Category: Linkage

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

The New York Times looks at the lives of students with autism and Aspergers in an article on ‘<a href="Students on the Spectrum
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/education/edlife/traits.html?ex=1320382800&en=ed013200a8615e5f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss”>Students on the Spectrum‘.

Two recent stories suggest that applying mild electric currents to the head can aid memory or help with migraine.

One I missed earlier… AlphaPsy has a fascinating post on mental illness viewed from the stance of economic rational choice theory.

Simon Baron-Cohen discusses his theories of systemizing and autism in Seed Magazine.

Cognitive Daily explores cutting-edge research on how children learn cultural values.

BBC News reports on a syndrome of current concern in Japan, nicknamed ‘Retired Husband Syndrome‘.

Virtual reality system used to ‘move’ phantom limbs and relieve the associated phantom pain, reports New Scientist.

More from PsyBlog’s ’emotional truth’ series: the emotional unconscious and doing without feeling.

Couple of fantastic posts from Mixing Memory: why people treat computers as if they had beliefs and intentions, and whether children attribute false beliefs to God.

The latest edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival The Synapse has arrive online, hosted by the fantastic Developing Intelligence.

This edition contains links to articles on everything from mental illness in Bollywood to million neuron 3D animations. Enjoy!

Link to Issue 11 of The Synapse.

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

Cognitive Daily has a fantastic post on how the brain synchronises sound and vision, even when they’re out of sync (including videos!).

Psychology Today argues that mass-media ‘beauty’ is making people unhappy in Why I hate beauty.

Web pioneers call for a new discipline of ‘web science‘ that combines psychology, economics and law, computer science and engineering.

Developing Intelligence discusses two ways of understanding children who are ‘late talkers’: the nativist and interactionist approaches.

Having a high IQ protects against developing PTSD after major trauma, finds new study.

Computer modelling of shock waves inside the head suggests that brain injury may occur within one millisecond after the head hits a car windshield.

Neurofuture posts on an freely accessible online sci-fi novel on consciousness uploading, AI and zombies (oh my!)

New Scientist reports that industrial chemicals that seep into the environment may increase risk of developmental brain disorders.

Researchers have developed a 3D map of the human body to allow people to better communicate pain.

Children prefer to be friends with children perceived to be lucky, finds new study.

The Neurophilosopher has written an engaging and wonderfully illustrated article on the history of Alois Alzheimer and the disease that bears his name.

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

Erotica has a measurable psychological effect even we can’t consciously detect it, reports Scientific American. Ironically, the study is published in a journal called PNAS.

Modern gimmick or sensible application of attachment theory? Infant psychotherapy is discussed by the Post Gazette.

A study of Asian elders finds that curcumin, an ingredient in curry, helps keep the brain healthy, reports The Times.

Gene ‘flaw’ increases autism risk, reports BBC News.

This month’s PLoS Medicine is a special issue on social medicine.

Researchers are working on a promising blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, reports BBC News.

Alpha Psy has a wonderful guide to sex differences in cognition.

The headline simply repeats a common feature of depression as if it were news but the study suggests a reason why people with depression can have a consistent change in mood during the day (known as diurnal variation).

An intriguing study on the the cognitive psychology of face recognition is tackled by Cognitive Daily.

Concise article from Blog Around the Clock on how babies develop sleep patterns.

The New York Times reviews Marc Hauser’s book that argues we have a ‘moral grammar’. Commentary on the controversial claims here and here.

Having a positive ethnic identity boosts the happiness of teens, reports Medical News.

Issue 10 of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival The Synapse has just arrived on Neurocritic.

This edition has a distinct Halloween theme with an article on the neuroscience of fear and disgust, and instructions on how to make a realistic edible brain (pictured on the right).

Apart from the spookier articles, there’s also a collection of recent writing on everything from obsessive-compulsive disorder in Macbeth, to the role of peptides in neural transport.

Link to Issue 10 of The Synapse.

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

New Scientist reports that a new surveillance system can distinguish between violent and non-violent behaviour (with video).

Cognitive Daily asks ‘do deadlines help procrastinators?’

Review of ’23 Problems in Systems Neuroscience’ from American Scientist. What is systems neuroscience?

Damage to the brain could unleash artistic talent, reports ABC News, covering a new paper in medical journal Neurology.

Paper in Science on ‘stereotype threat’ (see previously on Mind Hacks) affecting women’s maths performance is covered by Seed Magazine.

Forbes magazine lists some of the physical and psychological benefits of sex.

More on inheriting facial expressions: The Economist has a well-written article on the recent ingenious study.

Review of ‘For Matthew and Others: Journeys with Schizophrenia’ art exhibition from The Australian.

People who read more fiction have higher levels of empathy, reports Frontal Cortex.

Developing Intelligence has a fantastic review of neuroscience-of-self book ‘I of the Vortex’.

UK has ‘lowest ever’ suicide rate, reports BBC News.

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

Cooking with sleeping pill Ambien!

ABC Radio’s science show Ockham’s Razor compares behaviour across the animal kingdom and asks ‘What counts as intelligence?’

New Scientist reports on a wonderfully designed study suggesting that facial expressions might be inherited to some degree.

