Frontal Blogotomy

Who says scientists are stuffy?

2008-12-01T17:45:00.007-06:00

Back in October Science magazine announced The 2009 AAAS Science Dance Contest, a challenge to footloose scientists to interpret their Ph.D. work in the form of dance. Videos were posted on YouTube as part of the contest, and a panel of last year's contest winners, Harvard scientists, and professional art directors from a dance company judged the entries. One winner was chosen from each

Response times may be slowed during MRI

2008-10-30T06:10:00.008-05:00

[Warning: the article in question is at Nature Precedings and has not yet been peer-reviewed, so the results need to be interpreted with caution]Foucher et al report that reaction times are slowed, by as much as 70 msec, inside MRI scanners, largely due to the static magnetic field. The authors speculate that this increase in response latency might arise from the effect of the giant magnet (2

Excruciatingly slow day at Science

2008-10-28T13:30:00.002-05:00

Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal WarmthSee also: Slow day at Science?, Slow day at Science? - Part 2,

The mouse forgetting, by the mouse forgot

2008-10-23T11:49:00.008-05:00

While reading the abstract to this article in Neuron, I was instantly reminded of that beautiful Kaufmann flick -- Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Today, I received an email from a friend professing the same sentiment, so I'm convinced a lot of people must have similar thoughts on reading the article. Cao et al induced selective memory erasure by employing a signaling molecule (CaMKII),

Partners in slime

2008-10-22T10:16:00.007-05:00

Scientific disciplines in most cultures originally developed as offshoots of philosophy and then branched off as they gained critical mass. Gradually, some of these distributaries of philosophy began to converge on topics and decided to come together again, leading to the coinage of some interesting monikers such as neuropsychology, psychopharmacology and even neuropsychopharmacology. Seahare

The eyes have it

2008-09-26T10:06:00.005-05:00

Most of us are familiar with the pupillary reflex - the tendency of the pupil to constrict in response to light. A slightly lesser known detail is that the pupil may dilate even under constant illumination, in response to processing load, novelty and deception. The last is well-known to poker players however, and is the reason many choose to wear shades while playing.Some months ago, Einhauser et

Academia and blogging

2008-09-22T19:00:00.003-05:00

Batts et al opine that academic institutions can further science among non-scientists by encouraging blogging amongst students - [Link from PLoS Biology].Bonus: the students' quality of life will improve.Related post: The blogging cure

Slow day at Science? - Part 2

2008-09-19T08:53:00.004-05:00

Political Attitudes vary with Physiological TraitsSee also: Slow day at Science?

Quick, how many yellow dots am I holding up?

2008-09-17T09:43:00.005-05:00

New York Times has an interesting article on our ability to estimate numerosities and how it correlates with our mathematical ability. The article was presumably inspired by this one from Nature. This result ties in with recent findings that suggest common networks, including the lateral intraparietal cortex and neighbouring areas, underlie both mathematical skills and encoding

Book review: The boy who was raised as a dog

2008-08-25T14:25:00.013-05:00

On an eight-hour flight to Amsterdam, I read The boy who was raised as a dog: And other stories from a child psychiatrist's notebook by psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz. The book follows several cases of traumatized children and describes the impact their experiences have on their developing brain. I must confess, my initial impression of the book was not favorable. I was eager to

The female zebra finch likes her men smart

2008-08-18T10:46:00.008-05:00

The male zebra finch is known to use his song to attract females. Generally, the more complex and the longer the melody, the more attractive he appears to the ladies. His attractiveness will also play a huge role in how his future offspring will be treated by their mother. But hey, no pressure! It turns out the female zebra finch is quite the discerning customer. The reason she cares so much

Hearing motion, tasting shapes

2008-08-06T17:12:00.008-05:00

Current Biology has a paper this week on a new form of synesthesia in which visual flashes of motion trigger the perception of sound. The authors (Saenz and Koch) test 4 "synesthetes" and 10 controls on a sequence recognition task where the sequence could be visual or auditory. While the controls and the synesthetes performed at the same level on the auditory task, the synesthetes were clearly at

