex judgements on free will and responsibility.

Suppose a man has committed a crime whilst drunk or undergoing temporary amnesia. Suppose also, that because of his mental state at the time of the offence, he genuinely cannot remotely remember a thing about it. Clearly on the evidence of witnesses – and perhaps he was caught in the act – it was his own body, the same man who now stands in the dock, who did it. But was it the same person? Should the present person be found guilty of the crime if the drunkenness or amnesia had so changed his psyche that, at the time, he 'wasn't his true self'? Can he rightly claim that at the time of the incident the occupant of his body was a different person altogether; or perhaps some fractured component of his own psyche that couldn’t rightly be described as ‘himself’?

Psychological continuity was, Locke claimed, the answer to the question. The accused, considered as a man, the physical being, is certainly guilty. His own hand struck the blow, his own voice had risen in anger. But if the person, the psychological being, cannot remember one atom of it, then he is not guilty.

But though Locke's theory answered the question, it’s not certain that it solved the problem; for it raises a paradox that will try the wits of the jurists: the man in the dock may be guilty, but not the person in the man! And if the man is punished, he will experience the pain, but the wrong person will suffer it.

Link to article 'A Question of Identity' (via Thinking Meat).

—Vaughan.

US psychologists snub CIA but scrap total ban:

After much debate at the American Psychological Association conference a resolution was passed that condemns torture, bans psychologists from taking part in certain abusive activities, but still leaves significant grey areas for participation in contested CIA interrogation techniques.

The key section of the APA resolution is the following:

This unequivocal condemnation includes, but is by no means limited to, an absolute prohibition for psychologists against direct or indirect participation in interrogations or in any other detainee-related operations in mock executions, water-boarding or any other form of simulated drowning or suffocation, sexual humiliation, rape, cultural or religious humiliation, exploitation of phobias or psychopathology, induced hypothermia, the use of psychotropic drugs or mind-altering substances used for the purpose of eliciting information; as well as the following used for the purposes of eliciting information in an interrogation process: hooding, forced nakedness, stress positions, the use of dogs to threaten or intimidate, physical assault including slapping or shaking, exposure to extreme heat or cold, threats of harm or death; and isolation, sensory deprivation and over-stimulation and/or sleep deprivation used in a manner that represents significant pain or suffering or in a manner that a reasonable person would judge to cause lasting harm; or the threatened use of any of the above techniques to the individual or to members of the individual's family;

The resolution is widely being interpreted as a snub to the CIA, but notably, participation in detainee "isolation, sensory deprivation and over-stimulation and/or sleep deprivation" are not specifically banned unless they are judged to cause "lasting harm" - without any clear definition of what this amounts to.

Salon points to a publicly available CIA interrogation manual from the 1960s that notes that these techniques quickly provoke hallucinations and stress that become "unbearable for most subjects" although the manual also notes a "profound moral objection to applying duress past the point of irreversible psychological damage."

Some members were pressing for an outright ban in participation in all CIA interrogations, citing the whole process of internment without due process unethical, but this was not adopted by the APA, meaning the guidelines fall short of those already adopted by psychiatrists and physicians.

One notable aspect of this story is just how important it's become. At the time of writing, Google News lists over 300 news items on the decision.

Much of the credit for this has to go to Salon who have followed the story since the beginning, at times catching APA with their pants down.

Their dogged investigations have obviously touched a nerve as they report that the APA president refused to answer questions from the publication when approached after a panel session.

Link to APA resolution.
Link to Salon article 'Will psychologists still abet torture?'.
Link to APA press release on resolution.

—Vaughan.

The cognitive science of magic:

The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness invited some of the world's best stage magicians along to their June conference to demonstrate how the conscious mind can be manipulated. The New York Times has just published a fantastic article on the conference and the cognitive science of magic.

The symposium was entitled 'The Magic of Consciousness' and was deliberately more than just light entertainment. The magicians were specifically chosen for the interest in the cognitive aspects on illusion and talked on how they take advantage our of brain's quirks.

"This wasn't just a group of world-class performers," said Susana Martinez-Conde, a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix who studies optical illusions and what they say about the brain. "They were hand-picked because of their specific interest in the cognitive principles underlying the magic."

She and Stephen Macknik, another Barrow researcher, organized the symposium, appropriately called the Magic of Consciousness.

Apollo, with the pull of his eyes and the arc of his hand, swung around my attention like a gooseneck lamp, so that it always pointed in the wrong direction. When he appeared to be reaching for my left pocket he was swiping something from the right. At the end of the act the audience applauded as he handed me my pen, some crumpled receipts and dollar bills, and my digital audio recorder, which had been running all the while. I hadn't noticed that my watch was gone until he unstrapped it from his own wrist.

Link to NYT article 'Sleights of Mind'.
Link to list of symposium speakers and talks.

—Vaughan.

August 20, 2007

Awkward acronyms in cognitive science winners:

Many thanks for everyone who sent in their entries for our AAICS (Awkward Acronyms In Cognitive Science) competition. There were many worthy entries all of which illustrated the seductive allure of the acronyms to cognitive scientists who obviously had too much coffee.

In 4th place, Dr Rebecca Achtman suggested the seemingly defunct support group YAWN: Young Adults With Narcolepsy.

3rd place, sent in by Dr Robert Volcic, is the wonderfully contrived SOMAPS: Multilevel systems analysis and modeling of SOmatosensory, Memory, and Affective maPs of body and objects in multidimensional Subjective space. Wow.

Patrick Squires sent in the 2nd placed entry, with the enigmatic BIRP: Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program.

But the winner, sent in by Sandra Kiume, is truly lovely ACHOO syndrome: Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome). It's the condition where sunlight causes sneezing.

I suspect there were more researchers assigned to the acronym than the syndrome.

Sandra gets a copy of David Lodge's Thinks and everyone else gets the eternal respect of Mind Hacks readers for their unique and eclectic knowledge of the cogntive science world.

—Vaughan.

Why there is no such thing as internet addiction:

'Internet addiction' doesn't exist. It can't, because it's a logical impossibility, a category error, and there's no good evidence that heavy internet use, in itself, is a risk to mental health.

A paper of mine, just published in the Journal of Mental Health [pdf], describes why, but I'm going to summarise the arguments here because of an infuriating and self-contradictory press release about "Internet addiction disorder" that seems to be all over the internet.

Perhaps the most important point is the concept of 'internet addiction' relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of what the internet is.

'Internet addiction' researchers conceive of the internet as if it were a set of activities when, in fact, it's a medium for communication.

People become addicted to substances or activities, but it's impossible to become addicted to a medium. You can be no more addicted to the internet than you can to language or radio waves.

This is important because the proposed criteria for internet addiction or pathological internet use (there is no accepted classification, contrary to what the press release says) typically make reference to 'using the internet' or 'spending time online' without reference to any specific activity.

It's important to specify specific activities, because, as noted above, the concept of a behavioural addiction logically requires one.

It's also important to make the distinction between something being compulsive, something that you want to do again (commonly, but confusingly, called 'addictive' in everyday language), and a fully-fledged behavioural addiction - a mental disorder where you keep doing the activity even when it has serious damaging effects.

The cinema, reading books, going for walks, chatting to friends and any other enjoyable activity can be compulsive, but it doesn't make it an addiction, even if it's a daily time consuming activity and you get pissed off if you can't do it.

Some online activities are almost universally accepted as being genuinely addictive (e.g. gambling) whereas others are subject to significant debate (e.g. gaming, chat).

This is not to say that some of the people who have been described as having 'internet addiction' don't have any problems or aren't suffering.

There are definitely people who are dysfunctional in day-to-day life, have significant problems with mood and motivation, and who spend a huge amount of time online.

However, there's little evidence that heavy internet use actually causes these problems:

Although initial work suggested that time spent online was correlated with a small but significant increase in loneliness and depression (Kraut et al., 1998), subsequent replications and extensions found the reverse (Howard et al., 2001; Moody, 2001; Wastlund et al., 2001) and a follow-up to the original Kraut et al. study found the negative effects were no longer present and that, in contrast, internet use was generally associated with positive effects on communication, social involvement, and well-being (Kraut et al., 2002). A key finding from this latter study was that extroverts generally showed a positive relationship between internet use and social well-being measures, whereas introverts showed the reverse – reporting an increase in isolation and loneliness. It is still not clear why this might be the case, although it has been suggested that the internet might provide tools to ‘amplify’ predispositions (Joinson, 2003), so that extraverts can meet more people and socialise, while introverts can keep them at a distance.

Furthermore, it's difficult to see why addiction is the best way of understanding these problems.

Addiction researcher Prof Mark Griffiths has outlined some elements that an activity needs to have to be considered addictive, notably salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse.

He also notes that the proposed description of 'internet addiction' does not fulfil these criteria.

The core problem is not using repetitive, extended internet use, or even intrusive thoughts about keeping track of online events (otherwise 90% of the office workforce would be diagnosed), but low mood and social withdrawal.

In Japan, almost exactly the same problems have been named 'hikkikomori'. One of the key characteristics of hikkikomori individuals is that they isolate themselves and occupy their time with the internet and video games.

But the Japanese, rather sensibly, identify the core problem as social withdrawal, and the excessive solitary activities as symptoms - just ways in which isolated people try to fill the void.

In fact, this is exactly what a recent study of internet game users found: the driving force behind internet games was less the 'fun', the kick of the game if you will, but instead a sense of achievement, freedom and social connectedness.

There's always a temptation to try and fit fuzzy human problems into comfortable pre-existing categories because it makes us feel useful and qualified to use our existing tools.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have clear and defined treatments for addiction but very little for social withdrawal, because social withdrawal isn't a diagnosis in itself.

The press release is apparently based on a published paper in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, although it has yet to appear.

It may contain a revolutionary new argument, but I doubt it, as there is not a single study showing that heavy internet use causes the features of an addiction.

And certainly not the supposedly "extreme and menacing" condition that is described as affecting 10% of all internet users.

Link to press-release on Science Daily.
pdf of paper 'Online Information, Extreme Communities and Internet Therapy: Is the Internet Good for Our Mental Health?'.

—Vaughan.

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Recursive knitted brain scan art:

The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art create beautiful knitted and needlecraft brain images based on brain scans.

Now neuroscientist Mark Dow has put one of the creations in a brain scanner, creating a 3D MRI of a knitted brain based on an MRI scan of a brain.

Needless to say, it was discovered by the ever-unpredictable Omni Brain.

I also notice that The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art has been joined by a new brain-based online art extravaganza: The Gallery of Wooden Brain Art.

Link to Omni Brain with 3D knitted brain scan movie.

—Vaughan.

August 19, 2007

The psychology of behavior detection officers:

Time magazine is reporting that 'behaviour detection officers' have been introduced to US airports who have been trained to pick out potential terrorists by analysing, at least in part, facial expressions. Despite the enthusiasm of the authorities for this new approach, there's no clear evidence that it will be effective.

America's Transport Security Administration describes the job as involving "voluntary encounters with the public under the SPOT Program, to determine whether elevated behaviors indicate that the individual may be involved in a terrorist or criminal act or activity".

SPOT stands for "Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques" and, according to The New York Times, was created in consultation with psychologist Paul Ekman.

This means the SPOT system is likely to be based on one of Ekman's two commercial systems for analysing facial expressions: the Facial Actions Coding System (FACS) or the Micro-Expression / Subtle Expression Training Tool (METT/SETT).

Ekman's Facial Actions Coding System (FACS), a well-researched method for coding the individual muscle movements or component parts that make up a facial expression.

The idea is that its hard to fully hide emotions as they often quickly or partially emerge on the face before we suppress them, so by being able to detect 'microexpressions' we can get a better idea if someone might be trying to hide inner stress.

The FACS system is available commercially and the introductory chapters of the manual and investigator's manual are available online.

It is designed by to be used by researchers, who have time to carefully examine video tape, but also by people who need to catch microexpressions as they happen - on the fly.

Research has shown that people who are better at detecting microexpressions are better as detecting lies [pdf], but so far, the (admittedly limited) evidence suggests that training people to detect microexpressions doesn't make people better lie detectors.

There are only two small studies I know of that have tested this (I would be interested to hear of more), none of which inspire much hope. Both studies looked at whether FACS training improved clinicians ability to detect faked vs genuine pain.

A 1993 study found that it improved the ability to detect faked but not genuine pain. A 2004 study found it had no effect on accuracy.

The METT/SETT is even less well-researched. In fact, only one pilot study that I know of has used it at all.

Yet Ekman makes some grand claims for its effectiveness. In a recent article for the journal Behavioral Science and the Law he notes that:

This Micro Expression Training Tool (METT) (Ekman, 2002) includes feedback about the correct answers, morphed faces contrasting the most difficult to discriminate emotions, and a pre and post test. In two recent studies, Ekman & Frank (2005) provided training on detecting deception using METT. They obtained a very large increase in accuracy with less than one hour of training with METT.

Rather than research published in a peer-reviewed journal the Ekman and Frank (2005) reference turns out to be to a document listed only as "Revealing concealed emotions. Retrieved from http://www.paulekman.com", which, I'm damned if I can find. Anywhere.

However, it is likely these techniques are already being used in training law enforcement officers, security guards and the like. Ekman's corporate website notes that he's signed a three year contract with the UK Police's Anti-Terrorist Unit at New Scotland Yard.

One possibility is that either Ekman's company or the US authorities have done extensive unpublished research to show that training in these or similar methods are effective at helping staff detect potential terrorists or risky passengers.

One difficulty with all deception research is that participants told to lie in the lab are not necessarily good models for 'real-life' deception, with all its complex motivations and emotional force.

Lab-based lies are likely to be a poor substitute an actual covert terrorist situation.

Link to Time article 'A New Tack for Airport Screening: Behave Yourself'.
Link to NYT article 'Faces, Too, Are Searched at U.S. Airports'.

—Vaughan.

August 18, 2007

Addicted to neurobiology and politics:

ABC Radio National's All in the Mind has just had a special edition on the increasingly contentious debate over whether addiction is a brain disease, and does a fine job of highlighting the politics behind the interpretation of the science.

This much is agreed upon: some people inherit a greater propensity for becoming addicted to certain drugs, and taken in enough quantities, some drugs can cause long-term alterations the brain's reward system to make non-drug pleasures less rewarding, thereby increasing future chances of drug-taking.

The controversial issue, which All the Mind tackles, is over how much this should be described as a 'brain disease' or a 'psychological problem', and this is usually where the politics kicks in.

Whenever you hear this sort of rhetoric in mental health, it's often a reflection of a deeper argument beneath the surface - an argument over how much someone is personally responsible, or more worryingly, 'to blame', for their state of distress or impairment. The same often goes for the 'genes vs environment', 'nature vs nurture' debate.

There is a condition which is a great example of how thinking only in terms of 'mind or brain', 'genes or environment' is flawed for anything which involves an external trigger.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a single-gene disorder that results in a missing enzyme which is needed to break down phenylalanine into the building blocks of certain neurotransmitters. Without the enzyme, phenylalanine accumulates in the body, leading to problems with brain development, cognitive impairments, seizures and psychosis.

However, if people with PKU avoid phenylalanine in their diet, they have no problems at all (this is why certain foods are marked with "contains a source of phenylalanine").

So, is PKU a genetic disorder or an environmental one? A brain disease or a psychological problem? There is no single answer. It depends how you look at it.

In a sense it's 100% genetic, because a single gene determines whether you have the missing enzyme or not. But in another sense, it's 100% environmental, because it's not a problem unless you encounter phenylalanine in the environment.

Similarly, you could say it's a brain disease, because people with PKU inherit a problem with the neurotransmitter pathway, but in another sense, it's a psychological problem, because poor diet decision-making and vigilance can determine the likelihood of becoming sick.

What is striking is that this division into 'brain' and 'mind' is completely artificial and counter-productive. You need to understand both to see how PKU affects someone's life.

Buy you'll also notice how political views could favour one view or another.

If you believe in the primacy of personal responsibility, push the psychological model, because this emphasises the affected person's actions in staying well. At one extreme, it allows us to blame people who get sick through PKU for not being vigilant enough, or wanting other people to pick up the pieces when they fail to control their diets.

If you believe in the primacy of social responsibility, push the disease model, because this emphasises the effects of factors outside an individual's control. At the other extreme, it allows us to absolve the person of individual responsibility for the effects of their illness.

Addiction is far more complex than PKU, not least because addiction to different substances, or indeed to behaviours such as gambling, can be quite different psychologically, neurologically and socially.

