July 04, 2008
2008-07-04 Spike activity:
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Scientific American looks at the neuroscience of dance, and includes one of my favourite studies on ballet dancers and capoeira artists.
War on Drugs bulletin: a World Health Organisation study finds the USA leads the world, by quite a wide margin, in per capita consumption of illegal drugs. Globally, there seems no relation between drug consumption and legal restriction. $500 billion well spent then.
Sharp Brains rounds up some of their recent brain enhancement articles by the SB team and guest scientists.
Separated at birth: celebrity psychologists Linda Papadopoulos and Robi Ludwig. That's just spooky isn't it?
A 2005 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis reports on a man with phantom limb who finds it involuntarily responds to hypnotic suggestions.
The Neurocritic finds the 'watermelon works like viagra' nonsense is, well, nonsense.
The NYT Freakanomics blog has a fascinating piece on why people lie on social welfare applications, in the opposite direction than you'd think.
From deceiving others to a great piece on self-deception, in the International Herald Tribune.
Mixing Memory is doing an excellent in-depth review of Lakoff's new book 'The Political Mind'. Just check the blog and look for the past pieces and forthcoming updates.
Cypress Hill vindicated! Cognitive Daily reports on a study finding that high-pitched voices are generally rated as more attractive.
The BPS Research Digest tracks down a fascinating book on the history and philosophy of jokes.
Enhancing your cognitive ability with electricity makes a comeback. Technology Review looks at transcranial direct current stimulation.
Developing Intelligence has another fascinating piece - this time on how the cognitive benefits of meditation are likely to be available to everyone.
The excellent Advances in the History of Psychology finds a interesting paper on a seemingly apocryphal 1868 dust-up between Paul Broca and John Hughlings Jackson.
