neurophilosophy
Posts by this author
August 12, 2008
Participation in most sports requires agility, impeccable timing and the planning and execution of complex movements, so that actions such as catching a ball or throwing it into a hoop can be performed. Performing well at sports also requires anticipating and accurately predicting the movements of…
August 11, 2008
National Library of Medicine / Hot Medical News
This silent film clip shows several victims of a disease called kuru. They are - or rather were - members of the South Fore, a tribe of approximately 8,000 people who inhabit the Okapa subdistrict of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New…
August 8, 2008
The classic Nobel Prize-winning studies of David Hubel and Torsten Weisel showed how the proper maturation of the developing visual cortex is critically dependent upon visual information received from the eyes. In what would today be considered highly unethical experiments, Hubel and Weisel sewed…
August 7, 2008
In The Conjurer, by Hieronymus Bosch (above), a medieval European magician performs in front of a small crowd. As the spectators marvel at the conjurer's tricks, their attention is diverted away from the pickpockets who steal their belongings. The painting illustrates well that magicians…
August 7, 2008
The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs, or roadside bombs) has led to an increase in the numbers of troops sustaining traumatic brain injury during military service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Such injuries are caused by the high pressure shock waves generated by the explosions, which cause…
August 6, 2008
The Science Blogging Conference will be held at the Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS, on August 30th, 2008.
According to the organizers, the event has now reached its attendance capacity, but if you'd like to be placed on the waiting list, send an email to network[at]nature.…
August 5, 2008
A few neuroscience blogs I've come across recently, most of them new:
V1
Dr. Shock
Frontal Blogotomy
Neuronism
NeuroTechnica
NeuroWhoa!
Persistent Activity
August 5, 2008
SYNAESTHESIA is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory pathway evokes sensations in another sensory modality. This may occur because of abnormal connections between the brain's sensory systems, or because the flow of information between those systems is not inhibited as usual…
August 5, 2008
The 51st edition of Encephalon is online now at The Mouse Trap. This time, host Sandeep has interspersed the entries with haikus about the mind and brain.
August 3, 2008
Last month, I travelled to Bristol to meet 37-year-old Heather Perry, one of a very small number of people to have voluntarily undergone trepanation for non-medical reasons. As we ate a pub lunch, I asked Heather about her experience. Below is a transcript of our conversation.
M: How did you first…
August 3, 2008
You've probably noticed the yellow banner ads at the top of the page. They're advertising a reader survey being conducted by ScienceBlogs at the moment. The survey is open to everyone and if you fill it out - it'll take about 10 minutes - you'll be in with a chance of winning a 40Gb iPod, iPhone…
August 2, 2008
A team of researchers from Harvard and Columbia University Medical Center have reprogrammed skin cells from an 82-year-old woman suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to generate first stem cells and then motor neurons. This is a significant advance which could aid in the development of drug…
August 2, 2008
Here's Isaac Hayes performing his extremely funky rendition of Burt Bacharach's The Look of Love.
July 31, 2008
I don't have internet access where I'm working at the moment, hence the lack of updates this week. For the same reason, blogging is likely to be intermittent for the next week or two.
During that time, I'll be doing some background reading about potential research projects for the final year of my…
July 26, 2008
Today's Daily Telegraph contains a fascinating extract from Norman Doidge's new book The Brain That Changes Itself, about a woman who feels that she is constantly falling because she has lost her sense of balance as a result of damage to the vestibular system.
Cheryl Schiltz, who is now 50 years…
July 25, 2008
Looking down from the steps of the Museu National d' Art Catalunya, we see the Fira de Barcelona, a complex of 8 large buildings which together make up one of the largest exhibition centres in Europe. One of these buildings, in the lower right of the above photograph, was the venue for ESOF2008.…
July 24, 2008
This quote comes from Recollections of My Life, by Santiago Ramon y Cajal:
Like the entomologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate and elegant shapes, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may…
July 24, 2008
Depression is a common neuropsychiatric disorder which affects at least 1 in 7 adults. The condition can have a major effect on patients' quality of life, and is a major cause of both disability and suicide.
Many patients with depression can be treated effectively with antidepressant medications,…
July 23, 2008
I'm back in London now, after 5 days in Barcelona for ESOF2008. The trip has been rather hectic, and I neither attended as many sessions, nor saw as much of the city, as I would have liked. I still had a very nice time, but, as is always the case when travelling, it's good to be home. I still have…
July 22, 2008
What are the difficulties facing science journalists in developing countries, and what can we do to support them? These were the main issues raised in a session I attended this morning.
Session: Building Networks: How to Support Science Journalists in Developing Countries
Organiser: Lynda Lich-…
July 22, 2008
While wandering around looking at the outreach activities at ESOF2008, I came across this interesting booth for the PS3GRID project, by members of the Multiscale Lab, which is located in the University of Pompeu Fabra's Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics Laboratory at the Barcelona…
July 21, 2008
This morning I attended a talk about the research behind, and clinical applications of, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). I've written about BCIs many times in the past; they monitor the electrical activity of the brain, either invasively by means of implanted electrodes, or non-invasively by means…
July 21, 2008
The 50th edition of Encephalon is now online at SharpBrains. It includes entries about the path planning by hippocampal place cells, the role of calcium ion homeostasis in Alzheimer's Disease and the potential applications of transcranial magnetic stimulation.
July 20, 2008
If you're at all familiar with Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog and Guardian column, you'll have some idea of what his talk was about - debunking nutritionists, the multi-billion dollar industry nutritional supplement industry they have built, and the overblown claims about the benefits of various…
July 19, 2008
Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece of modern architecture is like something from a fairytale.
July 19, 2008
The keynote Speaker for the Human Mind and Behaviour theme is Pierre Magistretti of the Brain-Mind Institute at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Title: Looking Inside Your Brain
Abstract: Prof. Magistretti will outline current brain-imaging technology and explore the ethical…
July 18, 2008
I landed in Barcelona at around 10am local time, and, after checking in to my hotel, made my way towards Placa d'Espanya to find the conference hall. This magnificent building - an art gallery I think - is right next to the venue at which ESOF2008 is being held.
I'm sitting in one of the…
July 17, 2008
This image comes from Marc Steinmetz's photoessay about plastination, the tissue preservation technique invented by the controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens.
Plastination involves replacing the water and fats in the tissues with silicon or some other polymer. The specimen is first…
July 17, 2008
In the January 4th, 1961 episode of One Step Beyond, director and presenter John Newland ingests psilocybin under laboratory conditions, to investigate whether or not the hallucinogenic mushroom can enhance his abilities of extra-sensory perception.
The programme was apparently inspired by a 1959…
July 16, 2008
It is well established that certain types of memory are consolidated during sleep. Now Nature News reports on findings presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Forum in Geneva last weekend, which suggest that sleep loss can lead to the formation of false memories:
Susanne…