Dec 22, 2008
Encephalon #61: Brain & Mind Reading for the Holidays
By: Alvaro Fernandez
Welcome to the 61st edition 
of Encephalon, the blog carnival that offers some of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts every other week.
We do have an excellent set of articles today. covering much ground. Enjoy the reading:
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Neuroscience and Society
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Neuroanthropology, |
The Flynn Effect: Troubles with Intelligence 2 Average IQ test scores had risen about 3 points per decade and in some cases more. Tests of vocabulary, arithmetic, or general knowledge (such as the sorts of facts one learns in school) have showed little increase, but scores have increased markedly on tests thought to measure ‘general intelligence’. |
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MindHacks, |
Medical jargon alters our understanding of disease Understanding how popular ideas influence our personal medical beliefs is an essential part of understanding medicine itself. |
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Cognitive Daily, |
Is it sexist to think men are angrier than women? Are we more likely to perceive a male face as angry and a female face as happy? A recent study sheds light on the issue. |
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Neurocritic |
Crime, Punishment, and Jerry Springer Judges and jurors must put aside their emotionally-driven desire for revenge when coming to an impartial verdict. Does neuroimaging (fMRI) add anything to our understanding of justice? |
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Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurocognitive Health
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SharpBrains,
by Alvaro Fernandez |
Cognitive screenings and Alzheimer’s Disease The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America just released a thoughtful report advocating for widespread cognitive screenings after the age of 65 or 55. SharpBrains readers seem to agree. |
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Highlight Health, |
Neurodegenerative Disease and the Coming Epidemic Research and better healthcare measures have enabled people to live longer. One of the results? “Unless we do something to prevent it, over the next 40 years we’re facing an epidemic of neurologic diseases on a global scale”. |
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BrainBlogger,
by Jennifer Gibson |
Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective for Preventing Dementia A large study puts an end to the debate and declares that Ginkgo is not effective in preventing dementia in older adults. |
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SharpBrains, |
Education builds Cognitive Reserve for Alzheimer’s Disease Protection Individuals with greater education maintain better cognitive functioning in the presence of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. “Education” in the broad sense, including a challenging occupation, engaging hobbies and active social networks. |
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Brain and Mind
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Neurophilosopher, |
Rubber hand feels real for amputees Sometimes Illusions are our allies: a new study opens up new possibilities for the development of prosthetic limbs. |
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Neuroskeptic |
Lessons from the Placebo Gene The Journal of Neuroscience has published a Swedish study which, according to New Scientist and the rest, is something of a breakthrough. Not so fast. |
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Neuroskeptic |
We Really Are Sorry, But Your Soul is Still Dead Because hammering away at one key of a piano produces nothing but an annoying noise, there must be something magical going on when a pianist plays a Mozart concerto. Right? Wrong. |
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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
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Illusion Sciences, |
Rotating Reversals Many visuals illusions “work” because they pit two sources of information against each other. Check out this one. |
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Neurophilosopher, by Mo |
Visual images reconstructed from brain activity Neuroimaging can help determine whether a subject is looking at a face or some other category of visual stimulus, such as a house. Now, can it accurately reconstruct viewed images which have not been previously experienced? |
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Happy Holidays and enjoy 2009!
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