Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Brain Patterns of Consciousness

  

  A study that is the product of a collaboration across seven countries has identified brain signatures that can indicate consciousness without relying on... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Brain and Spinal Cord Distinguish Self Touch from the Touch of Others

  I’ve always been struck by how much more effective someone else’s touch is than my own in relaxing tense muscles in my body. Boehme et al. Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Science of Sway in Musical Ensembles.

  I'm passing on this fascinating article that the violinist in my piano trio sent to her musician colleagues. Trainor's group at McMaster University documents ho... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Parents Mention Sons More Often Than Daughters on Social Media.

  From Sivak and Smirnov: Significance Parents’ preference for sons is a well-known phenomenon. This study examines whether the use of social media by parents is... Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Correlations Between Our Gut Microbiota and Mental Health.

  Valles-Colomer et al. note variations in the levels of different groups of gut bacteria that correlate with depression, or with higher quality of life. Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Oliver Sacks - The Machine Stops

  I want to point MindBlog readers to a wonderful short essay written by Oliver Sacks before his death from cancer, in which he notes the parallels between the... Read more

  Posted on 11 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Flash Judgement Based on Appearance.

  

  I want to point to two articles on how we make rapid judgements based on first impressions. Torodov's essay in aeon is a fascinating review of the history of... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Few Anti-technology Screeds:

  

  German artist, filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl writes an impassioned diatribe titled "Technology Has Destroyed Reality": In this new age of artificial... Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Successes of Advantaged Group Members Get More Attention.

  Kteily et al. show how political ideology shapes the amplification of the accomplishments of disadvantaged vs. advantaged group members: Significance... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Decay of Cognitive Diversity - Global WEIRDing is Upon Us

  I recommend that you read this brief piece by Kensy Cooperrider, a cognitive scientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Facial Masculinity Does Not Indicate Immunocompetence

  From Zeidi et al.: Significance Facial masculinity has been considered a sexual ornament in humans, akin to peacock trains and stag antlers. Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Oligarchia - the Rise of Autonomous Analog Computing

  I want to pass on the final paragraphs of a piece done by George Dyson for Edge.org: We assume that a search engine company builds a model of human knowledge an... Read more

  Posted on 01 February 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Feedspot: MindBlog in Top 100 Psychology Blogs

  I am clueless about monitoring traffic on MindBlog, have been puzzled why I get 3-5 emails a week wanting to contribute content, share content, sell me some... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Fake News: The Misinformation Machine.

  I want to pass on the abstract of a Science article by Grinberg et al. and parts of a commentary on it, work on what misinformation is and how it operates that... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Default Mode Network as Seat of Our Ego - The Entropic Brain Hypothesis

  

  I want to recommend Chapter 5 of Michael Pollan's recent book "How to change your mind," on the neuroscience of the psychedelic experience, as an excellent... Read more

  Posted on 29 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Homo Prospectus - the Brain as a Time Traveler - Augmentation by A.I.?

  Steve Johnson does an engaging article on the discovery and significance of the default mode network of our brains, which has been the subject of numerous... Read more

  Posted on 28 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Emotional Dimension of Pain.

  Corder et al. examine the unpleasant percept that dominates the affective dimension of pain, which is coupled with but distinct from the motivational drive to... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Social Networks Explain Academic Success and Failure.

  Interesting work from Stadtfeld et al.: Significance Understanding the factors that explain academic failure and success of university students is a core... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Exercise Protects Memory.

  Gretchen Reynolds points to an interesting study on a mouse model for Alzheimer's disease by Lourenco et al. showing that exercise causes an increase in the... Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Can Psychological Scientists Make the World a Better Place?

  I want to point to the January 2019 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science that addresses the question asked in the title of this post. Read more

  Posted on 22 January 2019 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE