Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Changes in Well-being Measured by Massive Online Choice Experiments.

  Brynjolfsson et al. (open source) suggest moving beyond using gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity as a proxy for well-being to include the welfare... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Tracking Emotions of Unseen Persons by Their Context.

  

  Martinez does a commentary on work by Chen and Whitney (open source) in the same issue of PNAS. Here is a clip from that commentary: Face perception is a... Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Studies on Brain Renewal and Enhancement

  I want to point to two recent examples of studies on brain renewal in aging humans and other animals. First, a Stanford group finds that the normal decay in... Read more

  Posted on 11 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Synchronizing Rhythmic Brain Circuits Improves Working Memory in Older Adults.

  Our short term memory depends on theta rhythms (~6-10 Hz) and gamma rhythms (~25-100 Hz) in different parts of our brain being coupled and in synchrony with eac... Read more

  Posted on 10 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Affective Forecasting and Partisanship

  Rai summaries work by Dorison et al.: Increasing political polarization is driven in part by voters selectively seeking views that support their preexisting... Read more

  Posted on 09 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• "Learned Helplessness" from Constant Attention to Your Input Stream (email,...

  I'm trying out a 'new rule' for myself (cf. the Real Time with Bill Maher show on HBO). I frequently wake with some new ideas that I want to develop and write... Read more

  Posted on 08 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Life Prospects of Female Co-twins Are Diminished by Prenatal Testosterone...

  From Bütikofe et al.: During sensitive periods in utero, gonadal steroids help organize biological sex differences in humans and other mammals. Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• One Mechanism of a Basic Life Choice - to ‘go for It’ Or to ‘scram’

  Miller et al. use a variety of methods to find subpopulations of dopamine sensitive neurons in the amygdala of mice, projecting to different brain areas, that... Read more

  Posted on 04 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Students of Color Are Healthier in Schools That Emphasize the Value of Diversity

  From Levine et al.: Significance The United States is increasingly diverse, especially among youth. At the same time, racial and ethnic gaps persist in many... Read more

  Posted on 03 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• American Geography of Opportunity Reveals European Origins

  Interesting analysis from Berger and Engzell. They use microlevel Census data on self-reported ancestry to characterize the European origins of US places. Read more

  Posted on 02 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Infants and Toddlers Expect Different Third Party Punishment Behaviors from...

  Yet another example of how our brains are wired to distinguish ingroup and outgroup at a very early age...Ting et al. find sophisticated social analysis... Read more

  Posted on 01 April 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Yet Another Longevity Predictor?

  The NYTimes and WaPo must have a substantial number of readers in my 75-80 year old demographic, an age interval during which physical capabilities are rapidly... Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Using Artificial Intelligence for Medical Billing Scams.

  As a 76 year old Medicare beneficiary, I am frequently annoyed by the blatant ploys that medical care providers use to game the 'fee for services' system:... Read more

  Posted on 28 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Inflam-aging

  Leucht and collaborators show that injured bones do not heal as well with age because of the increases in chronic inflammation that occur with aging. Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Affect Theory and the New Age of Anxiety.

  Hua Hsu, in the March 25, 2019, issue of The New Yorker, does a fascinating presentation of the work and ideas of Lauren Berlant, whose writing is an example... Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• More Green Space in Childhood, Fewer Psychiatric Disorders in Adulthood.

  From Engemann et al.: Urban residence is associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders, but the underlying drivers remain unknown. Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Neural Signal Diversity is Increased by Psychedelics

  From Carhart-Harris and collaborators: What is the level of consciousness of the psychedelic state? Empirically, measures of neural signal diversity such as... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Knowing Your Own Heart - Distinguishing Interoceptive Accuracy and Awareness

  Garfinkel et al. categorize three different aspects of the internal bodily sensing (interoception) that informs our interactions with the external world,... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lethal Mass Partisanship

  I think everyone should read this lucid piece by Thomas Edsall, which describes the emerging consensus on the stark biological and evolved psychological roots o... Read more

  Posted on 20 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MRI Can Detect the Content of Decisions 11 Seconds Before They Are Made.

  Goldhill points to and summarizes work of Koening-Rober and Pearson. Their abstract: Is it possible to predict the freely chosen content of voluntary imagery... Read more

  Posted on 19 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE