Monthly Archives: May 2006

Bonkersfest!

May 31, 2006 – 1:00 pm

Camberwell Green in London will be home to Bonkersfest! on Saturday 3rd June as mental health agitators and arts collective Creative Routes host a festival that embraces every aspect of the human mind. The festival will be kicked off by the Mayor of Southwark and the Southwark Town Crier by the firing of a banana [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Destructive impact

May 31, 2006 – 10:00 am

This week’s Science News has a cover article on the psychology, neuroscience and genetics of how violence and anti-social behaviour develops in young people. The article examines how human biology and the influence of family and social life interact to increase the chances of violence and bullying in some, while leaving others able to control [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Understanding consciousness easier than we think

May 31, 2006 – 8:00 am

Philosopher Alex Byrne writes about the problem of consciousness in the Boston Review. Against the current trend of labelling it ‘the hard problem’, Byrne argues that it may be easier to understand than we think. Byrne does a fantastic job of touring us through some of the classic problems and thinkers in the area, using [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Theory | Leave a Comment

Wanted: eating disorder experts for Wikipedia

May 30, 2006 – 11:00 am

I’ve spent most of the last caffeine-fuelled 24 hours re-writing the Wikipedia page on anorexia nervosa which now seems to be in better shape than it was. It needs some well qualified stewards to keep an eye on it though, could this be you? If you are a clinician, researcher or enthusiastic student with an [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

Eric Kandel talks memory to Scientific American

May 30, 2006 – 8:00 am

Nobel prize winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel is featured on Scientific American’s weekly podcast where he discusses his past and current work and his speculations for the future of brain research. Kandel has just published his autobiography In Search of Memory (ISBN 0393058638) which has got positive reviews in both the mainstream press and scientific journals. [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

Flat lined

May 29, 2006 – 11:00 am

After a short and rather unspectacular life, I take it Action Potential is dead then…

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Why sex matters for neuroscience

May 29, 2006 – 10:00 am

Neuroscientist Larry Cahill has written an in-depth review article for Nature Reviews Neuroscience arguing that understanding the difference between men and women is essential if we are to fully comprehend brain function and behaviour. Traditionally, research in this area focused largely on sex behaviour, and it has only been during the last decade when the [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Leave a Comment

Ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ceremony

May 28, 2006 – 3:00 pm

National Geographic sent a reporter to take part in an ancient Peruvian shamanic ritual where the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca is used. The article describes the reporter’s account of what sounds like a profound and terrifying experience, and discusses the culture, traditions and interest from Western science that ayahuasca has inspired. The taking of ayahuasca has [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (1)

Deep thoughts

May 27, 2006 – 9:00 am

I just found a couple of Flickr groups that have caught my imagination. The first is the ‘Brains‘ group for “fans of neuroscience, cognitive science, and other studies of how the mind and brain work”, and the second is ‘Deep Thoughts‘ which has some beautiful portraits of pensive people. The Brains group is not without [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

Illusions of taste

May 26, 2006 – 10:30 pm

A curious comment just added to the discussion page of Wikipedia’s illusion entry has really got me thinking: the beginning of the article claims that all human senses can be fooled. I’ve yet to expirence an illusion of taste/smell. i.e. something salty tasting sweet. it may follow that consumption is the ‘truest’ of human expirences… [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Comments (9)

Sleeping pill wakes brain-injured from coma-like state?

May 26, 2006 – 2:00 pm

Controversial findings were recently published in the journal Neurorehabilitation suggesting that the insomnia drug zolpidem roused three severely brain-injured patients from the coma-like persistent vegetative state (PVS). Zolpidem is better known by its trade name Ambien, and has also been in the news recently for causing unusual sleep behaviour such as sleep-driving. The study published [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Leave a Comment

2006-05-26 Spike activity

May 26, 2006 – 8:00 am

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: Mixing Memory looks at research on how much children believe from what they’re told. Canine Epilepsy Guardian Angels! No really. A strangely vague news story suggests that measuring ‘brainwaves’ (EEG / MEG?) explains how optical illusions trick the mind. More details gratefully received. Smile! [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

Japanese War Tuba Hack

May 25, 2006 – 9:01 pm

Via badscience.net, the Japanese War Tuba Hack! (Or maybe we’ll call it “improve sound localisation by increasing interaural distance” or something). Similarly the way your visual system calculates depth from the different images that your two eyes get, you use the difference in when sounds arrive at your ears to calculate their location. Bigger distance [...]

By tomstafford | Posted in Hearing and Language | Comments (1)

New brain scan detects ‘instant’ biological changes

May 25, 2006 – 8:30 am

Brain Ethics have picked up on a new development in fMRI brain scanning technology that has the potential to detect fast changes in brain activity. Research just published by neuroscientist Denis Le Bihan and his team has found that changes in brain activation can be detected by measuring water diffusion through neurons. This type of [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Leave a Comment

Psychedelic researcher Alexander Shulgin at 81

May 24, 2006 – 3:00 pm

The Sunday Herald sent a reporter out to meet legendary chemist and psychedelic researcher Alexander Shulgin to discuss life, love and phenethylamines. Shulgin has been the world’s foremost researcher of psychedelic compounds for many decades and has written about his research in several engaging books, including the notorious Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved. The [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Other People | Leave a Comment

John Searle on the question of consciousness

May 24, 2006 – 8:00 am

John Searle, one of the most important and controversial philosophers of mind, is featured on this week’s ABC Radio The Philosopher’s Zone discussing the question of consciousness. Searle has been active since the 1960s and has made some of the most influential contributions to cognitive science, including the famous Chinese room thought experiment that addresses [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Theory | Leave a Comment
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