There are two types of people in the world. Those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don’t.
No idea where this quotation came from, but I always think of it whenever I come across black and white classifications in psychology.
Alternatively, McSweeney’s has a typology based on breakfast cereal.
The latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has a comprehensive review of the evidence on whether cannabis contributes to causing psychotic mental illness – the best known being schizophrenia.
It has been known for a long time that there is a link between cannabis use and psychosis, but it was not known whether cannabis contributed to the development of psychosis, or whether people with psychosis were just more likely to smoke cannabis because it helps dispell some of the unpleasant emotions and feelings associated with the condition.
There is now good evidence that cannabis can contribute to the cause of psychosis, particularly during adolescence and early adulthood.
At a population level, this effect is detectable but small.
At the individual level, the effect seems to be quite variable. Recent research has suggested that the risk of developing psychosis when using cannabis is heavily influenced by what version of the COMT gene a person has.
The main conclusions of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry review are summarised in an editorial, but for those wanting the in-depth lowdown, the full paper is also available online.
Link to August 2006 Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
ABC Radio’s The Philosopher’s Zone has just had two special editions on Freud and his relevance to modern day thinking.
The programmes look at two contrasting areas of his wide-ranging theories.
The first is on Freud’s contribution to philosophy and the second contrasts Freud’s theories of dreaming with modern dream science derived from neuroscience.
The discussion picks out theories which were seminal in igniting research, and those which have not stood the test of time.
For those wanting an almost entirely critical take on Freud, the Times Literary Supplement has a review of a Frederick Crews’ new book entitled Follies of the Wise (ISBN 1593761015), which attempts to show that even many of Freud’s more popular ideas are fundamentally flawed.
Taking pot shots at Freud is quite fashionable in this day and age. However, as Freud wrote so much and about so many different topics, it is easy to find something to criticise but difficult to dismiss all his ideas at once.
Link to Philosopher’s Zone on Freud the Philosopher.
Link to Philosopher’s Zone on The Dream Debate.
Link to TLS book review.
The latest edition of psychology and neuroscience writing carnival Encephalon has arrived, this time hosted on OmniBrain.
A couple of my favourite’s include Neurocritic’s analysis of a recent study on the potential role of mirror neurons in viewing erotic images, and The Neurophilospher’s look at the latest development in MRI brain-scanning technology.
Scientific American has released Secrets of the Senses and Uncommon Genius, two new editions of their special collections relevant to mind and brain enthusiasiasts.
Ths special editions are collections of past articles from Scientific American on a single topic, that are available as an online pdf file for $5 dollars each.
The Secrets of the Senses edition has articles on everything from visual consciousness to phantom limbs, while the Uncommon Genius edition looks at special talents, perhaps linked with psychiatric or neurological disorders or other uncommon human variations.
Link to info on Secrets of the Senses edition.
Link to info on Uncommon Genius edition.
Mind Hacks has been chosen as September’s book of the month by online review site Books in the Bog.
Mind Hacks is, fortunately for our toilet shelves, anything but an academic text book, yet manages to still do a great job in introducing how some of the mind’s systems work, though simple examples you can try at home (even in your loo if you don’t feel too odd occasionally taking in the odd volunteer).
The review also includes an interview with co-author Matt Webb on how he developed his own interest in the mind and brain, so head on over if you want Matt’s take on the book and his other favourite reads.
Link to Mind Hacks review.
I’m putting together my lectures for the visual perception part of PSY101 (which I’m teaching in a few weeks). I was so proud of this particular slide that I had to share it:
Long-time readers of Mindhacks.com will know what I’m on about. Original paper available from the Homepage of Rodrigo Quian Quiroga
Yesterday’s Nature contains an intriguing short report of how stimulating part of the brain during neurosurgery induced the feeling that a shadowy version of the patient’s body had appeared and was mirroring the patient’s movements.
The patient was undergoing routine neurosurgery to examine the brain, prior to more serious neurosurgery to treat otherwise untreatable epilepsy.
It is not uncommon for patients to volunteer to take part in simple neuroscience experiments during these procedures.
Patients have to be awake for part of the neurosurgery anyway because the surgeons probe the brain to make sure they avoid removing any areas essential for language, memory and so on.
The experience of feeling or seeing a double or your own body is called autoscopy or heautoscopy.
In this case, a team of researchers led by neuroscientist Shahar Arzy managed to induce this experience by stimulating an area of the brain called the left temporoparietal junction.
This is the area on the left side of the brain where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe meet (see the pink arrow in the image on the left).
This is not the first case of this kind. The Nature report is from the lab of Olaf Blanke which has reported a number of cases of this condition, either owing to brain injury, epilepsy, or induced by brain stimulation.
In a 2004 paper published in Brain, Blanke’s team reported on a number of patients who experienced this phenomenon, including one who said “I see myself lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs” when her brain was also stimulated in the left temperoparietal junction.
In a further recent paper published in Cortex, Peter Brugger and colleagues reviewed 14 cases of ‘polyopic heautoscopy’, where patients experience multiple doubles of their own body.
(NB: This paper is available on Cortex’s website but because their site is such as mess, you can’t link to it directly and you have to use Explorer to navigate. Isn’t progress great?)
The temporoparietal junction might be significant as it is thought to process and hold representations of the body and its relationship to external space.
One interesting aspect of the Nature paper is that the patient reported that her double was unpleasant and seemed to have somewhat malign intentions:
Further stimulations (11.0 mA; n=2) were applied while the seated patient performed a naming (language-testing) task using a card held in her right hand: she again reported the presence of the sitting “person”, this time displaced behind her to her right and attempting to interfere with the execution of her task (“He wants to take the card”; “He doesn‚Äôt want me to read”).
The authors suggest they may have found evidence for the mechanism behind ‘delusions of control’ or ‘passivity symptoms’ usually linked to schizophrenia.
These are experiences or beliefs that the body and / or mind is being controlled by external forces.
However, not all patients with autoscopy report their experiences as malign, and it may be that the effect of the anaesthetics (known to induce paranoia in some), epilepsy (also linked to risk for psychosis) or the stress of the operation, may have given an unpleasant or malign twist to the experience which might not be directly linked to the disruption of the proposed brain mechanism itself.
The paper is also discussed on Nature’s news service.
Link to abstract of Nature study.
Link to Nature News write-up.
Link to full-text of 2004 Brain paper.
Link to full-text of Journal of Neuroscience paper on tempororparietal junction, body image and self .
London’s Victoria Miro Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition by Stephen Willats entitled From My Mind to Your Mind.
Willats uses his artwork to explore how people makes sense of the world, particularly in terms of how we operate and interact as individuals in society.
Particularly focusing on urban life, he often critiques the way in which modern city-based living affects not only the practical aspects of life, but also how we begin to perceive the world through this urban lens.
The Tate Modern recently hosted a discussion with Willats on his work, and have made the podcasts available online.
The exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery runs until the 30th September.
Link to information and images from Victoria Miro Gallery.
Link to podcasts of discussion with Willats from Tate Modern.
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
Memory difficulties in older people may signal brain tissue loss in some, reports New Scientist.
GNIF Brain Blogger gives a rundown on the DSM – the diagnostic manual for psychiatric disorders.
The New York Times discusses the psychology of one of the most widely-known but scientifically neglected human motivations – fame.
The Neurophilosopher digs up some beautiful neuroanatomy drawings from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
I don’t know why we don’t just have a permanent feed to Developing Intelligence…
Recent favourites include:
* Interactions of memory and attention
* Sensory gating by prefrontal cortex
* Two connectionist models of reading
ABC Radio’s All in the Mind discusses the Journey Through Madness – a family’s story of their experience of mental illness.
The University of Wisconsin Medical School have an online video series that shows a dissection of a human body, including special sections on the brain and spinal cord, all expertly narrated by the professors in the department.
There is no better way of learning anatomy than seeing a dissection for yourself (I have fond memories of passing round a freshly removed circle of Willis with my fellow MSc students) and the online video series is an excellent introduction.
The first thing you notice is how some parts of the dissection process are so undelicate. The body is very strong, and it can take quite some force to remove certain parts.
In the brain dissection, the anatomist has to use some significant leverage (and a surgical chisel) to separate the skull from the dura mater – the tough plasticy sheet covering the brain.
The dissection itself is quite medical, in that it tends to focus on the gross (large scale) anatomy of veins, arteries and cavities, rather than on the sort of areas of most interest to cognitive neuroscientists – mainly the internal structure of the cortex.
Nevertheless, if you want a good ‘rough guide’ to the brain, this is as good a place to start as any.
Link to University of Wisconsin dissection videos (via Omni Brain).
‘The God Delusion’, Richard Dawkins’ forthcoming book on religion, is “incurious, dogmatic, rambling and self-contradictory” according to Andrew Brown (author of the Darwin Wars), writing in Prospect magazine.
