Deric Bownds
These articles, from Deric's MindBlog at http://mindblog.dericbownds.net report new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
MY BLOGS
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Deric Bownds' MindBlog
http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/
This blog reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 2495 )
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A Patent for Emotional Robots?
I recently received an interesting email from Deepak Gupta, who is with a patent research services company, who, having seen my post on robots and emotion,... Read more
Posted on 03 July 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
An Optimistic Outlook Creates a Rosy Past.
From Devitt and Schacter in the Harvard Psychology department, a study recruiting the usual gaggle of psychology undergraduate students as subjects: People... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Stress and Autoimmune Disease
I am now in my 77th year, and not all that pleased that my inflammatory, immune, and stress systems are becoming more excitable, more likely to be activated by... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Social Media and Democracy
This post passes on links to articles on social media discussed recently in the Univ. of Wisconsin Chaos and Complex Systems seminar that I attend. Read more
Posted on 28 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Philosophy We Need: Personalism
To his credit, David Brooks keeps searching for moral visions that might be an antidote to our current social and political malaise. A recent Op-Ed piece is on... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Mindfulness Can Lower Your Motivation.
Vohs and Hafenbrack do an NYTimes opinion piece to advertise their forthcoming paper on effects of meditation. Given my personal experience with 'mindfulness'... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Deep Origins of Consciousness
I want to recommend an engaging book by Peter Godfrey-Smith that I have read recently, "Other Minds: The Octopus, theSea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Read more
Posted on 25 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Brain EEG Activity Can Predict Who Antidepressants Will Work on
Pizzagalli et al. have used electroencephalography (EEG) to look at the activation level of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in depressed patients. Read more
Posted on 22 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Old Italian Violins Imitate the Human Voice.
A fascinating study from Tai et al. (open source): Significance Amati and Stradivari violins are highly appreciated by musicians and collectors, but the... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Families and Politics - Curtailed Conversations
Chen and Rohla find that Thanksgiving dinners in which the hosts and guests lived in oppositely voting precincts were up to 50 minutes shorter than... Read more
Posted on 20 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Tipping Points in Changing Social Conventions.
How can we explain the rapid rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany or the rapid acceptance of gay marriage in the United States? Centola et al. Read more
Posted on 19 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Misunderstood Sixth Mass Extinction
Paul Ehrlich, 50 years after the publication of "The Population Bomb," together with Gerardo Ceballos, has written a concise rebuttal of scientists (and the... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Comparing Human Prefrontal Cortex to That of Other Primates
From Donahue et al.: Significance A longstanding controversy in neuroscience pertains to differences in human prefrontal cortex (PFC) compared with other primat... Read more
Posted on 15 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Evolutionary Cognition - Bees Demonstrate an Understanding of Zero
Howard et al. demonstrate an astounding evolutionary convergence by showing that insects have developed the concept of zero, a capability once thought to be a... Read more
Posted on 14 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Jaron Lanier on Why You Should Delete Your Social Media Accounts.
I have read through Jared Lanier's "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now." His critiques are important and compelling, and I want to... Read more
Posted on 13 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
What Makes a Man Attractive?
In many species female mate preference is influenced by signs indicating the health and robustness of the potential male partner. Rehm points to work by Versluy... Read more
Posted on 12 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Socioeconomic Status Moderates Age-related Differences in Brain Organization...
Work by Chan et al. (open source article) suggests that higher socioeconomic status (SES) may be a protective factor against age-related brain decline. Read more
Posted on 11 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Move into Your Virtual Body Avatar with Just Your Hands and Feet
Steph Yin points to work by Kitazaki's group at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan, who try... ...to figure out the minimal amount of body we need to... Read more
Posted on 08 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Social Contagion of Ethnic Hostility.
From Bauer et al.: Significance We provide experimental evidence on peer effects and show that behavior that harms members of a different ethnic group is twice... Read more
Posted on 07 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Placebo Treatment Facilitates Social Trust.
Nasal sprays containing oxytocin have been shown to facilitate pro-social behaviors. Xan et al. have now shown that this effect can be obtained using nasal... Read more
Posted on 06 June 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE