Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• The Non-duality Industry as a Panacea for the Anxieties of Our Times?

  One of MindBlog's subject threads is meditation, and some recent posts have dealt with characterizing non-dual awareness (to find these, look in the right colum... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Huberman Lab Cornucopia

  A friend mentioned enjoying a podcast on meditation from hubermanlab.com, so I listened to it, and decided to look a bit further into who Andrew Huberman is... Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog in Crypto-Land Part II - Is the Crypto Industry Headed for Oblivion?

  In late spring of this year, I was seduced by my son's having made a six hundred-fold return on an investment by virtue of being one of the first cohort to stic... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Focusing on Individual-level Solutions Has Led Behavioral Public Policy...

  MindBlog has been staying out of politics lately, but I think it worthwhile to pass on the abstract of a forthcoming article in Behavioral and Brain Science by... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Neurophysiology of Consciousness - Neural Correlates of Qualia

  This is a post for consciousness mavens.Tucker, Luu, and Johnson have offered a neurophyiological model of consciousness, Neurophysiological mechanisms of... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Poisoned by Twitter - Trump, Musk and Kanye

  Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist whose writing is always worth reading, has done a succinct must-read kind of piece in the NYTimes. Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Sleep Preferentially Consolidates Negative Aspects of Human Emotional Memory

  The Nov. 1, 2022 issue of PNAS has a special feature on Sleep, Brain, and Cognition. A large body of research suggests that sleep benefits memory, and I want... Read more

  Posted on 11 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Neurobiology of Long COVID

  A number of my friends have reported, having caught break thru Covid even after 3-5 vaccinations, and are having symptoms of long Covid such as brain fog,... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Sadder but Wiser? Maybe Not.

  It looks like another universally accepted result of psychological research may be wrong - that depressed people have a more accurate reading of their ability t... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Senescent Cells Targeted by Anti-aging Therapies May Not Be All Bad

  Michael Irving does a brief article in New Atlas that points to work by Reyes et al. showing that some senescent od the sort that accumulate with aging not... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Well Being Increases with Diversity of Social Connections.

  From Collins et al.: Significance The link between social connection and well-being is well-documented: Happier people tend to spend more time with others, and... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Molecular Markers of Eventual Chronic Diseases of Aging Are Higher in Young...

  Sobering work from Shanahan et al.: Significance The analysis of gene expression in peripheral whole blood of US young adults in their late 30s revealed... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Observing the Activity of Our Prosocial Brains

  Interesting work from Lockwood et al., open source with nice graphics: Highlights • Prosocial behaviors frequently involve exerting effort • Human... Read more

  Posted on 28 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Lucid Exposition on Non-dual Awareness by James Low

  The ‘Waking Up’ app by Sam Harris has posted a series of lectures by James Low that “makes the esoteric teachings of Dzogchen—a non-dual contemplative... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Generative A.I. - More Sociopathic Than FaceBook and Twitter?

  

  Have a look at this article on how the sociopathic effects of Facebook and Twitter could be dwarfed by what open source generative A.I. could do. I just played... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• New Perspectives on How Our Minds Work

  I want to pass on to MindBlog readers this link to a lecture I gave this past Friday (10/21/22) to the Univ. of Texas OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) U... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Anxiety - What is It, When is It Useful, When is It Not?

  The title of this post is the discussion topic for the Nov. 6 Austin Rainbow Forum, a monthly discussion group of LGBT seniors that first met in Austin Tx in... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Facebook Has No Idea Where It Keeps Our Personal Data.

  A fascinating article from Biddle describing the situation that occured when a court ordered Facebook to turn over information it had collected about a lawsuit’... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Musical Rhythm Training Improves Short-term Memory for Faces

  From Zanto et al: Significance Musical training can improve numerous cognitive functions associated with musical performance. Yet, there is limited evidence tha... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Sleepless and Unhelpful

  Simon et al. demonstrate that sleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies: Humans help each other. Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE