Monthly Archives: May 2010

The ‘sound’ of the silent howl

May 4, 2010 – 12:00 pm

Nature Neuroscience has an intriguing fMRI brain scanning study where the researchers could work out what sort of silent video clip the volunteers were watching by observing activity in the part of their brains specialised for perceiving sound. Although silent, the video clips were all chosen to ‘imply’ sound by depicting things such as a [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Comments (1)

Every underdog has its day

May 4, 2010 – 8:00 am

Slate has an excellent article on why we have a tendency to root for the underdog. It’s a fascinating area because it involves the combination of our perception of fairness, our positive emotional reaction to winners and our biases about what sort of characteristics we think underdogs might have – all of which could be [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Reasoning | Leave a Comment

The civil rights psychosis

May 3, 2010 – 12:00 pm

The latest All in the Mind from ABC Radio National has a fascinating discussion about how the definition of schizophrenia shifted throughout the 20th century in the USA as it morphed from being a disease of the withdrawn middle class female to being the affliction of the aggressive black man. The program is an interview [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Remembering | Leave a Comment

Take cover

May 3, 2010 – 8:00 am

The cover of the May edition of the neurology journal Brain is really quite lovely. Each of the circles is an individual EEG brain map of people with movement problems associated with Fragile X syndrome. The signals are evoked in response to word repetition and each activity map has been drawn from a study published [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Comments (1)

Saints of the underworld

May 2, 2010 – 8:00 am

National Geographic Magazine has a nuanced, tragic and colourful article about the growing numbers of unofficial saints in Mexico that are called on to protect against death in the increasingly turbulent cities, or have been created as revered patrons of the criminal underworld by gangs and drug traffickers. “The emotional pressures, the tensions of living [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

K-Space Division

May 1, 2010 – 12:00 pm

This is an amazing summary of a study just published in the latest edition of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. I have no idea what it’s about but it helps if you read it in the voice of Dr Spock. Susceptibility mapping in the human brain using threshold-based k-space division. Magn Reson Med. 2010 May;63(5):1292-304. Wharton [...]

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

Centre of attraction

May 1, 2010 – 8:00 am

Women who have a smaller waist in relation to their hips tend to be perceived as more attractive. Some argue this is an evolutionary tendency, a desire for women who are perceived to be more fertile, while others suggest it is just a product of the media who, from porn to Prada, laud the image [...]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment
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