However, you can see how the models used to explain each disorder are selective or can go beyond the evidence in certain instances, so preference for an explanation can be politically biased.

My advice is to be suspicious of anyone who tries to tell you a complex disorder is purely mind or purely brain, and think about what is motivating someone to explain it largely in one way.

Similarly, think of the psychological and neurobiological evidence as complementary, rather than in competition, and be prepared to accept more than one model of how something works. Each might be accurate, but just useful for different things.

This edition of AITM is an example of all of these forces at work.

Link to AITM 'Addiction: Dis-ease over diseased brains'.

—Vaughan.

August 17, 2007

Tuna can brain tattoo, awkward acronym reminder:

An unknown gent has had a brain tattooed on the top of his head, revealed by a picture of a peeled back tuna can. Actually, a few visual neuroscience things have popped up this week, so I've collected them here.

Omni Brain found a cartoon of what brain surgeons might be thinking during neurosurgery. If Dr Katrina Firlik's book is anything to go by, it probably isn't far off.

The BPS Research Digest found an eerily silent animation of deep brain stimulation.

And the ever-excellent xkcd online science comic had a great panel about the cognitive neuroscience of planning the ultimate tree house.

Also, this is your last chance to get your submission in for our awkward acronyms in cognitive science (AAICS) competition. The winner will be announced Monday and will get my spare copy of David Lodge's Thinks.

—Vaughan.

Surprisingly absent-minded:

A completely charming excerpt from the 'People' section of UK news magazine The Week, discussing Ben Pridmore, current British and past world memory champion:

Ben Pridomore can be surprisingly absent-minded says Adam Lusher in The Sunday Telegraph. The bespectacled accountant from Derby is Britain's "memory champion" and a world-class mental athlete. He set a new record when he remembered 17 shuffled packs of cards in an hour.

"It was last year at the World Championships", he recalls. "In London, somewhere in London. Erm, where was it? No it's gone completely."

Pridmore does remember that: "I hold all four card-remembering world records, and both binary number records. I think they are the only world records I hold at the moment, although I have quite possibly forgotten a few.

Brazilian TV gave me this wonderful cloak. They flew me to Rio just to memorise a pack of cards. Now, where did I put it...?"

His memory is, he admits, highly selective. "Yes, I have a toned hippocampus, for anything pointless like cards or long numbers. But with useful things, like names, I forget everything. Go into a room and wonder why I'm there? Happens to me all the time."

Link to Pridmore supporting Alzheimer's Society's Million Memories campaign.

—Vaughan.

2007-08-17 Spike activity:

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

First online mental illness support group in Hong Kong launches!

Cognitive Daily uncovers a lovely study that finds that conversational partners coordinate eye movements and nose-scratching.

Dr Petra analyses the recent research showing a link between breast implants and suicide.

The Guardian releases mp3s of the originals tapes of Susan Blackmore's 'conversation on consciousness' with Daniel Dennett, Francis Crick and V.S. Ramachandran.

The New York Times beams light to alter brain function.

Flashing the cash or saving the world can both be ways of attracting a mate, reports The Economist.

More from The Economist: a short article on how the brain develops important networks during childhood and adolescence.

The Frontal Cortex picks out some interesting aspects of the Flynn Effect - the fact that IQ seems to rise from generation to generation.

Nick Bostrom's at it again with his simulation argument: The New York Times asks whether we're living in a computer simulation. AI to be renamed AAI.

Not cyber enough for you? The Times looks body and brain mods and labels us the 'Blade Runner generation'.

PsyBlog examines research on the hidden purpose of chat-up lines.

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's: The New York Times looks at ways of dealing with challenging behaviour in dementia.

The awkwardly named but excellent Ouroboros has been, well, excellent, recently.

10 out of 10 for the patronising headline: New Scientist reports that 'puppy love makes teenagers lose the plot'.

The Wall Street Journal argues that too many studies use college students as participants.

Low voltage current delivered to the head can cut down alcohol craving, reports Neuromod Blog.

—Vaughan.

August 16, 2007

Time Magazine on decriminalising mental illness:

Time magazine has an article on attempts to train law enforcement to prevent people with mental illness from needlessly ending up in behind bars. It includes some startling information, like the fact that more Americans receive mental health care in prisons than in hospitals.

