Cognitive Daily starts weekly podcasts

Cognitive science blog Cognitive Daily has started a new weekly podcast of their fantastic summaries of scientific studies.

The first is a 10-minute run through of two recent articles: one on a study that looked at whether police were more likely to shoot at black suspects, and the other on why people with ‘tone deafness’ have trouble understanding rhythm.

Currently, the podcast is in m4a format, which may be a bit frustrating if you don’t own an Apple iPod or similarly compatible player, but otherwise I look forward to hearing a lot more.

Link to first Cognitive Daily podcast.

All in the Mind on brain-computer interfaces

This week’s edition of ABC Radio All in the Mind is a special investigation into brain-computer interfaces, the science of putting computer equipment under direct neurocognitive control.

This could either be done by non-invasively reading brain activity, or in the case of people with disorders that affect their movement, by implanting electrode arrays into the brain directly.

Artist Pro Hart died of it, so did actor David Niven – the nightmarish legacy of Motor Neurone disease which paralyses the body as the disease progresses. Communication can become restricted to an eye-blink, with the mind remaining intact and active in a frozen body. But the technological cutting edge of the brain-computer interface could make a difference, and help people communicate with the outside world using the only thing they have left…their mind. Turn on the TV, switch off the lights and even send emails, just by thinking about it? No, it’s not hocus-pocus.

Link to AITM edition on ‘The Brain Computer Interface’ with audio.

Boot camp for the brain

Scientific American has an article on military research programmes that are attempting to optimise the brain for the next generation ‘warfighter’ – the US army’s jargon for the modern solider.

The article is by Dr Jonathan Moreno and is largely made up of excerpts from his new book Mind Wars (ISBN 1932594167) which we featured previously on Mind Hacks.

The SciAm article covers some of the technologies that might reduce the need for sleep, improve mental performance, and get rid of those pesky emotional reactions that crop up when faced with imminent slaughter.

If DNA testing for a fear gene is both scientifically and ethically dicey, what about setting out to create people who lack that characteristic? Would breeding humans without stathmin or other genes associated with fear reactions engender more courageous fighters? Would parents sign on for such meddling if they harbored ambitions for a child capable of a glorious military career or just didn’t want to give birth to a “sissy”? One problem, however, is that fear or its functional equivalent is one of those ancient properties exhibited by just about every animal. It surely has tremendous survival value. Removing it would be deeply counterevolutionary and would almost certainly generate numerous unintended and undesirable consequences for the individual, let alone thrust humans headlong into a fierce debate about whether enhancing ourselves has gone too far.

Proponents of such artificial enhancements argue that the changes may not be artificial at all. Is there even a valid distinction, they ask, between artificial and “natural” enhancements such as exercise and discipline? Aren’t we just trying to gain whatever advantages we can, as we have always tried to do, or are these techniques cheating nature? Can we manage the consequences, or are the risks for the individual and for humanity too great?

Link to SciAm article ‘Juicing the Brain’.

What caused Nietzsche’s insanity and death?

A paper just published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica reconsiders the insanity and death of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who is commonly thought to have died of neurosyphilis.

In contrast, the authors of the new study suggest that Nietzsche died of frontotemporal dementia – a type of dementia that specifically affects the frontal and temporal lobes.

While many people have ‘diagnosed’ historical figures in retrospect, this study is different, in that the authors reviewed Nietzsche’s actual medical notes in light of what is known about the progression of syphilis and dementia today.

More than 100 years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains one of the most contentious figures in the history of philosophy. His writings contain some of the most profound philosophical statements of the 19th century, and have been exceptionally influential. However, they also express ambiguities and contradictions, which leave scholars perplexed and still arguing about their meaning and intent. Such ambiguities are reflected not only in Nietzsche’s life, but also in his terminal illness and death.

Following a psychotic breakdown in 1889, at the age of 44 years, he was admitted to the Basel mental asylum and on 18 January 1889 was transferred to the Jena mental asylum. He remained in demented darkness until his death on 25 August 1900. In Basel, a diagnosis of general paralysis of the insane (GPI; tertiary cerebral syphilis) was made. This diagnosis was confirmed in Jena and is still widely accepted. However, even some of Nietzsche’s contemporaries doubted this. The lack of certainty about his primary luetic infection, the long duration of the disease and some clinical features lead us to question the diagnosis of GPI.

In this study, we re-construct the anamnesis [clinical history] of Nietzsche’s illness and review the clinical presentation. We then note the natural history of GPI as it was at the turn of the 19th century, and suggest an alternative diagnosis, namely that of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) which has been characterized in detail only in the last two decades.

Link to abstract of paper.

Living rough in body and mind

A study on homeless people admitted to a psychiatric emergency clinic has reported that a third have active psychosis.

The study, published in the medical journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, was conducted in Bordeaux state hospital in France.

That study also found that most of the homeless people admitted to the clinic had already been identified by mental health services as suffering from a severe mental illness, suggesting that homelessness was a consequence of losing contact with mental health support.

Among those homeless people with psychosis, there was an over-representation of men, and people with drug addictions.

The actual number of homeless people with psychosis may actually be higher, as clinic samples tend to under-estimate the extent of mental health problems in the population, owing to the fact that people who go to clinics tend to be there for immediate help for current difficulties.

Link to abstract of scientific paper.

Surgical removal of half the brain – video

The Neurophilosopher has found an amazing video of a neurosurgical procedure to remove one hemisphere of the brain in a child – a treatment for otherwise untreatable epilepsy.

The procedure is known as a hemispherectomy and remarkably, not only can children survive this operation, but in some cases, can graduate high school and university when they are older.

This is a testament to the brain’s ability to grow and adapt during childhood – something often called ‘plasticity’ in the scientific literature.

There’s some more information and links about this remarkable operation in a previous post on Mind Hacks.

The surgical case in the video is from Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center and involves a 6 year-old girl who suffered brain damage before she was born.

In her case, a problem with the middle cerebral artery meant that part of the brain didn’t get a proper blood supply. This caused one hemisphere to develop abnormally (see the brain scan on the right).

Damaged or malformed brain tissue can lead to epilepsy in both children and adults, and this is exactly what happened in this case.

If seizures can’t be controlled by anti-epileptic medication one option is to surgically remove or isolate the source of the seizures in the brain.

Frequent seizures can lead to problems with day-to-day living, cognitive impairment, further brain damage and increase the chances of sudden unexpected death, which is a rare but tragic.

Therefore, surgery is often a life-saving procedure at best, or at the least, can make the patient a great deal safer.

Notably, before the surgery, the girl in the video wears a helmet. These are often given to children who have frequent seizures to prevent head injury when they fall.

The video explains some of the background to the case, and the surgeons narrate and explain the procedure as they go.

Fascinating stuff.

Link to Neurophilosopher’s page with video.

2006-12-01 Spike activity

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

Fascinating article on why the study of watch-makers has linked ambidexterity to self-reflection.

Slate has a skeptical article on the recent research on the neuroscience of ‘speaking in tongues’.

Psyblog collects a series of recent internet writing on emotion as part of an ongoing series.

A radio programme on NPR discusses new research that suggests that a gene linked to brain development may influence handedness.

Bookslut has a review of Gerald Edelman’s new book on consciousness.

Lots of video clips online from a 60 Minutes documentary on the use of beta-blocker propranolol to prevent disturbing memories and PTSD after trauma.

A blind man reportedly experiences déjà vu Рsuggesting a sight-based theory of the curious memory effect may be false.

The New York Sun has a fascinating analysis of Freud in light of Nietzsche’s analysis of the human mind: Freud’s Will to Power.

Developing Intelligence is back after a short break with two fantastic articles on understanding and treating traumatic brain injury.

Doctor, I’m hearing voices (discussing psychiatry)

Both the British and American Journals of Psychiatry are now broadcasting their own monthly podcasts that discuss some of the feature articles in each month’s issue.

Unlike many of the articles themselves, the podcasts are freely available to download from the moment they’re released.

The British podcasts are hosted by Dr Raj Persaud and involve interviews with researchers and discussions about the issues raised by their findings.

In contrast, the American podcasts sound like an excessively thorough lecture given by a voice synthesiser.

I suspect the American version is an attempt to produce an audio version of the academic paper, while the British podcasts could probably picked up by non-specialists who could still get an understanding of the area, and by specialists who would enjoy them even if they’d already read the paper itself.

It’s interesting to see how many scientific journals are now creating podcasts to accompany their publication, and hopefully this will make research more widely accessible to the public at large.

Link to British Journal of Psychiatry podcasts.
Link to American Journal of Psychiatry podcasts.

Getting a head in childhood

The Times covers research published in the journal Paediatrics indicating that head size at one year old predicts intelligence in later childhood.

A research team led by Dr Catherine Gale measured the head circumference of 633 children at birth, and regularly afterwards.

The kept in contact with the families and assessed the children at 4 and 8 years for mental performance.

The team found that intelligence was positively related both to head size at birth, and to head growth during childhood.

Interestingly, the same team did a study looking back at older people’s medical records and compared their head size at birth and in adulthood, to their IQ measured in their 60s and 70s.

They found no relationship between birth head size and current IQ, but did find a relationship between adult head size and IQ.

This may suggest that their are complex life-long factors affecting brain development that affect intelligence differently as we age.

Link to article in The Times.

Electrical brain stimulation for coma reversal

This is one I missed a couple of months ago: Wired had an article on a novel technique that might help rouse people from coma – applying electrical currents to spinal nerves to stimulate the brain.

The surgeon mentioned in the story, Edwin Cooper, has published a number of studies on the technique, which involves applying an electrical current to the right median nerve which connects directly to the spine.

A Japanese team is attempting to do something similar, but uses electrodes implanted directly in the spine itself to stimulate the dorsal column.

The idea behind the treatment is that the electrical current travels up the spinal nerves and boosts the reticular activating system, a part of the brain stem known to be involved in arousal and motivation.

This in turn should boost the activity of higher brain centres, including the thalamus and then the cortex.

More recently, Japanese researchers have attempted to use electrodes implanted directly in the brain to increase arousal, with some success in early trials.

As an aside, Edwin Cooper is a member of the Lifeboat Foundation, a futurist organisation that aims to develop technology to save the planet from cataclysmic events such as global pandemics or holocaust.

This includes “self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail”.

Needless to say, Ray Kurzweil is involved.

Link to Wired article ‘Back From the Dead’.

God moves in mysterious waves

Discover magazine has an excellent article on the neuroscience of religious or spiritual experience, an area sometimes known as neurotheology.

Although researchers vary in their own spiritual beliefs, it is possible to be an atheist and still study spiritual experience.

Just as a complete understanding of the visual system wouldn’t disprove the existence of any particular object you see (after all, it could be a true perception, or it could be an illusion), studying the experience of God, doesn’t really tell us anything about whether God exists or not.

One of the most established researchers in this area is Dr Michael Persinger who has stimulated the temporal lobes with weak but shifting magnetic fields (using a modified helmet, pictured) and claims to have induced the experience of a ‘sensed presence’ in na√Øve volunteers.

Persinger notes that minor temporal lobe disturbances are common throughout the population, and are more common in people with high numbers of paranormal beliefs.

Supposedly, a form is the helmet is available for sale over the internet, although as the tag-line of the website is “Neurotheology, Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Deja Vu, Death, God, Sex, Love, and more” it sounds more like a track-listing from a Hawkwind album than a serious piece of research equipment.

The article covers most of the major neurotheology research groups, and gives an overview of their main aims.

Link to article ‘The God Experiments’.

Liquid psychiatry

Due to the public’s confusion over the difference between psychiatry and psychology, I have developed a minor hobby out of spotting the word ‘psychiatry’ in places it shouldn’t be.

This was inspired by hearing someone on the bus accuse her friend of using ‘reverse psychiatry’ on her.

Another one that seems to pop up is ‘abnormal psychiatry‘, which is presumably where doctors treat mental illness while acting a bit oddly.

One of my favourites though, is on a drinks can sold by sandwich shop Pret. The ‘Yoga Bunny Detox’ drink is advertised as being ‘liquid psychiatry’.

I’ve checked the ingredients, and there seems to be no trace of psychotropic drugs, so I presume it just takes my blood and interviews me for signs of psychopathology.

Any other sightings of out-of-place psychiatry would be gratefully received.

Serotonin Christmas decorations

Purveyor of molecular gifts and jewellery Made With Molecules has just launched a new line for Christmas: serotonin Christmas decorations for your tree.

They’ve also added to their existing range with jewellery made from the caffeine molecule, and the theobromine molecule – one of the psychoactive ingredients in chocolate.

So if you want to decorate either yourself or your house with drugs and neurotransmitters, you know where to go.

Link to Made With Molecules

Are you normal? Are you mad?

BBC Radio 4 is running a series at the moment called Am I Normal? that looks at differences in the body and mind. The most recent edition was on madness and psychosis, and the audio is available online.

Psychosis is the mental state in which delusions and hallucinations are prominent, and is usually linked to diagnoses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

The programme tackles the experience of psychosis and how frequently these experiences occur in the general population.

Recent research has indicated that the experiences previously thought to be diagnostic of madness, actually occur in many people who never become distressed or impaired.

It may be the extent and impact of these experiences, rather than just their presence, that is important.

Weight is something which is distributed throughout the population, with some people being heavier than others, and some being considered so overweight as to need medical treatment.

In the same way, psychosis-like experience is thought to operate on a continuum, and those with the more frequent or intense experiences being more likely to end up being treated by mental health professionals because they are distressed or impaired.

One of the factors known to impact on how distressed and impaired people become is how they evaluate and make sense of strange experiences.

Knowing that odd ideas or hallucinations are common (studies estimate about 10-20% of the population report them at some point) can significantly reduce distress in some people, and makes others less likely to stigmatise or react badly.

Weird is the new normal. Spread the word.

Link to ‘Am I Normal?’ programme webpage.
realaudio of programme on madness.