Category: Linkage

If you’re a podcast addict, you could no worse than checking out Say Why to Drugs an excellent new show that covers the science behind a different recreational drug each week.

The podcast is with psychologist and drugs researcher Suzi Gage and rhyme-smith Scroobius Pip, better known for his banging tunes.

They make for a great partnership and they breakdown everything from the psychopharmacology of MDMA to the social impact of ketamine and do plenty of myth-busting along the way.

Thoroughly listenable, good fun and great on the science, you can find it on acast and iTunes.
 

Link to podcast on ITunes
Link to podcast on acast

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Why do some children thrive in adult life despite a background of violence and neglect? Fascinating piece from Mosaic.

Scientific American asks with the flood of neuroscience PhDs, where will all the neuroscientists go? Ask British neuroscientists, they’re probably weighing up their options right now.

Blobs and Pitfalls: Challenges for fMRI Research. Neuroskeptic covers one of a number of ‘rethinking fMRI research pieces’ that has recently come out.

Neurocritic casts a skeptical over several new oxytocin papers that have appeared.

Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism. A complex question tackled over at NPR.

Psychodiagnosticator asks What do we talk about when we talk about schizophrenia?

There’s a fascinating discussion on language and the culture of internal meaning over at The Psychologist.

Invisibilia, NPR’s people and cognitive science show, has just kicked off a new series.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The New York Times has a fascinating piece on the online community of people who believe they are being ‘gang stalked’.

Completely destroy the immune system with chemotherapy and rebuild it with stem cells. A radical experimental treatment that seemed to halt multiple sclerosis with 1 death in 23 out of 24 patients people. One died. Reported by BBC News.

Aeon has a piece on the social function of human sacrifice.

Using image processing to improve reconstruction of movies from brain activity. Remarkable but trippy extraction of video from brain activity from Jack Gallant’s lab. Deep dream esque.

The Washington Post has an interesting piece on the history of seeing racism as a mental illness and its problems.

A New Theory Explains How Consciousness Evolved. The Atlantic has a good piece on Attention Schema Theory.

Mosaic has an excellent balanced piece on the effect of screens, smartphones and devices on young people.

There’s a good obituary for recently deceased legendary psychologist Jerome Bruner in The Washington Post.

Time reports that most violent crimes are wrongly linked to mental illness.

The widely-reported link between older fathers, spontaneous DNA mutations in sperm, and chance of offspring with autism may be due to a confound: men who carry risk factors tend to have children late in life. Good reporting from Spectrum.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

One of the earliest hominin constructions ever found hundreds of metres deep into a cave. Fascinating piece in The Atlantic.

Aeon has a fascinating piece on how we come to have knowledge of our own minds.

PET brain metabolism linked to return of consciousness in vegetative state patients. The ‘predict’ headline on the article is a bit misleading in everyday terms – it’s only one study so not good enough evidence to make clinical predictions – but fascinating work covered by Stat.

The Guardian has a piece on psychology’s study pre-registration revolution.

ABC Radio’s The Science Show has an excellent hour-long tribute to Oliver Sacks – in his own words.

How do we choose a romantic partner? Interesting review of studies from The Conversation.

Social Minds has a fascinating post on arguing that it’s about time we identified cognitive phenotypes for the social deficits in autism.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

A new paper by AI experts explores the construction of dangerous artificial intelligence. TechRepublic covers the latest step in the inevitable march towards bunker humanity.

“Brain-dead patients have served as research subjects for decades”. Interesting piece in Discover Magazine.

Neuroskeptic has started to produce videos and this is excellent: The Myth of the Brain.

There’s a crowdfunding campaign to make episode 3 of a cyberpunk / sociology of neuroscience queer porn movie. Looping effect? No, I just lost my concentration for a second.

BBC Future has an excellent piece on the hearing voices movement approach to living with hallucinated voices.

There’s an insightful piece on the changing history of names and concepts of intellectual disability in The New York Times.

The Atlantic has a sensible take on the ‘genetics of staying in school’ study and what it does, and doesn’t tell us.

Somewhat awkward title but Science News has a piece on how Bayesian approaches to cognitive science are helping us understand psychopathology.

I have read a good deal more about information theory and psychology than I can or care to remember. Much of it was a mere association of new terms with old and vague ideas. Presumably the hope was that a stirring in of new terms would clarify the old ideas by a sort of sympathetic magic.

From: John R. Piece’s 1961 An introduction to information theory: symbols, signals and noise. Plus ça change.

Pierce’s book is really quite wonderful and contains lots of chatty asides and examples, such as:

Gottlob Burmann, a German poet who lived from 1737 to 1805, wrote 130 poems, including a total of 20,000 words, without once using the letter R. Further, during the last seventeen years of his life, Burmann even omitted the letter from his daily conversation.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

This is how it feels to learn your memories are fiction. Good BBC Future piece on confabulation from an event with the fantastic Headway East London. However, not rare as the strap line claims.

Neuroskeptic covers an interesting study on the neural precursors of spontaneous thoughts.

Who Will Debunk The Debunkers? Good FiveThirtyEight piece on why debunking memes can be myth and rumour.

Psychological Science in the Public Interest has a long, detailed impressive review article on the causes of differences in sexual orientation.

Good piece in Gizmodo on why the brain’s ‘pain matrix’ probably isn’t a ‘pain matrix’. Ignore the headline, has nothing at all to do with how pain is ‘diagnosed’.

PrimeMind has an excellent piece on the false dream of less sleep and why you can almost never win against sleep deprivation.

Science probably does advance one funeral at a time, reports Vox, covering an intriguing study.

The Atlantic reports on a new meta-analysis suggesting the harmful effects of spanking children based on correlative evidence. Should we be doing RCTs of controversial social interventions? asked Ben Goldacre last year.

The impressive ‘dictionary in the brain study’ has been fairly badly reported – lots of mention of words ‘located’ in the brain and brain area’s lighting up. Stat has a short but appropriate critique.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Nautilus has a fascinating piece on the science of practice and improving skills – not the same as just gaining experience.

The science behind the stoner lore of different strains of weed having distinctly different highs is taken apart by a great article in PrimeMind.

Science reports on recent findings from a cadaver study that casts doubts on whether tDCS can actually stimulate the brain at all.

Does mental illness enhance creativity? A good balanced look at the evidence from BBC Future.

Slate asks: Think Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Bad? Welcome to the One in Medicine.

Should Therapists Write About Patients? Important personal piece published in The New York Times.

The Guardian has a brief first-person piece: The secret life of a trainee brain surgeon.

A data geek may have resurrected the much maligned field of serial killer profiling. Good piece in Boston Magazine.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Why we’re living in an era of neuroscience hype. Excellent piece in The Daily Dot by well-known neuroscience blogger Neuroskeptic.

The Atlantic has a wonderful piece on teaching neuroscience in prison. No, not some dodgy course on ‘better living through neuroscience’ – genuine neuroscience. A great reflection on teaching science in an unlikely place.

How deep learning survived the AI winter and came to dominate cognitive computing. Great piece in re/code.

Nautilus has an interesting piece on the science of empathy in the caring professions.

My terrifying – and valuable – time in a psychiatric ward. Times Higher Educational Supplement has a piece by a US academic.

The Psychologist has an excellent piece by novelist Alex Pheby on Daniel Paul Schreber’s classic memoirs of psychosis.

The killer of Kitty Genovese dies in prison. The New York Times covers the case, the killer and the psychology myth.

Scientific American Mind asks why does the brain need so much energy?

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Don’t tase me bro! Because it’ll cause short term cognitive impairment which may affect my ability to respond correctly under police interview. Important research from Drexel.

Mosaic has an interesting piece on hacking the placebo response and associative learning to improve medical treatments.

Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot. Might be already for all I know. Nautilus on social robotics.

Science reports that sleep deprivation markedly increases false confessions.

The microcephaly brain changes apparently linked to the Zika virus are puzzling science. Good piece from NBC News.

The Atlantic covers the bitter fight over the benefits of bilingualism.

Good sceptical Gary Marcus talk on the current state of artificial intelligence and a useful tonic to those who think deep learning will lead to strong AI.

The Economist has an excellent in-depth article on the social effects of legalising cannabis.

There’s an excellent interview with pioneering neuroengineer Ed Boyden in Edge. Really, go read it.

Science News reports that the rise of human civilization was tied to belief in punitive gods. And also reality TV, you’ll notice.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The New Yorker covers the shifting sands of autism in light of recent books that have rethought the history of the condition.

Brian Resnick at Vox asked twenty psych researchers: What do you hate about science journalism? Lots of good stuff.

Science reports big and welcome news: the Montreal Neurological Institute, one of the world’s leading brain research centres, is going entirely open science.

Why does the brain use so much energy? asks Wired UK.

The Independent has a piece on the history of the drug amyl nitrate, sold widely as ‘poppers’, and its place in gay culture, clubbing and sex.

I get interviewed by the Spanish-language blog Neuromexico – text in Spanish but audio largely in English.

The New York Times has a subtle first-person piece on prison psychotherapy.

A brief history of decapitation. Over at Inverse.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The New York Times has a brilliant piece on the non-scandal around sociologist Alice Goffman that’s also a reflection on sociology itself.

There’s a fascinating piece on ‘super forecasters‘ – people who seem to have an exceptional ability to judge the outcome of future events – in the Washington Post.

Knowing Neurons is a relatively new neuro blog that just keeps getting better.

Applying a knowledge of cognitive biases to add reality to virtual reality. Aeon covers an interesting area of applied psychology.

National Geographic has a fantastic piece on the evolution of the eye.

A mathematician is using computers to manufacture award-winning illusions. Fantastic piece in Nautilus.

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

The State of Texas now allows guns in state-run psychiatric hospitals, according to the Statesman. I am genuinely lost for words.

Sifting the Evidence has an excellent piece on the science behind the UK’s new lowered alcohol intake recommendations.

Scale Invariance: A Cautionary Tale Against Reductionism in Neuroscience. Thought-provoking piece from Knowing Neurons.

The New York Times has an excellent piece on the psychology of the con.

Human clinical trials planned for revolutionary neuroscience technique optogenetics, reports Scientific American.

The Atlantic has a wonderful piece on how we coordinate conversations between us with the most precise synchronisation.

There’s a good piece on the psychopharmacology of new psychoactive substances in Cerebrum.

The New York Times reports how psychologists have now been quietly but officially withdrawn from working with Guantanamo detainees.

We need more pieces like this on male mental health: Ex-editor of lad’s mags Loaded and GQ talks on “How therapy saved my life” in The Telegraph.

A radio station run by patients that broadcasts from inside an Argentinean psychiatric hospital. Al Jazeera with an excellent documentary.

Geek medal to this man: Neurosurgeon criticises latest Bond movie over anatomically inaccurate depiction of how to drill out the fusiform gyrus. Gizmodo has the story.

Cognitive Sciences Stack Exchange is a question and answer forum for Cognitive Science. The Stack Exchange model works well for computer programming and now cogsci.stackexchange.com is one of the 150+ sites in their family, which includes topics as diverse as academia, mythology and pets.

There’s a dedicated community of people answering questions and voting on answers, producing  a great resource patterned around the questions people have on Cognitive Science topics. Three examples:

• What tasks does Bayesian decision-making model poorly?
• Does evidence support Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
• How is it that taking a break from a problem sometimes allows you to figure out the answer?

So head over, if you have questions, or if you can lend an evidence-based, citation-supported, hand in working on answers:

Link: Cognitive Sciences Stack Exchange

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

12% of women have eyes with four colour-detecting cone cells instead of three. Why don’t they all have superhuman colour vision? Fascinating piece from great new blog Neurosphere.

The BMJ has a genuine but wonderfully sarcastic fMRI study on a Christmas spirit network in the brain. “Further research is necessary to understand this and other potential holiday circuits in the brain”

In a mass of tissue as densely packed and hard-working as the brain, even the holes among the structural elements have jobs to do. Good piece from American Scientist.

The Maudsley Psychedelic Society launched this week with an inaugural lecture by Professor David Nutt. Visuals are suitably blurry in places but great talk.

Trying to simulate the human brain is a waste of time and energy. Critical piece in Aeon.

The Atlantic has an excellent piece on the emotional impact of working with traumatised patients if you’re a therapist. Ignore the daft headline on ‘PTSD being contagious’.

Good piece in MIT Tech Review. Can This Man Make AI More Human? One cognitive scientist thinks the leading approach to machine learning can be improved by ideas gleaned from studying children.

The Lancet has an excellent piece on hallucinated voices, identity, and meaning-making.

A Brief History of New York City’s Heroin Scene. Excellent Vice article from someone who was there.

Neurocritic covers ‘This Week in Neuroblunders: fMRI Edition’.

Why human sleep is an evolutionary anomaly. Fascinating piece in The New York Times.