DBS clinical trial for depression looking for participants

2008-07-23T14:55:00.006-05:00

A few years ago, Helen Mayberg and her team developed a potential treatment for Major Depressive Disorder (Mayberg et al, 2005). The technique involves deep brain stimulation of the subgenual cingulate region or Brodmann Area 25 and appears to be very successful in treating depressed patients for whom all other treatments have failed (Lozano et al, 2008). Nature News reports that Advanced

RIP Dr. Michael DeBakey, 1908-2008

2008-07-12T21:10:00.003-05:00

I was saddened to learn today that Dr. Michael DeBakey, recent recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, died this weekend, just months shy of turning 100. His work has touched almost everyone in some way. My family has directly benefited - several members of my extended family would have lived much shorter lives if it weren't for surgeries he pioneered. I recommend reading this tribute from

Nature versus nurturing open-access

2008-07-02T16:33:00.009-05:00

Wow. I'm a little taken back by the forcefulness of this article in Nature News on what they perceive to be the failure of the PLoS open-access model. The article begins with a bang: "Public Library of Science (PLoS), the poster child of the open-access publishing movement, is following an haute couture model of science publishing — relying on bulk, cheap publishing of lower quality papers to

What two things do the following people share?

2008-06-27T08:46:00.008-05:00

A conversation with a friend about relationships led to a brief discussion on the popular notion that women are often attracted to men who remind them of their father. If such a bias really exists, a folk psychology explanation might be that women find comfort in the devil they know. 13 years ago, a study by Wedekind et al suggested that familiarity should instead breed

Stroke of Insight

2008-04-08T00:45:00.000-05:00

(fyi...title of post is the title of Jill Taylor's book, not my failed attempt at a pun)That said, Jill Taylor is a neuroanatomist who was given a unique (though undesired) opportunity - she woke up one morning to realize she was in the midst of a stroke. I'll let her do the talking.I saw this a while back - absolutely incredible talk, I think. Sure, some of the things she says don't seem

Maybe we could train kids to smell STD-carrying sleazebags

2008-04-07T16:21:00.007-05:00

A not so shocking report from Florida says that some teens think drinking bleach (that's right, Clorox) will prevent HIV. The report didn't specify if this miracle cure had to be imbibed before or after sex. Other underground cures include using Mountain Dew and or marijuana to prevent pregnancy. So three cheers for President Bush and his policy of Abstinence Only Sex Education (the only kind

Slow day at Science?

2008-04-04T10:07:00.001-05:00

Episodic-Like memory in rats: is it based on When or How Long Ago?

Does neuroscience get undue attention?

2008-04-02T08:59:00.005-05:00

Psychologists frequently whine point out that neuroscience-y research receives more attention than psychology-type work. Since 75% of what I do largely falls under "cognitive psychology" I can personally vouch for the existence of a bias towards papers with pretty pictures from expensive equipment. A new paper in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience attempts to quantify this bias.Weisberg et al

When science gets lost in translation

2008-03-29T14:37:00.005-05:00

Phenomenon, starring John Travolta, was playing on TBS earlier today and I happened to catch some parts of it while two-timing TV with WoW. The only redeeming aspect to the meandering and rather paranoid storyline was this gem:Doc: Let's see, uh... George... George... there's a tumor in your brain, that's spread out like a hand, threads of it, you know, everywhere. But instead of dysfunction -

Scarab beetles running in the defence of Eliot

2008-03-21T15:00:00.006-05:00

NYT ran this article following the break out of Eliot Spitzer's scandal and David Peterson's announcements about his own affairs.

Songs on my mind

2008-03-21T09:24:00.002-05:00

Because I'm not satisfied with my current level of dorkiness I'm compiling a list of Neurosciency songs. Hey, if Nature can come out with a "Best of the Nature Podcast" compilation...Here's what I've got so far:Brain damage - Pink FloydLithium - NirvanaSchizophrenia - Sonic YouthLucy in the sky with diamonds - The BeatlesCocaine - Eric ClaptonWould really appreciate more suggestions.

