NKU Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/11/2010

2010-05-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

Novelty Seekers are Emotion and Reward Seekers
fMRI studies show that people who score on novelty seeking scores (high exploratory, extravagant response to potential pleasures) also score the highest on emotional expectancy and activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (reward). Eide Neurolearning Blog
tags: neurolearning, brain, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/07/2010

2010-05-07T19:30:00.001-04:00

Different types of synaesthetic experiences involve different brain mechanisms : Neurophilosophy
Dutch psychologists now report that different types of synaesthetic experiences are associated with different brain mechanisms, providing a rare glimpse into the workings of the black box.
tags: synesthesia, cogsci, grue, brain, AZB

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/29/2010

2010-04-29T19:30:00.001-04:00

Neural mechanisms of abstract learning
A new study provides intriguing insight into the way that humans approach novel situations. The research, published in the April 29 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals neural mechanisms that underlie our remarkable ability to discover abstract cognitive relationships when dealing with new problems.
tags: learning, brain, cogsci, neural

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/28/2010

2010-04-28T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Brain Rejects Inequality | Brain Blogger
While the new study demonstrates that humans are not completely focused on their own self-interests, it is unclear how the physiological evidence translates to behaviors in real-world circumstances. Humans experience physiological and emotional rewards from helping others and donating to charities, but the brain seems to stop short of wanting to redistribute wealth across the board. The association between work, reward and equality, and the brain’s mechanisms underlying all of them, remain unclear.
tags: brain, inequality, cogsci
When Will We Be Able to Build Brains Like Ours?: Scientific American
Sooner than you think -- and the race has lately caused a 'catfight' By Terry Sejnowski
tags: brain, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/23/2010

2010-04-23T19:30:00.001-04:00

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans -- Hurlemann et al. 30 (14): 4999 -- Journal of Neuroscience
Overall these findings provide the first demonstration that OT can facilitate amygdala-dependent, socially reinforced learning and emotional empathy in men.
tags: amygdala, oxytocin, learning, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/22/2010

2010-04-22T19:30:00.001-04:00

Self-Control Without a “Self”?
...Self-control constitutes a fundamental aspect of human nature. Yet there is reason to believe that human and nonhuman self-control processes rely on the same biological mechanism—the availability of glucose in the bloodstream. Two experiments tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of available blood glucose on the ability of dogs to exert self-control. Experiment 1 showed that dogs that were required to exert self-control on an initial task persisted for a shorter time on a subsequent unsolvable task than did dogs that were not previously required to exert self-control. Experiment 2 demonstrated that providing dogs with a boost of glucose eliminated the negative effects of prior exertion of self-control on persistence; this finding parallels a similar effect in humans. These findings provide the first evidence that self-control relies on the same limited energy resource among humans and nonhumans. Our results have broad implications for the study of self-control processes in human and nonhuman species. — Psychological Science
tags: freewill, self-control, cogsci, grue, 150
What Can Your Dog Tell You About Your Self-Control? A lot
...What is the one thing that connects people with dogs? Believe it or not, it's the biological processes responsible for self-control. | Psychology Today
tags: freewill, self-control, cogsci, grue, 150
What Is Sleep?
NYTimes.com
tags: sleep, AZB, consciousness, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/21/2010

2010-04-21T19:30:00.001-04:00

Dan Graham: The Packet-Switching Brain: A Hypothesis
Talk by Dan Graham, Dartmouth College. Given to the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley on Nov. 18, 2009.

tags: brain, neuroscience, computation, cogsci
The Packet Switching Brain.
The computer metaphor has served brain science well as a tool for comprehending neural systems. Nevertheless, we propose here that this metaphor be replaced or supplemented by a new metaphor, the "Internet metaphor," to reflect dramatic new network theoretic understandings of brain structure and function. [J Cogn Neurosci. 2010]
tags: brain, internet, computation, cogsci, AZB
The power of thinking about thinking | Matthew Taylor's blog
the importance in child development of what Peter Fonagy calls learning to ‘mentalise’ – in other words to understand others’ behaviour in terms of their emotions and ways of thinking.
tags: metacognition, cogsci, thinking

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/19/2010

2010-04-19T19:30:00.001-04:00

Thinking About Tomorrow : The Frontal Cortex
By manipulating the amount of money on offer in each situation, Cohen and his collaborators could watch this neural tug of war unfold. Our ultimate decision - to save for the future or to indulge in the present - was largely determined by whichever region showed greater activation.
tags: thinking, brain, gratification, cogsci
What is the memory capacity of the human brain? Is there a physical limit to the amount of information it can store?: Scientific American
The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem.
tags: memory, brain, AZB, cogsci
Neural Correlates of Being a Total Bad-Ass
A new fMRI study in PLoS reports Differential Brain Activation to Angry Faces by Elite Warfighters, the elite warfighters being US Navy SEALs. Neuroskeptic
tags: NCC, brain, cogsci, AZB

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/18/2010

2010-04-18T19:30:00.001-04:00

Dendritic Spines and their role in Memory and Cognition
Randy Gallistel and Adam King in their book Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science Will Transform Neuroscience, claim that addressable memory architecture is necessary to explain complex animal behaviour such as food caching by Scrub Jays or even the human capacity to recollect and reconsider prior beliefs.

Their view is contrasted with non-addressable architecture in contemporary neuroscience. Traditional neural networks suppose that computations in neural tissue are implemented by relaying action potentials between neurons. Gallistel and King argue that the implementation must be sought elsewhere. They offer two neurobiological suggestions of where to look, 1) subcellular, e.g. dendritic spines and 2) molecular, something like re-writable DNA & RNA. Philosophy of Memory
tags: philosophy, memory, neurons, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/16/2010

2010-04-16T19:30:00.001-04:00

Multitasking Splits the Brain - ScienceNOW
When it comes to task management, the prefrontal cortex is key. The anterior part of this brain region forms the goal or intention—for example, "I want that cookie"—and the posterior prefrontal cortex talks to the rest of the brain so that your hand reaches toward the cookie jar and your mind knows whether you have the cookie. So what happens when another goal enters the mix?
tags: brain, multitasking, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/14/2010

2010-04-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

Randomness as Meaning
How people see coincidence as destiny
tags: randomness, meaning, cogsci, grue
Don't Choke : The Frontal Cortex
The moral is that even minor tweaks can help reduce the performance problems caused by choking. Given the newfound importance of standardized tests - and this includes everything from high-school graduation exams to the SAT - we really need to better understand how the act of being testing warps the results. This is especially true for groups (women, minorities, etc.) that have been subject to various stereotypes. Sometimes, all it takes is a math problem presented in a different direction.
tags: anxiety, choking, cogsci
Self-Control Without a “Self”? — Psychological Science
Self-control constitutes a fundamental aspect of human nature. Yet there is reason to believe that human and nonhuman self-control processes rely on the same biological mechanism—the availability of glucose in the bloodstream.
tags: self-control, cogsci
Classroom Creativity : The Frontal Cortex
Everybody wants a creative child - in theory. The reality of creativity, however, is a little more complicated, as creative thoughts tend to emerge when we're distracted, daydreaming, disinhibited and not following the rules. In other words, the most imaginative kids are often the trouble-makers.
tags: classroom, creativity, learning, cogsci, education

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/13/2010

2010-04-13T19:30:00.001-04:00

Amnesiacs show that emotions linger long after memories fade | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine
A new study suggests that, like everyone else, I recorded these emotional memories independently of the factual aspects of the day.
tags: emotions, memory, amnesiacs, cogsci, grue
Lessening moral judgements by a magenetic zap to the brain.
MRI measurements have shown that the the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) - an area just above the right ear - receives more blood than usual when we think or read about the beliefs and intentions of other people, particularly if we use the information to judge people negatively.
tags: neuroethics, morality, brain, cogsci, grue
Mirror Neurons Join Marilyn Monroe Neurons and Halle Berry Neurons in the Human Hippocampus
Move over, Marilyn Monroe neurons and Halle Berry neurons... The cellular media darlings of action observation and action execution would like to join you in the human hippocampus and surrounding medial temporal lobe (MTL) areas critical for memory.
tags: mirror-neurons, grue, cogsci
Williams Syndrome Kids Show No Racial Bias: Scientific American Podcast
Kids with the genetic condition called Williams Syndrome have no social anxiety and are highly gregarious--and also exhibit no racial bias in standard social-bias experiments. Adam Hinterthuer reports.
tags: williams-syndrome, cogsci, grue
Single-Neuron Responses in Humans during Execution and Observation of Actions
# Cells in SMA respond during execution and observation of actions
# Cells in medial temporal lobe respond during observation and execution of actions
# Some respond with excitation during execution and inhibition during observation
tags: mirror-neurons, cogsci, grue

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/01/2010

2010-04-01T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Neurocritic: Mirror Neuron Death March
tags: mirror-neurons, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/26/2010

2010-03-26T19:30:00.001-04:00

New insight into brain's decision-making process
The hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, has long been known to "replay" recently experienced events. Previously, replay was believed to be a simple process of reviewing recent experiences in order to help consolidate them into long-term memory. However, researchers have discovered that the replay function of the hippocampus is actually a much more complex, cognitive process.
tags: brain, decision-making, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/25/2010

2010-03-25T19:30:00.001-04:00

Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking
Our ability to think has long been considered central to what makes us human. Now research suggests that our bodies and their relationship with the environment govern even our most abstract thoughts. This includes thinking up random numbers or deciding whether to recount positive or negative experiences. - life - 24 March 2010 - New Scientist
tags: mind, matter, extended-mind, cogsci
Study: Apes have metacognitive ability - UPI.com
German scientists say they have determined great apes realize they can make mistakes when making choices.
tags: apes, primates, metacognition, mind, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/23/2010

2010-03-23T19:30:00.001-04:00

Talking Brains: Mirror neurons support action understanding -- "from the inside"?
tags: no_tag

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/21/2010

2010-03-21T19:30:00.001-04:00

Firing on all neurons: Where consciousness comes from
22 March 2010 - New Scientist
tags: consciousness, azb, cogsci, global-workspace
Talking Brains: Mirror Neurons - The unfalsifiable theory
tags: mirror-neurons, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/14/2010

2010-03-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

Your Computer Really Is a Part of You | Wired Science | Wired.com
An empirical test of ideas proposed by Martin Heidegger shows the great German philosopher to be correct: Everyday tools really do become part of ourselves.
tags: extended-mind, cogsci, AZB

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/04/2010

2010-03-04T18:30:00.001-05:00

Inequality Aversion : The Frontal Cortex
When economists first started playing this game in the early 1980s, they assumed that this elementary exchange would always generate the same outcome. The proposer would offer the responder approximately $1⎯a minimal amount⎯and the responder would accept it. After all, $1 is better than nothing, and a rejection leaves both players worse off. Such an outcome would be a clear demonstration of our innate selfishness and rationality.
tags: aversion, inequality, brain, neuroethics, economics, politics, cogsci
A Mind of Crime | How brain-scanning technology is redefining criminal culpability.
The X’s marked areas where Kiehl had discovered abnormally low grey matter density in Dugan’s brain. In a curious meeting of law and neuroscience, those X’s would help jurors decide whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison. Did the way Dugan’s brain had developed leave him spring-loaded for violence? Or had he chosen freely when he abducted, raped and killed a 10-year-old girl in 1983?
tags: neuroethics, justice, law, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/03/2010

2010-03-03T18:30:00.001-05:00

'Trust Hormone' May Improve Autism - ScienceNOW
A dose of the "trust hormone" oxytocin may help bring some autistic people out of their shell. Patients with the condition usually have a hard time interacting with others, but when they inhaled oxytocin in a new study, they began looking at people in the eye and recognizing social concepts like fairness in a computer game. Although the results are preliminary, the work could lead to drugs to treat a variety of social disorders, including schizophrenia and anxiety,
tags: trust, oxytocin, autism, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 03/02/2010

2010-03-02T18:30:00.001-05:00

Bringing New Understanding to the Director’s Cut - NYTimes.com
the basic shot structure of the movies, the way film segments of different lengths are bundled together from scene to scene, act to act, has evolved over the years to resemble a rough but recognizably wave-like pattern called 1/f, or one over frequency — or the more Hollywood-friendly metaphor, pink noise. Pink noise is a characteristic signal profile seated somewhere between random and rigid, and for utterly mysterious reasons, our world is ablush with it.
tags: film, brain, movies, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 02/09/2010

2010-02-09T18:30:00.001-05:00

What Happens in the Amygdala... Damage to Brain's Decision-Making Area May Encourage Dicey Gambles: Scientific American
The amygdala damage did not appear to affect risk-aversion—a similar behavior with an important difference. People who are risk-averse are less likely to take chances even when they have nothing to lose.
tags: amygdala, decision-making, cogsci
Center for Culture, Mind and the Brain
We invite you to apply to attend the first Summer Institute in Cultural Neuroscience at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. SICN is an annual two-week program that provides graduate students as well as faculty with an overview of core topics and recent research developments related to cultural neuroscience in order to prepare them to start their own empirical investigations.
tags: institute, neuroscience, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 02/08/2010

2010-02-08T18:30:00.001-05:00

Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other's minds | Video on TED.com
Sensing the motives and feelings of others is a natural talent for humans. But how do we do it? Here, Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples' thoughts -- and judges their actions.
tags: saxe, theory-of-mind, AZB, neuroethics, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 02/03/2010

2010-02-03T18:30:00.001-05:00

Easy = True - The Boston Globe
One of the hottest topics in psychology today is something called “cognitive fluency.” Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard. On the face of it, it’s a rather intuitive idea. But psychologists are only beginning to uncover the surprising extent to which fluency guides our thinking, and in situations where we have no idea it is at work.
tags: cognitive-fluency, psychology, politics, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 02/02/2010

2010-02-02T18:30:00.001-05:00

Abstract Thoughts Prompt Literal Physical Responses - NYTimes.com
tags: embodied-cognition, embodiment, cognitive-science, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 01/06/2010

2010-01-06T18:30:00.001-05:00

Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy : Abstract : Nature Neuroscience
Watching another person being touched activates a similar neural circuit to actual touch and, for some people with 'mirror-touch' synesthesia, can produce a felt tactile sensation on their own body. In this study, we provide evidence for the existence of this type of synesthesia and show that it correlates with heightened empathic ability. This is consistent with the notion that we empathize with others through a process of simulation.
tags: mirror-neurons, empathy, brain, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 12/07/2009

2009-12-07T18:30:00.001-05:00

Rethinking artificial intelligence
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/29/2009

2009-11-29T18:30:00.001-05:00

The Psychology of Body Language | Psychology Today
tags: psychology, language, body-language, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/26/2009

2009-11-26T18:30:00.001-05:00

Did McCulloch and Pitts 1943 Offer a Theory of Cognition in terms of Digital Computation?
tags: brains, connectionism, digit-computer, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/17/2009

2009-11-17T18:30:00.001-05:00

Oxytocin Receptor Variants Linked To Empathy
Researchers have discovered a genetic variation that may contribute to how empathetic a human is, and how that person reacts to stress. In the first study of its kind, a variation in the hormone/neurotransmitter oxytocin's receptor was linked to a person's ability to infer the mental state of others.
tags: oxytocin, empathy, cogsci, neuroethics

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 11/14/2009

2009-11-14T18:30:00.001-05:00

Michael Gazzaniga: Split brains and other heady tales
Beyond the hype of left brain versus right brain lies the work of acclaimed neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga. His career was forged in the lab of Nobel laureate Roger Sperry, and together their trailblazing experiments have illuminated the differences between the brain's two hemispheres. All In The Mind - 14 November 2009 -
tags: mind, splitbrain, Gazzaniga, 150, brains, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/29/2009

2009-10-29T19:30:00.001-04:00

A Molecule of Motivation, Dopamine Excels at Its Task - NYTimes.com
In the communal imagination, dopamine is about rewards, and feeling good, and wanting to feel good again, and if you don’t watch out, you’ll be hooked, a slave to the pleasure lines cruising through your brain.
tags: dopamine, motivation, neuroscience, cogsci, brain

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/20/2009

2009-10-20T19:30:00.001-04:00

UCLA Study: The Internet Is Altering Our Brains
Adults with little Internet experience show changes in their brain activity after just one week online, a new study finds.
tags: brains, internet, cogsci, CDC
Creature Consciousness
Animal studies tests the boundary between human and animal—and between academic and advocate
tags: animals, consciousness, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/17/2009

2009-10-17T19:30:00.001-04:00

Stephen Stich: 4 Lectures on Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science
tags: morality, moral-psychology, cognitive-science, cogsci, neuroethics

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/13/2009

2009-10-13T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Young and the Neuro
The hard sciences are interpenetrating the social sciences. This isn’t dehumanizing. It shines attention on the things poets have traditionally cared about: the power of human attachments. It may even help policy wonks someday see people as they really are. (Brooks - NYTimes.com)
tags: neuroscience, social-neuroscience, cogsci, neuroethics, grue

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/12/2009

2009-10-12T19:30:00.001-04:00

Adult neurogenesis - Scholarpedia
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
NEUROGENESIS IN ADULT BRAIN
FRED H. GAGE AND HENRIETTE VAN PRAAG
tags: neurogenesis, cogsci
michael specter--rethinking the brain
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
Lobes of Steel - New York Times
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
Is More Neurogenesis Always Better?
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
Stages of Brain Development
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
Researchers Identify Critical Gene For Brain Development, Mental Retardation
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/06/2009

2009-10-06T19:30:00.001-04:00

How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com
Now a study suggests that, paradoxically, this same sensation may prime the brain to sense patterns it would otherwise miss — in mathematical equations, in language, in the world at large.
tags: mind, intellect, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 10/02/2009

2009-10-02T19:30:00.001-04:00

Neuroskeptic: How Brain Cells Avoid Getting All Tied Up
During the development of the brain, young neurones need to form connections with other cells. But equally important, they need to avoid making connections with themselves.
tags: neuroskeptic, neurons, cogsci, brains, neuroscience

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/29/2009

2009-09-29T19:30:00.001-04:00

Concepts are born in the hippocampus
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/22/2009

2009-09-22T19:30:00.001-04:00

Two Monkeys Get the Gift of Color
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/15/2009

2009-09-15T19:30:00.001-04:00

Evidence Points To Conscious 'Metacognition' In Some Nonhuman Animals
there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans' ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.
tags: metacognition, animals, cognition, psychology, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/11/2009

2009-09-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

Gut Reactions: Moral Conviction, Religiosity, and Trust in Authority
Results indicated that greater religiosity was associated with greater trust in the U.S. Supreme Court to decide this issue, and that stronger moral convictions about physician-assisted suicide were associated with greater distrust in the U.S. Supreme Court to decide this issue. Also, the processes underlying religious trust and distrust based on moral convictions were more quick and visceral than slow and carefully considered.
tags: religiosity, moral-conviction, trust, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/07/2009

2009-09-07T19:30:00.001-04:00

Category-Specific Organization in the Human Brain Does Not Require Visual Experience
Distinct regions within the ventral visual pathway show neural specialization for nonliving and living stimuli (e.g., tools, houses versus animals, faces).
tags: brain, categories, concepts, anatomy, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/02/2009

2009-09-02T19:30:00.001-04:00

Dopamine Release at Individual Presynaptic Terminals Visualized with FFNs (Video Protocol)
To observe neurotransmitter uptake and release from individual presynaptic terminals directly, we designed fluorescent false neurotransmitters as substrates for the synaptic vesicle monoamine transporter.
tags: dopamine, brain, neuroscience, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 09/01/2009

2009-09-01T19:30:00.001-04:00

Intranasal Administration of Oxytocin Increases Envy and Schadenfreude (Gloating)
Envy and schadenfreude (gloating over the other's misfortune) are social emotions widely agreed to be a symptom of the human social tendency to compare one's payoffs with those of others. Given the important social components of envy and gloating, we speculated that oxytocin may have a modulating effect on the intensity of these emotions.
tags: oxytocin, cogsci, emotion, neuroethics

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/28/2009

2009-08-28T19:30:00.001-04:00

Multitasking May Not Mean Higher Productivity : NPR
A new study says so-called "heavy multitaskers" have trouble tuning out distractions and switching tasks compared with those who multitask less. And there's evidence that multitasking may weaken cognitive ability. Stanford University professor Clifford Nass explains the work.
tags: multi-tasking, psychology, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/20/2009

2009-08-20T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Brain: The Dark Matter of the Human Brain | Memory, Emotions, & Decisions | DISCOVER Magazine
Meet the forgotten 90 percent of your brain: glial cells, which outnumber your neurons ten to one. And no one really knows what they do
tags: brain, glial, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/18/2009

2009-08-18T19:30:00.001-04:00

Neurolaw | Channel N
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
Brain activity associated with honest and dishonest decisions.
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
Human facial expressions aren't universal

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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/17/2009

2009-08-17T19:30:00.001-04:00

Antonio Damasio: This Time With Feeling
FORA.tv
tags: mind, emotion, Damasio, grue, cogsci, neuroethics

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/09/2009

2009-08-09T19:30:00.001-04:00

Top 10 Bizarre Mental Disorders
tags: psychology, disorders, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/07/2009

2009-08-07T19:30:00.001-04:00

What's It Like Ti Be A Bat? Nagel
tags: consciousness, mind, philosophy, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/05/2009

2009-08-05T19:30:00.001-04:00

Goody-Goody Hormone Now Linked to Envy, Gloating
Snorting oxytocin, shown in recent years to trigger all kinds of feel-good emotions, might also incite envy and gloating (Scientific American)
tags: oxytocin, brains, emotions, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/04/2009

2009-08-04T19:30:00.001-04:00

Mind, brain and self in the age of Facebook
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 - Philosophy
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 08/02/2009

2009-08-02T19:30:00.001-04:00

Pinker on language and thought Video
tags: Pinker, thought, language, mind, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/30/2009

2009-07-30T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Mind Project
tags: mind, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/29/2009

2009-07-29T19:30:00.001-04:00

Intelligence and EEG phase reset: A two compartmental model of phase shift and lock
ScienceDirect - NeuroImage :
tags: intelligence, phase-shifting, cogsci
A Patchwork Mind: How Your Parents' Genes Shape Your Brain
We each have two parents, but their genetic contributions to what makes us us are uneven. New research shows we are an amalgam of influences from Mom and Dad : Scientific American
tags: genetics, brains, cogsci
Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain
In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise. | 29 June 2009 - New Scientist
tags: Neuroscience, brain, chaos, neoruons, cogsci
Untangling the Brain
Modern neuroscience rests on the assumption that our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors emerge from electrical and chemical communication between brain cells: that whenever we recognize a face, read the newspaper, throw a ball, engage in a conversation, or recall a moment in childhood, a pattern of activity in our neurons makes such feats possible. It's a tenet of modern biology that sparks fascination--and disbelief. How can a tangle of cells produce the complexity and subtlety of a mind? | Harvard Magazine May-June 2009
tags: neuroscience, brain, neurons, cogsci
Blindsight by Peter Watts
tags: blindsight, perception, consciousness, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/28/2009

2009-07-28T19:30:00.001-04:00

Secrets and Powers of the Brain | Channel N Video
Vision, the Brain and Memory: The ups and downs of forgetting (Samuel Wang)
tags: mind, brain, memory, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/27/2009

2009-07-27T19:30:00.001-04:00

Inside Michael Gazzaniga's Head Video
Neuroscience and the Law Project
tags: neuroethics, neuroscience, law, Gazzaniga, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/22/2009

2009-07-22T19:30:00.001-04:00

Unlocking the Mysteries of The Artistic Mind
It might seem bizarre that science is using art to learn about the mind—looking for hard facts in the most ethereal of places. But great artists turn out to be the world's first neuroscientists. (Psychology Today)
tags: aesthetics, neuroscience, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/21/2009

2009-07-21T19:30:00.001-04:00

Close Call Counts: Neuroscience of Gambling Addictions
Scientific American
tags: addiction, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/12/2009

2009-07-12T19:30:00.001-04:00

Brains, Computers, and Minds
Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior - 2009 Distinguished Lecture Series with Professor Daniel Dennett (video)
tags: brains, minds, ai, computers, Dennett, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/08/2009

2009-07-08T19:30:00.001-04:00

Do Parents Matter?
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/06/2009

2009-07-06T19:30:00.001-04:00

Evolutionary Psychology Primer by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/05/2009

2009-07-05T19:30:00.001-04:00

The Criminal Mind
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes
tags: neuroethics, mind, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 07/03/2009

2009-07-03T19:30:00.001-04:00

Evolutionary origins of the nervous system
THE HUMAN BRAIN is a true marvel of nature. This jelly-like 1.5kg mass inside our skulls, containing hundreds of billions of cells which between them form something like a quadrillion connections, is responsible for our every action, emotion and thought. How did this remarkable and extraordinarily complex structure evolve?
tags: evolution, brain, neurophilosophy, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/30/2009

2009-06-30T19:28:00.001-04:00

Moral Sentiments in the Brain
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/26/2009

2009-06-26T19:28:00.001-04:00

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/24/2009

2009-06-24T19:28:00.001-04:00

Evolutionary Origins of Your Right and Left Brain
The division of labor by the two cerebral hemispheres—once thought to be uniquely human—predates us by half a billion years. Speech, right-handedness, facial recognition and the processing of spatial relations can be traced to brain asymmetries in early vertebrates (Scientific American)
tags: brain, neuroscience, evolution, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/23/2009

2009-06-23T19:28:00.001-04:00

Brain Sees Tools as Extensions of Body | LiveScience
In the new study, researchers reasoned that if one incorporates a used tool into the body schema, his or her subsequent bodily movements should differ when compared to those performed before the tool was used.
tags: extended-mind, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/21/2009

2009-06-21T19:28:00.001-04:00

The Trolley dilemma revisited
Greene, J., Cushman, F., Stewart, L., Lowenberg, K., Nystrom, L., & Cohen, J. (2009). Pushing moral buttons: The interaction between personal force and intention in moral judgment. Cognition, 111 (3), 364-371 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.02.001
tags: moral-psychology, neuroethics, morality, grue, cogsci
Late Pleistocene Demography and the Appearance of Modern Human Behavior
tags: evolutionary-psychology, grue, cogsci
Responses to Buller
Cultivating a persona of fairness and impartiality, David Buller has written a critique of theory and results from evolutionary psychology. To those unfamiliar with the primary literature, some of his claims may seem plausible. That has not, however, been the reaction of those who know this literature intimately.
tags: evolutionary-psychology, mind, Buller, grue, cogsci
Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies of Psychology
Some evolutionary psychologists have made widely popularized claims about how the human mind evolved, but other scholars argue that the grand claims lack solid evidence (Scientific American)
tags: evolutionary-psychology, mind, Buller, grue, cogsci
Why Do We Rape, Kill and Sleep Around?
Founded in the late 1980s in the ashes of sociobiology, this field asserts that behaviors that conferred a fitness advantage during the era when modern humans were evolving are the result of hundreds of genetically based cognitive "modules" preprogrammed in the brain. Since they are genetic, these modules and the behaviors they encode are heritable—passed down to future generations—and, together, constitute a universal human nature that describes how people think, feel and act (Newsweek.com)
tags: evolutionary-psychology, grue, cogsci
Into the ancient mind
The article claims to question the whole field of evolutionary psychology but really only deals with specific studies, largely because has quite a limited view of the approach and is strangely wed to biological determinism. (Mind Hacks)
tags: evolutionary-psychology, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/16/2009

2009-06-16T19:28:00.001-04:00

Do Gay Animals Change Evolution?
Animals that engage in same-sex sexual behavior may be acting in accord with adaptational strategies rather than against them--and bending the way we think about evolution (Scientific American)
tags: biology, evolution, homosexuality, grue, cogsci
Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science: How the Cognitive Science Can Transform Traditional Debates
Four Stich video lectures
tags: morality, cognitive-science, neuroethics, cogsci, grue

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 06/15/2009

2009-06-15T19:28:00.001-04:00

Young Brains
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/31/2009

2009-05-31T19:29:00.001-04:00

Brain Cells for Socializing
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/28/2009

2009-05-28T19:28:00.001-04:00

Joseph LeDoux: Why the "Right Brain" Idea is Wrong-Headed
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
Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You’re a Liberal
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/26/2009

2009-05-26T19:28:00.001-04:00

Distributing/Disturbing the Chinese Room
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/24/2009

2009-05-24T19:28:00.001-04:00

The Mind and Brain in Popular, and Not-So-Popular, Music (Blitz)
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/23/2009

2009-05-23T19:28:00.001-04:00

Gambling and Compulsion: Play at Your Own Risk
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/21/2009

2009-05-21T19:28:00.001-04:00

Edge: CHIMERAS OF EXPERIENCE: A Conversation With Jonah Lehrer
tags: mind, brain, consciousness, Lehrer, grue, cogsci
The Origin of Artificial Species: Creating Artificial Personalities
Does your robot seem to be acting a bit neurotic? Maybe it's just their personality. Recently, a team of researchers has designed computer-coded genomes for artificial creatures in which a specific personality is encoded. The ability to give artificial life forms their own individual personalities could not only improve the natural interactions between humans and artificial creatures, but also initiate the study of “The Origin of Artificial Species,” the researchers suggest.
tags: species, personalities, genetics, personality, grue, cogsci
The Origin of Artificial Species: Creating Artificial Personalities
Does your robot seem to be acting a bit neurotic? Maybe it's just their personality. Recently, a team of researchers has designed computer-coded genomes for artificial creatures in which a specific personality is encoded. The ability to give artificial life forms their own individual personalities could not only improve the natural interactions between humans and artificial creatures, but also initiate the study of “The Origin of Artificial Species,” the researchers suggest.
tags: species, personalities, genetics, personality, grue, cogsci
Do Brains Make Minds?
Joining host Robert Kuhn is consciousness expert David Chalmers; philosopher of mind John Searle; anthropologist Marilyn Schlitz; theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf; and neuropsychologist Barry Beyerstein. The panelists discuss the connection between the gray matter called a brain, the thoughts we think, the mind-body connection, and whether there's something more to the human mind than what resides in the brain. (ResearchChannel)
tags: mind, consciousness, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/20/2009

2009-05-20T19:28:00.001-04:00

With a wave of the hand: How using gestures can make you smarter
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
With a wave of the hand: How using gestures can make you smarter
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/19/2009

2009-05-19T19:29:00.001-04:00

Gambling Near-Misses Enhance Motivation to Gamble and Recruit Win-Related Brain Circuitry
“Near-miss” events, where unsuccessful outcomes are proximal to the jackpot, increase gambling propensity and may be associated with the addictiveness of gambling, but little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie their potency. Using a simplified slot machine task, we measured behavioral and neural responses to gambling outcomes.
tags: addiction, dopamine, grue, cogsci
Numbers up for dopamine myth
because of reward expectancy the dopamine system is most active when we think we can control the outcome and modify our strategy next time, even if that sense of control is completely false. (Mind Hacks)
tags: dopamine, addiction, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/18/2009

2009-05-18T19:28:00.001-04:00

Review of Supersized Mind
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/15/2009

2009-05-15T19:28:00.001-04:00

Monkeys feel regret like humans, study shows
Monkeys to feel regret and learn from their mistakes just like humans, according to a new study.
tags: primates, regret, neuroethics, emotion, cogsci, grue
Science Saturday: Brains and Gavels
Science Saturday: Brains and Gavels on Bloggingheads.tv. Zimmer and Gazzaniga
tags: neuroethics, brain, neuroscience, cogsci, grue
How the brain talks to itself - errors in emotional prediction
Gilbert and Wilson offer an engaging essay in the Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (PDF here) titled: "Why the brain talks to itself: sources of error in emotional prediction." In trying to plan futures that involve more pleasure than pain, we perform mental simulations (previews) of future events, which produce affective reactions (premotions), which are then used as a basis for forecasts (predictions) about the future event’s emotional consequences. Their review summarizes several main sources of systematic errors of these predictions. (Deric Bownds' MindBlog)
tags: brain, cogsci, emotion

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/12/2009

2009-05-12T19:28:00.001-04:00

Dan Dennett on our consciousness | Video on TED.com
Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us.
tags: consciousness, dennett, grue, cogsci, magic
When Senses Intersect
Dr. Richard Cytowic is one of the leading researchers of synesthesia, a condition in which two normally separated sensations - such as sight and sound, or touch and taste - occur at the same time. As a result, a synesthetic person might experience the taste of a dish on her fingertips, or be convinced that the letter X is a vibrant turquoise. (Scientific American)
tags: synesthesia, qualia, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/11/2009

2009-05-11T19:28:00.001-04:00

Don’t!
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/09/2009

2009-05-09T19:28:00.001-04:00

Is religious cognition adaptive?
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/08/2009

2009-05-08T19:28:00.001-04:00

The neuroeconomics of taking your pick.
Whaley offers a summary of papers by Martino et al. (open access) and Sharot et al. in a recent issue of J. Neurosci and a more recent paper by Croxson et al. notes correlates of cost-benefits valuation. (Deric Bownds' MindBlog)
tags: decision-making, value, brain, grue, cogsci, neuroeconomics
Watching Movies
Instead of having our narrative understanding slowly build, these directors dole out comprehension in sudden spurts, when a crucial twist is suddenly revealed. The end result is that disbelief can't be suspended because we're too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on. (The Frontal Cortex)
tags: movies, cognition, 150, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/07/2009

2009-05-07T19:28:00.001-04:00

In search of the conscious will
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/06/2009

2009-05-06T19:28:00.001-04:00

Talking Philosophy » Emotion and Ethics
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/05/2009

2009-05-05T19:28:00.001-04:00

Clips of Penn Neuroethicists
Here are some five to ten minute video clips of neuroethicists from the University of Pennsylvania that may interest readers (or should I say viewers!):
tags: neuroethics, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/04/2009

