Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Better Memory with Less Default Mode Activity

  I've done a number of posts on our default mode versus attentional networks (a review is here, for example). Here is the summary and abstract for some... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Evilicious Humans, Hard-wired for War?

  "Evilicious" is the title of a new book self published by Marc Hauser, the Harvard Psychologist forced to resign his position after it was discovered that he ha... Read more

  Posted on 04 October 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Information Sharing as a Measure of Brain Consciousness

  

  King et al. make measurements they suggest are a signature of conscious state in awake but noncommunicating patients. I pass on the summary, abstract, and one o... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Early Emergence of Mature Brain Alarm Circuits in Maternally Deprived Children

  Many studies have shown adverse effects of various kinds of childhood deprivation or abuse, with maternal deprivation being one of the most significant. Read more

  Posted on 01 October 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Threads of Current Debate: Narcissism, Ills of the World, Scientism, Brain...

  I want to pass on some of the products of my TOC (tables of contents) scanning that I’m unlikely to develop into full posts, but that might be of interest to... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Aspects of Our Musical Experience.

  I want to pass on three recent articles I found interesting. The first is a piece by Kawakami in the New York Times on why we like sad music, sumarizing his... Read more

  Posted on 27 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Theory of Mind and the Mind of the Market

  The financial community has been in a striking tizzy over the fact that the Federal Reserve didn't do what they were predicting, i.e. start to dial back on thei... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Joystick Years - Computer Games and Grey Matter Volume

  Sian Lewis summarizes work by Kühn and Gallinat: A new study has used voxel-based morphometry of MRI scans of adult video-game players to investigate whether... Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Compassion - Bridging Practice and Science

  Science magazine has an article by Kupferschmidt pointing to the work of Tania Singer, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Virtues of Coffee and Coffee Shops.

  I've been meaning to pass on these two articles that help me justify my addiction to breakfast and noon (but not dinner) coffee. Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Old Farts Perform More Consistenly on Cognitive Tasks Than Younger Adults.

  Schmiedek et al. do a demonstration of something we more or less already knew... People often attribute poor performance to having bad days. Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Poulenc Novelette No. 2 - a Bit on the Wild Side

  Poulenc's first two novelettes, the one in C major that I posted yesterday, and today's second novelette in B-flat minor, were composed in 1927 and 1928, and... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction.

  This piece by Warburton et al. shows another example of how musical, artistic, or athletic performance can be enhanced by subtle mimicking of the final... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Political Extremism is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding.

  Fernback et. al. start their interesting article with some nice quotes: Bertrand Russell “The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Pinch of L-dopa Enhances Learning to Suppress Excessive Fear Responses.

  Haaker et al. make an interesting observation: Traumatic events can engender persistent excessive fear responses to trauma reminders that may return even after... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Numerosity is Represented in Our Parietal Cortex.

  

  Our primary sensory cortices are arranged topographically, and Harvey et al. have now tested the speculation that numerosity is also organized topographically b... Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Scientific Explanation of Our Subjective Experience.....

  Being a card carrying materialist, I've always felt that our mental life could be explained in physical terms. Although I consider myself a twinkie when it come... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Language Can Boost Unseen Objects into Visual Awareness.

  

  From Lupyan et al: Linguistic labels (e.g., “chair”) seem to activate visual properties of the objects to which they refer. Here we investigated whether... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Drug That Alters Dopamine Receptors and Risk-taking Behaviors

  Interesting observations from Norbury et al. on a drug that activates or enhances action of some dopamine receptors and also increases the probability of... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Nighttime Light Impairs Our Emotional Responses.

  I have done a number of posts (enter melanopsin in the search box to find them) on a second visual system, involving the visual pigment melanopsin in our retina... Read more

  Posted on 09 September 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE