Here 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 Blogging, but all are being included for completeness.)
- John M. Grohol at World of Psychology tells us that Narcissistic College Students Spend More Time on Facebook.
- Mike Lisieski of Cephalove concluded a short series about octopodes with The Case for Cephalopod Consciousness.
- At the Mind Matters blog, David Berreby explains Why A Good Friend Has the Same Effect As a Warm Fire.
More like this
One theory about antidepressants is that they relieve depression by encouraging neurogenesis -- the creation of new neurons. Neuroskeptic reviews a study that argues against this idea.
Neuroskeptic offers an elegant unpeeling of a study seeming specifically designed to find a marketing-friendly distinction for a drug -- Abilify -- otherwise undisting
Neuroskeptic ponders the growing evidence that antidepressants significantly best placebo only in the more (or most) depressed patients. His take is that:
Over at SEEDMAGAZINE.COM, my column discusses the recent flurry of blog posts and media reporting on the placebo effect. Here's a snippet: