A plea from a Polish M.A. student -- she's investigating cross-cultural differences in time perception, an intriguing subject. She wants to compare Polish, Brazilian, and American, but is having trouble getting the requisite number of responses from Americans. She needs Americans between 30 and 40 years of age. If you can help out -- it's a web-based questionnaire -- do go to her website.

For those of you interested in the social and political (and ethical) implications of recent findings in neuroscience, there was a panel discussion recently in Washington, from which a video recording is available on the Web (also some written material).

And a rather Machiavellian study has found that people altered their consumption behaviors after exposure to subliminal facial expressions. Specifically, hidden smiles persuaded thirsty subjects to drink more of an unidentified beverage than did neutral expressions. Frowns had the opposite effect.

Confirming the link between genetics and depression, a brain scan study suggests that a particular gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression by weakening a brain circuit involving the amygdala that processes negative emotion. People with the gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the circuit.

The "higher-order" processes such as executive control -- the ability to plan, set goals, reason -- we tend to believe are evident only in ourselves and perhaps some non-human animals closely related to ourselves -- mammals all. Recent studies however, are starting to reveal surprising abilities in birds. One such study, using pigeons (doubtless from the very same pigeon lab I helped set up such a long time ago! for this comes from my own alma mater), has found evidence of working memory or at least some type of cognitive activity associated with executive control, involving the nidopallium caudolaterale, a region of the avian brain considered analogous to the mammalian prefrontal cortex. Another blow in the coffin of human uniqueness!