Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Do women get bitchier as they get older? Only if they’re faced with research like this, says Dr Petra.
Cognitive Daily ask another one of their compelling questions: can a blind person whose vision is restored understand what she sees?
Temporarily open-access special issue of Criminal Justice and Behaviour discusses pseudoscientific policing practices and beliefs.
Wired asks what Facebook and steroid use have in common. I thought it was acne but apparently it’s social networks.
What makes the human mind asks Harvard Magazine. At Harvard, about $10,000 a term I would say.
BBC News reports on a new analysis of UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s speeches suggesting that Alzheimer’s had started to take effect before his shock resignation.
Can we have consciousness without attention? Asks philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel.
Psyblog reports on gift-giving experiments that suggest women react more positively than men to rubbish gifts – at least at first.
At addiction centres longer treatment programs are proving key to ending the relapse-rehab cycle, reports the LA Times.
USA Today reports on new research suggest that being physically punished as a child may lead to sexual problems later, although I’m not sure I’d classify a preference for S&M as a problem alongside coercion and risky sexual behaviour.
Does religion make you nice? asks Slate who consider friendly atheist Scandinavians.
Neurophilosophy finds a beautiful image of the brain from St Paul’s Cathedral architect Sir Christopher Wren.
I think this is a working torrent of The English Surgeon possibly the greatest brain documentary ever made.
The Wall Street Journal discusses new research which highlights the importance of forgetting. The French Foreign Legion have advertised this for years of course.
Stanley Fish for the New York Times blog discusses why it took US psychologists so long to ban participation in torture.
Frontal Cortex discusses new research finding that a bad night’s sleep can increase the chance of false memories.
The excellent Somatosphere discusses the culture changes that have meant social anxiety disorder is now more widely diagnosed in France.
Boo Yaa! Karl Friston drops some Bayes-heavy block-rocking maths in an article for PLoS Computational Biology on hierarchical models in the brain.
Speed daters shallow, reports New Scientist.
The BPS Research Digest discusses research on the negative effect of pregnancy on memory for future events.
Late stage Huntingdon’s disease includes better auditory signal detection, according to research covered by The Neurocritic.
Mind Hacks 
Vaughan – fyi, I just posted an interview with Gary Marcus on neuronarrative.com that you may be interested in checking out. best- david
I had been waiting for the English Surgeon torrent for ages! Thanks for letting us know. -Patricio