Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Stress in Older Adults Accelerates Immune System Aging.

  Seo does a summary article that points to the work of Klopak et al. The Klopak et al. abstract: Significance As the world’s population of older adults increases... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Stress Focuses Brain Integration

  From Wang et al.(open source, with good graphics): Despite the prevalence of stress, how brains reconfigure their multilevel, hierarchical functional... Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Truly Humbled....

  I came across this David Brooks piece while scanning the Atlantic Magazine App on my iPad this morning, and then found on checking my email that a friend had... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Reduction of Stress and Inflammatory Responses by Transcutaneous Cervical Vagal...

  

  I want to point to an article by Caron that reviews work investigating therapeutic effects of stimulating our vagus nerve, two large nerve fiber bundles that ru... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Self-immolation of the American Progressive Left

  MindBlog has been sticking with science lately, majorly dialing down the number of political posts that started appearing at the onset of the Trumpian era. I... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Theories of Consciousness

  A valuable summary article from Anil Seth and Time Bayne. The article has excelent graphics demonstrating the four main models of consciousness that are the... Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Allure of Conspiracy Theories.

  Edsall does a nice essay on the allure of conspiracy theories which are playing a significant role in the current decline of a humane America being helplessly... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Magnetic Stimulation of the Brain Can Improve Cognitive Impairment

  An open source article from Liu et al. in the journal Cerebral Cortex reports that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the bilateral angula... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Effortless Training of Attention and Self-control

  I pass on the highlights statement from a fascinating opinion piece by Tang et al. (motivated readers can obtain a copy of the text from me). Read more

  Posted on 22 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog in Crypto-Land

  

  Unless you have been hiding in a cave (not a bad place to be these days) you have doubtless been following the current crash of the stock market and the even... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Testerone Production in Adult Men is Regulated by an Adolescent Period...

  From Gettler et al.: Significance Testosterone influences how animals devote energy and time toward reproduction, including opposing demands of mating and... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Brain Signature of Choosing to Accept Pain in Exchange for Future Reward

  From Coll et al.: Significance We often willingly experience pain to reach a goal. However, potential pain can also prevent reckless action. How do we consider... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Neural Signatures of Major Depressive, Anxiety, and Stress-related Disorders

  Some fascintating observation from Zhukovsky et al., (open source, nice graphics of brain imaging results) who find that major depressive and anxiety disorders... Read more

  Posted on 13 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Conscious Turing Machine - a Blueprint for Conscious Machines.

  I want to point to a paper in the current PNAS by Blum and Blum, "A theory of consciousness from a theoretical computer science perspective: Insights from the... Read more

  Posted on 10 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Stories Move the Heart - Literally

  Continuing my thread of heart activity realted posts (here, and here), I'll mention that I've enjoyed reading this open access PNAS Science and Culture article... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• I Am Not My Problem

  An explanation of the strange title of this post: Sometimes a new idea spontaneously appears from nowhere as I am waking in the morning. Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Beginnings

  The title of this post is the title of one of the mini-essays in a piece on my website, written 20 years ago, called "MINDSTUFF: BONBONS FOR THE CURIOUS USER. Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Heart Rate Variability as a Marker of Stress and Health - Measurements with the...

  This post is a follow-up to the previous post on brain-heart interplay in emotional arousal, and points to Thayer et al.'s meta-analysis of heart rate... Read more

  Posted on 01 June 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Brain-Heart Interplay in Emotional Arousal - Resolving a Hundred Year Old Debate

  Candia-Rivera et al. do a fascinating piece of work that answers some long-standing issues in the century old debate on the role of the autonomic nervous... Read more

  Posted on 30 May 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Experiential Appreciation as a Pathway to Meaning in Life

  I have resumed cruising journals' tables of contents after a lapse due to shifting my attention elsewhere, and just came across this interesting open source... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE