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A Preventable Tragedy in a Man with Semantic Dementia
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: All suicide attempts and parasuicidal gestures should be taken very seriously in patients with dementia.“Previous parasuicide is a predictor of suicide. The increased risk of...
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Brain stimulation during sleep does not enhance memory for learned material
“Learn while you sleep” has been the claim of snake oil salesmen since the 1950s. The old pseudoscience methods involved listening to tapes and records. From a 1958 article by Lester David:Max...
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Dr. Bernard Carroll: blogger, funny tweeter, and critic of scientific and...
Dr. Bernard Carroll (Nov 21, 1940 – Sep 10, 2018)The sound of one hand clapping while putting lipstick on pigs: Ketamine, A Promising Depression Treatment, Seems To Act Like An Opioid...
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There Is a Giant Hole Where My Heart Used To Be
With profound grief, I announce that Sandra’s journey has come to an end.Gardens at Government House, Victoria BC (June 2017)Sandra Dawson was taken from this earth by the indiscriminate brutality of...
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Survey Skeleton
Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers has a lovely Survey Skeleton peeking out enticingly on some of their journal websites now.It's to lure you to take their survey, where you can win attractive...
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Manifestations of Fear in Cross-Cultural Interpretations of Sleep Paralysis
Frontispiece from: Blicke in die Traum- und Geisterwelt (A look into the dream and spirit world), by Friedrich Voigt (1854).What are you most afraid of? Not finding a permanent job? Getting a divorce...
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Folie à deux and Homicide for the Holidays
Nothing says home for the holidays like a series of murders committed by family members with a shared delusion. So sit back, sip your hot apple cider or spiked egg nog, and revel in family dysfunction...
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2018 Was a Year to Forget. Really.
Our memory for the details of real-life events is poor, according to a recent study.Seven MIT students took a one hour walk through Cambridge, MA. A day later, they were presented with one second video...
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What Can Brain Imaging Tell Us About Violent Extremism?
Before answering that question, I'll tell you about an incredibly impressive ethnographic study and field survey. For a one year period, the investigators (Pretus, Hamid et al., 2018) conducted field...
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Unlucky Thirteen
Today is the 13th anniversary of this blog. I wanted to write a sharp and subversive post.1 Or at least compose a series of self-deprecating witticisms about persisting this long. Alas, it has been an...
View ArticleIs executive function different from cognitive control? The results of an...
It ended in a tie!Is executive function different from cognitive control?— sarcastic_f (@sarcastic_f) January 30, 2019Granted, this is a small and biased sample, and I don't have a large number of...
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Depth Electrodes or Digital Biomarkers? The future of mood monitoring
Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) vs. Mindstrong HealthMood Monitoring via Invasive Brain Recordings or Smartphone SwipesWhich Would You Choose?That's not really a fair question. The ultimate goal of...
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#CNS2019
It's March, an odd-numbered year, must mean.... it's time for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting to be in San Francisco!I only started looking at the schedule yesterday and noticed the...
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An Amicable Discussion About Psychology and Neuroscience
People like conflict (the interpersonal kind, not BLUE).1 Or at least, they like scientific debate at conferences. Panel discussions that are too harmonious seem to be divisive. Some people will say,...
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Does ketamine restore lost synapses? It may, but that doesn't explain its...
Bravado SPRAVATO™ (esketamine)© Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 2019. Ketamine is the miracle drug that cures depression:“Recent studies report what is arguably the most important discovery in half a...
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The Paracetamol Papers
I have secretly obtained a large cache of files from Johnson & Johnson, makers of TYLENOL®, the ubiquitous pain relief medication (generic name: acetaminophen in North America, paracetamol...
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The Secret Lives of Goats
Goats Galore (May 2019)If you live in a drought-ridden, wildfire-prone area on the West Coast, you may see herds of goats chomping on dry grass and overgrown brush. This was initially surprising for...
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'I Do Not Exist' - Pathological Loss of Self after a Buddhist Retreat
Eve is plagued by a waking nightmare.‘I do not exist. All you see is a shell with no being inside, a mask covering nothingness. I am no one and no thing. I am the unborn, the non-existent.’– from...
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The Shock of the Unknown in Aphantasia: Learning that Visual Imagery Exists
Qualia are private. We don’t know how another person perceives the outside world: the color of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the smell of the seaside, the exact temperature of the water. Even more...
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Is there an objective test for Aphantasia?
Still image from Kaleidoscopes for Binocular RivalryHow well do we know our own inner lives? Self-report measures are a staple of psychiatry, neuroscience, and all branches of psychology (clinical,...
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