To a psychologist (or anyone taking a scientific approach to religion), what’s particularly of interest, is not so much whether or not God exists, but why so many people are believers, even today, when evolutionary theory means there’s no longer any need to invoke a designer to explain life’s complexity. But according to Brown’s scathing review, Dawkins utterly fails to offer any fresh insight into this question. “Thinking a bit was once what Dawkins was famous for. It’s a shame to see him reduced to one long argument from professorial incredulity”.
Dawkins is developing a somewhat legendary reputation for being anti-religion, a trend he has encouraged – he titled a collection of his essays published a few years ago ‘The Devil’s Chaplain’. Perhaps his most notable and controversial exposition on the subject was an article he wrote for the Guardian newspaper, just days after 9/11, in which he lamented the devaluing effect of religion on human life, and characterised the terrorists responsible as “testosterone-sodden young men too unattractive to get a woman in this world” but “desperate enough to go for 72 private virgins in the next”.
UPDATE: Andrew Brown debates his review and Dawkins’ book with science writer Dan Jones and others, at Jones’ blog – the proper study of mankind.
Link to review in Prospect magazine.
Link to The God Delusion, on Amazon.
Link to Guardian article.
Steve from OmniBrain has reminded me that Encephalon, one of the internet’s two regular psychology and neuroscience writing carnivals, is due to be hosted on his site in a few days time.
If you have any writing to submit for publication in the next edition, send your links to directly Steve, or via the instructions on the Encephalon info page.
Nature is reporting that a gene which is involved in a receptor for bitter tastes can predict people’s liking for vegetables such as broccoli and sprouts.
It has been proposed that humans are particularly sensitive to bitterness as natural poisons often taste bitter.
Certain versions of this gene may make us especially sensitive, however. So sensitive, perhaps, that we dislike foods that are perfectly safe but have a bitter element.
There’s more information in a over at Eureka Alert and the original study is published in the journal Current Biology.
The BBC has a focus on bipolar disorder over the next few weeks with a TV documentary hosted by Stephen Fry investigating the condition, and a special edition of BBC Radio 4’s Case Notes on the disorder.
We reported earlier this year that Stephen Fry, diagnosed with bipolar himself, visited Cardiff University’s neuropsychiatric genetics unit to film parts of a documentary.
The first part of the documentary was on last night (I missed it I’m afraid and am currently searching bittorrent trackers for a copy) and the next is on BBC2 next Tuesday.
However, the BBC has a webpage with information about the documentary and the condition, including video clips which are available online.
In the documentary, Fry discusses his own experiences, as well as interviewing people like Carrie Fisher, Robbbie Williams and Tony Slattery about their lives with unpredictable thoughts and moods.
The documentary also tackles the psychology and neuroscience of the condition, with the help of researchers who are attempting to make sense of how this complex condition starts, and impacts upon affected individuals.
BBC Radio 4’s Case Notes also discusses bipolar in detail, including the best current treatments and ways of coping.
Link to BBC website on Stephen Fry’s bipolar documentary.
Link to Case Notes on bipolar disorder.
The New York Times has an article on the recent tragic death of psychiatrist Dr Wayne Fenton, a respected and admired schizophrenia specialist who seems to have been killed by a patient.
The killing has highlighted the debate about violence and schizophrenia once again.
Violence is rare in people with schizophrenia. In fact, people with schizophrenia are much more likely to be victims of violence than violent themselves.
However, active psychosis is associated with a slightly increased chance of violence in some people, and some have argued that this is a reason for forcibly medicating people with schizophrenia if they refuse treatment.
In contrast, others argue that forcibly medicating anyone is an abuse of the person’s civil liberties.
In most jurisdictions, mental illness is the only type of illness is which a patient’s refusal of treatment can be overruled. For any other type of illness, this decision is typically respected and protected by law.
Interestingly, the risk of violence in schizophrenia is comparable to the risk of violence with alcohol use in adolescents.
Nevertheless, the media tends to focus on violence and schizophrenia, giving a skewed idea of the risks and ignoring more common and less newsworthy stories such as ‘drunk youth attacks man’.
Dr Fenton’s killing is a huge loss to the psychiatric community. A tribute published on the Schizophrenia Bulletin website notes his academic and scientific contributions to the understanding of the condition, and former patients have been remembering his compassionate approach to patient care.
Link to NYT article ‘A Psychiatrist Is Slain, and a Sad Debate Deepens’.
Link to Schizophrenia Bulletin tribute.
Mind Hacks 