Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Social Learning Circuits in the Brain.

  Allsop et al. at MIT, observe brain circuits that let an animal learn from the experience of others: Highlights •Neurons in cortex and amygdala respond... Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Conversation with Your Angry Uncle Over Thanksgiving - a Chat Bot.

  I have to pass on this gem from this morning's NYTimes. Karin Tamerius, founder of "Smart Politics" offers a chat bot to help train you for a conversation with ... Read more

  Posted on 22 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Top-down and Bottom-up Causation in the Emergence of Complexity.

  

  I want to pass on just the first section of a commentary by George F.R. Ellis on a paper by Aharonov et al., whose evidence and analysis support a top–down... Read more

  Posted on 22 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• REM Sleep in Naps and Memory Consolidation in Typical and Down Syndrome Children.

  From Spano et al.: Sleep is recognized as a physiological state associated with learning, with studies showing that knowledge acquisition improves with naps. Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Ecstasy of Speed - Or Leisure?

  The Google Blogger platform by Deric's MindBlog emails me comments on posts to approve (or delete, or mark as spam). The almost daily comments are usually... Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Practicing Gratitude, Kindness, and Compassion - Can Our I-devices Help?

  My Apple Watch occasionally, and unexpectedly, prompts me to stop and breathe (does it not like the pulse that it is measuring?). Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Self Driving Cars Will Have to Decide Who Should Live and Who Should Die.

  

  Johnson points to a collaboration by Awad et al. that explored the moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. They designed an experimental platform (The Mora... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Biomarkers of Inflamation Are Lower in People with More Positive Emotions

  Fron Ong et al.: There is growing evidence that inflammatory responses may help to explain how emotions get “under the skin” to influence disease susceptibility. Read more

  Posted on 15 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• New Longevity Vitamins?

  Well known senior biochemist Bruce Ames (b. 1928) suggests an array of compounds should be added to the list of essential vitamins that maintain health and... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Are We Getting Too Hysterical About the Dangers of Artificial Intelligence?

  It is certainly true that A.I. might take away the current jobs of people like lawyers and radiologists who scan data looking for patterns, or those who are... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Even a 10 Minute Walk Can Boost Your Brain

  From Suwabe et al.: Significance Our previous work has shown that mild physical exercise can promote better memory in rodents. Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Facebook Language Predicts Depression in Medical Records.

  Eichstaedt et al., suggest that analysis of language used by consenting individuals in their social media accounts could provide a depression assessment that... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Advancing Front of Old-age Human Survival

  Zuo et al. examine the probabilities of death at ages past 65 years for males and females in developed countries; that is, they consider individuals in each yea... Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Human Herd and Its Digital Overlords.

  We've been seeing articles about the downside of young children and teenagers using digital social platforms, and the family conflicts resulting from trying to... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Might Tribal Conflict Fatigue Lead to a Contagion of Civility and Kindness ?

  A majority of both republicans and democrats express dismay over the current state of our civil discourse. Continuously stoked arousal of our brains' fear and... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Core Mechanisms Undermining Liberal Democracy.

  Because of the overwhelming number of (slightly hysterical) articles appearing on how our society is coming unhinged, I have become reluctant to do posts on... Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Review of Body Effects of Mindfulness Meditation

  I point to a review by Jill Suttie, "Five Ways Mindfulness Meditation Is Good for Your Health." because it has a number of useful links to research articles -... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Are You Holding Your Breath?

  As I was doing some homework on techniques of coping with stress, I came across an old MindBlog post which I pass on again, below. It was part of what... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Evolution of Overconfidence

  Johnson and Fowler on the crucial role of overconfidence in human success: Confidence is an essential ingredient of success in a wide range of domains ranging... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Self-care and Finding Personal Peace in Today's Socio-political Climate.

  

  In Fort Lauderdale, FL, and now in Austin TX, I have organized discussion groups that meet regularly to discuss new topics and ideas. Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE