Monday, December 07, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 12/07/2009

  • The new project, launched with an initial $5 million grant and a five-year timetable, is called the Mind Machine Project, or MMP, a loosely bound collaboration of about two dozen professors, researchers, students and postdocs. According to Neil Gershenfeld, one of the leaders of MMP and director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, one of the project’s goals is to create intelligent machines — “whatever that means.”

    tags: AI, inteligence, MIT, cogsci, AZB, CDC


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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/17/2009


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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/14/2009


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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/29/2009


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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/20/2009


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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/13/2009


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Monday, October 12, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/12/2009

  • Adult neurogenesis is the process of generating new neurons which integrate into existing circuits after fetal and early postnatal development has ceased. In most mammalian species, adult neurogenesis only appears to occur in the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus.

    tags: neurogenesis, cogsci

  • FRED H. GAGE AND HENRIETTE VAN PRAAG

    tags: neurogenesis, cogsci

  • To study the environmental effects, Nottebohm compared the brains of birds kept in cages with those of birds that lived in the wild. Again, the differences were striking: a free-ranging chickadee, which has to avoid predators and forage for its food, produced larger numbers of new neurons in the hippocampus--the part of the brain that plays an essential role in the storage of memories--than a caged chickadee. In cold weather, a chickadee becomes desperate for calories; it must eat before it sleeps or it will die. So remembering the many places where it stashes seeds is of urgent importance.

    tags: neurogenesis, cogsci

  • Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain.

    tags: neurogenesis, cogsci

  • For decades, it was believed that the adult mammalian brain could not generate new neurons, but during the 1990s, that concept changed. Evidence of the birth of new neurons in adult mammals, including humans, raised expectations for improved treatment for patients with central nervous system injury or illness. But this enthusiasm has been tempered since then, as more recent studies indicate that excess adult neurogenesis can be as detrimental as a deficit. In some cases, the clinical relevance of increasing neurogenesis may need to be reconsidered.

    tags: neurogenesis, cogsci

  • From a single fertilised egg of about 0.14 millimetres in diameter, to an adult human being, the neurophysiology of development of the brain and nervous system is nothing short of remarkable. We are born with around 100 billion neurons, and the development of the brain continues long after birth, with dendrites of some neurons in the neocortex continuing to grow well into old age

    tags: brain-development, cogsci

  • In laying down the neural circuitry of the developing brain, billions of neurons must first migrate to their correct destinations and then form complex synaptic connections with their new neighbors.

    tags: brain-development, cogsci


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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/06/2009


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Friday, October 02, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/02/2009


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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/29/2009

  • Forming a concept involves selecting the important characteristics of our experiences and categorising them. The degree to which we are able to do this effectively is a defining characteristic of human intelligence. Yet little is known about how conceptual knowledge is created and used in the brain. (28 September 2009 - New Scientist)

    tags: hippocampus, brains, concepts, cogsci


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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/22/2009

  • The Neitzes, with Katherine Mancuso and other colleagues, used the technique of gene therapy to introduce the gene for the missing red pigment into the cone cells of the monkeys’ retinas. Several months after the therapy, Dalton and Sam were able to see a world in which red hues were visible and oranges no longer looked like lemons, the researchers say in the current issue of Nature.

    tags: vision, color, genetics, perception, grue, cogsci


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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/15/2009


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Friday, September 11, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/11/2009


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Monday, September 07, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/07/2009


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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/02/2009


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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/01/2009


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Friday, August 28, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/28/2009


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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/20/2009


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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/18/2009

  • An overview of neuroethics and neurolaw that covers a lot of ground, from Phineas Gage to comas. Ways that the brain controls behaviour, issues of responsibility and accountability in the legal system, decision making, recidivism and rehabilitation, predicting violence, the hype and reality of fMRI lie detectors and the implicit association test (IAT), and more. Mentions a clinical trial that’s testing neurofeedback for controlling cravings.

    tags: neurolaw, neuroethics, video, cogsci

  • What makes people behave honestly when confronted with opportunities for dishonest gain? Research on the interplay between controlled and automatic processes in decision making suggests 2 hypotheses: According to the “Will” hypothesis, honesty results from the active resistance of temptation, comparable to the controlled cognitive processes that enable the delay of reward. According to the “Grace” hypothesis, honesty results from the absence of temptation, consistent with research emphasizing the determination of behavior by the presence or absence of automatic processes. (Deric Bownds' MindBlog) Abstract: http://is.gd/2mKtF

    tags: will, morality, neuroethics, cogsci



  • Facial expressions, Charles Darwin argued in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, are a universal window into emotion. But new research challenges that notion, showing that east Asian people struggle to recognise facial expressions that western Caucasians attribute to fear and disgust. By focusing on eyes and brows, Asians miss subtle cues conveyed via the mouth. (13 August 2009 - New Scientist)

    tags: facial-expressions, universal, innate, emotion, cogsci


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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/05/2009


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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/04/2009

  • A couple of years ago we organised a salon with Helen Birtwistle of the Institute of Ideas on the meaning of friendship, and the then quite new social networking sites such as Facebook. A US survey in 2004 had found that up to 25% of people claimed that they had no real intimates. Yet by 2007 there was networking technology where people would ask: ‘Can I be your friend?’ What is it all about? Why is it so important?

    tags: facebook, brain, mind, self, cogsci

  • Review - Moral Psychology, Volume 3
    The Neuroscience of Morality: Emotion, Brain Disorders, and Development
    by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
    MIT Press, 2008
    Review by Luc Faucher, Ph.D.
    Aug 4th 2009 (Volume 13, Issue 32)

    tags: moral-psychology, cogsci


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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/29/2009


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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/28/2009


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Monday, July 27, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/22/2009


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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/12/2009


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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/08/2009

  • A researcher argues that peers are much more important than parents, that psychologists underestimate the power of genetics and that we have a lot to learn from Asian classrooms (Jonah Lehrer, Scientific American)

    tags: parents, development, genetics, cogsci


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Monday, July 06, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/06/2009

  • The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it.

    In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. This way of thinking about the brain, mind, and behavior is changing how scientists approach old topics, and opening up new ones. This chapter is a primer on the concepts and arguments that animate it.

    tags: psychology, evolution, tooby, cosmides, evolutionary-psychology, cogsci


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Sunday, July 05, 2009

Friday, July 03, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/03/2009


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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/30/2009

  • Recent research at the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies (CNS) has not only found that moral sentiments are real and measurable, but we have been able to manipulate these mechanisms in human brains to cause people to be moral in the lab. (Psychology Today)

    tags: neuroethics, morality, grue, cogsci


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/24/2009


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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/23/2009


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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/21/2009


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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/16/2009


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Monday, June 15, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/15/2009

  • A forensic examiner talks about decision making and developing brains in youth, for an audience of youth advocates. See also: Brain Science as a Means of Understanding Delinquency and Substance Abuse in Youth, The Teen Brain, and Teen Brain, an award-winning documentary on neuroethics and the juvenile justice system.

    tags: brains, cogsci


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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/31/2009

  • Allman was searching for a peculiar kind of brain cell that he suspects is a key to how the African elephant—like a human being—manages to stay attuned to the ever-shifting nuances of social interplay. These spindle-shaped brain cells, called von Economo neurons—named for the man who first described them—are found only in human beings, great apes and a handful of other notably gregarious creatures. Allman, 66, compares the brains of people and other animals to gain insight into the evolution of human behavior.

    tags: brains, social-neuroscience, grue, cogsci


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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/28/2009

  • As someone who studies the brain and also tries to disseminate information about the brain in a user-friendly, but scientifically accurate, way, I cringe when I read some pop accounts of brain research. For example, I recently saw this CNN headline: "Will right-brainers rule this century?" Clicking on the link took me to OPRAH.com, which promised, less hesitantly, to explain "Why right-brainers will rule this century." At least CNN considered the possibility that there was some question about the veracity of the statement. Oprah's headline implied it's a done deal.

    tags: brain, ledoux, cogsci, grue

  • Some evolutionary psychologists believe that disgust emerged as a protective mechanism against health risks, like feces, spoiled food or corpses. Later, many societies came to apply the same emotion to social “threats.” Humans appear to be the only species that registers disgust, which is why a dog will wag its tail in puzzlement when its horrified owner yanks it back from eating excrement.

    tags: disgust, morality, neuroethics, grue, cogsci


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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/26/2009

  • I think the Chinese Room is worth a second look not for the force of its argument but for what it reveals about contemporary ideas on what constitutes the essence of the human, especially intelligence, consciousness, and meaning. Excavating these and juxtaposing them with current controversies over the boundaries of the human will enable us to see what has changed, why it has changed, and what the change signifies in the decade and a half that has passed since Searle delivered the coup de grace that failed to deliver.

    tags: Searle, chinese-room, AI, 150, AZB, grue, cogsci


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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/24/2009

  • Because I’m sure some readers of this blog like to keep reflecting about neuroscience and psychology even when they’re too tired to keep reading books, articles, and blog posts, I thought I’d offer a list of some relaxing (and in some cases, not so relaxing) music that touches on this theme, so that those who are interested can tide themselves over until the caffeine kicks in. Since most of the songs in the list are from my own music library, it has a strong eighties college radio bias.

    tags: music, mind, brain, grue, cogsci


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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/23/2009

  • This post will look more closely at casino’s techniques to draw gamblers back to the slot chairs and the tables, focusing on both physiological aspects and engaged decision making. Ultimately, these observations will demonstrate that casinos create more than entertainment; they develop an entire compulsive experience.

    tags: addiction, grue, cogsci


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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/21/2009


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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/20/2009