Apparently, I am not pictured smoking a large reefer on mental health blog The Trouble with Spikol.

A correlation between TV watching and autism causes a stir. Original paper here.

Was Agatha Christie’s previously unexplained temporary disappearance due to a ‘fugue state’? A rare memory disorder.

The Guardian looks at recent research suggesting a link between omega-3 intake and violence.

The New York Review of Books has philosopher John Searle reviewing Humphrey’s “Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness”.

New Scientist reports that the initial trials for gene therapy reduces Parkinson’s disease symptoms.

BrainsRule! is a neuroscience website for kids.

It’s along the lines of the University of Washington’s Neuroscience for Kids but focuses more on interactivity and has sections for teachers and professionals.

There’s plenty of great resources there, although the talking brain on the front page is a little bit disturbing. Maybe it’s the lipstick which does it.

You can even get neuroscience merchandise (some of it for free) including a BrainsRule lunch bag!

Link to BrainsRule! website.

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

ABC Radio’s All in the Mind has a fascinating discussion on the psychology and philosophy of pain.

American Scientist takes a look at the psychology of scientific reasoning and progress.

ABC Radio’s In Conversation interviews Rupert Sheldrake, ex-biologist, now turned parapsychologist.

The psychology and clinical treatment of compulsive shopping is tackled by Science News.

Can social psychology tackle terrorism, international conflict and guerilla warfare? Scott Atran’s presentation to the The National Security Council At The White House is online.

Another great article with an appalling headline. The Times examines Martha Farah’s work on the cognitive neuroscience of poverty.

Is there a correlation between BMI and cognitive decline? Retrospectacle considers a touch-paper debate.

Spacetime and Linguistic Relativity. Enough said.

A wonderfully crafted new edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has just arrived online courtesy of Cognitive Daily.

I’m currently enjoying an exploration of the representation of psychology in the novels of J.G. Ballard from PsyBlog and an analysis of the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory in the Stroop Task from The Mouse Trap, and there are several more engaging articles to enjoy from the same edition.

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

ABC Radio’s All in the Mind tackles the mind-body problem in an engaging debate.

Wired Magazine with an appallingly-titled article on the neuropsychology of pathopaths: ‘Psychos Need a Little Sympathy’.

On the irony! US Government funded study concludes that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in “fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity”.

The ‘BBC Prison study’, a re-run of Milgram’s Zimbardo’s famous Stanford Prison experiment (doh! thanks Pedro), is written up in The Psychologist: Tyranny revisited.

Developing Intelligence looks at the nature / nurture interaction in language learning theories.

The New York Times has an article on ‘compulsive shopping disorder’.

There is a God: curry may be neuroprotective – reports The Neurophilosopher.

It seems Stephen Fry’s two-part BBC documentary ‘The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive’ on the science, treatment and experience of bipolar disorder is available online as bittorrents (part 1 and part 2).

We reported on the documentary previously on Mind Hacks, and there’s more about bittorrent here if you’ve not heard of it before.

The programme does a fantastic job of breaking down some of the myths and tackling stigma, and contains a remarkable breadth of opinion on all aspects of the condition. Well worth watching.

Following on from last year’s successful ‘essential sites’ round up, Mind Hacks presents our 2006 list of essential websites for mind and brain students, just in time for the new academic year.

Whether you’re a future graduate psychologist, a hardened lab-based neuroscientist or are in the midst of studying any of the cognitive sciences, we should have something to help you on your way.

Continue reading “2006 – Essential sites for students”

Welcome to the latest instalment of the psychology and neuroscience writing digest The Synapse, hosted this week on Mind Hacks.

The web’s mind and brain bloggers have submitted the best of their recent writing, so follow the link below for the latest in online insight.

Continue reading “The Synapse, Volume 1, Issue 8”

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

Brain Ethics examines evidence for the effect of different types of attachment (early relationship with parents) on the brain.

Everyday magical powers: A paper from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reports on the tendency to attribute magical causes to outside events.

Researchers call for a database of language impairing disorders to help work out the neuroscience and genetics of language.

The Neurophilosopher has found a number of new quality mind and brain blogs.

Similarly, Cognitive Daily has found psychology of music blog Sound and Mind and cognitive anthropology blog Alpha Psy.

Brain scans shows white matter differences in tone deaf people.

PsychCentral looks on the bright side with ‘top ten terrific things about bipolar disorder’.

Frontal Cortex has further commentary on the NYT article on hysteria, suggesting it has important implications for how we understand mental illness.

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

Memory difficulties in older people may signal brain tissue loss in some, reports New Scientist.

GNIF Brain Blogger gives a rundown on the DSM – the diagnostic manual for psychiatric disorders.

The New York Times discusses the psychology of one of the most widely-known but scientifically neglected human motivations – fame.

The Neurophilosopher digs up some beautiful neuroanatomy drawings from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

I don’t know why we don’t just have a permanent feed to Developing Intelligence…

Recent favourites include:
* Interactions of memory and attention
* Sensory gating by prefrontal cortex
* Two connectionist models of reading

ABC Radio’s All in the Mind discusses the Journey Through Madness – a family’s story of their experience of mental illness.