The latest edition of neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just arrived and covers everything from the philosophy of mind to, er… a neuroscience-themed death metal band.
A couple of my favourites include a post on which type of model of the mind is best for cognitive science from Memoirs of a Postgrad, and Pure Pedantry’s article on whether doing crosswords will prevent mental decline in old age.
These two are just a taster. Head on over for the full menu.
Link to Encephalon 14.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Cognitive Daily examines how sound affects our visual perception (with nifty video!).
Does a US Government training cartoon make light of mental health issues in war veterans? Decide for yourself.
Science reports that a new study uncovers exactly how solvent abuse affects the brain.
Ramachandran discusses the neurology of self-awareness in the Edge 10th anniversary essay.
Neurontic considers the links between Capgras delusion, reasoning and the limits of the rational mind.
Is there such a thing as a truth serum? Retrospectacle investigates.
Neurocritic looks at research research applying fMRI brain scanning technology to people making shopping decisions.
New Scientist looks at research on the surprisingly accuracy of snap decisions.
King of the Cortex: the functions of the anterior prefrontal cortex, the very front of the brain, are discussed by Developing Intelligence.
Dan Lockton’s Architectures of Control blog is a must-read for anyone interested in the interface between design and psychology. In a recent post welcoming new readers Dan explains what the blog is about:
Most of the posts look at ‘architectures of control‘ designed into products, systems and environments, which seek to force the user to behave in a certain way. It’s something of a broad concept, embodying aspects of computer science, interaction design, architecture, psychology, politics, marketing, economics and counterculture alongside product design and engineering
Read more at: http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
A boy who can walk on hot coals offers clues to genetics of pain.
A curious report of 50 Vietnamese schools girls fainting due to ‘mass hysteria‘.
Research on how you compare yourself with colleagues and happiness at work is investigated by the BPS Research Digest.
A new chemical could provide the first highly accurate living diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
A few articles on exercises for cognitive enhancement:
* The New York Times reports on brain exercises.
* Time magazine discusses ‘Nintendo for Grandma’.
* The Washington Post considers keeping sharp with mental exercises.
It seems Freud had a few troubles repressing his innermost desires, as a hotel guest book suggests.
Neurofuture has some wonderful art generated by neural networks.
Anarchic art journal MungBeing has a special issue on ‘The Mind’.
The International Herald Tribune argues that neuroscience is now explaining what might cause ‘ghosts’.
A (presumably Falafel loving) Israeli scientist argues that chickpeas may have been responsible for the evolution of the human brain.
The webcomic xkcd has a panel that should interest psychologists: ‘Sometimes it seems bizarre to me that we take dreaming in stride’. Made me laugh!
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is now releasing ‘continuing professional development’ podcasts, which sound dull, but are actually fascinating discussions of new and developing issues in psychology and psychiatry.
CPD is a requirment for clinicians to make sure they keep training throughout their careers. It is designed to update them up with the latest developments in their field.
The CPD podcasts take the form of extended interviews with people who are also interviewed for the British Journal of Psychiatry podcasts we featured previously.
In the CPD podcasts, however, the discussion focuses on related psychological or neuroscientific theories and the how they can be apply to clinical situations.
With the additional material on the site, British psychiatrists can then take an accredited test to demonstrate their learning.
Despite being aimed at qualified psychiatrists, the discussions are remarkably accessible.
Recent programmes have tackled the neuropsychology of empathy, whether trials for psychiatric drugs are truly objective, and making judgements of someone’s future risk for violence.
Link to psychiatry CPD podcasts.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
The psychology of conjuring is pondered by medical ethicist and semi-professional magician Dr Daniel Sokol.
Moral mazes and human cognition are investigated by The Mouse Trap.
The Guardian has a short article on a case of focal dystonia (localised muscle spasms) caused specifically by praying. The medical journal has a video in mpg format online.
Mixing Memory suggests a candidate for the coolest experiment ever. And it is pretty cool.
Baby psychotherapy. WTF?
Marvin Minksy and Daniel Dennett discuss emotion and artificial intelligence.
The New York Times has a weird interview with neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine on her new book ‘The Female Brain’.
The cognitive neuroscience of alexythimia, a condition where people can’t describe their emotions, is tackled by The Neurocritic.
A new study attempting to capture the neuroscience of why laughter is infectious is covered by Nature.
The quantum mechanics of smell. How cool is that?
BBC News reports that the first ‘brain bypass’ operation is performed in the UK.
Cognitive Daily examines the experimental psychology of buying people the right presents.
Issue 13 of The Synapse psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has appeared online, hosted this week by Neurocontrarian, with the latest in home grown mind and brain news.
Also comes the news that the Synapse and Encephalon carnivals are combining forces in the future, so the new combined version will be released fortnightly.
This issue of The Synapse has everything from radio interviews to notch receptors so catch it while it’s hot.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
SciAm has an article on research looking at the mathematical structure of neuroscience. Much more at this pdf.
Antidepressants can can improve your sense of taste, reports New Scientist. Obviously, this more than makes up for the antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction.
The Neurocritic discusses research on memory that has used some cutting-edge neuroscience technology in the process.
Nature reports that the ‘fear centre’ (the what? oh, they mean the amygdala) is smaller in the brains of people with severe autism.
Neurofuture has a great article on the first neurosurgery-by-wire operation, and how the technique is developing.
The New York Times has an in-depth article on ‘seasonal affective disorder’.
Brain Ethics has lept back into life.
New mothers are four times more likely to become mentally ill than other women, reports The Boston Globe.
Dig that old school brain technology over at OmniBrain.
Francophiles delight! Issue 12 of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has arrived on French cognitive science blog AlphaPsy.
If you’re looking for happiness, want the key to Huntingdon’s disease, or want to blame it on your hippocampus, issue 12 is the place to be.
Link to Encephalon Issue 12.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Fascinating article on why the study of watch-makers has linked ambidexterity to self-reflection.
Slate has a skeptical article on the recent research on the neuroscience of ‘speaking in tongues’.
Psyblog collects a series of recent internet writing on emotion as part of an ongoing series.
A radio programme on NPR discusses new research that suggests that a gene linked to brain development may influence handedness.
Bookslut has a review of Gerald Edelman’s new book on consciousness.
Lots of video clips online from a 60 Minutes documentary on the use of beta-blocker propranolol to prevent disturbing memories and PTSD after trauma.
A blind man reportedly experiences déjà vu Рsuggesting a sight-based theory of the curious memory effect may be false.
The New York Sun has a fascinating analysis of Freud in light of Nietzsche’s analysis of the human mind: Freud’s Will to Power.
Developing Intelligence is back after a short break with two fantastic articles on understanding and treating traumatic brain injury.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Our obsession with physical appearance may not be so shallow, after all suggests an article in the Washington Post.
The New York Times discusses how personal space and physical presence in one-to-one communication differs between cultures.
More from PsyBlog’s series on emotion: Neural Correlates of Emotional Judgements.
Noonday Demon author Andrew Solomon discusses current progress in understanding and treating depression.
Is this the first self-aware robot? Good analysis and more detail (and video!) from the Neurophilosopher here.
V.S. Ramachandran considers some of the key issues in consciousness research in an article for Seed Magazine.
Study finds new generation antipsychotics are not much better than the old ones (again).
Video of the Royal Society event on 16th-17th of October – ‘Mental processes in the human brain’, is now available online. I strongly recommend the first talk, by Dan Schacter, which is about the active, constructive, nature of human episodic memory and why it might be built like that (answer: because it is designed to subserve the flexible recombination of past experiences to predict the future)
Obscured TV is a website that is streaming old TV documentaries. They don’t have permission to do it, but they believe the programmes are too educational to be left gathering dust in a TV company warehouse. As they have so many classic psychology and neuroscience documentaries in their archives, I can only agree.
Just a word of warning if you’re skeptical about these sorts of things – it requires that you install some ActiveX plugin, which is seems painless to install and works OK, but only works in Explorer.
If you’re happy with doing that, have a look at this page which has a list of ‘human interest’ documentaries – largely taken from UK TV.
7 Seconds is a stunning documentary on densely amnesic patients Clive Wearing who has been the subject of some ground-breaking research on the neuropsychology of memory, but also inspires some profound thoughts on identity and remembering.
The Real Rainman, My Family and Autism and Make me Normal profile a number of remarkable individuals with autism, and Teenage Tourettes Camp is a compelling documentary on some UK children with Tourette syndrome who go to a camp in the USA especially for children affected by the disorder (it is both touching and wickedly funny in places).
Another page with documentaries from the Horizon series, includes The Man Who Lost His Body, a documentary about a man who loses his sense of proprioception – the ability to sense where your limbs are, and God on the Brain which contains a memorable scene where Michael Persinger attempts to give Richard Dawkins a religious experience by stimulating his temporal lobes with magnetic fields.
Get them while they’re online, as the site probably won’t stay up for long!
Link to ‘people’ documentaries.
Link to Horizon documentaries.
Issue 11 of Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has arrived, hosted by the ever-capable Mouse Trap blog.
If you want to know the cognitive benefits of turning down the car radio when you’re lost, how science is progressing on a possible immunization for Alzheimer’s disease, or any number of exciting updates on the fast moving world of cognitive science, head on over and see what catches your eye.
Link to Issue 11 of Encephalon.
I’ve been reading mind and brain blog Brain Hammer recently – written by philosopher and cognitive scientist Pete Mandik.
Philosophers are increasingly becoming indispensable, as training in the history and practice of philosophy makes people well-suited to tackling some of difficult problems thrown up by contemporary cognitive science.
If you’re not sure what philosophers do exactly, think of them as ‘conceptual engineers’ – pushing forward new theories and fixing existing ones to make sure they are coherent and fit the data as best as possible.
The majority of mind and brain blogs are written by clinicians, psychologists and neuroscientists and so it is refreshing to see regular writing from someone engaged at the pit-face of the philosophy of mind.
As well as being Mandik’s personal blog where he shares his thoughts, it’s also where summaries from the Philosophy of Mind and Science Work in Progress group are published.
The PMS-WIP group is an online forum for the discussion of developing ideas and theories in the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and related areas.
UPDATE: Grabbed from the comments: I also recommend to everyone Gualtiero Piccinini’s blog philosophyofbrains.com – thanks Anibal!
Link to Brain Hammer.
Mind Hacks 