“Making A Brain Map That We Can Use”
-Does it make any more sense to try to describe what a brain does based on its physical components than it does to describe what a computer does based on the plastics and metals that make it up?
Neuroscientists Too Often Exceed Chance Levels Only By Chance
-The findings of many neuroscientific studies are really just random background noise.
NPR’s “Invisibilia” to Explore Intangible Forces Behind Human Behavior
-A new regular radio program from NPR "explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior."
A Neuroscience Laboratory That’s “Green” and Supports “Neurodiversity”
-What would an anti-militaristic, animal-loving, non-toxic, anti-sanist neuroscience look like?
“Sebastian Seungâs Quest to Map the Human Brain”
-A neuroscientist hopes to identify the exact place inside a brain where a particular memory is held.
“An Early Glimpse of Baby’s Developing Brain”
-What are scientists learning from brain scans of babies in the womb?
Thoughts on Meditation and the Neurophysiology of Consciousness
In NPR's Cosmos & Culture blog, philosopher Alva NoĂŤ discusses how we see colors, and uses it as an introduction to the efforts of...
Why You Can Have a Tapeworm in Your Brain and Still Live Fairly Normally
Mind Hacks looks at a number of unusual cases, such as a woman missing a cerebellum and a man who had a tapeworm eat its way through his brain over four years, and asks what these kinds of cases are telling us about what we do -- and don't -- know about the human brain.
How Right-Left Brain Hemispheres Were Discovered — And Then Misunderstood
In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Helen Shen recounts the history of how neuroscientists first discovered that the human brain had right and left hemispheres with seemingly unique functions, and how that scientific view has since been superseded even as the general public has held on and oversimplified it.
“Failed Replications: A Reality Check for Neuroscience?”
In Discover, Neuroskeptic discusses a new study that "attempted to replicate five different papers which, together, reported 17 distinct positive results in the form...
Free Online Course in Fundamentals of Neuroscience
Harvard University's HarvardX has posted a "Fundamentals of Neuroscience" online course for free public use. Lessons include video content, interactive content, virtual lab content,...
Contemplative Neuroscience, “Like Valium Without the Side Effects”
Scientific American's Gary Stix has posted links to two video lectures about meditation and its effects on the human mind. Ricard Matthieu, a Buddist...
High-tech Headband Takes Anxious Man Where Only Meditation Has Gone Before
Technology journalist Shane Snow experiments with "Muse" for two weeks, a $300 high-tech headband that provides both relaxation exercises and real-time electroencephalogram readings of...
Is Autism a “Deficit” or a Super Sensitivity?
Salon has reprinted an excerpt from a book by University of California cognitive neuroscientist Gregory Hickok, in which Hickok argues that common diagnostic tests...
Early Brain Injury and Autism
A pediatrician writing for The Daily Beast discusses a recent study in the journal Neuron that found links between autism and brain injury during...
“When Will Mental Illness Finally Yield to Science?”
Newsweek writer Alexander Nazaryan overviews the recent "kick in the rear" provided to brain science by hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, and...
Infant Rats Adopt Their Mothers’ Fears
Newborn rats can "learn" the fears their mothers have, and then will carry those same fears for the rest of their lives, according to...
Making Sense of Nonscience
Two opinion articles discuss the unscientific aspects of psychology and psychiatry, and posit ways for overcoming some of the conundrums... In Nature, a group...
What Do We Really Know about Neuroplasticity?
In a Scientific American blog post, Gary Stix reviews some of the latest research into brain "neuroplasticity," including an experiment where mice with induced...
On the Quest to Understand Computational Psychiatry
Boston WBUR public radio intern Suzanne Jacobs goes on a journey to find out what âcomputational psychiatryâ is, and has some difficulty determining if...
“The Heart-Brain Connection: The Neuroscience of Social, Emotional Learning”
Beyond Meds reminds us, with this presentation by Richard Davidson, that "medicine (by using psych drugs) cannot do the things we can actively choose...
“‘I Wrote a New Story for My Nervous System’ â Neurosculpting, Neuroplasticity”
In the words of Monica Cassani; "This is so EXCITING. I listened to this with such complete and total delight. This interview with Lisa...
Fluoxetine in Adolescence Raises Sensitivity to Stress in Adults
Research on neurochemicals associated with moods in mice and rats finds that, while less depression-like behavior was observed in those receiving fluoxetine (Prozac) administration...
Childhood Maltreatment Alters Neurobiology of Emotion Perception and Regulation
Martin Teicher, noted researcher of the neurobiology of child abuse, finds in an MRI study of 265 maltreated 18-25 year-olds that "Maltreatment was associated...
Thoughts on the Meaning of Neuroscience
For me there are at least four separate questions to be addressed. The first is whether neuroscience is capable of understanding human emotion and higher level cognitive experiences. The second is the extent to which that understanding - even if it is achievable - is critical to our being able to help people in distress. The third is whether is it is correct to assume, as many people seem to do, that if we come to some basic understanding of brain function as it pertains to core human emotion and suffering that this will automatically translate into treatments that are commonly thought of as "biological," such as drug treatment. The fourth relates to the limitations and relevance of studying the brain in isolation when we are constantly in interaction with our environment.
