Mind Hacks

A kuro5hin.org article on ‘Demystifying depression‘ gives an excellent account of the experience of depression, but uncritically repeats some common assumptions about the condition – namely that it is a ‘physical illness’ caused by ‘low serotonin’. Despite the familiarity of these claims, both are problematic.

An article in the schools section of the Education Guardian discusses the growing evidence for a link between fatty acids, brain function and behaviour. The story focuses on the potential effects on visual problems, dyslexia and difficulties with attention. The writer does seems to get a little carried away however, when he questions whether such […]

Weekly research digest Science News has put this week’s cover article online – a story on the neuroscience of reading and children with hyper-advanced reading skills. The condition is called hyperlexia and involves an ability to read words far in advance of children of the same age, usually accompanied with problems with spoken language and […]

A group of neuroengineers led by Michelle LaPlaca have developed a virtual-reality test for psychological impairments caused by head injury. The system called DETECT (‘display enhanced testing for concussions and mild traumatic brain injury’) is designed to pick-up subtle cognitive problems that can accompany blows to the head. Such problems are often difficult to detect […]