Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is trying to finish that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot, Pepper, on our quest to finish my PhD, land a post-doc, and stay sane.
Steve Higgins is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, Steve is really a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying high level vision. You know... stuff like scene & object perception.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life." ~Rachel Carson
We love constructive comments! However, we reserve the right to delete comments that abuse this forum. Voicing your opinions is great, just be respectful.
Announcing the 34th annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology
June 26-29, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Registration is now open; deadline Thursday, June 5 -- 12:00pm EST
Note that early registration is suggested, as the reserved hotel block is likely to fill quickly.
The 2008 conference will feature presentations by:
George Ainslie, Michael L. Anderson, Louise Antony
Peter Carruthers, Louis Charland, Anjan Chatterjee
David Danks, Felipe De Brigard, Michael Devitt
Marthah Farah, Evelina Fedorenko, Owen Flanagan,
Jerry Fodor, Kenneth R. Foster, Lila R. Gleitman (President of SPP)
George Graham, Bryce Huebner, Bertram F. Malle,
Barbara Malt, Christopher Meacham, Dominic P. Murphy
Thomas Nadelhoffer, Kenneth Norman, Mike Oaksford
Erik Parens, Nancy Petry, Jeffrey Poland
Zenon Pylyshyn, Sarah Robins, Paul Rozin,
Laurie R. Santos (the 2008 Stanton Prize winner)
Michael Strevens, Justin Sytsma, Kelly Trogdon
Charles Wallis, Deena Weisberg, Daniel Weiskopf
Fei Xu, Carlos Zednik. . . among many others
On topics including:
-Addiction and Responsibility
-Concepts and Categorization
-Consciousness
-Bayesian Inference and Rationality
-Foundational Issues in the Philosophy of Cognitive Science
-Language & Mental Representation
-Moral Psychology
-Neuroethics
-Theory of Mind
Tempt Fate, and Take a Risk
Superstition Obstacle Course Opens Friday, June 13th
Are You Scared?
June 13 - September 1, 2008
For many people, Friday the 13th suggests bad luck -- but is it really
tempting fate or taking a risk to break a mirror? Are you courting disaster
by walking under a ladder? And what really happens if you step squarely on
that crack in the sidewalk? Challenge these and other superstitions at the
Exploratorium's new Superstition Obstacle Course. Experience how your own
superstitions, your own emotions, and your own judgment come into play.
Although none of the beliefs represented have a scientific basis, many
believe such behaviors are taboo and invite bad luck. Regardless of their
truth, superstitions are a part of human culture, and offer a rich source of
understanding why we believe and act as we do.
Thought Graffiti
A Special Interactive Event in Conjunction with the New Mind Exhibition
Saturdays, June 14, June 28, and July 12
Noon-3pm
What do your thoughts sounds like, look like, feel like? Find out what
everyone's thinking in this family-friendly experiment. Come to the
Exploratorium and, using sidewalk chalk, create a giant thought bubble on
the museum floor. Anyone can contribute a thought in words, doodles, or
pictures. Ask a question that comes to mind, respond to your neighbor's
thoughts, or collaborate with a friend. Help contribute to the invention of
-- who knows? For ages 6 and up. Chalk provided.
Right now I'm about to, or already am, standing at a podium to give a talk at the Vision Sciences Society annual meeting (better known as VSS) in Naples Florida.
Wish me luck!
Here's the exciting abstract:
Popping in and out of existence: The effect of gradual and abrupt occlusion on object localization.
J. Stephen Higgins1,2, Daniel Simons1,2, Ranxiao Wang1,2
1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2Beckman Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The human visual system typically tracks the position of objects as they move. However, when disruption occurs (e.g., as objects are occluded and disoccluded, an eye movement occurs, or when objects spontaneously disappear and reappear), we must determine whether or not the objects have moved. In most real-world perception, stable aspects of the surrounding environment provide landmarks for this recalibration process. Previous studies showed that when two objects are briefly viewed and then removed from view, the object reappearing first serves as a landmark for the object reappearing later. This results in the misperception that the second object has moved when, in fact, only the first one (the landmark) actually did. We explored whether this "landmark bias" was due to the objects' abrupt onset/offset by removing and revealing the objects more naturally. If the landmark bias represents a general process in which people treat the first object to reappear as the stable object, then observers should continue to see the second object as having moved. Alternatively, if the landmark bias results from a disrupted initial representation after sudden onset/offset, then the landmark bias should be eliminated. To test this hypothesis, two objects appeared side by side after which a moving occluder entered from one of the four edges of the screen, temporarily covering the objects before exiting. The objects could be occluded simultaneously (top/bottom entrance) or sequentially (left/right entrance), and revealed simultaneously (top/bottom exit) or sequentially (left/right exit) to mimic the traditional landmark test procedure. When the objects disappeared and reappeared more naturally, observers showed no landmark bias to misperceive the second object as having moved. This pattern also held for invisible occluders which provide no location cues, demonstrating that vanishing objects are treated differently than objects that gradually disappear.
Delusions are the strangest things...
Once, back in the day, when I was interning in Ted Kennedy's press office we got a call from a woman (this was a pretty usual occurrence) demanding to know why the CIA, et. al. were monitoring her brainwaves. Our quick thinking secretary (a Harvard grad making 16k a year for the privilege of working in the Senate) told her to hold he was going to go check the list. He let her sit for a few minutes, got back on the phone, and told her she wasn't on the list and there must be a mistake. He would have her mind control removed immediately and he was sorry for the mix up. She never did call back from what I heard. Perhaps a new form of therapy?
In any case... here's an entertaining police blotter from Federal Way, Washington:
At 4:02 p.m. April 10, two women went into the Federal Way police station claiming that over the past two years, a paranormal person has been placing sensors on their bodies and visiting them in their house at 28600 block of 25th Place South. They said that the ghost has been having sexual intercourse with them. One woman said that these incidents started in Kent and continued when she moved here. The other woman said that this just started now.
At 3:36 p.m. April 12, a woman contacted the Federal Way police to report that a person was cutting a large tree down. She was concerned it could fall on her car or on her house located in the 30800 block of 22nd Avenue South. The woman who was trying to cut the tree was contacted and said that she needed to cut the tree because it was hazard.
At 10:10 a.m. April 11, an unknown person cut the vinyl top of a womans car in the 30800 block of 8th Avenue SW, and gained access to the vehicle. All belongings inside the car had been gone and the total damage for the vehicle was about $1,200.
At least not all the crime in Federal Way is odd...
I love antique anatomical drawings of the brain. I even have a couple in my office that I should probably take a picture of to show off to you guys. These illustrations from Japan are particularly interesting. According to Pink Tentacle:
The Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki (1784-1825), consist of beautifully realistic, if not gruesome, depictions of scientific human dissection.
Unlike European anatomical drawings of the time, which tended to depict the corpse as a living thing devoid of pain (and often in some sort of Greek pose), these realistic illustrations show blood and other fluids leaking from subjects with ghastly facial expressions.
Cristiana Senni from World Parrots Trust just let me know that their organization has uploaded several movies to YouTube of African Grey parrots in the wild. I live with a Grey, and was absolutely amazed at their vocalizations and behaviors--pretty much exactly like Pepper. Reminds me that while Pepper is tame, he is still just one generation from his wild brethren. Check out their beautiful videos!
The Dalai Lama has been making appearances and giving talks in the US, with his most recent talk at the University of Michigan (where I am) yesterday. Although I was unable to attend the actual talk, since the tickets were sold out within an hour of going on sale, his appearance was videotaped and uploaded (check out the movie here.)
According to the press release from UM, the Dalai Lama's talk skirted most of the tough issues that Tibet is now facing, and focused more on environmentalism--a topic certainly near and dear to the inhabitants of Ann Arbor. Check it out.
Well folks, sorry I've been so AWOL around here lately. Lets just say there's been a lot of long hours in the basement with the confocal microscope, and I've also been in charge of organizing the U of M Neuroscience Spring Symposium, which is next week. I'm super-excited about the three visiting neuroscientists: Nicholas Gaiano, Ed Boyden, and David Sulzer. So, forgive my temporary absence...although I'm sure Steve is keeping everyone entertained.
Speaking of entertaining, I was emailed this awesome anatomically correct brain cake, recipe which I just had to share. Someone put a lot of love into photographing the entire process of creating something both nerdy and delicious-- even using chocolate chips to create an EEG grid.
A great new piece of technology turns you into old mister Pickard, your pissy, old, get off my damn lawn, next door neighbor.
Carmaker Nissan Motor is using a specialized driver's suit and goggles to simulate the bad balance, stiff joints, weaker eyesight and extra five kilograms (11lbs) that may accompany senior citizenry.
Associate chief designer Etsuhiro Watanabe says the suit's weight and constriction help in determining functionality and accessibility within cars by putting young designers not only in the minds of the mobility-challenged, but also in their bodies.
"Difficulty in walking, back pains, trouble in lifting arms -- we wanted to consider assorted infirmities," said Watanabe of the concept known as universal design.
"It's easy to do this for the young, but we wanted to design for adverse conditions and see what modifications are needed."
An ageing suit was first used by Nissan a decade ago, while Japanese washlet maker Toto uses such suits to simulate bathroom mobility, even including tub water as part of the program.
Do you have an extra brain sitting around you want to donate? Do you want to trade brains with someone else but they are too far away to do it in person? Is your brain malfunctioning and you need to ship it back to the factory for some repairs or in the worst case - a replacement? If your answer was yes to any of these questions then this is the tutorial for you.
This is what you'll need:
Two clean, dry ziploc plastic bags
(about 22.0 x 30.0 cm)
Plastic bucket with tightly fitting lid
(about 4.0 liters)
Large plastic bag
(about 40.0 x 50.0 cm)
Envelope for documents
Thermosafe polyfoam container
(38.0 x 33.0 x 31.0 cm)
Two refrigerant packs
(17.0 x 10.0 cm)
Wet ice (about 1.0 kg)
Once you have these items just follow these eight straight forward steps and you'll brain will be ready to drop off at your local courier store.
Put the fresh brain (A)
in the first ziploc bag.
Ziploc first bag (B).
Place bag (B) in second bag and ziploc it (C).
Place 0.5 kg of wet ice into the bucket and transfer the double-bagged brain onto the ice (D).
Cover double-bagged brain with wet ice (E) and tightly fit the lid on the bucket.
Put big plastic bag into the polyfoam container and place wet ice (about 0.3 kg) into the bag (F).
Transfer sealed bucket into plastic bag of the container, onto the ice and add refrigerant packs (G).
Close plastic bag (H), put polyfoam lid in place, add documents and close cardboard box.
Surprisingly, this post is actually no joke at all. The New York Brain Bank at Columbia University needs brains to do important research on Alzheimer's and many other diseases of the brain. For more information visit their page (including more pictures of brains). Here's their official line:
The New York Brain Bank (NYBB) at Columbia University was established to collect postmortem human brains to meet the needs of neuroscientists investigating specific psychiatric and neurological disorders.
The tasks of the NYBB include:
* Collection and processing of human postmortem brain samples for research.
* Neuropathological evaluation and diagnosis.
* Storage and computerized inventory of brain samples.
* Distribution of brain samples to investigating clinicians and scientists.
The study of human postmortem brain tissue has unveiled structural and biochemical changes that are contributing to the development of drugs. For example, studies using postmortem human brains have led to the development of genetic tests, identification of neurotransmitters essential to Parkinson disease treatment and cytoskeletal abnormalities in Alzheimer disease.
To study the brains of patients with disorders of the central nervous system, brains from individuals without neurological or psychiatric disorders are necessary for comparison. All individuals are encouraged to donate their brains to science with authorization to remove it as soon as possible after death. The identity of each donor will remain strictly confidential.
NYBB will disburse tissue samples to investigating clinicians or scientists, whose research has been approved by their Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Sexing chicks is a very difficult task for naive people. Expert chick sexers are over 98% successful while the naive sexers can only do it with slightly above chance performance. Are you sufficiently confused/pissed yet?
Ok ok... here's what's really going on:
When chickens are born the chicks are examined by experts to determine what sex they are. This important task is performed in order to save money in feed costs and avoid conflict between the male and female chicks (the men are selfish and don't let the females eat or drink). What they do with the male chickens I'm not entirely sure. I would assume they euthanize them.
In any case, this process was discovered by the Japanese and brought to America in the 1920's where a number of chicken sexing schools were setup in Washington and California. According to the industry the skill requires years of practice to master. In fact, the experts are able to classify nearly 1000 chicks per hour with 98% accuracy. The process of sexing the chicken is both interesting and disturbing,
The chicks, only a few hours old, are brought to the sexer in trays of 100. The task requires that the cloaca be everted. The chick is held in the left hand (for a right-handed person) and the fecal contents are squirted into a container to clear the cloaca (see Figure 2). Gentle but firm pressure from the two thumbs and right forefinger are exerted to spread the ventral surface of the colaca upwards to expose the eminence, called the "bead." The eminence is about the size of a pin head. The sexing decision must be made quickly because the chick is at risk from the vent eversion. Females are traditionally place in a tray on the right and males on the left.
Here is an example of how an expert would hold a chick in order to sex it. The chicks eyes have been obscured in order to maintain privacy.
It's pretty amazing what you can sneak into a psychology journal article isn't it?!
ok ok ... Back to the chicken sexing...
Here's what the chicken sex organs look like:
In short, Biederman and Shiffrar discovered that they were able to train novice experiment participants to perform as well as the expert chicken sexers by giving them a short training session that instructed them as to where the non-accidental contrast in shape of chicken organs (concavity vs. convexity) was.
Here's their conclusions:
A contrast in a nonaccidental property can be readily learned and used as the criterion for rapid and accurate classification of complex objects. It is, of course, possible that such contrasts might not be available, in which case classification would have to be accomplished by prototype (or multiple-cue) matching. We suspect that nonaccidental contrasts will be spontaneously used whenever they are obvious. When not obvious because of small size, variability, or embedding in a complex object such as a chick cloaca or tank, a good instructional program is well advised to specify the contrasts rather than hope for their discovery.
-Update-
Check out this Dirty Jobs segment on this exact topic. Ewww!
Report on:
Biederman, I., Shiffrar, M.M. (1987). Sexing Day-Old Chicks: A Case Study and Expert Systems Analysis of a Difficult Perceptual-Learning Task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogntion, 13(4), 640-645.
Something to think about next time those vanity pangs hit (Mac-users, I'm looking at you): new research published in the April 2nd Journal of Neuroscience reports that botulium (the toxin in the popular cosmetic Botox injections) can reach the nervous system when injected into the facial muscles of rats. Although the toxin would only reach the nerve in minute amounts, botulinum toxin is potent even in small amounts and may still disrupt nerve activity. Currently the FDA is reviewing the safety of Botox injections, which are used to paralyze the muscles of the face and thereby reduce the appearance of wrinkles, due to 16 deaths that have resulted from injections.
Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and, by and large, has been safely used by medical professionals to treat a variety of maladies from muscle spasms to migraines to wrinkles. This 'safety' has been attributed to the toxin's localization--specifically, it doesn't leave the injection site or spread to other systems and tissues, where it could be harmful or fatal. This study, conducted by Atonucci et al, suggests that botulinum toxin can be transported backwards along microtubles (the 'skeleton' of cells, which can also move molecules) and leave muscle cells. It can pass through the muscle cell's membrane, and find itself in the afferent nerve terminal adjacent to the injection site. Whether it is enough to interfere with nerve functioning remains unclear, but perhaps will be further studied in the wake of the FDA review.
My friend Amy sent these graphs around today - I have no idea at all what their source is (any ideas?) so I can't credit it. But they really are hysterical.
This is clearly false advertising. I don't see any pinging going on. This seems more like Pigeons playing pong.
BF Skinner trains two pigeons to perform a chain of behaviors for the classroom demonstration. As a result, pigeons engage in a competition, the so-called "pigeon Ping Pong". Narrated by B.F. Skinner.
A number of people have noticed that after getting transplants their personality changes - and not only that- their personality changes to reflect the donors personality.
...though she was born and raised in Tucson, she never liked Mexican food. She craved Italian and was a pasta junkie. But three years ago, all that changed for Jaime Sherman, 28, when she underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center, after battling a heart defect since birth. "Now I love football, baseball, basketball. You name it, I follow it," said Sherman, a psychology student at Arizona State University. "And Mexican food is by far my favorite."
There is the 8-year-old girl who got the heart of a 10-year-old murder victim, according to medical reports. Plagued by nightmares of the crime after her transplant, the girl used the images in her dreams to help locate and convict her donor's killer.
That's when she learned 29-year-old Scott Phillips - who died of a head injury after a fight at a Phoenix bar - was a sports fan who loved Mexican food. He played on several teams at Kansas State University and followed college and pro sports. Sherman's metamorphosis from nonfan to superfan occurred well before she knew anything about her donor, though her obsession with Kansas State began after she met his family.
Woah.... amazing! Although...I wasn't totally convinced that hearts passed on memories until I saw this article today from MSNBC. Luckily they didn't propose the cellular memory hypothesis (more to come on this later).
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - A man who received a heart transplant 12 years ago and later married the donor's widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said: of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
These stories go on and on - but what really gets me is the absolutely insane explanations as to why this is happening...
I'm going to be teaching Psych 100 next year and 200 or so lucky kids are going to luck out with me as an instructor. I'm just going to read them previously written blog posts all semester. Maybe I'll read out of a really crappy intro psych text book to them as well. Ok.. just kidding. I really want to make this upcoming year as entertaining as possible for them. There are so many great psychology experiments and stories about classic personalities to share. I think I need a little help with it from you guys though. If you have any suggestions about stories, experiments, or videos you saw in your psych classes that you loved help me out!
I'd especially like a video (or even pictures) of the classic B.F. Skinner conditioning study where pigeons were taught to play ping pong. I haven't been able to find anything like that. Doesn't a video have to exist of that? They had film back then. UPDATE: I finally found the video. Not only that, it's actually narrated by B.F. Skinner. Keep the great ideas for psych 100 coming though!
This seems to be the only pigeon training picture I have ;)
It looks like one the (if not the) most famous psych hospital in the world is going to be turned into a luxury hotel. The Bellevue Psych Hospital will go under construction some time in 2009. I know The Shining happened in a hotel but it seems like this is along those lines and is prime real estate for a horror film. I'm imagining a combo zombie/ghost film where hoards of crazy dead or undead mental patients goes after the construction crews or something.
It's true! Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, previously home to famous names like Normal Mailer, Edie Sedgewick, and the guy who shot John Lennon (Mark David Chapman), is getting a remodel and soon will be a luxury hotel. Built in 1931 it's pretty perfect for the remake, with its location in Manhattan along the East River, its Italian Renaissance style, and even its "H" layout with hotel-sized rooms on long corridors.
Bellevue hasn't treated psych patients since 1984 when it was transformed into a homeless shelter, and now the plans for yet another renovation are well underway. No word yet on when they hope to have the hotel finished, but hopefully there's a developer locked in by the end of the year so renovations can get started by the middle of 2009.
It's just about weekly that some scientist finds that one of our guilty pleasures is actually good for us. First it was red wine, then it was all alcohol. Followed by Omega-3 Fatty Acids - mmm.... fat.... And Now?! It's coffee. It doesn't just wake you up in the morning so you can avoid those pesky rush hour accidents with half drunk and asleep drivers. Now coffee is purported to protect us against dementias by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on our body.
So go ahead eat those extra eggs and an entire package of bacon. You can just drink an entire pot of coffee to protect yourself against dementia.
Hmm... perhaps the way it protects you against dementia is by killing you well before you get to the age where dementia starts occurring. Next thing you know they'll be discovering that smoking is good for you.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
Announcing the 34th annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Right now I'm about to, or already am, standing at a podium to give a talk at the 
In any case... here's an entertaining 
Put the fresh brain (A)
in the first ziploc bag.
Ziploc first bag (B).
Place bag (B) in second bag and ziploc it (C).
Transfer sealed bucket into plastic bag of the container, onto the ice and add refrigerant packs (G).
Here's the sparse 
