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How our Brains Make Memories
Apr 26th
An articel by the Smithsonian.com’s Greg Miller.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Our-Brains-Make-Memories.html?c=y&page=1
For those of us who cherish our memories and like to think they are an accurate record of our history, the idea that memory is fundamentally malleable is more than a little disturbing. Not all researchers believe Nader has proved that the process of remembering itself can alter memories. But if he is right, it may not be an entirely bad thing. It might even be possible to put the phenomenon to good use to reduce the suffering of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, who are plagued by recurring memories of events they wish they could put behind them.
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Using Mindlessness (Mindfully) to Improve Visual Acuity
Apr 26th
A paper by Ellen Langer, Maja Djikic, Michael Pirson, Arin Madenci and Rebecca Donohue published in Psychological Science that shows how mindfulness can improve the accuracy of vision.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/03/19/0956797610366543.full
Contrary to the assumption that vision worsens with age because of physiological limitations, the experiments we report here tested whether vision can be improved through psychological means.
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Researchers develop more sophisticated ways to control the brain with light.
Mar 30th
From the MIT Review’s Jennifer Chu on this new field of brain research
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24870/?a=f
“Just five years ago, scientists at Stanford University discovered that neurons injected with a photo-sensitive gene from algae could be turned on or off with the flip of a light switch. This discovery has since turned hundreds of labs onto the young field of optogenetics. Today researchers around the world are using these genetic light switches to control specific neurons in live animals, observing their roles in a growing array of brain functions and diseases, including memory, addiction, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury.”
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The upside of depression
Mar 5th
An article from the New York times exploring the benfits of depression and maybe why it is so common.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t.html?pagewanted=all
“Depressed affect made people think better.” The challenge, of course, is persuading people to accept their misery, to embrace the tonic of despair. To say that depression has a purpose or that sadness makes us smarter says nothing about its awfulness. A fever, after all, might have benefits, but we still take pills to make it go away. This is the paradox of evolution: even if our pain is useful, the urge to escape from the pain remains the most powerful instinct of all.
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Avatar and the true science of virtual experience
Feb 18th
By Dr Johanna Saltis
I recently saw Avatar in 3-D. Cool florescent forests. Worth seeing if you also want to see an allegory for some contemporary and historical atrocities.
Putting social conscience aside, this movie also got me thinking about another important topic, the psychology and neuroscience of potential Avatar technology. Did I say potential? A few years ago now, a Wired article summed up the emerging data from experiments simulating virtual experiences. See http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/vr-goggles-and/ for a discussion of these (2/12/08).
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A history of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook.
Feb 18th
Technology has always hurt our minds – or so we are always told. This article by Vaughn Bell on Slate explains.
http://www.slate.com/id/2244198/pagenum/all/
Worries about information overload are as old as information itself, with each generation reimagining the dangerous impacts of technology on mind and brain. From a historical perspective, what strikes home is not the evolution of these social concerns, but their similarity from one century to the next, to the point where they arrive anew with little having changed except the label.
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How to forget fear
Jan 27th
From the Times Online: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6975455.ece
Imagine if you could rewrite your mind as quickly as a document on your computer. No more painful memories, no phobias or ingrained fears, just a blank slate where the scars that mark each human life used to be. This may sound like the stuff of Hollywood fantasy but last month it came a step closer to reality at New York University. By manipulating memory a research team managed to remove a conditioned fear response among volunteers. As scientists learn more about the mechanics of the mind, such targeting and erasing of traumatic recollections will become easier and easier.
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Early risers are more proactive than evening people
Jan 27th
From Research Digest Blog: http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/01/early-risers-are-more-proactive-than.html
These findings suggest that morning people really are more proactive. What’s not clear is why – whether it’s because they really do have an inherent energy and drive or if instead it’s simply easier for morning people to be proactive in a world that is generally tailored towards rising early, rather than working late.
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Does Making a Public Commitment Really Help People Lose Weight?
Jan 27th
From Nuronarrative: http://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/does-making-a-public-commitment-really-help-people-lose-weight/
“What this study tells us is that in general the public commitment principle produces results, especially if the commitment is long-term. But, in the mix of people who make the commitment, those who genuinely fear social disapproval—not a personality trait usually given very high marks–will likely succeed the most. Those who couldn’t care less what others think are, ironically, more likely to come up short.”
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