neurophilosophy
Posts by this author
September 11, 2008
Hallucinations are often associated with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia or with LSD and related drugs. Hearing voices is a characteristic symptom which is reported by about 70% of schizophrenic patients, as well as by some 15% of patients with mood disorders such as depression; and…
September 5, 2008
In this clip from The Simpsons, Homer explains why he wouldn't benefit from an adult education course: "How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."
As you watched the clip, multiple brain regions were engaged…
September 3, 2008
In the Nature Neuroscience podcast NeuroPod, presenter Kerri Smith talks to authors of new papers from that journal about their research. The August 2008 episode (which is embedded below) includes discussions about the development of the concept of fairness in children and the effects of how…
September 3, 2008
Last week, the number of subscribers to this blog's RSS feed passed the 2,000 mark, after teetering just below that number for a couple of months. It's very gratifying to know that so many people enjoy my writing, and although this increase in subscriptions is tiny compared to the total number of…
September 3, 2008
The 53rd edition of Encephalon is online now at Ionian Enchantment and includes entries about grid cells, cochlear implants and how culture affects the perception of faces.
The carnival comes back to it's original home for the next edition - I'll be hosting it here on 15th September. If you'd like…
September 2, 2008
The past few days have been rather hectic, hence the lack of updates. On Saturday, I attended and took part in Europe's first science blogging conference, and there were also several other events which had been organized for those who came to the event from abroad.
Last Thursday evening, I was…
August 27, 2008
The patient lies on the operating table, with the right side of his body raised slightly. The anaesthetist sterilizes his scalp and injects it with Nupercaine to produce analgesia - the patient will remain fully conscious throughout the procedure. Behind the surgical drapes, three large incisions…
August 27, 2008
At Bioephemera, Jessica has a fascinating post about depictions of madness in 15th-17th century art, during which time mental illness was popularly attributed to the presence of a "stone of madness" (or "stone of folly") in the head.
One of the earliest depictions of this is found in the above…
August 26, 2008
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has dementia.
In her forthcoming book, which is serialized in the Mail on Sunday (a paper which, I hasten to add, I do not read), Carol Thatcher reveals that her mother's mental faculties have been in decline for the past 7 years:
When she learned…
August 26, 2008
In an effort to get you, my readers, to actively participate in this blog, and also because some of you have been so generous in the past, I've decided to offer prizes to those of you who leave comments.
I will send a recently published science book to the reader who posts the most interesting,…
August 24, 2008
The BBC has produced an interesting series called Blood and Guts about the modern history of surgery and the first episode, which is about neurosurgery, is now available online at the BBC iPlayer website. (For those outside the U.K., it is also available as a torrent.)
Presented by surgeon Michael…
August 24, 2008
Here's some awesome footage of the one and only Jimi Hendrix performing at Woodstock. At around 11 minutes in, he plays the guitar with his teeth. Yes...with his teeth. And it still sounds great.
Some of the hippies at the event take a much-needed dip in a lake, so the film does contain a tiny bit…
August 23, 2008
NEARLY 70 years ago, Karl von Frisch described the alarm response in a species of small freshwater fish called the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). Frisch, who was one of the founders ethology - the scientific study of animal behaviour - demonstrated that when a minnow was eaten by a predator,…
August 23, 2008
Clay rendered three-dimensional model of the UCL campus, created by Andrew Hudson-Smith of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, using SketchUp and 3DMax. Nature News reports that UCL will host a centre of excellence for neuroscience research:
University College London (UCL) will host the new…
August 22, 2008
Stroke can be extremely debilitating, but if the damage is not too severe, and appropriate rehabilitation is administered, the brain can reorganize itself to compensate for the loss of function. This reorganization can occur because the brain remains 'plastic' throughout life; it leads to recovery…
August 22, 2008
Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) is considered to be the father of modern neurological surgery. In the early part of the 20th century, he developed basic techniques and instruments for operating on the brain and, as a result, founded the discipline as a distinct surgical speciality. Before Cushing began…
August 22, 2008
Six more new ones:
Encefalus
Missives from the Frontal Lobe
Neuromics
NeoCorTEXT
Neurospeculation
Nothing's Shocking
Plastic, Elastic, the PFC
August 22, 2008
Where is this wonderful place? You're already there!
Neurophilosophy gets reviewed for the first time:
Neurophilosophy presents a unique opportunity to explore the many facets of the human condition with the guidance of a very well educated tour guide. From cannibalism to athleticism, "molecules…
August 22, 2008
This advertisement for Ritalin comes from a 1966 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Ritalin, or methylphenidate, is widely - and controversially - prescribed to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The drug is an amphetamine-like stimulant which…
August 21, 2008
In 2000, researchers from the Yale University School of Medicine made a surprising discovery that would start to change the way we think about the causes of depression. Ronald Duman and his colleagues chronically administered different classes of antidepressants to rats, and found that this…
August 21, 2008
William James on consciousness and memory:
The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days. Others, again, leave vestiges which…
August 19, 2008
The notorious Australian bushranger Edward "Ned" Kelly was apprehended in 1878, following a confrontation during which he and his gang killed three policemen. Upon his arrest, Kelly was thus described by the police:
5'10" tall, weight 11st 4lbs, medium build, sallow complexion, dark brown hair,…
August 19, 2008
Self-recognition was long believed to be unique to humans. However, it was established more than 30 years ago that the great apes are capable of recognizing themselves in the mirror, and more recently it has been found that dolphins and elephants can too.
Now Prior et al provide the first evidence…
August 19, 2008
Encephalon 52 is online now at Ouroboros, and includes entries about grandmother cells, the neurobiology of sleep and the use of transcranial direct current stimulation to improve bad driving.
August 17, 2008
Last week, I wote about the robot controlled by a "brain" in a culture dish, and in that post, I mentioned that several other groups, including members of the Neuroengineering Lab at Georgia Tech, have been doing similar work.
Steve Potter, who leads one of the groups at Georgia Tech's NeuroLab (…
August 16, 2008
Earlier this year, Sam Wang kindly sent me a copy of Welcome to Your Brain, the recently published book he has written with Sandra Aamodt. In a note slipped inside the book, he tells me that "We've done our best to make it both accessible and informative," and I think that he and Aamodt have…
August 15, 2008
This blog is included in a list of Top 100 Mental Health and Psychology Blogs, compiled by a site called Online University Reviews.
The list is divided into a number of categories - general, cognitive and forensic psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, addiction, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder…
August 15, 2008
You may have read elsewhere that publishing giant Reed Elsevier has been caught copying Mike Dunford's content without permission (and copyrighting it as their own!), which is extremely hypocritical from a company that opposes the open access movement and makes huge profits from restricting access…
August 14, 2008
Here's a nice follow-up to my article about prion diseases. It's an excerpt from Deadly Feasts: The "Prion" Controversy and the Public's Health, by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Rhodes. The book documents the work of Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, the American physician who provided the first…
August 13, 2008
Researchers from the Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group at the University of Reading have developed a robot whose movements are controlled by neurons growing in a culture dish.
The robot's "brain" consists of several hundred thousand neurons isolated from embryonic rat neocortex. The cortical…