Link Posts
developingintelligence | June 26, 2007The best from recent cognitive/brain blogs:
Suspect someone's lying to you? Ask for the story in reverse order. Psyblog also has some suggestions.
A sober look at mind-reading fMRI pattern classification techniques over at Mind Hacks.
Nabokovian reviews a new computational model of short term memory, using a recurrent network.
What's all the hooplah about embodied cognition? Why do some believe that bodies in particular are important for mind? MoaP explains a new spin on the classic mind-body "problem."
The Reasoner: a monthly digest of new research on research in cognitive science,…
developingintelligence | June 8, 2007Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging:
"Brain training" games that are actually fun! Also check out the Lumosity blog. It seems like they understand the reward structure of good games.
Tonal similarities between music and language.
Genetic differences between speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages - critique at the excellent Language Log, including a response by the authors!
A cynic's guide to publishing scientific articles.
Reference management tools - but don't forget about CiteULike!
An architectural illusion?
A seminar at UVA on "robotic architecture" taught by Jason…
developingintelligence | May 25, 2007Highlights from recent brain blogging:
First, a new edition of Encephalon.
Physicalism and Panpsychism - a book review by Jerry Fodor. Looks like a pretty nice book...
And here, Fodor explains mental representation to his aunt.
Silicon smackdown - an article in the June Scientific American talks about new algorithms for playing the ancient board game Go, one of the last quantitative arenas where humans are clearly superior to machines. Subscription only, sorry guys.
Whistle, Bark and Groan - with a dolphin accent?
Thinking Meat comments on a NYT article on the social construction of reality…
developingintelligence | May 18, 2007Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging:
Who knew? These videos will tell you how the mind works (supposedly).
The origins of the old myth that we use only 10% of our "brain power".
A woman awakens from a coma with a reversed sense of directionality.
Restoring sight in the blind with lateral geniculate nucleus implants
"Do you, for some reason, fear the current and/or future increase of artificial intelligence?"
Questions about the utility of computational neuroscience
From Molecule to Mind: The Genetics of Brain Wiring
Dostoyevsky's case of epilepsy: "I gazed at him with fixed…
developingintelligence | April 18, 2007What better way to start out than some cool visual illusions known as hybrid images.
It's a short jump from visual illusions to mass delusions.
Is the benefit of exercise a similar mass delusion, a kind of population-level placebo effect?
How do we turn perception into action? It may involve binding between the brain's dorsal and ventral visual processing streams.
A new NSF-funded center for understanding the temporal dynamics of learning.
The mystery of sleep, at Slate.
Propranolol, the amnesia drug: one step closer to eternal sunshine.
Nicotine as a memory (and attention) enhancer? Don't…
developingintelligence | March 29, 2007Recent highlights from the best in brain-blogging:
Is our sense of morality localized to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex?
More reasons for caution when beginning sentences with the phrase; "Only humans are cognitively capable of ......."
Are wild monkeys in a stone-age of their own?
Spatial memory in single-celled organisms.
Continuing debate about the correlation between intelligence and gross indices of brain size.
More reasons to think that glia are not merely "support cells" after all.
So, what is a brain "area" anyway?
More neurons is better, right? Not true, at least in terms of…
developingintelligence | March 10, 2007Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging:
Online experiments at the Harvard Visual Cognition Lab!
Less invasive brain-computer interfacing, for video games.
Brain-computer interface implants: videos.
A new weapon in the Israeli arsenal: the VIPER robot.
The current state of the art in robotics, as reviewed by Cognitive Daily.
Guiding pigeons with remote controls.
Hunting by single-cell organisms: the slime mold.
Relatively complex reasoning revealed in rats (improved! now links to the correct page).
Mental representations in non-human animals: signs of animal intelligence?
Evolving…
developingintelligence | February 24, 2007The story of a patient who awoke after a 20-year coma, induced by traumatic brain injury.
Epidemic proportions of TBI in soldiers returning from Iraq: a new problem.
Second chance to live: a new blog written by a TBI survivor.
It is becoming clear that we have little idea of how the sleep medication Ambien (zolpidem) actually works. A few months ago it was shown to awaken some people from "persistent" vegetative states, but now is being implicated in bizarre behavior.
Douglas Hofstadter has a new book on consciousness. So does Gerald Edelman, also on consciousness.
Computers can now play…
developingintelligence | February 13, 2007Check out the latest issue of Encephalon at MindHacks - covering topics like sleep research, decision making, music perception, and the cognitive processing of time. Nice job Vaughan!
developingintelligence | February 3, 2007My favorites from the last two weeks in brain blogging:
First off, a new blog: Robots Will Take Over!
Neural networks in silicon, and progress in brain-computer interfaces.
Lifestyle improvements, brought to you by your friends at DARPA
Is machine learning really any different from statistics? (One of my pet peeves, incidentally).
A critical view of simulation's role in science
Thank the military for cockroaches that are even harder to kill: tomorrow's robotic insects
Sequelae of Octopus Intelligence? Senescence and depression in cephalopods.
Bird Grammar: Recursive center-embedding in…
developingintelligence | January 22, 2007Gyorgy Buzsaki, author of "Rhythms of the Brain," agreed to answer 10 questions posed by me and amnestic at GNXP. Covers computational modeling, 1/f noise, cortical homogeneity, and much more.
A steeper forgetting curve among those with a college education?
Imaging the neural representation of number. (Also at Neuromarketing.)
Goal representation in hippocampus!?! Can anybody explain this one?
PsychCentral covers recent reports that video games may be good for "mental well-being."
Microsoft researcher presents on Brain Computer Interfaces.
Progress on Brain Computer Interface technology…
developingintelligence | January 15, 2007Enjoy the holiday with some nice reading from Encephalon 14: Mixing Memory has posted the new issue.
developingintelligence | January 13, 2007Recent highlights from the brain blogosphere:
Can crossword puzzles help prevent senile dementia?
The current state of the brain fitness movement: as evaluated by the New York Times.
Spindle neurons evolved very recently - are they also the source of frontal dementia?
A new form of pharmacological brain enhancement - could this technique avoid the long-term risks of excitotoxicity (as might result from extensive use of ampakines?)
What about interrogation neurotechnology? Here's what military's director of psychopharmacology has to say.
Future prospects for interrogation neurotech.
Bird…
developingintelligence | January 7, 2007Highlights from recent brain blogging:
Top 5 Robots of 2006 - the top 5 that we know about, that is. #1 gives you a taste of the current state of robotics.
Along those lines, this video about a few precautions we should all take.
The Neurophilosopher covers augmented cognition by DARPA, and a recent film commissioned by the same agency "to tell the story of AugCog science and technology, with an eye to how it will mature and be used in the coming decades."
MindHacks provides a history of research bearing on the topic of free will, while MindBlog covers focuses on a essay in the New York…
mixingmemory | October 5, 2006OK, time for a few links.
First up, there's a very good new blog by cognitive anthropologists called Alpha Psy. I disagreed pretty strongly with some of the points in their post on terror management theory, but overall I've really enjoyed the blog so far. I strongly recommend the post on majority rule, "Long Live the Majority," and the primers in their "Rough Guide to Naturalism."
Also, I just added two social science statistics blogs to the blogroll. They're both really good, but a bit specialized, so they're not for everyone. The first is Social Science Statistics Blog, which has a really…
mixingmemory | September 22, 2006Been a while, but I thought I'd start doing this again now and then. First, the serious link. If you haven't read about the doctor and five nurses who have been unjustly sentenced to death in Libya, you should. Unfortunately, I don't think any amount outcry in this country will change the verdict, but it can't hurt either.
On a less serious note, over at the Experimental Philosophy blog, there's a post about "experimental history of science." This is cool stuff (though I'm not entirely convinced it's all that useful; but I've never really been a pragmatist when it comes to nerdy stuff anyway…
mixingmemory | July 9, 2006The second edition of The Synapse is up over at A Block Around the Clock. I especially liked "Are You Conscious of Your Precuneous" and Ethics at the Dawn of the Neurotechnological Age."
Elsewhere, John Hawks tackles Aymara, "the future is behind us" thing, with some links to some nice discussion at Language Log as well.
Three Quarks Daily links to a Scientific American article about how we cognitive scientis, and other scientists, are stealing humanity.
Chris Chatham has a nice post at Developing Intelligence compiling the various points and counterpoints in the discussion of brain imaging…