Category: Linkage

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

Lifting someone’s mood makes them more likely to believe in the supernatural, reports the APA.

New Scientist reports on research presented at a conference suggesting an oxytocin spray can boost the effect of cognitive therapy treatment for anxiety disorders.

A website called We Feel Fine tracks the <a href="http://www.wefeelfine.org/index.html
“>mood of the internet.

Spatial brain circuits are used to track references during conversation, according to a new study published in Neuroreport.

How we know where our lost keys are. Scientific American investigates new findings on memory.

BBC News reports that the prescription of antidepressant drugs to children soars in the UK.

Obese girls less likely to attend college but weight and body size does not influence college attendance in boys, finds study published in Sociology of Education.

Another good obituary for cognitive therapy pioneer Albert Ellis, this time in the LA Times.

BBC News reports that a study on the health effects of mobile phone masts finds (wait for it) no link between emissions and symptoms (just like all the others).

Scientific American reports obesity more common in people with obese friends, and study finds the strength of friendship seems to be key.

The Guardian has an interesting piece on the difficulty of applying population-derived violence predictions to individuals. Original study abstract here.

New Scientist has a story on a poker playing computer that only narrowly lost to two pros.

Stephen Pinker writes in defense of dangerous ideas.

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

NPR has a special radio programme on an Iraqi psychiatrist, now resident in the USA, looking back to his work in the war-torn state.

OmniBrain gathers together a whole list of neuroscience sites for kids. Yay!

New Scientist reports on how a new brain scanning study gives clues to how we suppress traumatic memories.

Neurophilosophy looks at the psychology of Hitchcock’s movies.

New research study suggests there may be two distinct brain networks affected by Parkinson’s disease and a Science News article investigates why smokers are less likely to develop the condition.

Cognitive Daily looks at research on how children perceive motion.

New Scientist investigates how people from different cultures might differ in their ability to take others’ perspective.

I’m not as slim as that girl: The Neurocritic looks at a recent review on the effect of viewing thin models on body image concerns in women.

A Stroke Association survey find that only 33% of people are aware that stroke causes immediate brain damage (in fact, it is immediate brain damage).

Why are people more likely to fight when they’re drunk? Pure Pedantry investigates.

Language Log finds some Chomsky-themed breakfast cereal.

A somewhat telegraphic 27th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published on the new clean look Neurocontrarian blog.

A couple of my favourites include a brief investigation into a new skin patch to deliver drugs to patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and an article on punishment, morality and game theory, which sounds quite kinky now I come to think about it.

Needless to say, there’s plenty more kinky-sounding but scientifically respectable articles at the link below.

Link to Encephalon 27.

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

For Certain Tasks, the Cortex Still Beats the CPU. Completely banal title obscures quite an interesting article on ‘human processing‘ in computer tasks.

Research suggests the biggest influence on how responsive we feel our partners are is actually how we respond to our partners.

The Washington Post reports on research linking the decline in criminal activity to a reduction in environmental lead poisoning.

People with autism do <a href="http://sciencenews.org/articles/20070707/fob4.asp
“>far better in certain non-verbal cognitive tests than you might expect from their IQ. Actually, similar findings, showing an advantage for visuospatial tasks, have been reported before.

CNN reports that antidepressants are the most prescribed drugs in U.S.

Dr Jerome Groopman writes in The New York Times about the cognitive biases that can lead to medical errors.

More on the ‘disease model’ of addiction: Dr Nora Volkow talks about the neuroscience of addiction on an NPR radio special.

Can nicotine be modified to make a useful cognitive enhancer? Wired investigates.

Thanks to everyone who came along to discuss the neuropsychology of hypnosis last night. For anyone who wants to investigate further, here’s more on the psychology and neuroscience of hypnotic states.

Scientific American has a fantastic article on ‘The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis’ that tackles some of the myths and covers some of the key scientific research.

Psychologist and hypnosis researcher Dr Peter Naish did a great talk last year on the science of hypnosis for the Dana Centre which is available online as an archived video webcast.

WNYC’s RadioLab had a special on placebo and the power of suggestion, which, to be fair, is light on science and heavy on anecdote, although it does make for an interesting listen.

And finally, Dr Matt Whalley’s site is a great guide to science of hypnosis. I keep mentioning it, because, well, it’s excellent.

Biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust have made their image library available online. Searching for ‘brain’ or ‘psychology’ images produces hundreds of wonderful pictures from both the cutting edge of cognitive science and neurological investigations from times past.

All the images have been released under a Creative Commons licence, so you can use them without charge for non-commercial purposes.

It’s a really wonderful collection from both a scientific and artistic viewpoint and is enormously good fun to explore.

Link to front page of Wellcome Images (via BoingBoing).

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

The Times looks at the effects and treatment of childhood depression.

Sweet smells make pain more tolerable according to research covered by Mixing Memory.

The study that reported that older child had slightly higher IQ than younger children is examined and criticised by Slate.

Is synaesthesia more prevalent than previously thought? asks Cognitive Daily.

Texas prevented from executing (yet another) mentally ill prisoner by the US Supreme Court, reports the The New York Times. Most surprisingly, he was originally allowed to defend himself when obviously psychotic.

New Scientist reports that the current level of testosterone affects men’s judgments of fairness

Is there a specific electrical brain signal linked to face recognition? The Phineas Gage Fan Club investigates.

Yawning cools the brain say researchers in The New York Times.

OmniBrain finds some clay models of sensory and motor homunculi. If you don’t know what they are, have a look!

BBC News reports that contrary to popular belief, men and women speak roughly the same amount. If you follow Language Log, it’s old news of course.

A.k.a part of my day job. I’ve written a short article introducing the project. The last line summarises it pretty well (I think!)

“The goal is to reverse-engineer the computational principles that the brain uses to multi-task”, says Dr Gurney, “and to show that they work in practice, not just in theory, by incorporating them in a robot. In a sense, we’re trying to work out the real-time operating system of our own minds.”

You can read more about REVERB here and the rest of my article here

Issue 26 of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just been published on the Neurophilosophy blog, returning to where it first started for its first anniversary.

It also coincides with the blog joining the ScienceBlogs fraternity and what better way to celebrate its new home.

A couple of my favourites include an 1880 article from The New York Times which claims that the right hemisphere of the brain is less developed than the left because babies tend to squash the brain by sleeping on their right sides, and one on the recent publication of the ‘cognitive health roadmap‘.

There’s a whole range of other articles, so check it out to see what else is on the menu.

Link to Encephalon 26.

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

Couple of good radio shows on philosophy: In Our Time on the history of ‘common sense philosophy’ and The Philosopher’s Zone has a special on the late Richard Rorty.

When do children think wishes can come true? Mixing Memory examines a psychology study that aimed to find out.

Scientific American investigates the neuroscience of irrationality and economic decision-making.

New Hitachi ‘brain-machine interface’ uses infrared light to read brain activity.

Prospect Magazine has a short article on the psychology of suicide bombers.

Experts say video games are not an addiction. Pope still catholic.

Why do we find it harder to recognise faces of other races than our own? Cognitive Daily looks at the influence of experience.

Supporters of ‘child bipolar disorder’ champion write to the Boston Herald with a strong defence of his work.

New Scientist covers a virtual world that can be explored through the power of thought (with video).

Wired looks at some of the revelations about behavioural control studies from recently de-classified CIA documents.

When brain damage helps. Developing Intelligence looks at a study that found that patients with frontal lobe damage actually do better on some reasoning tasks.

If there such a thing as photographic memory? Scientific American ‘asks the expert’.

The excellent NYC radio show RadioLab has a <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08
“>special on Memory and Forgetting, featuring a well-known science blogger.

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

Science reports that forced donations activate brain areas associated with altruism.

The New York Times reports that half of all continuing medical education courses in the United States are now paid for by drug companies and are often little more than marketing exercises.

The Neurophilosopher finds some beautiful antique brain anatomy drawings.

Men react more positively to children with facial appearance resembling themselves, suggesting genetic relatedness, while women’s reactions are more influenced by healthy looks.

Pure Pedantry has some fascinating analysis of some 80,000 year-old ornaments.

More coverage on the long-term neurological effects of concussion in NFL players from The New York Times.

Did Hitler have syphilis? Wild speculation abounds in a recent psychiatry conference presentation.

Research has consistently found that materialism makes you unhappy, but The New York Times reports that it may not make you better off either.

What makes a movement seem artificial? Cognitive Daily looks at how we perceive movements in computer animations.

Self-effacing people are secretly confident, suggest new study on the differences between declared and inner self-esteem.

Backlash over child bipolar disorder: Scathing articles published in the SF Chronicle and Boston Globe.

Mixing Memory published an gripping article on the psychology of metaphors that generated two great follow-ups.

Discover Magazine looks at the new generation of aptitude measurements in psychology that hope to go <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/blinded-by-science
“>beyond IQ.

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

The New York Times has an article on the controversial diagnosis of sensory integration disorder.

Simon Baron-Cohen writes on The Biology of the Imagination in Entelechy magazine.

Neanderthals were less likely to be mentally ill according to some speculative research.

The Society for Neuroscience has a useful list of online neuroscience databases.

Alzheimer’s disease may quadruple by 2050 according to projections in a recent study.

A psychologist claims he spotted a live dinosaur in 1971. You read it here first.

Hugs are more effective for comforting women, words better for men, according to a new study reported in The Independent.

MeFi features the art of Alexander Pavlovich Lobanov, Russian deaf-mute confined to psychiatric institutions for over 50 years.

A funny letter in this week’s New Scientist warns about the tragedy of Juvenile Obnoxiousness Disorder.

Developing Intelligence investigates the autobiographical blur between fantasy and reality.

Women are more likely to be attracted to men who share physical similarities with their father but only if they had a good relationship with him, reports Live Science.

PsyBlog covers a curious study on how the speed and flow of men’s urination in a public lavatory was affected by invasions of personal space.

BBC News has an article on Couvade syndrome, where men experience physical symptoms associated with pregnancy.

The Phineas Gage Fan Club finds a wonderful demonstration of diffusion tensor imaging – a brain scanning technology that maps white matter connections in the brain.

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

A Polish man wakes up from a 19 year ‘coma’ and is remarkably functional (with video).

New Scientist reports that folic acid could protect against strokes.

From last year’s NeuroFest: A puppet show about autism called ‘The Boy Who Wanted to be a Robot’ is available on YouTube – part 1 and part 2.

The Mouse Trap has an insightful discussion on the psychology and neuroscience of imagination.

Advert for the London 2012 Olympics triggers seizures in some people with epilepsy. No word on the headaches caused by the logo.

Neuroscience video blog Channel N has found some vintage footage of neuroimaging experiments.

Research covered by New Scientist suggests that forgetfulness is a tool of the brain. Also see the case of Solomon Shereshevskii, a man studied by A.R. Luria, who had a problem with not being able to forget.

The Neurophilosopher finds some wonderful antique brain illustrations.

Brain injuries raise risk of Alzheimer’s disease, reports New Scientist.

CNN report on advances in neuroprothetics: Surfing the web with nothing but brainwaves.

The US Military are working on a humanoid battlefield robot to rescue fallen soldiers.

Providentia notes that the American Psychological Association are to review gay conversion therapy policy.

Furious Seasons notes Eli Lilly’s sudden interest in funding a charity who train dogs to help depressed people since they’ve released an anti-depressant for canines.

In other animal news: Cognitive Daily find previously suppressed evidence of Pavlov’s cat.

The 24th edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just been published at psychology blog The Phineas Gage Fan Club.

A couple of my favourites include a post on deep brain electrode recordings from the human nucleus accumbens and a post on a psychological sex differences study run on 200,000 participants (wow).

For more articles, on everything from law to neural information storage, follow the link below for the full edition.

Link to Encephalon 24.

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

A disquieting feeling of strangeness?: Just found this great 2001 paper on the ‘the art of the mentally ill’ on PubMedCentral.

Brain scan can predict response to antidepressants, reports New Scientist.

Neurophilosophy has an excellent article on famous amnesia case HM.

Pesticides ‘up Parkinson’s risk‘ according to BBC News.

Scientific American reports that Scottish scientists uncover a striking link between genes for brain size and tonality in spoken language.

Developing Intelligence investigates the neuroscience of imagination.

Forbes profile a cognitive scientist. Still no word from Hello magazine.

The rate of diagnosed clinical depression among retired American football players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained, reports The New York Times.

Pure Pedantry looks at research on storing computer information in biological neurons.

Young children can crudely add and subtract numbers before they have learned the rules of arithmetic, reports Scientific American.

Brain Ethics highlight a new book by the widely liked and respected neuroscientist, Chris Frith.

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

The BPS Research Digest reports on yet another study on the cognitive benefits of meditation.

CrimePsychBlog picks up on an interesting study on the etiology of the psychopathic serial killer.

Core cognitive ability is mostly developed before adolescence, reports SciAm.

Accidental Mind has some illustrated brain notecards to download.

ABC Radio National’s Health Report has a special on Alzheimer’s disease, testosterone and the ageing brain.

Developing Intelligence investigates the neural basis of planning abilities.

The use of oxygen just after a stroke may actually harm the brain rather than help it, suggests a new study reported in SciAm.

Companies tune in to the potential of sound for marketing, reports The Economist.

A couple of interesting news stories on the treatment of mental illness in the US military are picked up by Corpus Callosum.

Wired report on new commercial prototypes for ‘home use’ magnetic brain stimulators.

A perceptual deficiency may make us better foragers, suggests research expertly covered by Cognitive Daily.

SciAm investigates the effects of having half the brain surgically removed.