  • The study has important implications for the field of cognitive psychology. Historically, the field has viewed concepts, the basic elements of thought, as abstract representations that do not rely on the physicality of the body. This notion, called Cartesian Dualism, is now being challenged by another school of thought, called Embodied Cognition. Embodied Cognition views concepts as bodily representations with bases in perception, action and emotion. There is much evidence supporting the Embodied Cognition view. However, until now there has never been a detailed, experimentally supported account of how embodiment through gesture plays a role in learning new concepts. (Scientific American)

    tags: cognitive-science, embodiment, grue, cogsci

  • The study has important implications for the field of cognitive psychology. Historically, the field has viewed concepts, the basic elements of thought, as abstract representations that do not rely on the physicality of the body. This notion, called Cartesian Dualism, is now being challenged by another school of thought, called Embodied Cognition. Embodied Cognition views concepts as bodily representations with bases in perception, action and emotion. There is much evidence supporting the Embodied Cognition view. However, until now there has never been a detailed, experimentally supported account of how embodiment through gesture plays a role in learning new concepts. (Scientific American)

    tags: cognitive-science, embodiment, grue, cogsci


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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/19/2009


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Monday, May 18, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/18/2009

  • I was agreeably surprised by Andy Clark’s ‘Supersizing the Mind’. I had assumed it would be a fuller treatment of the themes set out in ‘The Extended Mind’, the paper he wrote with David Chalmers, and which is included in the book as an Appendix. In fact, it ranges more widely and has a number of interesting points to make on the general significance of embodiment and mind extension. Various flavours of externalism, the doctrine that the mind ain’t in the head, seem to be popular at the moment, but Clark’s philosophical views are clearly just part of a coherent general outlook on cognition. (Conscious Entities)

    tags: Clark, mind, extended-mind, grue, cogsci


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Friday, May 15, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/15/2009


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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/12/2009


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Monday, May 11, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/11/2009

  • Most of the children were like Craig. They struggled to resist the treat and held out for an average of less than three minutes. “A few kids ate the marshmallow right away,” Walter Mischel, the Stanford professor of psychology in charge of the experiment, remembers. “They didn’t even bother ringing the bell. Other kids would stare directly at the marshmallow and then ring the bell thirty seconds later.” About thirty per cent of the children, however, were like Carolyn. They successfully delayed gratification until the researcher returned, some fifteen minutes later. These kids wrestled with temptation but found a way to resist. (New Yorker)

    tags: self-control, mind, psychology, neuroethics, grue, cogsci


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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/09/2009

  • There was a paper recently in PNAS on "The cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief". A couple of bloggers, Epiphenom and I Am David, come to opposite conclusions. Epiphenom says that the study shows that religion is not a side-effect of the evolution of cognitive processes, while IAD says that is exactly what it shows. (Evolving Thoughts)

    tags: evolution, religion, religious-cognition, grue, cogsci


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Friday, May 08, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/08/2009


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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/07/2009

  • Studying how people form a conscious intention to move is troublesome for at least two reasons. First, as soon as you instruct a participant that now is the time for them to move freely, of their own volition, you've already undermined the idea that they're making up their own minds. Second, there's no room in materialist science for a conscious will, separate from the electro-chemical workings of brain. (BPS RESEARCH DIGEST)

    tags: volition, freewill, brain, grue, cogsci, AZB, neuroethics


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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/06/2009

  • Naturally, it is reasonable to consider the role of emotions in moral decision making. Obviously, most people feel bad about murder and this no doubt plays a role in their view of the second case. However, to simply assume that the distinction is exhausted by the emotional explanation is clearly a mistake. After all, a person can clearly regard murdering one person to save five as immoral without relying on a gut reaction. It could, in fact, be a rational assessment of the situation.

    tags: morality, emotion, neuroethics, grue, cogsci


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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/05/2009


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Monday, May 04, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/04/2009

  • For Teller (that's his full legal name), magic is more than entertainment. He wants his tricks to reveal the everyday fraud of perception so that people become aware of the tension between what is and what seems to be. Our brains don't see everything—the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. "Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology," Teller says. "If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful. I've exploited the efficiencies of your mind."

    tags: magic, perception, grue, cognitive-science, cogsci


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Sunday, May 03, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/03/2009


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Saturday, May 02, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/02/2009


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Friday, May 01, 2009

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/01/2009

  • How the brain interprets complex visual scenes is an enduring mystery for researchers. This process occurs extremely rapidly - the "meaning" of a scene is interpreted within 1/20th of a second, and, even though the information processed by the brain may be incomplete, the interpretation is usually correct.

    Occasionally, however, visual stimuli are open to interpretation. This is the case with ambiguous figures - images which can be interpreted in more than one way. When an ambiguous image is viewed, a single image impinges upon the retina, but higher order processing in the visual cortex leads to a number of different interpretations of that image. (Neurophilosophy)

    tags: vision, brain, grue, hybrid-images, cogsci


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