Monthly Archives: April 2009

When dreams come to life

April 8, 2009 – 8:00 am

In C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the heroes find a man stranded on an island where dreams come true. They initially express delight but the man rages “Fools!” “Do you hear what I say? This is where dreams – dreams, do you understand? – come to life, come real. Not [...]

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

The mysterious death of “Mad King” Ludwig

April 7, 2009 – 12:00 pm

This is an interesting snippet about the mysterious 1886 death of “Mad King” Ludwig II of Bavaria and his psychiatrist found in the final part of a Lancet article on the equally mysterious Ganser syndrome. Born in Dresden in 1853, Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser emerged from the colourful Munich circle of neurologists and psychiatrists that [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Drug company pushes jet lag as a medical disorder

April 7, 2009 – 8:00 am

The Wall Street Journal’s health blog reports that drug company Cephalon are trying to get jet lag recognised as a ‘circadian rhythm sleep disorder’ in an attempt to promote their stay-up-forever drugs modafinil and armodafinil. Modafinil, under the trade name Provigil, is currently a big seller for the company owing to the fact that it [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (2)

Everybody can read minds except you

April 6, 2009 – 10:00 pm

Conch Tees have a wonderfully philosophical or worryingly paranoid t-shirt that reads “Everybody can read minds except you!”. It’s got an unwrapping brain in the centre, and the company claims it refers to conspiracy theories about other people reading your thoughts. However, it could also be a reference to the problem of other minds, a [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Leave a Comment

Neural integration of transplanted hand

April 6, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Neurophilosophy has an excellent article on a man whose brain’s sensation areas have reorganised to integrate a hand transplanted from a corpse, 35 years after the man’s original hand was destroyed in an accident. The somatosensory cortex is literally a ‘map’ of the body. Each part on this strip of brain corresponds to an area [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Bias we can believe in

April 6, 2009 – 8:00 am

Time magazine has a recent article on how the Obama team are making behavioural economics the centre of their financial policies in the hope of altering the behaviour of US citizens. But where are the sceptical voices? Behavioural economics is primarily an academic discipline where researchers investigate how our cognitive biases divert us from strictly [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Reasoning | Comments (1)

Imaging the transgendered brain

April 5, 2009 – 8:00 am

For the first time, the brain structure of male-to-female transsexuals has been investigated in living individuals using MRI brain scans, helping to fuel the debate over the possible neural basis of gender identity. The scientific article, shortly to appear in the neuroscience journal NeuroImage, used MRI brain scans and a technique called voxel based morphometry [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (13)

The myth of Thomas Szasz?

April 4, 2009 – 8:00 am

Psychiatrist and iconoclast Thomas Szasz takes part in a hard-hitting interview on ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind where he shows that at the age of 89 he’s lost none of his fire which has raged through psychiatry for almost 50 years. It’s a two part interview with the second appearing next week and [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Other People | Comments (4)

Solitary confinement as psychological torture

April 3, 2009 – 10:00 pm

The New Yorker magazine has just published an important article questioning whether the widespread use of solitary confinement in the US prison system should be outlawed as a form of torture. It’s an in-depth piece that piece that looks at numerous cases of people who have experienced solitary confinement first hand, either as hostages or [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (1)

A dark inheritance

April 3, 2009 – 12:00 pm

There’s a brief but powerful piece in today’s New York Times on inheritance, environment and suicide by the daughter of poet Anne Sexton, who ended her own life in 1974 while in her mid-forties. The article reflects on the recent suicide of Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath who also die in the [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

2009-04-03 Spike activity

April 3, 2009 – 8:00 am

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 [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

A life’s journey in neuroscience

April 2, 2009 – 10:00 pm

New Scientist has an excellent cover article on ‘The five ages of the brain’, looking at how the brain changes as we grow and how these transformations are reflected in our lives. It breaks the life span down into ‘five ages’, with a short article for each – tackling gestation, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (2)

Brain washing in post-war London

April 2, 2009 – 12:00 pm

BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast an excellent documentary on psychiatrist William Sargant who began experiments in ‘brain washing’ likely at a behest of the British secret services in post-war London. Sargant was rumoured to have links to the notorious and secret CIA MKULTRA project that attempted to develop ‘brain washing’ or ‘programming’ techniques that were [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Comments (2)

Chicks dig men in flashy cars, no word on penis size

April 2, 2009 – 8:00 am

A study ‘in press’ for the British Journal of Psychology sadly supports the stereotype that chicks dig men in flashy cars. The attractiveness-boosting effect only affects women’s perceptions of men, however. Men were unmoved by chicks in hot rods, and neither sex’s attractiveness ratings for same-sex drivers was affected by the car they were in. [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

Duck and coverage

April 1, 2009 – 10:00 pm

Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe is a comedy news analysis programme that often has a serious point. A recent episode had a section examining TV coverage of the tragic school shooting that recently occurred in Germany and its relation to the motivations of potential copycat killers. The video clip contrasts the advice of a forensic psychiatrist on [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Encephalon 67 raises a toast

April 1, 2009 – 12:00 pm

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 [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment
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