Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Ketogenic Diet Enhances Brain Network Stability, a Biomarker of Aging

  Mujica-Parodi et al. make observations suggesting that diets that changes the predominant dietary fuel from glucose (from carbohydrates) to ketones (from fats)... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Social Networks Are Destroying Democracy.

  In the December 2019 issue of The Atlantic Haidt and Rose-Stockwell offer a must-read article titled "The Dark Psychology of Social Networks. Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Closing the Gap Between Mind and Brain - The Dynamic Connectome and Psilocybin

  Quiroga summaries elegant work by Kringelbach et al., ...who provide a framework for incorporating into the connectome the dynamic variations caused by... Read more

  Posted on 19 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Anti-Intellectualism, Populism, and Motivated Resistance to Expert Consensus

  I want to pass on the abstract from Eric Merkley's article in Public Opinion Quarterly. I fervently hope that the anti-intellectuals he describes do not form a... Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Meet the Psychobiome

  Elizabeth Pennisi does a piece on the search for new brain drugs in human poop, generated by the ~ 2 kilograms of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and archaea that liv... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Arthur Brooks on "The Hero's Journey" and Retirement

  In the most recent installment of Arthur Brooks’ biweekly column in The Atlantic, which I suggest that you read, he talks about the classical hero's journey in... Read more

  Posted on 14 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Young Blood Plasma Reverses the Epigenetic Aging Clock.

  Perhaps the best molecular biomarker of aging at present is the epigenetic clock, developed by Horvath and others, based on measurements of DNA methylation. Jos... Read more

  Posted on 13 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Take the Shutdown Skeptics Seriously.

  I have been holding back from doing posts on the current pandemic, since it completely dominates the popular press. However, I want to pass on this link to one... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Self, Purpose, and Tribal Mentality as Darwinian Adaptations (or…Why Why Aren’t...

  This is a post like the one I offered on March 13 that passes on a bit of writing that I think might develop into a longer piece of work. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Infant Behavioral Inhibition Predicts Personality and Social Outcomes Three...

  From Tang et al.: Significance Children show different temperamental styles early in development. Whether temperament predicts who children become as adults... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Future of the Human Climate Niche

  Sobering analysis from Xu et al. : Significance We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a surprisingly narrow subset of Earth’s... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science

  From Hofstra et al: Significance By analyzing data from nearly all US PhD recipients and their dissertations across three decades, this paper finds... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Cultural Origins of Metacognition.

  I want to pass on this open source article in Trends in Cognitive Science by Heyes et al. Their summary: Highlights Human metacognition involves... Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Rising Workplace Inequalities in High-income Countries.

  From Tomaskovic-Devey et al.: Significance Understanding the causes of rising inequality is of concern in many countries. Using administrative data, we find tha... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Do Cognition-enhancing Drugs Work?

  Westbrook et al. do experiments with drugs influencing dopamine levels that suggest that cognition-enhancing drugs may act at the motivational level rather... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects?

  An interesting perspective from Perlin and Li: Awe is an emotional response to stimuli that are perceived to be vast (e.g., tall trees, sunsets) and that defy... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Evidence That Aerobic Exercise Reverses Aging.

  Brett et al. show (in mice) that aerobic exercise rejuvenates quiescent skeletal muscle stem cells in old mice and accelerates muscle tissue repair: Ageing... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Non-invasive DIY Brain Stimulators Are a Bad Idea.

  I must admit that I've been sorely tempted to have a try with one of the transcranial magnetic or direct current stimulators, easily ordered from web vendors,... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Deep Historical Roots of Global Economic Inequality

  

  Nathan Nunn does an article which describes how a substantial part of the world’s current income differences can be explained by the divergent effects of... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Changes in Cerebral Cortex Functional Organization in Healthy Elderly.

  Sigh.... Chong et al. offer a picture of how my 78 year old brain is more muddled than that of a ~23 year old male. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cross-sectional... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE