Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Wired reports that Japanese ‘detergent suicide‘ technique creeps into U.S.
To the bunkers! BBC News has a video of a creepy but strangely seductive <a href="Female robot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7946780.stm”>fembot from a Japanese tech firm.
Kraepelin´s Grandchildren is an interesting new Spanish-language brain blog.
Daniel Dennett does an interesting TED lecture on the counter-intuitive link between evolution and psychology.
Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a fascinating study finding that musical intervals actually reflect the sounds of our own speech.
I’ve been digging the Phrenologists Notebook blog recently. Looks plain, reads great.
BBC News has a great video clip from a Horizon documentary showing newborns doing ‘maths’ and how experiments test such young kids.
Thank you Neurotopia! Contrary to the popular headlines modafinil triggering dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens does not make it addictive. People getting addicted to it does (which, so far, hasn’t happened).
BPS Research Digest has an excellent write-up of a review paper on successful non-drugs treatments for schizophrenia.
Completely false headline hides interesting write-up of study on anterior cingulate activation linked to religious belief in New Scientist.
New Scientist has a much better article on the effect of money on decision-making.
Am I normal? A new series of the wonderful BBC Radio 4 series has programmes on post-natal depression and gifted children.
Neurophilosophy reports on a study finding that brain waves predict successful memory for an event before it occurs.
The New York Times has an interesting article on Dr Alice Flaherty who studies the neuropsychology of empathy and has bipolar disorder.
A bill to promote the neurotechnology industry has been introduced into both the House and Senate of US Congress, reports Brain Waves.
Neuroscientist and author of a recent book on loneliness, John Cacioppo, is interviewed by Neuronarrative.
Scientific American has an interesting interview on delayed onset brain injuries with neurosurgeon Keith Black in the wake of Natasha Richardson’s death.
Predicting creditworthiness from photos of faces. The Economist covers another interesting psychological characteristics we can reliably read from the face (if averaged from a group’s responses).
PsyBlog has a piece on the ‘Cocktail Party Effect‘, presumably named in the days when psychologists had cocktail parties. Presumably, if discovered today it would be called the Friday after work down the pub effect.
The control centre of the US Army’s Human Terrain System and the role of the team in tackling military corruption is discussed by Wired.
The Frontal Cortex has a thought-provoking meditation on the value of neuroscience.
There’s been so much eye-opening stuff on Furious Seasons recently, I’ll just direct you to the entire blog.
Mind Hacks 