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NeuroLogica Blog
Neuroscientists are making steady progress in mapping the brain using fMRI and other new techniques. Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have been publishing a steady stream of interesting results. It has been known for some time that the hippocampus, a small structure in...
Acupuncture Does Not Work for IVF
Acupuncture is a so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modality I frequently tackle because it often provides excellent teaching points on the relationship between science and the practice of medicine. My reading of the literature is that acupuncture is highly implausible and the evidence does not support its efficacy for...
I received the following question from an SGU listener: Recently when I visited a neurologists with my daughter to seek help for her migraines the doctor prescribed something that caught me off guard and in my research since the visit I still have not convinced myself of the validity. The doctor...
It seems as if the wave of H1N1 pandemic flu has passed, so it is a good time to get up to date on the status of the pandemic. For background, the H1N1 is a strain of influenza A that cropped up about a year ago. It was declared a...
A Utah company, Manna of Utah, is planning on building a plant in Odessa MO that will, among other things, build generators for home use. I wrote recently about another home generator company, Bloom Box, cautioning against accepting corporate hype at face value. Bloom Box appears to be a legitimate...
Reaching Scientific Consensus – On Dinosaurs
Controversies in science are fun, and the spectacle of such controversies being worked out by competing groups of scientists is a wonderful way to learn about the process of science. But as science progresses, we hope to occasionally resolve controversies and come to a reasonable consensus. One such controversy that I...
ScienceDaily: Neuroscience News
Why surprises temporarily blind us
New research reveals for the first time how our brains coordinate two different types of attention and why we may be temporarily blinded by surprises....
New insight into brain's decision-making process
The hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, has long been known to "replay" recently experienced events. Previously, replay was believed to be a simple process of reviewing recent experiences in order to help consolidate them into long-term memory. However, new research shows the phenomenon of memory replay...
First direct evidence of neuroplastic changes following brainwave training
Significant changes in brain plasticity have been observed following alpha brainwave training. Researchers have discovered the first evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring directly after natural brainwave training. They have demonstrated that half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms is sufficient to induce a lasting shift in cortical excitability...
Traces of the past: Computer algorithm able to 'read' memories
Computer programs have been able to predict which of three short films a person is thinking about, just by looking at their brain activity. The research provides further insight into how our memories are recorded....
Link between brain chemical, cognitive decline in schizophrenia demonstrated
In one of the first such studies involving human patients with schizophrenia, researchers have provided evidence that deficits in a brain chemical may be responsible for some of the debilitating cognitive deficits -- poor attention, memory and problem-solving abilities -- that accompany the delusions and hallucinations that are the hallmarks...
The mode of action of certain toxins that accumulate in seafood
Toxins released by certain microalgae can contaminate fish and shellfish which then become toxic to humans. Researchers have, for the first time, identified the mechanisms of action of two of these toxins. They have shown how and why they cause neurological symptoms. These findings could provide a basis for the...
Neuroethics & Law Blog
Innovation in Using Brain Imaging to Assess Memories
Here's the actual research, here's a news story, and here's an excerpt from the news story: In the study, Maguire and her colleagues Martin Chadwick, Demis Hassabis, and Nikolaus Weiskopf showed 10 people each three very short films before brain......
11yo Charged With Murder May Be Tried as Adult
An eleven-year-old boy in Pennsylvania is charged with murdering his future stepmother. A judge will soon decide whether he will be tried as an adult and possibly face life in prison without the possibility of parole. (In unrelated cases, the......
"Dignity" as used by the President's Council on Bioethics
Recently posted to SSRN: New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 359, No. 6, p. 660, 2008 U of Maryland Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-3 LESLIE MELTZER HENRY, University of Maryland School of Law, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics......
PEBS Neuroethics Roundup from JHU Guest Blogger
Last Edition's Most Popular Article The neuroscience of human intelligence differences Nature Neuroscience 2010: 11:201-211 In the Academic Literature: Cortical Plasticity Induced by Inhibitory Neuron Transplantation Science 2010:327(5969):1145-1148 Directed evolution of a magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent for noninvasive imaging......
Interesting Empirical Work on Tarasoff
This piece, recently posted to SSRN, suggests that the obligations to disclose under the Tarasoff case caused an increase in homicide (presumably by disincentivizing treatment of the most at-risk patients): "Doing Their Duty: An Empirical Analysis of the Unintended Effect......
Roger Ebert Gets His Voice Back
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Deric Bownds' MindBlog
The Blues Broaden, but the Nasty Narrows
A great article title from Gable and Harmon-Jones, and yet another study involving students in an introductory psychology course: observations that highly motivated positive and negative emotions go with narrowing of our attentional focus, but either positive or negative low-motivation feelings broaden attention. Their slightly edited abstract: Positive and negative affects...
Thoughts of randomness enhance supernatural beliefs.
Kay et al. do some interesting experiments in which thoughts of randomness are primed in subject by a set of manipulations. They: ...supraliminally primed half the participants with randomness-related words; the other half were primed with words matched in negative valence. To assess the role of arousal, we employed a misattribution...
Demasculinization of frogs (and men?) by pesticides
Male sperm count has dropped dramatically over the past 50 years (~50% in some areas) and one of the prime suspects is estrogen like compounds, such as the pesticide atrazine, that have been introduced into the environment. Atrazine is one of the most commonly applied agricultural pesticides in...
Having spent a fair amount of time on the London underground this past summer, I thought this graphic of an imagined world-wide system, shown in the Sunday NYTimes Book Review section, was intriguing. An imagined train route from Oslo to Pyongyang, from STRANGE MAPS: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities (Viking...
Men's testosterone increases with female ovulation cues
Observations from Miller and Manor: Adaptationist models of human mating provide a useful framework for identifying subtle, biologically based mechanisms influencing cross-gender social interaction. In line with this framework, the current studies examined the extent to which olfactory cues to female ovulation—scents of women at the peak of their reproductive fertility—influence...
More on the virtues of red wine...
A further rationale for my sipping red wine during and after dinner - O'Connor notes work showing that red wine does indeed aid the digestion, particularly of dark meats, because it both stimulates digestion and inhibits the formation of harmful oxidized fats. ...
NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds
Clock ticking for an Istanbul earthquake
A wake-up call for seismic-hazard preparedness in Turkey.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/FHMNJFoSTj0" height="1" width="1"/>...
Should we be trying to save the dodo?
A quantitative way to decide whether to keep on conserving a species....
A tale of two Scandinavian cities
Research funding changes trigger hiring in Lund but firing in Copenhagen....
Scientists against proposed ivory auction
Researchers want science to take precedence over politics in decisions on elephants....
The drug stunts limb development in zebrafish and chicks by binding to a protein called cereblon....
Sequencing of families' genomes offers insights into rare genetic diseases....
Neuromarketing
The Lighter Side of Neuromarketing at SXSW
The surprise hit of our Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience & Marketing panel at SXSW was the world premiere of Brain Hop, a funny hip-hop video created by Neurofocus, and shown for the first time by our co-panelist, Neurofocus CEO Dr. A. K. Pradeep:I was watching the reactions on...
Rainmaking with Neuromarketing
A quick post in the lead-up to SXSW… Rainmaking Be sure to listen to my interview with Kim Greenhouse of It’s Rainmaking Time. You’ll find it here: Neuromarketing: Brain Science & Marketing Join Forces. Kim and I discuss some of the basics of neuromarketing: what it is, some applications, and...
3D Commercials, Different Dynamics
3D entertainment has finally gone mainstream. Although three dimensional movies have existed for decades, they were largely gimmicky and had significant viewing problems. Now, James Cameron’s Avatar brought 3D to the big screen in a way that amazed audiences and convinced studio execs that the world was ready...
Neuromarketing, Big Brother, and SXSW
If you are headed to South by Southwest, aka SXSW, in Austin later this week, be sure to check out the session “Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience and Marketing.” Organized by Eric Kogelschatz, the panel will feature: Gary Koepke, Modernista! Eric Kogelschatz, shark&minnow Dr AK Pradeep, NeuroFocus Inc Dr Danielle Stolzenberg, Ph....
Do you need to convince a customer to complete an application form? Or, for a non-profit, do you need volunteers for a charity event? In both cases, you will be more successful if you describe the task in a simple, easy to read typeface. Research by Hyunjin...
Websites That Suck Increase Stress
We know that slow, balky, and confusing websites aren’t a good thing. Traffic metrics show this, as does conversion data. Google, whom some think of as passively indexing the web, believes quick-loading pages are essential to a good user experience. Google is, in fact, actively trying to...
Eide Neurolearning Blog
Brain Fitness: If You Don't Use It, Will You Lose It?
Thanks, Dr. Trevor Tebbs for this week's question about whether failure to use one's mind results in the cognitive deterioration. What's the answer to this question? YES. There is good evidence that the brain needs ongoing stimulation to preserve its function and to protect against injury. During development, the principle...
Gifted Big Picture / High Conceptual Thinkers
We've talked about conceptual thinking before on this blog, but after seeing a number of pint-sized big picture thinkers in our clinic these past months, we thought to post on this thinking profile in kids. Perhaps because of our interest in gifted dyslexics, we seem to see this pattern quite...
Our Book Deal: The Dyslexic Advantage
We wanted to share with our blog readers, our happy news of signing a book deal with Penguin (Hudson Street imprint) for The Dyslexic Advantage - to be published in 2011. It's really a dream come true for us, and we thank all of you who have helped us tell...
Confessions of a Limited Working Memory Victim
A friend recommended I watch neuroscientist Jill Taylor's TED talk Stroke of Insight. In the talk, Dr. Taylor recounts her personal experiences with a stroke in her left language area. It's a remarkable lecture and a highly recommend it.But I confess, her story got me thinking about my own learning...
Why Students with Dyslexia Need Accommodations for Standardized Tests - the PSAT, SAT, and ACT
Although recent scientific research has shed light on the biological basis of dyslexia, many students with dyslexia face practical hurdles, one of the most recent in the news, a Yale medical student recently denied extended time accommodations by the United States Medical Licensing Exam for his medical boards.Word Skips...
Understanding Dyscalculia - the Math Learning Disability
According to the LDA:Signs and Symptoms of Dyscalculia- Shows difficulty understanding concepts of place value, and quantity, number lines, positive and negative value, carrying and borrowing- Has difficulty understanding and doing word problems- Has difficulty sequencing information or events- Exhibits difficulty using steps involved in math operations- Shows difficulty understanding...
Brains On Purpose™
Although the article may have some contradictions, I suggest that you read "Can our brains help us solve conflicts?" (BBC News Magazine). An example of a possible contradiction is when Baroness Susan Greenfield is quoted as saying: [I]n conflict resolution, the parties should avoid "highly arousing" environments that could lead...
I sometimes say the role of the mediator is attention choreographer or attention conductor. Where people are putting their attention is going to powerfully influence the conflict, and any resolution. Attention is key. To help with attending to attention, I point out to you excerpts from two different books. The...
More research by neuroscientists has shown some possible benefits of mindfulness training. These benefits detailed below could be helpful to mediators and other conflict professionals. Do you have a mindfulness practice? I would appreciate hearing from those of you who do—and those of you who do not. Please e-mail me...
Upcoming conference on Zen and the brain
This conference being held in Santa Fe in July and August features a couple of neuroscientists I'd like to hear. From the Upaya Institute Web page: ZEN BRAIN: Zen Practice and the Emerging Science of Alleviating Suffering Description: In recent years, neuroscientific research involving experienced Buddhist practitioners, and clinical science...
I will be away for several days
I'm looking forward to writing more posts when I return....
Learning and the Brain: Some conferences for all of us who are teachers and learners
Conflict resolution is about learning. From Learn, baby, learn: Resources to help facilitate brain learning and mind changing: Resolving conflict typically requires our learning much, including the parties' positions, interests, and stories. Growing as a conflict professional requires that we be learning about ourselves, too, both in the room and...
The Neurocritic
Professor Karl Friston is one of the most prominent (and prolific) researchers in the field of neuroimaging. His contributions to methodological development in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are immense:He invented statistical parametric mapping; SPM is an international standard for analysing imaging data and rests on the general...
Depression's Cognitive Downside
Author and blogger Jonah Lehrer has a lengthy (and controversial) essay in the Feb. 28 New York Times Magazine on Depression's Upside. The main idea, that depression has cognitive and evolutionary advantages, was largely based on a review paper by Andrews and Thomson (2009). In it, they put forth the...
A Modest Appeal to Research Bloggers
ResearchBlogging.org is having a contest to determine the Best Blogging on Peer Reviewed Research. The Neurocritic has been chosen as a finalist in the Best Blog -- Neuroscience category.* I kindly thank the judges for nominating my blog for this award.Voting is limited to those who are registered with ResearchBlogging.org....
Headache, by Robert Magginetti (Tranquility Base)In the last post we learned about Alice in Wonderland syndrome, a rare phenomenon involving distortions of visual perception and body image, most often caused by migraines. Although a specialty practice in headache might seem dull [so to speak] at first glance to those interested...
Did Artist Käthe Kollwitz Have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome?
"Rare migraineurs have strange symptoms where the diagnosis may be lurking just down a rabbit hole" (Evans & Rolak, 2004).Alice in Wonderland syndrome is an unusual perceptual phenomenon most often caused by migraine headaches, but also seen in association with epilepsy and Epstein-Barr virus. The most well-known symptoms are: ...
Neuromarketing the Neurology of Facebook
Facebook brain activation - visual cortex (photo by Marc Van Rymenant)First, we had the fictitious Neurology of Twitter study, sponsored by The Neurocritic. Now it appears there's been an actual (unpublished) fMRI study of viewing Facebook pages, conducted by Netway, a neuromarketing firm.A global premiere: travel in the mind of...
SharpBrains
News: Brain Fitness Innovation Awards and SharpBrains Summit on Market Research
We are pleased to announce the new annual Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, designed to foster innovation and best practice sharing by celebrating outstanding pioneers who apply neuroplasticity-based research and tools in the “real world”. The awards will recognize organizations that are devising and implementing results-oriented and scalable initiatives that demonstrate...
IHRSA: Brain Fitness Offerings to Attract and Retain Baby Boomers
This week the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), the main association of health clubs worldwide, is holding its annual convention in San Diego. Information Here. I will be presenting a session on Wednesday titled Brain Fitness Offerings to Attract and Retain Baby Boomers, to help participants… Understand the implications from emerging...
New Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging
via Press release: The Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging, a public-private effort to promote the study of brain function with age, will award up to $28 million over five years to 17 research grants to examine the neural and behavioral profiles of healthy cognitive aging and explore interventions that may prevent,...
10 Mitos sobre el Cerebro y la Gimnasia Mental
(Editor’s Note: by popular demand, following goes the Spanish translation of an excerpt from The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, available in English by clicking on Debunking 10 Brain and Brain Fitness Myths) 10 MITOS SOBRE EL CEREBRO Y EL ENTRENAMIENTO MENTAL: VERDADERO O FALSO? Extraído del libro electrónico “La guía de...
A Decade after The Decade of the Brain – Educational and Clinical Implications of Neuroplasticity
(Editor’s Note: In 1990, Congress designated the 1990s the “Decade of the Brain.” President George H. W. Bush proclaimed, “A new era of discovery is dawning in brain research.” During the ensuing decade, scientists greatly advanced our understanding of the brain. The editors of Cerebrum asked the directors of seven...
Brain Fitness Update: Man is a Tool-Making Animal
Here you have the February edition of our monthlyeNewsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box in the right column. The recent SharpBrains Summit witnessed the convergence of Benjamin Franklin’s words (”Man is a Tool-Making Animal”) ...
Brain Blogger
Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry
For as long as the brain has been seen as the site of mental activity, it has followed that altering brain function should be implemented to treat mental illness. Second generation antidepressants and psychotherapy are currently the least invasive ways of affecting brain function but they leave too many patients...
Psychotropics and Youth, Part 3 – Equip Teachers with Prescription Pads?
Contentious debate is brewing over the large role educators play role in recommending what students receive psychotropics, even though they have limited knowledge of treatment. Consider the standards by which one teacher described the benefits of psychotropics to researchers in a recent pilot investigation: the children are “better able to...
Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
The human brain is a biological pattern making machine. At birth, a baby’s brain contains 100 billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. These billions of neurons in human brain have extraordinary capacity to construct and weave strings of useful information patterns...
Brain Blogger Finalist for Two 2010 Research Blogging Awards in Neuroscience and Psychology
Out of over 400 nominations, Brain Blogger is a finalist for two Research Blogging Awards for 2010 in the categories Best Blog — Neuroscience and Best Blog — Psychology. The Awards honor “outstanding bloggers who discuss peer-reviewed research.” We would like to thank the expert panel of judges who positively...
Tall Tales of Diabetic Amputations
Diabetes is the leading cause of nontraumatic amputation in developed nations. Lower-limb amputations are particularly common in type 2 diabetes and impose a substantial burden on the patient’s and caregiver’s quality of life, as well as profound economic and health care burdens for the individual and society. Many studies have...
Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 – The Solutions
“Prescribed psychotropic medications are now high on the research agenda,” assert Lakhan and Hagger-Johnson. Their study advocates new approaches to research to address the rising concern over dramatic increases in psychotropic prescriptions for both children and young. Our first post delineated the five erroneous myths often adhered to when prescribing...
Neuroscience RSS Feeds - Neuroscience News Updates
Coffee an Nighttime Jobs Don't Mix Study Finds
A new study has found the main byproduct of coffee, caffeine, interferes with sleep and this side-effect worsens as people age. ...
Neuroscience News on Twitter - Follow Us
Neuroscience News is on Twitter with nearly 200 followers already. Join Twitter and follow Neuroscience News at @NeuroscienceNew for breaking neuroscience news, neuroscience forums, updates and neurology discussions. ...
Memory deficient mouse created by eliminating kinase activity of CaMKIIalpha
Knock-in mouse created that shows memory deficits by eliminating kinase activity of CaMKIIalpha. Brain and memory research shows the memory deficient mouse exhibited impaired tetanus-induced long term potentiation (LTP) and sustained postsynaptic spine enlargement. These impairments are believed to be related to the mutant mouse deficit in inhibitory avoidance learning. ...
When neuroscientists co-administered D-serine and a blocker of D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO), which metabolizes and decreases availability of D-serine in the brain, D-serine efficacy increased in the ability to enhance NMDA glutamate receptor function. Enhancing NMDA glutamate receptor function is considered to be a possible treatment for schizophrenia and abnormal...
Neural stem cells may give rise to most common type of brain cancer
Brain cancer research reveals that a single mutation in a p53 gene may cause neural stem cells in the subventricular zone of the brain to migrate out of the SVZ and lead to the most common type of brain cancer. ...
Brain researchers may block the spread of deadly brain tumors by targeting NHERF-1 genes.
By regulating NHERF-1 genes, quickly spreading brain tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme may be slowed, greatly increasing the chances of treating brain cancer. ...
Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
High Intensity Workout Gets The Job Done
The usual excuse of "lack of time" for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology. The study, from scientists at Canada's McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) as a time-efficient...
Little League Arm Injuries Jump Up
Throwing arm injuries are on the rise in Little League and other youth baseball programs. After these injuries occur, many players are out for the season; others require surgery and must refrain from play for an even longer duration; still others sustain injuries so severe that they cause permanent damage...
Nobody Wants To Lose To The Underdog
Members of a group or team will work harder when they're competing against a group with lower status than when pitted against a more highly ranked group, according to a new study. The results run contrary to the common belief that underdogs have more motivation because they have the chance to...
Atomic Physicist Proposes Winning Formula For Baseball Success
(Credit: Photo by Bob Elbert) Kerry Whisnant, the Iowa State University physicist, studies the mysteries of the neutrino, the elementary particle that usually passes right through ordinary matter such as baseballs and home-run sluggers. Kerry Whisnant, the St. Louis...
For sports fans watching their favorite team play, the greatest enjoyment comes only with a strong dollop of fear and maybe even near-despair, a new study suggests. Researchers studied fans of two college football teams as they watched the teams' annual rivalry game on television. They found that fans of...
For Olympic Nordic Skiers, Its All About The Glide
Friction -- or the lack of it -- in cross-country skiing events at the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver is a decisive factor in who wins the gold. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) explain the physics behind what makes the best glide. Fully seven of Norway's...
Brain Science Podcast
Thomas Metzinger explores Consciousness on BSP 67
The free podcast version of Brain Science Podcast 67 is now available. It is an interview with German philosopher Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self and Being No One. Dr. Metzinger argues that any credible model for how...
Explore Consciousness with Thomas Metzinger
The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 67) is an interview with German philosopher Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self. The free podcast version will be released on March 10, but the premium version is available...
For those of you who listen on the Zune®, its now easier to find the Brain Science Podcast because we finally have our own page at Zune.net. I hope you will go to the page and post a review. Just follow the link below, scroll down, and you will see...
Memory: Challenging Current Theories with Randy Gallistel, PhD
Episode 66 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Randy Gallistel, PhD, Co-Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science and co-author (with Adam Philip King) of Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience. We discuss why read/write memory is an essential element of...
Premium Versions of BSP 65 are now available
Episode 65 of the Brain Science Podcast is now available in two premium versions: a 16 Track CD and as a 26 Track MP3 download. Both versions have the advertising and announcements removed. The tracks have been chosen to allow students and others to return to specific topics, and to make...
Podcast Extra: Bruce Hood on Believing the Unbelievable
Episode 34 of Books and Ideas is an interview with Bruce M Hood, author of SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable.Dr. Hood is a developmental psychologist with a long-standing interest in why people believe weird things. In SuperSense he argues that innate cognitive structures (how we think without being...
Dana Foundation Blog
At a Rubin Museum event, a neurophilosopher stresses how much remains to be learned about the brain....
How Can Meditation Help Us Cope with Long-Term Stress?
At a recent public conversation, Tibetan lama Arjia Rinpoche and neuroscientist and Dana Alliance member Bruce McEwen talked about how stress hormones act on the brain and whether Buddhist practice has anything to teach us about controlling stress levels....
Retired NFL players: We need better health care
I attended a panel discussion at New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies last week called “The Power of Sports in Our Society.” Moderated by NYU professor Arthur Miller, the panel featured 10 people, from lawyers to professors......
Neuromarketing appeals to your senses
There really is no limit to how far companies are willing to go to get inside the heads of consumers—literally. At least, that’s the take-home message I got from a new article in Time about “neuroadvertising,” the business of using......
AAAS: Brain-changing power of music prompts calls for more education, therapy
Growing evidence that music training can enhance certain mental abilities, can alleviate the symptoms of learning disorders, and can restore lost functions in people with neurological damage has prompted calls to increase school music programs and therapeutic treatments. At a......
AAAS: Neuroscience advances pose legal conundrums
"I did it—but it's not my fault." It's one of the more controversial strategies defendants can use: admitting they committed a serious crime but arguing that, because of some mitigating factor such as disease or depression, they should not be......
Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today
The Body's Anticipation Of A Meal Can Be A Diabetes Risk Factor
Alterations in our response to the taste or smell of food may be another culprit responsible for Type 2 diabetes, according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center who have identified the specific mechanism in human specimens and in mice......
The Human Brain Processes Predictable Sensory Input In A Particularly Efficient Manner
It turns out that there is a striking similarity between how the human brain determines what is going on in the outside world and the job of scientists. Good science involves formulating a hypothesis and testing whether this hypothesis is compatible with the scientist's observations......
Computer Algorithm Able To 'Read' Memories
Computer programs have been able to predict which of three short films a person is thinking about, just by looking at their brain activity. The research, conducted by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London), provides further insight into how our memories are recorded......
Discovery Of Powerful Molecule Regulator In Blood Pressure Control System
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have discovered that nitric oxide is a powerful regulator of a molecule that plays a critical role in the development and function of the nervous system. The finding could someday play a significant role in the prevention and treatment of...
Discovery Of Brain Tumor's 'Grow-Or-Go' Switch
Cancer cells in rapidly growing brain tumors must adjust to periods of low energy or die. When energy levels are high, tumor cells grow and proliferate. When levels are low, the cells grow less and migrate more. Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital...
Different Signal Paths For Spontaneous And Deliberate Activation Of Memories
Entirely different signal paths and parts of the brain are involved when you try to remember something and when you just happen to remember something, prompted by a smell, a picture, or a word, for instance. This is shown by Kristiina Kompus in her dissertation at Umeå University in Sweden....
Of Two Minds
Color after image demonstration - Seeing color when there is none.
I'm teaching about opponent processes in color vision today and thought I'd share one of my favorite examples. This is how you use the human visual system to turn a black and white photo into color. Try it out: Read the comments on this post......
The difference between objects and scenes... random thoughts
I'm in the middle of my qualification exams and ran across this interesting paper: Liu, Z Kersten, D Knill, DC Dissociating stimulus information from internal representation--a case study in object recognition. Vision research. 1999; 39(3): 603-12. However, I'm very confused about them calling the figure on the left an object. ...
Is it me or is the Swine Flu waaay overrated? A case of the Availability Heuristic.
I think it's a bit like terrorism. It scares the shit out of you but there's next to zero chance it will actually happen to you. Seriously... you have a much much higher chance of choking on a twinky (even if you've never eaten one) than catching the swine...
How to tell if you have swine flu
Go here to tell with 100% accuracy. Read the comments on this post......
More thoughts on student blogging in class
Jason, a graduate student at USC, shot me an email asking for more information about my blogging experiment and I thought I'd post some of the things I sent back to him. Totally unpolished and stream of consciousness but here it is... Hi Jason, This is really the first time around...
Ok ok.. how about 'Using science to kill the fewest people while seeking world domination'... hmm... maybe not that either, how about 'Using science to protect our way of life' There we go! Now that you know what we're talking about you can check out a podcast that I'm particularly interested in...
Mind Hacks
An introduction to cognition and culture
The Culture and Cognition blog covers the territory where culture and psychology meet, and they've just released their 'reader' which has a list of essential books and papers to cover the interface between anthropology and the cognitive sciences. Many of the articles are available in full online and the list...
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: The University of California has an interview with space psychiatrist Nick Kanas There's a thoughtful consideration of the recent New York Times article on whether depression has evolutionary benefits over at Neuron Culture. Time magazine discusses research finding that...
Apologies if updates are a little irregular, as I'm currently on my way back to the UK for a three week visit. This is largely because I've been asked to speak to the 'All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education' about the evidence for whether computer games...
In the Exploratorium's distorted room
The San Francisco Exploratorium is the Mind Hacks of science museums - every exhibit is hands on, giving you the chance to experiment with and experience for yourself scientific principles. Obviously, one of my favourite exhibits was a psychology demonstration, one based on a classic visual illusion known as the...
How cannabis makes thoughts tumble
Cannabis smokers often report that when stoned, their thoughts have a free-wheeling quality and concepts seem connected in unusual and playful ways. A study just published online in Psychiatry Research suggests that this effect may be due to the drug causing 'fast and loose' patterns of spreading activity in memory,...
Tracking the unborn brain into childhood
A brain scanning technology called MEG is being used to track the function of unborn babies' brains as they grow inside the womb until after they've been born. The full name for MEG is magnetoencephalography and it works by reading the magnetic fields created by the electrical signalling in the...
Neurophilosophy
FORMATION of a memory is widely believed to leave a 'trace' in the brain - a fleeting pattern of electrical activity which strengthens the connections within a widely distributed network of neurons, and which re-emerges when the memory is recalled. The concept of the memory trace was first proposed nearly...
Immune response to brain infection may trigger Alzheimer's
ALZHEIMER'S Disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 30 million people worldwide. The cause of the condition is unknown, but the prime suspect is amyloid-beta (Aβ), a 42-amino acid peptide which accumulates within neurons to form insoluble structures called senile plaques that are thought to be...
The ability to recognize faces is inherited
THE perception and recognition of faces is crucial for the social situations we encounter every day. From the moment we are born, we prefer looking at faces than at inanimate objects, because the brain is geared to perceive them, and has specialized mechanisms for doing so. Such is the importance...
Open Lab 2009 and Research Blogging Awards
I 'M pleased to announce that my post about dinosaur brains and behaviour is featured in Open Lab 2009, the annual anthology of the best science writing on blogs. The book has just been published and is now available at Lulu.com, in hard copy or as a Kindle-compatible PDF.This is...
Neurosurgical patients get closer to God
REMOVAL of specific parts of the brain can induce increases in a personality trait which predisposes people to spirituality, according to a new clinical study by Italian researchers. The new research, published earlier this month in the journal Neuron, provides evidence that some brain structures are associated with spiritual thinking...
PhD Comics brain development infographic
Click to enlargeTHIS cartoon by Dwayne Godwin, a professor of neurobiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Jorge Cham, the former researcher and cartoonist who created PhD Comics, has won first place in the informational graphics category of the 2009 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The New York...