Category: Nonsense

The Neurocritic has found this wonderful designer sofa made around EEG or ‘brain wave’ data captured from artist Lucas Maassen, who also created the wonderful piece of furniture.

There’s more about the construction of the piece on a page on Maassen’s website, but it’s running a bit slow at the moment, so you may need to be a bit patient for it to load.

However, there’s more about the piece at The Neurocritic who also picks up on an update to the neuroscience of EEG alpha wave activity, stereotypically thought to reflect nothing more than a ‘state of relaxation’ in times past, but now known to be involved in a much wider rage of active brain processes.

Link to The Neurocritic on The Electroencephalographer’s Couch.
Link to Maassen’s Brain Wave Sofa page.

Online t-shirt company Psycho Reindeer have this fantastic monkey brain surgeon t-shirt with which you can proudly display your brain tinkering tendencies.

It’s only $14 and looks kinda funky.

If you do have a monkey by the way, it’s best not to let them do neurosurgery with a screwdriver as the t-shirt suggests.

I always make sure that they’re involved purely in an advisory capacity.

Link to monkey brain surgeon t-shirt.

A common belief says that eating cheese causes vivid dreams or nightmares. However, I couldn’t find any support for the idea in the scientific literature except for one bizarre case study.

Although the case report really tells us nothing about the link between cheese and dreaming, it’s lovely to read because it’s from a bygone day where doctors could write into medical journals with their strange and idiosyncratic observations.

From a 1964 edition of the British Medical Journal:

I have lately seen a patient with moderate essential hypertension who because of various side-effects with other drugs was changed to pargyline, 25 mg every morning; this gave satisfactory control and within a fortnight the patient volunteered that he felt much less depressed, but was having nightmares.

Inquiry produced the fact that he habitually ate one or two ounces (30-60 g) of Cheddar cheese with his supper every evening. The nightmares were of a horrifying nature, and curiously they were concerned not with his immediate family or friends but with people such as his workmates, with whom he was not in any particular emotional relationship. He dreamt of one, terribly mutilated, hanging from a meat-hook. Another he dreamt of falling into a bottomless abyss. When cheese was withdrawn from his diet the nightmares ceased.

I am, etc. J. CHARLES SHEE, Bulawayo, S. Rhodesia.

The mentioned drug, pargyline, as well as being used for hypertension is in the same class of drugs more commonly used as antidepressants.

These are monoamine oxidase B inhibitors (MAOIs) which prevent the breakdown of the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin, epinephrine and norepinephrine. However, they also prevent the breakdown of the chemical tyramine which occurs naturally in some foods, such as cheese, some soy bean products, processed meats and some fruit and nuts.

A build up of tyramine can cause an increase in blood pressure which can cause headaches, heart problems and increases the chance of stroke (blood vessel blockage or bleeds in the brain). Hence, people taking MAOI antidepressants have to avoid foods high in tyramine to prevent these potentially lethal side-effects.

Interestingly, the fact that the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was apparently avoiding similar foods led to internet rumours that he was on these antidepressants, which caused a media flap when the BBC questioned him about his mental health and use of “pills” to “get through”.

Link to PubMed entry for case study with full text option.

With debates still raging over the new version of the psychiatrists’ diagnostic manual, the DSM-V, a selection of radical new diagnoses have been submitted which may give the committee pause for thought.

They have been carefully reviewed by Matthew Hutson over at Psychology Today and we include a couple so you can see how this paradigm shift in medical thinking may affect future practice:

Napoleon Complex

Antecedents: Being short, male; having a French accent.

Symptoms: Power-seeking. Attempting to compensate for small stature through aggression, tall hats.

Notes: Despite widespread misconception, Napoleon Bonaparte of France was of average height for his time. He was actually compensating for almost imperceivably asymmetrical nostrils.

Neapolitan Complex (also known as Tripolar Disorder)

Antecedents: Being Italian; nearly drowning in a vat of frozen dairy dessert.

Symptoms: Having a light side, a dark side, and a sickeningly rosy side. Wanting to be everything to everyone. Chronic brain freeze.

There’s plenty more in the full piece but on a more serious note, a short article in Psychiatric News reflects on one psychiatrist’s attempt to communicate with the DSM-V committee while finding that actually, much of it has already been decided.

Link to humorous diagnostic suggestions at Psychology Today.
Link to Psychiatric Times piece on ‘the DSM process’.

Stephen Colbert did a brilliantly funny piece on his show the other night, tackling the introduction of ‘snus‘ to the USA, tobacco pouches that fit under the lip, and the increasing placebo effect, a topic which we discussed recently.

Colbert tries the snus pouches on the programme, which, I have to say, seem remarkably uninviting, and riffs on the health benefits of sugar pills with plenty of laughs.

Link to Stephen Colbert clip (thanks Veronica!)

Morphologica is a neuroscientist in the final stages of her PhD who also makes wonderful brain-inspired jewellery.

The piece in the picture is the lovely pyramidal neuron necklace, although there are also earrings and necklaces inspired by the double helix, the contours of the cortical surface and cell proliferation.

And if you’re a jewellery wearer (sadly, I can never find the shoes to match) you can pick up any of the pieces from Morphologica’s online store.

Link to Morphologica.

Psychiatric drugs are an essential tool in the treatment of mental illness but the pharmaceutical industry is still one of the most ethically dubious enterprises on the planet. That’s why I use spoof drug ads, because sometimes only the best will do.

If you want to be part of the health care revolution, here’s a selection of some of the finest drugs that money can’t buy:

The Onion News Network reports on Despondex, the first depressant drug for persistent perkiness.

Havidol is the first and only treatment for Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder. When more is not enough.

The happiest drug on the planet is clearly Progenivoritox, just be careful about those side-effects.

Panexa is a prescription drug that should only be taken by patients experiencing one of the following disorders: metabolism, binocular vision, digestion (solid and liquid), circulation, menstruation, cognition, osculation, extremes of emotion.

Depressed? Over worked? Job suck? Unappreciated? Family problems? Money worries? Well here’s a pill for you! Fukitol.

So next time you’re affected by drug companies hiding unfavourable results, burying data about side effects, illegally promoting pills for unlicensed conditions, stuffing doctors’ pockets with cash and gifts, promoting scientifically unfeasible theories and pushing astroturfed health campaigns, ask the drug industry to continue their essential work without being so unnecessarily dodgy.

Warning: side effects may vary.

Last Exit to Nowhere are an online retailer who do fantastic tshirts of logos from fictional companies. This t-shirt is for Skynet, the corporation from the Terminator movies who create the artificially intelligent military network that becomes sentient and starts a war on humans.

In fact, there’s loads of cognitive science themed t-shirts, including companies from Bladerunner, Total Recall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Robocop, 2001 and so on.

The Skynet t-shirt is my favourite although you should clearly deactivate any cognitive scientist wearing it without a trace of irony.

By the way, the UK military communications network is called Skynet. Only funny if you don’t think about it too hard.

Link to Last Exit to Nowhere.
Link to Skynet t-shirt.

We occasionally thrown down a few mind and brain t-shirts for you here at Mind Hacks but I’ve recently discovered a whole t-shirt label dedicated to the stuff between your ears.

The Printed Mind has a number of fantastic big graphic t-shirts dedicated to the mind and brain, and because they look so great, I think we can ignore the occasional lapse (*cough* total disregard) for anatomical correctness.

I mean, you wouldn’t want a naked lady tattoo where someone had got the anatomy wrong, so why would you want it on a t-shirt?

Maybe if it was glow in the dark?

Now you’re talking.

Link to The Printed Mind online shop (via Coty Gonzales).

I was told of this funny bit of medical jargon yesterday by a psychiatrist friend of mine, which, apparently, is occasionally used by physicians when they want a medical sounding way of saying that the patient’s symptoms exist only in their imagination.

Luckily I found a great definition on Urban Dictionary:

Supratentorial

A word used by doctors and nurses to imply that a patient’s problems are all in their mind. The tentorium is a membrane just under the brain, so “supratentorial” refers to what is above that, namely the brain. This term can be used in front of the patient or patient’s family because it sounds like technical jargon.

Patient: “Every time Dr Phil comes on TV, my arms and legs start twitching!”

Doctor, quietly to nurse: “Seems to be a supratentorial problem.”

Then to patient, condescendingly: “Sorry, dear, we’re just talking shop. Go on.”

Link to Urban Dictionary definition (thanks Quinton!)

xsomnis is a Flickr user with a passion for the patisserie who has made these wonderful brain cupcakes for the next time you have some distinguished zombies round for afternoon tea.

She’s even created a Flickr set that explains how to make the sweet brain toppings.

They almost look too good to eat. Unless you’re undead of course.

Link to zombie brain cupcakes.
Link to brain topping instructions.

concertinapieces is a psychology student who makes wonderful crochet neurons that you can buy over the interwebs, although she warns that “your neuron may vary slightly in dendritic branches as no two are alike :)”

Her online shop has motor, bipolar and hippocampal pyramidal neurons that you can use to begin creating your reanimated textile zombie brain.

Actually, I quite fancy the idea of a crochet Purkinje neuron but I suspect it would need so much wool you’d need a truck to deliver it.

Might make for a great duvet though.

Slate magazine has an article on “how the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting” which has become remarkably popular but buys into the dopamine myth and misapplies it to the nebulous concept of ‘information’.

The piece is, on the surface, quite appealing because it seems to give a more sophisticated account of the dopamine = pleasure myth of old, suggesting instead that dopamine really equals seeking and it’s the system that motivates us to search out rewards.

There is a some truth in this, as one of the several theories of the dopamine system is that it works as a reward prediction system, based on evidence that dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmentum fire when a neutral event (like a beep) comes shortly before a reward (like food) but disappears when the beep keeps happening without any food arriving.

This theory is not without its problems by the way, and it shouldn’t be assumed that this is really how it is.

The article rambles on a bit about the distinction between pleasure and seeking, experiments on dopamine and motivation, and then falls off a cliff:

Ever find yourself sitting down at the computer just for a second to find out what other movie you saw that actress in, only to look up and realize the search has led to an hour of Googling? Thank dopamine….

Panksepp says a way to drive animals into a frenzy is to give them only tiny bits of food: This simultaneously stimulating and unsatisfying tease sends the seeking system into hyperactivity.

Berridge says the “ding” announcing a new e-mail or the vibration that signals the arrival of a text message serves as a reward cue for us. And when we respond, we get a little piece of news (Twitter, anyone?), making us want more.

So we’ve gone from the neurobiology of dopamine in rats rewarded by food pellets to the “ding” of an email arriving. Science!

The crucial issue is the question of what counts as a reward. In almost all of these articles, it is assumed that Google and Twitter work as rewards because they are ‘information’.

But as far as the brain is concerned, ‘information’ encompasses all input from the senses. When you look a tree searching for unusual patterns in the bark, you are getting information and rewards. We could just as easily rewrite the article as “how the brain hard-wires us to love forests, trees, and curious patterns in the bark”.

You could, of course, and the article would be equally as (in)valid scientifically, but you’d never get it in the media because there’s currently a market for faux science internet scare stories but not hand-wringing over the addictive potential of trees.

But apart from these cultural issues, the article confuses primary (or natural) rewards and secondary (or learnt) rewards. Primary rewards are things like food, sex and escape from pain. They’re acquired from evolution, essential for our survival and universal. Secondary rewards are things like money, praise and well… anything else and that’s because we have to learn secondary rewards.

There’s nothing innately rewarding about a crumpled bit of coloured paper but we’ve learnt to link money to our innate primary rewards.

In contrast, the article makes a leap between mostly animal studies that have looked at the neurobiology of primary reward prediction and misapplies it to digital technology as if receiving ‘information’ is equivalent to a rat receiving a food pellet when it’s hungry.

But the concept of ‘information’ is orders of magnitude more abstract because there is nothing innately rewarding about a sensation. It depends on how we interpret the sensation or, in information terms, its content.

For example, the article implies that ‘novel’ and ‘unpredictable’ digital information is rewarding but if this is the case, why do we dislike spam so much? The explanation lies in why that information is meaningful and this goes way beyond misapplied ideas about the dopamine reward system.

We are not motivated to seek any information, otherwise I’d never take my eyes off the sky. The meaning and relevance is key.

In other words, if you want to explain compulsive behaviour you need to explain how the behaviour has become rewarding and this could be as varied and different as human nature itself.

The ‘dopamine reward system’ explanation is one of the most widely abused and misapplied scientific theories in the popular press. Be wary when anyone can’t explain why it is relevant.

Link to Slate article ‘Seeking’.

I’ve just come across a brilliant 1966 sketch about a psychiatrist from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s classic comedy series Not Only… But Also.

Peter Cook plays a psychiatrist who takes his reasonable acceptance of his patient’s behaviour to the extreme with Dudley Moore as his comic foil.

It’s actually a parody of a technique in psychotherapy called “unconditional positive regard” in which the therapist accepts the person’s behaviour, experiences and emotions, good or bad, without judging the person’s core value as a human being.

This was originally developed by psychologist Carl Rogers as part of a humanistic or person-centred approach to psychotherapy.

While few therapists would consider themselves purely Rogerian in their approach nowadays, his general assumptions are now widely used in all forms of psychological treatment. Probably as a result he has been voted the most influential psychotherapist twice over the last 50 years.

Apparently he’s been so influential that he even influenced Pete and Dud’s comedy.

By the way, I picked up the link from the Twitter stream of @mariapage, a Greek student who consistently posts interesting and eye-opening psychology links. Thanks!

UPDATE: I’ve discovered this wasn’t the only psychiatrist sketch Pete and Dud did. There’s footage of another brilliant parody available here. In this one, Peter Cook makes looks of banal pseudo-Freudian observations about the state of Dudley Moore’s relationship with his wife. There’s also a great piss-take of behavioural therapy.

Link to The Psychiatrist sketch from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

It’s an age old story. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. The trauma of the breakup affects his mind so badly he starts to believe he’s in a boy band. The whole band get admitted to an asylum and start hallucinating a long list of cheap clich√©s about mental illness. Yes, it’s the video for ‘N Sync’s 1999 track “I Drive Myself Crazy” which is wrong in just so many ways.

If I was their consulting psychologist, my first thought on observing their behaviour and mental state would be – what the feck happened to your hair?

Is this some sort of bizarre form of public self-harm? Or the result of an unknown type of psychosis?

Call the DSM-V committee.

This is an emergency.

Link to N Sync video ‘I Drive Myself Crazy’.