Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Repeated Fake Headlines Feel More Moral

  In a bit of work relevant to the current impeachment drama Effron and Raj find that repeatedly viewing a false headline increases approval and reduces... Read more

  Posted on 27 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Altruistic Behaviors Relieve Physical Pain.

  From Wang et al., the fascinating observation that altruistic behavior diminishes both acute and chronic pain by damping activity in brain areas responsible... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Childhood Deprivation Alters Adult Brains Despite Subsequent Environmental...

  A sobering study from Mackes et al: Significance Millions of children worldwide live in nonfamilial institutions. We studied impact on adult brain structure of ... Read more

  Posted on 22 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What is Your Biological Age? A Problem with the Epigenetic Clock Approach.

  Having already sent off blood samples to 23andMe and Helix, mainly out of curiosity over possible genome details relevant to my health (Apparently I might be... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Mind-Body Problem - How Our Brain Talks to Stress Systems in Our Body.

  Dun et al. use a neuronal pathway tracking technique to show how different brain areas link to the adrenal medulla to connect its activity (secretion of... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• You Ideal Job Can Be Predicted by Your Social Media Behavior.

  So...are occupational guidance counselors going to be replaced by social media algorithms? From Kern et al.: Significance Employment is thought to be more... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• An Alternative Neural Mechanism for Treating Anxiety Disorders Through Safety...

  In these times of political polarization all over the world, over one third of all people experience anxiety disorders, in which circumstances frequently are... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Great Graphics - a Review of Cerebral Cortex Structure/folding from Mice to...

  I pass on this open source review article for the small number of MindBlog readers who might find it useful in their teaching. Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Brain Aging Reduced by Elevating acetyl-CoA Levels.

  Acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is a central molecule in the energy metabolism of mitochondria in our cells. Currais et al. show that two Alzheimer's disease (AD... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Quiet Brains of Athletes

  An interesting study by Kraus and collaborators shows that athletes have larger responses to specified sounds than non-athletes, due to a reduction in their... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Anti-immigration Sentiment Does Not Correlate with Local Democraphic Changes.

  Hill et al. analyze election results and demographic measures for almost 32,000 precincts in the states of Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio,... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Increased Emotional Reactivity in Men with High Hair Testosterone Concentrations.

  As I was scanning the table of contents of the latest issue of the journal "Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience" the article whose abstract I pass on... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• We’ve Just Had the Best Decade (and Year) in Human History. Seriously

  To provide a faintly upbeat end of the year post, I want to point to a Matt Ridley piece in The Spectator that provides a bit of a tonic for our times, by... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• World in Decline? New Authoritarian Age? - the Dangers of Declinism.

  These are times of high anxiety for both Red and Blue state America. A powerful Op-Ed by Roger Cohen, in the wake of the British election, sees a coming Trump... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• For the Holiday Season - the Gift of Self Care

  To acknowledge that today is a special one for a large fraction of humanity, I want to pass on Parker-Pope's description of suggestions by Korean Buddhist... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is This What My Grandson Will Be Doing in a Few Years?

  

  My seven year old grandson Sebastian is a performer, taking piano lessons and reminding me a bit of myself when I was doing the same thing at his age. Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Setting Back Our Epigenic Age?

  I would like to point to Josh Mitteldorf's Blog "Aging Matters", in particular "Pulsed Yamanaka Factors Set Back Epigenic Age. Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog Reviews the HealthyMinds App

  

  The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, established by my former University of Wisconsin colleague Richard Davidson, is trying to export th... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Favorite Sentences

  I have to pass on a few of the favorite sentences collected by book critic Dwight Garner from his 2019 list of books - you can get the citations from the... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Blood Protein Profiles Change in the Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Decades of...

  Lehallier et al. find that ~1,380 of the ~3,000 plasma proteins in blood samples from 4,263 people between the ages of 18 and 95 vary significantly with age,... Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE