Category: Linkage

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

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The single best article you’ll read on technology and the brain for a while is published in The Times. 300 words of sense.

The Sydney Morning Herald covers an inattentional blindness study in mobile phone users and asks ‘Did you see that unicycling clown?’ I’m more interested to know whether the unicycling clown saw the psychologist following him around all day.

Apart from the fact that she seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that the right temporal parietal junction is not used for anything else (it is) there’s an excellent TED talk by Rebecca Saxe on ‘theory of mind‘ and the neuroscience of inferring others’ mental states.

Neurophilosophy covers on how electrodes planted into the open brain of an awake patient reveals the neural dynamics of speech. Accompanied by an equally as awesome image.

The anthropology song is featured on Neuroanthropology.

The Neurocritic finds an intriguing film about a professor who believes she has found a way of determining scientifically whether someone is in love.

Philosopher Stephen Stich gives four lectures on ‘Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science’ which are collected at 3 Quarks Daily.

Dr Petra has been upgraded!

Another good TED talk, this time by Beau Lotto on what optical illusions tell us about perception.

Science News on research that a gene involved in vocal cord development may be a factor in a inherited speech disorder.

There’s a brief Q&A on the science of persuasion over at Nature.

The BPS Research Digest covers some heart-warming research on how a heated room makes people feel socially closer.

You can read a free taster issue of November’s The Psychologist here. Enjoy!

Scientific American’s Mind Matters blog has a great piece on making errors and learning.

Another good Neurophilosophy post, on how immediate goal kicking performance in American ‘foot’ ‘ball’ affects the perception of how big the goal seems.

Science News reports that ‘People can control their Halle Berry neurons‘. Neurons? I have enough trouble trying to control my Halle Berry thoughts. Don’t think of Catwoman. Damn.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is an American nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with severe mental illnesses that happens to receive 75% of its funding from Big Pharma, according to The New York Times.

Cognitive Daily asks What does it take to get kids to eat healthy foods? Personally, I bribe them with cans of Red Bull.

There’s on excellent piece on how antidepressant sales are rising despite depression diagnoses falling in the UK over at Neuroskeptic. Apparently, longer-term treatment is now the norm.

FAILBlog has a hilarious duck phobia fail.

To the bunkers! H+ Magazine reports on robots controlled by human brain cells. Let’s hope they’re not the Halle Berry neurons.

Slashdot commentor kindly lists all the Doctor Who references to robots controlled by organic brains.

I found this great article on drug counterfeiting from a 1961 edition of Popular Mechanics.

BoingBoing has an interesting snippet on a new NIH study which will deploy robo-calling for boozers and stoners. Press 1 if you’re taking a bong hit?

Happy belated Fechner Day.

Language Log asks ‘Is irony universal?’. Rather ironically, asked by Americans. Also some interesting observations in the comments from Danny O’Brien.

Insecurity + power = boss rage, according to a new study covered by Neuronarrative.

The New York Times has a piece by David Brooks who marvels at how “damned young, hip and attractive” neuroscientists are. I would just like to disavow this dreadful stereotyping and point out that, like myself, many competent neuroscientists look pretty rough and find being deeply unfashionable quite groovy (by still using words like ‘groovy’ for example).

The 77th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just appeared online, this time ably hosted by Sharp Brains.

This edition is rather special as it’s a crossing of the streams with the medical carnival Grand Rounds.

A couple of my favourites include Brain Blogger on whether religion can be understood as a natural phenomenon and Advances in the History of Psychology on some of the early experimental work on emotion.

There’s many more links to great writing in the blogosphere so do head over and have a look.

Link to Encephalon 77.

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

<img align="left" src="http://mindhacks-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/2005/01/spike.jpg&quot; width="102" height="120"

Slate has a brilliant article on the links between face structure and aggression and whether we can see criminality in the face. Contains the wonderful euphemism ‘muscular unreasonableness’.

Video games are good for the brain, according to an article from The Boston Globe that reviews evidence for the cognitive benefits of computer games.

The BPS Research Digest has an awesome review of the state of brain scan ‘lie detection‘ research. Punchline: scientifically interesting, practically useless still.

There’s a brilliant article on doing cognitive neuroscience experiments with patients during neurosurgery in this week’s Nature. Stupidly locked behind a paywall but has been touched by the irony fairy and given the rubbing-salt-in-the-wounds title ‘Opening up brain surgery’.

PsyBlog has as excellent piece on ‘how rewards can backfire and reduce motivation’.

The tragedy of the commons is really a farce, according to an excellent piece from The New York Times TiernyLab blog that tackles the myth behind the phrase and the latest economics nobel.

Not Exactly Rocket Science covers new research on how the placebo effect affects pain signalling in the spine.

The sound of something getting closer increases the sensitivity of the visual cortex ‚Äì before you’re even conscious of hearing it, according to new research covered by New Scientist.

Neurotopia is live blogging the annual Society of Neuroscience gathering of the tribes and has a list of other bloggers covering the proceedings.

An experiment on the neurobiology of fizz, is covered by a carbonated Science News.

Time magazine has a piece on the debates over whether dementia should be considered a terminal illness and new evidence that challenges the traditional view that the brain decline itself isn’t fatal.

There’s an great piece on placebo side-effects on the increasingly excellent Neuroskeptic.

The New York Times travels into the science of the ear and hearing.

Is Alzheimer’s like a strange form of brain cancer? asks Disover Magazine.

APS Observer has an interesting piece on an antique piece on psychology equipment called the ‘memory drum‘.

New research on Galileo’s work in the science of perception is covered by the wonderful Advances in the History of Psychology.

The Times has a breathless piece on the dawn of ‘brain to brain communication’ which includes “sending messages formed by one person‚Äôs brain signals though an internet connection to another person‚Äôs brain many miles away”. RFC1149 is that you?

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

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Cutting-edge technology has renewed the search for a better lie detector. Some show promise, but they have yet to be tested in court. Excellent piece from law publication ABA Journal.

Newsweek has some remarkable brain images with the low-down on what they mean.

Monitoring your pulse during a gambling task can lead to better decisions, according to a study covered by Frontal Cortex.

Prospect Magazine ponders the relevance of neuroscience discoveries to left and right wing political assumptions about human nature.

Is it possible to visualise sensory impossibilities? asks The Splintered Mind.

The New York Times has a piece on ‘How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect’ which should be called how reading a short story by Kafka improves implicit learning on a pattern detection task.

The XMRV virus is detected in two thirds of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, according to a great write-up by Not Exactly Rocket Science. Although as chronic fatigue is both a common post-viral symptom and also not tied to any one condition, whether this ‘explains’ chronic fatigue, as some media reports have claimed, is another matter,

Scientific American updates on one of our earlier posts on the development of a ‘cocaine vaccine‘. Let’s hope they never need eye surgery, where cocaine is used medically. Also, great coverage from Neuroskeoptic.

Cut! The Neurocritic reviews the neurocinema hype.

The LA Times has a piece on the difficulties with assessing and treating ‘mild traumatic brain injuries’ on the sports field and battlefield.

There’s a useful summary of talks on the anthropology of psychiatry over at Somatosphere.

The Guardian has a good Chris French piece on the waking nightmare of sleep paralysis.

The placebo effect works for high definition TVs too, according to research covered by New Scientist.

The Independent has a piece on arachnophobia.

fMRI willy waving or next step in neuroimaging technology? Clearly both. Medill Reports covers the University of Illinois at Chicago’s prototype 9.4 Tesla MRI machine.

Nature has an excellent piece on the greatest hits and misses of new genetics technique genome wide association studies, including a discussion of the recent research on schizophrenia.

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

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USA Today has an interesting piece on how social networking sites are becoming research targets in health and psychology.

The oft-replicated finding in relationship research that, on average, women would be most hurt by romantic betrayal and men by sexual betrayal, is covered by Cognitive Daily.

New Scientist discusses a new imaging study that highlights the importance of the hippocampus in conceptual learning.

Love is a like a zoom lens, according to The Guardian. Sex is like a microscope, or an oscilloscope, depending on what you’re in to.

The New York Times has a piece on increased rates of dementia seen in American football players and how the NFL are trying to downplay the data.

Do people really lie three times within 10 minutes of meeting someone new? asks PsyBlog questioning the common statistic.

Time reports on a study finding that social comparisons with thin people who are big eaters can lead people to choose larger food portions.

Gamers are more aggressive to strangers, says New Scientist who clearly haven’t read the study which didn’t measure aggression to anyone.

Time magazine has another good article on how frequency of email contact can be modelled with a remarkable simple mathematical formula.

Religion protects against drug use in dance. Doping in ballroom dancing, who knew? (apart from Jesus)

Furious Seasons covers a new study finding that the majority of psychiatric drugs are prescribed by family doctors.

I wish I could be at the Encultured Brain conference, organised by the chaps from the excellent Neuroanthropology blog.

The Globe and Mail covers research on how women’s attitudes to their genitals is linked to orgasm frequency and health behaviour.

The development of implantable electronic <a href="Burst of Technology Helps Blind to See
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/health/research/27eye.html?em=&pagewanted=all”>retinas is covered by The New York Times.

Both the British and American psychology associations have just launched their respective history of psychology websites.

New Scientist covers an overly melodramatic promo video by charity Autism Speaks and the spoof videos by people with autism.

The limits of a universal view of mental illness are discussed by Frontier Psychiatrist.

Psychiatric Times has concluded a three part series on the science behind fMRI brain scanning experiments.

Can the right kinds of play teach self-control in children? asks The New York Times as it discusses a radically different approach to child behaviour.

BBC News reports on a new study of treatment for drug addicts in the UK and finds treatment programme successes are encouraging.

Anticipating an interaction with an obese person provokes feelings of social power, reports the BPS Research Digest.

The Neurocritic has a neurogasm which looks more like a shampoo bottle than a drink but Paris Hilton is having one so it must be science, right?

The interesting origins of the British Prime Minister on antidepressants so what poppycock is tackled by Neuroskeptic.

The 76th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience carnival has just appeared on the Neuroskeptic blog and is packed full of mind and brain goodness.

A couple of my favourites include an excellent piece from Providentia about the violin prodigy Josef Hassid whose career was cut short by a brain tumour, and another is a great post on AK’s Ramblings about counter-intuitive labels in neuroscience.

A whole lot more mind and brain writing awaits, all bang up-to-date and hot off the press.

Link to Encephalon 76.

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

<img align="left" src="http://mindhacks-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/2005/01/spike.jpg&quot; width="102" height="120"

Is the Internet melting our brains? asks Slate of author Dennis Baron who says no, it’s just another cycle in the human history of technology distrust.

Neurophilosophy discusses recent research on how patients in the coma-like persistent vegetative state can show conditioned learning and that those that day are more likely to show recovery.

Psychoanalyst Susie Orbach discusses the psychology and politics of the body on ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra.

TED Blog has an interesting interview with Oliver Sacks relating to his recent talk on hallucinations.

Thank you Developing Intelligence for being of the few places not to fall for the ‘fMRI of dead fish is an example of a voodoo correlation’ red herring. They’re different effects and the DevIntel post discusses the difference.

Neuroanthropology has an excellent and somewhat philosophical post on mind body duality in the treatment of combat-related PTSD.

Free will is not an illusion after all, much to the surprise of New Scientist who report on new research suggesting an alternative interpretation to Libet’s famous brain activation before conscious intention to move study.

The BPS Research Digest covers research on how your personality type affects the situations you place yourself in. One of many excellent post from the BPSRD this week.

ABC Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor discusses the many illness of dictionary creator Dr Samuel Johnson. You may be interested to know that another major contributor was William Chester Minor who wrote many definitions as a patient in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

PsyBlog has an excellent post on how long it takes to form a habit.

A photograph of your loved one can reduced pain intensity according to a study covered by Neuronarrative.

New Scientist <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17837-gene-for-memory-and-iq-gives-students-low-grades.html
“>covers research on how different alleles of the COMT gene are associated with exam performance. Ignore the ‘gene for x’ nonsense and it’s actually quite an interesting article.

Welcome to the rehab center from the future via a humorous photo gallery from Wired.

Neuroskeptic covers a fascinating case study of a man with a missing limbic system.

Another interesting advance in the still limited field of ‘brain scan mind reading‘ is covered by Wired.

Cognition and Culture has a short piece on how to think, say, or do precisely the worst thing for any occasion.

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on the shocking news that treating your employees well increases their productivity.

When does consciousness emerge? The Splintered Mind has a brilliantly thought-provoking post on the emergence of the conscious mind in individuals and species.

The Neurocritic has a piece on a recent but necessarily speculative paper on the neuroscience of torture and the negative effects on accurate memory recall.

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

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Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on how eye movements can reveal the unconscious detection of changes in a ‘change blindness’ demo that the conscious mind is unaware of.

Illusion Sciences has an an excellent visual illusion that changes direction depending on where you look at it.

The sad case of a 9-year-old girl diagnosed with early onset dementia is covered by The Telegraph.

A new study covered by Science News finds that at least 60% of the population experiences depression, an anxiety disorder or substance dependence by the age of 32 and discusses whether this questions the validity of diagnoses or whether like physical illness, mental illness is actually very common.

The BPS Research Digest has an analysis of Derren Brown’s recent lottery prediction stunt and lambasts him for misinforming people about psychology for the purpose of trickery.

The psychology of gay male sex preferences is discussed in an excellent article by Jesse Bering for Scientific American. At this point I normally compliment Bering for his magnificent column, but I shall refrain on this occasion.

In the same vein (oh stop it) Dr Petra look at a recent study that was widely reported as saying that larger penis size means more orgasms. Needless to say, the devil is in the detail.

Cerebrum, Dana’s excellent online neuroscience magazine, has an interesting piece on how arts training improves attention and cognition.

Some fantastic talks about the placebo effect from the Harvard Placebo Study Group are featured on The Situationist.

Cognitive Daily covers an intriguing study on change deafness.

Uncovered emails from GlaxoSmithKline suggests they were prepared to bury data if it suggested a link between antidepressant drug Paxil and birth defects. Bloomberg on the case.

Seed Magazine has an excellent short article about what visual illusions tell us about the psychology of perception. By one of the writers for Mind Hacks favourite Cognitive Daily.

There’s an article on ‘psychocutaneous disorders’, psychiatric problems affecting the skin, in Psychiatric Times. Some fairly unpleasant photos. Not safe for work, or lunch for that matter.

Not Exactly Rocket Science has a typically excellent piece on how rowing as a group increases pain thresholds. I suspect this effect might be why meetings are so protracted and tortuous.

A study on employee satisfaction finds that promises can be broken but career progression is golden, according to New Scientist.

Neuroanthropology finds an interesting lecture by Antonio Damasio on art and emotion.

The development of brain surgery through the nose is covered by ABC News

The 75th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience carnival has just appeared online, as if by magic, at Ionian Enchantement.

A couple of my favourites include an excellent piece from Cognitive Daily on mood and memory and great coverage by Neuronarrative of research showing fake video evidence can be persuasive, even to the people falsely implicated by it.

There are many cognitive rabbits being pulled out of internet hats, so roll up for more at the link below.

Link to Encephalon 75.

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

<img align="left" src="http://mindhacks-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/2005/01/spike.jpg&quot; width="102" height="120"

Neuroanthropology has some great coverage of a well deserved fail on some dismal attempts to research the slash fiction community. The best bit – the two neuroscientists are written into a erotic slash story as poetic justice.

There’s an overly wordy piece on hypochondria, high culture creativity and the imagination in The Guardian.

BBC News has an audio slideshow from the Cambridge University archaeology and anthropology department on the changing concept of the body taken from a new exhibition.

There’s now a regular <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/09/my_picks_from_researchblogging_1.php
“>round up of psychology and neuroscience posts from ResearchBlogging.org compiled by Cognitive Daily and they’re great.

Psychiatric Times has a review of a new book called ‘Poets on Prozac’.

A study that claims to predict antidepressant response from EEG readings relies on secret unreleased constants in the formulae. Antiscience with your commerce? Neuroskeptic one of the few places to pick up on this.

Time has a piece on a brain damaged patient who seems to have lost her sense of personal space.

Why do women have sex? asks Dr Petra.

Science News covers the new genome wide association studies that have identified two new risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease.

The tracking of mobile phones can lead to insights into our social networks that are equally fascinating and alarming. A new study covered by the excellent BPS Research Digest.

Science News reports on a randomised controlled trial of the effects of playing the computer game Tetris on the brains of adolescent girls shows it leads to grey matter and efficiency increases.

Newsweek has an article on how babies can make judgements based on <a href="See Baby Discriminate
http://www.newsweek.com/id/214989″>skin color.

The interaction between individualism and mental distress are discussed by Frontier Psychiatrist.

Spiegel gets behind the brain-computer interface hype and finds the tech isn’t actually very useful yet. “My original plan was to write this article with nothing but the power of thought” – how cute – “but…” you can guess the rest.

Psychiatry is broken says psychologist Richard Bentall; it’s just a bit rough around the edges says psychiatrist Tom Burns, both in The Guardian.

BBC News reports on a new study by director of National Institute on Drug Abuse’s research group, this time on kids with ADHD, finding (can you guess?) differences in dopamine function in the ‘reward system’.

Artificial intelligence won’t be intelligent if we don’t include motivation according to an opinion piece on Technology Review.

Neuroethics at the Core is an excellent blog with a recent article on the use of TMS to achieve cognitive enhancement.

The director of the Kinsey Institute is called Dr Heiman. That is all.

The Independent has an obituary for family therapy pioneer David Campbell.

A lovely study on the effect of hunger on food liking is covered by Neurotopia.

New Scientist has an opinion piece arguing we should legalise illicit drugs by someone called Clare who doesn’t sound much like a terrorist but you can’t be too sure these days.

A fascinating piece of research on how different types of camera angle alter the believability of children’s testimony is covered by Neuronarrative.

Furious Seasons has a great comedy snippet from the Tonight Show taking the piss out of Pfizer for their $2.3 bazillion fine for being shady / endangering the lives of patients through illegal marketing practices.

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

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The New York Times has an article on ‘speed shrinking‘ – like speed dating but with psychologists. Doesn’t mention whether it includes any drunken snogging in the bar afterwards.

Drug company Pfizer busted with $2.3 billion fine for illegal promotion of psych drugs, kickbacks and the general shadyness that everyone knows is common practice throughout the industry. Furious Seasons is on the case and is also having a fundraiser.

New Scientist has an article on the project to create artificial limbs controlled by implanted brain chips.

Healthy people with an intense desire to have a limb amputated may have differences in the function of brain areas that represent the body, according to research covered by the BPS Research Digest.

The Washington Post has a first person account of someone who experienced transient global amnesia – a dense amnesia that appears suddenly and typically resolves within a few hours.

When it comes to encouraging people to work together for the greater good, carrots work better than sticks, according to a great write-up of new research from Not Exactly Rocket Science. I suspect it is because carrots are tastier.

The Independent reports on the growing problem of mental health problems in British troops returning from combat missions in Afghanistan. Psychiatric casualties have apparently tripled in the last three years.

Artificial intelligence researcher Noel ‘John Connor’ Sharkey says AI is a dangerous dream in an <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327231.100-why-ai-is-a-dangerous-dream.html
“>interview for New Scientist.

Neuron Culture discusses two new military initiatives to counter PTSD in combat troops.

Wired covers a study finding that adolescent girls randomly assigned to three months of Tetris had thicker cortex in the frontal and temporal lobes. Full text of study here.

An elegant study that manipulated participants perception of free will is covered by the excellent Cognitive Daily.

neuro4kids has fan merchandise from the fantastic Neuroscience for Kids website

You are who you eat with. Time covers the social influences on obesity.

PsyBlog has an excellent article on ‘The Acceptance Prophecy: How You Control Who Likes You’. Sounds woolly, actually some fascinating social research.

We covered the news stories about rapper Roxanne Shant√© getting a PhD in psychology in 2007. Seems she’s been frontin’ – Slate investigates the smoke and mirrors.

The Today Programme, Radio 4’s flagship news show, has a good discussion on what recent research on brain differences in psychopaths really tell us.

Counter-intuitive research finding that teens with more mature brains are more likely to take <a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1919663,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
“>risks is discussed by Time magazine.

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

Neuroskeptic reports on a study finding that antidepressant use in the USA has doubled in the last decade. Interestingly, peak use is in 50-64 year-olds.

There’s some organic robot art inspired by Rorschach inkblots over an Seed Magazine.

The New York Times has an excellent piece about the role of guilt in regulating behaviour in children.

The effect of our beliefs and expectations on the taste of <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sensory-superpowers/200908/you-drink-what-you-think
“>wine is explored in the Sensory Superpowers blog.

Science News covers a study on how baby girls more quickly associate fear with snakes and spiders than boys.

There are some interesting talks on culture and neuroscience from the Neurocultures Workshop despite the audio being a bit poor. See left hand side bar for links to video and mp3.

The New York Times has a fascinating article on projects that crawl the web and look for indicators of people’s mood, creating global emotion maps.

A new antipsychotic, named lurasidone, is likely to be hitting the market shortly, according to Furious Seasons. Promises to improve treatment of psychosis, probably won’t.

The Economist covers a study on the role of female testosterone levels in financial risk taking.

Continuing on the testosterone theme, a study covered by New Scientist finds that men with higher levels of the hormone spend less time with their children.

Neuronarrative has a fantastic post on a study finding that during a simulated crime, researchers were able to induce false confessions in nearly everyone using faked video evidence.

Another interesting study into the remarkable self-organising properties of crowds is covered by the ever excellent BPS Research Digest.

Technology Review blog covers an interesting paper arguing that measuring the entropy of reaction times within a psychology experiment may be a better way of inferring cognition.

Neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher recently gave a keynote talk to the Association for Psychological Science and you can read or watch it via The Situationist.

New Scientist covers an absolutely fascinating study that looked at how different types of dementia break down the small world network of the brain’s neural architecture in specific ways.

There’s an interesting review of studies on how written language style earlier in life can predict the chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease when older at Language Log.

Culture Matters has an interesting post about cultural differences in attitudes to sexual aids like Viagra and penis enlargers in the Arab world.

A slightly belated list of quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

Secrets of Hypnosis is a cheap-ass website hawking dodgy-looking hypnosis CDs that has completely ripped off Mind Hacks without attribution.

A four thousand year old violent attack is uncovered through the analysis of a neolithic grave reported in Science News.

The New York Times has an update on the recent episode over the public release of the Rorschach ink blot images on Wikipedia. Quick summary: the poo flinging continues with official complaints.

Neither begging for mercy nor sobbing will prevent a course on ‘NeuroPR‘ from going ahead in London.

The New York Times has a piece on how CBT-style brief training is going to be given to US Army personnel in a bid to prevent trauma. Best of luck with that.

To the bunkers! Wired reports on a group of artificially intelligent robots that evolved deception. No professor, he must have fallen into the incinerator by accident.

The BPS Research Digest covers a fascinating study finding that acquiring a second language affects how people read in their native tongue.

Ghostwriting scandal 1: Drug company Glaxo had a major ghostwriting project to offer authorship to doctors for scientific papers they hadn’t written to promote their leading antidepressant. Furious Seasons is on the case.

Ghostwriting scandal 2: Drug company Wyeth had a major ghostwriting project and PLoS Medicine recently had all their documents unsealed by court order and have put all 1500 online.

PsyBlog has an interesting piece on why brainstorming sessions don’t work very well and how they can be fixed.

The psychology and neuroscience of human navigation is discussed by New Scientist.

The New York Times has a powerful piece on palliative or end-of-life care for dying patients.

Neurofeminism has arrived and Experimental Philosophy has the announcement. Personally, I’m still waiting for neurovegetarianism.

ABC Science has a brief article on how ‘mind-reading’ headsets work that gets the basics right but seems to think “each of your thoughts has a particular signature” – even if we can’t understand it with our most sophisticated lab equipment.

Obama has bipolar disorder announces the White House via satirical news source The Onion.

New Scientist reports on a study that has found that people who are tone deaf have fewer brain connections in an area involved in language and speech.

A wonderful study on whether people lost in indistinct landscapes really walk round in circles is covered by Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Scientific American has a short piece on how language analysis programmes are finding links between our linguistic patterns and our personalities.

Emotions are still universal. Thank you Neuroskeptic for the most balanced coverage of the over-exaggerated ’emotion recognition isn’t universal’ story that hit the headlines this week.

Cognitive Daily has an excellent article on the attention grabbing properties of angry faces.

Brand new $300 a day clinic for ‘internet addiction’ has a Twitter stream. The irony, it burns!

The Neurocritic looks at a couple of studies that seem to have drawn different conclusions from the same findings depending on the context. Religion, students and neurotocism, oh my!

To the bunkers! Wired reports that the UK government is developing an AI system to detect ‘hostile intent‘ in humans.

Edition the 74th of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just hit the net, this time hosted by Neuronarrative with a Monty Python twist.

A couple of my favourites include one from Neurospeculation on a clever clapping test for hemispatial neglect that originated from class of high school students and another from Sharp Brains on preparing society for the cognitive age.

There’s a lot more where that came from, and a couple of Monty Python sketches thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

Link to Encephalon 74.

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

Why do ethicists steal more books than other people? ABC Radio National’s Philosopher’s Zone talks to Eric Schwitzgebel about his brilliant philosophical research project.

The New York Times has an article on delusions of identity after brain injury. Doesn’t say very much except they exist but an interesting topic nonetheless.

Listen to Ben Goldacre doing a fantastic job of countering Susan Greenfield’s scaremongering over internet addiction on ABC Radio National’s The Science Show.

To wit: Susan ‘digital brain damage / attention span armageddon / generation ADHD’ Greenfield take note. Newsweek reports that teen novels are more popular than ever.

Reuters reports on the University of Pennsylvania’s Neuroscience Boot Camp.

Chocolate consumption increases in people Parkinson’s disease, according to research covered by Dr Shock.

BBC News covers researching finding that people with more symmetrical faces are less likely to suffer mental decline in old age. See an earlier Mind Hacks piece for more on links between face structure and brain function

Dieting could lead to a positive test for cannabis reports New Scientist, but only if you’ve been previously smoking cannabis.

The British Medical Journal has a meta-analysis of 372 (wow) double blind antidepressant RCTs finding that they slightly increase suicide risk in younger people. Furious Seasons has great coverage as always.

Radiotherapy for brain cancer has long-term cognitive effects, reports BBC News.

