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 ( 2501 )
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Perceived Control Promotes Persistence and Influences Brain Response to Setbacks
From Bhanji et al: Highlights •We report two distinct neural mechanisms for persistence through adversity •Perceiving control over setbacks increase... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Another Magic Anti-aging Compound?
Riluzole is a drug used to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also studied for use in mood and anxiety disorders, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Read more
Posted on 14 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Human Children Conform to Peers' Behavior, but Apes Do Not.
Haun and collaborators make the interesting observation that two year old human children will change a learned problem solving strategy on observing peers... Read more
Posted on 13 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Personality and Ideology
I've done a number of posts (for example, here) pointing to work suggesting that differences in basic partially inherited neurocognitive traits (such as... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Subliminal Strengthening
Levy et al. make the interesting observation that presenting subliminal positive age stereotypes to older people has a greater effect than similar explicit... Read more
Posted on 09 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Personality and Immune System Reactivity.
Vedhara et al. have examined the expression of inflammatory genes in 121 people who also took personality tests that rated the generally identified five major... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Unforeseen Costs of Extraordinary Experiences.
Daniel Gilbert and his collaborators at Harvard have come up with yet another fascinating nugget on our human behaviors: People seek extraordinary... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Invunerablism
Todd May does a brief essay (coining the world “invulnerabilism”) that is yet another interesting take on an issue central to all our lives: Do what degree is i... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Is There a Reason for Everything? - Teleological Reasoning About Life Events
Banerjee and Bloom explore the view that the tendency to develop teleological beliefs about life events is a byproduct of certain universal social-cognitive... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Biological Explanations for Psychopathology Decrease Clinician Empathy.
Lebowitz and Ahn find that clinicians become less, not more, empathetic with patients whose mental disorder is known to have a biological basis: Mental disorder... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Cerebral Coherence Between Communicators.
Stolk et al. have searched across the whole brain for a cerebral dynamics matching the behavioral dynamics of mutual understanding and note that brain activitie... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2015 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Neurobiology and the Humanities
I want to point to this open access article in Neuron by Semir Zeki, a well known visual neuroanatomist who has addressed in particular visual artists - who,... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Origins of Human Altruism.
A number of studies in recent years have shown that 1- and 2-year-olds often provide help to novel individuals, and have generally been interpreted as suggestin... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Exercise and Intermittent Fasting Improve Brain Plasticity and Health
I thought it might be useful to point to this brief review by Praag et al. that references several recent pieces of work presented at a recent Soc. for... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Several Articles on Aging Brains.
Talking about aging brains is sort of a downer, but it's something I feel like I want to do as I trek onward with open eyes from my current age of 72 years. Read more
Posted on 26 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Exercise Changes Our Muscle DNA
Following yesterday's post on changing gene expression with brain waves, I'll point to another bit of work on gene changing. Chemical changes to DNA, mainly... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
A Bit of Science Fiction...a Brain Implant That Allows Mind-controlled Gene...
The experiments by Folcher et al. are done with optogenetic implants in mouse brains that are wirelessly controlled by human brain waves. Read more
Posted on 24 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Impact of Literacy on Visual Processing
From Pegado et al., a clear demonstration of how learning the act of reading enhances our visual processing: How does learning to read affect visual processing? Read more
Posted on 23 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Cross-species Evidence That Adaptive Training Diminishes Distractibility in...
Another fascinating study from Gazzaley's productive research group. A video clip is offered in the abstract. Here are the highlights and summary: Highlights... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
How to Bridge the Respective Bubbles of Our Ideological Tribes?
A number of recent mindblog posts have engaged the issue of the individual versus the collective good (for example, here, here, and here), a creative tension... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2014 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE