I See An Encephalon Edition 65!

Welcome to the Pareidolia Edition of Encephalon! If you entered in for this educational, insightful and always entertaining blog carnival on the topics of Neuroscience and Psychology!

It appears to be the season for talking about illusions! Having briefly revisited ‘audio paradolia‘ recently – I couldn’t help noticing (er, no pun intended…) that the likes of Dr Richard Wiseman is getting into the act and soon-to-be-published author of ‘Supersense’ Bruce M. Hood is also chatting about why we see faces in odd places!

So, it’s led me to check out the blog Faces In Places, which I enjoyed nearly as much as the facts and funproduced by the following Encephalon #65 contributors!

Firstly, it’s The Mouse Trap, with Linguistic effects on unconscious color perception and being very ‘excited by this proof of whorfian hypotheses’ – you should be too, go have a read!

Then it’s over to Genes 2 Brains 2 Mental Health with CpG methylation bears witness to childhood abuse in victims of suicide – a very recent study that has been creating a bit of interest:

What Professor Meaney’s lab has shown so convincingly over the past several years is that individual differences in the reactivity of the HPA system are heavily influenced by maternal and early life experience.

Spanner or Sex Object? That’s the question that The Neurocritic is posing - ‘Do men really view women as objects (i.e., tools)? Don’t turn to their premotor cortices for proof’!

The ever-astute Neurophilosophy discusses how Alzheimer’s recapitulates brain development:

A new study published last week in Nature may lead us to look at the pathogenesis of Azheimer’s in a new light. It provides evidence that the degeneration which is characteristic of the disease occurs when a cellular self-destruction mechanism which normally occurs during neural development is re-activated.

Hesitant Iconoclast doesn’t hold back the punches when discussing the contribution of the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus – and its entry on how to treat a head injury! I would tend towards ‘freaky/cool!’:

Centre for Brain Fitness at Baycrest: Interview with Dr. William Reichman at Sharp Brains:

In April 2008, Baycrest, a leading research institute focused on aging and brain function, received $10-million from the Ontario Government to create a groundbreaking Centre for Brain Fitness. Its stated goal was to “develop and commercialize a range of products designed to improve the brain health of aging Ontarians and others around the world”.

In addition, Sharp Brains features an excellent investigation on a classic question: Does cognitive training work? (For Whom? For What?) – two recent studies and press releases by Pascale Michelon.

Advances in the History of Psychology presents the thought-provoking Evolution in American high school textbooks, which “debunks the commonly-held belief that discussions of evolution were suppressed following the Scopes trial of 1925” and Becoming a Psychologist-Historian:

In the latest issue of the American Journal of Psychology, 122(1), Kelli Vaughn-Blount answers — with co-authors Alexandra Rutherford, David Baker, and Deborah Johnson — two key questions: Why do history in psychology? And how do I get started?

At Brainblogger, some great questions are posed: But, where does the acceptance end? Where is the line between “just a little bit different” and a diagnosis of a medical illness? Head over to the post at Autism – No Need For A Cure? and whilst there, you should definitely check out Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Share Genetic Links.

Measuring Process Not Belief: Shane Battier and Stress is presented at the blogging wonders of Neuroanthropology: Michael Lewis mixes qualitative research (interviews) and ethnographic insight (coming from Battier’s own experience) with an examination of new ways of measuring everything that might count about a basketball game. It’s a powerful mix. For me it illustrates two important points about how we can develop better measures, ones that are closer to what actually determine outcomes and that don’t fall into so easily into measuring our own beliefs about the world.

Now THIS is a really fun read – The Descent of Brain is wonderfully creative with this intersection of science and literature – “a series of posts in which I introduce the field of evolutionary neuroscience by resorting to the analysis of the possibilities and impossibilities of Elder Things (Cthulhu Mythos) developing complex brains. The links are as follows“:
And through strange aeons even death may die; Existing biology would have to be wholly revised for this thing was no product of any cell growth science knows about (do check the pictures!); Phylogenetic systematics for elder things (I suddenly imagine the Elder Things Home And Respite, complete with lovely spa facilities..,), The nervous systems of ctenophores; Phnglui mglwnafh cthulhu rlyeh wgahnagl fhtagn (yes, try saying THAT five times fast…!) and finally, In which we derive principles from what we speculate until now.

Last but not least – finishing up with a video posted at Advances in the History of Psychology! Origins of American Psychology, is a follow-up to the video by Chris Green (president of Division 26 of the American Psychological Association), which appeared in the last issue of Encephalon (which you can find at The Neurocritic and you clearly should have checked out already so you enjoy it even more!).

Thanks again so much to the contributors and the uber-Encepho-mastery of Alvero of Sharp Brains! The Encephalon Schedule (where you can sign up to host) says that round 66 will be at Ionian Enchantment, on March 16th, 2009!

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Tagged as: blog carnival, encephalon, fun, Neuroscience, pareidolia, Psychology, research, Science, studies