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Independent Neuroblogs as part of the science blogging ecosystem
Did you know there are at least 85 blogs on neuro/psych topics written by individuals (or small groups) outside of the blog network model? And that you can follow a feed of these blogs in several...
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Meet The Neuro Doubters
Meet the “neuro doubters.” The neuro doubter may like neuroscience but does not like what he or she considers its bastardization by glib, sometimes ill-informed, popularizers.A gaggle of energetic and...
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Bothered by Negative, Unwanted Thoughts? Throwing Them Away Doesn't Help
That's my interpretation of a new paper in Psychological Science (Briñol et al., 2012), which differs from the more exciting description given in a press release from APS:Bothered by Negative, Unwanted...
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The Mainstreaming of Neurocriticism
Will it strengthen the field of neuroscience? Or is it hurting its image in the eyes of the public? Or both? Another article on the limits of neuroscience has appeared in a high-profile media outlet...
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The Not So Seductive Allure of Colorful Brain Images
We all know that the mere presence of a brain scan image or a neuro-prefix adds instant credibility to any news story, right? And that the public (i.e., undergraduates) is easily swayed into believing...
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Want to Be Happier and Avoid Auto Accidents? A TED/BMJ Mashup
Are happy people responsible for fewer accidents? Should positive psychology be a mandatory module in high school Driver's Ed classes? Taken together, a new paper in the 2012 Christmas issue of BMJ and...
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The Gennie Messages at Manteno State Hospital
Manteno State Hospital was a behemoth psychiatric hospital located in the Manteno Township of Illinois. By 1936, the total acreage was 1,200, and in 1954 the population reached its maximum of 8,195...
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Your Brain on Coupons?
Are you incredibly stressed out by last minute Christmas shopping? Can you feel your heart race and your blood pressure rise as your evil competitor swipes the last MONSTER HIGH® SWEET 1600™ CLAWDEEN...
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Music and Empathy
I've been reading the book Rat Girl, a memoir by musician Kristin Hersh, who started the band Throwing Muses in 1980, at the age of 14 (along with Tanya Donelly, Leslie Langston, and David Narcizo)....
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More Music, More Empathy
Fig. 1 (Molnar-Szakacs & Overy, 2006). Model of the possible involvement of the human mirror neuron system in representing meaning and affective responses to music. ... The shared recruitment of...
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10 Least Popular Posts of 2012
While everyone else rings in the New Year by commemorating the best and brightest of 2012 in formulaic Top Ten lists, The Neurocritic decided to wallow in shame. To mark this Celebration of Failure I...
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Spirit Possession as a Trauma-Related Disorder in Uganda
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has waged a long and brutal campaign to overthrow the government of Uganda. Rape and torture are commonly used tactics. Children are kidnapped and forced to serve as...
View Article"The spirit came for me when I went to fetch firewood" - Personal Narrative...
"I was lost in the wilderness, and I could smell something strange. I was near a main road and someone asked me what I was waiting for. I said I was lost. I saw smoke around me, and I was told my eyes...
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Fisher-Price Synesthesia
Synesthesia is a rare perceptual phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sensory modality, or exposure to one type of stimulus, leads to a sensory (or cognitive) experience in a different,...
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Possession Trance Disorder in DSM-5
American Horror Story: Asylum takes place in 1964 at Briarcliff Manor, a terrifying mental institution for the criminally insane. The show uses every over-the-top stereotype in the book —...
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Is CTE Detectable in Living NFL Players?
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease seen most often in athletes with repeated concussions.1 The condition has drawn extensive media attention due to the...
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The Ethics of Public Diagnosis Using an Unvalidated Method
The last post covered a new study claiming to identify markers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients using a method called FDDNP PET (Small et al., 2013). Previously, the disease...
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Intergalactic Cognitive Science
Be a pioneer! Get in on the ground floor! Launch your career into orbit! Submit a paper to theIntergalactic Journal of Science special issue on “New Perspectives in Intergalactic Cognitive Science.”...
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Dr. David H. Barlow and Aversion Therapy for Gays
Should a professional society honor a highly accomplished investigator who conducted studies in the past that would now be considered unethical? Distinguished professor and clinical psychologist Dr....
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The 'evil patch' in the brain's central lobe
In a stunning new finding, a German neurologist has discovered the locus of evil in the brain, indicated by red arrows in the figure above. It shows up as a dark mass on the MRI of every single evil...
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