Monthly Archives: November 2009

The Michigan Wildcat

November 30, 2009 – 8:00 am

The Providentia psychology blog has an excellent post about old-time champion boxer ‘The Michigan Wildcat’ Wolgast who fought on despite clear neurological damage and eventually suffered boxer’s dementia. He could apparently be found shadow boxing invisible opponents in the sanatorium. Wolgast won the world lightweight title in 1912 but sustained continuous damage throughout his career […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Other People | Leave a Comment

Psychosurgery: new cutting edge or short sharp shock

November 29, 2009 – 12:00 pm

The New York Times has an excellent article on how the development of new and more focused brain surgery techniques for the treatment of mental illness are leading to a tight-rope situation where doctors are trying to balance enthusiasm for a potential new treatment while avoiding its inappropriate use and bad publicity. The use of […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (4)

Five today

November 29, 2009 – 8:00 am

Mind Hacks is five years old today. The first post announced the arrival of the Mind Hacks book and the two posts the next day are still some of the best articles on the site. I make this the 3,453rd post so I hope some of them have been of interest to you.

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Comments (8)

Reflected glory

November 28, 2009 – 6:00 pm

PsyBlog covers a study that explored the phenomenon of ‘reflected glory’ where sports fans will psychologically associate themselves with their team more closely if they are successful, but will distance themselves if the team loses. The post discusses a classic 1976 study that looked at the ‘basking in reflected glory’ effect: In the first of […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

The art of CT

November 28, 2009 – 12:00 pm

New Scientist has a gallery of wonderful images from radiologist Kai-hung Fung who makes awesomely beautiful pictures from CT scans. The brain image (pictured) is particularly beautiful, it is labelled: This image looks directly down through the top of the patient’s head. The complex network of arteries and veins in the brain can be seen […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Other People | Leave a Comment

Encephalon 78 saunters in

November 28, 2009 – 8:00 am

The 78th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has recently appeared on the Providentia blog with the latest in mind and brain writing from the blogosphere. A couple of my favourites include a piece on The Mousetrap about the self in the eyes of the founding father of cognitive psychology – Ulrich […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

2009-11-27 Spike activity

November 27, 2009 – 8:00 am

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: <img align="left" src="http://mindhacks-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/2005/01/spike.jpg&quot; width="102" height="120" There’s an excellent analysis of the Blue Brain / IBM rumpus about ‘cat brain’ simulations and PR hype over at IEEE Spectrums. Wired covers doubts about the ‘awake during 23 years in diagnosed coma’ case. NewSci has an subsequent […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Leave a Comment

The consequences of faking it

November 26, 2009 – 10:00 pm

I’ve just caught a short video by the brilliant behavioural economist Dan Ariely who explains the surprising effect of wearing fake goods on the likelihood of us cheating and for on much we suspect that others are being dishonest. Ariely is riffing on one of his recent studies that was led by psychologist Francesca Gino. […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Reasoning | Leave a Comment

Project HM

November 26, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Patient HM became famous for having a dense surgically-induced amnesia and taking part in numerous neuropsychology studies that told us a great deal about the structure of memory. He died last year but left his brain to science and Project HM has been set up to co-ordinate the scientific analysis of his brain. According to […]

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

Quack Psychologists, 1927

November 26, 2009 – 8:00 am

I’ve just found this interesting 1927 news item from Science magazine lambasting the rise of ‘quack psychologists’ that were apparently troubling the American public at the time. It’s interesting because it has a dig a two very specific groups of unorthodox psychological groups: PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGISTS, who promise, like fairy godmothers, to turn every-day human beings into […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Remembering | Comments (1)

NeuroPod covers the best of SfN

November 25, 2009 – 6:00 pm

Don’t miss a special edition of the Nature NeuroPod podcast which is dedicated to highlights from the recent Society for Neuroscience annual gathering of the tribes which took place in Chicago in October. The discussion looks at the big themes in this year’s conference, including optogenetics – the use of light stimulation to alter gene […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Leave a Comment

Think hard

November 25, 2009 – 8:00 am

Online poster shop Ork Posters! have this fantastic brain poster which is not only brilliantly designed but anatomically correct as well. They do a Tan and Black version, which is pictured here and an identical one in Burgundy, which turns out to be a little more expensive. So if you want some retro-typeface neuroscience fusion […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Leave a Comment

Going underground

November 24, 2009 – 6:00 pm

Slate has a great article discussing how psychologists have used the subway as a natural laboratory to study the social psychology of humans forced to interact in strange and unusual ways during their travels across the city. I never knew before, but it turns out there’s been quite a bit of research on the subways, […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

Harlow’s Pit of Despair

November 24, 2009 – 12:00 pm

ABC Radio National’s Artworks programme interviews two creators of a new play about the mind and motivations of psychologist and serial monkey abuser Harry Harlow. Harlow was a fascinating and troubled fellow who completed some of the most notorious studies in psychology where he raised monkeys apart from their mothers, most famously with ‘wire cage’ […]

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

Autism, desperation and untested treatments

November 24, 2009 – 8:00 am

The Chicago Tribune has just published two important articles on how untested and potentially dangerous medical treatments are being used on autistic children by US parents desperate for a cure. Many of these treatments are based on flimsy or non-existent evidence and they are being promoted by a subculture of parents of autistic children, who […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in News | Comments (1)

British ‘brain washing’ during WWII interrogations

November 23, 2009 – 6:00 pm

BBC Radio 4 has an excellent documentary on how ‘brain washing’ techniques and psychological coercion were used by the British military for interrogations during the Second World War. Newly uncovered documents implicate psychiatrist Alexander Kennedy in the use of sensory deprivation, disorientation and mind-altering drugs on prisoners during secret service interrogations on foreign soil. The […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Remembering | Comments (3)
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