Mind Hacks: Linkage Archives

June 25, 2009

neuro images:

neuro images is a regularly updated website of beautiful neuroscience images run by Neurophilosophy blogger Mo Costandi.

It's a Tumblr blog, so is a pretty no frills affair, but it's the perfect platform just to let the pictures shine.

There are already some stunning images on there, from ancient illustrations to cutting edge scans, so keep an eye on it for more neural eye candy.

Link to neuro images.
Link to Neurophilosophy.

—Vaughan.

June 19, 2009

2009-06-19 Spike activity:

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

PsychCentral awards its 2009 Online Mental Health Journalism Awards. Mind Hacks makes the list. Still no word from Shakira.

The wonderful Dr Mezmer's Psychopedia of Bad Psychology is released as a full free edition.

The Economist on a study finding that repeating positive statements to oneself has a negative effect of people with low self-esteem. Is this the death of Émile Coué?

An excellent article on the curious pharmacological properties of the curious hallucinogen salvia divinorum is on Terra Sigillata.

BBC News covers a new call to rethink how courts should handle eyewitness testimony in the light of the science of memory.

Stereotypes about the drivers of certain cars affect our perception of how fast we think the car is going, according to a study covered by BPS Research Digest.

The Guardian Book Club podcast discusses Steve Pinker's The Blank Slate.

There's an excellent special issue of ye olde Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on predictions in the brain - using our past to prepare for the future.

The Telegraph wees itself in public.

Mental time travel and the importance of remembering forward in time are discussed by the ever excellent Neurophilosophy.

The New York Times has a rough guide to borderline personality disorder.

Patients with schizophrenia least likely to commit suicide after being treated by young female psychiatrists, according to a study in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Via the excellent Spanish language blog Nietos de Kraepelin.

Frontier Psychiatrist has an excellent piece on the complexities and depression and antidepressant prescribing.

Can a lack of sleep drive you mad? asks The Independent. Correlation-causation warning applies for some of the points.

The New York Times reports on a recent study finding a higher rate of mental illness in the Chinese population than previously thought.

Hooked on a feeling. Newsweek discusses the science of placebo.

Rethinking Autism has produced a series of sexy videos to promote sensible science on autism. A strange brew indeed.

Booze to brain in six minutes. Live Science covers a study of people getting pissed in brain scanners.

An article for the ACLU Blog delves into the history of the American Psychological Association's collusion with war-on-terror interrogation / torture / shadyness. You may be interested to know that the APA are currently focussed on backpeddling.

The New York Times tackles the 'a glass of wine a day is good for you' meme, which doesn't actually have a lot of solid evidence backing it up.

There's a good in-depth review of Flynn's new book on intelligence and the Flynn effect over at American Scientist.

The Kinsey Institute has a twitter feed! Make your own coming thick and fast jokes. I'm above that sort of thing.

A dodgy study that, despite its claims, didn't find antipsychotic aripiprazole is particularly associated with increased subjective well-being is tackled in an excellent analysis by Neuroskeptic.

Discover Magazine has an excellent Carl Zimmer article on the benefits of the wandering mind and the brain's 'default network'.

A Harvard psychiatrist writes a spoof article on zombie neurobiology - sadly we only have a secondhand write-up from io9. If only those scientists in Day of the Dead had a copy, maybe it wouldn't have turned out so bad.

Neuron Culture has the best write-up anywhere on the recent metanalysis of the link between the 5-HTTLPR gene and depression: The (Illusory) Rise and Fall of the "Depression Gene".

To the bunkers! New Scientist covers a plan to teach military robots the rules of war. Don't you realise, that's exactly what they want you to believe!

The Splintered Mind has a philosophical dream.

—Vaughan.

June 12, 2009

2009-06-12 Spike activity:

A slightly belated selection of quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

If you're a mental health professional from a low or middle income country you can apply for a grant to attend the Global Mental Health Summit happening this September in Greece. Applications need to be in by June 20th.

The mood we are in affects the way we see things by modulating the activity of the visual cortex, according to a new study expertly covered by Neurophilosophy.

Discover Magazine has a brief look at some EEG kit that aims to integrate both electrical activity from the brain with human action recording.

Altruism may have resulted from a form of natural selection caused by a state of near-continual warfare, according to a study covered by the Independent. Hang on, isn't that the plot of 1984?

Time magazine has an article on complexity theory that doesn't seem to have a punchline as such but is an interesting tour through various studies that can be understood on various level of explanation.

Ignore the title and skip the first line and the Boston Globe has an interesting article on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation to study the neuropsychology of autism. The 'testing reflexes' bit is a minor part of it.

New Scientist covers a study that finds we prefer advice from a confident source, even when the person has a poor track record.

This is an absolutely fascinating study covered by the BPS Research Digest. We seem to have a 'blind spot' for our own body language.

The New York Times has an brief piece on how new guidelines on whether young athletes should return to play after a concussion are causing controversy.

Anthropology in crisis - what, still? The excellent Culture and Cognition blog looks at why anthropology is still a contested field.

New Scientist covers a wonderfully elegant study on what causes 'tip-of-the-tongue' just can't remember that word experiences.

The excellent Channel N mind and brain video blog has moved. Update your bookmarks!

Neuronarrative covers some interesting research on how fictional depictions of organ donations on medical dramas affect whether people want to sign up for this life saving option.

The work of a burqa wearing Islamic sex therapist who practices in Dubai is covered by The New York Times.

Furious Seasons covers a new study on how antidepressant paroxetine (Serpxat / Paxil) is linked to sperm damage in some men.

An excellent piece by an epilepsy doctor and researcher asking for a better understanding of the seizure disorder is on the BBC News site.

Wired Science reports that the Pentagon are investigating pills for PTSD prevention.

Time moves too slowly for hyperactive boys, reports New Scientist. Don't I just know it.

The excellent philosophy of mind blog Brain Hammer has moved. Update your bookmarks!

Another big name psychiatrist gets in hot water for undeclared payments from Big Pharma. The Wall Street Journal blog has the story.

Search Magazine has an article on the neuroscience of forgiveness. It misses a study on exactly this that recently appeared in Neuropsychologia.

Excessive use of "neuro" in a book title: Neuropsychological Neurology: Neurocognitive Impairments of Neurological Disorders (thanks @sarcastic_f!)

Evidence for Freudian projection inadvertently found in a study of whether dogs can have a guilty expression or not - turns out, owners just perceive the expression when they think the dog has done something wrong but the canine face doesn't change. BBC News is on the case.

Not Exactly Rocket Science finds an intriguing study showing that five-month-old babies prefer their own languages and shun foreign accents.

There's a review of an interesting-looking new book and ethnographic study on heroin injectors and crack smokers on the streets of San Francisco over at Neuroanthropology.

—Vaughan.

June 08, 2009

Encephalon 72 launches new range:

The 72nd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has seemingly been taken over by Apple and transformed into the iCephalon carnival, which is much the same but costs more and has a hipster fan club.

A couple of my favourites includes a damning review of the new US psychiatric drama 'Mental' from The Neurocritic, and news that while tall people have higher status, high-status individuals also look taller, from Neurotopia.

There's a whole range of shiny new text products being introduced so head on over to Cognitive Daily who are the generous hosts for this fortnight's edition.

Link to Encephalon 72.

—Vaughan.

June 05, 2009

2009-06-05 Spike activity:

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

Carriers of 5-HTTLPR gene version have higher rates of addiction but teen counselling nullifies the risk, reports Wired Science.

Science News reports on a study finding that people who feel pressure to look attractive are more fearful of being rejected.

Neurotech booster Zack Lynch is summarising the punchlines of his recent academic article on 'The future of neurotechnology innovation'. Part one neuroimaging and disease treatment, part two on crossing the blood-brain barrier.

The Wall Street Journal discusses the highs and lows of nicotine vaporising 'electronic cigarettes'. Will the UK version be called e-fags I wonder?

Antipsychotics for kids effective but with substantial risks according to FDA briefing covered by Furious Seasons.

UK iPlayer viewers can still view BBC documentary 'A World of Pain: Meera Syal on Self-Harm' online.

Confabulatory hypermnesia. A case of a patient who believes, falsely, to have perfect recall, is expertly covered by Neurophilosophy.

68% of task-force members for upcoming DSM-V psychiatric diagnosis manual report taking money from drug companies, report USA Today. Good to see psychiatry cleaning up it's act. Oh no, my mistake.

Reuters covers the latest book by Will Elliott, who wrote an acclaimed debut novel about a clown with schizophrenia. Elliot has apparently been diagnosed with the condition himself.

Staying together 'for the sake of the kids' doesn't necessarily help them, says a study reported by Science Daily.

Talking Brains asks whether fMRI adaptation can demonstrate or refute the existence of mirror neurons in response to Iacoboni's comments on our recent post on the topic.

A new series of BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind has just launched on the newly decimated, information scorched BBC website. Permanent audio archive? Useful programme guides? So last season.

Time magazine looks at the psychology of 'conspicuous altruism'.

The fantastic 'culture and compulsion' series is rounded-up in one handy place on Neuroanthropology.

BPS Research Digest reports that girls attract American men best with direct chat-up lines.

Presumably, this includes the situation when the whole process is reduced to a tick box. Talking of which, during speed-dating women become less choosy when they, rather than men, move from table to table, according to a new study reported on by Nature News.

Scientific American has a brief article on how to tap the wisdom of the crowd in your head. Tap their wisdom? I just want them to stop throwing popcorn at the screen.

Can psychotherapists detect liars? Better than average but only very slightly, according to a study covered in Psychotherapy Networker magazine.

Wired Danger Room reports that the US military still getting funded for their sci-fi science fantasies. This time the Air Force looks for the 'core algorithms' of human thought. As the article says "Good luck with that, guys."

A whole load of great links on how music works, and the psychology of the tune, on Metafilter.

The LA Times reports that a third of US kids with autism are prescribed SSRI drug citalopram while a new study find it's no better than placebo and has worse side-effects.

UK readers. The BPS Research Digest has an excellent Twitter feed that keeps you up-to-date with TV shows, radio programmes and events about the mind and brain.

—Vaughan.

May 29, 2009

2009-05-29 Spike activity:

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

HBO launches the awesome Alzheimer's Project online. Video, documentary, facts, stories. Very nicely put together.

Teen mental health and mindfulness are the focus of a recent ABC Radio National Health Report.

The LA Times has more on the ongoing revision of the psychiatrists diagnostic manual, the DSM.

God bless 'em. The British Journal of Psychiatry publish a letter (scroll down) in which I complain about people ignoring research when talking about 'internet addiction' and other fictional monstrosities. The original authors write a lovely reply and I feel a bit sheepish.

The BPS Research Digest has a great post on simulating déjà vu in the lab.

If you haven't seen it somewhere else, the excellent Mary Roach does a fascinating TED talk on '10 things you didn't know about orgasm' (although she doesn't mention that the case of toothbrushing triggered orgasm was due to epilepsy).

People are universally optimistic according to a survey of over 140 countries reported in Science Daily. "At the country level, optimism is highest in Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, and New Zealand and lowest in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Haiti and Bulgaria."

New Scientist has an interesting 'science of the female orgasm' series but drops the ball (if you'll excuse the pun) with a 'brain shuts down during female orgasm because I can't critically evaluate the results of brain imaging studies' piece.

There's an interesting discussion on differing conceptions of the self, Jekyll and Hyde, and the modern of historical concept of criminal responsibility on ABC Radio National's The Philosopher's Zone.

New Scientist has an excellent article on eight ancient writing systems that still haven't been cracked. Where's Fairlight when you need them?

An article on how meditation alters brain activity and structure appears in Scientific American.

Frontier Psychiatrist has an excellent piece on the concept of a rational suicide.

It's raining fantastic essays on mind, brain and culture over at Neuroanthropology!

The New York Times has an article on the recent 'super-recogniser' research on people who have spectacularly good memory for faces.

Graph theory slinging, network mongering, sociologically inclined mathematician Steven Strogatz has an excellent short piece in The New York Times on the mathematics of love.

New Scientist reports on a twin study that suggests intellectual confidence is inherited, predicts grades, and is independent from IQ.

The better trust and communication style between father and daughter, the better it is likely to be between the daughter and her partner, according to research reported by the new-to-me but seemingly excellent Child Psychology Research Blog .

The Times Higher Education Supplement notes concerns over the falling numbers of UK medical students who start training to be psychiatrists.

A big budget TV drama series about psychiatrists called 'Mental' has just launched and you can watch the first episode online. Apparently being filmed in Bogotá, Colombia.

Scientific American has another Jesse Bering column, this time on adolescent girl social aggression, or, in more colloquial terms, bitchyness.

Women are more likely than men to suffer feelings of inadequacy at home and at work and have perfectionist tendencies, according to a US study reported by BBC News.

Cerebrum, Dana's excellent neuroscience magazine, has a great piece on the limits of neuroimaging.

Replicant Roy Kurzweil furiously responds to recent Newsweek article that apparently contained inaccuracies over his predictions, opinions, incept date.

Advances in the History of Psychology discovers that Harvard psychologist Dan Wegner has posted an electrogroove mashup that incorporates sampled snippets of the recordings of Stanley Milgram’s famous obedience experiments of the early 1960s. Like a disturbing social psychology 70's porn soundtrack.

—Vaughan.

May 25, 2009

Encephalon 71 welcomes new diners:

The 71st edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been served in the welcoming surroundings of the stylish Neuroanthropology blog.

A couple of my favourites include a podcast interview with neuropsychologist Chris Frith from the Brain Science Podcast blog, and a post on the development of early language from Babel's Dawn.

There plenty more on the menu, so you should find something to suit every taste. Bon appétit!

Link to Encephalon 71.

—Vaughan.

May 22, 2009

2009-05-22 Spike activity:

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

Neuroanthropology has a great article on identity formation and internet booze show-offs. A neat bit of online anthropology.

Psychopathic traits in children associated with severe deficits in emotional empathy across all ages for males, but not females, finds new study published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Scientific American has a short but interesting piece on how hand movements during discussion may aid cognition. I would do the 'sounds a bit handy wavy' joke but I suspect I've been beaten to the punch.

Actually, I'd just like to apologise for the pun in the line above while I have the chance.

Science Daily reports that intelligence and physical attractiveness are both related to income. Which explains a lot about my current situation, actually.

Doctor saves young lad's life by drilling into his brain with a power drill, reports the Aussie News site. The embedded video seems to have been made by The Onion though.

PsyBlog rounds up its recent excellent series on functions and dysfunctions of attention in one handy place.

Psychiatrist bemoans the ignorance about the benefits of lithium treatment among junior doctors in The New York Times.

Science News reports another in a long line of studies suggesting the benefits of meditation. In this case, that it's linked to increased grey matter in key emotion areas.

Lacan's florid and Byzantine model of the unconscious is covered in two posts by Somatosphere.

The Harvard Gazette reports on 'super-recognisers', people with exceptionally good face recognition abilities. See this 1999 study for a report of a super-over-recogniser.

Musicians have better memory not just for music, but words and pictures too, according to a study expertly covered by Cognitive Daily.

The Economist looks at a recent study that finds that living abroad can increase creativity.

Risk of violence in schizophrenia almost entirely explained by illicit drug use, finds new study reported on by PhysOrg.

Science News reports that people who have a higher alcohol tolerance are more likely to become alcoholic.

The summer fundraiser for Phil Dawdy, the world's only publicly funded psychiatry-dedicated investigative reporter kicks off on Furious Seasons.

The New York Times has an excellent piece on the 'super memory club', people who live beyond the age of 90 with sharp-as-a-razor cognitive abilities.

A study investigates the typical psychological traits of people who believe in conspiracy theories, which is covered by Science News.

Science Daily reports on a freaky ass robot intended to improve social skills, presumably built by researchers who have spent too much time in the lab.

The excellent Situationst blog has a must-read piece on the controversy over implicit bias, one of the most heavily researched aspects of our unconscious.

To the bunkers! Time magazine reports that replicant Ray Kurzweil is still at large.

—Vaughan.

May 15, 2009

2009-05-15 Spike activity:

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

The BPS Research Digest covers a study finding that people judged as likeable in the flesh also make good first impressions online.

A short but sweet Jonah Lehrer article on the neuroscience of creativity is published in Seed Magazine.

Dr Petra has more on the recent not very convincing 'emotional intelligence boosts female orgasms' story that got the media's knickers in a twist.

Will designer brains divide humanity? asks New Scientist who seem to like sensationalist headlines about cognitive enhancement.

Furious Seasons asks whether suicidality was covered-up in the landmark STAR*D depression study? A fantastic bit of investigative journalism.

Cruelty and spitefulness are put under the evolutionary spotlight by New Scientist.

Neuronarrative has a good piece on belief in the paranormal and susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy. Interesting in light of Jung's concept of synchronicity.

Halle Berry neurons, visual recognition and sparse coding are discussed by Discover Magazine.

New Scientist has an almost-there article on how beliefs affect how we experience illness.

How mediation improves attention. PsyBlog continues riffing on it's attention theme.

Science News reports that school-age lead exposure is most harmful to IQ.

Summertime blues. The Neurocritic covers a study finding that suicide rates in Greenland are highest during the summer.

The New York Times has an excellent piece on 'high functioning alcoholics'.

A difference between child and adult brains is a switch from local to distributed organisation, suggests a new study in PLoS Computational Biology.

Dr Shock has a good summary of a recent review article on the neuroscience of exercise.

Smiles in yearbook photos predict marriage success many years later according to a study covered in The Economist.

Neurophilosophy covers a fascinating study on how music affects how we perceive facial expressions.

—Vaughan.

May 11, 2009

Encephalon 70 the mysterious:

The 70th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared and is ably hosted on Sharp Brains.

A couple of my favourites include a post on Neurotopia on the elegant logic of dopamine, and a fantastic visual illusion from Dr Deb where a picture of a tree hides some wonderfully concealed faces.

There's a whole stack more great articles in this fortnight's edition so go check out the rest.

Link to Encephalon 70.

—Vaughan.

May 08, 2009

2009-05-08 Spike activity:

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

The excellent Holford Watch blog has a right-on-target debunking of a Daily Mail article that uncritically reprinted dodgy 'hole in brain' SPECT scans to 'show' we're "wrecking" our brains with caffeine, alcohol, bad living etc.

Harvard Magazine discuss how their neuroscientists are working to 'untangle the brain: from neuron to mind'.

Daniel Lende, co-founder of the brilliant Neuroanthropology blog, wins a university award for his work on the anthropology of drug use, HIV, PTSD and his online writing. I think this is the first time I've ever seen a blog being recognised by mainstream academia. Congratulations!

New Scientist reports on commercial text analysis programmes that rate emotional content.

There's a brief but good infographic about the history and development of 'behavioural economics' in Foreign Policy magazine.

Scientific American on recent revelations that Masters and Johnson may have faked their 'gay cure' case studies.

Eavesdrop on the world! I've just discovered searching Twitter for 'overheard'.

Science Policy magazine has an article about what the recent fMRI 'voodoo' criticisms mean for the role of fMRI in court. This month's Wired UK has an awesome article on similar territory, but it's not available online yet.

Researchers find the earliest signs of autism in infancy, reports Time magazine.

Time magazine reports on the recent STAR*D study that used 'real world' patients for an antidepressant trial, rather than the highly selected samples usually used, and found that rates of improvement were less.

New antipsychotic iloperidone is approved by the FDA, reports Furious Seasons.

New Scientist reports that IQ correlates with health and there are hints that some of the relationship might be explained by common genetic factors.

There's an excellent post about pop stars, drug use, society and double standards at Frontier Psychiatrist.

Cognition and Culture has an interesting piece on cross-cultural variation in creationism.

A genetic study into narcolepsy, a disorder where people suddenly and uncontrollable fall asleep, finds an intriguing link with genes for the immune system. Science News covers the discovery.

Developing Intelligence covers a lovely study finding that physically taking a step back is associated with improved problem-solving.

A concert combining the music of Yo-Yo Ma and the neuroscience of Antonio Damasio is reviewed in The New York Times. There are also some interesting comments from Jonah Lehrer who also saw the performance.

Cognitive Daily cover a study that possibly tells us why it's hard to ignore that attractive stranger that walks past, even when we're with our partner.

Why does the vaccine/autism controversy live on? asks Discover Magazine in an article that discusses the social factors behind the deadly but popular myth.

Advances in the History of Psychology has an interview with the author of a new book on Skinner.

—Vaughan.

May 01, 2009

2009-05-01 Spike activity:

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

Wired has a great piece on illusionist Teller and how stage magic could help cognitive science.

Some fascinating research on the use of video to give insight to brain injured patients unaware of their own paralysis is covered by BPS Research Digest.

The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry has a case report on restless legs syndrome affecting a phantom limb.

The curious link between the urban environment and schizophrenia is explored by Frontier Psychiatrist.

Channel N finds a video lecture on mental illness and creativity by Kay Redfield Jamison.

Funny or offensive? Probably both. The Onion has a satirical news report on World's Oldest Neurosurgeon Turns 100.

BoingBoing finds an usual vintage comic book series entitled 'The Strange World of your Dreams'.

In 2001, all illicit drugs were decriminalised for personal use in Portugal. Time magazine investigates what happened, it turns out drug use has fallen.

The New York Times has an extended article on the meeting of Zen Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis.

A wonderful neurophilosophical quote from Melville's Moby Dick is captured by Brain Hammer.

Cognition and Culture reviews new book 'The Art Instinct'.

Do 'brain training' games really work? asks ScAim. The answer, a bit.

PsyBlog has an excellent post on the psychology of consumption.

The media creates concept of media psychologists, encourages them to be unethical, then acts amazed when they are, says Dr Petra.

Wired talks to psychologist Craig Haney about the mental impact of solitary confinement.

Important new research on the genetics of autism spectrum is covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

BBC News reports on musician Prince discussing his childhood epilepsy and how he revealed it in a coded message on The Love Symbol Album.

—Vaughan.

April 28, 2009

Encephalon 68, 69 and my memory is like a sieve:

The 69th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience carnival has just appeared on Brain Stimulant and... dear God, I just realise I missed the 68th edition on the excellent Ouroboros as well, so here are both for your reading pleasure.

A couple of my favourites include a fantastic post on Neuroanthropology post entitled "Who you callin’ a ‘neuroconstructivist’ punk?!" (actually, I added the punk, but you get the idea), and a Neurocritic article on a curious neurological condition where people lose the ability to correctly point at a named body part.

I always say there's plenty more, but this time there's a whole load more where that came from, thanks to my slightly faulty memory.

Link to Encephalon 68.
Link to Encephalon 69.

—Vaughan.

April 24, 2009

2009-04-24 Spike activity:

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

The first Neuroanthropology Conference kicks off in October and looks awesome.

Twitter causes immorality nonsense deftly dispatched by bloggers. Most mainstream press lost the plot although Time did a good job and Wired Science were keeping it real.

The Guardian review neurophysiologist Kathleen Taylor's new book on cruelty.

AI system examines mysterious and ancient symbols from the long-lost Indus Valley civilization and suggests that they may represent a spoken language, reports Wired.

The Financial Times has a look at the Wellcome Collection's latest exhibition on 'madness and modernity'.

The links between autism and genius are explored by The Economist.

Not Exactly Rocket Science has a brilliant article on how touch-related brain activity reduces after only a couple of weeks of having your hand in a cast.

There are a couple of wonderful girl-with-exposed-brain paintings here.

The New York Times reports on mental illness, the musical! (thanks Daniel!)

BBC Radio 4's Health Check has a programme on meningitis and supernumeray phantom limbs.

Newsweek has an interesting Q&A on the psychology of memory.

An extended and interesting article on the psychology of how we related to the environment is published by The New York Times.

NeuroImage has an article arguing for community neuroimaging databases. Hallelujah and amen!

Is there a link between autistic traits and anorexia? asks New Scientist.

Frontal Cortex has an excellent piece on the commuters paradox - where we consistently underestimate the pain of a long commute.

Rapid emotional swings could predict violence in psychiatric patients suggests new research covered by Science News.

BBC News on the impressive 'Blue Brain' project but who seem to like talking themselves up rather a lot. Apparently just a "matter of money" to simulate a whole brain (oh, and a good conceptual understanding of how the brain actually works beyond simplified models of the neocortical column).

18 ways attention goes wrong. PsyBlog continues riffing on attention by listing several related problems.

Psychiatric Times has an excellent article on the philosophy of psychiatry and how we define what counts as a mental illness. Bonus 'internet addiction' slapdown included.

Neuronarrative on a study suggesting that TV may be a surrogate for social interaction.

New 'mind reading' consumer EEG headsets about to hit the shelves with dull-looking games, according to New Scientist. They look fantastic, but don't believe the hype - the fun will be in equipment hacks and data aggregation projects.

The Economist has a couple more good articles: one on the cognitive benefits of bilingual babies and the other on preconscious action selection and free will.

Makes of antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) may be gearing up for the latest in a long line a heavy weight US government fines for illegal promotion, reports Furious Seasons.

—Vaughan.

April 17, 2009

2009-04-17 Spike activity:

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

The neuroscience of envy and schadenfreude is explored by Pure Pedantry.

The Economist has an article on connectomics and the project to create a complete white matter map of the brain.

Panic! The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology has an article on drinking on your 21st birthday. Extremely extreme apparently.

O'Reilly Radar has an interesting piece on navigating robots that run on the power of cute.

To the bunkers! US Military wants to offload 'deep learning' to computers according to Wired.

What can stage magic tell us about the brain? Asks Science News.

CNN thinks naltrexone is from "a new generation of anti-addiction drugs". If by new generation they mean from 1974, then yes, they're right.

Are smart drugs the answer to bad moods and a bad economy? ask Discover Magazine. I'm sure you can guess the answer to that one.

Neurotopia has an excellent piece on the neuroscience of amphetamine.

Research on a 'video game' that reduces aggression is covered by Cognitive Daily. Not really a video game, but fascinating research nonetheless.

Medical News reports that increases in psychotic symptoms are more likely to make the person a victim of violence than a perpetrator.

Mind Hacks gets a write-up from Gehirn & Geist magazine. Sadly, I can't read a word of German but I have it on good authority that it is very flattering (thanks Rich!).

Stanford Magazine has an interview with Henry Greely, co-author of the recent Nature article on why cognitive enhancing drugs should be legally available.

A simple psychological intervention that boosts school performance of ethnic minority students is discussed by The BPS Research Digest.

Eric Schwitzgebel mulls whether scientific ideas about moral development are inherently politically biased.

Epilepsy drug valproate during pregnancy can lower babies IQ, reports The New York Times.

Another from The New York Times: "There are no rules of etiquette for dealing with a person who has a neurological disorder." Short personal piece on Parkinson's disease.

The Frontal Cortex has a good piece on the neuroscience of admiration and why Twitter won't make you immoral.

Psychologist Jesse Bering takes a tour through quirky studies on the effects of alcohol in Scientific American.

—Vaughan.

April 10, 2009

2009-04-10 Spike activity:

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

Tom has a fantastic post and brief radio segment on the psychology of coffee.

Savant and synaesthete Daniel Tammet gives an interesting interview on the neuroscience of exceptional abilities on the Quirks and Quarks radio show.

The New Republic has an extended review of 'Hysterical Men', a new well-regarded book on the neglected history of male hysteria.

Most psychiatrists who wrote clinical guidelines for the American Psychiatric Association had financial ties to drug companies, reports Medical News Today.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a nice study that shows moral behaviour is more like a balancing act than a recital.

An elegant study of how scratching stops an itch is covered by BBC News.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the much discussed 'Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience' paper, will now be retitled 'Puzzlingly High Correlations in fMRI Studies of Emotion, Personality, and Social Cognition' on its May publication.

There's a great round-up of recent sex and science news on Dr Petra.

An article on the effects of poverty on brain development was published by Economist. You must read an excellent follow-up by Language Log showing all is not what it seems.

BBC News reports on seemingly higher rates of birth defects in babies of women sedated as children in UK care homes.

People with schizophrenia are not susceptible to the hollow-mask illusion, reports New Scientist with cool hollow-mask video.

Scientific American Mind has an interesting piece about mapping the brain circuits in depression for the purpose of modulating them with deep brain stimulation. More background on Neuron Culture.

Investigative journalist Phil Dawdy gives an ass-kicking pharma-sceptical interview on Christopher Lane's Psychology Today blog.

Psychologist Colin Ross wins the James Randi Educational Foundation award for pseudoscience for his claim that he can send electromagnetic beams out of his eyes and capture them with a machine. Gives him something to do when he's not writing articles for Scientology magazines I suppose.

Wired has a short but sweet piece on pioneering neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing.

Even isolated cultures understand emotions conveyed by Western music, suggest research expertly covered by Cognitive Daily.

The Times has a piece on psychiatrist and Big Pharma target / critic David Healy, branded the 'enfant terrible' of psychiatry.

Brain decline reflected in patient's brush strokes, with photos from New Scientist.

SciAm Mind Matters has an interview with free-thinking developmental psychologist Judith Rich Harris on who influences the social development of children.

High-tech hobbit phrenology? Homo floresiensis may have been cognitively advanced suggests skull study reported in Science News.

Salon reports on a US Army psychologist caught on tape saying "I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD".

An intriguing new theory on why fever helps autism and how it could finger the brain area the locus coeruleus as key is covered in Time. Scientific paper here.

American Psychological Association Monitor magazine has a two part special on neuroimaging in psychology.

Neuroanthropology finds some vintage Oliver Sacks video footage and discusses the importance of integrating neurobiological and cultural viewpoints.

There's a fascinating piece on the effect of gendered nouns on perception, plus a great experiment testing Shakespeare's maxim 'a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet', on NPR radio.

Wired has a beautiful image gallery entitled 'How to Map Neural Circuits With an Electron Microscope'.

A study on people with Parkinson's disease being bad at lying is covered by Pure Pedantry.

PsyBlog asks whether visual attention can be truly divided.

Mind Hacks thinks about renaming Spike Activity to Spike Train because they're so damn long these days.

—Vaughan.

April 03, 2009

2009-04-03 Spike activity:

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

The Economist has an article on the impact of poverty on the developing mind and brain.

Orange flavour antipsychotics are launched by seemingly self-paradoying pharmaceutical company Otsuka.

The New York Times has an article on the art and science of dreaming in the 17th century.

The future of Big I artificial intelligence is discussed by H+ Magazine in a report from a recent cutting-edge conference.

The BPS Research Digest has a great piece on the limits of the 'paradox of choice'.

An interesting new blog by forensic psychologist Marisa Mauro kicks off on Psychology Today

The Wall Street Journal tackles identity construction on social media. Good piece although the same ground covered by Sherry Turkle 15 years ago.

Music as a possible form of cognitive treatment is discussed by The New York Times.

Not Exactly Rocket Science on how the finding of a deformed skull of prehistoric child suggests that early humans cared for disabled children.

A video of a man with a fishing spear in his head accompanies an article by The Times. Despite the dramatic injury, he survived.

Medical Economics on news that the number of Big Pharma lovin' doctors is dropping in the US.

Autism immerses 2-year-olds in a synchronized world, reports Science News.

Discover Magazine has video from a neuroscientist panel discussion on unlocking the secrets and powers of the brain.

'The nightmares of Puerto Ricans' is an upcoming article in the Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry journal.

The Scientist has several freely available articles on the neuroscience of sleep in it's latest edition.

Philosopher Ned Block puts a pre-print of a paper entitled 'Comparing the Major Theories of Consciousness' online as a pdf.

The New York Times discusses how medical dogma often triumphs over scientific evidence if the data seems to contradict a good story or traditional treatment option.

Sociologist Yochai Benkler discusses social reasoning and the myth of rationality in an article for Edge.

The Onion reports the shocking news that 98% of babies are manic depressive.

Spanking 'brings couples together, says an entirely serious article in New Scientist.

BBC News reports that sleep problems correlate with suicide attempts.

'Voice lie-detector' made by lawyer-happy critic-suing company Nemesysco is found to be no better at detecting lies than flipping a coin in an independent test just published in Journal of Forensic Science.

Psychological Science has a study finding that once practical stress is taken out caregiving is associated with a decreased mortality risk.

The neuroscience of the 'money illusion' is discussed in an excellent piece on Frontal Cortex.

—Vaughan.

April 01, 2009

Encephalon 67 raises a toast:

The 67th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience carnival has just appeared online, this time put together by the Neuroskeptic blog.

A couple of my favourites include Neurophilosophy on the neuroscience of phantom limbs - apotemnophilia, missing after amputation or additional to the normal four, and a couple of good posts on the neuropsychology of religious belief from NeuroWhoa!.

There's plenty more where those came from, so do go and check out the latest edition.

Link to Encephalon 67.

—Vaughan.

March 27, 2009

2009-03-27 Spike activity:

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

Brain Hammer is on fire at the moment, lots of great posts on philosophy of mind.

Dodgy fMRI 'lie detection' evidence to be submitted as evidence in court, reports Frontal Cortex and piece from Wired. Next in court, lie detection through reading the clouds.

Alzheimer International has an awesome short promo video. In Spanish but you don't need the language to understand it. Beautiful.

Daniel Dennett discusses the risk of robot war in a short video for Big Think.

Technology Review has an article on an exciting new technology to chart human activity, on city maps, on mobile devices, in real time.

The excellent BPS Research Digest is now on Twitter.

PsyBlog has an excellent, and beautifully illustrated, article on the 'attention spotlight'.

The miracle fruit, which changes our taste by interfering with tongue receptors, is discussed on CNN.

Eric Schwitzgebel has more on his compelling exploration over whether philosophical study influences real world behaviour, finding political scientists don't go to vote differently from most other people.

A fantastic study on the genetics of white matter structure and link to IQ is discussed by NPR. Take the stuff about 'thinking faster' with a pinch of salt. They didn't analyse speed of processing directly, they're just inferring 'speed' from white matter integrity.

The Frontal Cortex has a great piece on male female differences, or the lack of them, in the psychology of decision-making.

Philosopher Alva Noe discusses his new book on consciousness and embodiment in an interview for Salon.

Wall Street Journal Blog reports that the Journal of the American Medical Association has created an inadequate new policy after the editors bullied a neuroanatomy professor who pointed out undeclared conflicts of interest in a paper they published. The Economist covers the fall out, patients' group call for editors to resign.

"The medial prefrontal cortex exhibits money illusion" reports paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I wondered where magicians get all those coins from.

The New York Times reports depression is linked to thinned brain cortex.

The American Psychiatric Association starts to remove the drug company teat from its mouth by halting industry-funded symposia and free lunches at its conferences - according to Medical News Today.

—Vaughan.

March 25, 2009

Encephalon 66 with just the facts, ma'am:

The 66th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival was published a few days ago and I'm only just catching up with the world. However, it's got a great round-up of some of the best mind and brain blogging and is hosted by Ionian Enchantment.

A couple of my favourites include Neurotopia on problems with the popular but wrong serotonin theory of depression, and one from Effortless Incitement on how relatedness influences an individual's knowledge about whether their sibling is alive or not!

There's plenty more, so have a browse through this fortnight's selection.

Link to Encephalon 66.

—Vaughan.

March 20, 2009

2009-03-20 Spike activity:

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

Wired reports that Japanese 'detergent suicide' technique creeps into U.S.

To the bunkers! BBC News has a video of a creepy but strangely seductive fembot from a Japanese tech firm.

Kraepelin´s Grandchildren is an interesting new Spanish-language brain blog.

Daniel Dennett does an interesting TED lecture on the counter-intuitive link between evolution and psychology.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a fascinating study finding that musical intervals actually reflect the sounds of our own speech.

I've been digging the Phrenologists Notebook blog recently. Looks plain, reads great.

BBC News has a great video clip from a Horizon documentary showing newborns doing 'maths' and how experiments test such young kids.

Thank you Neurotopia! Contrary to the popular headlines modafinil triggering dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens does not make it addictive. People getting addicted to it does (which, so far, hasn't happened).

BPS Research Digest has an excellent write-up of a review paper on successful non-drugs treatments for schizophrenia.

Completely false headline hides interesting write-up of study on anterior cingulate activation linked to religious belief in New Scientist.

New Scientist has a much better article on the effect of money on decision-making.

Am I normal? A new series of the wonderful BBC Radio 4 series has programmes on post-natal depression and gifted children.

Neurophilosophy reports on a study finding that brain waves predict successful memory for an event before it occurs.

The New York Times has an interesting article on Dr Alice Flaherty who studies the neuropsychology of empathy and has bipolar disorder.

A bill to promote the neurotechnology industry has been introduced into both the House and Senate of US Congress, reports Brain Waves.

Neuroscientist and author of a recent book on loneliness, John Cacioppo, is interviewed by Neuronarrative.

Scientific American has an interesting interview on delayed onset brain injuries with neurosurgeon Keith Black in the wake of Natasha Richardson's death.

Predicting creditworthiness from photos of faces. The Economist covers another interesting psychological characteristics we can reliably read from the face (if averaged from a group's responses).

PsyBlog has a piece on the 'Cocktail Party Effect', presumably named in the days when psychologists had cocktail parties. Presumably, if discovered today it would be called the Friday after work down the pub effect.

The control centre of the US Army's Human Terrain System and the role of the team in tackling military corruption is discussed by Wired.

The Frontal Cortex has a thought-provoking meditation on the value of neuroscience.

There's been so much eye-opening stuff on Furious Seasons recently, I'll just direct you to the entire blog.

—Vaughan.

March 13, 2009

2009-03-13 Spike activity:

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

The Psychologist has a free bonus edition that collects some of its most popular articles.

A newly released report from the UN argues we should legalise illicit drugs to tackle organised crime.

The New York Times reports 'Religious Thoughts and Feelings Not Limited to One Part of Brain'. No shit Sherlock.

The battle for Broca's Area is expertly covered by Talking Brains.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on the neuroscience of motivated forgetting, related to Freud's theory of repression.

How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale. A highly speculative but interesting article from The Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The LA Times has a luke-warm article on our sense of time.

Prescribing hormone patches for women with 'female sexual dysfunction' is put under the spotlight by Dr Petra.

The New York Times has an excellent piece on happiness research, or more accurately "a specific type of emotional and behavioral prediction".

Early intellectual gap found for kids of older fathers aged 50 and over at conception, reports Science News.

Science Daily on a study finding that immigrants earn more money if they change their name from an obviously foreign one.

Mental illness doesn't predict violence, finds biggest study to published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

New Scientist has a Q&A on a 'mass hysteria' outbreak in Nicaragua.

A priest jailed for child sexual abuse on the basis of 'recovered memories' is having his case reviewed, reports The Nation.

Neurocase reports a case of a man who can speak without Broca's area after tumor surgery.

A fantastic article on endangered languages with audio samples is available from Seed Magazine.

Seed Magazine also has a fantastic article on art and synaesthesia.

The official journal of the The International Neuropsychiatric Association is open-acess. Kudos to them!

New Scientist has an interview with psychiatrist Simon Wessely on mind-body interactions in illness.

Is Fraud Contagious? asks Newsweek with a look at a recent Dan Ariely study.

SciAm Mind Matters blog has an article on a neat study finding that actions, metaphors and moral judgements can influence each other.

I thoroughly recommend Neurophilosophy for the most sensible coverage on the 'reading perceived position from hippocampal activation study' - badly described in the media as 'mind reading'.

SciAm's Jesse Bering column has an excellent piece on terror management and mortality salience.

CIA Awkwardly Debriefs Obama On Creation Of Crack Cocaine. Conspiracy comedy from The Onion.

—Vaughan.

March 06, 2009

2009-03-06 Spike activity:

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

The Economist discusses whether the famous Dunbar number, the maximum limit of human relationships, holds on Facebook.

A person who experienced the identity loss memory disorder dissociative fugue is interviewed in The New York Times.

BBC News reports that Malaysia is attempting to curb its suicide rate by planning to arrest those who attempt suicide.

Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel asks what is an illusion, exactly?

Neuronarrative reports on a new study finding people tend to view leaders more favourably once they've died!

Drug giant and makers of Seroquel (quetiapine) lied about their data showing that the antipsychotic drug isn't as effective as its competitors, reports the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry blog.

The New York Times reports on research showing that interrupting an experience, whether dreary or pleasant, can make it significantly more intense.

The US Army's group of 'weaponised anthropologists', the Human Terrain System, get slammed by a Marine Corps major in a military publication. Wired has the story.

The Onion, on news that a Lovecraftian school board member wants madness added to the curriculum. C'thulhu fhtagn!

Science News reports on a new study that links the genetics of Autism and bellyaches.

A long and confusing article on why minds are not like computers is published in The New Atlantis. Would greatly benefit from the insights from philosophy of mind.

Nature has an excellent article on the sociology of science and why we need a third way after the extremes of hard scientific realism and social constructionism. By the always interesting Harry Collins.

Gender effects in children's play are seen in virtual worlds, reports Science News.

Furious Seasons reports on a recent study looking at the (large) placebo effect in studies of antidepressant treatment for adolescent depression.

Is patriotism a subconscious way for humans to avoid disease? asks the always engaging Carl Zimmer in Discover Magazine.

The Guardian reports on research suggesting that some people who suffer stroke develop PTSD after their experience.

Texting is associated with superior reading skills in children, reports the BPS Research Digest.

The New York Times has an interesting article looking at the psychology of rewarding students for study or good performance in light of mixed evidence of how effective the practice is.

ABC Radio National's Ockham's Razor has programme on how errors of grammar, punctuation and inaccurate scientific terminology can complicate important social issues.

Dr Shock covers some interesting research on the pros and cons on using PowerPoint presentations in teaching for learning by students.

Also from Dr Shock an awesome video showing how some stunning 3D illusion street art was created.

The New York Times reports that skin cells from people with Parkinson’s disease have been converted in a test tube to dopamine neurons.

—Vaughan.

March 05, 2009

Encephalon 65 faces the facts:

The 65th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience carnival has just appeared online, this time hosted at Podcat Black and illustrated with some emerging unbidden from the world.

A couple of favourites include a fantastic post on the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus which outlines some Ancient Egyptian brain surgery and a series of posts introducing the principles of evolutionary neuroscience through the Cthulhu mythos.

There's many more engaging articles and the pareidolia face images are great fun as always.

Link to Encephalon 65 on Podcat Black.

—Vaughan.

February 27, 2009

2009-02-27 Spike activity:

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

BBC Radio 4's science programme Leading Edge covers memory in the dock, and memory and ageing.

New Scientist discusses virtual autopsies and looks inside the skull of a suicide victim with a medical scanner.

One for Spanish language readers: El Pais discusses the neuroscience of religion and spiritual experience with an article entitled 'Dios habita en el cerebro'.

Seed Magazine discusses the role of the internet in the recent voodoo fMRI controversy with a mention of Mind Hacks.

Beauty affects men's and women's brains differently, reports Wired.

The Times discusses the increasing trend for children with behavioural problems to be given numerous psychiatric diagnoses.

Neuroscientists develop 'wireless' activation of brain circuits, reports press release on EurekaAlert.

Petra Boynton covers the 'Facebook causes cancer' debacle and the subsequent unhelpful and misleading contribution from neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield who should know better.

A study on the social benefits of social networking is covered by The Washington Times. Does this mean Facebook cures cancer too?

New Scientist discusses the psychology and neuroscience of suicide.

BBC's science programme Horizon recently had a programme on the neuroscience of dreaming which is available to view online for another month or so. UK residents only though unfortunately.

The Neurocritic has an excellent critique of a recent imaging study that was rather widely and poorly reported as 'men think of women in bikinis as objects'.

Does mentioning sex help students learn about other stuff too, asks Cognitive Daily with coverage of an interesting study on exactly this.

Science News reports that people who hold negative attitudes toward the elderly have an increased risk of heart-related ailments later in life.

An interesting study on the role of the 5-HTTLPR gene in attention to fearful or positive images is appallingly spun by New Scientist with nonsense about 'happiness genes' and genetic basis for optimism.

The Daily Mash has a satirical take on the 'Facebook causes cancer / rots your brain' nonsense.

Research suggesting a possible genetic flag for brain cancer is covered by Science News.

The New York Times reports on a recent small sample size but interesting study on structural brain changes found in childhood abuse victims.

Brain scans replace job interviews within five years, reports gullible Digital Journal.

Neuroanthropology reviews a bunch of great brain books for kids. Yay!

New kind of epilepsy shakes up memory, reports New Scientist who seem to have no idea that transient epileptic amnesia is not new.

Furious Seasons is essential reading at the moment - e.g. catching AstraZeneca ordering it's Seroquel sales reps to lie about the the drug causing diabetes. In case you didn't know journalist Phil Dawdy is entirely funded by reader donations and he's having a fundraiser at the moment.

First gene discovered for most common form of epilepsy, reports Science Daily.

BBC News reports that Alzheimer's plaques may have a bigger impact on the brain than previously thought.

An interesting study on the interplay between reason and emotion in buying decisions is covered by Frontal Cortex.

—Vaughan.

February 20, 2009

2009-02-20 Spike activity:

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

I've just discovered the excellent Psychology of Beauty blog.

3QuarksDaily has an interview with cognitive science philosopher Shaun Gallagher on psychotic delusions and multiple realities.

Missed this a few weeks ago: an interesting article from The New York Times on using social information on energy bills to increase energy efficiency.

Brain Hammer has just sprung into life again with a series of interesting posts.

The Colonization of Pharmaceutical Science by Marketing. Somatosphere covers the interface between medicine and marketing.

The Morning News has a great list of 'Mindfuck Movies' - classics with a psychological twist. Definitely check out La Jetée, awesome original inspiration for 12 Monkeys.

Attendance at religious services, but not religious devotion, predicts support for suicide attacks, reports Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Dr Shock tracks the varying trends in the rise and fall of ECT treatment in Europe.

Think you'd remember the face of your torturer? Unlikely suggests a new study reported by Wired.

The Boston Globe has an article on legal wranglings and human stories related to killings related to the US Army's 'Human Terrain System'. Wired notes the HTS pay scale has been greatly reduced.

Five minutes with the authors of two recent influential psychological studies on TV commercials and East - West facial recognition from the BPS Research Digest.

Seed Magazine briefly covers new research suggesting oxytocin plays a key role in social memory.

Another good one from Not Exactly Rocket Science, one of the few places to correctly report on the latest propranolol trauma dampening study.

Does philosophy tells us about the world or our concepts? Eric Schwitzgebel explores the two key concepts in philosophy.

The Fortean Times has an excellent article on the surprising range of behaviour reported to occur during sleep walking.

Is genius born or can it be learned? asks Time magazine.

Neuroanthropology has a fascinating commentary on measuring basketball success with stats and why traditional stats may reflect little about a player's ability, although it has wider implications for how we understand and measure human abilities.

The New York Times has an article on the emerging neuroscience of envy.

More 'Facebook causes cancer' debunking from PsychCentral.

The Monthly magazine hosts a video lecture by Norman Doidge, author of The Brain that Changes Itself. Presented by Natasha Mitchell of Mind Hacks favourite All in the Mind.

Dodgy war in Afghanistan heroin seizure statistics are subjected to the cold hard light of data by Bad Science.

Furious Seasons tackles a recent 'scary' editorial in the journal Current Psychiatry.

—Vaughan.

February 19, 2009

Encephalon 64 powers up:

The 64th edition of the Encephalon psychology and writing carnival has just appeared on The Neurocritic and is waiting for your rapt attention.

It's a wonderfully put-together edition and a couple of my favourites include an article on the surprising fact that the doctor whose name lives on in 'Tourette's Syndrome' was shot in the back by a patient, and a piece on psychosis, dopamine and salience dysregulation.

There's plenty more (and I mean plenty more, videos and all) in the latest edition, so head over to browse the menu.

Link to Encephalon 64.

—Vaughan.

February 17, 2009

Dungeons & Discourse:

For all your role-playing-cum-philosophy of mind needs, please consult the excellent Dresden Codak. Join an intrepid band of adventurers in the Kingdom of Qualia as they explore Plato's Cave and battle P-Zombies in a desperate hunt for Occam's Razor (also available in original vanilla flavour).

Link to Dresdon Codak's cartoon.

—tom.

February 13, 2009

2009-02-13 Spike activity:

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

An interview with a psychologist Meg Barker, who studies polyamorous relationships, is published by Dr Petra.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on the neuroscience of dinosaurs!

What Makes You Uniquely 'You'? Discover magazine discusses the self and consciousness with Nobel prize-winning biologist Gerald Edelman.

The Colbert Report has a funny interview with Jonah Lehrer discussing his new book on the psychology of decision-making.

Shanghai surprise. The Guardian has an excellent personal account of an English teacher's experience of psychosis in China.

Science News covers an interesting study on what people believe about dreams - suggesting that most people think they have symbolic meaning about their life, but mostly when they already agree with what they think.

Another trip on the same old merry go round. BBC News reports UK government's drugs advisory panel recommends legal reclassification of ecstasy based on its relatively low health risk, government ignores them.

New Scientist looks at research on the long-term effects of ecstasy and finds a small but reliable impact on mood and cognition. Shh, don't tell the government.

A very funny satirical news report from The Onion on Despondex, a new pharmaceutical drug for the overly chirpy.

Wired has an interview with Oliver Sacks on the unusual hallucinations of Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Ex-Labour spin doctor, now current Labour spin doctor, meanwhile psychotherapist, Derek Draper threatens legal action over people who question his psychotherapy qualifications. Gimpy has the low down. If they're that obvious, why do you need legal action?

New York's excellent BrainWave festival is back with a host of neuroscience talks and events.

PsyBlog has an excellent piece on how the tip-of-the-tongue effect also affects deaf sign-language users.

Horizon the BBC's science documentary series recently broadcast an interesting but not perfect documentary on cannabis. The torrent for the programme is online.

People in love who think about their objet d'amour are less focused on attractive faces of other people, reports Scientific America.

Science News reports that post-partum (after childbirth) psychosis is most likely in the month directly after giving birth.

Wealthy people use less welcoming and more impolite body language than poorer people, reports Scientific American

Slate has an article discussing the psychology of race and conspicuous consumption.

Research on whether personality and facial structure are linked is discussed by New Scientist.

Science News reports on a recent finding that parenting shapes genetic risk for drug use.

Research on whether the attentional blink effect can be used to test sex offenders is covered by Cognitive Daily.

The whole story of Ben Goldacre being threatened by legal action over his challenging of MMR nonsense is on Bad Science.

—Vaughan.

February 06, 2009

Encephalon 63 hits the jackpot:

The 63rd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published online and has the latest from the last fortnight's mind and brain hot topics.

A couple of my favourites include Ouroboros on the link between pessimism and premature ageing, and an article on the commonly discussed relationship between phases of the moon and behaviour from PodBlack.

There's much, much more where that came from, so hit the links to get the full monty.

Link to Encephalon 63.

—Vaughan.

January 30, 2009

2009-01-30 Spike activity:

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

The BPS Research Digest reports on how the weather can affect our memory.

Hallucinations, psychosis found as rare side-effect of ADHD drugs in children, reports The Washington Post. Study abstract here.

The New York Times reports that coffee intake is associated with a lower risk of developing dementia.

The neuroscience of acalculia, an impairment in understand number and calculation, is discussed in a feature article from New Scientist.

The LA Times reports on a new study finding children who had thimerosal based vaccines are cognitive and neurologically normal later in life. Study abstract here.

There's a great article over at Computer World on building better CAPTCHAs. Sort of an anti-AI science as it has to require something that computers can't easily do.

New Scientist reports that video game conditioning spills over into real life, although actually, it would be much more surprising if it didn't.

Two teenage boys singing about CBT on YouTube. History now officially complete.

Neurophilosophy discusses a lovely study finding that touches to the face when we're trying to understand speech can affect how we perceive what is being said.

An in-depth article on the 'connectome' and the quest to understand the brain's wiring appears in Nature.

American Psychologist published the first replication of the Milgram conformity experiments for 30 years and has lots of commentary.

Nintendo brain-trainer 'no better than pencil and paper', reports The Times.

Neuroanthropology has a brilliantly written piece on veteran's experiences of PTSD and combat trauma.

Reviews of books on AI morality and embodied cognition appear in this week's Nature.

New Scientist reports that overweight seniors who consume fewer calories show improved memory.

An interview with Edward Vul of the 'voodoo correlations' controversy is on SciAm Mind Matters. The latest reply from some of the 'red list' researchers is now online as a pdf.

The Economist reports that we are more like to procrastinate when asked to think in the abstract.

Pharmacy students also have a negative attitude towards mental health patients, reports Dr Shock MD.

Science News reports on a neuroimaging study finding that key emotion areas are involved in empathetic understanding of others' pain.

The neuroscience of legal and courtroom decision making is discussed on SciAm Mind Matters.

ABC Radio National's Ockham's Razor discusses the neurological impact of viral diseases and the history of rabies vaccination.

The Seattle Times reports on the US Army's highest suicide rate since records began.

A new paper that might give a 'theory of everything' for memory is discussed by Developing Intelligence.

Furious Seasons reports on a new head-to-head metanalysis of which are the best antidepressants.

—Vaughan.

January 23, 2009

2009-01-23 Spike activity:

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

New Scientist has an interesting piece on progress in human-like interaction by machines. Check the impressive video.

UK psychologist Oliver James discusses his polemic book on the psychological effects of materialism on BBC Radio 4's Bookclub. See programme page and sidebar for listen again.

Discover Magazine has a Carl Zimmer article on the extended mind hypothesis and technology entitled 'How Google Is Making Us Smarter'.

Do you believe in free will? asks PsyBlog.

BPS Research Digest reports on research suggesting it's the quality, not just the length, of sleep that is important for learning.

Articles related to topics and themes in the book Understanding Psychology are collected by Time magazine. Not sure why, but a good collection nonetheless.

The Boston Globe has an article on CBT pioneer Aaron Beck and how the therapy for depression is being updated to include the role of genetics and neurobiology.

The neuroscience of the emotional instability of borderline personality disorder is discussed by Science News.

BBC News has an excellent article on mental health in Afghanistan.

On-the-ball science writer Jonah Lehrer's new book on decision-making, called How We Decide is out now!

PhysOrg has an article on recent research looking at differences in default network activity in schizophrenia.

Research showing differences between men and women in the ability to control hunger is covered by Time magazine.

The Wall Street Journal discusses the emerging role of neuroscience and brain imaging evidence in the legal system.

Psychopaths 'manipulate' their way out of jail, reports New Scientist although the study shows no evidence of 'manipulation', just the fact they get parole more often. Careful with the labelling.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent write-up of a somewhat pedestrian review paper on the neuroscience of delusions after brain injury that concludes with a 'new' theory that already exists.

Dog On Anti-Depressants Mauls Former French President. That, is why Furious Seasons is so good. See David Dobbs' excellent piece for several other good reasons.

—Vaughan.

January 20, 2009

Encephalon 62 - the straight dope:

The 62nd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared on The Mouse Trap as a remarkably well-written guide to the latest in the last fortnight's online mind and brain discussions.

A couple of my favourites include a nuanced look at the neurobiology and culture of addiction from Neurophilosophy and a look at a recent study on the psychological effects of the first human face transplant from Brain Blogger.

There are plenty of other great articles in this latest edition, all enthusiastically presented by Sandy's engaging write-up.

Link to Encephalon 62.

—Vaughan.

January 16, 2009

2009-01-16 Spike activity:

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

A third US Army 'Human Terrain' researcher has died after injuries sustained in the field, reports Wired.

Scientific American Mind Matters discusses the neuroscience of noisy eyeballs - a curious synaesthesia-like condition.

The BPS Research Digest discusses research finding describing wine's flavours helps people recognise specific types.

Channel N finds a fantastic video discussion on psychiatry's clash over meaning, memory, and mind.

Interesting study in the British Medical Journal finds troubled / misbehaving kids have worse longer term health outcomes at a 40 year follow-up.

The New York Times has a brief piece on how tragedy and loss can lead to psychological advantages.

Top 11 compounds in US drinking water described by New Scientist include three psychiatric / neurological drugs - carbamazepine, meprobamate and phenytoin - although the last two are barely prescribed these days.

The Boston Globe has a great infographic explaining some 'try-it-yourself' brain tricks - most of which we've covered previously but handy to have in sketched out.

A psychologist in Gaza takes time out from being shelled to talk to The New York Times about the effect of total war on the population. I think you can guess the rest.

New Scientist has a short piece on a new cognitive model of surprise.

The evolution of manual dexterity is tracked by Neurophilosophy.

Corpus Callosum picks up on research on the possible antidepressant effects of vitamin D.

Death redefined as lack of engagement with the world by bioethicists mulling brain death and organ donation, reports Wired. Lack of engagement? By that definition I'm dead every dead every Sunday morning.

New Scientist discusses whether we're over-medicalising sadness and discusses the benefits of negative emotions.

A brief article in The New York Times considers the possibility of developing an anti-love potion.

Scientific Blogging on research showing that too much TV delays language development in children.

More evidence that antipsychotics increase the risk of death by heart attack is covered by Furious Seasons.

Dr Shock discusses new research on the neurobiology of psychosocial stress and depression.

Probably the best ongoing coverage of the 'Voodoo correlations' controversy is on The Neurocritic. Do check it out.

—Vaughan.

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January 09, 2009

2009-01-09 Spike activity:

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

A free Critical Neuroscience conference is being held in ~~Berkeley~~ UCLA on Jan 30th. Check the link for more information or see this jpg poster.

BPS Research Digest looks at interesting research suggesting that Tetris might work as a 'cognitive vaccine' against the development of trauma.

US Government claims futuristic security checkpoints have remarkably terrorist detecting capability on the basis of a Windows desktop shot and an unreleased 'test', reports TechFragments.

The Guardian has an extended book review article where neuroscientist Steven Rose discusses the latest theories about the human brain.

The excellent Developing Intelligence finds an interesting video on 'brain scan mind reading'.

The New York Times profiles Emily Yudofsky who just set up a fledgling 'neuromarketing' company.

Children with developmental language disorder are the topic of a recent Health Report programme from ABC Radio National.

Neuroanimations is a site intended for neurosurgeons that describes various brain pathologies with, unsurprisingly, animations.

The UK is suffering a shortage of people who donate their brains after death for essential research into conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, reports BBC News.

RadioLab just broadcast another one of their wonderfully produced shows. This one on diagnosis. Excellent apart from the slightly over-enthusiastic brain scans to diagnose psychiatric disorders bit.

An essay discussing why kindness is seen in such a bad light in modern times is printed in The Guardian, looks to be an extract from a forthcoming book.

Cognitive Daily examines research on the pain killing effects of your favourite music.

BBC Radio 4's Case Notes has a special on the sense of taste.

Neuroskeptic has an excellent takedown of much of the recent misinformed coverage about 'why men like computer games'.

Gregory Petsko discusses the coming neurological epidemic in a talk for TED.

Furious Seasons casts a skeptical eye over a recent American Journal of Psychiatry paper trying to explain why there's such a large placebo response in antidepressant drugs trials in children.

People overestimate their reactions to racist comments, according to new research covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

—Vaughan.

January 02, 2009

2009-01-02 Spike activity:

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

Neuroanthropology publishes the list of best online anthropology writing of 2008.

A thorough and accessible academic article on Facebook and the social dynamics of privacy is available in draft form from lawyer James Grimmelmann.

PsyBlog has an excellent piece on a simple but evidence-based exercise on gratitude that has been shown to increase well-being.

Average THC content in US marijuana increasing, reports Wired.

Seed magazine has an interesting piece on how maths and sociology can predict the next big thing in music.

Developmental psychologist Elizabeth Spelke and philosopher Joshua Knobe discuss what babies tell us about cognitive development, math and racism in a video discussion over at 3QuarksDaily.

Wired has an short article on the anthropology of YouTube. Stupid title, good write-up.

Nine-month-old babies can tell the difference between happy and sad music, according to research covered by the BPS Research Digest.

Neuronarrative has video of a talk by Terry Pratchett discussing having Alzheimer's disease.

The use of MDMA (ecstasy) to assist psychological treatment for trauma is discussed by The Economist.

Dana has an interesting piece where Eric Kandel discusses the year in neuroscience. Bizarrely, he seems to uncritically accept the 'autism epidemic' shadyness.

A free neuroaesthetics conference is being held in Berkley, California. My Mind on Books has the details.

Channel N has a list of its best videos of 2008.

Drug companies have agreed to stop giving free trinkets to doctors, according to The New York Times, in what seems like a token effort to make themselves more ethical.

The Economist has an interesting article discussing the politics of evolutionary explanations for behaviour.

A study on texting as a sign of cognitive recovery after loss of consciousness is covered by The Neurocritic.

Neurophilosophy has a great piece on a new study showing that the ability to recognise our own faces can de disrupted by touch.

—Vaughan.

December 26, 2008

2008-12-26 Spike activity:

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

The Neurocritic covers an interesting case of sandwich-induced fainting.

Recession can be deadly for domestic abuse victims, reports The Boston Globe as it examines the relationship between the economy and domestic violence.

The New York Times has an obituary for the recently departed and widely respected linguist Carol Chomsky, wife of Noam Chomsky.

A spontaneous experience of a sensed presence caught on EEG. Interesting study with a great write-up from the BPS Research Digest.

New Scientist reports that US police could get 'pain beam' weapons, Mega City One fantasies to follow.

A new book on traffic psychology is reviewed by the excellent Cognitive Daily.

SciAm's Mind Matters blog has an excellent piece on how visual feedback using binoculars alters pain perception and swelling in chronic pain patients.

The endlessly fascinating Cognition and Culture Blog has a engaging piece on the psychology of perceiving cartoon faces.

Science News reports on new research that suggests disturbed sleep may be a sign associated the later development of Parkinson's disease.

A book review and fascinating insight into the indecisiveness of William James is posted on Neuronarrative.

If you've been blogging the world of anthropology or you know a post that really hit the mark, you've got a few more days to get your nominations in for the Best of Anthropology Blogging 2008 to be hosted on Neurophilosophy.

To continue with the theme, Somatosphere has a fascinating piece about microbes and anthropology.

—Vaughan.

December 22, 2008

Encephalon 61 jingles in:

The 61st edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just made a seasonal entrance and has some quality holiday reading from the last fortnights mind and brain blogging.

A couple of my favourites include Cognitive Daily's post on an interesting visual imagery experiment that addresses whether it is sexist to think men are angrier than women, and an awesome (and I mean awesome) visual illusion posted on the excellent Illusion Sciences blog.

This edition has a remarkable number of high quality article, so do wander over and have a look.

Link to Encephalon 61.

—Vaughan.

December 19, 2008

2008-12-19 Spike activity:

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

The visually unappealing but fascinating Culture and Cognition blog has a fantastic piece on new research showing it's possible to predict hot topics before they become hot, based on an analysis of YouTube videos.

Cognitive dissonance in action: Scientific American reports on a study finding that soldiers who have taken a life more likely to defend Iraq war.

New Scientist has more psychology of soldiering news, reporting that higher IQ WWII soldiers were less likely to survive the war - although the IQ difference is pretty minimal.

An interesting publication in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation on amnesic patient Clive Wearing, discussing whether his persistent experience that he has "awoken for the very first time" is a delusion or coping strategy.

The New York Times has an obituary of Nobel-prize winning neuroscientist and sex offender, D. Carleton Gajdusek.

New technology to monitor the brain could be used to assist fighter pilots, reports Wired.

PLoS One has an interesting paper entitled 'Losing the Big Picture: How Religion May Control Visual Attention'.

If you've not caught the latest Neuropod yet, it's a special report with highlights from the Society for Neuroscience conference.

Neurophilosophy and Ars Technica have two of the best articles on the recent research on images reconstructed from brain activity. Black mark for any one of the news outlets that drivelled-on about brain scans displaying dreams.

The Neurocritic casts a sarcastic eye over recent research on the cognitive neuroscience of crime and punishment. I'm not entirely sure whether 'sarcastic eye' makes sense, but you get the picture.

The '12 laws' of emotions are discussed on PsyBlog.

An interesting article on the cultural construction of disease is published on BBC News as they cover the curiously French diagnosis of 'heavy legs'.

The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed arguing we should end drug prohibition based on the US's previous disastrous experiment with prohibition.

Dr Petra takes down the latest in the long line of fake formula nonsense.

The year in mental health is reviewed by Psych Central.

My Mind in Books previews upcoming philosophy of mind books for 2009.

Antidepressants may damage more sex lives than previously thought, reports The Boston Globe.

Scientific American has an interesting article on visual problems caused by brain damage that has a confusing title that spuriously uses the word 'mind'.

Lyrical and level-headed cognitive science writer Jonah Lehrer is interviewed by The New York Times about his forthcoming book on how we choose.

New Scientist has an online experiment you can take part in as part of a research project being conducted with psychologist Richard Wiseman.

Manipulating customers' credit card repayment behaviour and profit through the use of 'anchoring' to set the minimum repayment. An interesting piece on the NYT's Freakanomics Blog.

Furious Seasons reports how under-fire pharma researcher Charles Nemeroff wrote himself a letter as editor of a psychiatry journal to request an academic article praising a specific antidepressant produced by a drug company he took money from and offering himself $3,000 for his efforts. You couldn't make it up.

Under-fire pharma researcher Fred Goodwin writes to the Trouble with Spikol blog and makes some good points in his defence.

Neuronarrative has an interesting piece on how older people may be better at filtering out negative memories than younger people.

Aren't Spike Activity posts long these days? Compare with the first edition.

—Vaughan.

December 12, 2008

2008-12-12 Spike activity:

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

Bad Science unclothes the latest in the line of bogus formula-based adverts - this time for the naughtiness of Britney's breasts.

Hello Google porn surfers. Enjoy the neuroscience!

Interesting memory manipulation study reported by New Scientist who include a spurious reference to the brain in the title.

Cognitive Daily has a one two punch on whether seeing objects in a scene help us remember them.

Hypothesis / conclusion confusion hits BBC News as a study on HSV1 virus in Alzheimer's plaques somehow reported as cold sores 'an Alzheimer's risk'.

Neurophilosophy has a good piece on whether the brain's fear response is culture-specific.

[A small amount of the variance in] the quality of a man's sperm depends on [well, correlates with] how intelligent he is, reports The Economist.

Neuroanthropology is one year old and celebrates with their top 10 posts.

The 50 greatest movie drug trips are listed by Den of Geek, although depending on how you read Rosemary's Baby it mightn't be a drug trip at all. She could be becoming psychotic.

Lack of sleep has genetic link with type 2 diabetes, reports Science News.

Advances in the History of Psychology has an excellent piece on systematic disobedience in Milgram's studies.

Daniel Dennett and Andy Clark write in to New Scientist to react to claims of a 'non-materialist neuroscience'. You can guess the rest.

The New York Times explores our sense of touch: primal, acute and easily duped.

Brain-to-computer interfaces are new portable, inexpensive, but are not ready for prime time yet, reports Scientific American.

Science Daily reports on the effects of unconscious constant exposure to adverts.

Some fantastic videos of developmental trajectories in cortical thickening are discussed by Developing Intelligence.

Scientific American Mind Matters blog reports of the role of the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTTLPR in affecting how people are affected by trauma.

Women more like to hand out phone number when most fertile, reports New Scientist.

Channel N finds an interesting video on the irresitible pull of irrational behaviour.

—Vaughan.

December 10, 2008

Encephalon 60 makes an entrance:

The 60th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published on Living the Scientific Life, as GrrlScientist takes us through the best of the last fortnight's online mind and brain writing.

A couple of my favourites include an interesting write-up on the role of context in the perception of beauty and an excellent piece on attempts to develop an objective test of diagnose ADHD.

There's much more in the latest edition, including everything from gendered computer games to paranormal beliefs and aliens, so do have a look if you're looking for some thought-provoking reading material.

Link to Encephalon 60.

—Vaughan.

December 05, 2008

2008-12-05 Spike activity:

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

Neurophilosophy discusses a newly discovered form of synaesthesia - touch-emotion synaesthesia.

Psychological highlights from the most recent Society for Neuroscience conference are collected by the BPS Research Digest.

Discover Magazine has a punchy bio of Noam Chomsky.

Antidepressants that leak into the water supply affect fishes' brains, according to research covered by Science News.

A whole lotta coverage of the 'body swapping' research has appeared over the last few days. The best has been an article on Not Exactly Rocket Science, a piece from The New York Times and a write-up from Wired.

New Scientist picks up on research suggesting psychopaths have an eye for the underdog.

A review of a new book on the author of Roget's thesaurus sounds fascinating - "The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus" - and appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Neuronarrative interviews Jonah Lehrer and asks him about the art, mind and brain.

A rather breathless title but an interesting write-up of an experiment finding the same thing seems more painful if someone deliberately inflicts it - from Discover.

The British Journal of Psychiatry has a study showing that IQ predicts likelihood of murder - the higher your IQ, the less likely you are to get knocked off.

The U.N. investigates electromagnetic terrorism - a somewhat bizarre episode reported by Wired.

The Washington Post looks at a recent neuroscience study perhaps suggesting the origins of the 'senior moment'.

Obama invents a new emotion, reports Slate.

NPR Radio has a fascinating short segment suggesting that colour perception switches sides in brain during development.

A letter in the American Journal of Psychiatry discusses web-based communities of possibly delusional people and comes to a similar conclusion as myself regarding the validity of the diagnostic criteria.

The New York Times reports on the politics of looking calm and unruffled vs looking concerned.

Baby boys may show spatial supremacy, have robot army, will crush puny humans under foot, reports Science News. I paraphrased the last two points you understand.

The New York Times has a curious piece on the possible psychological effect (based on nothing but pure speculation it must be said) of which time watches are set to when the appear in adverts.

A follow-up from our piece on Rudolpfo Llinás discusses the role of brain oscillations in schizophrenia (thanks CopperKettle).

—Vaughan.

November 28, 2008

2008-11-28 Spike activity:

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

Excellent coverage of a fascinating study from both Neurophilosophy and Not Exactly Rocket Science: visual magnification of a painful hand can increase felt pain and swelling in the hand, using a lens to make it look smaller does the reverse.

Edge has an article by Chris Badcock on the autism and schizophrenia as flip-side genetic conditions.

A women with hypermnesic super-memory is interviewed by Spiegel magazine.

BBC News reports that world's only dedicated 'video game addiction' clinic finally comes to their senses and suggests most the problems are social difficulties.

Respected neuropsychologist Sergio Della Salla says 'brain exercises a waste of time' in The Guardian, although it doesn't make clear that he seems to be specifically talking about the Brain Gym nonsense.

AP News has a story on TV-themed paranoid delusions. I get the 'calm down, calm down' quote at the end.

Medicating away drug cravings and the application of neuroscience to treating addicted ex-convicts is discussed by Dana's Cerebrum magazine.

Developing Intelligence looks at some novel and unacknowledged confounds in cognitive psychology in a typically thorough article.

How did a nonstory about bully neuroscience based on an iffy study end up in a New York Times blog? ask Slate.

Newsweek discusses the alarming suicide rate among young black men in light of the recent 'internet suicide'.

A large dictionary of drug slang is archived on argot.com.

Scientific American discusses the psychology of what they call patternicity - aka apophenia, pareidolia, or perceiving meaningful information in random noise.

We're better at spotting fake smiles when we're feeling rejected, reports the BPS Research Digest.

Inside one teenager's struggle with prescription pill addiction with a personal story in Newsweek.

Wired reports that one of the US military's controversial 'human terrain' team of battlefield social scientists has been charged with murder.

A discussion of the pro-ana groups on Facebook hits Newsweek.

Why do men buy sex? asks Scientific American in a somewhat polarised article. Paging Dr Petra...

Science After Sunclipse discusses mathematical models that have attempted to simulate a certain form of hallucination called a form constant.

To the bunkers! Scientific American has video of Israeli soldier robots.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Denver police are being tested for bias with brain scans. Nothing like alpha-testing techniques that haven't been fully validated yet (thanks Stephanie!).

Eric Schwitzgebel comments on the recent research on how much we dream in colour or black and white on The Splintered Mind.

—Vaughan.

November 24, 2008

The enchanting Encephalon 59:

The 59th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared online on the wonderfully named Ionian Enchantment and has all the latest in the last fortnight's mind and brain writing.

A couple of my favourites include an interesting piece on the development of dance classes for people with Parkinson's disease from the new Dana Press Blog and a great piece on recent research looking at the cognitive neuroscience of poverty from The Mouse Trap.

I've not discovered the Dana Press blog before but it looks really promising with some great posts and offers to review new mind and brain books before they're released.

Anyway, more of the new and interesting in this month's Encephalon.

Link to Encephalon 59.

—Vaughan.

November 21, 2008

2008-11-21 Spike activity:

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

The Situationist has a fantastic video example of a classic experimental philosophy set-up.

The TSA's 'behavior detection' is wrong more than 99 percent of the time, reports USA Today. Maybe that's because it's based on some rather dodgy techniques, as we reported in August last year.

Science Daily reports on an elegant experiment allows who said what to whom to be worked out from the brain scan data. Only from very limited stimuli, but an intriguing study none-the-less.

Can everyone be an Einstein? No, is the short answer, but The Times has a longer one in a nicely balanced article on brain improvement techniques.

Neuroskeptic says Freddie Starr ate my hamster, sorry, it should be Prozac made my cells spiky.

To the bunkers! BBC News reports IBM to build computers that work like brains. Although I'd be more impressed if we could get Microsoft to build software that works like software.

New Scientist reports that coping-with-stress related brain changes occur during menstruation.

Atypical antipsychotics no better than older antipsychotics. We should be used to this headline by now, but this time, it's a study in kids reported by The Psychiatric Times.

BBC News reports heavy drinkers lie to their doctors about how much they drink. Pope still Catholic (and probably still claiming he doesn't masturbate).

There's an excellent interview with Mary Roach, one of my favourite science writers, over at Neuronarrative.

Oprah Magazine has an OK article about neuroscience. Yes, Oprah Magazine. That's it, we're mainstream. Neuroscience is over. What else is cool?

Does involving parents really help students learn? Depends on how they're involved, reports Cognitive Daily.

Science News reports that the brain reorganizes to make room for maths. Which is lucky, because in my brain the space has always been occupied by Batman.

Fred Goodwin, one of the world's leading bipolar researchers has his radio show pulled over undisclosed payments from drug companies, reports Furious Seasons

Not Exactly Rocket Science has an excellent piece on evidence that graffiti and litter strewn environments encourage crime.

A video lecture on the brain's visual system is featured by Channel N.

An interpretative dance inspired by the cerebral activation patterns induced by the inflection of regular and irregular verbs, found by the wonderfully eclectic Frontal Cortex. With video of said dance.

The Guardian has an excellent excerpt from Malcom Gladwell's new book.

—Vaughan.

November 14, 2008

2008-11-14 Spike activity:

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

Do women get bitchier as they get older? Only if they’re faced with research like this, says Dr Petra.

Cognitive Daily ask another one of their compelling questions: can a blind person whose vision is restored understand what she sees?

Temporarily open-access special issue of Criminal Justice and Behaviour discusses pseudoscientific policing practices and beliefs.

Wired asks what Facebook and steroid use have in common. I thought it was acne but apparently it's social networks.

What makes the human mind asks Harvard Magazine. At Harvard, about $10,000 a term I would say.

BBC News reports on a new analysis of UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson's speeches suggesting that Alzheimer's had started to take effect before his shock resignation.

Can we have consciousness without attention? Asks philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel.

Psyblog reports on gift-giving experiments that suggest women react more positively than men to rubbish gifts - at least at first.

At addiction centres longer treatment programs are proving key to ending the relapse-rehab cycle, reports the LA Times.

USA Today reports on new research suggest that being physically punished as a child may lead to sexual problems later, although I'm not sure I'd classify a preference for S&M as a problem alongside coercion and risky sexual behaviour.

Does religion make you nice? asks Slate who consider friendly atheist Scandinavians.

Neurophilosophy finds a beautiful image of the brain from St Paul's Cathedral architect Sir Christopher Wren.

I think this is a working torrent of The English Surgeon possibly the greatest brain documentary ever made.

The Wall Street Journal discusses new research which highlights the importance of forgetting. The French Foreign Legion have advertised this for years of course.

Stanley Fish for the New York Times blog discusses why it took US psychologists so long to ban participation in torture.

Frontal Cortex discusses new research finding that a bad night's sleep can increase the chance of false memories.

The excellent Somatosphere discusses the culture changes that have meant social anxiety disorder is now more widely diagnosed in France.

Boo Yaa! Karl Friston drops some Bayes-heavy block-rocking maths in an article for PLoS Computational Biology on hierarchical models in the brain.

Speed daters shallow, reports New Scientist.

The BPS Research Digest discusses research on the negative effect of pregnancy on memory for future events.

Late stage Huntingdon's disease includes better auditory signal detection, according to research covered by The Neurocritic.

—Vaughan.

November 10, 2008

Encephalon 58 gets Highlighted:

The 58th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared online, this time hosted by health and science site Highlight Health.

A couple of my favourites include an excellent piece on Combining Cognits on what we know about the development of pain perception in unborn children and an article from Ouroboros on sex and the ageing brain.

This edition has a number of new blogs featured, so it's a great opportunity to what's new and notable on the neuroscience internet. Bit too much alliteration in that last sentence but I think you get the idea. Go check it out.

Link to Encephalon 58.

—Vaughan.

November 07, 2008

2008-11-07 Spike activity:

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

Neurophilosophy has a fantastic '60 Minutes' documentary on brain computer interfaces.

Dana's Cerebrum magazine has an excellent article on 'connectomics' or the neuroscience of tracing the 'wiring' of the brain.

PsychCentral has an excellent piece on the psychological research on 'friends with benefits', less politely known as fuck buddies.

Japanese researchers make brain tissue from stem cells, reports Yahoo News.

Antipsychotic aripiprazol has recently been licensed for depression but previous trials suggest it is more likely to cause akathisia than treat mood problems reports Furious Seasons. As an aside, aripiprazol was nicknamed akathisiol in one hospital I worked in.

PsyBlog discusses recent research that suggests, contrary to popular belief, weather has little effect on mood.

My Mind on Books has a video debate on AI entitled 'Dreaming of an artificial intelligence'.

Eye misalignment may suggest a raised risk for mental illness later in life, reports Reuters.

The excellent Not Exactly Rocket Science notes a recent study which has found that the same gene mechanism underlies two language disorders.

Cognitive Daily reports on a poetic study that found that being excluded from a social group makes you feel cold - literally.

The increasingly impressive Neuronarrative has an interview with brain specialising science writer Rita Carter.

Left-handed people are more inhibited, reports open-access shy New Scientist.

The BPS Research Digest discusses research finding rare, intense positive events won't make you happy, but lots of little ones will.

—Vaughan.

October 31, 2008

2008-10-31 Spike activity:

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

Mind Apples is a site that aims to share and develop ways of maintaining mental health in innovative ways. A community-based knowledge sharing community focused on mental well-being. Yay!

To the bunkers! Scientific America has a piece on how one research team are trying to personify evil in an AI programme.

Technology Review has some beautiful diffusion spectrum imaging pictures of the brain that illustrates the white matter tracts in glorious technicolor.

Men were better than women at judging infidelity, but are more likely to guess at cheating when there is none, according to research reported by New Scientist. The old high sensitivity, low specificity problem.

The New York Times follows up with an interesting piece asking whether these sorts of studies that rely on people honestly reporting their infidelities are reliable and looking at the changing rates of infidelity.

Guest blogger Becca Trabin writes an interesting piece about body dysmorphic disorder on The Trouble With Spikol.

The BPS Research Digest has a thought-provoking piece questioning whether brain-injured patients who confabulate, who seemingly produce false memories without intending to deliberately lie, are actually attempting to remember at all.

A brief tour through the comedic history of the US military's attempts to create an 'amnesia beam' is provided by Wired.

Neuroanthropology has an interesting piece on the influence of psychologists on the political messages of the belligerents in the US presidential election.

The recent study on the cognitive neuroscience of hate is dryly dissected by The Neurocritic.

The Boston Globe has an interesting piece on the neuroscience of self-control and describes the cool 4-year-olds and marshmallows experiment.

"Eunoia is the shortest word in English containing all five vowels - and it means "beautiful thinking". It is also the title of Canadian poet Christian Bok's book of fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel." BBC Radio 4 has a sample of each chapter. Reminds me of Gadsby, a whole novel written without the letter e.

Psychology Today bloggers are asked which psychological tests they'd give the US presidential candidates. Strangely, no one mentioned the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Another good BPS Research Digest piece on research showing older people are less optimistic but more realistic.

—Vaughan.

October 27, 2008

Encephalon 57 on Mind Hacks:

Welcome to the 57th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival, where we have the honour of hosting the best in the last fortnight's mind and brain writing, here on Mind Hacks.

We start off with two great interviews. The first is a video interview with pioneering neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás, known for his radical ideas on consciousness, picked up by Channel N. One of the great names in cognitive science makes an appearance on Sharp Brains as Michael Posner is the subject of a recent interview.

One of Posner's great achievements, along with Marcus Raichle was to invent the subtraction method for the analysis of brain imaging data to allow us to make inferences about how the mind is working. The Neurocritic has an excellent piece on some of the state-of-the-art work which is attempting to advance this technology, almost 30 years after the original breakthrough, by looking at links between electrical activity in the cortex and spontaneous fluctuations in signals from fMRI scanner.

Also on a neuroimaging tip, Pure Pedantry covers a recent study on the neuroscience of hypothesis generation, or how we think up possible explanations to explain causality in our booming, buzzing confusion of a world.

The masters of making sense of out of confusion are, of course, children, and a couple of great articles look at some of the latest research showing how the developing brain seems to work its magic. Looking at the remarkable development of language, the consistently excellent Cognitive Daily discuss a child's use of gesture to communicate and whether it slows language learning. Songs from the Wood has a great piece on infantile amnesia - that curiosity of development where we typically cannot remember anything that happened before the age of 3-4 years.

But if you want to learn more about what makes memories stick, Physiology Physics looks at long-term potentiation - one of the most important neuroscience discoveries in the last fifty years and one of the cornerstones of remembering.

If you're interested in where all this childhood experience ends up, one destination is our personality or personal style of interacting with each other and the world. The Mouse Trap looks at some of the most influential of these theories in three great posts that discuss character traits, emotional maturity and emotional intelligence.

Obviously, if you've been reading the same dodgy research that Dr Shock has, you'll know that one part of emotional maturity is saying no to computer games because THEY BURN YOUR SOUL. Or, maybe they don't and the researchers are trying to spin a positive result into a negative one to get their unsupported point across. Ah, the joys of science.

Entering more unusual territories, Brain Blogger has a brief guide to the syndrome where people lose control of their hands after brain injury, carious known as anarchic or alien hand syndrome. PodBlack stays with the uncanny in a post about sex differences in superstitions and paranormal beliefs. It's actually the last part of the four part series looking at superstitions and all are well worth a read.

Equally mysterious and no less controversial is the placebo effect and Brain Health Hacks has an interesting piece on what the the science of placebo might tell us about the neuroscience of hope. I'm sure there's an election joke in their somewhere but I'll leave that as a exercise for the reader.

Talking of culture in a more general sense, the newly launched Culture and Cognition blog has an interesting piece that discusses a recent Nature paper on culture and the brain and another on what can only be described as culture hacking.

From culture hacking to baseball hacking as sports psychology blog 80 Percent Mental looks at the cognitive science of baseball including some illustrative videos and perfect timing for the World Series.

From the best in baseball, to the best in online writing about Bipolar Disorder (calling Liz Spikol...) as PsychCentral ranks its Top 10 Bipolar Blogs for 2008. Keeping with the positivity, Brain Blogger looks at tetrabenazine, a drug which shows promise in treating Huntingdon's disease.

Finally, we finish with some articles about our animal friends. The always thought-provoking Neuroanthropology which provides two posts with video footage of cooperative hunting in chimpanzees. As they say - "The videos raise questions about our own animal nature, as well as what is the dividing line between our own minds and the minds of some of our closest relatives."

Obviously, none of those chimpanzees have robotic cyber-implants, unlike the monkey discussed in a Pure Pendantry piece on a recent Nature Neuroscience article. But it's not just cyber-monkeys, it's also radioactive mice! Neurotopia has the low-down on the effects of exercise on hippocampal cell proliferation in irradiated mice. I'm sure there's a Marvel comic that starts like that but I dread to think which one.

Along the same lines of a science-fiction plotline become reality, Neurophilosophy looks at recent research on how individual memories were erased in mice. And if your hero needs a daring getaway, there's more from the same source on staggering escape mechanism of the crayfish.

—Vaughan.

October 17, 2008

2008-10-17 Spike activity:

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

The Waves of Mu art project is reviewed by The Neurocritic. Looks as beautiful as it sounds.

BBC News says internet use 'good for the brain'? The scientific article has not yet appeared and the guy has a book out on, er, how good the internet is for your brain. I remain suspicious until I see the hard data.

Fantastic Neurophilosophy piece discusses a new study where a man with a surgically re-attached hand shows brain re-organisation to its pre-amputation state.

The New York Times has another one of its great features on the personal experience of mental illness - this with stories of men and women with eating disorders.

Another fascinating study on the effect of death salience (reminding people of their mortality) finds it can influence environmental concerns - in either direction, according to the BPS Research Digest.

M'Lady, PsyBlog has a short but sweet piece on a study that has found romantic thoughts increase male chivalry.

A conversation between BBC News and a robot - who happens to be the winner of the 2008 Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence. You can have a conversation with the same robot yourself.

H+ Magazine launches for the transhumanist in your life. Full of slightly unrealistic but commendable neuroscience speculation.

Robert Burton, neurologist and author of 'Being Certain', is interviewed by SciAm Mind Matters.

Neuroanthropology has a video segment on what archaeology can tell us about early behaviour (sometimes called 'cognitive archaeology').

A patient left in the coma-like persistent vegetative state after a car crash recovers some function after magnetic brain stimulation, reports BBC News.

My Mind on Books previews an interesting looking tome called 'Obsession: A History'.

The ever-excellent Cognitive Daily tackles whether love and sexual desire are the same.

—Vaughan.

October 15, 2008

Encephalon 56 springs into life:

The latest edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just hit the wires, if you interpret 'just' as meaning three days ago (sorry about that, I can only connect to the internet when sitting in the bathroom for reasons of signal unusualness). However, it's being hosted by the excellent Combining Cognits and is ready for action.

A couple of my favourites include a post from The Neurocritic on a recent study on cortisol and anti-social behaviour and a piece from Sports are 80% mental on psychological momentum and winning streaks in sport.

There's plenty more mind and brain writing, and good to see a few new authors in the latest run-down.

Link to Encephalon 56.

—Vaughan.

October 10, 2008

2008-10-10 Spike activity:

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

Pfizer have been caught manipulating studies. Again. This time for the drug Neurontin. The New York Times has the full story.

Neurophilosophy discusses a new way of understanding the neurobiology of hallucinations.

An excellent Carl Zimmer article on the genetics of intelligence is available from Scientific American.

Neurotopia examines a case of a phantom erectile penis after sex reassignment surgery.

A wonderful quote from Nobel prize-winning neuroscientist Charles Sherrington starts an excellent piece on calcium imaging from Neurophilosophy.

The BPS Research Digest asks what is it about eye wiggling that helps people recover from trauma in an article on EMDR therapy.

Psychoanalytic Therapy Wins Backing. The New York Times reports on the recent meta-analysis that found that one year or more psychoanalytic therapy helps complex psychiatric patients.

NPR Radio has a short piece on research suggesting we may not be as good at multi-tasking as we think.

A new study [pdf] finding that 44% of children diagnosed with child bipolar disorder go on to have adult bipolar disorder is critiqued by Furious Seasons.

Advances in the History of Psychology has a short but interesting piece asking whatever happened to the male menopause?

A study that used electrodes implanted in the brain to record neural function during remembering is covered by PsyBlog.

—Vaughan.

October 03, 2008

2008-10-03 Spike activity:

A belated and backdated round-up of quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

SciAm Mind Matters has an excellent piece on 'Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty'.

Socially isolated people feel physically colder, according to a new study covered by BBC News.

Seed Magazine discusses the recently famous photo of an "uncontacted" isolated tribe in the Amazon and finds they're not quite as they're portrayed.

IQ zealot and author of controversial book the 'Bell Curve' is the subject of a revealing piece by Frontal Cortex.

American Scientist has a good review of a new book entitled 'On Deep History of the Brain'.

Under fire psychiatry researcher Charles Nemeroff resigns after revelations about failures to report industry cash-ins, reports Furious Seasons. Not a moment after the NYT finds more financial irregularities.

Not Exactly Rocket Science has an excellent piece on toxoplasma, the brain parasite that has curious character - and maybe culture - changing psychological effects.

Do we all have some synaesthetic ability? asks New Scientist on the basis of a genuinely fascinating new study that suggests we have.

I've got a list of links as long as my arm from the ever excellent Neurophilosophy which I'll get round to waxing lyrical about soon, but in the meantime if you haven't checked it out recently you're missing out.

Trouble With Spikol on the legal changes that means America has made mental health care legally equivalent to other medical treatments and enters the 21st century (OK, the 20th, but it's still a welcome move). Kinda ironically, it's been tagged onto the recent US bill designed to bailout the banks and prevent a global depression.

Projection, fear, sex, Freud and evolutionary psychology (all vices I note) are covered in a heady post from Cognitive Daily.

New Scientist suggests Francis Crick was right about a possible 'vision filter' in the brain.

The 'BBC Prison study', a project based on Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison Experiment has a information rich new website.

Neuroanthropology has an interesting aside on 'neuroprospecting'.

A new study on the genetics of dyslexia is covered by Science News.

—Vaughan.

September 30, 2008

Encephalon 55, emeralds, neurons and fine whiskey:

The 55th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appear online, and as noted by the gracious host, Neuroscientifically Challenged, it's reached its emerald anniversary.

A couple of my favourites include two genuinely exceptional posts: one on targets for deep brain stimulation and their effects, and another on computational neuroscience that was published in Edinburgh University's science magazine.

Some years ago, I spent a compelling couple of weeks at a computational neuroscience summer school in Edinburgh University, who have always been keen on neural simulation and have been AI pioneers for many years.

They had a curious habit of plying all the attendees with fine single malt whiskey before bringing in a distinguished guest speaker for the last lecture of each day. It worked and I've been fascinated with the topic ever since.

The computational neuroscience article is from the excellent Neuronism blog, and if you want something that goes into all the wonderful detail, this month's PLoS Biology has a fantastic review article that discusses all the main concepts in the field.

It turns out that after decades of research, delegates at a conference called the Brain Connectivity Workshop realised that different people used the same terms to mean different things (I suspect this may have also been whiskey related).

They decided to write a definitive article on the subject and this is what just appeared in PLoS Biology.

Link to Encephalon 55.
Link to PLoS Biology article.

—Vaughan.

September 26, 2008

2008-09-26 Spike activity:

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

Cognitive Daily covers a sobering study on sex education that found "among sexually active teens, actual condom use bears no relationship to intention to use a condom or belief that using condoms is a good idea. The only factors in their study that correlate with using condoms are buying and carrying condoms".

Neurologist Robert Burton discusses why voters tend not to change their when new facts emerge in an article for Salon.

Science News reports on an interesting study that maternal depression can increase the chances of depression in children independent of genetic influences.

A fascinating article on the use of genetics and light to investigate and control brain function has just been published by Scientific American.

The BPS Research Digest looks at a new study which exposes some holes in Libet's classic free will study.

Neurophilosophy discovers a newly developed cyber-eye!

Research on near-death experiences is unlikely to find evidence that human consciousness can survive without a brain, says Susan Blackmore in The Guardian. Pope still Catholic says Vatican.

Channel N finds a fascinating video of how obesity 'spreads' through social networks.

Science Daily has a summary of a new study showing that perception of popularity can be equally as important than actual popularity in social success among teens.

Terrorist detecting 'mind-reading' technology shows promise, reports New Scientist. That's if promise means distinguishing between normal volunteers and those told to act deliberately suspiciously (presumably false beards, cackles etc).

Frontal Cortex has a wonderful discussion on the psychology of magical thinking.

Leading open-access science journal PLoS Biology has an article on 'chandelier' neurons.

Newsweek has an in-depth, largely accurate but uninspiring article on cognitive neuroscience.

A wordy but rewarding essay in The New Atlantis takes a sceptical look at a new book that claims that neuroscience can help resolve the gaps between modern philosophy and everyday reasoning.

Philosophy Bites podcast interviews leading philosopher Barry Smith on how the latest discoveries in neuroscience are forcing conceptual changes in philosophy of mind.

US kids get prescribed 2-3 times as much Ritalin, Prozac and other ADHD meds and antidepressants as kids in Europe, reports Furious Seasons.

Advances in the History of Psychology is back and on fire!

—Vaughan.

September 19, 2008

2008-09-19 Spike activity:

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

The New York Times discusses the recent case in India where a controversial 'brain scan lie detection' test was used to convict someone for murder.

Screaming energy! A fan site that reviews energy drinks with, rather predictably, excessive levels of enthusiasm.

“Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation. Fantastic study published in open-access science journal PLoS One.

Sharp Brains has an interview with the wife of Bob Woodruff, a reporter who has made and written about his recovery from brain injury.

Do recent neurological studies prove once and for all that homosexuality is biological? Salon has an interview with neurologist and gay activist Jerome Goldstein.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers new research suggesting political beliefs can be reflected in more fundamental cognitive processes.

The Frontal Cortex continues the theme with a study that provides a lovely example of motivated reasoning and bias in judging political contradictions.

A reporter for Popular Mechanics throws himself out of a plane as part of an experiment on the psychology of fear.

The New York Times has a surprisingly uncritical article on 'child bipolar disorder'. Furious Seasons has a good counterpoint.

Even music played before or after a film character is shown affects our perception of their emotion. Fascinating piece of research covered by Cognitive Daily.

Time magazine looks at the US Military's plans for advanced brain-computer interface controlled weapons systems.

ABC Radio National's Philosopher's Zone has a great discussion on the concept of love while the The LA Times looks at the psychology of commitment and infidelity.

Neuroanthropology has a video discussion from behavioural economist and 'Nudge' author Richard Thaler.

Neuropsychiatrist and ex-English literature professor Nancy Andreasan is interviewed by The New York Times.

—Vaughan.

September 15, 2008

Encephalon 54 is coming home:

The 54th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just arrived, this fortnight hosted by its originator at the Neurophilosophy blog.

A couple of my favourites include an article by Neuronism on how IBM's 'Blue Brain' large scale neural simulator is showing 40hz gamma band oscillations (oh my God - it's becoming conscious. To the bunkers!), and another from The Neurocritic on how viewing beautiful artwork reduces the perception of pain.

The Neurocritic piece also finishes on the fantastic line "Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, it modulates pain-related activity in the anterior cingulate cortex".

There's plenty more news, new material and discussion from the last two weeks in mind and brain science, so do check it out.

Link to Encephalon 54.

—Vaughan.

September 12, 2008

2008-09-12 Spike activity:

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

The theories of the legendary John Hughlings-Jackson are the topic of an excellent post on The Mouse Trap. See also this fascinating paper on the philosophy of JHJ.

The Boston Globe has an interesting piece on the psychological benefits of being a fan.

Triple J's Hack radio show has had some interesting sections on the mind this past week (thanks Michael!) some of which are rounded up by the All in the Mind Blog.

Dr Petra has a great post on the widely reported but hardly definitive study on if you can tell whether a woman has vaginal orgasms by the way she walks.

Chauvinists are less unnerving than ambiguous men, suggests tits in office study reported by New Scientist.

Sharp Brains discusses the future of computer-assisted cognitive therapy.

The way players approach online multi-player games is innately scientific, suggests a new study covered by Wired Games.

BBC News has the amusing story of the British MP stopped by armed police in the Colombian jungle and made to eat coffee whitener to prove it wasn't cocaine.

More from Dr Petra - good summary of two recent sex studies on attraction and eye contact, and the shocking normality of the BDSM folks.

A Wired reporter discusses his experience of taking part in an fMRI experiment on the neuroscience of fear.

An essay on the shaking palsy. One of the foundational studies in neurology and Parkinson's disease is covered by Neurotopia.

The Frontal Cortex discusses an interesting example of financial herd behaviour.

40% of people think they remember film footage of the London 7/7 bombing which has never existed, according to a wonderfully conceived real-world false memory study reported by The Guardian.

The New York Times covers the fact that personality tests show men and women are more different in more egalitarian societies but skates over the fact that some sex-stereotypical characteristics are exaggerated by self-report measures and virtually disappear in observational studies.

Man on a mission US Senator Charles Grassley uncovers yet another psychiatry researcher with undeclared financial payments from drug companies, reports Furious Seasons.

Great chat up lines in science #3: I can see with my skin.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks what makes people vote Republican at Edge and George Lakoff frames the Obama campaign at the HuffPost.

Artist with 'multiple personality disorder' Kim Noble has an exhibition of paintings by each of her alters in London. The Guardian has some of the pictures online.

Brain-Based Lie Detection Leads to Murder Conviction in India? The Neuroethics and Law Blog discusses an interesting case with a comment by the researcher who doubts the reliability of the technique used in this case.

Neuroanthropology covers 'Great Diagrams in Anthropology'. Gotta dig the tree man picture.

—Vaughan.

September 05, 2008

2008-09-05 Spike activity:

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

To the bunkers! AI system enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly stunts by watching other helicopters - with video.

The BPS Research Digest covers an interesting neuroimaging study on whether we assign mental states to robots.

I get my four minutes of fame on the Nature podcast [mp3]. Mainly remarkable because I use the words Iron Maiden and temporal lobe epilepsy in the same sentence.

Wired News on a study suggesting humans can learn from subliminal cues alone.

Non-coding DNA section may have contributed to the evolution of manual dexterity, according to New Scientist.

Advances in the History of Psychology returns after its not very well enforced summer break.

Soldier suicide rate in the US Army may set record again, reports AP News.

The Neurocritic has a sarcastic report on a new study that finds that chewing gum may help reduce stress - funded by a chewing gum company.

Great sections of Recollections of My Life by the legendary Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal is quoted by Sharp Brains.

BBC News reports that music linked to personality. Not the first time, nor the last I suspect.

Happiness could add 10 years to your life, according to a study reviewed by PsyBlog.

Neuroanthropology discusses how colour is constructed in the brain.

5% of American kids prescribed psychiatric medication, according to new government figures found by Furious Seasons.

Cognitive Daily asks is there a separate memory region for location of sound?

—Vaughan.

September 02, 2008

Encephalon 53 hails from a big continent:

The 53rd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival comes to us from the beautiful continent of Africa and has all the latest from the last fortnight in mind and brain news.

A couple of my favourites include an article from the appropriately named Brain Stimulant on the experience of a person with Asperger's who took part in a TMS experiment, and another from Neuronism on the expert perceptual judgements of players vs wannabees in basketball.

This fortnite's Encephalon is hosted by Ionian Enchantment a blog which I'd not discovered before but looks very good and is updated remarkably frequently.

Link to Encephalon 53.

—Vaughan.

August 29, 2008

2008-08-29 Spike activity:

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

Choreography and Cognition is a project examining the cognitive science of dance. Try this for some experimental data. Get down.

The myth of undecided voters is tackled head on by Frontal Cortex.

Gin, Television and Cognitive Surplus. No, not a traditional English weekend, an Edge article by Clay Shirky on the internet and mental aggregators.

PsychCentral's Sandra lists her Top 10 online psychology experiments.

ABC Radio National's Life Matters explores out relationship to colour.

Corpus Callosum has an interesting role reversal art project where a psychiatrist has painted his emotional impression of patients.

Epigenetics or the 'Ghost in Your Genes' is a new TV programme and is linked to and discussed by Neuroanthropology.

The Smart Set review a book on loneliness.

The Guardian's examination of the supposedly mandatory but widely ignored drug company gift registers for UK doctors, shows (can we guess) widespread soul selling.

Be sure to check ABC Radio National's All in the Mind blog for extended comments and extra audio from the recent programme on the mind, markets and morality.

Wired Sciece on why early stone tools suggest Neanderthals were equally as intelligent as early humans, contrary to popular belief. Researchers now exploring lack of style, poor personal hygiene as reason for extinction.

The rubber hand illusion is accompanied by a drop in temperature of the 'displaced' hand. Another from Wired Science.

The BPS Research Digest reports a interesting study that finds we tend to overestimate the size of our own heads, but not those of others.

The three critical techniques for stage magic discussed in the recent paper on the cognitive science of magic are summarised by PsyBlog.

Harvard Magazine has an article on 'A Work in Progress: The Teen Brain'. Due to be completed shortly after Duke Nukem Forever.

July's Neuropod appeared and we didn't even notice. Still, the programme has been eerily quiet since then.

The Times reports that more sex by braver soldiers suggests an evolutionary explanation for rhubarb, hat stands, pink elephants, blah blah blah...

Why Are 'Mama' and 'Dada' a Baby's First Words? Sounds obvious but it's actually an interesting study into developmental phonetics.

BBC News reports that the drug rasagiline may may actually slow down Parkinson's disease according to an early study.

Cool photo on Flickr appropriately called 'applied radiology'.

Cannabis use went down in the UK after it was reclassified as a 'softer' drug, reports of The Guardian. Buckets of urine at the ready to be flung into the wind when government shortly re-reclassifies it as a 'harder' drug.

Interesting experimental philosophy paper makes it into the top 10 philosophy papers of the year.

Furious Seasons catches two interesting antipsychotic news nuggets: Nature Neuroscience editorial says credibility lacking in child psychiatry after recent payments scandal / BMJ reports antipsychotics really, really bad in older folks.

—Vaughan.

August 22, 2008

2008-08-22 Spike activity:

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

If you're after a level-headed discussion of the 'contraceptive pill makes girls go for Mr Wrong' story, Dr Petra has a great review.

SciAm Mind Matters has a great article by the Cognitive Daily duo on how tone deafness and bad singing may not go hand in hand.

A gentleman with extensive frontal lobe damage 'loses' his memory and identity, leading to a curious medical mystery - covered by Frontal Cortex.

ABC Radio National's Health Report has a fantastic programme and video report on the ongoing problem of adolescent PTSD after the Bosnian conflict.

PsyBlog finds some vintage 'candid camera' TV footage illustrating social conformity with a too-good-to-be-true ending.

The burgeoning research on the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of medical conditions is covered by The Guardian - with brief podcast discussion.

Facial Frontier - sounds like the title of a porn movie but actually an article on the psychology of facial expression from The National Post.

The Guardian has a great podcast about music and the brain.

A number of new doom and gloom books about the effect of the internet on relationships, mind and brain and due out, report Wired. I predict many words, no hard evidence.

Live Science on a new study on how the 'visual cortex' is used in hearing and sound processing.

Another cool example of 'hijacking intelligence' is covered by the Boston Globe that discusses the innovative use of CAPTCHs to solve difficult OCR problems.

We look at faces differently depending on our cultural background, according to new research covered by Wired Science. Full text of study in PLoS One.

The Times has a video of creepily lifelike avatar face animation which apparently 'heralds new era for computer games'

Cool interactive brain games and learning suite from McGill University.

Science News on how dopamine has been a 'forgotten' neurotransmitter for sleep regulation. Forgotten? Huh? Amphetamine?

Levels of aggression can be partly predicted from face structure in ice hockey players, reports New Scientist.

MSN Lifestyle has a spectacularly bad and clichéd article that is full of scientific misappropriation - rather ironically titled 'The Male Brain, Explained'.

—Vaughan.

August 18, 2008

Encephalon 52 raises its hand:

The 52nd edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just arrived, this time hosted by the excellent Ouroboros.

A couple of my favourites include a post on the latest science of 'grandmother cells' at the combining cognits blog (the new name for the excellent 'Memoirs of a Postgrad') and another on neuroimaging and social attachment style on the new-to-me but engaging Neurotic Physiology.

There's plenty more article in this fortnight's edition, so have a look and see what sparks your curiosity.

Link to Encephalon 52.

—Vaughan.

August 15, 2008

2008-08-15 Spike activity:

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

Sharp Brains has a thoughtful piece on the hoped-for demise of dementia.

Peter Donnelly gives an excellent TED talk on how juries are fooled by statistics.

Channel N finds an interesting video lecture on the conditioned fear response and combat resilience in the armed forces.

Apparently we're a 'Top 100' Mental Health and Psychology Blog.

The Frontal Cortex has an interesting summary of a study on basketball pros and the mirror system. A nice complement to a study on ballet dancers and capoeira experts.

Is being gay in your biology? All in the Mind investigates.

The Situationist has an interesting piece on "The Psychology of Barack Obama as the Antichrist". Cor blimey!

An interesting project to visualise sound to help deaf people interact with sound is covered by BBC News - with video of it in action.

Wired Science picks up on a new study that finds that placebos work better in children.

Cool! Artwork that displays separate images under different lighting conditions - with videos.

Furious Seasons has an excellent investigative piece on the fact that the FDA seem to be validating new psychiatric diagnoses off their own backs.

The most conceptually confused headline of the year? "Nature Or Nurture: Are You Who Your Brain Chemistry Says You Are?" Actually a study on addiction.

Is psychoanalysis equivalent to a spiritual practice? A commonly made link between psychoanalysis and religion is explored rather deftly in an article for The Immanent Frame.

The BPS Research Digest has an interesting piece on disaster psychology and why so many people perish needlessly in emergencies.

More from the Hot Spanish Psychologist. ¡Vaya chica!

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a fascinating study showing that referees have a tendency to award more points to competitors wearing red.

—Vaughan.

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August 08, 2008

2008-08-08 Spike activity:

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

Language Log has an excellent piece on another reason why the amphetamine methylphenidate (Ritalin) may be popular as a study drug - apart from its boost to wakefulness it might actually improve some forms of learning.

Genes for schizophrenia uncovered. Again!

Scientific American reports on how our moral decision-making can be altered by distraction and additional cognitive effort.

Neurologist Robert Burton has a good piece in Salon on the placebo effect in conventional medicine.

Can cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce the risk of dementia? Newsweek examines evidence from a new study.

Furious Seasons on reports of people faking schizophrenia to get sleep-inducing antipsychotic drug quetiapine (Seroquel). God knows why.

US psychiatrists are deserting psychotherapy in favour of a sole focus on medication management, reports AP News. Original study here.

Edge presents A Short Course in Behavioural Economics. Scroll down past the chummy restaurant photos to get to the interesting bit.

Human brains have evolved a particularly strong capacity to detect what neuroscientists call “errors”. A sentence from a dreadful article on the 'neuroscience' 'of' 'leadership'.

The New York Times discusses the benefits of boredom.

Researchers develop robots that learn to move themselves, reports BBC News. But the video shows they're not just moving, they're break dancing! Hey You The Robot Steady Crew, show em what you do, make a break, make a move.

Neuroanthropology has an excellent article on the sex differences and the 'maths gap'.

Daniel Dennett publishes an extract from his autobiography. No mention of inspiration for Santa-like beard yet.

Scientific American has an article on the neurological basis of genius.

The 'torture debate' among US psychologists rumbles on and is covered by PsychCentral.

NPR Radio has an excellent piece on novelist Virginia Woolf and the psychology of the self, inspired by Jonah Lehrer's recent book. Wonderfully produced in the unique RadioLab style.

Neuroscientist Shitij Kapur does the warm up for Gladys Knight with a lecture on dopamine and psychosis. No really. Channel N has the scoop.

—Vaughan.

August 04, 2008

Encephalon 51 arrives with a flourish:

The rather poetic 51st edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published online and is graciously hosted by The Mouse Trap.

It has a distinctly poetic theme on this occasion, with a set of cognitive science haikus enlivening proceedings.

A couple of my favourite posts include one on the continuing mirror neuron hype and another on the cultural feedback loop between psychiatry and our expression of mental distress.

Link to Encephalon 51.

—Vaughan.

August 01, 2008

2008-08-01 Spike activity:

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

Awesome Developing Intelligence post gives a remarkably concise review of cognitive science and discusses what this tells us about the best targets for cognitive enhancement.

BookForum looks at two memoirs that recount the psychological and physical intricacies of illness of the body and brain.

The mighty Language Log has a great analysis looking at the fallacies of yet another popular piece on sex differences in mind and brain.

The Economist has an article on the science of cognitive nutrition.

The ideas behind 'critical neuroscience' are discussed by Neuroanthropology.

Eric Schwitzgebel on the Wittgensteinian puzzle of whether philosophy solves problems with language or problems with the world.

ABC Radio National's The Philosopher's Zone has an interesting discussion on the philosophy of moral dilemmas.

While we're on the subject of morality the NYT Freakanomics blog has two guest posts on moral hypocrisy.

Sharp Brains has a special on mind and brain haikus.

ABC Radio National's In Conversation looks at the anthropology of sisters, mothering and motherhood across the world's cultures.

Dr Petra has the most sensible post you'll read about the recent news reports on Viagra supposedly increasing sexual function in women who take antidepressants.

Advances in object recognition around age 2 may herald symbolic thought, reports Science News.

Pure Pedantry has an interesting commentary on the merits of postponing your alcoholism.

Perpetually falling woman learns to balance with her tongue. The Telegraph has a story about a woman who has lost her sense of balance owing to brain injury.

The Primary Visual Cortex is an excellent new blog on vision science and perception.

A robot that "resembles the love child of a monkey and an iMac". The Times has an excellent piece on robots designed to emotionally interface with humans.

Not Quite Rocket Science looks at a new study on language evolution in the lab and Wired Science has some further in-depth analysis.

A new book called 'Brain Research for Policy Wonks' is reviewed by Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

New Scientist has a special article and video report on the somewhat recursively titled 'Seven Reasons Why People Hate Reason'.

The psychology of motivation - when passionate interest becomes a business - is discussed by The Washington Post.

The New York times examines the methods and motivations of web trolls.

An eye-tracking study that compared how individuals with Williams syndrome ("hyper social") and autism ("hypo social") view pictures of social scenes is covered by The Neurocritic.

—Vaughan.

July 25, 2008

2008-07-25 Spike activity:

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

Neurophilosophy has a beautiful quote from the great Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal.

The miseries of losing one's sense of smell are covered by an interesting Slate article on this neglected sense.

Cognitive Daily looks at a study which attempts to answer the question 'Why do more Asians have perfect pitch?'.

Two novels on identity theft are touched on by My Mind on Books.

The New York Times has an excellent multimedia feature on 'The Voices of Bipolar Disorder' where people affected by the condition discuss their experiences.

Delusions reflect Hollywood movie 'The Truman Show'.

Nature reviews the latest Disney animated feature about an artificially intelligent robot Wall-E.

The Female Brain or one female's perspective? Neuroanthropology reports from a recent 'critical neuroscience' conference and a discussion about popular books on sex difference.

Scientific American on why anecdotal evidence can undermine scientific findings for most people.

SciAm's Mind Matters blog on the neural energy drain of decision-making.

The BPS Research Digest looks at a study that reports novelty seekers have a right-sided spatial bias.

The neuroscience of insight is discussed in a tantalising excerpt from a New Yorker by The Frontal Cortex.

Psych Central has an interview with the insightful psychiatrist Daniel Carlat.

BooYaa! Straight-talking judge has some hard words for Eli Lilly in the ongoing court case over antipsychotic olanzapine (Zyprexa).

—Vaughan.

July 21, 2008

Encephalon turns gold at 50:

The 50th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has arrived, with the best of the last fortnight's mind and brain writing ably hosted by the excellent Sharp Brains.

Alvaro stars with a tongue-in-cheek request to remind people of the benefits of participating and hosting Encephalon at your blog.

If there's a particular post your proud of and want to spread the word, or you're interesting in getting exposure for your blog by hosting the high traffic festivities, just drop an email to encephalon dot host at gmail dot com.

A couple of my favourites from this edition include a completely fascinating post on the compulsive collecting of televisions reported in the medical literature, and another on the function of fearful faces.

The next edition will be hosted on the primed and ready Mouse Trap.

Link to Encephalon 50.

—Vaughan.

July 18, 2008

2008-07-18 Spike activity:

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

One I missed before - The New York Review of Books has an extended and thoughtful review of a stack of cognitive science books and Neurophilosophy has a great commentary.

The New York Times reports on the challenges of $600-a-session patients. Interesting to note it's all described in terms of psychoanalysis - a therapy strangely ghettoed among the well-to-do.

TV producer creates a video documentary about his brain surgery for Parkinson's disease.

Neuroanthropology discusses the best way of going about studying neuroanthropology and the problems you might face from other researchers worried about this crazy new mix of neuroscience and culture.

The history of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is covered by Advances in the History of Psychology.

Wired notes that victims of 'mind control' are to gather in Connecticut for a annual conference.

Fluoxetine for Fido. The New York Times examines the growing trend for using psychiatric drugs on pets.

To the bunkers! Channel N has a video on neurorobotics.

The BPS Research Digest finds a video discussion between psychologist Jonathan Haidt and political scientist Will Wilkinson on the psychology of morality.

Research finding memory 'chunking' in infants is covered by the excellent Not Quite Rocket Science.

SharpBrains has one of its bi-weekly round-ups of its interviews and all that's new in the world of cognitive enhancement.

More from The New York Times, this time on the commercial release of the Emotiv Systems 'brain reading' gamer's headset.

Cognitive Daily report on how playing video games can improve visual acuity.

Wall-E and and the evolution of emotion expression is discussed by Frontal Cortex.

—Vaughan.

July 11, 2008

2008-07-11 Spike activity:

Some slightly belated links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Ben Goldacre's Bad Science follows up the piece on the 'mobile network causes suicide' nonsense, plus an interesting additional section on the plausibility effect.

Not Quite Rocket Science discusses the 'Lady Macbeth effect' and how physical cleanliness moral cleanliness are linked.

The recent study on mapping the brain's white matter network is discussed in a short video by Scientific American.

The Boston Globe has an article about the recovery of child psychologist Seymour Papert, who suffered a serious brain injury 18 months ago.

My Mind on Books lists some forthcoming cognitive psychology books for 2008.

A career in forensic psychology is discussed by US psychologist Stephen Diamond.

The science of how melody and harmony combine to produce music is covered by Seed Magazine.

The New York Times reviews the debut novel of medic Rivka Galchen which seems to be about the Capgras delusion.

Better golfers see bigger holes according to research covered by PsyBlog.

Neuroanthropology looks at the work of anthropologist Felicitas Goodman on the connection between trance states and body posture which has some interesting parallels between work on hypnotisability and body posture.

Genes implicated in learning may also be linked to autism, reports Scientific American.

The Situationist has a video of Sam Gosling discussing his new book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

Call-Me-Kenneth prototype the Care-o-Bot is profiled by the AI and Robots blog.

The Neurocritic discovers the ~~newly launched~~ photoshopped 'Journal of Speed Dating Studies'. ~~No, really.~~ No, not at all it seems!

—Vaughan.

July 07, 2008

Encephalon 49 evolves:

The 49th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared online, this time hosted by Neuroscientifically Challenged - a blog that's new to me but looks very good.

A couple of my favourites include a sceptical look at gene therapy in psychiatry and an interesting overview of a theory of how the brain and culture co-evolved.

There's much more where that came from so check it out for the last fortnight's highlights.

Link to Encephalon 49.

—Vaughan.

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.

—Vaughan.

June 27, 2008

2008-06-27 Spike activity:

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

More on experimental philosophy. Scientific America has an excellent piece on the curious new form of conceptual engineering.

The BPS Research Digest looks at new research on 'non-criminal psychopaths'.

How to win friends and influence people. Cognitive Daily covers some recent research on popularity at school.

NeuroScene has monthly podcast interviews with mind and brain researchers.

I'm a Blind Climber Who "Sees" With His Tongue. Not only a perfect chat-up line, but also an article for Discover Magazine.

The 1930s Marital Scale is now available as an online test!

The Immanent Frame discusses Pascal Boyer's cognitive explanation of the evolution of religious thought.

Documentary photographs from institutions for people with learning disabilities from 1960s American, discovered by Neurophilosophy.

If you need an antidote after those somewhat disturbing photos, could I recommend the rocktastic Heavy Load.

How Smart Is the Octopus? asks Carl Zimmer.

The Language Log picks up on some sexual pseudoscience from CNN.

Oxytocin may be a useful treatment for social anxiety, reports The Times.

The Onion radio news reports on a successful case of gay conversion therapy.

NeuroQuantology. Not sure quite what to make of it.

Antipsychotics dangerous and overprescribed in dementia, reports The New York Times.

The mighty Neuroanthropology has a great piece on cybernetic theory and neuroanthropology hot from a recent conference.

The Times has an article on government-by-cognitive-bias book 'Nudge'.

Psychologist Deric Bownds reviews the brain's default network.

The second social scientist from the US military's Human Terrain System is killed in the ongoing conflicts, reports Wired.

Sharp Brains has an excellent interview with psychologist Arthur Cramer about, well, sharpening the brain!

Hot Spanish psychologist talks about psicología y los hombres como mero instrumento de placer. Not the sort of Spanish lessons I remember, sadly.

Advances in the History of Psychology picks up on an intriguing new book on the history of ignorance.

Pharma industry spent $168 million, yes that was $168 million, lobbying US lawmakers in 2007, up by a third from 2006, notes Furious Seasons.

Developing Intelligence has an excellent piece on untraining the brain and the use of meditation and hypnosis to decouple automatic attentional processes.

—Vaughan.

June 23, 2008

Encephalon 48 makes an entrance:

Neuroanthropology has just released the latest edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival, where there's a line-up of the last fortnight's best in mind and brain blogging.

A couple of my favourites include an interesting look at the science of out of body experiences, and another on the Amazonian Mundurucu tribe who have no formal maths but who apparently have a logarithmic mapping of numbers onto space.

It's quite a diverse edition and it seems some of the anthropologically inclined readers of Neuroanthropology have submitted posts as there's some welcome new faces.

Link to Encephalon 48.

—Vaughan.

June 20, 2008

2008-06-20 Spike activity:

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

Clear thinking science writer Carl Zimmer discusses the evolution of the mind in a video lecture.

Pure Pedantry looks at a new study on serotonin and rejection in the Ultimatum Game.

The increasingly excellent Frontier Psychiatrist has a good post on neurosyphilis.

The New York Times has a brief piece on the neuroscience of schizophrenia with funky animation and auditory commentary.

Developmental language disorder is the subject of a Health Report special.

The Chicago Reader interviews the author of 'Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness' (thanks Melissa!).

Neurophilosophy examines new research on the neuropsychology of confabulations.

Senior moments and the ageing brain are discussed on NPR Radio.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers some fascinating research on the facial expression of fear and the experimental creation of 'anti-faces'.

Illusion Sciences is a great blog about the science of visual illusions.

Popular herbal supplement Ginkgo 'does not treat dementia', according to BBC News.

Research on porn and mirror neurons involves a sloppy reverse inference. Sadly, not as sexy as it sounds.

Furious Seasons on the fact that GlaxoSmithKline are being investigated for allegedly falsifying data on paroxetine and suicide.

People who are sexually attracted to walls, computers and a range of other inanimate objects are featured in an article in Bizarre magazine.

New Scientist suggest that self-obsessed, manipulative and deceitful men have the most sex... oh hang on, it should be 'report having the most sex'. I knew there was a flaw in there somewhere.

Some excellent local news reporting on the brain imaging research of Nottingham neuroscientist Richard Ramsey.

Film content, editing, and directing style affect brain activity. As does popcorn I presume.

The Telegraph looks at the science of why we scream.

Political philosophers seem to vote less often than other philosophers, according to Eric Schwitzgebel's fantastic ongoing project to examine the utility of philosophy.

Discover Magazine has a great short video on research showing that ADHD may be delayed brain maturation that eventually catches up.

The endowment effect and the psychological influence of property is discusses by The Economist.

The Atlantic publishes two pages of absolute drivel about brain scans and FKF Research (who else?). Slate takes them to task for publishing such nonsense.

Rabble rousing psychologist Richard Lynn cites IQ - atheism correlation as causal in the Times Higher Ed.

—Vaughan.

June 13, 2008

2008-06-13 Spike activity:

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

A fascinating personal account of 'supposed demoniacal possession' from an 1849 edition of the Journal of Psychological Medicine.

'Key to All Optical Illusions Discovered' says over-enthusiastic headline for very interesting article.

An article in Seed Magazine discusses quantum physics and whether we create the world just by looking at it.

Dr Petra looks at new research showing that tackling depression may reduce risky sexual activity.

Six ground-breaking discoveries about the brain are covered by Neurophilosophy.

PsychCentral has a wonderful bit of detective work showing the Scientific American just replaced 'writing' with 'blogging' to re-release an article entitled 'Blogging: It’s Good for You'.

Harvard psychiatrists and child bipolar researchers are caught out not declaring millions in drug company payouts, reports Furious Seasons.

BBC News reports that light therapy 'can slow dementia' and that a new 'dual action' Alzheimer's drug may be on the horizon.

Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation or Exercise? PsyBlog is on the case and Sharp Brains follows up with a considered analysis and commentary.

American Scientist tackles the 'Britney Spears Problem', which actually turns out to be about search algorithms.

Archaeologists discover a sacrificed acrobat in ancient Mesopotamian ruins, according to Science News.

Neurophilosophy looks at some proposed DARPA developed neurobinoculars.

A new study on the neuroscience of fairness is covered in a piece from the BPS Research Digest.

Eric Schwitzgebel considers the ability of the mind to self-perceive, with an interesting discussion continuing in the comments.

I love watching point-light motion video and Cognitive Daily has a fascinating research on how viewing motion give us such a clear way of identifying living things.

My Mind on Books previews a list of forthcoming cognitive science books for 2008.

Solomon Asch's famous conformity experiment is recreated in a video hosted by The Situationist. Still just as powerful.

Philosophy Bites has an audio discussion on human agency - i.e. how we can understand when someone is doing something on purpose.

—Vaughan.

June 06, 2008

2008-06-06 Spike activity:

Who says Americans don't do irony? The Neurocritic reports that the next NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction will be held in Las Vegas!

The latest edition of the Santa Fe Institute magazine has some fascinating articles on social networks and terrorism, but is only available as a 6.1 Mb whole-magazine pdf download.

The Economist has a double bill on 'smart drugs' - potential new compounds to improve memory, concentration and learning.

The science of mindfulness meditation is discussed by The New York Times.

The Boston Globe highlights the work of a psychiatric epidemiologist. One of the least glamorous but most important forms of mental health research.

To the bunkers! Skynet sentience and subsequent robot war temporarily postponed owing to faulty software.

Neuropsychologist Martha Farah discusses the future of free will with Wired.

The New York Review of Books has an extensive review of 'Nudge', a new behavioural economics book, and discusses how Obama plans to use the new theories in his policy making.

Optical illusions! Scientific American has a whole series with explanations.

Yahoo! News reports that earlier diagnosis means that people with Alzheimer's are increasingly able and willing to discuss their experience and lobby for research.

The famous University College London 'lunch hour lectures' are now available online as video archives. iTunes users can also download UCL lectures.

The Independent catalogues the weird and the wonderful behavioural disorders / difficulties / fallacies that have been medicated.

Initial study finds that heavy, long-term cannabis use may shrink certain brain structures, according to Science Daily.

Deric Bownds looks at sex differences in judging attractiveness.

Thoughts of death make us eat more cookies. Enough said, although New Scientist has more.

PhysOrg on a paralysed man who takes a walk in Second Life owing to a brain-computer interface.

The newly minted Neuroanthropology.net has a very funny post on an allegory for modern cognitive science.

Dennett vs Fodor. Handbags at 40 paces. "As often before, Jerry Fodor makes my life easier, this time by... providing along the way some vivid lessons in How Not to Do Philosophy." 3 Quarks Daily links to the latest philosophical ruckus.

Jonah Lehrer discusses theories of memory in a short but sweet segment for NPR Radio.

Fox News reports that an Arizona teen becomes sixth victim this year of brain-eating amoeba. Sadly true, it seems.

Yes, we have no bananas! Sorry, I meant no disease in the brain of a 115-year-old woman. Pure Pedantry looks at the eye-opening implications.

SciAm on why unscientific assumptions in economic theory are undermining efforts to solve environmental problems. If only those humans weren't so irrational.

—Vaughan.

May 30, 2008

2008-05-30 Spike activity:

ABC Radio National's The Philosopher's Zone broadcasts part two of its series on the philosophy of suicide.

PsyBlog has been rocking the cognitive biases recently. This is a fascinating article on 'Four Belief Biases That Can Reduce Pleasure'.

Columbia University has an archive of video lectures by some of the 'big names' in psychology and neuroscience.

The BPS Research Digest covers a new study that finds that harsh discipline actually makes aggressive children worse.

Calm Zone. A fantastic UK initiative to encourage young inner city males to get help for mental health difficulties.

"Why we posted epilepsy film to YouTube". The Guardian continues the debate over whether video of people having seizures is education or exploitation.

Time magazine wonder about the possibilities of prescribing our own antidepressants.

Pete Doherty says 'a mind is a terrible thing to waste'. No it's not the Pete Doherty you're thinking of.

The All in the Mind blog finds some interesting commentary on movement, the mind, cognition and the car.

Psychologist David Rabiner asks does mindfulness meditation help adults and teens with ADHD? in an article for Sharp Brains.

The Situationist discusses whether we're living in an age of increasing child anxiety?

Gratingly banal headline obscures an interesting article from The New York Times on the neurobiology of cigarette addiction.

Not Quite Rocket Science covers recent research on how perceived social hierarchy affects cognitive abilities. The Economist on the same.

A fantastic 2002 article from Wired on the curious and death of psychiatrist Elisabeth Targ, who completed the (in)famous prayer healing (not quite so) randomised controlled trials.

Brain Windows is a fantastic looking neuroscience blog that seems to have been dormant for a couple of months. Plenty of good articles there though.

Forgetting Is the New Normal according to an excellent brief article on memory and ageing from Time magazine.

Furious Seasons looks at some new broadsides in the debate over the effectiveness of antidepressants.

Can you teach happiness? ABC Radio National's education programme EdPod examines whether it's possible to teach positive psychology to school children.

Inspirational Kid's Company founder and child therapist Camila Batmanghelidjh is interviewed in The Independent.

Time magazine looks at the psychology of Second Life.

The 'seven challenges of psychotherapy' are discussed by PsychCentral.

—Vaughan.

May 28, 2008

Encephalon 46 arrives:

The latest edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared online, ably hosted by The Neurocritic.

A couple of my favourites include an article on the psychology of superstition from PodBlack and one hot from the Association for Psychological Science convention, where Cognitive Daily report on cognitive influences on calculation.

It's a bumper edition and it even has some video of an intriguing experiment on 'distributive justice'. You'll have to read more to find out.

Link to Encephalon 46.

—Vaughan.

May 23, 2008

2008-05-23 Spike activity:

PLoS Medicine has an eye-opening study on how the local price of alcohol is related to the level of violence in the area.

To the bunkers! Robot removes brain tumour.

BBC News Magazine has an interesting piece on 'celebrities we love to hate' with comments on the phenomenon of celebrity from a number of sociologists.

ABC Radio National's excellent All in the Mind had a great edition on the science of happiness.

Petra Boyton looks at a recent study on how alcohol and drug use among European young people is deliberately and strategically linked to sexual behaviour.

An US Iraq veteran who wrote about his PTSD, sadly, kills himself.

BPS Research Digest picks up on interesting new study that found that women's memories are more speech-filled than men's.

Am I part of the cure, or am I part of the disease? Scientific American looks at the psychological health benefits of blogging, and on the flip side, whether it's driven by pathology.

Those concerned about their blogging habits may want to diagnose themselves with a couple of light-hearted lists of social media related psychopathologies.

PsyBlog reports on a new study that found that online daters site spend seven times longer looking at other people's profiles and sending emails than they did going on real dates.

Frontal Cortex has found a interesting video of someone's speech function being temporarily 'switched off' by TMS.

Getting doctors to routinely enquire about domestic violence may help detect and prevent this vastly under-recognised problem, according to The New York Times.

Psychological Science has an accurate (if not slightly formulaic) article on 'mirror neurons'.

Researcher mull possible use of oxytocin to treat social phobia, reports BBC News.

Computer World asks the somewhat ridiculous question "Asperger's and IT: Dark secret or open secret?". Secret? How about "Asperger's and IT: blessing or gift?"

One of the original internet psychologists, John Suler, has a posse... sorry, blog.

The Wall Street Journal reports "Research shows that people often do get a high from shopping - the brain releases chemicals such as dopamine or serotonin". Oh gag me, please. Release us from these tired, misleading clichés.

Sage Journals are giving away free access on registration to all their academic journals until the end of May (thanks Patricio!).

BBC News reports on unlikely suggestions to bring in testing for brain doping in school students.

Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD? The use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of mental illness is considered by Discover Magazine.

The New York Times has some brief audio interviews of people talking about their experience with ADHD.

Older brains may be slower because they've just got more information to sift through. The advantages and disadvantages of wisdom are considered by The New York Times.

The ironies of peer pressure: smokers give up in groups, reports BBC News.

Drugs, anthropology and embodied cognition. A lost weekend, or a collection of interesting links from Neuroanthropology. You decide.

—Vaughan.

May 16, 2008

2008-05-16 Spike activity:

Frontal lobe damage changes performance on the 'Pepsi challenge'. Isn't the world a better place now we know that?

Philosophy Now reviews 'Freedom and Neurobiology' by John Searle.

In an article for Salon, our recent interviewee neurologist Robert Burton gets stuck into a high-tech huckster promoting expensive SPECT scans to diagnose Alzheimer's and herbal supplements to treat the brain disorder.

Channel N discovers a video lecture by Antonio Damasio on the neuroscience of emotion.

Psychologist Charles Fernyhough turned every moment of the first three years of his daughter's life into a research project notes The Telegraph as they review the resulting book.

Treatment Online on research that has found that variations in serotinergic neuroreceptors may indicate severity of depression.

13 ways to quickly improve your decision-making are discussed by PsyBlog.

The Age has a fantastic article on the psychology of risk and why we're so bad at judging it.

"The Change You Deserve". The slogan for antidepressant drug Effexor, and now, the slogan for the US Republican party!

Furious Seasons notes that a recent study on bipolar disorder being overdiagnosed is being supported by leading bipolar researchers.

APA psychology magazine Monitor has an excellent article on how research with deaf people who can't sign might shed light on the fundamentals of cognition.

Burgeoning research on the neuroscience of mystical experiences is discussed in the The New York Times.

Pictures of brain tumours!

BBC News reports that music can enhance the taste of wine. If only it could do the same for brussel sprouts.

The brain is not modular: what fMRI really tells us. An article in Scientific American Mind discusses limitations of brain scanning.

Deric Bownds covers a study that finds our facial touch sensitivity is enhanced by viewing a touch.

The excellent ABC Radio National's All in the Mind discusses the neurobiology of nicotine addiction and concerns about new anti-smoking drugs.

Developing Intelligence covers a fascinating study on time distortion due to visual flicker.

The Wall Street Journal on the possibility of the US Goverment awarding Purple Hearts, a medal for soldiers wounded in battle, for cases of PTSD (thanks Kyle!).

—Vaughan.

May 12, 2008

Encephalon 45 glides into your mind with a sunny hello:

Edition 45 of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just arrived online, this time ably hosted at PodBlack Blog.

A couple of my favourites include a poem inspired by a new stereoscopic atlas of the body and brain, and an excellent post on the neuropsychology of stalking (with a great bonus Death Cab for Cutie track!).

Coincidentally, the stalking article appears courtesy of Neurocritic where the the next edition of Encephalon is due to appear in two weeks.

Link to Encephalon 45.

—Vaughan.

May 09, 2008

2008-05-09 Spike activity:

Fascinating article in the New York Times on lying, deception and why exaggeration seems the same but is psychologically quite different.

UK government returns to pissing in the wind over drug classification. Prime Minister feels that having wet trousers will "send a message".

New Scientist covers a new study on old news that hallucinations and delusions during intensive care can lead to trauma in children.

Fake tits and heroin, brought to you by HotForWords.

Scientific American Mind has an excellent article on unconscious bias and prejudice and how it affects how we behave.

How LSD rocked the world. The Independent discusses the cultural impact of LSD in light of the recent passing of its creator.

AlterNet discusses the implications of having America's chemically modified 21st century soldiers in the heat of battle.

To the bunkers! Intelligent robot exoskeleton created by a company called Cyberdyne Systems. Cue nervous laughter.

Developing Intelligence has an article on modelling the diffusion of information in the brain.

Where do all the neurotics live? New York apparently. An article in the Boston Globe covers 'Big Five' personality maps created for a new book. The full map is here.

Treatment Online discusses new research showing post-birth depression affects male partners as well.

Interesting New York Times article on why intelligence in animals isn't always an evolutionary advantage.

Neuroanthropology has had a series of great essays recently, on everything from brain imaging to addiction.

Rather breathless article from The Times on possible use of ecstasy for treating PTSD that's more anecdote than hard data but has some interesting personal accounts.

Channel N finds an award winning video report on the neuroscience of the teen brain.

The LA Times has a brief but interesting article on the advantages of 'good enough' evolutionary mind adaptations from the author of 'Kludge'.

In autistic boy's hands, paper and scissors express an amazing spectrum. An article on an remarkably talented boy from The Seattle Times.

PsychCentral discusses the benefits of the usually unintentionally planned 'single session psychotherapy'.

This week's Nature reviews a couple of books on children and neurodevelopment.

Science Daily looks at some interesting findings on the influence of epigenetics on suicide. If you're not familiar with epigenetics, it's well worth checking out. It's the future.

Antipsychotic drug use soars among U.S. and U.K. kids despite an almost complete lack of evidence for its effectiveness or long-term safety.

The New York Times have an article on breaking habits and boosting creativity.

3D brain images! Get those red and green glasses out.

Scientific American's blog Mind Matters looks at evidence on how mobile phones can affect brain function.

Musical hallucinations are covered in a cool article from the BPS Research Digest.

—Vaughan.

May 02, 2008

2008-05-02 Spike activity:

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

Interesting Scientific American article looks at the how infections can increase risk for mental illness but suffers from some rather irresponsible and sensational statements in the summaries.

A classic study on how children learn the world isn't flat, covered by PsyBlog.

Science Daily reports on research suggesting that the key language areas of the brain 'shift' as we age.

Some wonderful examples of 19th century Japanese brain art are discovered by In Two Minds.

Neuroscientifically Challenged has an excellent short piece on a brain scanning study on social hierarchy in humans.

The excellent Dana magazine Cerebrum has an article on the link between the heart and brain function. Healthy heart, healthy brain.

The Neuroethics and Law Blog rounds up some recent reviews of neuroethics books.

BBC News has a remarkably good article on 'sex addiction' and why it's not an addiction, even if it's a problem.

A coooool visual illusion is discovered by Cognitive Daily.

Booze reduces the brain response to fearful faces finds study reported by Science News who seem to have had a few when they wrote the first rather over-generalised sentence.

The Frontal Cortex has a thoughtful piece on madness and creativity.

Female voices sound sexier when they're at the peak of fertility in the menstrual cycle, reports New Scientist.

The latest research on deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression is covered by PsychCentral.

Scientific American has an article on whether age-related cognitive decline may be caused by a breakdown in connections between different brain systems.

The anthropology of Grand Theft Auto! A thinly veiled excuse to play video games at work leads to an interesting article on why Liberty City is such as success.

Furious Seasons on why new data reveals that the famously corrupt Paxil Study 329 is actually worse than we thought. Hard as that is to believe.

McGill University has some funky neuroscience images (thanks Sandra!).

Unix, Lacanian psychoanalysis, anarchy, David Cronenberg, the unconscious and Stanislaw Lem - together at last!

BPS Research Digest covers a curious debate over whether psychotherapy is over-hyped where a frankly delusional psychopharmacologist ignores evidence and seemingly makes up figures about levels of therapist abuse. He references his own paper, which quotes a different figure.

—Vaughan.

April 28, 2008

Encephalon 44 wants you!:

The 44th edition of the psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just been released by the ever-excellent Cognitive Daily.

What with the flurry of recent interest in neuroscience studies predicting the imminent death of our concept of free will, this edition has a slyly satirical slant on your ability to resist.

A couple of my favourites include a post by Cognitive Daily on a remarkable study that found that priming students to believe that free will doesn't exist increases levels of cheating (!), and a provocative article from The Mouse Trap on whether God is just the result of humans making a Type I error - i.e. detecting a false positive.

Of course, another alternative is that God is significant but just has a very small effect size. Epicurus is that you?

Link to Encephalon 44.

—Vaughan.

April 25, 2008

2008-04-25 Spike activity:

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

BBC science programme The Material World has a great feature on the blood-brain barrier. I love the blood-brain barrier!

In light of the recent resurgence of a penis theft panic in Congo, here's a link to an old article of mine on the psychology of penis theft beliefs.

Sharp Brains rounds up a fantastic series of interviews with neuroscientists.

Professor Semir Zeki has a posse, sorry... blog.

The Times has a review of a new book on the behavioural genetics of personality.

A remarkably comprehensive article on the drug industry's underhand tactics with antipsychotic drugs is published by the St Petersburg Times.

Cognitive Daily looks at the desensitising effect of violent video games.

Research to test human brain implants to control robot arms is submitted for review in Japan, reports Pink Tentacle.

The New York Times has an interview with Daniel Gilbert on the curious psychology of happiness.

Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg writes about brain science and the biology of belief.

ABC Radio National have had a couple of good shows on food and the evolution of the brain; and hearing, lip reading and language perception.

Does language shape cognition? The New York Times re-examines the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in light of new research.

Discover Magazine has an interesting short article on how earthquake prediction algorithms also apply to epileptic seizures.

The 'top ten mind myths' series is concluded by PsyBlog.

Frontal Cortex has a fascinating discussion of how society regards MRI scans, compared to the limits of the science.

Current tools are not very good at identifying 'kiddie psychopaths', reports the BPS Research Digest.

Treatment Online looks at a study that tracked how the balance of genes and environment differs on women's paths to alcoholism.

Some recent books on consciousness are discussed by My Mind of Books.

—Vaughan.

April 18, 2008

2008-04-18 Spike activity:

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

The economics of MILF! Slate explores how economics and game theory explain the shortage of available, appealing men in the 30s and beyond.

Has a selection bias found in the 'Monty Hall problem' affected findings in certain types of cognitive dissonance research? NYT's TierneyLab blog investigates.

Some old school video footage of B.F. Skinner is discovered by Channel N.

PsychCentral looks at a new study on farm animal therapy. No, really.

I don't smoke that heavy shit. Terra Sigillata on recent poisoning caused by dealers adulterating marijuana with lead.

While we're on the subject of strange trips, Neurophilosophy celebrates the 65th anniversary of LSD.

MIT's TechReview on how new genetic mapping tools are helping understand the neuroscience of autism.

BBC News reports on a nice two way interaction as the anaesthetic sevoflurane gas selectively reduces memory for high-emotion images.

The 'I know I know it but can't bring it to mind' tip-of-the-tongue state gives an insight into the psychology of language, as detailed in an article from American Scientist.

The NYT considers the possibility of having silicon memory chips implanted into our brain to boost our memory capacity.

To the bunkers! The Guardian discusses the future of robots with personalities for everyday tasks. Call-Me-Kenneth is that you?

Treatment Online looks at recent research linking brain size to the chance of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Forensic psychology or medicalisation of a super-villain? You decide as psychologist Tim Stevens looks into the mind of the Green Goblin for Marvel News.

The Boston Herald looks at the behavioural economics of banking and long-term finance.

Better living through neurological self-tampering. The NYT looks at the history of altering our brain chemistry.

The Guardian has a first-person account of one writer's experience of group therapy for depression.

This is your brain on free choice. Mixing Memory has a good retrospective on studies that use brain scanning to 'mind read'.

A couple more good articles on emerging technologies from MIT's Tech Review: one on modelling surprise and another on connectomics.

The BPS Research Digest has a piece on a fascinating but difficult-to-explain finding: fold your arms to boost your performance.

To the bunkers! The Washington Post on artificial intelligence technology being deployed for population monitoring and control.

The Neurocritic has a great roundup of studies that have looked at the effect of sexy pictures of male reasoning.

—Vaughan.

April 15, 2008

Encephalon 43 lands on the virtual doormat:

A beautiful new edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published on GNIF Brain Blogger and contains the best of last fortnight's online mind and brain writing.

A couple of my favourites include an article on how the brain encodes sound and another one on Alzheimer's disease, and there's plenty more to enjoy in the latest edition.

Link to Encephalon 43 at GNIF Brain Blogger.

—Vaughan.

April 11, 2008

2008-04-11 Spike activity:

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

The scientist brain doping results are in! Neuroanthropology looks at the findings from the recent Nature survey.

Prospect Magazine has an excellent article on whether the recent upsurge in bipolar diagnoses is due to a better understanding of mood disorders or a new marketing fad.

Science writer Carl Zimmer writes in Wired discussing the remarkable unreliability of ion channels, essential components of neural signalling, and notes what little effect this seems to have on global brain functioning. Viva redundancy!

.CSV has a great post on new techniques in quantitative sociology including social network analysis.

The vagaries of behavioural genetics studies, particularly inlight of a recent study on the genetics of 'ruthlessness' are carefully dissected by Pure Pedantry.

Wired has a run-down of his Top 5 recreational drug studies in the scientific literature (sadly misplacing the brain-scanner bong at number 5).

Like shooting fish in a barrel. Internet addiction nonsense comes in for more criticism from psychologists Petra Boyton and Cory Silverberg.

Newsweek looks at the theory that Western individualism and Eastern collectivism differences may have resulted from adaptive social strategies to deal with different diseases.

My Mind on Books collects some blog reports on the recent conference "Toward a Science of Consciousness".

Cognitive neuroscientist extraordinaire Michael Gazzaniga asks whether human brains are unique in an article for Edge.

Neurophilosophy reports on a man who had his compulsive gambling treated with a deep brain stimulation implant.

Popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are a form of participatory surveillance and voluntary social voyeurism, argues an article from First Monday.

Six pack models in men's magazine have a similar negative effect on self-esteem to stick thin models on women's magazine, according to research reported by the BPS Research Digest.

"If we mistrust the real world so much that we're prepared to fill the next generation's heads with a load of gibbering crap about "brain buttons", why stop there? Why not spice up maths by telling kids the number five was born in Greece and invented biscuits?" Very funny article in the The Guardian about Brain Gym foolishness currently sweeping British schools.

PsyBlog has been running a fantastic series on the psychology of money and economic decision-making.

Long-term methamphetamine use has serious long-term neurological effects on the brain, according to new research discussed by Treatment Online.

—Vaughan.

April 04, 2008

2008-04-04 Spike activity:

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

The Economist looks at Jeff Hawkin's work on making computers more brain-like: from palmtops to brain cells.

Yet another study on the benefits of meditation is covered by Scientific American.

Cognitive Daily has a cool summary of a study on how we decide whether to walk or run. Not how busy we want to look apparently.

All in the Mind's Natasha Mitchell reviews a new book on the history of Freudian thought and therapy in The Australian.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers an interesting study where electric shocks were used to increase discrimination between two previously identical seeming smells.

The New York Times has an article describing the important phenomenon of change blindness.

Neuron earrings! Jewellery inspired by our favourite above-the-neck cells (thanks Sandra!).

The Boston Herald looks at research on the psychology of decision-making and poverty.

Sidewalk psychiatry. Although I certainly wouldn't want a psychiatrist who asked these sorts of questions.

The Economist looks at how blood sugar levels can affect decision making.

Daily caffeine 'protects brain', reports BBC News. But who protects your daily caffeine I ask?

The Frontal Cortex has an interesting snippet on the fact that the infinity mongering Argentinian writer Borges had a brain injury.

Poltergeists are due to the quantum effects of brain function, apparently. The freaky ghost cousin of Roger Penrose is invoked in New Scientist.

Wired reports that griefers attack epilepsy discussion board with flashing graphics. Accusations about Anonymous and Scientologists being linked to the attack fly about, but it's happened on a previous occasion, before either were at war, so it's likely just idiots.

Comfortably Numb, a new book on society and depression, is reviewed by Furious Seasons.

The New York Times discuss the runner's high.

The psychology of religion and morality is discussed by psychologist Paul Bloom and philosopher Joshua Knobe on Bloggingheads.tv

Bad Science has video of the Brain Gym nonsense being ably addressed by Paxo and the Newsnight team.

—Vaughan.

April 01, 2008

Encephalon 42 arrives in style:

The latest edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just arrived online, with this issue seemingly hosted by Paris Hilton.

Personally, I don't believe it for a second as we all know that Ms Hilton is largely concerned with physical medicine research.

A couple of my favourites include a history of lithium chloride, the simple salt that is also widely prescribed as a treatment for bipolar disorder, and a short exploration of the science and experience of synaesthesia.

Link to Encephalon 42.

—Vaughan.

March 28, 2008

2008-03-28 Spike activity:

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

PsychCentral tackles the recent internet addiction nonsense and asks What's That Smell? It turns out it's Internet Addiction Disorder in The News.

BBC Radio 4's excellent history of ideas programme In Our Time has recently had editions on the philosopher Kierkegaard and early computationalist Ada Lovelace.

The BPS Research Digest explains a new study on frustrating tip-of-the-tongue states with bonus bit on how to overcome them.

Psychedelic artist extraordinaire, Alex Grey, is interviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle about his art and tripping (thanks Laurie!)

Dr Petra Boyton looks at international headlines linking anger, mental illness and Britain and notes that they're based on a rather dodgy market research survey.

The limits of certainty in diagnosis and medicine are explored by The New York Times.

Neurophilosophy looks at a comparative study on the possible evolutionary development of a key language pathway in the brain.

Removing brain tumours can be tricky at the best of times, especially when the operation is on a 7-year-old-girl. The New York Times has an article and video on one such procedure.

Scientific American Mind looks at the effects of the surprisingly common occurrence of postpartum (post-pregnancy) depression beyond the individual effect on the mother.

In praise of booze. The New Humanist shings the praises of the world's favourite fight enabler.

The New York Times has a review of the Willard hospital suitcase exhibition we featured the other day.

The application of shoe smell to epileptic seizures. No really. Neurocritic has some fantastic coverage of an upcoming scientific article on the phenomenon.

New Scientist reports that belly fat linked to increased risk for dementia. Not particularly startling, but emphasises the point that one of the best ways of keeping your brain healthy is to look after your cholesterol, blood pressure and cardiovascular fitness.

The six degrees of autism. Discover Magazine has a funky network analysis of schizophrenia, bipolar and autism comorbidity.

Wired reports that Pfizer computers have been hacked to send out, wait for it, v1agra spam.

A thorough debunking of determining personality from handwriting can be found on PsyBlog.

The New York Review of Books has a megareview of several books on happiness.

Sharp Brains has a fantastic article by neuroscientist Shannon Moffett on sleep, Tetris, memory and the brain.

—Vaughan.

March 21, 2008

2008-03-21 Spike activity:

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

Medication is the least effective way of treating children with conduct problems, according to a recent review.

Truth serum art chaos! The Arts Catalyst has a secret psychology art-science project you can participate in on March 29th in Liverpool.

The New York Times has a rather timely election themed article on the psychology of rumours.

"You know, just the other day, on this very blog, I swore I would never read another imaging paper again..." Evidence we are helpless to resist (the colours! the colours!) as Mixing Memory discusses a recent brain imaging study on the influence of language on colour perception.

Child-like intelligence created in Second Life. Surely this isn't news?

Treatment Online examines a study which has found differences in a gene linked to neural connectivity in people with autism spectrum diagnoses.

The New York Times has an article on the popularity of sewing wild oats throughout the animal kingdom.

The key Freudian concept of transference captured in the lab, and reported by Cognitive Daily. See an earlier Mind Hacks post for more on the science of transference.

The Guardian reports that the Pentagon delayed mild brain injury screening in an attempt to prevent medicalisation of psychogenic problems.

Sleepwalking is more likely to occur when people are recovering from sleep deprivation, reports BBC News.

As a nice complement to our recent post on authenticity, Psychology Today's Matthew Hutson discusses the psychology of authenticity in the art world.

Is someone at New Scientist trying to win a bet over how many times they can get the word 'telepathy' into print? This time an article about a possible US military 'telepathic' ray gun' that has nothing to do with telepathy. Sadly.

Imminent gnome attack! Wired report on how World of Warcraft could be used to study terror tactics.

Channel N has a remarkably well-explained video introduction to body dysmorphic disorder.

It is better to give than receive. At least in terms of your happiness, reports Not Exactly Rocket Science.

—Vaughan.

March 18, 2008

Encephalon 41 arrives:

The 41st edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published online, and this time it's ably hosted by Pure Pedantry.

A couple of my favourites include Providentia on one of A.R. Luria's most fascinating cases and the PodBlack Blog on magical thinking in politicians.

There's plenty more, so have a look through for some of the best mind and brain writing of the last fortnight.

Link to Encephalon 41.

—Vaughan.

March 14, 2008

2008-03-14 Spike activity:

Slightly late quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Neurophilosophy posts a 'best of' collection of its many excellent articles online.

The Kinsey Institute for sex research have started their own blog and regular podcast on all matters sexual.

Social networks are like the eye. Edge has a video lecture on an evolutionary take on the development of society.

The New York Times reviews the recent discussion on whether it's wrong for scientists to take cognitive enhancers. Not like it hasn't been happening for four millennia already.

When can children make the distinction between jokes and lies? The BPS Research Digest has a piece on some fascinating new research and the APA Monitor has a past article on research on child humour from the same team.

Skeptic magazine has a great review of some of the key concepts in consciousness research in an article entitled 'consciousness is nothing but a word'.

Psych Central discusses the recent news stories about a possible biological test for mood disorders.

To the bunkers! Simple nanotech experiment will one day lead to swarm of microscopic brain creatures, suggests BBC News article.

BBC News reports on a study that found that breathing engine exhaust fumes alters brain function. Full text available from PubMed entry.

Nominative determinism strikes again. The New York Times looks at the limits of the effects of our name on how we're perceived.

Neuroanthropology has a piece on the anthropology of prisons and prisoners.

The New York Times again on differences in the DNA of identical twins, with the newly discovered copy number variations playing a key role.

The joy of boredom. The Boston Globe looks at the most undirectional of mental states.

The increasingly excellent Treatment Online discusses a recent study on genetic interactions in people with depression.

Jealousy in romantic relationships is associated with the height of partner, according to a study covered by New Scientist.

The excellent Simply Psychology has relaunched with a huge amount of psychology resources online.

The brain of Dionysus. Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield discusses what the Ancient Greek tragedies can tell us about the brain in The Telegraph.

—Vaughan.

March 07, 2008

2008-03-07 Spike activity:

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

Faces in the static. An interesting study looks at brain activation associated with seeing illusory faces in visual noise.

Neuroanthropology discusses recent research looking at the cognitive neuroscience of poverty.

How your name influences your decisions and preferences. The Psychologist has a fascinating article on 'nominative determinism'.

The Phineas Gage Fan Club gives a concise summary of the relatively recently discovered 'grid cells'.

Industrial psychology may have been invented by mistake. Advances in the History of Psychology tracks down the typo.

Carl Zimmer video interviews neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga on how discoveries about the brain are challenging our understanding of law.

PsyBlog discusses why psychology is not just common sense.

The Wall Street Journal asks what makes Finnish kids so smart?

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder and Time magazine investigates the high suicide rate in people diagnosed with the disorder.

Language Log does another fantastic job of debunking dodgy sex difference research.

Pete Mandik is posting entries from his upcoming book 'Key Terms in Philosophy of Mind'. The first is 'emergence'.

Not Quite Rocket Science has one of the most sensible articles you're likely to read on the recent interesting but over-interpreted 'brain scan mind reading' research.

After the series of recent studies on unpublished drug company data, the UK government intends to bring in a mandatory trials data register. In contrast, the USA seems largely unconcerned.

The Thinking Meat Project has been really good recently. Check it out.

Drunk on water. Frontal Cortex finds a great example of the fantastically powerful influence of suggestion.

Wired has an article on Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroscientist who wrote about her own stroke.

The Neurocritic takes the biscuit, sorry, doughnut, with a write-up of a new study on the neuroscience of eating Krispy Kremes.

—Vaughan.

March 03, 2008

Encephalon 40:

Welcome to the 40th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival.

This edition covers some of the best of the last fortnight's mind and brain writing from around the net, so kick back, relax and see what fires you up.

We start with an announcement of a birth. The neuroscience blogs OmniBrain and Retrospectacle are gone but not forgotten because the two authors have combined forces to jointly write for their new project Of Two Minds which launches today!

While we're enjoying the nostalgia and looking toward to the future what better time to remind ourselves that the history of the cognitive sciences is an essential method for understanding the past, present and the road ahead.

Advances in the History of Psychology has recently had a series examining the limits of what we should include in the history of our collective discipline. A Wikipedia user recently added a huge amount of material on medieval Islamic scientists to the history of psychology entry, inspiring an article and a remarkably thoughtful discussion from historians about what counts as 'our history'.

In a similar vein, Lehrer's recent book, 'Proust was a Neuroscientist', sparked an analysis on whether he's 'doing history', if we can easily say what it means to do history at all.

In an exploration of the more recent past, Channel N hosts a video lecture by Dr. Claudia Wassmann on the history of neuroimaging from the nineteenth century to the present, and its applications in psychiatric research.

Perhaps thinking more about preserving our personal history, Sharp Brains sifts fact from fiction from the recent media hype surrounding cognitive training for the ageing brain with a guest article from Josh Steinerman.

From the same source comes an article on one of the key concepts in understanding how the brain changes and adapts, namely brain plasticity. Remaining mentally flexible is also thought to be important to cognitive fitness and a final article looks at the importance of breaking our mental routines as part of a brain health programme.

While these articles tackle cognitive decline through normal ageing Brain Blogger describes a journey of recovery from brain injury and the process of dealing with the subsequent deficits in a six part series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) that tackles everything from detection to techniques for managing the difficulties.

Remaining in the clinical world, The Mouse Trap tackles some new science surrounding the historical connections between schizophrenia and autism, suggesting that they are opposite disorders of the social brain. Looking this time at addiction, a further post discusses the famous 'rat park' experiment on possible environmental factors in addiction.

Finally, the Mouse Trap looks at the effect of colour labels in Russian on colour perception suggesting a possible re-birth of the hypothesis that language shapes our world.

On a lighter note (excuse the pun) World of Psychology finds a webcomic that touches on the use of light therapy to treat mood disorders and uses the opportunity to discuss some of the scientific research behind this little known but effective treatment.

From sight to scent as The Neurocritic covers a study that used fMRI to investigate the effect of perfume on the brain and its links to sexual arousal. The experiment used the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5, one of the most well-known brands in the world, and in a subsequent post, The Neurocritic tackles the use and abuse of cognitive neuroscience in 'neuromarketing'.

Staying within the corporate realm, Ionian Enchantment takes a critical look at recent attempts to explain corporate behaviour with the principles of evolutionary psychology and concludes that when you have a hammer, everything seems like a nail, even when you might be better off with another tool altogether.

Perhaps more informative might be a study covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science where similar brain activation was found in a brain scanning study of both humans and chimps during vocal communication, suggesting our speech areas might not be quite so unique after all.

On a completely different note, Adam Kolber (who you may know from the Neuroethics and Law blog) has written a couple of guest articles on the psychology of punishing crime. The first looks at whether we should take into account the subjective experience of the punishment on the convicted. For example, should a someone who is claustrophobic be given a shorter prison sentence because it would be additionally unpleasant? The second article discusses what implication follows from the recognition that the same punishment might not be equal for all.

Finally, the mighty Cognitive Daily looks at a whether children are better than adults in their ability to recognise faces from other races. The findings give an interesting twist to the 7 Seconds lyric "And when a child is born into this world, it has no concept of the tone of skin it's living in".

J'assume les raisons qui nous poussent de changer tout,
J'aimerais qu'on oublie leur couleur pour qu'ils esperent.

The next edition of Encephalon will be at Pure Pedantry on March 17th.

—Vaughan.

February 29, 2008

2008-02-29 Spike activity:

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

"Chewing gum and context-dependent memory: the independent roles of chewing gum and mint flavour": A lovely forthcoming paper from The British Journal of Psychology.

Bloggingheads.tv has a video debate on natural *cough*, sorry, experimental philosophy.

Pure Pedantry investigates the neurological basis of the "runner's high".

Have you been in psychotherapy doctor? The New York Times has an article on the dying tradition of psychiatrists being in therapy.

A new book on 'neuroarthistory' is picked up by My Mind on Books.

Bolding going back to 1962. The Sunday Herald reports on a recently discovered neuroreceptor link found between psychosis and effects of LSD.

Parapsychologist Dean Radin is interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle.

We respond differently to babies' faces within 150 milliseconds. Cognitive Daily covers a MEG study of face recognition responses in the brain.

BBC News reports that poor diet is linked to bad behaviour in children.

To the bunkers! $24 billion spend predicted to developed autonomous robot armies. You have 20 seconds to comply!

The first human nerve tissue transplant has been completed. Next step, Robocop (we hope).

Wired reports on a psychologist leading the competition to develop a film recommendation algorithm and win the Netflix Prize.

How do psychologists study what we know about ourselves? Psychologist Virgina Kwan writes a guest article for the BPS Research Digest

Against compulsory happiness: The LA Times discusses the miracle of melancholia and BBC News asks is depression good for you?

First Monday ponders whether whether the increasingly media obsessed world needs to be understood as an attention economy.

Deric Bownd's has a primer on executive function in the prefrontal cortex.

—Vaughan.

February 22, 2008

2008-02-22 Spike activity:

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

The New York Times tackles the debate about whether psychiatric drugs can increase suicide in some instances.

To the bunkers! Agent Kurzweil at work again: Machines to match man by 2029. Virtuality and reality to merge.

Yale psychiatrist Charles Barber argues in the Washington Post that healing a troubled mind takes more than a pill.

PsychCentral covers a new guide on how to apply research findings to treatment with psychological therapies.

How the Media Messes with Your Mind: Scientific American has a brief article on how recognising two common fallacies can help you separate fact from media fiction.

Neuroanthropology asks whether studies on culture and neuroscience are all brain and no culture?

Philosopher and New Mysterian Colin McGinn reviews Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia in the New York Review of Books.

The non-sight senses of blind people are not more acute but they may develop new skills to compensate, reports PsyBlog.

Vivid but inconclusive examples vs ambiguous scientific data: The New York Times on the renewed debate over drug side-effects in light of latest school shooting.

In some very limited circumstances a laser could be used to transmit sound to the ear with a recently uncovered military technology, reports Wired.

Artists create a humanoid robot which uses brainwave activity recorded during sleep to playback an interpretation of your dreams.

Powell's has an in-depth review of 'The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder'.

The end of the Flynn effect? The BPS Research Digest on a study that found a decline in IQs when measured in 2004.

Cognitive Daily looks at a study which asks whether music preferences are a guide to personality.

—Vaughan.

February 18, 2008

Encephalon: the new dawn:

If you've been wondering what happened to the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival, it's been on a brief hiatus while its management has been passed on to new hands.

It was previously managed by Mo at Neurophilosophy, whose time has now been largely captured as a neuroscience postgrad.

Luckily, the ever capable Alvaro Fernandez from Sharp Brains has taken the helm and just published the first edition of its return.

Fittingly, it's a bumper issue, and contains articles on everything from Renaissance brain look-alikes to whether robots can feel emotions.

The next edition will be hosted on Mind Hacks on March 3rd so if you want to submit an article, just email a link to

encephalon{dot}host{at}gmail{dot}com

and we'll feature it.

Link to new Encephalon.

—Vaughan.

February 15, 2008

2008-02-15 Spike activity:

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

Psychiatrists and the fashion for corduroy suits - Fronter Psychiatrist says don't do it kids!

Sharp Brains looks at the benefits of teaching kids mindfulness meditation in schools.

Language Log has found the headline of the year. Genius!

Campaigners want to put health warnings about cannabis on Rizla papers. Presumably, we should also put health warnings about crack on Coke cans.

The New York Times on an interesting study that found that girls' self-perception of popularity predicted later weight gain.

An article in the The New York Times discusses the art of persuasion and the psychological research behind it.

Some thoughts really do require language. Cognitive Daily covers a study that tackles the controversial issue of whether thought and language are dependent upon each other.

Yes darling, you're unique. Just like everyone else. Another article on the psychology and speed dating suggests it's a maverick scientific approach when it's already been used many times. This week, Nature joins the list of suitors.

If you're still waiting for PBS's The Lobotomist to appear online, it's become available as a torrent for the impatient.

Deric Bownd's examines a study that developed a computer-based face recognition system with 100% accuracy.

New study attempts to answer why orgasms are better when you love your lover.

More in orgasm news: Frontal Cortex looks at a real-life orgasmatron.

The wonderful Felice Frankel thinks about how to represent ideas visually in American Scientist.

Acceptance, not distraction, is the way to deal with pain. The BPS Research Digest has a fantastic complement to Lehrer's article on the psychology and neuroscience of pain.

Eric Schwitzgebel has more reflections on his fantastic project that asks why don't ethics professors behave better?

Psychoanalysts on love. Treatment Online captures some of their insights.

—Vaughan.