Blog index by date
Or you can look for particular topics I've covered in my blog in the index by subject.
2007
November 13, 2007: Ramachandran on phantom pain, synaesthesia & Capgras delusion
October 16, 2007: exercise; sleep deprivation in kids
October 7, 2007: gender differences
June 12, 2007: disadvantaged children developmentally lagging
2006
November 10, 2006: importance of friendship; estrogen loss and ability to process emotion
October 30, 2006: anxiety disorders and physical disorders; Neurofeedback for emotional control
October 27, 2006: caffeine and fetal brain development
October 23, 2006: losing money really is painful; facial expressions inherited
October 17, 2006: early mammals nocturnal?
October 15, 2006: Genes, environment and depression; Internet therapy for depression
October 13, 2006: More on mirror neurons; why our eyes move constantly
October 11, 2006: advantages of a Montessori education
October 08, 2006: brain region linked to selfish behavior; compulsive shoppers
October 02, 2006: thinking faster makes you feel happier and more energized.
September 27, 2006: the reality of 'hysteria'
September 24, 2006: auditory mirror neurons and empathy; a gene for extreme 'larks'
September 15, 2006: Empathy undeveloped in adolescent brains
September 13, 2006: Sedative revives persistent vegetative state patients
September 10, 2006: Climate change and civilization
September 09, 2006: autism more likely when father over 40
September 01, 2006: no "God spot" in the brain
August 29, 2006: We really are attracted to novelty
August 27, 2006: Humans, chimpanzees and bonobos.
August 25, 2006: placebos aren’t just "imaginary"; controlling chronic pain; how we make snap judgments about people
August 15, 2006: 10 year olds not capable of adult-level change detection
August 13, 2006: male and female brains; benefits of social connectedness; effect of environment on social interaction
August 09, 2006: male and female brains
August 07, 2006: Perception and nutrition
August 05, 2006: why self-discipline is more important than smarts
August 02, 2006: Living with blindness; the need for voice training for teachers
July 30, 2006: the World Map of Happiness, new book on happiness
July 29, 2006: Gene expression -- Why environment is important for IQ; How identical twins can have different genes
July 26, 2006: Where our language center comes from; autistic males and the amygdala
July 13, 2006: happiness
July 11, 2006: Foreign Accent Syndrome
July 10, 2006: ‘sleep efficiency'
July 02, 2006: mental immaturity – the good and the bad; empathy in mice
June 29, 2006: Images of eyes keep people honest; no particular advantage in a single-sex education
June 27, 2006: fatherhood alters the brain; stuttering and emotional arousal and control
June 16, 2006: How to be happy
June 12, 2006: Haptic communication
June 08, 2006: prenatal exposure to pollutants; Mozart and visual perception
June 05, 2006: value of calorie restriction; education systems responsible for stability of intellectual abilities?
May 27, 2006: judging gender by gait; Music helps those with chronic pain
May 25, 2006: a tough childhood makes you more gullible; verbally abused children grow up self-critical and depressed
May 24, 2006: language and planning abilities in non-human animals
May 16, 2006: More fuel for the addictive-personality debate
May 12, 2006: Individual differences in how we anticipate pain; being loss-averse is an innate characteristic of humans
April 29, 2006: subliminal advertising; human perception is better than we realize; genes affect whether children like to read
April 26, 2006: a pretty woman affects men’s decision-making abilities; watching the brain "lose itself" in an activity
April 25, 2006: 3 heads are better than one; the neural basis of 'choice deficit' disorders
April 17, 2006: why failure breeds failure; birth order doesn't affect intelligence
April 13, 2006: gender differences in how we manage anger; why racially diverse juries make better decisions than all-white juries
April 06, 2006: why gender-related differences exist in certain psychiatric disorders; the "Aha!" experience
April 01, 2006: "social jet lag" – lifestyle and body clock; "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" for the autistic
March 30, 2006: knowing what our body’s doing; more on Brain Games; 10 months old enough to associate words to objects
March 29, 2006: European differences in IQ
March 24, 2006: an exceptional memory
March 21, 2006: our view of a person's character distorts our memory; prejudice and how to fight it
March 16, 2006: visual perception; new articles in Science & Consciousness Review
March 10, 2006: part of retaining (or improving) your memory as you get older is believing that you can; Nintendo games for brain training for worried adults
March 07, 2006: adult neurogenesis
March 06, 2006: lower blood levels of omega-3 associated with depression, negative outlook and impulsivity
March 01, 2006: whether TV is bad for kids or not; effects of social deprivation on development, including intellectual development.
February 27, 2006: technique for teaching people to control chronic pain; genes of professional dancers
February 24, 2006: decision-making -- complex decisions better made by instinct
February 23, 2006: "sex i.d. profile" – brain quiz
February 15, 2006: Time perception
February 13, 2006: how our sense of identity works; chronic deja vu
February 08, 2006: marital strife slows wound healing; nerve growth factor increases when people fall in love
February 06, 2006: More on lying
February 04, 2006: language and perception; brains of pathological liars different from other brains
February 01, 2006: scientists more likely to produce children with autism? choral abilities of wrens; an optical illusion.
January 28, 2006: change blindness; motherhood an enriching experience for the brain; stroke therapy; light therapy for SAD
January 26, 2006: it's not how bright you are, it's whether you stick to the task; animal personality
January 25, 2006: benefits of laughter
January 16, 2006: Religion an accidental byproduct of cognitive systems
January 11, 2006: Early morning foggy brain; yawning and empathy
2005
December 19, 2005: Emotion and investment decisions; controlling chronic pain mentally
December 15, 2005: violent video games and aggression; improving young children's attention
December 07, 2005: differences between male and female brains; reduced activity of mirror neurons in autistic children; parietal cortex involved in generating body image
November 23, 2005: imaging study of hypnosis, showing the actual changes in the brain induced; early experience reducing levels of "attachment" hormones may permanently damage ability to form close relationships.
November 21, 2005: the education of very gifted children
November 17, 2005: Behavioral and neurological effects of meditation; gender and personality differences in brain activity in response to humor
November 12, 2005: sleep in other animals, and the possible evolutionary purposes of sleep,
November 11, 2005: More about the habit study; "dyslexia gene".
November 04, 2005: level of estrogen in a women related to her perceived attractiveness; singing in mice
November 02, 2005: schizophrenics and optical illusions; brain activity patterns and menstrual mood swings
November 01, 2005: Epigenetics — the intertwining of nature and nurture
October 30, 2005: elephants distressed by own dead
October 26, 2005: REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and the "purpose" of dreams; why habits are hard to break and easily re-kindled
October 20, 2005: how human languages might have evolved; how and why humans got religion
October 19, 2005: the failed promise of brain scanning in regards to mental disorders; oxytocin’s role in more casual social meetings
October 17, 2005: Dealing with the constant interruptions of office life; genetic advantage produces good sleepers
October 11, 2005: OCD a dysfunctional variant of normal pair-bonding?
October 10, 2005: structural differences in the brains of pathological liars
October 03, 2005: using imaging to judge whether people are telling the truth; Swedish government is proposing to introduce more flexibility into the age at which children start school; Harvard admissions policy – the selection effect
September 28, 2005: tendency of older people to misremember product warnings as recommendations.
September 22, 2005: differences between men and women exaggerated; implications of modern technology, and the internet in particular, for intelligence
September 18, 2005: Aerobics most important factor for keeping your brain young; creativity and the "schizotypal" personality
September 13, 2005: pathological gamblers’ and alcoholics’ personality traits; when people evaluate health risks fairly
September 06: Newborns know who’s attractive; Personal Space Phobia
August 31: Study concludes most people are risk averse; more on “your gut is a second brain" idea
August 30: More on the supposed IQ gender gap; how placebos work
August 26: Supposed IQ gender gap
August 24: why the world doesn't go dark when you blink; clinical condition where stroke victims deny they're paralyzed; gender differences
August 23: consumers' response to advertising
August 22: birth order and educational achievement; making the first pure batch of brain stem cells from human stem cells
August 19: web survey to try and find out how much our appreciation of music is rooted in learning versus instinct; article on pain
August 12: latest math achievement from Alex, the African gray parrot -- training technique proving useful with autistic children; the new fashion for "cognitive fitness"
August 11: advantages of video game training for laparoscopic surgeons; getting closer to a machine that can "read our minds"; brain differences between the genders
August 05: racial prejudice and overcoming it
August 04: Why female voices are heard more clearly and why hallucinated voices tend to be male
July 29: People prefer people who are similar to them?
July 25: mirror neurons; knotty neuro-ethical issue
July 22: the younger generation and how they're doing better than we think.
July 20: the genetics of behavior; hypnosis and cognitive conflict; baby dolphins and whales and their mothers sleep hardly at all in the first postpartum month; what goes on in the brain when we're making moral choices.
July 19: no association between measured intelligence and happiness; fish oil and underachieving preschoolers.
July 15: odor and attractiveness
July 14: Interview with Gazzaniga, author of The Ethical Brain.
July 13: musical hallucinations
July 12: sleep paralysis
July 11: genetic factor in aggression
July 09: practice “re-wires” the brain; large twin study points to importance of gene expression
July 06: hypnosis can reduce cognitive conflict
July 04: anterior cingulate cortex critical when we make risky decisions; link to schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive behavior; overcoming buried prejudice
July 03: the musical roots of language
July 02: The Autism Genome Project
July 01: growing neuroscientific interest in belief; ‘brainstorming’ un-PC
June 30: health benefits of cobblestone walking
June 29: "babyfacedness" seen as sign of incompetence
June 27: effects of mother’s trauma on unborn fetus
June 25: brain activity while playing violent video games
June 24: brain activity during meditation
June 23: new book on neuroethics
June 22: we process language and maths in different brain areas; how American consumers have more choice than is good for their well-being; the quality of school textbooks
June 20: fish study suggests how we make some of our instinctive decisions when we're part of a crowd; having a close group of friends impacts significantly on longevity; new therapy for complicated grief
June 18: study of cross-cultural differences in time perception, looking for subjects
June 17: discussion of the social and political (and ethical) implications of recent findings in neuroscience; people affected by subliminal facial expressions; genetic link to depression and anxiety
June 16: pigeon study provides evidence for "higher-order" processes in the avian correlate of the mammalian prefrontal cortex
June 09: first computer simulation of the entire human brain!
tool-using behavior in dolphins:
monkeys taught to use money; monkeys match the number of voices they
heard to the number of faces they expected to see.
June 05: cognitive neuroscience experiment you can participate in; oxytocin induces trust.
June 01: Imaging studies have found the brain regions involved in: understanding metaphors; understanding sarcasm; falling in love; gambling.
May 30: overview of various strategies that might help you improve your cognitive function.
May 21: concerts for babies - the hyperbolic "Mozart effect"
May 20: a man whose hippocampus was destroyed, leaving him living in an eternal present.
May 17: acupuncture; expectations - effects of alcohol on your sex drive; the complexity of our experience of pain
May 16: the Flynn effect ; why we evolved consciousness
May 04: try the famous Wason Selection Task and tell me how you did
May 02: sex differences in the brain
May 01: TV is making us smarter; emails are making us dumber
April 14: 3rd person perspective helpful in calculating personal progress; size estimation; the neural basis of synaesthesia
April 13: Results of the intuition experiment – no gender difference;why it matters that fewer young Americans are reading literature
April 11: experiment which aims to test the emotional intelligence and intuition of people; imaging study finds the “trust center”
April 06: making brain cells from adult hair follicle stem cells; the phenomenon of savants; the language of chimpanzees
March 23: the recent US Memory Championship.
March 16: the math gender debate; the part of the brain that recognizes our mistakes and tries to prevent them; the social implications of trendy neuroscientific research; why one person is comfortable asking for help while another isn't; music-taste synaesthesia; plant cognition
March 4: chip in the brain trial for paralyzed people; an autistic savant who can talk about his condition; video game teaches social skills to those with Asperger's.
February 16: the value of regrets; positive & negative emotions processed differently
February 09: left-handed people really do see the world differently; deja vu
February 06: brain activity when processing words is different in stutterers; a fault in the brain waves of schizophrenics at a particular frequency.
February 04: faster reaction time associated with longer life
February 02: how memory works at the neuronal level
February 01: weather, mood, and cognitive ability; a painter who's been blind from birth.
January 31: radio programs: the mind-body problem; the gut - our second brain; gender differences in the brain; the brain's anger response mechanism; proper diet and stimulation can delay the effects of aging.
January 21: radio interview with Temple Grandin – autistic academic and writer.
2004
December 22: our automatic response to subliminal cues that suggest danger.
December 21: a test of implicit prejudice
December 20: the case of a blind man who can recognize emotion in peoples' faces
December 10: controlling devices with the brain; background noise may scramble brain activity; principles for fostering creativity in the workplace.
December 01: optical illusions and visual phenomena; brain reveals who's lying; brain response to food
November 18: emotional response to body language.
November 17: more people with perfect pitch among Mandarin speakers
November 10: "cosmetic neurology"
November 08: implications of neurological discoveries: might we one day be able to reinstate memory that's "lost"? Should we? ; why stress can make you lose your car keys (and your temper) ; Robert Trivers: the human capacity for self-deception
October 28: cognitive enhancing drugs; sleep deprivation in middle school students; a simple listening test that predicts who will do well on SSRI antidepressants
October 22: the controversial new research that promises to be able to erase traumatic memories.
October 7: memory in fish
October 6: why aggressive behavior escalates so quickly, and is so hard to stop; why we dream.
October 1: imaging study has found differences in the brains of compulsive hoarders; FAQ-type article on current knowledge regarding reported memories of childhood abuse
September 30: the myth that we only use 10% of our brain; panic disorder; what happens in the brain after a head injury; gene manipulation turns monkeys into workaholics
September 17: we prefer people who look like us; possible synaesthesia exists in all of us.
September 16: the deja vu experience; a person's perceived attractiveness is affected by the sound of their name
September 14: the cult of personality tests in the U.S.; the persistent myths of gender differences
September 12: suggestion TV viewing in very young children contributes to attention problems later in life
September 11: diary-keeping might be bad for your health; found: the brain structure that governs dreaming
September 7: an article suggesting the findings of neuroscience have been over-hyped
September 2: some quotes from Darwin on memory; an interview with Paul Bloom on how he thinks we are born dualists and why the findings of imaging studies are an even greater revolution than Darwin's Origin of Species.
September 1: imaging study suggesting we punish others because it's satisfying; evidence that people with less symmetrical features may be more aggressive in response to stressful situations; study finds that showing isolated sheep photos of other sheep lowers their stress levels.
August 31: common self-help myths
August 27: imaging study suggests political preferences are influenced by brain structure!
August 18: brain imaging studies and the question of whether we have free will; Gerald Edelman on consciousness; another difference between chess masters and novices
August 4: rote memorization not the demon modern education has made it out to be; the placebo effect and empathy; memory reconsolidation
July 30: see just how much we miss in the world around us.
July 5: interview with Nobel Laureate neurobiologist Eric Kandel
July 2: talk with Nicholas Humphrey about what the self is and why he thinks we have it, with case studies of sight without a visual cortex; how physical disorders are differentially affected by our body's clocks and the significance of this for drug treatments.
July 1: virtual reality changes how the brain physically registers pain; what's going on in the brain when we make financial decisions; radio program about the left brain / right brain issue
June 15: some imaging studies: treatment of chronic pain; the placebo effect; why uncertainty of reward is rewarding; our ability to assess how other people are feeling
May 19: BBC radio programs on how your brain tries to guess what others' brains are thinking; musical memory; wellbeing; andhow hard it is to make decisions when you have so many choices. a new view of depression
April 6: face recognition: the role of the amygdala in interpreting facial expressions, and a review of a new book
April 5: BBC radio programs on the aging mind, exercise and the aging mind, imaging lie detector
March 31: we're more likely to dream about things we've deliberately tried NOT to think about
March 24: why we always think the other fellow is slacking off; new 'mind-reading' system
March 17: interview with Patricia Churchland about her latest book "Brain-wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy"; changing ideas about the nature of perception; interview with Stephen Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life", as well as "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Brains, Ants, Cities and Software"
March 16:
Another science-fiction technique from the neuroscientists:
'brain fingerprinting' - a new type of lie detector;
new application under development creates music in response to the
listener’s physiological state, thus setting up a sort of positive
feedback cycle, with music and listener drawing each other deeper
into the desired mood; time perception
March 08: US Memory Championship
February 25: An interesting article in the Boston Globe about mindreading ; neurological investigation of the infamous placebo effect
February 10: homing pigeons use landmarks on familiar routes,
rather than their "traditional" senses.
research suggests that baby talk "tunes" the developing brain to
notice particular features
February 08: There's a
new article
posted on my website, reviewing the research on the benefits of
mental stimulation. I've also uploaded a
glossary on brain structures.
recent research on our ability to recognize changes in a visual
scene
another study reminds us that what we perceive is constructed by
our brain – why tinnitus occurs
February 05: interesting articles - recent research supporting the idea that we can actively forget; recent research demonstrating how what we see influences our tactile perception
February 02: interview on BBC radio re sleep may stimulate creative thinking
February 01: video of an interview with Gary Marcus, author of "From The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought"
January 30: new articles on BioMedNet: one on the effect of social memory another on identity memory
January 28: Neuroscience and aesthetics
January 26: A new book on visual perception and what it means for
the way we experience the world: The
Space Between Our Ears: How the Brain Represents Visual Space
And there's an
interesting article on the effects of exercise on the brain,
I've finally got round to updating the
news on Alzheimer's research.
January 17: New research has found that mistakes made when we lose concentration — such as putting coffee on your cornflakes, or more seriously, the sort of mistake that led to the Chernobyl disaster — are heralded by changes in a brainwave called P300.
January 15: A new book on the self
interesting
article "What do our minds owe to our nature, and what to our
nurture?",
January 04: Boston Globe article about forgetting and reconsolidation; a New York Times article about autobiographical memory and nostalgia in particular; and check out the new articles on Science and Consciousness Review
2003
December 06: false memory research; more on perception
December 05: about visual language
software
that enables you to practise names and faces that you want to
remember
latest issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies
December 02: the power of a very simple strategy for learning vocabulary
November 24:
imaging study found that the brains of seniors with low
self-worth were up to a fifth smaller than those who felt good about
themselves. Learning to think positively is therefore likely to have
cognitive benefits as well as emotional ones.
new imaging research suggests money is more rewarding when it is
earned. Moreover, the sense of accomplishment in achieving your task
appears more rewarding than the money itself.
November 19: Human Nature Review has just posted some interesting book reviews
November 18: Guardian article on recent brain studies that could be used in unwarranted ways (eg, scanning people for racial bias).
November 12: Neuroscience conference papers: new research reveals that the brain can use information received after an event to decide how to perceive ; Another study reveals that two quite distinct visual pathways in the brain enable you to see an object and reach out to pick it up; The most amusing study is the suggestion that talking while walking puts contrasting demands on the spinal cord and requires neural coordination, and may exacerbate back problems
November 10: going to the pub good for the brain - the latest of several studies indicating that various leisure activities are of value to cognition.
November 06: new article on my website, on the role of sleep on memory, and I've added to the article collections in pdf format,
November 04: articles from the latest issue of The Scientist -
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ; neural pruning ;
time perception; the effects of nicotine and alcohol on adolescents'
brains.
November 02: More research confirming the importance of sleep in consolidating learning
October 29: imaging study which showed just why consumers prefer Coke to Pepsi!
October 23: imaging studies looking at the brain activation patterns of musicians as they listen to music. what this tells about nature of expertise and intrinsic connection between music and movement - taking us back to the suggestion that music was important in human evolution, in helping social groups bond.
October 17: pdf documents
October 16: how magnetic resonance imaging works
capabilities of the black-capped chickadee - hippocampus expands by
nearly a third every autumn
October 13: Perception, like memory, is all about information coded in the brain. a site with software to turn sound into "vision", for those who can't see, and here's an article about it. demonstration of the blind spot.
October 06: frequent failure of modern (at least Western)
education systems to leave its students with lasting, "ground-in"
knowledge, is simply that they don't spend enough time on anything.
new articles: on
music and language, the
Mozart Effect, the
role of working memory in vocabulary acquisition, and on
working memory.
October 02: reading a novel set in Turkey, and I observed how difficult the complete unfamiliarity of the names made it for me. contextual nature of distinctiveness, and role of familiarity
October 01: page offers mnemonic suggestions for memorising a
number of famous passages from Shakespeare.
site offering
reviews on memorization software and
You know the drill
... a lot of learning strategies are ways of providing that
repetition in as interesting a manner as possible. The cost of that
is time - ...
September 26: Irene Pepperberg's work with Gray Parrots.
September 23: collaboration between the Dalai Lama and western scientists.
September 22: new book - "The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind" by Elkhonon Goldberg.
September 19: Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, ...
September 17: contagious yawning is a by-product of theory of
mind
article in the New York Times about the evolution of our
responsiveness to music. connection between music and language.
September 16: What makes a human? One of the answers that appeals to me concerns the "theory of mind".
September 13: what is it about surprise that makes things memorable?
September 12: Professor Brian Butterworth, a British academic known for his research into maths and calculation abilities in children, announced at a recent conference that one in 20 British children have dyscalculia - the numerical equivalent of dyslexia
September 09: NPR have available a short radio program (about 6 minutes) on imaging technology and what it's taught us about how memory works.
September 07: Just to call your attention to a new section on the website, on learning other languages
September 03: It's often been said that those with more positive outlook are healthier, have less chance of cancer, etc. Now, for the first time, we have a mechanism for why that might be true
September 02: some links to Fathom articles on memory
September 01: Williams syndrome and a gene that affects sociability; implications for identity memory.
August 29: Scientific American focuses on the human brain.
August 27: The latest excuse for failing to get anything done! You may have executive function disability.
August 26: How far different is human memory from the memory of other animals? And how normal aging affects our response to humor
August 25: Neuroscience for architecture!
August 22: article on the "Mozart effect"
August 21: great scientific discoveries tend to be made by young scientists – but only in particular areas.
August 18: simple mnemonics for learning words in another language
August 14: the value of gesture in helping memory
August 13: new book on memory and emotion
August 12: another perspective on medieval memory training
Now available as a downloadable ebook!
