Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Basal Forebrain and Default Mode Network Regulation.

  

  The basal forebrain is an ascending, activating, neuromodulatory system involved in wake–sleep regulation, memory formation, and regulation of sensory... Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Scared by the News? Take the Long View.

  I tell everyone I meet or chat with to read Steven Pinker's new book "Enlightenment Now." It was the subject of a series of recent MindBlog posts, starting on... Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Cracking the Code Relating Speech Prosody to Social Judgements.

  Ponsot et al. use an ingenious method to determine prosodic prototypes that govern social judgments in speech. Clips from their introduction: In social... Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Locus Coeruleus Integrity and Memory in Aging Adults

  The locus coeruleus is a deep brain nucleus whose cells synthesize noradrenaline that is sent via its axonal projections to other parts of the brain. Hämmerer e... Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A.I. Quantifies 100 Years of Gender and Ethnic Stereotypes.

  Hutson points to work of Garg et al. that uses artificial intelligence to demonstrate how racial and gender stereotypes have changed over time. Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Contract with Authoritarianism

  Thomas Edsall offers yet another of his thoughtful well referenced essays, from which I want to pass on a few clips. You should read the entire article. Read more

  Posted on 11 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Small Molecule for Stroke Therapy

  

  The small 'magic molecule,' a neural plasticity enhancer, found by Abe et al. to accelerate motor function recovery from brain damage is edonerpic maleate, whos... Read more

  Posted on 10 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Senior Adults Get Lost More Frequently Than Younger Adults.

  Strang et al. identify the brain area whose degeneration with aging underlies the loss of our navigational abilities: Highlights •Grid-cell-like... Read more

  Posted on 09 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• We Choose What We Want to Hear.

  Billig et al. provide a nice example of how we can consciously influence what we perceive, in this case hearing a sequence of pure tones either as individual... Read more

  Posted on 06 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Reprogramming Fear Responses Outside of Conscious Awareness.

  Fascinating work by Taschereau-Dumouchel et al. suggests that our 'hard wired' fear responses can be reprogrammed or attenuated by an unconscious manipulation,... Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• If Resources Are Scarce Infants Choose Ingroup Support Over Fairness.

  From Bian et al: Significance Recent research suggests that infants possess principles of fairness and ingroup support. We examined whether 1.5- and 2. Read more

  Posted on 04 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?

  Two recent bits of writing on loneliness: Klinenberg suggests that the 'loneliness epidemic' that has been promoted by numerous recent articles (Britain has... Read more

  Posted on 03 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Predicting the Effectiveness of Cognitive Therapy with Functional MRI

  Reggente et al. do interesting work showing that MRI measurement of functional connectivity patterns in the default mode and visual networks of... Read more

  Posted on 02 April 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Young Muscles and Immune Systems in Aging Cyclists.

  I pass on the technical abstracts of two striking papers referenced by a Gretchen Reynolds article showing that the leg muscles and immune systems of 55-79... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How is Tech Dividing Us?

  Comments by David Autor during an interview by Nancy Scola: ...it's definitely the case that automation is raising the demand for skilled labor. And the work... Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Logic in Babies.

  Halberda does a commentary on work of Cesana-Arlotti et al. showing that one essential form of logical inference, process of elimination, is with the toolkit... Read more

  Posted on 28 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Different Kinds of Smiles Elicit Different Physiological Responses

  Martin et al. show that our stress chemistry (HPA, or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) is augmented or dampened by different kinds of smiles: When people ar... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• YouTube's A.I. Finds That Radicalization Gets More Ad Revenue.

  Tufekci points to yet another pathological social consequence of A.I. algorithms designed to make people stay on a website longer, and thus generate more... Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Reputation Age.

  I would like to point to this brief essay by Italian philosopher Gloria Origgi, which offers, after its beginning paragraphs (below), several examples of... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Think You’re Not a Competitor? Think Again.

  From Raghabendra et al.: We report a series of experimental studies that investigate the influence of a competition on noncompetitors who do not participate in... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE