Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Stop Talking About 'male' and 'female' Brains.

  As a counterpoint to yesterday's post, which invokes the Extreme Male Brain theory of autism, I pass on some clips from a piece by Joel and Fine that contests... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Testing Theories of Sex Differences and Autism with Big Data.

  From Greenberg et al: Significance In the largest study to date of autistic traits, we test 10 predictions from the Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) theory of sex... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Watching Memories Change the Brain - a Challenge to the Traditional View

  

  I pass on both the Science Magazine summary of Brodt et al., as well as the summary graphic in a review of their article by Assaf, and finally the Brodt et al. Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Coding of Perception in Language is Not Universal.

  From Majid et al.: Is there a universal hierarchy of the senses, such that some senses (e.g., vision) are more accessible to consciousness and linguistic... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Neuroscience of Hugs.

  Packheiser et al. observed more than 2,500 hugs at an international airport, hugs with positive emotions at arrival gates and hugs with negative emotions at... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Limited Prosocial Effects of Meditation.

  Kreplin et al. do a meta-analysis, and Kreplin writes a more general review of studies on the effects of meditation. The Krepline et al. Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Stress Changes Our Brains' Blood Flow.

  From Elbau et al.: Ample evidence links dysregulation of the stress response to the risk for psychiatric disorders. However, we lack an integrated... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• More on the Sociopathy of Social Media.

  Languishing in my queue of potential posts have been two articles that I want to mention and pass on to readers. Max Fisher writes on the unintended consequence... Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Brains Are Prediction Machines. Friston's Free-energy Principle

  Further reading on the article noted in yesterday's post has made me realize that I have been seriously remiss in not paying more attention to a revolution in... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Being a Beast Machine: The Somatic Basis of Selfhood

  Seth and Tsakiris offer a review in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, with the title of this post, that immediately caught my eye. I'm working on a lecture now... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Molecular Basis for the Placebo Effect.

  Several popular articles point to work I wish I had been more aware off. Gary Greenberg in the NYTimes, and Cari Romm in The Atlantic, point to work of Kathryn... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Impacts of Outdoor Artificial Light on Plant and Animal Species.

  

  Gaston does a perspective article describing how the nighttime lighting up of our planet is profoundly disturbing the activities of many animal and plant... Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Dietary Fat: From Foe to Friend?

  

  The title of the post is the title of one of the articles in a special section of the Nov. 16 issue of Science devoted to Diet and Health. Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• 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