ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections
jgoldman | February 1, 2011Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.
So much good stuff this week, it was hard to choose. But choose I must:
To start us out, Dr. Sharma of his eponymous blog discusses a new finding in neuroscience: is there a gene that's associated with the so-called sweet tooth?
Livia Blackburne tackles a fascinating question in her blog "A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing" - Typing vs. Longhand: Does it Affect Your Writing?
A Complete Stranger Understands You About As Well As Your Spouse Does. David Berreby of Mind Matters can help you understand what he means by this.
"Do you…
jgoldman | January 25, 2011Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
A new post by Scicurious recommends, "If you're trying to quit smoking, it's best to stay away from movies or TV shows depicting smoking, which might induce craving and cause you to relapse." Easier said than done, perhaps. Movies and the Smoking Brain.
Dirk Hanson of Addiction Inbox writes, "Every day, addicts are quitting drugs and alcohol by availing themselves of drug treatments that did not exist fifteen years ago." However, not every treatment works for everyone, and some of the differences in responses to specific anti-…
jgoldman | January 19, 2011Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest starts us off with a big cup of coffee. Coffee helps women cope with stressful meetings but has the opposite effect on men.
What's the point of music? Steven Pinker once famously remarked that music is "...auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of...our mental faculties." Henkjan Honing of the Music Matters blog asks, Was Steven Pinker right after all?
From a relatively new blog, Smells Like Science, an interesting take on chimpanzee warfare.…
jgoldman | January 11, 2011Greetings! After emerging from the Cave of Open Lab (have you seen all the awesome posts that were chosen?), I'm back with the best in psychology and neuroscience research blogging from the past week.
Over at Games With Words, we learn that "If Microsoft Word had its way, passive verbs would be excised from the language." Learning the passive. And are three bicycles had by John?
One way that Indiana Jones and I are alike are that we both hate snakes. Could this be innate? Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest discusses research that suggested "children as young as three seem to be…
jgoldman | December 21, 2010Here are my Psychology/Neuroscience Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
If you've just run 29 laps would you endure the pain and run a round 30 laps? If you've run 31 laps, would you attempt to eek out one extra lap to make 32? Most people would rather run 30 laps than 29, but wouldn't run the extra lap in the second case. Why not? Michelle Greene of the NeuRealism blog explains.
A timely post: does gift-wrapping influence the gift-receiver? Will he or she be more satisfied with the contents of his or her gift, if it is wrapped? At Maniraptora: Tastes Like Chicken,…
jgoldman | December 14, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Bill Yates asks, Do Personalities Converge After Marriage? Or do similar people simply wind up marrying each other in the first place?
"'Rectal stimulation', you say. Sounds all fun and games, but actually this study is an important one. It's looking at potentials traveling up from the rectum to the brain, and trying to detect them in both the spinal cord and the cortex." Let Scicurious take you on this journey.
"A study out of the journal Sex Roles took a look at preschoolers' attitudes towards obesity by means of Candy Land…
jgoldman | December 7, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
DJ Busby of the Astronasty blog writes, "2 to 3 billion people, about half the world's population, have a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes a disease called toxoplasmosis...The parasite's main host are cats, but infects many warm blooded animals." I always knew cats were evil. Half the world's population is infected by cats!
A new (to me) blog has recently come to my attention: Notes on Parenting. In this post, Brandon writes, "As parents, we are almost constantly comparing our child to someone else's child (…
jgoldman | November 30, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Ready for some more Thanksgiving science? Brad Walters of Cortical Hemming and Hawing asks what football can tell us about decision-making: Why you should always go for it on 4th and short.
The Neurocritic reports a fascinating study of a woman who had epileptic seizures triggered by eating. Or, more specifically, eating strawberry syrup.
And the award for lede of the week goes to Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest, who writes, "Announcing that neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer had been listed as one of Salon's sexiest men…
jgoldman | November 23, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Sleep is really important for health and cognition among other things. But what about for memory? An interesting discussion at Psychothalamus about the relationship between sleep and remembering to remember.
A fascinating post at Wiring the Brain begins with pain sensitivity in fruit flies and ends with synaesthetic mice! It's a bit of a wild ride, but well worth the read.
Finally, at the Neuroskeptic blog, enjoy a post entertaining the speculation that Samson (of biblical fame) may have been autistic. Speculative, indeed.
One…
jgoldman | November 16, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
According to the Neurocritic, "Most everything you've read about the Doctors Prescribing 'Tetris Therapy' study is wrong." Find out why.
What happens when a fish sees its own reflection? If you're like most people, you'd say that he fish treats the reflection as if it were another fish. But Zen Faulkes of Neurodojo explains why you might be wrong.
John Brock of the blog 'Cracking the Enigma' wonders if one of the so-called "autism genes" is more specifically involved with neural connectivity. He writes, "Having this gene doesn't…
jgoldman | November 9, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.
To start things off, be sure to check out the "What is Mental Illness? Mini-Carnival" that I hosted at The Thoughtful Animal, which included entries from BPS Research Digest, Neurocritic, Neurotic Physiology, Psycasm, and myself.
John Wayland at The History of Psychology tells the tale of the most famous baby in psychology: Little Albert.
Neurologists taking a stand against concussions? Brian Mossop at The Decision Tree blog discusses new guidelines from the American Academy of Neurologists regarding how soon athletes can return…
jgoldman | November 2, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Another week of top-notch psychology and neuroscience blogging!
Should captive cephalopods be kept in "enriched" environments? Mike Lisieski of the Cephalove blog says yes: "Generally, providing enrichment for captive cephalopods seems worth it."
" Psychologists are starting to look at how expert dancers learn and remember dance steps and what gives them the advantage of expertise in their style." How do ballerinas make it look so easy? An interesting offering from the students of the Cognition and the Arts class.
"Either we…
jgoldman | October 26, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.
This was an awesome week for psychology and neuroscience blogging! I had a hard time picking just three or four, so here are six:
Korsakoff's Syndrome is a fascinating neuropsychiatric disorder marked by fantastic stories, told by patients, about things that have happened to them. Neuroskeptic discusses an interesting new paper on the evolving understanding of this rare disorder.
In a Halloween-inspired post, Brad Walters of "Cortical Hemming and Hawing" retells the legend of Bloody Mary and offers some thoughtful hypotheses as…
jgoldman | October 19, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
"Amazingly, babies as small as 12 months old show some understanding of the difference between the deliberate and goal-directed "agents" that can cause order, such as a person, and those randomly acting inanimate objects that cannot, such as a bouncing ball." Daniel Daza of the Ego Sum Daza blog explores an interesting new PNAS paper. Babies, Balls, and Creationists.
Sandy Gautam of The Mouse Trap wonders: is altruism the result of sexual selection?
Finally, welcome John Wayland of the new History of Psychology blog to the…
jgoldman | October 5, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
"So, sometimes we settle for less than George Clooney or Heidi Klum." Casey Rentz at The Lay Scientist asks do we REALLY want what we say we want, when it comes to choosing mates?
Travis Saunders of Obesity Panacea asks: Which Results in Healthier Food Purchases: Junk Food Tax or Health Food Subsidy?
Do birth control pills really change the brains of women? Or is it just scare-mongering? Scicurious of Neurotic Physiology investigates the question.
Genes for ADHD, eh? The Neuroskeptic writes, "These genes don't so much cause ADHD…
jgoldman | September 28, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
American family values: where even the dull can dream! "One of the issues when talking about the effect of environment and genes on behavioral and social outcomes is that the entanglements are so complicated. That is why cross-cultural studies are essential," writes Razib Khan.
If you ask Rift of the Psycasm blog, We should be music testing athletes! "Wherein our hero examines the positive effects of Music on Workouts, even though he thinks music is cheating."
Negative Evidence: Still Missing After All These Years. A killer post…
jgoldman | September 21, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.
Dr. Shock says that Internet and Video Games Improve Reading Skills and Visual Spatial Skills in Children. If the kids are initially low in those skills, at least.
At the Global Change blog: Do women and men differ in their acceptance of climate warming?
Religion messes with your mind, but not in the way you might think. BPS Research Digest explains how religion causes a chronic biasing of visual attention.
Finally, at Addiction Inbox: Sex, drugs, and...sex. Dirk Hanson considers sexual performance and pharmaceuticals.
jgoldman | September 14, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.
"The relationship between leaders and followers reflects a social contract wherein followers trust leaders to make decisions that benefit the group and leaders agree to pursue actions that are in the group's best interests. The prevalence of leadership throughout history and across species suggests that leadership provides a stable strategy for effective group functioning." But what happens, Dr. Shock wonders, when leaders sacrifice group galls for the sake of self-interest?
Albert Einstein once (allegedly) mused, "Put your hand…
jgoldman | September 7, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
"Now, five years later, there's new evidence of the significant, negative impact of Hurricane Katrina on children's mental health." Many Children Still Haven't Recovered from Katrina.
"Congenital amusia is one of several different types of music perception impairments. A person with the disorder is born with a variety of symptoms, including an inability to recognize a familiar song without hearing the lyrics, an inability to discern the difference between two melodies, and difficulty perceiving when he or she is singing or…
jgoldman | August 31, 2010Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
"Distorted perceptions and an altered state of mind: two reasons why psychedelics have always attracted not only fascination, but also controversy for decades." Noah Gray at Nature Blogs has curated a mini-carnival of sorts centering around a new paper called "The neurobiology of psychedelic drugs: implications for the treatment of mood disorders." Included are posts by Mo at Neurophilosophy, the Neuroskeptic, the Neurocritic, and Vaughan of Mind Hacks. (Note: Only Neuroskeptic's and Neurocritic's posts are indexed by Research…