Monthly Archives: May 2007

Face contributes most to overall attractiveness

May 13, 2007 – 12:30 pm

New Scientist has a short report suggesting that the face contributes more to the overall impression of attractiveness than the body. The research was led by biologist Marianne Peters who asked participants to rate the attractiveness of a number of people, presented as photographs of either the whole person, the face only or the body […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

Bioterrorism and the brain

May 12, 2007 – 11:00 am

ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind has a compelling discussion about the development and dangers of weapons designed to target the brain and nervous system. The guests on the programme are Prof Malcom Dando and Dr Mark Wheelis, who have recently written a paper for the International Red Cross entitled ‘Neurobiology: A Case Study […]

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

Weird world of the Psychological Atlas

May 11, 2007 – 7:00 pm

Archive.org has a copy of a 1948 book entitled the Psychological Atlas that is full of weird and wonderful things from the world of 1940s psychology and beyond. It’s got some serious psychology in there, mixed in with the paranormal, weird and curious stuff, probably reflecting the public understanding of the field at the time. […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Brain scan lie detection still truth or dare

May 11, 2007 – 6:30 pm

The Scientist has an article on the latest developments in the world of fMRI lie detection, looking at how accurate and reliable the technology really is. This is a particularly hot topic because a commercial company, No Lie MRI, are marketing a brain scan lie detection service. This is despite the fact that neuroscientists and […]

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

2007-05-11 Spike activity

May 11, 2007 – 8:00 am

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: One I missed a while ago: Developing Intelligence looks at a paper that actually attempts to define consciousness (rather than relying on the usual “we all know what we’re talking about, don’t we?” definition). The Toronto Globe and Mail reports on research suggesting that […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

The art of non-verbal attraction

May 10, 2007 – 11:00 pm

PsyBlog has just published a couple of short articles on non-verbal communication, one examining a common myth, and the other looking at how it indicates attraction between people who’ve just met. The first article is on the research that debunks the myth that ’93% of communication is nonverbal’. Just the precision of those sorts of […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Moving | Comments (1)

Treating children, pushing drugs

May 10, 2007 – 1:00 pm

The New York Times has another investigative article on the pharmaceutical industry, this time looking at how promotions aimed at psychiatrists encourage the prescription of antipsychotic drugs to children. As far as I know, none of the newer ‘atypical’ antipsychotics are licensed for children (actually, I’d be interested to hear otherwise). This doesn’t mean doctors […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

It’s not a quirk, it’s a feature

May 10, 2007 – 8:00 am

Prof Richard Wiseman tackles some of the quirkier findings in the psychological literature in a New Scientist article which has been made freely available online. The article accompanies the launch of Wiseman’s new book, Quirkology, which apparently looks at these sorts of curious research studies in more detail. He’s also created a very impressive inattentional […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Five minutes with Petra Boynton

May 9, 2007 – 8:00 pm

Dr Petra Boynton is a social psychologist, researcher, author, broadcaster, blogger, and award winning sex educator. She’s an advocate for evidence-based sex education, amid the largely sensationalist media coverage of the subject, and a tireless campaigner for sexual equality, having worked to improve media sex coverage both in the UK and internationally. As well as […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Other People | Comments (2)

Encephalon 22 hits the virtual shelves

May 9, 2007 – 7:30 pm

Issue 22 of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just arrived, this time hosted by anthropologist John Hawks. A couple of my favourites include a compelling article from Madam Fathom on the evolution of the nervous system and another by Pure Pedantry on the complex considerations needed to answer the question ‘Do autistic […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

A brief history of neuroscience

May 9, 2007 – 8:00 am

There’s been a wonderful series of posts at neuroscience blog Neuroevolution which have charted the history of cognitive neuroscience from ancient Greece to the age of the brain scanner. There’s been 26 posts in all, each of them a beautifully illustrated snapshot of a groundbreaking discovery. The series tells the story of how we’ve come […]

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

Understanding wisdom

May 8, 2007 – 8:30 pm

You would think they’d be lots of good psychological theories of wisdom, as it’s something we talk about all the time in everyday life, but there just isn’t. Psychologists have traditionally avoided the subject, although, thankfully, this is now starting to change and the New York Times has an in-depth article looking at some of […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Submarine psychology

May 8, 2007 – 2:30 pm

I just found this interesting snippet in a BBC News story about the development and imminent launch of the new Astute class Navy submarine: It may be one of the most sophisticated submarines ever built, but the project has been beset with problems. The three submarines are ¬£900m ($1.8bn) over budget and four years behind […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

Criminal violence and the brain

May 8, 2007 – 9:00 am

Open-access science journal PLoS Biology has another fantastic article that investigates what neuroscience tells about about the causes of antisocial behaviour and how damage to the brain can, in rare cases, lead someone to become violent. The article looks at research on the neuropsychology of violent criminals, as well as ‘forensic neurology’ – the science […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (1)

Leyla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

May 7, 2007 – 9:30 pm

While looking for neuroscience videos we’ve found some pretty weird stuff on YouTube before, but despite their quirkiness, at least they made sense. This one’s just completely baffling. It seems to be a sort of love letter, presented as a brain diagram, with a disco backing track. Apparently it’s dedicated to someone called Leyla, and […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Leave a Comment

Don’t stand so close to me

May 7, 2007 – 1:00 pm

NPR has a short video report on how social conventions, like keeping personal space, transfer into virtual worlds like Second Life. The report focuses on the work of psychologist Nick Yee who we interviewed last November about his research into the social psychology of virtual worlds. Yee and the NPR reporter go and field test […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment
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