2010-06-18 Spike activity

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

Forensic psychology blog In the News hits the nail on the head with a final round-up of the psychopath research fight that recently came to light. Props to the blog for breaking the story.

Science News reports on a study that shows how our psychological associations with north and south (‘up’ and ‘down’) affect travel behaviour.

There’s an excellent analysis of the discovery of yet more autism risk genes over at Neuroskeptic.

The New York Times has an obituary for neurologist Fred Plum whose work helped advance our understanding of consciousness and the ‘persistent vegetative state’.

A study finding that obesity is linked to brain shrinkage and dementia is covered by a great post from Neurophilosophy.

New Scientist reports on research finding that people can accurately judge a male’s upper body strength just from listening to the sound of their voice.

There’s an excellent piece on how we can know whether colours look the same to everyone and have the same ‘colour qualia‘ over at Nature, Brain, and Culture.

Seed Magazine has an excellent piece on the links between suicidal thoughts, intelligence and antidepressants.

The results of the US Government’s annual state-by-state survey of drug use in America have just been released and Addiction Inbox has the low-down.

TechCrunch reports that Chatroulette is to develop a penis recognition algorithm. To help the smaller gentleman join in the fun I presume.

Hot avatars get all the breaks: even virtual attractiveness changes how people treat you, according to a new virtual world study cover by Neoacademic.

The New York Daily News reports that extroverted men and neurotic women are the most fertile combination. There’s a dating website business opportunity in there somewhere.

There’s a good analysis of the latest internet damages the brain, does so, does not, debate over at Neuron Culture.

Cerebrum, the online neuroscience from the Dana Foundation, has a great piece on the medical and ethical challenges in diagnosing and treating the minimally conscious state.

Our mental models of our hands are short and fat according to a fantastic study that asked people to blindly judge the architecture of their hands. Great write up from Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Colonial Psychiatry is an excellent blog about the history of colonial psychiatry in the British Empire. That, ladies and gentlemen, is why the internet is awesome.

“One day, neuroscientists may be able to describe the damage we do to our brains when we lie to ourselves and to others”. New Scientist has a completely baffling article by psychologist Dorothy Rowe.

Neuroskeptic has a list of new neuroblogs you may not know about.

South Korean man posts suicide note on Twitter, reports The Telegraph.

Discover Magazine has a piece on epigenetics, neuroscience and mental illness.

Lucky number plates go up in value when times are bad, reports the BPS Research Digest. Coincidentally, my lucky pants (Americans: smalls) go up in value when times are bad as well.

Time covers a new analysis finding that evidence from studies on whether lifestyle factors alter your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease are too inconsistent to draw firm conclusions.

Pro basketball player Ron Artest thanks his psychiatrist after the LA Lakers win the NBA Championship.

Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law has an open-access article on the language of revenge in two ‘pseudocommando‘ mass murderers.

Approval for Flibanserin, the experimental and not very good female sex drug (0.7 more ‘satisfying sexual events’ per month!) is rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration, reports The New York Times.

Newsweek has a piece on the folly of blaming bad behaviour on wonky DNA.

Does frequent sex help a marriage? “whilst much research has been done on marital sexual relations, very little has been conducted on the effects of the frequency of sex on marriage itself” Interesting study covered by Paracademia.