May 2010 – Page 2 – Mind Hacks

A belief in flexible intelligence

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent piece about psychologist Carol Dweck’s work which has highlighted how what you believe about intelligence has an effect on how you perform.

Dwecks’ work has garnered a great deal of attention and her main findings have suggested that children praised for their ‘hard work’ do significantly better when challenged with difficult problem that those who are told that they are ‘intelligent’.

The Chronicle article is a fantastic update to some of the more congratulatory pieces that have appeared in the press as it covers some of the work from other research groups that didn’t find the effect or has only found it under limited circumstances.

The studies wondered whether students’ beliefs about intelligence (“entity” [fixed] versus “incremental,” [flexible] in Dweck’s terms) would affect how long they practiced before taking the test, whether they chose to listen to distracting music while practicing, and how they would explain their low scores after taking the test.

The answer turned out to be: It depends. The Michigan studies divided the incremental theorists (that is, the students who implicitly believed that intelligence is malleable) into two groups: Those whose sense of self-worth was tied to academic performance and those who didn’t care so much about school. The latter group‚Äîthose whose egos were not deeply invested in schoolwork‚Äîbehaved as Dweck would have predicted. But among students whose self-worth was tied to academic performance, incremental theorists behaved similarly to students with “fixed” beliefs about intelligence. They avoided practicing, and they “self-handicapped.”

Link to Chronicle piece on Dwecks’ work.

Disappearing trick

Koro is the unfounded fear that the genitals are retracting into the body or have disappeared. It is usually classified by Western psychiatry as a ‘culture bound syndrome‘ as it typically appears Asian or African cultures in various forms but an article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine notes that it has shown up in most cultures at one time or another.

Koro–the psychological disappearance of the penis.

Mattelaer JJ, Jilek W.

J Sex Med. 2007 Sep;4(5):1509-15.

The aim of this article is to present a summarizing overview on ethnomedical aspects of koro (in Chinese called suo-yang), the panic anxiety state in which affected males believe that the penis is shrinking and/or retracting, and perhaps disappearing. While reduction of penile volume occurs physiologically due to vasoconstriction in cold temperature and intense anxiety, it is believed in certain cultures that genital shrinking leads to impotence and sterility, and eventually to death. Traditional Chinese medicine treats suo-yang, the reduction of the male principle yang, as a dangerous disturbance of the life-sustaining yin-yang equilibrium of the organism. Koro has therefore been held to be a Chinese “culture-bound” condition. However , the koro phenomenon is also known among diverse ethnic and religious groups in Asia and Africa, typically in cultures in which reproductive ability is a major determinant of a young person’s worth. Koro epidemics of panic anxiety due to widespread fears of losing one’s genitals, procreative ability, and even one’s life, are triggered by rumors of genital disappearance supposedly caused in China by female fox spirits, in Singapore and Thailand by mass poisoning, and in Africa by sorcery, usually in the context of socioeconomic or political tension. Today, in contemporary Western societies, ideas of genital disappearance are not culturally endorsed. But historically, it should be remembered that in the late Middle Ages in Europe, a man could lose his membrum virile through magical attacks by witches. The conclusion is that the psychological disappearance of the penis is a universal syndrome that was described recently in Asia and Africa and already in Medieval Europe.

Link to PubMed entry for article.
Link to Wikipedia page on the ‘koro’ belief.

2010-05-21 Spike activity

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

BBC Radio 4’s excellent In Our Time had a discussion on William James’ landmark book ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’

The Neurocritic examines a curious study on the cognitive science of gaydar.

The brilliant behavioural economist Dan Ariely writes for Wired UK on habits and behavioural inertia in consumer decision-making.

Neuroskeptic has an insightful post that gets beyond the dopamine = ‘instant reward liquid’ stereotype that plagues popular neuroscience.

ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind recently had an excellent edition on HIV, dementia and the brain.

The BPS Research Digest comes out as a born-again introspector. Can I get an amen? You tell me brother.

The late great Richard Gregory gets a fitting send off with an obituary in The Times. A chap with a remarkably varied life.

Addiction Inbox has another one of its consistently excellent posts, this time on Al Hubbard “a former intelligence agent, rogue businessman, and general intellectual gadfly” who was one of the initiators of LSD therapy.

There is a jaw dropping and worrying report on BBC News about the growing epidemic of opium addiction in Afghanistan, with audio slideshow.

The Seminal blog seems to catch the American Psychological Association deleting and editing web pages that linked it to CIA torture workshops. Repression? Surely not.

Fashion students must compete with psychology students for retail jobs, reports New York Magazine bleakly. Sounds shit but it’ll probably be a reality show on cable some time soon.

BoingBoing has a visual study guide to cognitive biases.

Toddlers who lie ‘will do better’ demands BBC News. Or, at least, I think that’s what they’re doing. It could be something about early development of theory of mind.

Advances in the History of Psychology has found some archive films from the seminal development psychologist Kurt Lewin.

Caregivers for people with dementia more likely to also get the disease, reports Wired Science. Mechanism unknown.

New Scientist reports on an intriguing but somewhat overenthusiastic research report suggesting that ball lightning may be a hallucination.

The New York Times starts a philosophy section. Shit already hitting the conceptual fan.

Forensic psychology blog In the News covers an interesting angle on the story of anti-gay expert George Rekers being caught with a rent boy – he’s been an expert witness in countless court cases on homosexuality and the revelation may affect the weight of his expert testimony in past cases.

CBS News reports on a study finding that unattractive defendants 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones and also get sentenced to an average of 22 months longer in prison.

The four stages of fear present themselves during an attack by a mountain lion! A great piece for Discover Magazine forms part of the brain special issue of the magazine.

Psicolog√≠a Latina is a new journal in English and Spanish on on the history of psychology in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

There’s an icky but interesting account of treating President Lincoln’s fatal head wound over at Galen Press.

From madhouse to medication

I just watched a thought-provoking BBC documentary called Mental: A History of the Madhouse which follows the history of British psychiatric treatment in the 20th century from the monolithic mental hospitals inherited from the 1800s to the development of ‘care in the community’ at the end of the century.

If you’re based in the UK you can watch it on the BBC’s streaming service but I also notice that it has appeared on various public torrent servers. *cough*

It’s definitely a dissenters look at history as the professional commentators, such as psychiatrist Joanne Moncrieff and psychologist Rachel Perkins, hail from the most critical end of mental health.

It’s probably true to say that 20th century psychiatry was not exactly a litany of success stories, although it would have been useful to hear some of the more positive angles as well.

However, I was interested to hear that one of the major figures in the removal of the old mental hospitals was conservative politician Enoch Powell who secured his place in history with his rabidly anti-immigration 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech (synopsis: ‘we fought the war and now there are darkies everywhere!’).

Years earlier, however, he gave a speech that cemented his determination to dismantle the old hospital system and he didn’t mince words.

They imply nothing less than the elimination of by far the greater part of this country’s mental hospitals as they exist today. This is a colossal undertaking, not so much in the new physical provision which it involves, as in the sheer inertia of mind and matter which it requires to be overcome. There they stand, isolated, majestic, imperious, brooded over by the gigantic water-tower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable and daunting out of the countryside – the asylums which our forefathers built with such immense solidity to express the notions of their day. Do not for a moment underestimate their powers of resistance to our assault. Let me describe some of the defences which we have to storm…

The speech reads very strangely today as it was clearly the beginning of huge reforms while openly talking about ‘sub-normals’.

The documentary is well worth checking out. It largely focuses on the story of one hospital, High Royds, in West Yorkshire.

Interestingly, the hospital has had two rock tributes to it. The Kaiser Chief’s song ‘Highroyds’ and Kasabian’s album named ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’, riffing on its original name.

Link to info about the documentary.

Rough terrain for social scientists in Aghan war

An anonymous ex-member of the Human Terrain System, the team of social scientists deployed with the US Military, is now writing on the Wired Danger Room blog about role of the service in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first article notes how in several recent operations the HTS has been notable by its absence.

As we’ve discussed before, the HTS project has been a source of some considerable controversy with fellow social scientists denouncing the project as ‘weaponised anthropology’ that violates the ‘do no harm’ principle.

The military intend the service to help understand the local population and complex alliances that define the social landscape in which they’re fighting but the Wired piece suggests that the Human Terrain System is being sidelined, either due to ignorance of its purpose or dislike of its approach amid the ranks.

How do you properly vet the insurgents you‚Äôre trying to ‚Äúwin over‚Äù to your side? Is simply promising not to attack your forces enough, or should you press for a formal integration with the government? At what point do a militant‚Äôs activities make him irredeemable?

Those are just some of the difficult choices facing U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan ‚Äì questions explored in a fine, fine dispatch by the Washington Post‚Äôs Greg Jaffe. In it, he tells the tale of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Brown, who led a group of soldiers during last year‚Äôs insurgent assault on Camp Keating, in Kamdesh district of Nuristan province. After the attack, Lt. Col. Brown faced a difficult choice: whether or not to align himself with a local warlord and militant, Mullah Sadiq, who promised to repel future Taliban attacks.

It seems like the sorts of question were designed to be answered by the Human Terrain System. HTS is the famously controversial U.S. Army program to embed various types of social scientists with Brigade Combat Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ostensibly, these Human Terrain Teams should be out, canvassing the local population to gauge their interests, feelings, and preferences. The local HTT is conspicuously absent from Jaffe‚Äôs account of the events following the Kamdesh attack…

In theory, the HTTs would able to offer advice and informed analysis to the various commanders making decisions about how to relate to these communities. Often, the commanders don‚Äôt even know enough to ask, and in at least a few cases, the HTTs don‚Äôt know how to ‚Äúpitch‚Äù their services. As events in Nuristan indicate, even if there is an HTT in the area, their advice could fall on deaf ears. Worse still: if they are deliberately or even unintentionally excluded from the very process they were deployed to influence‚Äîthen HTS as a whole is facing a much more serious problem: just what, exactly, are they expected to do?

The Danger Room series from the pseudonymous writer of piece, named ‘Security Crank’, should be an interesting insight into the project although the byline mentions that he or she is currently working in the ‘national security establishment’ so we can probably expect that criticism will only go so far.

Link to Wired Danger Room on HTA in Afghanistan.

The eyes are a window on the dream world

During REM sleep, where most dreaming takes place, your eyes move around but it’s never been clear exactly why. A new study just published online by neuroscience journal Brain suggests that they are looking at the ever-changing dream world.

The first question you might ask is how the researchers knew what the dreamers were looking at. To study this, the project recruited people with a condition called REM sleep behaviour disorder who lack the normal sleep paralysis that keeps us still when we dream.

In other words, people with REM sleep behaviour disorder act out their dreams. We’ve discussed the fascinating condition before as it gives an outside view to the inner dream life of the affected person.

In this case, the researchers, led by neuroscientist Laur√®ne Leclair-Visonneau, used electrodes to monitor the eye-muscle movements of 56 patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder and 17 healthy controls in a sleep lab, while also videoing their night-time movements.

The research team initially looked to see if there was a major difference in rapid eye movements between people with the condition and those without. They found that the groups were statistically indistinguishable – meaning that the sleep disorder wasn’t likely to be affecting the eye-movements themselves.

Knowing that REM eye-movements were not abnormal in people who acted out their dreams, the team then looked at the video and picked out where patients completed a ‘goal directed action’ while dreaming – such as picking up a dream object or reaching out to touch something.

By synchronising the videoed actions with the eye muscle recordings during REM sleep the researchers found that the eyes were fixed on the dream target 90% of the time.

In other words, when the eyes move during REM sleep they are looking at something in the dream world.

The eyes seem genuinely to be a bridge between the land of dream consciousness and waking life.

Link to PubMed entry for REM and dreaming study.

The rehabilitation of Phineas Gage

Medical journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation has a fascinating article on Phineas Gage’s years after his dramatic injury, updating previous accounts and suggesting he made a remarkable recovery after his initial change in character.

The piece is co-authored by Malcolm Macmillan, author of the definitive Gage book An Odd Kind of Fame and can contains many important updates and corrections on the story since the biography was released.

Unfortunately, the article is locked behind a $30 paywall (harsh, bit it keeps the plebs out) which is a pity as it carefully dsicusses Gage’s post-injury life and notes that while he seemed to have a marked change in character and behaviour shortly after the tamping iron was blown through his frontal lobes, in the long-term, he seemed to recover very well.

Reviewing Phineas’ post-accident history we note:

1. He resumes work on the family farm within four months of the accident, and seeks his old job as foreman within another four.

2. He adapts within two or three years to the vocation of ‚Äúexhibiting‚Äù, possibly managing his appearances, advertising, and travel independently, and probably re-learning lost social skills.

3. He works for Currier during 1851-1852, where he possibly learns stagecoach driving and builds on his social re-learning.

4. He is settled and reliable enough in his behaviour for an employer to take him to Chile as a coach driver.

5. He works in Chile for 7 years in a highly structured occupation (possibly for just one employer) where he adapts to the language and customs, and uses the complex psychological and cognitive-motor skills required by his job.

6. Eventually his mental faculties are such that a doctor who had known him well sees ‚Äúno impairment whatever‚Äù in them.

7. He is ‚Äúanxious to work‚Äù after recovering from illness in San Francisco, and finds farm employment.

8. He continues to work even after his first seizure. Only now does he become unsettled and dissatisfied with a succession of employers.

We see in all of this how consistently Phineas sought to readapt.

On this summary, Phineas Gage made a surprisingly good psycho-social adaptation: he worked and supported himself throughout his post-accident life; his work as a stage-coach driver was in a highly structured environment in which clear sequences of tasks were required of him; within that environment contingencies requiring foresight and planning arose daily; and medical evidence points to his being mentally unimpaired not later than the last years of his life. Although that Phineas may not have been the Gage he once had been, he seems to have come much closer to being so than is commonly believed.

By the way, did you know a second photo of Gage has been uncovered. You can see it above. Apparently after the publicity surrounding the first the Gage family of Texas found this one in their family collection.

UPDATE: Thanks to Avicenna for noting that the full text of the article is available online here.

Link to PubMed entry for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation article.
Link to awesome Wikipedia article on Gage.

Neurology daze

The latest Neuropod podcast tackles deep brain stimulation, blast injuries in soldiers, fibre-tracking brain scans and a group of hungover neurologists on an early morning run, in coverage from the recent American Academy of Neurology conference. In fact, it’s one of the best Nature Neuroscience podcasts I’ve heard in ages.

There’s also a fascinating bit about the history of phrenology by neurologist Daniel Schneider. Phrenology was the curious 19th practice of ‘reading bumps’ on the head to divine someone’s character based on the flawed idea that differences in brain structure would affect skull growth.

Schneider has searched medical and non-medical publications of the time and found, contrary to the belief that the practice was simply a fashion among the public, that the medical profession was more approving of the idea than the general populace.

As the practice was started by medical men it seemed respectable and gave a tool to help explain some scientific questions of the time, even if it didn’t live up to its promises.

As an aside, I note from the scientific programme of the meeting that neuropsychologist Brenda Milner was presenting some of her latest work on the recently departed amnesic patient HM.

It was pointed out to me that Milner is 92. Respect to that.

Link to Neuropod homepage.
mp3 of this podcast.

Richard Gregory has left the building

The legendary perception researcher Richard Gregory has passed away and science is certainly the worse off for his departure.

As a student he worked with the great Frederic Bartlett and later became one of the most influential researchers in perception. He was key in demonstrating that expectations and prior experience have a ‘top down’ influence and that perceptions are often just best guesses or hypotheses about the world.

His liberal use of visual illusions demonstrated this in an instantly graspable way, making his explanations clear and immediate, and he was the first to study the perceptual effects of having lifelong cataracts removed.

Previously it was thought that perception was largely ‘all there’ during early childhood, but the fact that people who had the operation as adults couldn’t distinguish objects from each other, for example, suggested that the developing visual system learns many assumptions essential to making sense of the world.

His book Eye and Brain has probably been read by virtually every undergraduate over the last 30 years and he co-founded the Experimental Psychology Society in the UK to promote psychological science at the highest level.

There is a fantastic interview series from The Wellcome Trust where he discusses the history of perception psychology which you can watch in full on YouTube if you want to get a handle on the breadth of his knowledge.

Gregory was also a keen promoter of science education and founded The Exploratory, the first ‘hands on’ science museum in the UK, where children and adults could get their hands dirty and see scientific principles in action.

It’s also worth saying that he was a very approachable and gentlemanly character. A previous Mind Hacks post, on the fact that he was in discussion with film director Roman Polanksi to make a 3D horror movie earlier in his career was prompted by Gregory himself after I had the pleasure of chatting to him at a science event and he mentioned the curious incident.

From what I can make out, his first publication listed on PubMed is from 1957 and his last is from 2010 – appropriately titled ‘Is it more fun to be an artist or a scientist?’.

Link to obituary for Richard Gregory from UCL.
Link to Gregory interview on the history of perception science.

Brain scan lie detection knocks on the court doors

Wired Science interviews a professional observer in the most important legal hearing for the use fMRI brain scan ‘lie detection’ technology yet to come to court.

The observer was Owen Jones, a professor of law and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, and the hearing was over the scientific status of ‘lie detection’ scans done by commercial company Cephos and are been touted by the defence in a case of someone accused of defrauding medical insurance in the US.

The debate is over whether the technology reaches the Daubert standard, criteria for whether scientific testimony or a specific technology is considered reliable enough to be admissible as evidence.

The case is interesting in light of the discussion we covered about the variety of possible legal uses of fMRI, as the lawyers wanting the evidence admitted are not wanting to use it as a straight-forward truth test about something that did or did not happen in the external world.

But rather, whether the accused is telling the truth about their earlier intentions. In other words, it’s a question of their honesty about an earlier mental state.

Wired.com: Is there anything special about the way the defense is trying to use fMRI in this case?

Jones: One of the things about this case that has gone undernoticed is that even though fMRI lie detection has not yet been admitted, the purposes for which people are seeking to admit it are already rapidly evolving. In this case, the defense is not attempting to introduce fMRI lie detection for purposes of verifying what was at some past time an external state of the world as, for example, when a hypothetical defendant says he was in his house at the time of the alleged murder. That would be a natural context to use lie detection. You‚Äôd ask, ‚ÄúWere you home? Are you lying?‚Äù

In this case, the defense is taking it to the meta-level. They are using a scan as evidence of a person‚Äôs prior state of mind. What‚Äôs at issue is whether the defendant knowingly and willfully did what he did. The defense is therefore attempting to offer fMRI to demonstrate his past state of mind. The report actually says, ‚ÄúDoctor Semrau‚Äôs brain indicates he is telling the truth in regards to not cheating or defrauding the government.‚Äù It means that we‚Äôre introducing evidence of the brain‚Äôs current assessment of the brain‚Äôs former mental state. That‚Äôs one of the things that makes it tricky. He‚Äôs trying to have his brain testify as to the prior state of his brain.

For fMRI to have already reached that level of complexity in the first case in which there has been a Daubert hearing gives some indication of how much more future litigation there is likely to be in this arena.

Although it seems a great deal of scientific evidence was presented by both sides, as far as I can make out, the type of ‘lie detection’ scanning done in this case deviates so far from the standard (and still not very reliable) lab procedure that the main thrust of the argument to have the scans admitted seems to be ‘oh, go on!’

Link to Wired Science on ‚ÄòWatershed‚Äô Legal Hearing (via @edyong209)

Ancient Egyptian neuroscience

The Edwin Smith papyrus is one of the oldest medical texts in the world and is an Ancient Egyptian treatise on surgery, particularly after head injuries. In contains perhaps the first ever recognition that a part of the brain can be linked to a specific function as it describes how someone can be left ‘speechless’ after a penetrating wound to their temple.

