Jeremy Dean is the author of PsyBlog and also a postgraduate psychology researcher. He’s asking for people to spend 15 minutes completing some online questionnaires as part of a study on emotion.
The project is based at University College London but you can participate over the web.
There’s more information at the link below.
Link to Jeremy Dean’s emotion study.
Despite what the headlines might say, no-one has simulated a mouse brain. What has been created is still quite impressive though.
Scientists from IBM have created an artificial neural network which contains the simulated equivalent of the number of neurons in an actual mouse cortex, but with less synapses.
The mouse cortex contains about 8 million neurons, each of which has an average of 8,000 synaptic connections.
The simulation used the same number of ‘neurons’, but used an average of only 6,300 synaptic connections per brain cell, and each neuron fires about ten times slower than in real life.
Crucially, the simulated neurons are only vague approximations of the actual thing.
This is no reflection on the researchers, but really a result of the fact that we just don’t know enough about how single neurons work to create truly accurate simulations.
Also, the model was made up of simulated neurons of one particular type only to make things a little more straightforward.
Finally, there was no attempt to recreate the ‘architecture’ of the mouse cortex – that is, the division of the model into sections which do different functions, and no attempt to account for the function of non-neuronal brain cells.
The sheer scale of the model is impressive though, and shows that these large scale models are becoming technically feasible.
Previously, the technical restrictions of dealing with the computations and moving the data about quickly enough had not been overcome for a simulation of this size.
The project was run on a BlueGene/L supercomputer to make it possible.
IBM have released a short technical report on the project which is available at the link below.
pdf of report ‘Towards Real-Time Mouse Scale Cortical Simulations’.
Link to Wikipedia page on artificial neural networks.
Online psychedelic drug archive Erowid has scanned in a copy of a classic guide to hallucinogenic plants of the world and how they are used by native peoples.
The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants is by pioneering ethnobotanist, Richard E. Schultes.
Ethnobotany is the study of how people make use of plants, and hallucinogenic plants are obviously of keen interest owing to their important place in ritual and religion throughout the world.
The book is sadly out of print and and second hand copies are now collectors items. However, the full version has been scanned in full colour, so you can read it online or download it as one single zip file.
ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind just broadcast some essential listening with a programme that takes a critical look at the reporting of brain scanning studies and discusses what brain scans actually tell us about human nature.
The panel discussion also covers how cognitive and neuroscience discoveries get translated from lab work to public awareness, and how the core messages might get warped along the way.
The panel members are researchers and science journalists Deborah Blum and Jonica Newby, as well as neuroscientist Fred Mendelsohn.
It’s a rare but important discussion that actually takes a look at how brain scans are used in the media compared to what they actually tell us.
Link to All in the Mind brain scan programme webpage with transcript.
mp3 of programme audio.
The Washington Post has a fascinating article on the work of neuropathologist Dr Bennet Omalu (pictured right) who is researching whether American footballers are more likely to get dementia by examining their brains – after they’ve died.
The technique itself isn’t particularly controversial as the post-mortem study of brain tissue is one of the mainstays of neuroscience research.
It is difficult work, however, as it often involves asking the relatives at the point of death whether the body of their loved one can be examined for medical research, usually involving removing parts and examining them under a microscope.
Omalu thinks that the blows to the head suffered during Americfan football may increase the risk for early onset dementia and claims to have found tell-tale signs in the brain.
The idea that persistent low level head injury might raised the risk of dementia is not particularly new.
There are even some research findings suggesting that late life brain function is worse in ex-footballers and the risk for dementia may indeed by higher.
The Washington Post article is an interesting insight into an essential but difficult type of neurological research.
Link to Washington Post article ‘Brain Chaser Tackles Effects of NFL Hits’.
The May edition of top brain research journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience is available online for anyone who completes the free site registration.
The issue contains a round-up of recent neuroscience news, as well as some in-depth reviews of depth perception, the genetics of nervous system development, olfactory memory in fruit flies, neural cycle cyle regulation and a fantastic article on the epigenetics of psychiatric disorder.
Epigenetics describes the process of how genes actually ‘do their work’.
DNA has two main functions. The ‘template function’ of DNA is to pass on genes through generations and allow different traits to be inherited.
The ‘transcriptional function’ of DNA is to allow these genes to be expressed at appropriate times and places (and not expressed at others) so the work can be done.
Almost every cell in the body has a copy of the DNA and, therefore, all the genes, but there are many types of cells with many diverse functions.
This is because not all genes are transcribed and expressed at once. Genes are expressed selectively.
This allows the body to have a diverse range of differently structured cells, and it allows the same cells to do different work at different times.
In a famous 1998 paper, Kandel noted that the transcriptional function of genes, that determines which proteins are expressed at any particular time, can be regulated by social, environmental and experiential (learning-based) factors.
This is why epigenetics is so important, because it is one way of understanding how genes and the environment interact.
We know that it is possible to inherit a variable risk for mental illness, and that life experiences are likely to combine with this risk to trigger mental illness in some people.
The Nature Reviews Neuroscience article looks at the latest research on how this occurs and how it might be different in various types of psychiatric disorder.
Link to May’s Nature Reviews Neuroscience (via Pimm).
Link to PubMed entry (with full text links) for Kandel’s classic 1998 paper.
Slate has just released a special series on the brain – taking a critical look at some of the most recent developments in the field and asking researchers how neuroscience has changed their life.
There’s a wonderful article by developmental psychologist Alison Gopnick on getting past the hype surrounding mirror neurons – which are being used to explain almost every form of human behaviour despite the lack of evidence.
A host of brain researchers note how neuroscience has impacted on their day-to-day life and changes the way they see the world.
Most strikingly, Christof Koch notes that his research into consciousness convinced him to become vegetarian as “mammals can consciously experience the pains and pleasure of life”.
There’s also a few articles on cognitive enhancement: notably, one on the history and myths behind popular ‘brain supplement’ ginkgo biloba and another on neuroplasticity and the new craze for ‘brain training‘ programmes.
Neurotheology, the neuroscience of religious and spiritual experience, also gets a look in with an article examined the development of this new discipline and another on whether technology could induce spritual experiences via the brain.
I have to say, the article on the ‘five biggest neuroscience developments of the year’ is a bit ropey.
For example:
2. The neural alteration of morality. Six people with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex were presented with moral dilemmas (e.g., would you smother a baby to prevent bad guys from finding and killing people in hiding) and were found to be two to three times more willing to kill than people without brain damage. The advertised conclusion is that such willingness to kill is objectively immoral. The feared conclusion is that if brain design determines what’s moral, you can change morality by changing the brain – and once technology manipulates ethics, ethics can no longer judge technology.
In fact, we’ve known for a very long time that brain damage can make people less moral, as the case of Phineas Gage suggested, and modern studies of ‘acquired sociopathy’ have reported.
It’s also interesting that the study in question found patients with ventromedial brain damage were actually more moral in utilitarian terms.
They were less swayed by the normal emotional response to making decisions that required trading off considerations of group welfare against emotionally negative behaviours (for example, having to sacrifice one person’s life to save a number of other lives).
Whether this is less moral, depends on your moral framework.
Generally, though, the series is well worth checking out and has some fascinating insights and commentary.
Link to Slate special series on the brain.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
The BMJ had an fascinating editorial about the role of psychology in physical illness.
Deric Bownds discusses whether recursion a universal aspect of languages.
The Times Literary Supplement has a review of Hofstadter’s new book on consciousness.
Scientists debate the limits of action for autonomous robots.
Newsweek on new brain research that may help explain why some people don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.
Frontal Cortex discusses inequality and the perception of fairness.
Nature looks at a study that re-examined the two brains Paul Broca used to define the speech area now called Broca’s Area, with some surprising results.
Jeremy from PsyBlog reports the results of his study on music and personality we featured previously.
Study finds that although intelligence <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18311061
“>predicts income, it doesn’t predict wealth.
Scientific American ponders the scent of a man: pheromones from human males may be an important aspect of <a href="http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=eau_de_l_homme&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
“>attraction.
The BPS Research Digest looks at a study that asked the question ‘Can God make people more aggressive?’.
Cognitive Daily covers a study that used VR in a very creative way to understand the effect of eye gaze. The study created mutually exclusive social situations simultaneously experienced by all participants.
A psychology and a neuroscience book have made two of out of the six entries shortlisted for the UK’s premier science book prize.
The award is the The Royal Society Prize for Science Books, previously called the Aventis Prize.
Daniel Gilbert’s entertaining book on the sometimes paradoxical world of the psychology of contentment, Stumbling on Happiness (ISBN 9780007183135), is one of the six.
In Search of Memory (ISBN 0393058638), Eric Kandel’s memoirs and discussion of the neuroscience of memory, also makes the list.
The full shortlist is at the link below.
Link to BBC News article on the 2007 shortlist.
The BPS Research Digest has a wonderfully straightforward explanation of a branch of psychology called psychophysics, which attempts to understand the relation between physical qualities and the psychological impressions they cause.
The piece is written by Mind Hacks co-founder and psychophysicist extraordinaire, Dr Tom Stafford, who explains how this key area of psychology uses mathematical models to understand how the brain makes sense of the physical world.
Tom explains how psychophysics tackles these sorts of problems and then explains one of the most important discoveries in psychophysics: Weber’s law.
Psychophysics is heavily used in ergonomics and human-computer interaction.
Knowing, for example, how noticeable something is (like a warning light), gives a huge advantage when trying to design safe and easy-to-use software interfaces, jet fighter cockpits or even home appliances.
Link to BPSRD article ‘An introduction to psychophysics’.
St Patrick’s in Dublin is the oldest psychiatric hospital in Ireland. It was founded by the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, who left his money after his death in 1745 “To build a house for fools and mad”.
Swift was most famous for his satire and it is no surprise that his founding of St Patrick’s was a satirical nod towards his native Ireland.
Famously, he described his gesture in a poem entitled On the Death of Dr Swift:
He gave the little wealth he had
To build a house for fools and mad,
And showed by one satiric touch
No nation needed it so much.
The hospital was intended as more than just parody, however, as Swift was also genuinely committed to the care of people with mental illness.
Swift had served as one of the Governors of Bethlem Hospital in London and, when he became Dean of the city’s cathedral, he began to realise the appalling conditions that mentally ill Dubliners had to endure.
The hospital still stands today, next to that other 18th century Irish institution, the Guinness Brewery, and is one of the leading centres for psychiatric treatment, teaching and research in Ireland.
Link to brief AJP article on St Patrick’s.
Link to Wikipedia page on St Patrick’s.
Link to St Patrick’s website.
ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind recently broadcast an incredibly moving account of a young woman’s fight with a life threatening brain tumour that eventually resulted in her death.
The woman in question was the Australian writer Julie Deakin (pictured left), who wrote the most touching and elegant prose about her experiences of diagnosis and treatment, and the impact of her declining health on her loved ones.
The programme weaves Deakin’s writing with her mother’s recollection of the time, making for a powerful programme.
I was listening to it while walking to work this morning and it stopped me in my tracks on a couple of occasions.
The picture is of one of the lock gates on Grand Canal Way in South Dublin. The bench is a memorial to Irish artist, songwriter and civil engineer Percy French and is inscribed with the following ode to memory:
Remember me is all I ask,
And yet
If the remembrance prove a task
Forget
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Irvin Yalom discusses some of the thinking behind his therapeutic approach on p154 of Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy (ISBN 0140128468).
Yalom is known for his work in developing existential psychotherapy, group therapy and his engaging and exciting books and novels on the psychotherapeutic process.
To my mind “good” therapy (which I equate with deep, or penetrating, therapy, not with efficient or even, I am pained to say, helpful therapy) conducted with a “good” patient is at bottom a truth-seeking venture. My quarry when I was a novitiate was the truth of the past, to trace all of life’s coordinates and, thereby, to locate and to explain a person’s current life, pathology, motivation and actions.
I used to be so sure. What arrogance! And now what kind of truth was I stalking? I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.
But there is timing and judgement. Never take away anything if you have nothing better to offer. Beware of stripping a patient who can’t bear the chill of reality. And don’t exhaust yourself by jousting with religious magic: you’re no match for it.
Link to Irvin Yalom’s website (thanks Annie!).
No sooner than we post something about psychedelic drug research becoming mainstream than a newspaper reports on a psychologist being barred entry to the US because he wrote an article on a 1967 LSD experience.
Dr Andrew Feldmar (pictured right) is a Vancouver based psychologist and psychotherapist who was attempting a regular cross-border visit, this time to meet a friend in Seattle.
When crossing the border, he was stopped for a random check and security typed his name into Google – bring up a link to a 2001 paper on the hot topic of psychedelics and psychotherapy.
The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to “narcotics” use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn’t interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file.
Then Feldmar disbelievingly listened as he learned that he was being barred from ever entering the United States again. The officer told him he could apply to the Department of Homeland Security for a waiver, if he wished, and gave him a package, with the forms.
Feldmar trained under R.D. Laing, the radical psychiatrist and psychotherapist who himself took LSD in an attempt to better understand psychosis and altered states.
As a curious aside, the article notes that Feldmar first tried LSD after being offered a 900 microgram dose (that’s one big hit of acid), not by Laing, as you might have guessed, but by cognitive neuroscientist par excellence Zenon Pylyshyn, who was his collaborator at the time.
Pylyshyn had reportedly tried LSD out of curiosity but had since become interested in other things and had some of the compound left over.
Link to article ‘LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from US’ (via BB).
Link to Feldman’s article ‘Entheogens and Psychotherapy’.
Time magazine has recently published two articles on psychedelic drugs: the first on the recent publication of successful psychedelic treatment studies and the other suggesting LSD was first taken up by the cultural and business elite before becoming a staple of the 60s underground.
We covered some of the research investigating the therapeutic potential of various psychedelic compounds in December last year if you want an idea of what sort of studies are being conducted.
The first article notes the slowly changing attitude of the authorities towards doing scientific studies on these drugs, and name checks MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organisation who have done much to promote trust between government and scientists on the issue.
The second article uncovers a few interesting anecdotes about key establishment figures (including one of the Time Inc. founders!) trying psychedelics when they were first being discovered by the USA in the 1950s.
Link to Time article ‘Was Timothy Leary Right?’.
Link to Time article ‘When the Elite Loved LSD’.
Link to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
Mind Hacks 