Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Why Science Needs Philosophy

  I have always been in awe of the clarity and precision of the thinking of one of my Univ. of Wisconsin colleagues, philosopher Elliott Sober. Read more

  Posted on 18 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Spinning Drops!

  

  Here is a really neat, gee whiz kind of study: To make the water droplets spin, researchers first had to make sure they didn’t wet the surface they fell... Read more

  Posted on 15 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Psychological Underpinnings of Politics

  I want to point to a number of commentaries on psychological determinants of political behavior that have been languishing in my queue of potential posts...... Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why is It So Hard for Democracy to Deal with Inequality? The Brahmins Vs the...

  I want to pass on an article that I wish I had made the subject of a longer post when it first appeared. Thomas Edsall, in "Why is it so hard for democracy to... Read more

  Posted on 13 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Social Threat Learning Transfers to Our Decision Making.

  Lindström et al. (open source) demonstrate that threat associations acquired both by social observation (e.g., through video) and by instruction (e.g., through... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Sleep Aids Recovery from Infection, May Protect Brain from Alzheimer's...

  Dimitrov et al. show how a good night's sleep accelerates recovering from an infection. Glue like proteins (integrins) used by immune system T cells to attach t... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Many Push-ups Can You Do? Predicting Heart Health...

  Gretchen Reynolds points to work showing that men who could get through 40 or more push-ups had 96 percent less risk of heart problems in the next 10 years... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Control of OCD Behavior by Amygdala to Prefrontal Input.

  Sun et al. find a brain circuit in mice regulating OCD behavior that in humans might be susceptible to non drug manipulations such as transcranial magnetic... Read more

  Posted on 07 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Long Term Trends in Politics - Trump is Not an Outlier

  A sobering analysis from Jordan et al.: Significance Donald Trump and a small group of emerging leaders around the world have been labeled as outliers in the... Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Even 10 Minutes of Low Intensity Physical Activity Enhances Executive Function i...

  Petrella et al. (open source) find that executive function in older adults is boosted almost immediately by low intensity exercise as brief as 10 minutes. Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Emotional Reward from Music is Modulated by Dopamine.

  Ferreri et al. present evidence that enhancing or inhibiting dopamine signaling using levodopa or risperidone modulates the pleasure experienced while... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mindfulness + Acceptance Training - Randomized Controlled Trial Shows Prosocial...

  From Lindsay et al.: Significance Loneliness (i.e., feeling alone) and social isolation (i.e., being alone) are among the most robust known risk factors for poo... Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Ketamine Inspired Nasal Spray for Depression.

  I pass on this New Atlas article link on a nasal spray based on ketamine (the party drug PCP or 'angel dust') that is likely to receive FDA approval soon. Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• New Form of Neural Communication at a Distance.

  The branch of parapsychology that claims subtle sensing and psychological action at a distance might be heartened that they are finding a shred of supportive... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Neuroscience of ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby’

  I've always wondered why I sleep like a baby when on a boat being slowly rocked by waves, so was intrigued by Friedman's recent piece pointing to work by... Read more

  Posted on 26 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Female Brains Are Younger Than Male Brains.

  Fascinating, from Goyal et al. (open source article): Significance Prior work has identified many sex differences in the brain, including during brain aging... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Ohmygawd.....warms of Drones with One Distributed Brain.

  

  I have to pass on the scary video below, pointed to by a recent WaPo article. Reminds me of the fighter battles in the Star Wars movies. Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Watching Social Influence Start to Bias Perceptual Integration as Children...

  From Large et al.: The opinions of others have a profound influence on decision making in adults. The impact of social influence appears to change during... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Fighting Social Media Misinformation Using Crowdsourced Judgements

  From Pennycook and Rand: Significance Many people consume news via social media. It is therefore desirable to reduce social media users’ exposure to... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Sleeping in Standby Mode

  In the editor's choice section of the current Science Magazine, Claudia Pama points to work by Legendre et al. showing that sleepers process surrounding events... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE