2010-04-23 Spike activity

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

The New York Times discusses how a belladonna hallucination could have been the start of alcoholics anonymous.

Dream rehearsal helps remembering, according to a study covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

The Times covers breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow. Some yaka-wow socks are also in progress.

An interesting in-scanner set-up for live face-to-face interaction during brain imaging experiments is covered by the BPS Research Digest.

The Smithsonian Magazine has an in-depth article on the neuroscience of how our brains make memories.

There’s an excellent discussion how to delay instant gratification and offset delay discounting with future thinking over at The Frontal Cortex.

Nature News covers genetic evidence suggesting that neanderthals may have interbred with humans.

To the bunkers! New Scientist covers the development of robots with sensing skin.

Neurophilosophy covers an interesting embodied cognition experiment where body movement influenced memory and emotions.

How should we explain the origins of novel behaviors? asks American Scientist.

Neurotopia discusses the neuroscience of ‘photic sneezing‘ or why we sometimes sneeze when we look at the sun.

Evidence on the link between obesity and dementia is discussed in The New York Times.

PsyBlog has an absolutely fascinating post on our tendency to be over-cynical about trusting other people and how it can be overcome through accurate feedback of others’ trustworthiness.

Is there search for extra-terrestrial life missing the most likely signs of <a href="Alien intelligence
http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15905827″>alien intelligence? asks The Economist.

Minds of the Edge is a powerful documentary and online resource about mental health in the states. You can view all online.

I keep forgetting how good BrainBlogger is. Note to self: remind me more often please.

New Scientist has an article on Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, the ‘predictioneer‘, whose game theory based model of political prediction has been remarkably accurate.

Visions of the brain. The Beautiful Brain blog has a fantastic podcast that talks to three artists about their approach to visualising inner landscapes.

Popular Science have video of the autonomous garbage collecting ‘dustbot‘ designed to wander your neighbourhood. To the bunkers!

Is memory for music special? Asks Dr Shock. Apparently it is not.

Wired has excellent piece on the history of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and how the scientific research organisation stands in relation to the drugs counter-culture.