Category Archives: Inside the Brain

Moments of the self

February 20, 2012 – 1:15 am

A study just published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences gives a wonderful example of the little recognised complexity of epileptic seizures. The article describes three cases of people who take their clothes off during seizures and discusses the potential legal consequences of engaging in such behaviour when it was caused by epilepsy. However ‘Case [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Leave a Comment

Of both lovers and epilepsy

February 14, 2012 – 12:53 am

Saint Valentine is the patron saint of both lovers and epilepsy – sadly, a little known fact. There is one wonderful example of this divine coupling, however, where the passionate saint appears alongside EEG traces on 1998 postage stamp from Italy. This description is from a brief 2003 article from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (1)

Individual ecstasies: the revelatory experience conference

February 12, 2012 – 6:52 pm

On March 23rd London will host a unique conference on the neuroscience, psychiatry and interpretation of revelatory visionary experiences. It’s been put together by Quinton Deeley from our research group at the Institute of Psychiatry and brings together cognitive neuroscientists, anthropologists, religious studies scholars, psychologists and psychiatrists to discuss different ways of understanding ‘revelatory experiences’. [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory, Togetherness | Comments (7)

Before you hit the ground there’s a moment of bliss

February 11, 2012 – 2:32 am

I’ve just found this amazing bluesy hip hop track by George Watsky and the GetBand about having an epileptic seizure in front of a girl you’re trying to impress. As well as being an astute observation of the experience of seizure it’s defiant, fast and funny and Watsky just rolls through the rhymes. You don’t [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

goCognitive 2.0

February 4, 2012 – 1:30 pm

We’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out

By tomstafford | Also posted in Linkage | Comments (1)

A medical study of the Haitian zombie

January 11, 2012 – 12:18 pm

We hear a lot about zombies these days – in films, in music and even in philosophy – but many are unaware that in 1997 The Lancet published a medical study of three genuine Haitian zombies. The cases studies were reported by British anthropologist Roland Littlewood and Haitian doctor Chavannes Douyon and concerned three individuals [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (12)

A relationship through brain injury

January 10, 2012 – 12:14 am

The New York Times has an excellent article on the challenges faced by couples after one member survives brain injury. Carers sometimes say that, after brain injury, their partner is emotionally unresponsive, emotionally unstable or that their ‘personality has changed’. This can lead to a strain on the relationship that far outlasts the ‘obvious’ effects [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

Graffiti brain collision

January 9, 2012 – 7:33 pm

An unfortunate case of a high-impact graffiti-based neurotrauma recorded this afternoon in Bogotá on the corner of Carrera 14 and Calle 26 near the Cementerio Central.  

By vaughanbell | Leave a Comment

Christmas brain lectures available worldwide

January 7, 2012 – 7:21 pm

This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures were a fantastic trip through neuroscience and the brain – and you can now watch them online from anywhere in the world. The Christmas Lectures are a traditional event where a leading scientist is chosen to present the latest developments in a fun and engaging way to a lecture [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News | Comments (4)

Anesthesia as a consciousness scalpel

January 4, 2012 – 11:44 pm

I’ve just written a piece for the Discover Magazine blog The Crux about a new study that used anaesthetics to “put people under” and test the limits of their conscious mind even after they’d stopped responding to the outside world. Doing psychology experiments on people undergoing anaesthesia is not a new idea but it has [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (3)

Clinical test copyright bullying legally dubious

December 30, 2011 – 12:35 pm

James Grimmelmann, Associate Professor at New York Law School, has written on the takedown of an open-access cognitive screening test by the copyright holders of the Mini Mental State test. He says “any copyright claim here is legally weak and morally indefensible”. His piece is worth reading in full not only because he sets out [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News, Theory | Comments (2)

Diagnostic test takedown by copyright bullies

December 29, 2011 – 1:48 pm

The New England Journal of Medicine report on how the authors of key screening test, the Mini–mental state examination, have initiated a take-down of an open, validated and freely-available equivalent due to it also asking test-takers to recall three words, a string of numbers and some basic questions about the date and location. The Mini–mental [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News, Togetherness | Comments (13)

The mysterious nodding syndrome

December 28, 2011 – 11:43 pm

New Scientist reports that Uganda has been hit by a new outbreak of the mysterious ‘nodding syndrome’ or ‘nodding disease’ that seems to be an unknown neurological condition that only affects children. There is not much known about it but it seems to be a genuine neurological condition (and not an outbreak of ‘mass hysteria‘) [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

Unlikely causes of dementia

December 27, 2011 – 5:36 pm

An article on the history of dementia lists the somewhat odd causes for the degenerative brain condition as given by the pioneering French psychiatrist Jean Etienne Esquirol in 1838: Menstrual disorders, Sequelae [consequences] of delivery, Head injuries, Progression of age, Ataxic fever, Hemorrhoids surgery, Mania and monomania, Paralysis, Apoplexy, Syphilis, Mercury abuse, Dietary excesses, Wine [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Comments (2)

An unborn brain flowering connections

December 15, 2011 – 12:01 am

We’ve mentioned some amazing advances in brain scanning unborn babies before on Mind Hacks and this image is another step in that remarkable science. The coloured fibres in the image are still-developing white matter circuits in the brain of an unborn baby at 36 weeks, picked out by a diffusion MRI scan. The scan is [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (13)

Counting every phantom found

December 10, 2011 – 2:59 pm

I’ve just found a sublime track by singer songwriter William Fitzsimmons riffing on the antiquated diagnosis of psychasthenia and its treatment with brain surgery. Unexpectedly, it’s quite beautiful. The song is called Psychasthenia, a reference to old-fashioned diagnosis of the same name that was the first description of what we would now call OCD. I [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (1)
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