Monthly Archives: September 2010

Sci vs Spy

September 21, 2010 – 11:50 pm

The Cold War espionage styles of the US and Soviet spy agencies are compared in a fantastic article for the history of science journal Isis that notes that while the Americans tended to invest in technology, the Russians were more focused on ‘human intelligence’. The article, by historian Kristie Macrakis, explores the technophilia of the […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Remembering | Comments (1)

The book of reality distortions

September 21, 2010 – 1:38 am

I’m happy to announce that I’ve just finalised an agreement with Penguin to write a book on what hallucinations tell us about the mind, brain and human nature. From the proposal: The mind and brain can generate fantastical visions and disembodied voices, illusory people and shifting landscapes, internal symphonies and sensed presences. These states happen […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in books, Integrating, News | Comments (37)

The pleasure is all mine

September 21, 2010 – 1:06 am

Monitor on Psychology has a brief but interesting interview with psychologist Paul Bloom who has just written a book on the counter-intuitive psychology of pleasure. Pleasure, it would seem, is a byproduct of essentialism, Bloom says. The value we assign consumer products is largely based on something deeper than just the way they look or […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

Dreams of a consciousness measuring device

September 20, 2010 – 8:40 pm

The New York Times has an excellent article about Giulio Tononi, one of the few neuroscientists trying to understand consciousness in a way that may have a direct practical application – to create a medical device that can tell whether you are conscious or not. To be honest, I’ve been a bit bored with consciousness, […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain, Theory | Comments (7)

It’s not a date, it’s an experiment in the lab of love

September 20, 2010 – 7:43 pm

There’s a fantastic discussion on the science of dating over at Dr Petra that tackles how effective the techniques used by ‘scientific matching’ companies really are, and whether common dating advice is actually any good. Petra recently ran a ‘Science of Pulling’ event at the British Science Festival (Americans: ‘pull’ is British slang meaning ‘to […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

Memories from before nightfall

September 19, 2010 – 10:11 pm

The Yale Alumni Magazine has a moving and beautifully written article that is both a tribute to a college friend who recently took his own life and a wider discussion of depression, suicide and friendship. The writer is Andrew Solomon, perhaps best known for one of the finest books on the experience, meaning and science […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (1)

New mental states for the 21st century

September 19, 2010 – 7:24 pm

Writer Douglas Coupland has a playful article in the The Independent where he defines ‘new terms for new sensations’ and lists new psychological states that may be arising from 21st century life. Coupland is known for his careful observations of how technology impacts on day-to-day living and there are many delightful entries in the list, […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Comments (4)

The strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion

September 18, 2010 – 6:43 pm

An intriguing article has just been published in the journal Perception about a never-before-described visual illusion where your own reflection in the mirror seems to become distorted and shifts identity. To trigger the illusion you need to stare at your own reflection in a dimly lit room. The author, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo, describes his […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating, Seeing | Comments (242)

2010-09-17 Spike activity

September 18, 2010 – 5:18 pm

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: There’s a fantastic discussion and video interview on America’s first prison for drug addicts, “the world’s most famous – and infamous – center for the treatment and study of drug addiction”, over at Neuroanthropology. The Guardian has a piece by psychologist Susan Blackmore on […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Linkage | Comments (3)

The first man with autism

September 16, 2010 – 10:17 pm

The Atlantic has an amazing article about the first person ever diagnosed with autism, the now 77 year-old Donald Triplett, who plays a mean game of golf and seems to be doing just fine. The piece tracks the history of both Triplett and our understanding of autism which has changed radically since the diagnosis was […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Remembering, Togetherness | Comments (1)

Once and future gayness

September 16, 2010 – 3:52 am

Never one to avoid opening Pandora’s box, Bering in Mind has an excellent discussion on whether it’s possible to predict adult sexual orientation from childhood traits and behaviours. As the article notes, there are a host of heated debates about the merits of trying to ‘predict homosexuality’ but even as a purely scientific question, it […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Comments (3)

An uneven hail of bullets

September 15, 2010 – 7:08 pm

Gunshot wounds to the head are a major cause of death among soldiers in combat but little is known about where bullets are more likely to impact. A study just published in the Journal of Trauma looked at common bullet entry points among soldiers who died in combat and found clear patterns – but the […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (24)

Touching the space between us

September 15, 2010 – 1:53 am

Slate has an excellent article on the psychology of collaborations that highlights the often underplayed role of the creative relationship and bemoans are obsession with the illusory ‘lone genius’. The author is Joshua Wolf Shenk who you may recognise from one of the best psychology articles I’ve yet read – an Atlantic article on happiness […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

How culture can invert genetic risk

September 14, 2010 – 7:21 pm

Neuron Culture has a fantastic piece on how a long touted ‘depression gene’ turned out to reduce the risk of mood problems in people in East Asians and why we can’t always understand genetic effects on behaviour without understanding culture. The piece riffs on the long-established finding that the short variant of the serotonin transporter […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Integrating, Togetherness | Comments (6)

Twilight novels ‘could be altering the brain’

September 13, 2010 – 7:09 pm

The Twilight series of young adult novels “could be affecting the dynamic workings of the teenage brain in ways scientists don’t yet understand” according to a bizarre article from LiveScience. To be fair, the premise of the article is quite correct, Twilight novels (along with everything) are indeed altering the brain in ways we don’t […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Nonsense | Comments (10)

The death of ‘right brain thinking’

September 12, 2010 – 8:41 pm

A new study published in Psychological Bulletin has just reviewed all the neuroscience research on creative thinking and found no good evidence for the pop-culture idea that the right side of the brain is more involved in ‘creative thinking’. Sadly, the full text isn’t available online, but the abstract of the study contains all the […]

By vaughanbell | Posted in Inside the Brain, Integrating | Comments (23)
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