(Updated) Fall of the Prozac nation

2008-03-20T10:41:00.008-05:00

By now everybody's probably heard about the big ruckus over anti-depressants and their (poor) success rate. The original article was published last month in PLoS Medicine with a tight Editor's summary. Here's the part that really bothers me:"[These findings suggest that] antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or

Free Science

2008-03-17T00:15:00.005-05:00

What's the deal here? Physicists are having papers refused due to copyright disagreements - the scientists wanted to be able to use their images from the papers on Wikipedia, but Physical Review Letters won't let them, and thus won't publish their papers. I guess it's just all the more reason to use Open Access journals, like PLoS One.Unfortunately, things aren't quite that simple. Danah Boyd

Cutest title of the Month

2008-03-12T08:36:00.005-05:00

ScienceNow Daily News carried a little report a week ago about a study on moth memories. The study established in a conditioning paradigm that the moth has some lingering memories from its life as a larva. Doesn't sound terribly exciting until you consider this:"After three weeks of feeding, the larva becomes a pupa--encased in a hard, brown exoskeleton--and spends 18 to 24 hours as anatomical

(Updated) Women in Science

2008-02-20T15:09:00.003-06:00

Nature has an article this week about how the scientific culture in Japan is finally changing to accommodate women, albeit very very slowly. The timing of this article is almost comical because a blog post at SciAm leveled allegations of gender biased policy making against Nature a few days ago.For a quick summary on how things look for women in the US, see here.Update: Here's Nobel prize winner

Of Swamp Sparrows and Schizophrenia

2008-02-20T15:04:00.003-06:00

Long overdue post on the mirror neuron-like cells found in the High Vocal Center (HVC) in swamp sparrows. The original article by Prathers et al was published in Nature last month and the latest Nature Reviews Neuroscience carries a review by Leonie Welberg. Interestingly, the HVC neurons fire in response to an auditory presentation of the bird's primary song sequence and also when the bird is

Risk factors for Schizophrenia

2008-02-12T15:03:00.000-06:00

According to the author - "The general impact of some of the risk factors in Figure 1 remains uncertain, and, additionally, migrant status, urban residence, cannabis use, and biological sex are supported as risk factors for schizophrenia"From The Genetics of Schizophrenia Sullivan PF PLoS Medicine Vol. 2, No. 7, e212 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020212

Not so Sweet N' Low after all

2008-02-11T17:10:00.000-06:00

There's an article in Behavioral Neuroscience this week about how the use of artificial sweeteners can contribute to weight gain. The authors pursued an interesting hypothesis that the sweet taste of glucose acts as a predictor of the calories that follow, and the body sets to correct this with certain homeostatic mechanisms. Artificial sweeteners dampen the predictive value of sweetness and

2008-02-11T15:13:00.001-06:00

It's a new week, so I imagine we could all use a little help getting back into gear. Check out this nice "User's Guide to Caffeine" over at Developing Intelligence. Happy Monday!

Autism and the self

2008-02-06T18:03:00.000-06:00

This week's Neuron has an interesting article on the first hyperscan (which I see is now being called h-fMRI) on autistic patients. I'm a little pressed for time now but I thought the cover image was worth highlighting.

Random thoughts on magnitude

2008-01-22T12:04:00.000-06:00

To generate random numbers, computer programmers typically make use of a complicated formula or a series of formulae and a "seed". These numbers are thus pseudo-random in that there is some underlying pattern to them. Of course, the pattern is so complex, it would be almost impossible to decode it. To make the numbers even more "random", programmers typically use a constantly changing seed value

Would a Rioja by any other name taste just as sweet?

2008-01-14T16:56:00.000-06:00

...Not if it costs less.So, the mainstream media is agog with this fMRI study on how wine tastes better when it's labeled as an expensive one. I couldn't find the article in PNAS so maybe it's not available yet. Honestly, I'm a little unsure about what the results mean. Assuming the subjects weren't professional wine-tasters and couldn't differentiate gustatorily between the 3 wines that were

Word of the month: Teratogen

2008-01-07T17:42:00.000-06:00

So, all this talk about outsourcing gestation to India has got me thinking about epigenetics (thanks seahare ;)). Maybe more awareness of this nascent field might cause people to become more cautious about renting wombs. I don't really have a stand on (read: interest in) the now 445 million dollar industry of womb-rental but reading up on epigenetics led me to this beautiful word - Teratogen (

(Updated) Scientific Correctness: Shouldn't we be more SC?

2008-01-02T14:11:00.000-06:00

Last month, Nature Neuroscience carried a research article on a glial cell amino-acid transporter whose mutation results in "gender blind" courting behavior in Drosophila. Honestly, I found Joel Levine's views on the paper more interesting than the article itself. He draws attention to a serious difficulty in scientific communication -- the use of everyday terminology and its potential impact on

Monkey see, monkey do...better

2007-12-11T09:16:00.001-06:00

Current Biology recently carried a much publicized article on young chimps that could perform better than humans on a particular working memory task. I think the authors (and the media) go overboard in interpreting their data. Personally, I don't give a flying frak about the relative working memory capacities of different apes but to be fair, young Ayumu had been trained on the task since 2005

(Updated) How to waste the reader's time: A study of novice scientists

2007-12-10T08:20:00.000-06:00

I strongly suspect this paper was conceived in the following manner at a lab meeting - "What's the least amount of work we could possibly do to get a paper published?...Presumably, our job would be easier if we stuck with a low key journal that's frequented by clinicians and thus has an artificially inflated impact factor...and questionnaires would definitely be the way to go as far as data

Demystifying TMS

2007-12-05T12:26:00.000-06:00

Although Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is currently used extensively in clinical and research settings, nobody really knows what it's doing in the brain. Science carried an article in September on a TMS experiment that was conducted with concurrent neural firing, oxygen concentration and hemodynamic level measurements to elucidate the exact physiological effects that TMS brings about (

Potential grant for Eagleman Lab?

2007-11-29T22:42:00.001-06:00

In light of our conversation about beards today I thought this was appropriate. If any one could put a fundable spin on this it is David.

"New and Exciting in PLoS ONE"

2007-11-28T09:45:00.000-06:00

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for some shameless self-promotion. Here's a "new and exciting" (Bora Zivkovic's words, not mine) article from PLoS One this week. =)Figure from Pariyadath V, Eagleman D (2007) The Effect of Predictability on Subjective Duration. PLoS ONE 2(11): e1264 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001264

The Amygdala and unpredictability

2007-11-26T10:16:00.001-06:00

Paul Whalen reviews a recent paper in J Neurosci on the amygdala and uncertainty for TICS (in press) . Since I couldn't agree with Whalen's general framework ("it is the primary emotion that visits us the least often...So what do brain areas important for fear-processing ‘do’ the rest of the time? ", "You are not a prisoner of your emotions. In the face of uncertainty, the amygdala just gives

The Placebo Effect - WADA you gonna do?

2007-11-21T17:24:00.000-06:00

There's an interesting article in the latest J Neurosci on the placebo effect, or rather the placebo+preconditioning effect.Benedetti et al address the question of how placebos activate the endogenous opioid systems (along with explicit suggestions that the "drug" would be of clinical benefit). Specifically, the group focus on preconditioning to morphine with long gaps between the preconditioning

2007-11-20T17:34:00.000-06:00

Interesting! I was reading a discussion about this on slate last week. Couldn't find the original Christenfeld and Hill paper she was talking about, but you can read about it here in NYT. But then read this.I guess if the purpose is to get attention, Steven Platek has surely done a better job in the past. :)Hurray! my first blog.

Who's your daddy? (courtesy: The Toronto Star!)

2007-11-20T14:46:00.001-06:00

OK. It's been a while and it's time to get things moving (again?). For our resurrection, I've chosen a study by Steven Platek's lab at the University of Liverpool. One of his many topics of interest is male anti-cuckoldry tactics. Yup, thought I'd get your attention with that one. In his 2002 paper on the topic, Platek points out that males typically are not as involved in parenting as females

how to make an invisibility cloak !

2006-08-11T15:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/312/5777/1120a/F1read all about it here and here

indications for a lobotomy.. calvin style!

2006-08-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

Tada!

2006-07-31T22:40:00.000-05:00

Get the ice-pick ready...