Deric Bownds
These articles, from Deric's MindBlog at http://mindblog.dericbownds.net report new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
MY BLOGS
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Deric Bownds' MindBlog
http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/
This blog reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 2488 )
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Great Apes Can Look Ahead in Time
Yet another supposed distinction between human and animal minds has bit the dust. The prevailing dogma (expressed in my talk " The Beast Within") has been that... Read more
Posted on 16 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Rhodopsin Curing Blindness?
In a previous life (1962-1998) my laboratory studied how the rhodopsin visual pigment in our eyes changes light into a nerve signal. Thus it excites me when I... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Musical Expertise Changes the Brain's Functional Connectivity During...
Music notation reading encapsulates auditory, visual, and motor information in a highly organized manner and therefore provides a useful model for studying... Read more
Posted on 13 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
A Gee Whiz! Moment. Activating Neurons with Ultrasound.
Optogenetics, making nerve cells sensitive to light by a genetic manipulation, has the limitation that light doesn't penetrate living tissue very well, and so... Read more
Posted on 09 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Methionine, an Amino Acid, Enhances Recovery from Cocaine Addiction.
Wright et al. use a mouse model to show that the common amino acid methionine - which can serve as a methyl group donor for the DNA methylation that regulates... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Memory Aging and Brain Maintenance
An open access article by Nyberg et al. notes The association of intact memory functioning in old age with maintenance and preservation of a functionally young... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Does Exercise Change Your Brain?
After yesterday's post suggesting no effects of common dietary supplements on cognitive changes with aging, I thought I would note work regarding exercise and... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Can Dietary Supplements Fight Cognitive Decline?
Maybe not...It is known that people who eat diets rich in fish and antioxidants have better brain health, but this association does not prove cause and effect.... Read more
Posted on 29 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Is "gaydar" a Myth?
Cox et al. contest work by Rule et al. that I mentioned in a previous post and suggest that the idea of "gaydar" is a myth. (Use gaydar as a search term in the... Read more
Posted on 25 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Consolidating Motor Skills in Our Sleep.
It is well known that sleep, in ourselves and in other animals, helps in consolidating learned motor tasks. (When I am learning difficult passage in a new... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
More Bad Things About Sleep Debt.
This post is to point to two recent articles on pathologies induced by sleep debt. He et al. show that sleep restriction impairs blood-brain barrier... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Our Nervous Systems Are Lazy.
Selinger et al. show that the subconscious nervous processes that regulate our movement are constantly adapting to minimize the energy required for movement in ... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Social Mysteries of the Superior Temporal Sulcus
Michael Beauchamp does a summary of work by Deen et al. (open access), who use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show a regular... Read more
Posted on 21 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
A Final Musical/social at Twin Valley - Some Rachmaninoff
A personal posting: On Sunday Sept. 13, Len and I hosted our last musical/social at the 1860 stone school house we have lived in for 25 years (I have been... Read more
Posted on 18 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Inventing New Words - Iconic Sounds Are Used.
Perlman and collaborators find that students inventing new words use certain types of vocalizations with certain words. For example, made-up words for "up"... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Thinking Too Much - Self Generated Thought as the Engine of Neuroticism.
Perkins et al. offer an opinion piece in which they propose that the cost and benefits of neuroticism are surface manifestations of a tendency to engage in... Read more
Posted on 11 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Savoring Happy Memories - Value Representations in the Striatum
Speer et al. observe responses in the corticostriatal circuits that respond to monetary reward when positive autobiographical memories are recalled. These... Read more
Posted on 10 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
A Classification of Cognitive Mechanisms in Meditation Practice.
Dahl, Lutz, and Davidson offer an interesting classification system for different styles of meditation. Here is a paste up from their abstract and... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Bioethics - Doing More Harm Than Good?
Steven Pinker recently ignited a small firestorm with his piece in the Boston Globe arguing that bioethical issues that slow down research have a massive human... Read more
Posted on 04 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Oxytocin - More Sophisticated Views of Its Functions
Helen Shen offers a review of studies on oxytocin, the "hug hormone," which influences maternal behavior and social attachment in various species. She notes... Read more
Posted on 03 September 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE