omnibrain | April 30, 2007Last week Migraines were good for fending off memory loss in middle age people. Now this week migraines are causing brain damage that potentially can lead to strokes. Pretty fair trade off eh?! Better memory for a horribly disabling stroke that might destroy your memory anyway (well... or kill you)!
Alright... here's the details:
The research, which was done in mice, also suggests giving oxygen may help reduce the damage, said Takahiro Takano, Maiken Nedergaard and colleagues at the University of Rochester in New York, working with a team at the Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk.…
omnibrain | April 26, 2007
source
Skull #11 ('80s Metal), 2006. by Brian Dettmer
Currently on display at the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago.
And of course a video ;)
Brain Surgery - Scrubs Style
omnibrain | April 26, 2007It looks like Slate, over the next few days, is going to have a series of articles on some yummy looking neuroscience!
Here's a few details:
Welcome to "Brains!", Slate's special issue on mind science and the state of neuro-culture. Over the next few days, we'll present a series of articles about how laboratory research on the brain makes its way into our daily lives.
Wednesday, William Saletan revisits the most compelling brain-related stories of the year, from mind-reading fMRI scans to the effects of brain damage on morality. Max Linsky heads to the local brain gym for a neurobic work out…
omnibrain | April 25, 2007Overall people with higher IQ's tend to earn a bit more income (1 IQ pt. = $202-$616 more per year) but when you factor in total wealth (I believe that how much bling you have was the measure) and how likely people were to have financial difficulties the correlations fell apart. The smart and the dumb were both equally as inept at managing their own finances. I can think of countless examples of both sides of the coin. For the idiots we have: MC Hammer, Vanilla ICE, Mike Tyson and many other entertainers (ok ok ... I know entertainers aren't necessarily idiots - but they're the easiest to…
omnibrain | April 24, 2007We all know the basic characteristics of a happy dog (well at least pizza guys and mail men know),
Ears close to the head, tense posture, and tail straight out from the body means "don't mess with me." Ears perked up, wriggly body and vigorously wagging tail means "I am sooo happy to see you!"
An article in todays NYT highlights a brand new discovery in doggy linguistics,
When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.
I might even read the…
omnibrain | April 20, 2007A list of the top most satisfying jobs was just released by the General Social Survey (GSS) at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. It seems that Psychologists have made it into the top ten - although I don't think they're talking about my field of psychology (not that I'm unsatisfied). Someone really needs to come up with a new name for clinicians or experimental psychology. Any ideas?
Anyway... here's the list:
* Clergy--87 percent percent
* Firefighters--80 percent percent
* Physical therapists--78 percent percent
* Authors--74 percent…
omnibrain | April 20, 2007Freaking hilarious! Nothing to do with the brain though - ohh well. Don't play this out loud at work - it's a bit potty mouthed. (Sorry for the autostart - I can't figure out how to not let it automatically start). And if you have thoughts about which dirty words are appropriate and which are not... head on over to Cognitive Daily for todays Casual Friday.
Since I'm sooo terribly sick of having this video autoplay I am switching it out with this nice little quiet link.
omnibrain | April 19, 2007Does anyone have any suggestions for tomorrows Multimedia Friday? It can be reader request day or something like that ;)
And in thanks for your input I leave you with this completely unconfirmed set of results from a website reporting about a publication on nose picking:
* 8.7% claim that they have never picked their nose. (In other words, they are liars or they can't remember doing it as a kid.)
* 91% stated that they had picked their nose in the past and were still actively practicing this habit. Yet, only 49.2% of the respondents actually thought that nose-picking was common in…
omnibrain | April 19, 2007Ok... not really but there is a great article in The Onion about some out of work scientists. Here's a snippet:
The team recently managed to secure a New Jersey state research subsidy of $2.55 by returning the empties.
McCarthy provided his Shar-Pei, Wrinkles, to serve as a control. Wrinkles was only given water to drink, though the team had to scrap one set of data due to confounding variables introduced when the control subject consumed 7.35 ounces of beer when the scientists' backs were turned.
...
Rogers and his team said they will continue their work in the burgeoning field of dog-…
omnibrain | April 19, 2007Usually we feature visual illusions since they seem to be the easiest to make and of course nearly a third to a half of our brain is dedicated to vision so we may just be more interested. In any case here are three auditory illusions from Mighty Optical Illusions.
Shepard's ascending tones (MP3) - This is a recording of Shepard's paradox synthesized by Jean-Claude Risset. Pairs of chords sound as if they are advancing up the scale, but in fact the starting pair of chords is the same as the finishing pair. If you loop this sample seamlessly then it should be impossible to tell where the…
omnibrain | April 17, 2007People like Dr. Phil and Jack Thompson feel the need to put themselves in the public eye by espousing ridiculous opinions meant to inflame people and get support for their money making endeavors. I have NO idea where these con artists get the idea that if there weren't violent video games and movies this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Was there anything like modern media around when the largest mass murder in a school happened? The Bath Disaster occurred On May 18, 1927, when
45 people, mostly children, were killed and 58 were injured when disgruntled and demented school board member Andrew…
omnibrain | April 17, 2007Dr. Janet Hall of Melbourne Australia has found a number of new ways to use hypnosis to 'cure' her patients phobias. These phobias are completely new to me ;)
She said one Indian woman with a sperm phobia overcame her fear in three sessions and was now pregnant.
Another woman used the therapy to successfully overcome the fear that her husband was going to be "swallowed up" during sex.
I wonder if hypnosis can cure my fear of pseudoscience?
link
omnibrain | April 12, 2007Art Week (Ok...so its retroactive art week) continues with this strange little commercial with Salvador Dali pimping Alka Seltzer. Enjoy,
omnibrain | April 12, 2007
Researchers in at the University of New Hampshire discovered something very important recently. The show COPS is actually useful for something besides freaking out stoned kids who accidentally flip to FOX when it's on. By watching many many many episodes of COPS Mardi Kidwell, assistant professor of communication, learned that making eye contact with a panicked person is a very important way of controlling their behavior. She describes her findings in a paper entitled, "'Calm Down!': the role of gaze in the interactional management of hysteria by the police," which was recently published…
omnibrain | April 12, 2007In honor of the Magic of Consciousness Symposium coming up (See below the fold for details) here's a video of Penn and Teller explaining the art of Sleight of Hand tricks.
The Magic of Consciousness Symposium
The ASSC11 Co-Chairs are happy to announce a Special Symposium that promises to showcase the "Magic of Consciousness" to even the hardest-nosed skeptic. Please join us and five of the world's premier stage magicians on Sunday June 24th, 2007, between 5:30pm and 7:30pm, so that these world-class performers may share their deep intuitions and insights on the covert manipulation of…
omnibrain | April 12, 2007This story is almost useless without video - which Is why I'm posting it. Can anyone get a video of an Orangutan playing a video game? In any case... Here's the basic story:
In one game, orangutans choose identical photographs or match orangutan sounds with photos of the animals -- correct answers are rewarded with food pellets. Another game lets them draw pictures by moving their hands and other body parts around the screen. Printouts of their masterpieces are on display in the zoo.
The computer games, which volunteers from IBM spent nearly 500 hours developing, test the animals' memory,…
omnibrain | April 11, 2007Since I seem to be on an art and music kick today I thought I'd highlight a pretty darn cool thing Joshua Bell did. Cognitive Daily and The Washington Post have the real stories, but here's a little snippet:
Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was asked the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one of the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling rush-hour audience of 1,000-odd people?
"Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken for granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't…
omnibrain | April 11, 2007Many famous artists and musicians have had the perception of their own art altered by abnormal physical or mental changes. Critics and historians have often credited these changes as major sources of creativity. Insanity and Drugs seem to usually be the most cited and obvious candidates but very often something a lot more vanilla, like hearing or vision loss, can have the greatest impact on an artists art.
Probably the most famous case of an artist (in this case a musician) losing the one sense that was the most important to their work is Ludwig Van Beethoven. Over the course of the last…
omnibrain | April 9, 2007Some interesting findings have popped up in the most recent issue of the Archives of Neurology.
It seems that when comparing individuals who have developed Parkinson Disease with family members who have not - the people with PD are less likely to have smoked or drank coffee on a daily basis.
Check out the abstract below:
Smoking, Caffeine, and Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Families With Parkinson Disease
Dana B. Hancock, BS; Eden R. Martin, PhD; Jeffrey M. Stajich, PA-C; Rita Jewett, RN; Mark A. Stacy, MD; Burton L. Scott, PhD, MD; Jeffery M. Vance, PhD, MD; William K. Scott, PhD…
omnibrain | April 7, 2007Ok, I'm not really sure if kids get it right, but after all - they do have all sorts of experience with school buses. Perhaps they do get it right more than adults, after all - experience will trump age and straight up smarts most days of the week.
Here's the test:
Look at the images carefully. Which way is the bus moving?
http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=509">
Ok really.. the only possible answers are right and left.
The answer is below the fold...
Keep scrolling for the results
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According to this site:…