The Egyptian tourist board has put the full translation of the document online. It seems to be taken directly from the 1920s translation of James Breasted so the language is a little arcane but case twenty is the one we’re most interested in:

Case Twenty: Instructions concerning a wound in his temple, penetrating to the bone, (and) perforating his temporal bone.

Examination: If thou examinest a man having a wound in his temple, penetrating to the bone, (and) perforating his temporal bone, while his two eyes are blood shot, he discharges blood from both his nostrils, and a little drops; if thou puttest thy fingers on the mouth of that wound (and) he shudder exceedingly; if thou ask of him concerning his malady and he speak not to thee; while copious tears fall from both his eyes, so that he thrusts his hand often to his face that he may wipe both his eyes with the back of his hand as a child does, and knows not that he does so…

Diagnosis: Thou shouldst say concerning him: “One having a wound in his temple, penetrating to the bone, (and) perforating his temporal bone; while he discharges blood from both his nostrils, he suffers with stiffness in his neck, (and) he is speechless. An ailment not to be treated.”

Treatment: Now when thou findest that man speechless, his [relief] shall be sitting; soften his head with grease, (and) pour [milk] into both his ears.

I’m not sure if I’d be too pleased to wake up after a serious brain injury to find someone pouring milk in my ears, but then again, I’m not an Ancient Egyptian.

However, the case seems to be a clear case of a type of speech impairment, aphasia, caused by damage to the temporal lobe.

If you’re interested in some background on the discovery and significance of the papyrus, one of the most important in the history of medicine, there’s an excellent article from a previous incarnation of Neurophilosophy that you shouldn’t miss.

Link to Wikipedia on the Edwin Smith papyrus.
Link to complete translation.
Link to Neurophilosophy on the papyrus.

The difficulty of profiling killers

The Guardian has a compelling yet disturbing article on criminal profilers and how the practice is attempting to recover from the early days of profiler ‘experts’ who based their predictions on little more than guesswork, sometimes with disastrous results.

It’s written by journalist Jon Ronson who takes an incisive look into the history of criminal profiling in the UK and the impact of the Rachel Nickell case where a profiler wrongly implicated a man who spent 14 months in custody while the actual murderer went on to kill a mother and her daughter.

The practice has become considerably more scientific and considerably less dramatic as a result. The piece is essential reading if you’re interested in the psychology of profiling and a revealing look into the mistakes of the Nickell case.

Link to Guardian article on criminal profiling (via @researchdigest)

2010-05-14 Spike activity

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

The Pentagon jumps on the brain implants for everything bandwagon but suggesting they could be a treatment for trauma, according to a piece in Wired. Shorter tours of duty like other coalition forces apparently not an option.

The Neurocritic has CASES OF INJURY OF THE HEAD, ACCOMPANIED BY LOSS OF BRAIN (oozing from the skull). Dig those old skool neurology cases.

Some of the best visual illusions are rounded in a gallery by Scientific American.

Overcoming Bias has a fantastic follow-up to our post on the ‘unskilled and unaware of it’ effect on subsequent studies that show the effect’s limitations and ways of manipulating it.

The psychological aftershocks of the Haiti earthquakes are covered in a powerful piece from the LA Times.

Science News on a study finding how bereaved relatives are helped by chance to view body after sudden loss, even in cases of violent death.

Independent walking robots made of DNA at Not Exactly Rocket Science. Yeah you heard, Mr ‘I Think You’ve Seen Terminator One Too Many Times’. Bunkers, now!

The Telegraph covers a case of a woman unable to recognise people by their voice.

Doctors are desensitised to other people’s pain, says a study covered by the BPS Digest. Can’t wait for the follow-up on dentists.

The New York Times discusses the science of a happy marriage. Doesn’t mention the difficult to achieve ability of noticing new female haircuts without prompting.

Near misses fuel gambling addiction according to a new study covered by Neurophilosophy.

There’s a video of the Best Illusion of the Year over at Scientific American. Clearly came out after the UK coalition government formed.

Faculty of 1000 discuss a paper finding that MRI affects brain activity. Let the weeping commence.

Want a career in social neuroscience? The Science careers blog has a post especially for you.

The Guardian reports that BBC4 are to screen a documentary following patients as they are sectioned (‘committed’) to psychiatric hospital. Wow.

There’s an interesting discussion on the philosophy of illness and our relationship to our bodies over at ABC Radio National’s Philosopher’s Zone.

Wired covers a recently released document giving some new information on the origins of the CIA’s MKULTRA ‘mind control’ project.

So, like what’s happened to Furious Seasons?

BBC Radio 4 has a great series on lie-detection and lie-detectors.

Men, teaching may be bad for your marriage, at least according to a study covered by NCBI ROFL. Being surrounded by beautiful women apparently.

The Wall Street Journal discusses Carl Jung’s mysterious ‘Red Book’ and an exhibition currently based on the tome. Article has awesome first paragraph.

Olivia Judson discusses if its possible to enhance the placebo effect at The New York Times.

Scientific American Mind’s Twitter feed has just become awesome.

Married neuroscience tag team Chris and Uta Frith discuss their life and work on BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves.

The Guardian has a piece on how mental illness is a low development priority despite it being a major cause of disability in the developing world.

A study raises questions about the role of brain scans in courtrooms and is ably covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Built for sin

There’s a fascinating short article in The New York Times about physical attributes and the chance of ending up becoming a criminal or ending up in the clink.

Linking physical traits to criminality may sound like a throwback to the biological determinism advocated by 19th-century social Darwinists who believed that there was a genetic predisposition for wrongdoing. Practitioners are quick to distance themselves from such ideas.

Mr. Price, for example, argues that crime can be viewed, at least partly, as an ‚Äúalternative labor market.‚Äù If individuals with certain physical attributes are disadvantaged in the labor force, they may find crime more attractive, he said…

A link between a physical attribute and salary, or crime, does not necessarily mean cause and effect. Mr. Mocan pointed out that we do not know why someone who is overweight, unattractive or short is at a disadvantage in the labor market or more likely to commit a crime. It could be employer discrimination, customer preference or that the physical attribute may make the worker less productive. If a job involves carrying heavy loads, for instance, brawn would be an advantage.

That is what both Howard Bodenhorn, an economist at Clemson University, and Mr. Price concluded from 19th-century prison records. In that era increased body weight was associated with a lower risk of crime. In the 21st century, though, in which service jobs are much more common, Mr. Price found that being overweight was linked to a higher risk of crime.

The whole article is worth reading in full as it has lots of great snippets about how attractiveness is related to criminal activity and why Americans are getting shorter.

Link to NYT on ‘For Crime, Is Anatomy Destiny?’ (via @crime_economist)

Pereira morning

I’m in the beautifully green city of Pereira as I’ve been kindly asked to speak at the National Psychiatry Residents Conference here in Colombia.

I shall try and at least make sure Spike activity appears but otherwise the next few days might be a bit quiet, not least as I admire the spectacular surroundings and enjoy the conference.

Square eyes are a window to the soul

A video streaming site called Documentary Heaven has, among other things, a stack load of high quality psychology documentaries for your viewing pleasure.

There drawn from TV so they’re a bit of a mixed bunch from the lamentable BBC series ‘The Human Mind’, to the excellent biography of mathematician and subject of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ John Nash and the simply sublime programme ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ on Friedrich Nietzsche.

The definition of psychology is a little bit wide, but there’s plenty of good material to check out. In addition, I’d recommend the remarkable ‘Dr Money and the Boy with No Penis’, the level-headed documentary ‘Psychopath’, an informative BBC programme entitled ‘How Does Your Memory Work?’ and a good piece on synaesthesia called ‘Derek Tastes of Earwax’.

Not all of the links work and some are clearly drivel (‘The Secret’? Mercy no) but there are some gems there and hopefully a few starters above. Don’t miss the ‘Older Entries’ link at the bottom of the page for more.

Link to Documentary Heaven psychology collection.