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The Beethoven mouse - a key to auditory transduction 27 Aug 2013 | 07:11 pm
I have to pass on this great montage cover and its legend from the journal Neuron. The article referenced described a gene mutation that leads to progressive hearing loss. The Beethoven mouse, like i...
Early experience shapes the amygdala’s sensitivity to race. 26 Aug 2013 | 07:37 pm
Here is a fascinating finding. Not surprising, I suppose, but Telzer et al. show that orphan human infants raised with exposure to only same-race faces (European or Asian) have heightened amygdala res...
Looking at the Posit Science brain renewal training program. 22 Aug 2013 | 03:57 pm
I recently did a post pointing to Patricia Marx's article on brain exercises meant to counter aging. The authors went through the training regime of Mike Merznich's company "Posit Science." I just got...
How the brain shifts between purpose and habit. 21 Aug 2013 | 04:20 pm
Gremel et al. do a nice explication of the brain's upstairs/downstairs story, illustrating with direct electrical recordings how the mouse brain switches between different action strategies (goal-dire...
A brain correlate of near death hallucinations and visions? 20 Aug 2013 | 05:04 pm
Borjigin et al. make some fascinating observations on brain activity that occurs during the moments of cardiac arrest when brain glucose levels have dropped precipitously. Activity associated with inf...
War of science and the humanities redux: Ross Douthat on The Scientism of Steven Pinker 19 Aug 2013 | 04:58 pm
I enjoyed a very well written article by Steven Pinker in the New Republic titled "Science is not your enemy", which argued that an increasing melding of science and the humanities should not be seen ...
Factoids on exercise and learning - the kind of exercise is important 16 Aug 2013 | 05:24 pm
In my scans of journals' tables of contents for potential MindBlog posts I keep an eye out for articles on exercise, probably the most life enhancing activity one can engage in. A large number of stud...
Do you have a tidy or messy desk? 14 Aug 2013 | 08:49 pm
Vohs et al. have done an interesting experiment that suggests that physical order enhances healthy choices, generosity, and conventionality, while disorder correlates with greater creativity. I don't ...
Imperceptible current applied to our scalp enhances general intelligence. 13 Aug 2013 | 03:59 pm
Here is yet another of the increasing number of articles examining the effects of very weak electrical stimulation of our frontal scalp with surface electrodes. I've done a number of posts on this top...
Evidence that the Lunar cycle influences human sleep. 12 Aug 2013 | 05:44 pm
I have kept a log for many years that has convinced me that I have roughly monthly oscillations in motivation and libido, but I've not come across convincing evidence for roughly lunar or monthly cycl...
