Neuromatrix: neuroscience video game for kids

Neuromatrix is a soon to be released action-adventure video game for kids that aims to effortlessly teach them about the function of the brain.

It’s aimed at 10-15 year olds and, from the impressive video trailer, it seems to have a bit of a Half-Life vibe about it – a sort of 3D science-based adventure – probably without all the killing though.

Apparently, the brains of scientists from a neuroscience research centre have been attacked by nanobots, and your job is to save them from certain destruction.

The video game takes you through some of the major brain areas and as you tackle each part, you learn about the scientific method, neurons, the motor cortex, the hippocampus and amygdala.

There’s even extensive teacher’s notes online, so adults can try and keep with the kids.

As for me, I’m still waiting for the sequel to Granny’s Garden.

Link to Neuromatrix website (via Brain Waves).
Link to video trailer.

Encephalon 29 rolls into town

The 29th edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has just been published on the ever erudite Memoirs of a Postgrad.

A couple of my favourites include a post on an American football team using the discredited ‘Mozart effect‘ to boost performance, and a review of a paper showing that caffeine perks you up more effectively as you get older.

This edition includes a wide range of articles, so check it out if you’re interested what’s been occupying the minds of cognitive science writers during the last fortnight.

Link to Encephalon 29.

Brain scanning the dead

A study published in Forensic Science International has examined how brain scans can be of use to forensic pathologists – clinicians who perform autopsies to better understand how someone has died, often to provide evidence for a criminal investigation.

Head injuries are unfortunately common. Serious head injuries are most commonly caused by traffic accidents in Europe and Canada, while in the USA they are most commonly caused by firearms.

These cases will typically involve a police investigation, and the usual method is for a forensic pathologist to perform an autopsy on the head and brain to establish exactly what sort of injury occurred.

One of the drawbacks of this method is that it can only be performed once. The tissue is dissected and it’s not possible to keep anything except small samples.

This can be a problem in court, because it means the pathology evidence largely rests on a single examination, done in whatever way the pathologist thought was best, and can rely on their subjective interpretation.

A brain scan might be useful in this situation as it could be independently assessed and might actually pick up some things which might otherwise be missed if the head has to be dissected to be examined.

The study, led by Dr Kathrin Yen, compared findings from a structural MRI scan, a CT scan (an older structural brain scanning technique that uses X-rays) and a post-mortem, on 57 people, the majority of whom had died from serious head injury.

The findings from the scans and the autopsies were compared to see how well they agreed with each other.

The examination of the brain scans entirely missed some signs, such as increased brain pressure, but was 100% accurate in others, such as detecting bleeds between the dura mater, the brain’s tough outer membrane, and the skull.

The researchers note that some of the poor results are likely to be because radiologists aren’t used to forensic examinations as they’re trained to examine living people.

However, the brain scans had a distinct advantage in some cases. In one instance, the brain scan better estimated the size of an internal bleed which was exaggerated during autopsy because it bled further as the brain was cut.

The brain scans also allowed 3D reconstructions which could be examined from various angles to better understand how impacts occurred or what sequence of events might have caused the damage.

The image on the left is of a heat-induced fracture in a man who died in an aeroplane crash. The scan allows the pathologist to see the relationship between the skull fractures and the bleeds in the brain from a number of angles.

The study suggests that brain scanning corpses may give important clues in a forensic investigation but that radiologists may need to be specially trained so they know what they’re looking for.

Link to abstract of scientific study.
Link to more on forensic radiology from Radiology Today.

Battles over the beginnings of language

The New York Times has a review of a new book on the evolution of language that is also a concise guide to the origin and controversies within the field.

The book is The First Word (ISBN 0670034908) by Christine Kenneally and, as the the NYT review makes clear, it tackles one of the most contentious topics in psychology.

In this field, physical evidence is scarce ‚Äî language, except in its written form, leaves no trace ‚Äî and scholarly clout depends on a capacity for ingenious inference and supposition. Christine Kenneally, a linguistics Ph.D. turned journalist, shrewdly begins “The First Word,” her account of this new science, with candid portraits of several of its most influential figures. Appropriately, the first chapter is devoted to Noam Chomsky, whose ideas have dominated linguistics since the late 1950s, and who, as Kenneally reports, has been hailed as a genius on a par with Einstein and disparaged as the leader of a “cult” with “evil side effects.”

Evolutionary psychology tends to generate mixed views among scientists as it has the (somewhat unjustified) reputation of being untestable.

It typically involves discovering a psychological attribute or innate tendency and generating theories as to why we might have it, based on an evolutionary theory of why the presence of this feature might have improved survival or increased chances of sexual reproduction.

Of course, we can’t go back in time to test the theory on early humans, but the theory might suggest the presence or link with other current attributes – something that can be tested experimentally.

However, it’s probably true to say that hypothesis tend to be a little more unconstrained by the evidence than in other fields in psychology.

We now have a slightly odd state of affairs where most psychologists think that evolutionary psychology is a bit suspect, but are quite happy to throw in a few ad-hoc sentences about the possible evolutionary function of whatever they’ve discovered in their latest research paper.

Which, of course, makes the whole thing seem a bit suspect.

The NYT review charts how the debate on the evolution of language has moved from something which was originally considered either pointless or wacky, to a field which is now relatively mainstream.

Link to NYT review of ‘The First Word’.

Superstition and madness

From the entry for ‘madness’ taken from the Cassel Dictionary of Superstitions (ISBN 0304365610):

“It is said that the mad are chosen by God and enjoy the special favour of Heaven. Accordingly, it is thought that particularly lucky throughout Europe to live in the same house as someone who is mad and historically the mad have been well cared for by their local community. Meeting such a person in the street is itself a lucky event in the folklore of fishermen, who interpret such an encounter as confirmation that the day’s catch will be a good one.”

Brain’s walking patterns specific for leg and direction

An ingenious experiment using an adapted treadmill has shown that our brain seems to store patterns for the smooth movement of our legs independently for each leg, and for each direction of walking.

The study, devised by neuroscientists Julia Choi and Dr Amy Bastian, used a split-belt treadmill – a normal treadmill for walking but where each side can be programmed with its own speed and direction.

They asked 40 volunteers to walk on the treadmill while they varied the speed and direction of each belt. They then recorded the limb movements with sensors attached to key body positions.

They found that even for unnatural walking patterns, where the two belts were going in different directions at different speeds, participants quickly adapted so that they maintained smooth graceful walking patterns.

The researchers varied these patterns so that they could separate out the adaptation needed for each limb in different directions.

After the person had adapted to the new pattern, the researchers then asked participants to walk normally.

The participants walked with a limp, showing that the brain had adjusted existing walking patterns within a matter of minutes to allow for the new style of walking, and that this new pattern was stored and still in place, even to the point of slightly disrupting normal walking.

The best demonstration of this is a short video of the results produced by the research team.

Because this could be shown to occur separately for each leg and direction, it suggests that we don’t have a single ‘rhythm generator’ (known as a central pattern generator or CPG) for walking.

This could have important implications for treating people who have walking problems caused by brain damage that affects movement in one particular limb.

Link to study abstract.
Link to video of results.
Link to write-up from Wired.

Muses, Madmen and Prophets

I’m just reading a fantastic book called Muses, Madmen and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination (ISBN 9781594201103) – a wonderfully written book on the complex science and history of ‘hearing voices’.

Annoyingly, the book is published under the name ‘Hearing Voices’ (ISBN 041377645X) in the UK. Annoying, because its the same title as many other books, many of which are on completely different topics.

The book looks at the history of the experience, from some of the most influential ‘voice hearers’ in history, such as Socrates and Joan of Arc, to its classification by psychiatry as a key diagnostic sign of schizophrenia, to its reconsideration as part of the normal diversity of mental phenomena.

We now know that there are many more people who hear voices and never become mentally ill compared to those who become acutely impaired or distressed by the experience.

The book looks at the recent research on the neuropsychology of hallucinated voices but also takes wonderful detours into the significance of the experience for understanding notions of free will and intentionality, creativity and inspiration, and madness and the divine.

The author, ex-editor of Atlantic Monthly, brings an interesting personal angle into the work, as both his father and grandfather heard voices to differing degrees.

So far, I’ve found it poetic, wide-ranging and difficult to put down.

If you’re interested in hearing more, Smith discusses his book and investigations on Boston WBUR Radio which you can listen online.

I also just discovered that Neurophilosophy has a great post on a recent case study of a person with brain injury that affected their speech areas who heard hallucinated voices that had a speech impediment.

Link to book info.
Link to discussion on Boston WBUR radio.
Link to Neurophilosophy on ‘Hearing speech impaired voices’.

Inside Intuition

Can you trust your gut instincts? A BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘Inside Intuition’ offers to address the issue. It’s on this friday – that’s the 17th August – at 11am. Those of you busy or outside of the UK, check the BBC’s fantastic Listen Again pages during the week after broadcast.

BBC Press release here and below the fold, for your convenience.

Continue reading “Inside Intuition”

Cerebrum – Dana’s online neuroscience magazine

Dana, the neuroscience education charity, have an online magazine called Cerebrum that has monthly articles on emerging ideas in brain science.

The latest article is on ‘cosmetic neurology‘, also known as ‘cosmetic pharmacology’, where medical advances are used not to treat diseases but to help with the more day-to-day problems of living or to actually optimise brain function.

Past articles have included, among others, one on cerebral malaria and another protecting the brain from the ‘glutamate storm‘ that can occur after brain injury or stroke.

The Dana Foundation are quite unique in that they specialise in communciating the scientific advances in neuroscience to the public, including special projects for kids, seniors and journalists.

They also publish books (so far, of an exceptionally high standard), run events, broadcast video and podcasts, and give grants to researchers especially aimed at scientists wanting to test out slightly more speculative or ‘blue sky’ ideas.

You could easily spend days on Dana’s website before getting bored. Needless to say, I’m a huge fan.

Link to Cerebrum online magazine.
Link to Dana Foundation website.

The Civil War phantom limb

Below is an early report of a phantom limb – the perception of feeling from a limb which has since been removed – from the partly-autobiographical fiction of American Civil War physician and writer Silas Weir Mitchell.

It recounts the effect in a Civil War soldier who had both legs amputated after suffering battlefield injuries.

It was published in Section III of Mitchell’s sarcastically titled partly autobiographical book The Autobiography of a Quack, available in full on the web.

I got hold of my own identity in a moment or two, and was suddenly aware of a sharp cramp in my left leg. I tried to get at it to rub it with my single arm, but, finding myself too weak, hailed an attendant. “Just rub my left calf,” said I, “if you please.”

“Calf?” said he. “You ain’t none. It’s took off.”

“I know better,” said I. “I have pain in both legs.”

“Wall, I never!” said he. “You ain’t got nary leg.”

As I did not believe him, he threw off the covers, and, to my horror, showed me that I had suffered amputation of both thighs, very high up.

“That will do,” said I, faintly.

Although earlier accounts of phantom limbs have been found in retrospect, Mitchell was the first clinician to seriously consider this phenomenon and he included it, and other neurological conditions, in his fiction.

A recent paper [pdf] in the journal Neurology examined how his writing used these syndromes and what his fiction tells us about the disorders that affect the brain.

pdf of paper ‘The neurologic content of S. Weir Mitchell‚Äôs fiction’.
Link to page with excerpt, with links to full text.

A casebook of Victorian psychiatric patients

I’ve just discovered that Amazon has an excerpt, detailing three patients, from the book Presumed Curable: An Illustrated Casebook of Victorian Psychiatric Patients in Bethlem Hospital (ISBN 1871816483) as part of its ‘look inside’ feature.

The book includes photographs of patients from the Bethlem Royal Hospital, the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital, from the end of the 19th century just as photography was being used clinically.

Early photographs of psychiatric patients were originally taken in an attempt to see if there were any obvious visual similarities between people with mental illness.

While this turned out to be largely futile, it’s left an important historical record.

The book has numerous photograph of patients, each accompanied by the person’s medical notes.

They are quite fascinating, for many reasons, some of which were outlined in Sean Spence’s review of the book in the British Medical Journal:

Such a project throws up a number of questions. What do we expect to see in a book of such photographs? Staring eyes, torn clothes, drooling lips? Are we surprised if they appear unremarkable? Are we any the wiser if the photographs show ordinary people in everyday dress? And is being identified posthumously really a means by which one’s “voice is heard” or “dignity accorded,” as the authors suggest? Which of us would choose to be remembered in this way? Or, perhaps more appropriately, how would an “average” Victorian wish to be remembered? It is noticeable that 16 patients avert their gaze.

The three case studies in themselves are a fascinating read and give us a glimpse into a bygone age of inpatient psychiatry.

As this was the age before antipsychotics, the first effective treatments for psychosis, it also harks back to a bygone era of madness.

Link to excerpt of Presumed Curable.
Link to review in the BMJ.

2007-08-10 Spike activity

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

NPR has a radio show about a new book on ‘cognitive dissonance’, the process that motivates us to resolve conflicts between our thoughts and actions.

Mixing Memory has a wonderfully insightful look at a recent study on mirror neurons, animacy, and gesture.

This is Your Brain on Love. The LA Times has an article on the neuroscience of attraction and companionship.

Scientific American has an article on how the brain parses music and pays attention.

An unusual skull boosts the human-neandertal interbreeding theory, reports National Geographic.

How optimistic should you feel about having your first baby? Cognitive Daily looks at how well expectant mothers are able to predict post-birth satisfaction.

BBC Radio 4 sociology programme Thinking Allowed investigates friendship networks in Amazon peoples and the social psychology of shame and stigma.

‘Brain boosting’ educational videos for babies and young children may actually slow vocabulary growth, reports Science.

Car Zimmer writes about cooperation as a principle of evolution in the New York Times.

The Economist profiles evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller

Dr Petra Boynton looks at a recent study that report self-professed reasons people gave for having sex.

Science tattoos! Carl Zimmer is collecting pictures scientists with work-related ink, including this image of a development psychologist auditory neurophysiologist with the Necker Cube on her arm.

In light of recent disturbance in the mortgage market, Frontal Cortex has an excellent analysis on the psychology of subprime mortgages.

Electrocution during sexual activity

Another in my occasional series on the surprising diversity of human sexuality as demonstrated by the forensic pathology literature.

This is a case report from the The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology on a couple who sadly died while trying a fatal mix of sex and electricity.

Warning: it’s a little uncomfortable in places, so not for the faint hearted.

The intriguing thing about the forensic pathology literature is that it probably only reflects the tip of the iceberg, so far greater numbers of people are likely to be engaging in similar but safer sexual practices.

Link to abstract of ‘Electrocution during sexual activity’.

Win a prize! Awkward acronyms in cognitive science

BBC News is reporting that Scotland has launched a ¬£40 million neuroscience research project called SINAPSE, short for ‘Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence’.

SINAPSE joins a long list of awkward acronyms in the world of psychology and neuroscience, and I’d like to launch a competition to find the most inventive.

These days, even research projects need a snappy title, and research teams are constantly coming up with ways of fitting the project description into a jazzy sounding acronym.

Some of my favourites include:

NEMESIS: Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study
CUtLASS: Cost Utility of the Latest Antipsychotic Drugs in Schizophrenia Study
AESOP: Aetiology and Ethnicity of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses
FACETS: Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States
NeuroproMiSe: Neuroprotective strategies for multiple sclerosis

If you know of any awkward, contrived or borderline inappropriate acronyms (I work in a mental health service called SLAM!) for anything mind or brain related, send them in.

They could be for theories, services, departments, projects or events.

Add your suggestions to the comments, or email them to me at V dot Bell at iop dot kcl dot ac dot uk with ‘awkward acronym’ in the subject line.

Points will be given for the most awkward or spectacular, and I’ll send the winner a copy of David Lodge’s excellent book Thinks, a novel about cognitive scientists.

UPDATE: Get your submission in before Monday 20th August to enter!

In deep: the sociology of gang culture

The Freakanomics blog has an insightful interview with sociologist Prof Sudhir Venkatesh who spends time with US street gangs studying gang culture and organised crime.

Q: What role do women play in gangs?

A: In the 1970s and 1980s, female gangs were independent organizations in places like New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. They tended to be non-criminal, and usually distributed common funds to their members for day care, rent, groceries, and other needs of single mothers. On occasion, they might have engaged in petty fighting, but not often. They were largely political outfits and functioned like social service agencies in ghetto communities that lacked services.

But toward the end of the ’80s, they became wrapped up in drug trafficking ‚Äî and, just like gender subordination in corporate America, they were under the thumbs of males in the gang who controlled the economy. They were indeed “peons” who were given the lowest level jobs by men ‚Äî e.g., watching out for cops, holding drugs, cleaning up after gang parties, prostitution ‚Äî and they had no power at all. No surprise that the female gangs dissolved over time.

Link to Prof Venkatesh interview (via BoingBoing).

Excellent BBC Brain Story series available online

I’ve just noticed that probably one of the best TV series on psychology and neuroscience ever produced, the BBC’s Brain Story, is available on public bittorrent servers for download.

It is a six part series covering virtually every area of contemporary neuropsychology, including the major researchers, discoveries, techniques and even many of the patients who have been the subjects of classic case studies that have helped us understand the curious effects of brain injury.

It is presented by neuroscientist Prof Susan Greenfield and sadly has never been made available by the Beeb, despite it being both a fine teaching aid and completely compelling viewing.

I was blown away by this series when it first appeared and since managed to get a bootlegged copy, but I’ve never seen it on public servers before.

It’s a landmark series in its accuracy and scope, and because it’s so engrossing for both the seasoned professional and the general viewer.

You can find all six episodes by searching torrentspy.com for “brain story”.

WARNING: TorrentSpy is not safe for work due to porn ads and it’s got an annoying amount of popups. However, you can click here to run the search.

I’ve also tried to capture the direct links to the torrent files below, so hopefully these should do the trick without opening any intermediate webpages.

Episode 1: All in the Mind
Episode 2: In the Heat of the Moment
Episode 3: The Mind’s Eye
Episode 4: First Among Equals
Episode 5: Growing the Mind
Episode 6: The Final Mystery

There’s an introductory guide to bittorrent here if you don’t know how to use it. Each episode is approximately 700Mb and lasts 50 minutes.

If you have trouble viewing the video, download VLC media player, free software which plays almost every video format.

Fine science. Fine television. Shouldn’t be missed.