2009-05-04T19:29:00.001-04:00

Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of Illusion
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/03/2009

2009-05-03T19:29:00.001-04:00

Culture May Be Encoded in DNA
“We found that in this case, the culture was pretty much encoded in the genome,” said Partha Mitra of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, co-author of a study in Nature on Sunday. (Wired Science)
tags: culture, genetics, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/02/2009

2009-05-02T19:29:00.001-04:00

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong discusses the relevance of psychological research to moral philosophy
Moral psychology is the empirical study of how people make moral judgements. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Walter Sinnott-Armstrong discusses the relevance of psychological research to moral philosophy. (Philosophy Bites)
tags: moral-judgment, morality, neuroethics, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 05/01/2009

2009-05-01T19:29:00.001-04:00

Interpreting hybrid images
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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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/30/2009

2009-04-30T19:29:00.001-04:00

Wednesday Is Indigo Blue - Table of Contents - The MIT Press
tags: synesthesia, grue, cogsci
What brain damage might reveal about moral thinking
Bloggingheads.tv - Percontations: Your Brain and Your Genes
tags: neuroethics, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/29/2009

2009-04-29T19:29:00.001-04:00

Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain
Video on TED.com
tags: brain, plasticity, grue, cogsci, TED

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/25/2009

2009-04-25T19:29:00.001-04:00

Inside the baby mind
It's unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does. How we can learn from a baby's brain. (Jonah Lehrer)
tags: brain, grue, cogsci
"AH-HAH!" Insights And The Right Frontal Lobe
It's thrilling when it happens, but what actually causes insight? New research in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience takes us one step closer to an answer: up to 8 seconds before people solve problems thought to require insight, a particular set of very fast oscillations are observable above the right frontal lobe.
tags: brain, frontal-lobes, insight, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/24/2009

2009-04-24T19:29:00.001-04:00

Can evolution explain how minds work?
Biologists have tended to assume that closely related species will have similar cognitive abilities. (Nature)
tags: evolution, mind, grue, cogsci, AZB

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/23/2009

2009-04-23T19:29:00.001-04:00

Do Women Have Better Empathy Than Men?
In this Edge Video, psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen looks at one test he's developed to see if there are differences between males and females in the mind.
tags: empathy, neuroethics, cogsci, grue, brain
Annals of Economics
What neuroeconomics tells us about money and the brain. (The New Yorker)
tags: neuroeconomics, neuroethics, grue, cogsci
Readings in Neuroethics
This list collects academic writings on the topic of neuroethics. For whose new to the field we recommend Martha Farah's two short papers as an introduction (Farah 2002 and 2005). (BRAINETHICS)
tags: readings, neuroethics, aapt, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/21/2009

2009-04-21T19:29:00.001-04:00

Choice blindness: You don't know what you want
WE HAVE all heard of experts who fail basic tests of sensory discrimination in their own field: wine snobs who can't tell red from white wine (albeit in blackened cups), or art critics who see deep meaning in random lines drawn by a computer. We delight in such stories since anyone with pretensions to authority is fair game. But what if we shine the spotlight on choices we make about everyday things? Experts might be forgiven for being wrong about the limits of their skills as experts, but could we be forgiven for being wrong about the limits of our skills as experts on ourselves? (18 April 2009 - New Scientist)
tags: choice, blindness, mind, psychology, neuroethics, grue, cogsci

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Cognitive Neuroscience Links 04/20/2009

2009-04-20T19:29:00.001-04:00

Brain Gain
A young man I’ll call Alex recently graduated from Harvard. As a history major, Alex wrote about a dozen papers a semester. He also ran a student organization, for which he often worked more than forty hours a week; when he wasn’t on the job, he had classes. Weeknights were devoted to all the schoolwork that he couldn’t finish during the day, and weekend nights were spent drinking with friends and going to dance parties. “Trite as it sounds,” he told me, it seemed important to “maybe appreciate my own youth.” Since, in essence, this life was impossible, Alex began taking Adderall to make it possible.
tags: neuroethics, enhancement, grue, cogsci
How Does the Brain Form Sentences?
Forming a grammatically correct sentence may seem to require advanced cognitive skills, but it turns out that our creative language capacity might rely on a less sophisticated system than is commonly thought. A recent study suggests that our ability to construct sentences may arise from procedural memory—the same simple memory system that lets our dogs learn to sit on command. (Scientific American)
tags: language, evolution, grue, cogsci
Total Recall: The Woman Who Can't Forget
I first saw Price last May in a YouTube clip of her on 20/20. Diane Sawyer asks Price, an avid television viewer, to identify certain significant dates in broadcast history. When did CBS air the "Who shot JR?" episode of Dallas? When was All in the Family's baby episode shown? And so on. Price nails every question. She not only gives the date for the final episode of MASH but describes the weather that day.
tags: memory, cogsci, grue

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