Category: Linkage

The 23rd edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just been published, this time ably hosted by Madam Fathom.

A couple of my favourites include a fantastic article on inducing slow wave sleep by stimulating the brain with magnets – from the wonderfully named Phineas Gage Fan Club, and some excellent coverage from The Neurocritic on an intriguing theory about how higher cognitive functions might be organised in the brain.

If you want more of the latest musings from the internet’s keenest mind and brain writers, you know where to go.

Link to Encephalon 23.

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

Discover magazine interview Marc Hauser about the psychology of moral reasoning.

Mixing Memory picks up on an article tracking the history of the concept of mind.

The Guardian has an opinion piece by an NHS psychologist arguing that psychosis is over-medicalised.

ABC Radio National’s discussion programme Ockham’s Razor takes an in-depth look at auditory processing deficits.

The Neurophilosopher investigates the curious case of the anarchist’s pickled brain.

BBC News reports on research suggesting women have lower sex drives in secure relationships.

People with levels of testosterone are more likely to feel rewarded by other people’s anger, reports Science Daily.

What is a neural network and how does its operation differ from that of a digital computer? Scientific American ‘asks the expert’.

The sight of the female body is more rewarding for men, than the sight of the male body is for women, according to research reported in The Telegraph.

Madam Fathom looks at the increasing cross over between neuroscience and economics.

Sarin gas may have affected brains of US soldiers, according to The New York Times.

More cool visual illusions from Cognitive Daily.

BBC News notes that antidepressant use in the UK rose 6% during the last year.

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

One I missed a while ago: Developing Intelligence looks at a paper that actually attempts to define consciousness (rather than relying on the usual “we all know what we’re talking about, don’t we?” definition).

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports on research suggesting that doing good deeds improves our health.

Marriages are slightly more likely to end in divorce when the couple have daughters, according to research covered by Slate.

The Globe and Mail investigates the effect of the higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down Syndrome.

Amateur boxers have higher levels of neurofilament light in their cerebrospinal fluid after fights, suggesting they suffer some level of brain damage despite the protective head gear.

Study shows greater amygdala activity in response to fearful faces in people who were closer to the 9/11 disaster.

Another study on the psychological benefits of meditation: it may fine-tune control over attention.

The LA Times reports that some US states still happy to execute people with intellectual disabilities.

InQuisitive Mind, a new online social psychology magazine has been launched.

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

Deep brain stimulation research continues with trials of DBS for memory problems and as a way of implanting artificial vision systems.

ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone takes a look at the philosophy of art and emotion.

Cognitive Daily has a demo and explanation of how we learn to keep track of multiple moving objects.

The Observer reports on a study suggesting that girls with more feminine names are least likely to go into maths and science-based professions. See previously for other research on how our names influence behaviour.

Magnetic pulses may be able to trigger slow wave sleep in insomniacs, reports The Independent.

What neural mechanisms underlie “fluid intelligence? Developing Intelligence looks at one of the latest studies.

New Scientist reports that native speakers of Russian, which lacks a single word for “blue”, discriminate between light and dark blues differently from native English speakers.

PsyBlog investigates research on sex differences in understanding non-verbal communication.

New Scientist reports that anatomical brain differences have been found in sufferers of the controversial ‘Gulf War Syndrome’.

Research investigating implicit racial bias in NBA referees is analysed by Mixing Memory.

Wired has an article on the Pentagon showing their next-generation ‘brain interfaced’ electronic binoculars.

The Neurophilosopher has some fantastic coverage of the recent study that scanned the orginal brains that led Broca to discover Broca’s Area and inspire the science of cognitive neuropsychology.

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

The BMJ had an fascinating editorial about the role of psychology in physical illness.

Deric Bownds discusses whether recursion a universal aspect of languages.

The Times Literary Supplement has a review of Hofstadter’s new book on consciousness.

Scientists debate the limits of action for autonomous robots.

Newsweek on new brain research that may help explain why some people don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.

Frontal Cortex discusses inequality and the perception of fairness.

Nature looks at a study that re-examined the two brains Paul Broca used to define the speech area now called Broca’s Area, with some surprising results.

Jeremy from PsyBlog reports the results of his study on music and personality we featured previously.

Study finds that although intelligence <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18311061
“>predicts income, it doesn’t predict wealth.

Scientific American ponders the scent of a man: pheromones from human males may be an important aspect of <a href="http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=eau_de_l_homme&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
“>attraction.

The BPS Research Digest looks at a study that asked the question ‘Can God make people more aggressive?’.

Cognitive Daily covers a study that used VR in a very creative way to understand the effect of eye gaze. The study created mutually exclusive social situations simultaneously experienced by all participants.

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

Cognitive Daily investigates the curious psychological effects of self-refilling bowls.

The San Francisco Chronicle discusses OCD from the perspective of a popular radio broadcaster and author who experiences the condition.

OmniBrain finds three auditory illusions you can try yourself.

Recent find of an old paper: Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities.

Does having more children make you happier? Frontal Cortex investigates.

BBC News looks at pharmaceutical drugs that may boost your brain power.

The Neurophilosopher commemorates the 64th birthday of LSD.

SciAm Mind Matters has a good review of a recent Science paper on visual processing. Scroll down to section entitled ‘Selective Vision‘ (can’t seem to link to individual entries).

Developing Intelligence looks at research on whether children understand time.

Consciousness in the single neuron. A new feature article on Science and Consciousness Review

Madame Fathom investigates part of why smoking may be so attractive despite the health risks: it’s cognitive effects on the brain.

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

More from Cardiff’s Violence and Society Research Group: Wins, not defeats make fans more aggressive.

The New York Magazine has an in-depth article on research that has looked at the psychology of the boss in the workplace.

Retrospectacle examines new evidence that lactate may be a key in understanding how the brain responds to traumatic injury.

American Scientist reviews a series of books on morality, moral evolution and decision making.

A new blog called ‘On the Brain‘ launches, written by a professor of neuroscience.

The genetic contribution to sexual orientation and sexuality is considered by an article in The New York Times.

The Neurophilosopher investigates recent research into alien abduction, reincarnation and memory errors.

Salon has an interview with Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, author of a new book on midlife memory loss.

The 20th edition of Encephalon has just been published containing the best in the last fortnight’s mind and brain writing.

This edition is hosted by science writer Orli Van Mourik’s blog Neurontic and has everything from a neurologist answering questions on computers and consciousness, to studies suggesting that the brain (particularly in mothers) may be specially attuned to the sound of baby cries.

There’s plenty more similarly interesting science stories at the link below.

Link to Encephalon 20.

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

The New York Times has a fantastic article on non-medical ways of dealing with auditory hallucinations and the growing hearing voices movement.

Steven Pinker has been doing talks recently on the psychology of violence and published and article in Edge outlining his main arguments.

The Neurophilosopher has a great post on how the brain makes sense of complex visual scenes and hybrid images.

Frontal Cortex looks just published research suggesting that depression may be overdiagnosed.

The New York Times has an article and video on how families cope with epilepsy and the stigma which is sadly still attached to the disorder.

The Times reviews Zimabardo’s new book The Lucifer Effect.

The Memory Hacker: Popular Science magazine looks at how one man is attempting to develop implantable chips to enhance memory function.

Time magazine is Getting Serious About Happiness in an article on the first PhD programme in positive psychology.

John Searle will be known to most cognitive scientists as the man behind the famous Chinese Room thought experiment. This is based around the idea that a man in a room translating Chinese symbols with the aid of a rulebook does not understand Chinese, any more than a computer producing intelligent-like (understanding-like, consciousness-like) behaviour due to programming rules has intelligence (or understanding, or consciousness). Since I found this line of argument confused, and ultimately frustrating, I didn’t expect to enjoy his new book ‘Freedom & Neurobiology: Reflections of Free Will, Language and Political Power’. I didn’t expect to, but I did.

This short book is made up of two separate lectures of Searle’s, originally published in France, along with an extensive introduction. The introduction is Searle’s tour through the history of philosophy, establishing the ‘basic facts’ as it were, to the point where we are now. A point at which we have dealt with many small problems and can now ‘advance very general accounts of mind, language, rationality, society, etc.’. This ‘large-scale philosophy’ is possible, Searle argues, because of the unity of mind with biology, and, secondly and a consequence of this, the new openness within philosophy to accounting for empirical evidence (for a particularly choice quote from the introduction, see here).

True to this manifesto, Searle’s two essays cover lots of ground. The first is ‘Free Will as a problem in neurobiology’, the second ‘social ontology and political power’. Both are very readable, full of strong arguments and interesting observations. IANAP, but there is nothing of a the obtuse Searle of the Chinese Room that I was expecting, in fact ‘Freedom & Neurobiology’ makes me think that I should go back to the original Chinese Room argument and read it again. If this new book is anything to go by there is sure to be more clarity and subtly there than I remember.

From the Psychophysics Psyber Lab, it’s Psychophysics Haiku!

Maybe there was one
But then on the other hand
Maybe there wasn’t.

or

Silence is golden
Gaussian noise is for free
Which do you prefer?

And many more…

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

The New York Times asks whether multi-tasking is a myth and explores the psychology of divided attention.

Developing Intelligence highlights 10 important differences between brains and computers.

Body position may affect memory for events, according to a study reviewed by Cognitive Daily

Slate looks at current theories of why we sleep – with podcast.

The BPS Research Digest reports on research indicating that depression is linked to impaired spatial ability.

PsyBlog outlines seven ways in which music influences mood.

The experience of people just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is explored by the New York Times.

Seed Magazine takes a sceptical look at some popular brain fitness software and investigates another claiming a genuine scientific pedigree.

The Neurophilosopher examines research that induced temporary number difficulties using magnets to influence brain function.

Has AI finally arrived with Numenta’s new software release? An article from Read/Write Web investigates.

Neurofuture covers recent developments in retinal eye implants used to improve or restore vision.

The 19th edition of the Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has arrived, courtesy of psychology blog Peripersonal Space.

Some of my favourites include coverage of some scientific rough and tumble over the electrophysiology of neurons, and a look at a recent study on frontal lobe damage and moral judgements.

Link to Encephalon 19.

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

A man with a sleep disorder that causes him to have violent outbursts in his sleep is discussed by BBC News.

Cognitive Daily asks whether “racing” video games cause reckless driving.

A computer that ‘tunes in’ to the user’s mood and reacts emotionally is covered by New Scientist (with video).

Blog Around the Clock has choice selection of recent Science Daily mind and brain stories.

BBC News on a study suggesting the attractiveness of the accused affects the judgement of the jury.

Strange loops, alpha oscillations and consciousness. Developing Intelligence investigates.

PBS reports on a brain surgeon who has developed brain cancer and has to make critical decisions he usually reserves for his patients.

Neurophilosopher reports that people with damage to areas of the frontal lobes can make moral decisions based on the greater good of the community, unclouded by concerns over harming an individual.

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

Esquire Magazine has an article on pioneering neurosurgery on Iraq vets to reconstruct large areas of damaged skull.

Cognitive Daily looks at research suggesting that judges may be biased in their belief in the truth of videotaped confessions – depending on the angle of the camera.

Technology Review reviews Marvin Minksy’s new book on emotion and the future of AI.

Developing Intelligence asks whether visual binding is an automatic process.

Science and Consciousness Review has a feature article / extended book review on the science of consciousness – where it is and where it should be.

Steven Pinker has been speaking recently on the ‘decline of violence’.

Subliminal messages in video games to treat addiction? OmniBrain investigates.

Deric Bownds discusses a study finding that the brain’s response to threat is reduced by hand holding.

The Neurophilosopher dissects a notoriously flawed study from 1906 that tried to argue for differences in the ‘negro brain’.

Can we wear out self-control? Frontal Cortex examines research that suggests that it might be a resource we can deplete.

The 18th edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has been posted online, this time ably hosted on Pharyngula.

PZ has grouped the posts into four categories: understanding brains, fixing brains, improving brains and evolving brains.

A couple of my favourites include a study on how often neurosurgeons accidentally drop bits of the skull when doing brain surgery, and a fascinating article on the brains of gamblers.

Link to Encephalon 18.