Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• 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

• 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