Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2562 )

• How Environments Talk to Genes.

  The January issue of Nature Neuroscience has some fascinating articles on gene-environment interactions. Vassoler et al. report that in rats paternal cocaine us... Read more

  Posted on 18 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Brains Change Operating Modes During an Eyeblink.

  Nakano et al. suggest that an eye blink briefly gives our attentional network a rest, as activity shifts to the default network: It remains unknown why we... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Mental Arithmetic Counts.

  Price et al. show that brain activation during single digit arithmetic predicts high school math scores: Do individual differences in the brain mechanisms for... Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lifelong Bilingualism Enhances Cognitive Control in Aging.

  This work by Gold et al. makes me wish I had maintained the proficiency in German that I had in my college years: Recent behavioral data have shown that lifelon... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mindfulness Neuroscience

  The journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience has released an issue devoted to studies of brain correlates of different kinds of meditation. One... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Power of Concentration

  I've been meaning to pass on this review by Konnikova on the salutary effects of mindfulness and concentration. It pulls together a number of observations that ... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Self Affirmation Enhances Responsiveness to Errors.

  Legault et al. note brain responses that correlate with augmented attention and emotional receptivity to performance errors caused by enhanced self affirmation. Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Music and Movement: Shared Dynamic Structure in Universal Expressions of Emotion

  Sievers et al. do a fascinating analysis. They designed an ingenious computer program that used slider bars to adjust a music player or a bouncing ball with... Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The End of History Illusion.

  The Jan 4 issue of Science has an interested article by Quoidbach et al. on our perception of how much we changed in the past decade and how much we expect to... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Surprise! Satisfied Old Folks Live Longer.

  Contra a popular assumption that feisty, grumpy old farts are likely to live longer than sweet docile passive ones, Judith Graham reviews recent work by Becca... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Human Evolution: Endurance Running Made Our Brains Larger and Smarter.

  Gretchen Reynolds reviews work suggesting that our advanced cleverness and big brains may have come not from the need to think but becoming endurance athletes,... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Are Older People More Susceptible to Fraud?

  From Castle et al: a succinct set of observations. Their data is quite compelling. Older adults are disproportionately vulnerable to fraud, and federal... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Body Resonance and Art Appreciation.

  Leder et al. have asked how hand movements reflected two styles of painting having similar content and historic period might interact with muscle movements in... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Piaget's "shattered Hologram" of Aging.

  I've been having a go at Jim Holt's popular book "Why does the world exist? An existential detective story." After three chapters of fascinating quotes from... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2013 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Usefull Trick: Shifting Attention to Reduce Emotional Reactivity.

  

  Thiruchselvam et al. do a simple demonstration of how our introspective attention can regulate our emotions after an unpleasant for fearful stimulus. Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Happy Holidays - a Personal Note - and MindBlog Taking a Break

  

  My partner Len and I have traveled from our Fort Lauderdale snowbird retreat to Austin Texas to join my ex-wife Marilyn Young, son Jonathan Bownds,... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Training Parts of Your Brain for Perceptual Enhancement.

  Geraint Rees and collaborators have done some fascinating work showing that training the spontaneous activity of just a part of our visual brain, corresponding... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• For Guys Who Want to Attract Women?

  Perhaps there is a human equivalent of the non-volatile protein pheromone darcin, that Roberts et al. show to stimulate spatial preference and learning in mice. Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Unconscious Reading and Arithmetic.

  Here is a fascinating bit from Sklar et al.: The modal view in the cognitive and neural sciences holds that consciousness is necessary for abstract, symbolic,... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Grin and Bear It.

  Kraft and Pressman make a nice observation on linking muscle movement to emotion, showing how manipulating the muscles involved in a smile can alter the stress... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE