MetaFilter posts tagged with psychology and neuroscience

Accept defeat

AceRock — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:28:35 -0800

The Neuroscience of Screwing Up by Jonah Lehrer

The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we’re empiricists — our views dictated by nothing but the facts — we’re actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail — it’s that most failures are ignored.

From WIRED's FAIL issue. Also from that issue: The Fall and Rise of Alec Baldwin, How Success Killed Duke Nukem, and Oracle's Lost Revolution.

Signatures of Consciousness

AceRock — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:08:25 -0800

12 years in the making, a good working hypothesis about the nature of conciousness.

"For the past twelve years my research team has been using all the brain research tools at its disposal, from functional MRI to electro- and magneto-encephalography and even electrodes inserted deep in the human brain, to shed light on the brain mechanisms of consciousness. I am now happy to report that we have acquired a good working hypothesis. In experiment after experiment, we have seen the same signatures of consciousness: physiological markers that all, simultaneously, show a massive change when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information (say a word, a digit or a sound)." - Stanislas Dehaene

The Anxious Mind

homunculus — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:16:47 -0800

Understanding the Anxious Mind. A good article on the psychology of anxiety and how an anxious temperament at birth can ebb and flow during one's lifetime. [Via]

the consumption renews the appetite

nickyskye — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:33:14 -0800

Seeking - How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting.

neuroscience and behavior videos

nickyskye — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:39:37 -0800

At Psychoanalyst TV, we aggregate psychology and neuroscience videos, and put them on our own TV channels. Its companion site, Neurological Correlates, A Neuroscience Tabloid of Dysfunctional Behavior - Mostly Psychopaths, Narcissists, Obesity and Addiction. Includes such gems as Visualizing Desire and Sadobabies - Runaways in San Francisco.

test your your brain

not_on_display — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:53:55 -0800

Test My Brain was set up by Harvard's Vision Lab and Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab. There are five tests online at the time of this post; take one and maybe you'll learn something about yourself that you may not have known (other than your special ability to slack off on MetaFilter when you should be working). At the same time, you'll be helping researchers collect data from a wide range of subjects. One of the collaborators, Professor Ken Nakayama, is also responsible for creating these online tests for faceblindness. [previously] [Disclaimer: I work at Harvard, but not in the same department; I know none of the collaborators.]

X-Phi

homunculus — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:25:20 -0800

Philosophy’s great experiment. "Philosophers used to combine conceptual reflections with practical experiment. The trendiest new branch of the discipline, known as x-phi, wants to return to those days. Some philosophers don’t like it." [Via]

Neuroscience of Nostalgia

homunculus — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:10:31 -0800

Neuroscience and Nostalgia. [Via]

Extending the Mind

homunculus — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:50:55 -0800

How Google Is Making Us Smarter: Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind."

Neural Correlates of Hate

homunculus — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:21:20 -0800

Brain's 'Hate Circuit' Identified. "People who view pictures of someone they hate display activity in distinct areas of the brain that, together, may be thought of as a 'hate circuit', according to new research by scientists at UCL (University College London)."

metaphors be with you

nickyskye — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:18:07 -0800

Link found between physical and emotional warmth l Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty. "Our mental processes are not separate and detached from the body". Sensory metaphors l The Metaphor Observatory, top 10 metaphors of 2007.

Remember to Forget

Kronos_to_Earth — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:12:49 -0800

Dr. Joe Z. Tsien has previously created a strain of mice unable to form memories, one with much improved memory - "Doogie" mice - and can now erase single mouse memories. "Our work reveals a molecular mechanism of how that can be done quickly and without doing damage to brain cells." Remembering to forget....

Dopamine

homunculus — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:30:25 -0800

A New State of Mind. "New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process."

My brain hurts.

farishta — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:57:07 -0800

Unusual penetrating brain injuries, via neurophilosophy. Related: an article on Prehistoric Inca Neurosurgery and a BBC radio 4 program on the contribution of Phineas Gage to psychological research.

Encephalon

homunculus — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:25:21 -0800

Encephalon: Briefing the Next US President on 24 Neuroscience and Psychology Issues. Encephalon, the neuroscience blog carnival has returned after a brief hiatus and is being hosted at Sharp Brains. [Via Mind Hacks, which will host the next edition.]

How well do you know your own thoughts?

painquale — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:39:29 -0800

"A few years ago a psychologist and a philosopher got into an argument over whether we can accurately describe our thoughts. "Yes," said the psychologist; with training and the help of my special technique, we can accurately describe our thoughts. The philosopher doubted it. To resolve their argument, they recruited a young woman who agreed tell them her thoughts, so that they could argue over whether she was credible." Eric Schwitzgebel and Russ Hurlbert debate the transparency of inner experience. See also Schwitzgebel's extremely interesting blog.

The psychology of the moral instinct

homunculus — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:31:52 -0800

The Moral Instinct. "Evolution has endowed us with ethical impulses. Do we know what to do with them?" [Via The Mahablog.]

Shadow People

empath — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:23:50 -0800

Scientists discover a region of the brain responsible for feelings of 'self' and 'other'. If electrically stimulated, it causes the perception of an alien being-- a shadow person, standing just behind you, mimicking your every move. This could explain strange feelings of being watched, or of strange presences, or ghosts.

been caught stealing...?

saulgoodman — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:18:56 -0800

New research finds that the human brain registers the avoidance of an anticipated punishment in pretty much the same way as it registers a reward. (See this link for a less technical discussion of the research.) Do these findings suggest that the use of punishment as a deterrent to undesirable behavior in effect actually motivates the undesirable behavior (as opposed to the use of negative reinforcement, or in other words, the withholding of reward)? Do punishment-oriented models of socialization/behaviorial conditioning actually encourage cheating, by in effect selecting for better cheaters?

The Reinvention of the Self

blacklite — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 10:44:20 -0800

Neurogenesis Neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells, was something we were all taught was impossible after a certain point. Professor Elizabeth Gould, doctor of psychology at Princeton, has claimed that it happens all the time. (more) Now, she and her team at Princeton are saying not only is our brain always changing, stress and environment directly affect brain development.

Rats Perception Elvis

mcgraw — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 19:26:58 -0800

If rats can distinguish between Japanese and Dutch , why would Elvis have looked like this at age 70?

Brain tricks

jeremy — Fri, 21 May 2004 12:30:05 -0800

Red and green dots have never been so interesting. At least to a geek like me. I love it when my brain plays tricks on me.

lagado — Wed, 06 Jun 2001 22:47:06 -0800

FRANCISCO VARELA (1946 - 2001)^* One of the more quietly influential thinkers of our times. A neuroscientist turned immunologist whose formulation of the theory of autopoiesis (with Humberto Maturana) has challenged conventional thinking in areas as diverse as Artificial Intelligence, Ecology and AIDS research.
The mathematics of self-reference involves creating formalisms to reflect the strange situation in which something produces A, which produces B, which produces A. That was 1974. Today, many colleagues call such ideas part of complexity theory.
On 28th of May, Varela's own autopoiesis ceased.
*pointer via fmh