Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2685 )

• The Signature of Consciousness in Resting-state Brain Activity.

  I've done a number of posts on attentional or salience versus default mode long-range connectivity networks in our brains (for a review see my lecture. Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Body Movements Shape Brain Representation of Musical Rhythms.

  Entraining our movement to music is a universal human behavior. The enhancement of social cohesion by group movements in synchrony with the rhythms of chants an... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• An Example of Publication Bias - Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism

  MindBlog has done several posts on experiments that reinforce what has become the conventional wisdom regarding bilingualism: that it enhances our executive... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Watching Brain Oscillations Drive Perception.

  Are the electrical oscillations observed in EEG recordings as we perceive images simply correlations, reflecting brain processes driving our visual experience,... Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Perceived Control Promotes Persistence and Influences Brain Response to Setbacks

  From Bhanji et al: Highlights •We report two distinct neural mechanisms for persistence through adversity •Perceiving control over setbacks increase... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Another Magic Anti-aging Compound?

  

  Riluzole is a drug used to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also studied for use in mood and anxiety disorders, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Human Children Conform to Peers' Behavior, but Apes Do Not.

  Haun and collaborators make the interesting observation that two year old human children will change a learned problem solving strategy on observing peers... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Personality and Ideology

  I've done a number of posts (for example, here) pointing to work suggesting that differences in basic partially inherited neurocognitive traits (such as... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Subliminal Strengthening

  Levy et al. make the interesting observation that presenting subliminal positive age stereotypes to older people has a greater effect than similar explicit... Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Personality and Immune System Reactivity.

  Vedhara et al. have examined the expression of inflammatory genes in 121 people who also took personality tests that rated the generally identified five major... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Unforeseen Costs of Extraordinary Experiences.

  Daniel Gilbert and his collaborators at Harvard have come up with yet another fascinating nugget on our human behaviors: People seek extraordinary... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Invunerablism

  Todd May does a brief essay (coining the world “invulnerabilism”) that is yet another interesting take on an issue central to all our lives: Do what degree is i... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is There a Reason for Everything? - Teleological Reasoning About Life Events

  Banerjee and Bloom explore the view that the tendency to develop teleological beliefs about life events is a byproduct of certain universal social-cognitive... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Biological Explanations for Psychopathology Decrease Clinician Empathy.

  Lebowitz and Ahn find that clinicians become less, not more, empathetic with patients whose mental disorder is known to have a biological basis: Mental disorder... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Cerebral Coherence Between Communicators.

  Stolk et al. have searched across the whole brain for a cerebral dynamics matching the behavioral dynamics of mutual understanding and note that brain activitie... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Neurobiology and the Humanities

  I want to point to this open access article in Neuron by Semir Zeki, a well known visual neuroanatomist who has addressed in particular visual artists - who,... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Origins of Human Altruism.

  A number of studies in recent years have shown that 1- and 2-year-olds often provide help to novel individuals, and have generally been interpreted as suggestin... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Exercise and Intermittent Fasting Improve Brain Plasticity and Health

  

  I thought it might be useful to point to this brief review by Praag et al. that references several recent pieces of work presented at a recent Soc. for... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Several Articles on Aging Brains.

  Talking about aging brains is sort of a downer, but it's something I feel like I want to do as I trek onward with open eyes from my current age of 72 years. Read more

  Posted on 26 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Exercise Changes Our Muscle DNA

  Following yesterday's post on changing gene expression with brain waves, I'll point to another bit of work on gene changing. Chemical changes to DNA, mainly... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE