Monthly Archives: January 2009

Psychiatry and Big Pharma – in 100 words

January 7, 2009 – 8:00 am

This month’s British Journal of Psychiatry has another one of its regular ‘…in 100 words’ series – this month giving a concise guide to ‘psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry’. It’s written by psychiatrist and historian of psychopharmacology David Healy, who’s had more than his fair share of heat from the drug industry. Psychiatry and the [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

Deodorants boost sexiness by getting men in the groove

January 6, 2009 – 10:00 pm

I keep running into fascinating articles that The Economist ran over the Christmas period and this one is no exception – it covers research that suggests that men’s deodorants do increase sexual attractiveness, but by increasing confidence and hence the behaviour of the wearer. The smell alone seems to have little impact on women. Craig [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

Self-destruction lite

January 6, 2009 – 6:00 pm

The New York Times has a thought-provoking article about self-handicapping – the attempt to actually make yourself worse at something. The idea is that if a bad performance is expected, some people actively try and handicap themselves before hand, for example by not practising or by getting drunk, so they have an excuse already lined [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Reasoning | Comments (4)

Better Living Through Neuroscience

January 6, 2009 – 12:05 pm

New for 2009, mindhacks.com is pleased to announce the development of two lifestyle-enhancing products. These innovations use fundamental features of perception to deliver value to YOU! For pre-ordering details please leave a note in the comments. Introducing: The Adaptive Stereo Adaptation is a fundamental feature of perception [see Hack #26, 'Get Adjusted', in the book]. [...]

By tomstafford | Posted in Nonsense | Comments (3)

Blue Monday bullshit competition

January 5, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Two weeks today will be the annual ‘Blue Monday‘ bullshit festival, where Cliff Arnall and his “formula” are wheeled out in an attempt to make us believe that it tells us about the most depressing day of the year. However, Mind Hacks is running a competition that may prove a useful antedote and you can [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (12)

Acquiring a natural edge

January 5, 2009 – 8:00 am

The Boston Globe has an interesting article on how we interact with urban environments and discusses research suggesting that contact with nature has significant cognitive benefits. It’s a fascinating article that touches on studies that have found a range of benefits for having contact with a natural environment: Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Mind Bites

January 4, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Mind Bites is a beautiful photography project by artist Will Lion which combines striking images with quotes from cognitive science research. You can either view it as a Flickr photo set or as an interactive Flash gallery. The image on the left is one of the more abstract pictures, but the full range contains everything [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (2)

Meditation and the neuroscience of inner peace

January 3, 2009 – 8:00 am

SharpBrains has an interesting interview with neuroscientist Andrew Newberg who discusses his ongoing research into the brain science of meditation. As we reported last year, research into meditation is really gathering pace and is suggesting that the practice has some immediate and remarkable benefits for our cognitive abilities that are clearly reflected in changes in [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Comments (1)

More on secrecy behind the new book of human troubles

January 2, 2009 – 10:00 pm

Advances in the History of Psychology has just alerted me to a new programme on NPR Radio about the debates over the ‘in revision’ version of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual that defines mental illness for significant parts of the world. It covers some of the most contentious potential diagnoses in the to-be-released DSM [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Theory | Comments (3)

Sex, orgasm and childbirth: a discomforting mix

January 2, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Petra Boyton has a fantastic piece on the experience of orgasm during birth – the focus of an upcoming documentary and a subject likely to cause discomfort in some. Petra discusses the relationship between sexual stimulation and labour noting that sexual pleasure has been reported during childbirth in the medical literature. This is from a [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (5)

2009-01-02 Spike activity

January 2, 2009 – 8:00 am

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 [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Comments (1)
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