Category: Linkage

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

Science News has an extended piece on progress with the still-not-entirely-clear-what’s-going-on billion dollar BRAIN initiative.

There might be a little synesthesia in each of us. Nautilus looks at how our senses combine and cross.

The LA Times reports that boxing and ultimate fighting promoters are donating to a neuroscience study on the long-term effects of being repeatedly punched in the head.

The False Memory Archive. An interesting project covered by an article in The Independent.

The West Briton reports on a Cornish drug dealer who told police he didn’t know how heroin had become taped to his testicles. God bless the Westcountry.

There are ways to prevent loved ones from becoming victims of an overdose. Here are three. Important piece from Time.

The Guardian reports that the UK Government has privatised the ‘nudge unit’. Presumably by making it the default option and waiting to see if anyone opts out.

A new cognitive science news website The Psych Report launches and looks very impressive.

Discover Magazine reports that the oldest human footprints found outside of Africa have been found in Norfolk. The ‘out of Norfolk’ hypothesis soon to be published.

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

Nautilus discusses how music hijacks our perception of time.

What the Dunning-Kruger effect is and isn’t. Good in-depth discussion of this often misunderstood effect from [citation needed].

The Atlantic has a fascinating piece on mental illness in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Should a robot decide when to kill? asks The Verge. To the bunkers, you say?

Do Deaf People Hear an Inner Voice? Fascinating discussion on The Voices Within.

The New York Times discusses recent research on how we’re genetically part Neanderthal.

Why the social construction of madness is not as simple as it seems. Excellent piece on the Discursive of Tunbrige Wells blog.

Nature releases the latest edition of the excellent NeuroPod podcast.

An article on the history of the ‘Satanic abuse’ panic of the 1980s is mysteriously taken offline by Psychiatric Times. Gary Greenberg takes up the case.

New Scientist has a oddly-titled article (mind-reading?) on genuinely interesting research looking at how the brain makes sense of phonemes.

Fantastic YouTube video of a moving sculpture that gives the illusion of a rotating head.

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

Wired magazine has an excellent profile of artificial intelligence bossman Geoff Hinton.

Is it time we stopped ‘sectioning‘ people? Thought-provoking piece on the excellent Psychiatry SHO blog.

The New York Times has an insightful piece on what the ‘marshmallow study’ really tells us about self-control.

Tough love for fMRI. Interesting piece on fixing the problems with fMRI research on the Neurochambers blog.

Nature discusses why ‘irrational’ choices can be rational. Are you reading moustache haters?

Caffeine’s little memory jolt garners a lot of excitement. A fascinating discussion on caffeine and memory boosts from Scicurious newly located blog.

Science News reports on how the brain weighs more when you think harder due to increase blood flow.

An artist made a life-sized skull made of compressed cocaine and it got posted to BoingBoing. Can’t wait for the Viagra sculpture.

Live Science reports on a new study finding that people can register an image in 13 milliseconds.

Cannabis and memory loss: dude, where’s my CBD? Interesting The Guardian piece argues that legalisation may have a knock on effect of making cannabis with higher levels of beneficial CBD more widely available.

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

Not-So-Sweet Home: The Persistence of Domestic Violence. Important piece from Nautilus.

The Lancet discusses whether, once again, psychiatry is being used for political repression in Russia.

Are we too keen to turn crime into a mental health issues? asks Spiked Online.

Nature has an excellent piece on the new generation of influential ‘deep learning‘ AI algorithms.

What’s it like to hear voices that aren’t there? Interesting review of the common features of hallucinated voices from the BPS Research Digest.

The New York Times has an amazing piece by a man losing his memory who eloquently describes the experience.

Keyboard dyspraxia: do neuropsychological syndromes need updating in light of modern life? asks the Cortex Unfolded blog.

An antipsychotic drug may banish hallucinations and delusions by prompting neurons to churn out proteins that reshape the cells report Science News.

Neuroskeptic continues the excellent coverage on fMRI with The Reliability of fMRI Revisited.

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

So Happy 2014 and all that.

Let’s get on with it.

Brain Watch has an excellent piece on 10 Surprising Links Between Hollywood and Neuroscience.

Talking of Hollywood, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, inspiration for one of the great pulp movie posters of all time, is available on YouTube.

Lots of crappy ‘Psychology of New Year’s Resolutions’ articles kicking around but Dan Ariely has some elegant suggestions based on behavioural economics. Where can’t I get a personal behavioural economics coach? It’s the 21st century right?

Quantum Theory Won’t Save The Soul says Neuroskeptic. Awesome when you’re stoned though isn’t it?

The BPS Research Digest covers a good study on the diversity of sexual arousal in bisexual men. Another reminder of how sexual behaviour doesn’t fit into those neat categories we all like.

Writing for The New Yorker, psychologist Gary Marcus brings the brakes to the AI hype.

The Atlantic has an excellent piece on the dark side of emotional intelligence.

Fascinating study about the layout of mental time lines, brain injury and future confusion, covered by New Scientist.

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

Mother Jones reports on a new study finding that political beliefs interfere with logical reasoning.

Space in the brain: how the hippocampal formation supports spatial cognition. Excellent video introduction to Royal Society special edition.

The New York Times discusses the science of depression and what we still need to acheive.

The Inaccuracy of National Character Stereotypes. Neuroskeptic covers a wonderful study. British people apparently not universally humorous, dashingly good looking and modest.

The Brain Bank blog collects the best neuroscience images of 2013 for your viewing pleasure.

Remember that neurosurgeon who had a near death experience and claimed he had proved the existence of heaven? OK, Mind Hacks readers probably don’t but lots of other folks will. Esquire has an in-depth expose on him. That heaven thing was apparently unlikely.

Cracking the Enigma discusses the latest research on autism and asks whether ‘autistic brains’ are under- or over-connected.

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

The New York Times reports that information overlords Google acquire creature-inspired military robot outfit Boston Dynamics. Honestly. It’s like humanity is attached to a big angry dog and someone keeps yanking the chain.

There’s an excellent and extensive MIT Tech Review piece on the development of neuromorphic chips.

Over 60% of people diagnosed with depression do not actually meet the diagnostic criteria, according to an American study covered in The Atlantic.

The New York Times has an interesting piece on how peak violence is in your first few years of life and how persistent adult violence may be a ‘missing dropoff’ from these period.

Long neglected, severe cases of autism get some attention. Excellent piece from the Simons Foundation.

Nature reports that narcolepsy is all but confirmed as an auto-immune disease. Big news.

Hi Kids, I’m Neuro The Clown! Genius comic strip from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Sifting The Evidence takes a careful look at dubious claims that aspirin could treat aggression.

There’s an interesting piece over at Nautilus on how your brain twists together emotion and place.

Neurocritic covers a curious case study: When Waking Up Becomes the Nightmare: Hypnopompic Hallucinatory Pain.

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

Beware the enthusiasm for ‘neuroeducation’ says Steven Rose in Times Higher Education.

Lots of studies use oxytocin nasal sprays. You can buy it from websites. Neuroskeptic asks does it even reach the brain?

Time magazine finds a fascinating AI telemarketer bot that denies it’s a robot when questioned – with some great audio samples of the conversations.

The Tragedy of Common-Sense Morality. Interesting interview with psychologist of moral thinking Joshua Green in Slate.

Brain Watch takes a calm look at the most hyped concept in neuroscience: mirror neurons.

As is traditional the Christmas British Medical Journal has some wonderfully light-hearted science – including a medical review on the beneficial and harmful effects of laughter.

How much do we really know about sleep? asks The Telegraph.

Chemical adventurers: a potent laboratory neurotoxin is being sold as a legal high online. The Dose Makes The Poison has the news.

Not really into kickstarters but this looks cool: open-source Arduino-compatible 8-channel EEG platform.

Did Brain Scans Just Save a Convicted Murderer From the Death Penalty? Wired on a curious neurolaw development.

How the US military used lobotomies on World War II veterans – an excellent multimedia expose from the Wall Street Journal.

New Scientist takes a critical look at the ‘genetics more important than experience in school exam performance’ study that’s been making the headlines.

The Manifestation of Migraine in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Neurocritic on migraine and opera.

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

C-List celebrity is photographed with a psychology book in her hand and New York Magazine is all over it like Glenn Greenwald with an encrypted harddrive.

The New York Times covers a Dutch scheme to get alcoholics working by paying them in beer. Scheme to get stoners working by paying them in weed probably not as effective.

The British Medical Journal has an entertaining interview with psychiatrist Simon Wessely.

Soaring dementia rates prompt call for global action, reports New Scientist.

Bloomberg reports that the rate of US teens on psychiatric drugs remains steady at 6%. Hey, it could be worse.

Research on illicit drugs is being hampered by daft drug laws says David Nutt in Scientific America. Clearly not the worst scientific censorship “since the banning of the telescope” but the point remains.

Brain Watch has a good round up of discussions surrounding the ‘men and women’s brains are wired differently therefore stereotypes’ study that has been getting everyone’s unisex underwear in a twist.

Electric brain stimulation triggers eye-of-the-tiger effect. Not Exactly Rocket Science has the power-chords (and maybe the power cords – hard to see from this angle).

NPR has one of the few left-brain / right-brain articles you’ll ever want to read. Neuroscientist Tania Lombroso takes a detailed look at the science behind the concept.

The science of hatred. The Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent piece on the psychology of genocide and racism.

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

Science News reports on a ‘brain training’ app that actually seems to be a data gathering tool for big data neuropsychology research. Interesting if not a bit ethically dubious.

The US Military’s science wing DARPA wants to fix broken brains and restore lost memories. Interview with deputy director in Science.

Wired Science launches a new neuroscience blog called Brain Watch written by Mind Hacks alumnus Christian Jarrett.

Important piece in Nature about the Many Labs Project which did a mass replication of psychology studies find 10 out of 13 held up.

Slate has an excellent, explicit discussion of the results from the UK’s National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.

Neurobonkers has an excellent piece reviewing the psychological biases that affect forensic science analyses.

Robots, the ‘uncanny valley’ and identity. Interesting piece in The Telegraph.

The Las Vegas Sun reports on a couple being released from prison after 21 years as evidence for ‘ritual satanic abuse’ based on ‘recovered memories’ and un-validated physical examinations is deemed to be flawed.

A new NeuroPod podcast has hit the wires – this one being a special from the 2013 Society for Neuroscience conference.

Discover magazine reports on a study finding that surprisingly, the more two negotiators match each other’s language styles, the worse things are likely to go.

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

Prosthetics to replace amputated hands can fall into the uncanny valley reports Science News.

The New York Times covers the nascent science of female aggression.

Can gambling machines prevent addiction? asks Scientific American Mind. Answer: of course. Will they? No.

NPR has an excellent piece by neuroscientist Tania Lombroso on whether pictures of brain scans have persuasive power. Only sometimes, it turns out.

The Dream Catcher. Matter has an in-depth piece about sadly over-hippied but genuinely fascinating subject of lucid dreaming.

io9 covers the psychology experiment that led to the phrase “thinking outside the box”.

Brain scans teach us nothing of morality says philosopher of mind Thomas Nagel in a street-fighting review of Joshua Greene’ new book.

NPR reports that your chance is being murdered is heavily to who you have in your social network.

Neuroscientist Kate Mills sets out a programme for understanding the interaction between networked culture and the adolescent brain in a talk from the Serpentine Gallery.

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

The worst neurobollocks infographics on the web – found by the neurobollocks blog.

The symptoms of cyberchondria. Only Human covers an interesting study on online hypochondria.

The Chicago Reader has a profile of razor-sharp psychologist and voice-hearer Nev Jones.

The trials and benefits of bringing up a bilingual baby in The Economist.

USA Today has an excellent piece on how elite troops who are hyper-adjusted to combat re-adjust to civilian life.

The excellent Providentia blog has an interesting historical piece on babies born in the then Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Popping the hood on synaesthesia – what’s going on in there? Interesting piece on the neuroscience of synaesthesia from Wiring the Brain.

The Guardian reports on the luxury-stay addiction rehab industry in Malibu.

BREAKING – Psychologist has opinion: Atheism caused by externalised rage at ‘defective father’ according to new psychoanalytic theory of not believing in Gods reported by Religion News Service.

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

Alcohol, Sleep, and Why You Might Re-think that Nightcap. Gaines, On Brains on why booze isn’t the best sleep promoter.

The Verge reports on the shocking state of evidence in disaster response psychology.

A neuroscience study on a patient in a coma-like vegetative state indicates he is probably paying attention to sounds – reports BBC News.

The Guardian reports that babies remember melodies heard in the womb according to a new study.

What does it feel like to hold a human brain in your hands? A beautiful piece on Oscillatory Thoughts.

Rethinking the adolescent brain. Neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks to The Lancet.

BPS Research Digest covers a study on the ‘cheater’s high‘.

A new psychology paper has found that, ethically, we get worn down over the course of a day. Interesting take from Science 2.0.

mind splutter has a brilliant piece: Time Out Of Mind: A linguistic analysis of 50 years of Bob Dylan lyrics.

This week’s edition of Science is a neuroscience special – all locked sadly – but with a free podcast.

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

Excellent Nature article on the real impressive science behind the ‘fMRI mind reading’ studies that hit the headlines in unhelpful ways.

The I Have a Therapist campaign aims to destigmatise seeing a therapist.

IEEE Spectrum magazine has a piece on the next world’s strongest fMRI scanner – 11.8 Teslas.

The New York Times has a piece on how the US Military’s DARPA research agency are funding deep brain stimulation research to the tune of $70 million dollars.

A DIY low-cost, open-source kit from BITalino for measuring physiological signals – ECG, EMG, GSR and so on.

Interesting neuromarketing twist in Advertising Age: the same ‘brain truth is the real truth’ illusion but turned round to market the product as having a specific effect on the consumer.

Nautilus has an interesting article on how the mathematics behind codebreaking is being applied to neuroscience.

One family’s search to explain a fatal neurological disorder. American Scientist on the fight against hereditary ataxia.

Discover Magazine’s Crux blog has a piece on five sex research pioneers you’ve probable never heard of.

Scans pinpoint the moment anaesthetic puts the brain under. Report by New Scientist.

The excellent and long-running SciCurious neuroscience blog has moved to a new location.

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

Is America Less Mentally Healthy Than A Chilean Jail? asks Neuroskeptic.

BPS Research Digest had a special series of articles on people with exceptional abilities such as super calculators, super recognisers and super agers.

Social psychologists say war is not inevitable – according to e! Science News. Tell that to the social priming folks.

CNET has an in-depth article on how IBM is making computers more like your brain both with neuromorphic chips and a liquid power supply.

What your cinema seat says about your personality, according to psychologist Hiromi Mizuki and some crappy PR story from Australia’s Daily Telegraph

CBS Seattle: Psychologist loses license after prostitute steals laptop. Probably after reading that shit PR story on cinemas.

Sleep ‘cleans’ the brain of toxins reports BBC News. I knew it couldn’t be trusted.

New Scientist reports that the “belief that I’m dead” Cotard delusion has been weakly linked to an anti-viral medication although it’s baffling as to why.

The neuroscientists behind Obama’s billion-dollar BRAIN Initiative published a paper in Neuron outlining ideas for the project. Summary: ‘Shit. What do we do now?’

The Guardian publishes an in-depth profile of the head of Europe’s billion dollar brain project, Henry Markram. Summary: ‘Brains? I thought this was an IT project?’

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

New series of BBC Radio 4’s excellent internet and society programme The Digital Human started this week.

Scientific American cover surprising sex differences in migraine which seem to be almost ‘different diseases’ in men and women.

Post-traumatic stress reactions in survivors of the 2011 massacre on Utøya Island, Norway. Forthcoming study for British Journal of Psychiatry hits the wires.

ESPN have a fascinating piece on boxer Timothy Bradley whose the first fighter to admit to lasting neurocognitive problems after a fight.

Reading fiction can make you a better mind-reader said a widely hyped study. Not so fast says Language Log.

USA Today reports that the US Army has deployed software to predict suicides as way of preventing them.

Despite promising results in controlling neuronal activity, leaders in brain research still struggle turning their work into treatments reports MIT Technology Review.

Breaking – psychologist has opinion: “Men quote from films to bond with each other without having to ask any intimate questions” reports The Telegraph. No, you can’t have those two minutes of your life back.