Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Re-skilling the Brain.

  For the first time, Oby et al (open source, nice graphics) observe the new neural activity patterns that cause a new learned behavior. Significance Consider a... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Deindividuation of Outgroup Faces Occurs at the Earliest Stages of Visual...

  From Hughes et al: A hallmark of intergroup biases is the tendency to individuate members of one’s own group but process members of other groups categorically. Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Facial Muscles in Dogs Evolved for Interactions with Humans.

  From Kaminski et al. (check out the videos in the article): Domestication shaped wolves into dogs and transformed both their behavior and their anatomy. Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Around the Globe, Financial Temptation Increases Civic Honesty.

  Shalvi does a commentary on work by Cohn et al. Here is the Cohn et al. abstract: Civic honesty is essential to social capital and economic development but is... Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• It’s Never simple...The Tidy Textbook Story About the Primary Visual Cortex is...

  When I was a postdoc in the Harvard Neurobiology department in the mid-1960’s I used to have afternoon tea with the Hubel and Weisel group. Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• An Anti-aging Pill with Some Credibility....

  An AARP article points to studies on the new drug RTB101, which boosts immune function in older people and lowers risk for respiratory diseases. Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Correlating Our Our Physical and Mental Experiences of Stress Linked to...

  Davidson and colleagues at the Univ. of Wisconsin show that individual differences in the ability to associate subjective stress and heart rate are related to... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Problem With ‘Sharenting’

  An article in the NYTimes 'Privacy Project' by Kamenetz resonates with my own experience of very mixed reactions to viewing some of what I consider the most... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Looking for a Dose of Optimism?

  I want to point to a recent NYTimes Op-Ed piece by David Brooks that is a bit more upbeat than his frequent hand wringing over the dissolution of old verities. Read more

  Posted on 10 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Subgroups of Gay Men Correspond to Different Biodevelopmental Pathways

  Swift-Gallant et al. consider three established biomarkers of sexual orientation and suggest they reflect distinct biodevelopmental pathways influencing same-se... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Social Media - No Effect on Adolescent Life Satisfaction?

  Orben et al. (open source article) provide a study whose results contest a common opinion, reinforced by several previous studies, that adolescents who use... Read more

  Posted on 05 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Think Twice About Metformin as an Anti-aging Drug.

  Gretchen Reynolds points to work suggesting that use of metformin (the most commonly used Type 2 diabetes drug) as an anti-aging agent by healthy active people... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Your Professional Decline.

  Arthur Brooks, former president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank and New York Times Op-Ed writer, does an essay in the Atlantic in... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Perception as Controlled Hallucination - Predictive Processing and the Nature...

  I've now read several times through a fascinating Edge.org conversation with philosopher Andy Clark. I suggest you read the piece, and here pass on some edited... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Implicit Racial Bias is Preserved by Historical Roots of Social Environments.

  Payne et al. note that geographic differences in implicit racial bias correlate with the number of slaves in those areas in 1860. Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Over 50-fold Difference Between Individuals in Circadian Melatonin Sensitivity t...

  Phillips et al. probe how our high sensitivity to artificial light after dusk perturbs the circadian rhythm of our sleep hormone melatonin: Significance Electri... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mechanism of Exercise and Antioxidant Stimulation of Memory and New Nerve Cell...

  On reading this article by Yook et al. I promptly ordered a bottle of 10 mg astaxanthin capsules to add to my normal array of supplements (and exercise). Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Enhancing Longevity by Removing Deteriorated Body Cells.

  Here I pass on both the introductory summary and concluding paragraph of van Deursen's review of efforts to enhance longevity by removing body cells that have... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Can We Read Only One Word at a Time?

  Fascinating work from White et al.: Significance Because your brain has limited processing capacity, you cannot comprehend the text on this page all at once. Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why High-class People Get Away with Incompetence.

  Belmi et al. do four experiments suggesting that people who come from a higher social class are more likely to have an inflated sense of their skills — even whe... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE