Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2685 )

• 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

• Third-party Punishment by Preverbal Infants

  From Kanakogi et al.: Third-party punishment of antisocial others is unique to humans and seems to be universal across cultures. However, its emergence in... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Sleeping Touch Improves Vision.

  Interesting work reported by Onuki et al. in the Journal of Neuroscience: SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Tactile sensations can bias our visual perception as a form of... Read more

  Posted on 10 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Liberal Democracy Versus Christian Democracy

  I pass on the opening paragraphs of Thomas Edsall's essay, which offers one of the most succinct summaries I have seen. Could there soon be an American... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Cognitive and Evolutionary Foundations of Puritanical Morality

  MindBlog receives articles for commentary from the Cambridge University Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. I will pass on the following abstract of an... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Triggers for Mother Love

  A fascinating open source article from Margaret Livingstone carrying forward the famous experiments by Harry Harlow: Significance Harry Harlow found that... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Trigger Warnings and ‘safety-ism’ Don’t Work.

  Mark Manson does an engaging "Mindf*ck Monday Newsletter from Sept. 7" that I recommend you have a look at. It cites a meta-analysis by Brigland et al. Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Neural Synchronization Predicts Marital Satisfaction

  From Li et al.: Significance Humans establish intimate social and personal relationships with their partners, which enable them to survive, successfully mate,... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Nature Nurtures

  MindBlog has passed on a number of articles on how exposure to nature reduces stress (see a sample list below). Here is a further contribution from Sudimac et... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Machine Learning is Translating the Languages of Animals

  Anthes does an article on how machine learning is being used to eavesdrop on naked mole rats, fruit bats, crows and whales — and to communicate back. Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lasting Improvements in Seniors’ Working and Long-term Memory with Repetitive...

  From Grover et al., an open source article in which details of their transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) protocols are given: The development... Read more

  Posted on 21 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Sex of Human Experimenters Influences Mouse Behaviors and Neural Responses.

  As I was scanning a recent nature neuroscience table of contents, the title of this item elicited an immediate “What the f…..?” reaction, so I had to click on... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A 2020 MindBlog Anti-aging Experiment Whose Results I Forgot to Report to...

  How embarassing. While doing a scan of posts on aging to update my Jan. 2018 talk "How Much Can We Change Our Aging?" talk, I pulled up a post from Wed. Oct. Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How the Internet Has Fueled Our Current Cultural Stagnation.

  I pass on some of Michelle Goldberg's description of a forthcoming book by W. David Marx, “Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste,... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Non-duality as a Platform for Experiencing Daily Life.

  I pass on abstracted edited clip from a recent podcast conversation between Sam Harris and M.I.T philosopher Kierna Setiya on “Philosophy and the Good Life”... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Eye Movements Are Related to the Contents of Consciousness in REM (rapid Eye...

  Senzai and Scanziani have recorded head direction cells in the anterior dorsal nucleus of the thalamus in mice during wake and sleep. Read more

  Posted on 09 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is History History?

  I recommend that you read Bret Stephens fascinating NYTimes piece. Some clips: The End of History was supposed to have happened back in 1989, the year the Berli... Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE