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Posts

December 18, 2012

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2:00 PM | Why Does Music Move Us So?
“Only human.” It’s a downer of an idiom, used to convey the inevitable transgressions and inadequacies of our …
Only Human
Medicine | Neuroscience
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Editor's Pick

December 17, 2012

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9:16 AM | My Breakfast With "Scientism"
One morning, I awoke convinced that science was the only source of knowledge. I had developed a case of spontaneous scientism.The first challenge I faced was deciding what to eat for breakfast. Muesli, or cornflakes? Which would be the more scientific choice? I decided to go on the internet to look up the nutritional value of the different cereals, to see which one would be healthiest.My computer was off. So first I'd need to turn it on - but how? From past experience, I suspected that pressing […]
Neuroskeptic
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

December 16, 2012

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4:47 PM | Will we ever be able to measure cortisol in real time?
In my Copious Free Time (CFT), I sometimes like to try to figure out how close we are to implementing some of the crazy technology I’d love to use in research. I want to learn more about the canid stress response, as a way of learning about canid domestication (domesticated animals have blunted stress responses, and this may be part of why they are so accepting of novelty and so easy to socialize). The hormone that most people use to study the stress response is cortisol.I have written in the […]

Egerton A., Mehta M.A., Montgomery A.J., Lappin J.M., Howes O.D., Reeves S.J., Cunningham V.J. & Grasby P.M. (2009). The dopaminergic basis of human behaviors: A review of molecular imaging studies, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33 (7) 1109-1132. DOI:

The Dog Zombie
Student Life | Veterinary Medicine
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Editor's Pick

December 14, 2012

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1:12 AM | The beautiful fragility of language
I remember my first day of school with such clarity that it might as well have happened last week. I was five, and I was starting in the local kindergarten, along with all the other kids my age. Except for one difference: I didn’t speak a word of English. Not a one. The only thing [...]
Literally Psyched
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

December 05, 2012

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1:30 PM | Can Dogs Use Human Emotional Expressions to Identify Which Box Contains Food?
Dogs are very aware of human emotional states. An earlier blog post looked at how dogs respond to a crying stranger. This week’s post is about whether or not dogs can use human emotional cues to tell them which of two boxes contains a tasty treat.The research was conducted by David Buttelmann and Michael Tomasello in Germany. They compared two sets of human emotional expressions: Happy vs Neutral; and Happy vs Disgust. They tested 58 domestic dogs (Siberian Huskies, Labrador Retrievers, […]

Buttelmann, D. & Tomasello, M. (2012). Can domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use referential emotional expressions to locate hidden food?, Animal Cognition, DOI:

Companion Animal Psychology
Psychology | Veterinary Medicine
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Editor's Pick
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5:01 AM | Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: How Having Money Can Make You a Worse Parent
Common sense suggests that people should get their financial ducks in a row before having children. Indeed, couples frequently put off having children because they first want to be more financially secure. There are definitely some important upsides to this strategy; for example, kids tend to be healthier and happier when their parents are more well-off. But might there also be downsides to pursuing wealth before parenting?
Science of Relationships
Gender | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

December 04, 2012

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2:16 PM | Final Exam for Sensation and Perception
I thought some of my readers might be interested in seeing the final exam I give for my introduction to Sensation and Perception class. I’d welcome any feedback, if people had it.   You are welcome to use your own … Continue reading →
Cedar's Digest
Academic Life | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

December 03, 2012

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9:44 PM | Nominees for the Newton of neuroscience
Gary Marcus wrote in The New Yorker:  Neuroscience has yet find its Newton, let alone its Einstein. Really? Here’s a small selection of individuals who could be candidates for the gig of “the Newton of neuroscience.” Luigi Galvani, who discovered that there is electricity in living organisms. To me, if you are to draw a single line between how the ancients understood brains and behaviour and how we understand how brains and behaviour today, I would draw it at Galvani and […]
NeuroDojo
Biology | Neuroscience
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Editor's Pick
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2:29 PM | Does Neuroscience need a Newton?
Sci is at SciAm Blogs today, talking about the recent backlash against neuro-hype (which I am ALL in support of, obviously), highlighting the excellent work of Neuroskeptic and The Neurocritic, and asking...does neuroscience need a Newton? I personally think the question, especially now, is pointless. Newtons aren't the way science works anymore, and with the [...]
Neurotic Physiology
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

December 02, 2012

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12:13 AM | The DSM-5 has been finalised
It’s arcane, contradictory and talks about invisible entities which no-one can really prove. Yes folks, the new psychiatric bible has been finalised. The American Psychiatric Association have just announced that the new diagnostic manual, to be officially published in May 2013, has been approved by the board of trustees. You can read the official announcement [...]
Mind Hacks
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

November 20, 2012

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10:12 PM | A devil of a headache
A man suffering from headache in the form of devils. A coloured etching by noted Victorian cartoonist George Cruikshank, 1835. An image from the Wellcome Collection catalogue. via @ChirurgeonsAppr
Mind Hacks
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick
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8:55 PM | Does Eating Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?
TRANSCRIPT After Thanksgiving dinner, many people start to feel a little drowsy. Turkey typically gets the blame. It supposedly contains high levels of tryptophan, an amino acid that is sold in a purified form to help people fall asleep. But turkey contains about the same amount of tryptophan as chicken, beef and other meats. If [...]
Brainwaves
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

November 17, 2012

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12:48 AM | The Science Surrounding Children & Dogs: Part 1 (The Good)
I love that cute is good for us.All this talk of cute, a website and some observations at home got me thinking this week.  I recently saw this image posted on Facebook and I don’t mind admitting that it tugged at my emotions. Around the same day, I was watching my two year old toddler (an unpublished and independent kawaii survey reports the toddler is somewhat cute) interacting with my dogs (they are […]

Blue G.F. (1986). The Value of Pets in Children's Lives, Childhood Education, 63 (2) 85-90. DOI:

Serpell J. (1999). Animals in Children's Lives, Society & Animals, 7 (2) 87-94. DOI:

O'Haire M. (2010). Companion animals and human health: Benefits, challenges, and the road ahead, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 5 (5) 226-234. DOI:

Melson G.F. Child Development and the Human-Companion Animal Bond, American Behavioral Scientist, 47 (1) 31-39. DOI:

Zasloff R.L. (1996). Measuring attachment to companion animals: a dog is not a cat is not a bird, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 47 (1-2) 43-48. DOI:

Holscher B., Frye C., Wichmann H.E. & Heinrich J. (2002). Exposure to pets and allergies in children, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 13 (5) 334-341. DOI:

Anderson K.L. & Olson M.R. (2006). The value of a dog in a classroom of children with severe emotional disorders, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 19 (1) 35-49. DOI:

Gee N.R., Harris S.L. & Johnson K.L. (2007). The Role of Therapy Dogs in Speed and Accuracy to Complete Motor Skills Tasks for Preschool Children, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 20 (4) 375-386. DOI:

Do you believe in dog?
Academic Life | Behavioral Biology
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Editor's Pick

November 06, 2012

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7:14 PM | It's not the stress, but whether you can control it, that matters.
Sci is at SciAm blogs today, where I'm talking about a new study on stress. Because not all stresses are created equal, and sometimes, whether you have control over the stress or not can even provide protection. Head over and check it out.
Neurotic Physiology
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick
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3:29 AM | An Emotional Election
Politics and emotions are deeply intertwined. Think of the last political conversation you had and how you reacted to it emotionally. Was your blood boiling with anger? Were you paralyzed with anxiety and worry about what might happen? Were you bouncing with enthusiasm and motivated to go get out the vote? source Bigger picture, how do these emotional-political experiences (specifically, of anger, anxiety, and enthusiasm) affect the ways we seek out and interpret political messages and […]

Valentino, N., Brader, T., Groenendyk, E., Gregorowicz, K. & Hutchings, V. (2011). Election Night’s Alright for Fighting: The Role of Emotions in Political Participation, The Journal of Politics, 73 (01) 156-170. DOI:

Groenendyk, E. (2011). Current Emotion Research in Political Science: How Emotions Help Democracy Overcome its Collective Action Problem, Emotion Review, 3 (4) 455-463. DOI:

Psych Your Mind
Psychology | Social Science
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Editor's Pick

November 05, 2012

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8:25 PM | Can we predict the “undecided voters”?
Now that Election Day is upon us, can you remember way back (a whole few weeks ago!) when there were still those mystical Undecided Voters? Even aside from the sketch comedy skits that mocked their very existence, many people were still … Continue reading →

Galdi, Silvia, Arcuri, Luciano & Gawronski, Bertram (2008). Automatic mental associations predict future choices of undecided decision-makers., Science, 321 (1100) 1100-1102.

PsySociety
Psychology | Social Science
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Editor's Pick

October 30, 2012

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10:28 PM | Psychological Science to publish direct replications (maybe)
Pretty big news. Psychological Science is seriously discussing 3 new reform initiatives. They are outlined in a letter being circulated by Eric Eich, editor of the journal, and they come from a working group that includes top people from APS and several other scientists who have been active in working for reforms. After reading it [...]
The Hardest Science
Psychology
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Editor's Pick
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8:57 AM | Paranormal believers and religious people are more prone to seeing faces that aren't really there
Our brains are so adept at detecting faces that we often see them in random patterns, such as clouds or the gnarled bark of a tree. Occasionally one of these illusory faces comes along that resembles a celebrity and the story ends up in the news - like when Michael Jackson's face appeared on the surface of a piece of toast. A new study asks whether some people are more prone than others to perceiving these illusory faces. Tapani Riekki and his team collected dozens of photos that judges […]

Riekki, T., Lindeman, M., Aleneff, M., Halme, A. & Nuortimo, A. (2012). Paranormal and Religious Believers Are More Prone to Illusory Face Perception than Skeptics and Non-believers, Applied Cognitive Psychology, DOI:

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

October 29, 2012

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11:36 PM | Artist Draws Self Portraits for Dozens of Drugs. Good or Bad?
An artist drew dozens of self-renderings while under the influence of varying drugs, and the series has found its way to a scrollable media platform where it’s touted as “all kinds of cool”. Check it out. Commenters congratulate the artist; point out hilarity they find in some of the work; empathize with some of the [...]
The White Noise
Chemistry | Neuroscience
3
Editor's Pick

October 28, 2012

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3:00 PM | A brief reheating of the refrigerator mother
The Telegraph has a well-intentioned but confused article about how child neglect affects the brain and what can be done about it. What’s the difference between these two brains? asks The Telegraph. “The primary cause of the extraordinary difference between the brains of these two three-year-old children,” says the journalist, “is the way they were [...]
Mind Hacks
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

October 09, 2012

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5:01 PM | Jet Lag
I just got back from a trip to France and Germany, and although my body is now in Los Angeles, all my biorhythms are still in Paris. My brain has not yet adapted to the ramifications of global airplane travel, and she can't be reasoned with right now.
Beatrice the Biologist
Biology | Education
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Editor's Pick

October 06, 2012

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10:08 AM | A Post-PBS Educational Television Landscape
With the latest tirade against the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) by republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the first debate, it is worth to look at a world without PBS through children’s eyes. Much has already been said of the short-sidedness of Romney’s statement: “I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going [...]
EvoEcoLab
Ecology | Evolution
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Editor's Pick

October 05, 2012

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3:21 PM | The Psychology of that one line in Call Me Maybe
So, like, I heard this song the other day. It was by this indie band called "Carly Rae Jepsen." You've probably never heard of them. Actually *removes hipster glasses* while most of the appeal of "Call Me Maybe," the song that dominated the summer of 2012, comes from its earnest simplicity, there is one line in the lyrics that has some real texture to it: Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad This line captures something universal and not at all trivial, the way that our memories […]

Meyvis, T., Ratner, R. K. & Levav, J. (2010). Why Don't We Learn to Accurately Forecast Feelings? How Misremembering Our Predictions Blinds us to Past Forecasting Errors, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139 (4) 579-589. Other: 10.1037/a0020285

Lost in Transcription
Biology | Evolution
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Editor's Pick

October 04, 2012

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8:00 AM | Why do humans walk in circles?
It's a trusted plot device of many a thriller. The lost protagonists stagger for hours through creepy forest only to end up back where they started. In fact the idea that humans walk in circles is no urban myth. This was confirmed by Jan Souman and colleagues in a 2009 study, in which participants walked for hours at night in a German forest and the Tunisian Sahara. But the question remains - why? Souman's team rejected past theories, including the idea that people have one leg that's […]

Emma Bestaven, Etienne Guillaud & Jean-René Cazalets (2012). Is “Circling” Behavior in Humans Related to Postural Asymmetry?, PLoS ONE, DOI:

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

October 02, 2012

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3:37 PM | Kids Play the Way Scientists Work
Kids are natural scientists, it turns out. In an article published last week in Science, psychologist Alison Gopnik reviewed the literature about the way young children learn, and she finds that the way preschoolers play is very similar to the way scientists do experiments: Kids come up with general principles, akin to scientific theories, based on the data of their daily lives. Gopnik argues that the research should steer educators and policy makers away from more-regimented, dogmatic […]
80beats
Photography | General Science
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Editor's Pick

October 01, 2012

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8:16 PM | Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, How Does Psych Reflect Us All?
“Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” – Earl Nightingale, American motivational speaker In 1898, Norman Triplett stumbled upon an interesting observation as he watched a group of cyclists … Continue reading →

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral Study of Obedience., Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 (4) 371-378. DOI:

Schachter, S. & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state., Psychological Review, 69 379-399. DOI:

Latane, B., Williams, K. & Harkins, S. (1979). Many Hands Make Light The Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, DOI:

PsySociety
Psychology | Social Science
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Editor's Pick

September 20, 2012

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4:01 PM | What Makes Chocolate So Irresistible? A New Study Hints at an Answer
Scientists reveal that surges of a chemical in an unexpected area of the brain might make us crave sweets
Surprising Science
General Science
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Editor's Pick

September 17, 2012

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3:47 AM | Sight without seeing: Bálint's syndrome
Scientific literature is, to say the least, pretty dull.It's rife with redundant phrases, confusing methodologies, and tiny graphs. Reading page after page of long words in small font is better than any over-the-counter sleep aid out there for getting the job done.Occasionally, the rare gem will come along just when you least expect it, providing a readable (dare I say—enjoyable) account of the latest research.So begins a paper published this past week in Neurology:"It was a quiet […]

Jason Cuomo, MA, Murray Flaster, MD & José Biller, MD (2012). Right Brain: A descriptive account of two patients' experience with and adaptations to Bálint syndrome, Neurology, 79 (11) DOI:

Gaines, on Brains
Neuroscience | Health
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Editor's Pick

September 14, 2012

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4:13 PM | A genetic test for autism?
This week's big autism story was a genetic test able to predict with 70% accuracy [1] whether or not a child had autism. Rather than looking for a specific gene that might differentiate autistic from non-autistic people, Stan Skafidis and colleagues developed the test by combining information about many different genetic variations. Critically, having developed the test based on one set of genetic data, they then tested the test on genetic data from a completely new set of people.I don't […]

Skafidas E, Testa R, Zantomio D, Chana G, Everall IP & Pantelis C (2012). Predicting the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder using gene pathway analysis., Molecular psychiatry, PMID:

Cracking the Enigma: An autism research blog
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Editor's Pick

September 13, 2012

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8:00 AM | What children think of people who wear glasses
Removing his spectacles was part of Clark Kent's metamorphosis from geeky journalist into superhero. With popular symbolism like that, perhaps it's no wonder that Francine Jellesma has found many children endorse negative stereotypes about people who wear glasses. Jellesma conducted a literature review finding 28 relevant studies on this subject published since 1980. Although the results showed glasses were far less salient to children than other identifying features, such as gender, their […]

F.C. Jellesma (2012). Do glasses change children's perceptions? Effects of eyeglasses on peer- and self-perception, European Journal of Developmental Psychology, DOI:

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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