Bad Science has some excellent coverage of a study on how beliefs flow through science literature.

Would have covered this ourselves if it’d not been picked up by the big boys. If you’ve not read it already, the BPS Research Digest has an excellent piece on how time perception is linked to anger.

Scientific American has an interview with Judith Rich Harris, the influential psychologist who argues that parents have a minimal influence on children’s social development in comparison to their peers.

Facebook reinforces jealousy in jealousy-prone people according to a study covered by PsychCentral.

Optimistic women live for longer, according to BBC News who seem to have raised their game this week.

3 Quarks Daily has a first hand account of sleep paralysis. Some slightly shaky neuroscience but well worth a read.

Anthropologist Richard Wrangham mongers his ‘the invention of cooking as the cause of hominid brain expansion’ theory on Edge.

Dr Petra discusses the American Psychological Association’s recent statement on the futility of ‘gay conversion therapy’.

A project to map every brain connection in five years time has been announced by the American National Institute of Health. An overview and commentary by Neurophilosophy’s Mo Costandi are published in Seed Magazine which brings it down to earth a little.

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience has an interesting paper on a neurocomputational model for cocaine addiction (thanks Will!). Only runs in the toilets apparently.

Studying babies can tell us about some of the most challenging philosophical questions according to an article in Salon.

Cognitive Daily finds a wonderful study on how adaptation to distorted faces doesn’t transfer between male and female faces suggesting they may be processed differently.

Congenitally blind people distinguish between living and nonliving things in the <a href="http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/46332/title/Brain_doesn%E2%80%99t_sort_by_visual_cues_alone
“>same visual brain areas as sighted people, according to a new study covered by Science News.

The Psychiatric Times has a response by the DSM-V critics accused by the American Psychiatric Association of being motivated by wanting to sell more of their books on the earlier version. It’s the debate that keeps on giving.

A study on the neural cartography of the clitoris is covered (if that’s the right word) by The Neurocritic.

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

I’ve just discovered the wonders of the Mental Nurse blog, which has a fantastically insightful piece on the dark cultural effects of nurse training.

Harpers Magazine has six questions for Oliver Sacks on music and the brain.

There’s a simple but genius demonstration of the innate structure of music by Bobby McFerrin at the World Science Festival.

Dr Petra examines media pressures and the celebrity psychologist in ‘A tale of two psychologists’.

The risk of dementia is vastly increased in middle aged people who who smoke, have high blood pressure or diabetes, according to research reported by BBC News.

Neuron Culture investigates suicides in US army veterans and why veteran’s mental health care falls short.

New Scientist has an article on ‘ten mysteries of you’ of which several are mind and brain mysteries.

Can we emulate the architecture of the brain on a microchip? asks H+ Magazine in a roundup of ‘silicon intelligence’ projects.

The Telegraph reports comments by the lost-the-plot head of the UK’s Catholic Church who says that Facebook leads young people to commit suicide. Actually, I didn’t think there was an app for that yet.

Kids with imaginary friends have superior narrative skills, according to research expertly covered by the BPS Research Digest.

New Scientist reports on research finding that while watching a film, we subconsciously control the timing of blinks to make sure we don’t miss anything important.

There’s an excellent analysis of a recent media flap over ‘bug spray damages nerves’ headlines over at Neuroskeptic.

The Economist has an article on the USA’s sometimes bizarre sex offender laws and their ineffectiveness at tackling sex offences.

Public opinion about psychiatric medications have been improving since the 1990s even in ‘situations where there might not be a proven benefits’, according to a study covered by Somatosphere.

BBC News reports on research finding that we tend to get happier was we live into old age.

A evidence-based approach to teaching psychotherapy styles in covered in an excellent piece by Dr Shock.

The Science Show from ABC Radio National had a segment on ‘Darwin on empathy‘.

The consistently excellent history of neuroscience blog The Neuro Times has an interesting snippet about a case of a quack neurologist in 1875 Dublin.