A beautiful-looking edition of The Synapse, the biweekly psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has hit the net, as has another compulsive release of the BPS Research Digest – edited by our very own Christian Jarrett.
Just so you know, Mind Hacks will be the hosting the next edition of The Synapse.
Although I’ve yet to find out how to get hold of the submissions, it looks like you can submit links to your psychology and neuroscience writing here.
Quick links from the past [few weeks] in mind and brain news:
Michael Crawford discusses The Schizophrenic Symptom of Flat Affect, including insights from his own experience.
Can Freudian ideas help us explain fundamentalism and extremist ideologies? asks the New York Times
Dopamine helps punters spot their ‘best bet’ according to a recent news story in New Scientist.
The NPR Day to Day radio programme discusses the psychology of why people make false confessions to the police.
Difficulties with engaging areas of the prefrontal cortex may explain why teenagers can be more ‘selfish’ suggests new research.
Academic doping: Are kids being given drugs like Ritalin by their parents purely to improve their academic performance?
The Neuroethics and Law Blog tackles the legal and ethical implication of the recent study that suggested a coma-like PVS patient had conscious thought.
Do we all mean the same thing when we talk about colors? asks Cognitive Daily.
A drug used for treating Alzheimer’s drug may also combat brain injury, reports New Scientist.
A couple I missed when I was away… A new BPS Research Digest hit the net on 1st September with articles on job performance, season on birth and intelligence and the expert mind of the burglar among others.
Also edition 6 of The Synapse neuroscience writing carnival arrived, with writing on everything from the detection of musical phrases to the history of the discovery of the neuron.
Psychology Press have put together a slick site to promote and enhance their cognitive neuroscience books, and particularly their new textbook The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience with sample chapters, downloads and a podcast available online.
The books is written by Dr Jamie Ward who founded the synaesthesia research group at University College London and happened to be my MSc supervisor (and is a jolly nice chap to boot).
Jamie has co-ordinated the MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology at UCL for several years, and it’s good to see he’s put together a textbook aimed at covering neuropsychology that is accessible to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
He is interviewed in an mp3 podcast about his own research and the field of cognitive neuroscience in general.
The first chapter of his book is also available online, and covers the history and development of mind-brain studies.
Link to Psychology Press ‘Cognitive Neuroscience Arena’ (via BrainEthics).
mp3 of interview with Jamie Ward.
Link to sample chapter.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Retrospectacle discusses the famous study on London cab drivers that won an IgNobel Award but has actually provided some important findings on adult brain regeneration.
American Scientist talks to psychologist Marc Hauser on the prospect of a moral instinct.
Research finds ‘unique brain gene’ – again.
A Blog Around The Clock asks should we rewrite the textbook on neuron regulation channels?
The ‘Hobbit’ debate rumbles on: New groups of researchers claim that Hobbit was a ‘disabled caveman‘.
A newspaper article in The Telegraph to accompany a recent TV series looks at the influence of biology and genetics on what makes us human.
How do we keep track of multiple objects? Cognitive Daily investigates the latest research.
Nature talks to Nick ‘we’re living in a computer simulation‘ Bostrom about human enhancement and virtue engineering.
A humorous list of logical fallacies in computational neuroscience are unearthed by OmniBrain.
Developing Intelligence looks at the latest research on the tricky problem of visual binding – the ability to combine different sources of sensory information into one conscious perception.
Mind and brain writing carnival Synapse has just released issue #5 and is hosted on this occasion by Shelley Batts’ Retrospectacle. There’s articles on everything from sleep disorders to moral development to keep you glued to the screen.
Also recently released is the new BPS Research Digest which tackles recent research on the effect of drugs on intuition and medically unexplained symptoms; as well as the psychology of love letters, sickies, cats and war.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
The Philidelphia Inquirer reviews a book on the Philosophy of Boredom.
Is this the most sci-fi sounding article ever? Developing Intelligence unleashes The Argument for Multiplexed Synchrony.
BBC Radio 4 has a half-hour programme on the experience and impact of mild brain injury.
ABC Radio’s opinion show Ockham’s Razor looks at the world through the eyes of an adult with Asperger’s: Profile of a postmodern outsider.
Couple more on the mind and motivations of Philip K. Dick:
* The Guardian examines the role of drugs in PKD’s life and novels.
* 3QuarksDaily examines the reality-bending legacies of PKD, Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson.
If you have ever wondered how it is possible to do psychology experiments on babies under 12 months, Cognitive Daily brilliantly outlines one method.
‘Your brain boots up like a computer’ according to LiveScience. A Sparc Classic in my case.
The BBC News website has a brief section on medical specialties as part of its health coverage. Each article is a brief interview with a doctor about their work in a certain area.
Two of interest to readers here might be the interviews with the psychiatrist and anaesthetist.
No neurologist or neurosurgeon, but I suspect the list may grow, as there’s plenty more schools of medicine not represented.
The 4th Encephalon psychology and neuroscience writing carnival is now online! The host for this edition is the excellent Neurocritic.
If you want to hear Philip K. Dick himself discuss the writing of A Scanner Darkly and describe some of the borderline-paranoid ideas that drove the plot, there’s a three minute video clip on YouTube.
There’s evidence that Dick had reason to be paranoid. It is likely that he was investigated by the authorities during the period of anti-communist McCarthyism because of his anti-government views.
The burglarly he talks about is mystery, and it is not clear whether he was burgled by secret services, drug-using associates or whether he did it himself during a period of psychosis.
The fact that all three are possible candidates says much about Dick’s life.
Link to Philip K. Dick interview clip (via PKD Fans).
UPDATE: NPR Radio’s Talk of the Nation has a fantastic discussion on PKD’s life, work and influences.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Psychiatrist Peter Kramer reviews ‘Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror’ in the Washington Post.
Cognitive Daily on psychedelic sunglasses.
Could ‘ketamine therapy‘ treat depression? asks the Washington Post.
The New York Times reports on the use of the medical lunch as a drug-company marketing tool.
Seed Magazine reports on an experiment using drug induced amnesia to examine the structure of memory.
Can differences in national levels of trust be partly explained by nutrition? Zack Lynch picks up on an interesting research paper that suggests it can.
The Telegraph has a short piece on the nature of consciousness.
Does the amount of email in your inbox say anything about your personality? Let me think…
Maori people may have a higher prevalence of a gene which has been linked to aggression. Restrospectacle analyses the controversy.
Jake Young has more careful analysis on mind and brain gender differences.
PsyBlog springs back into life!
Just found this interesting New York Times article from 2004 about the introduction of the concept of depression in Japan since 1999, a country that had no such concept outside of professional psychiatry and medicine.
In the late 1980’s, Eli Lilly decided against selling Prozac in Japan after market research there revealed virtually no demand for antidepressants. Throughout the 90’s, when Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or S.S.R.I.’s, were traveling the strange road from chemical compound to cultural phenomenon in the West, the drugs and the disease alike remained virtually unknown in Japan.
Then, in 1999, a Japanese company, Meiji Seika Kaisha, began selling the S.S.R.I. Depromel. Meiji was among the first users of the phrase kokoro no kaze [common cold of the soul]. The next year, GlaxoSmithKline — maker of the antidepressant Paxil — followed Meiji into the market. Koji Nakagawa, GlaxoSmithKline’s product manager for Paxil, explained: ”When other pharmaceutical companies were giving up on developing antidepressants in Japan, we went ahead for a very simple reason: the successful marketing in the United States and Europe.”
Direct-to-consumer drug advertising is illegal in Japan, so the company relied on educational campaigns targeting mild depression. As Nakagawa put it: ”People didn’t know they were suffering from a disease. We felt it was important to reach out to them.” So the company formulated a tripartite message: ”Depression is a disease that anyone can get. It can be cured by medicine. Early detection is important.”
Link to article ‘Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?’.
Neuropsychiatry Reviews is a monthly magazine that covers new research and emerging trends in neuropsychiatry and neuroscience and publishes its feature articles online two weeks after the paper edition is released.
The articles are magazine-style, so don’t contain references, but typically finish with a list of further readings if you want to expand your interest into the academic literature.
Recent online editions include pieces on the brain and creativity, new approaches to treating combat-related PTSD, and how we understand the expression of emotion in the face.
There’s many more on the magazine’s homepage.
Link to Neuropsychiatry Reviews.
During the last few days a new edition of the BPS Research Digest has hit the net and neuroscience writing carnival Synapse #4 has been released.
The Research Digest is a particularly good one with a piece about hyperlexia (early development of reading) in a 4 year-old autistic boy, a post on how psychopaths understand the meaning of emotions, and a short piece on how sound can aid visual learning.
There’s plenty more illuminating articles in both the Digest and Synapse, the latter of which is guested-hosted by Neurotopia.
Stop That Crow! is a curiously named website that looks at some of the hottest topics in contemporary philosophy of mind.
The site’s writer, Jeff, posts his thoughts and educated analyses on everything from thinking machines to consciousness and metaphor, meaning regular readers are given a thorough grounding in mind and brain philosophy.
This is exactly the sort of philosophy which can have practical day-to-day implications for the working cognitive scientist and dispells the common myths about philosophy as a subject.
Link to Stop That Crow!
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Developing Intelligence challenges the accepted wisdom that working memory holds ‘7 plus or minus 2 items’.
Douglas Hofstadter discusses the philosophy of self on The Philosophy Zone.
Psyche pdf reviews new book ‘Mind-Altering Drugs: The Science of Subjective Experience’.
A Brood Comb collects links to online videos of philosophy talks.
Breast-fed babies handle stress better, reports BBC News.
AADT Blog discusses the trial of Andrea Yates who killed her children while suffering from psychotic depression.
Are teens miserable because they are being pushed to compete rather then connect with their peers, asks the Washington Post.
Anxious people are quicker at reading faces that others, but do so less accurately, reports ScienceDaily
PsyBlog discusses how we create theories in psychology.
Mind Hacks 