"If you think health care in America is bad, you should look at mental health care," says Steve Leifman, who works as a special advisor on criminal justice and mental health for the Florida Supreme Court. More Americans receive mental health treatment in prisons and jails than hospitals or treatment centers.

In fact, the country's largest psychiatric facility isn't even a hospital, it's a prison — New York City's Rikers Island, which holds an estimated 3,000 mentally ill inmates at any given time. Fifty years ago, the U.S. had nearly 600,000 state hospital beds for people suffering from mental illness. Today, because of federal and state funding cuts, that number has dwindled to 40,000. When the government began closing state-run hospitals in the 1980s, people suffering from mental illness had nowhere to go. Without proper treatment and care, many ended up in the last place anyone wants to be.

The article starts with a telling correction of a journalistic slip, apologising for stating that one reform was inspired when a man with schizophrenia shot a policeman, when in fact, it was the policeman who shot the patient.

A 1999 US survey found that over 60% of people thought that someone with schizophrenia is 'somewhat' or 'very likely' to commit an act of interpersonal violence, when we know that people diagnosed with the condition are much more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator.

It seems there are some positive developments, however, and the article describes the Miami Police's innovative and successful methods of including people with experience of mental disorder in their training, and when dealing with distressed people they encounter.

Link to Time article 'De-Criminalizing Mental Illness' (via Spikol).

—Vaughan.

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Discover 10 unsolved mysteries of the brain:

Discover magazine has an article on '10 unsolved mysteries of the brain' which describes some of the biggest challenges in contemporary neuroscience.

It's an interesting list, not least because you'll notice that several of the problems are conceptual rather than empirical.

For example, the list includes 'What are emotions?', 'What is intelligence?' and 'What is consciousness?' that depend on a good philosophical analysis rather than just more data gathering.

In contrast, some of the other mysteries include things such as 'How is information coded in neural activity?' which is a problem of dealing with the complexity of the signals and their effect, rather than us having problems with defining any of the problem.

The fact that brain research relies as much on conceptual developments as laboratory work is one reason why philosophers are so important to cognitive science.

I like to think of them as conceptual engineers.

Link to Discover article '10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain'.

—Vaughan.

US psychologists to rebuke CIA, ban to be debated:

Salon is reporting that the American Psychological Association is likely to issue a formal condemnation of many CIA interrogation tactics at its annual convention this weekend, although there may be loopholes meaning it falls short of an outright ban.

It has become clear that psychologists are playing a central role in developing and deploying CIA interrogations that a leaked report from International Committee of the Red Cross described as "tantamount to torture".

Psychologists are important to the CIA partly because the American medical and psychiatric associations have banned their members from participation in such interrogations, citing the practices as abusive.

Views on a possible APA statement are mixed, however, with some concerned that a simple rebuke does not condemn the entire process of indefinite detention without due process and others worried that a ban will be counter-productive, as psychologists may be best placed to prevent abuse and develop humane procedures.

The APA conference has no less than eight sessions on the topic which will include military psychologists, human rights activists, psychologists who study conflict and multicultural issues, and a US Department of Defense interrogator.

However, this is only likely to be the tip-of-the-iceberg and the crucial decision will be on what gets put into the final resolution for members to vote on, with one group, led by Neil Altman, pushing for a complete moratorium on participation.

What remains unclear is whether the APA leadership, headed by APA president Sharon Stephens Brehm, will even allow a vote on Altman's moratorium. That leadership is seen by some psychologists as too chummy with government interests and with the military in particular. Backers of the moratorium are set to meet with APA leadership before next weekend just to negotiate for the opportunity to bring their resolution up for a vote before the council.

Psychologists interviewed by Salon noted a series of potential loopholes embedded in the resolution condemning CIA tactics. A simple example is the ban on isolation and sleep deprivation, favorite tactics of the CIA. But the resolution from Brehm and the APA leadership only forbids the methods when "used in a manner that adversely affects an individual's physical or mental health." There will be efforts in San Francisco to plug those loopholes, and to force a vote on a moratorium.

Link to Salon article 'Psychologists to CIA: We condemn torture'.
Link to APA Monitor on 2007 Convention Highlights.

—Vaughan.