Scientific American – Brain scientists Stephen Macknik and Susanna Martinez-Conde explain the science behind the mental manipulations of gentleman thief Apollo Robbins.
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Neuroscience
From Science Daily – Placebos are a sham — usually mere sugar pills designed to represent “no treatment” in a clinical treatment study. The effectiveness of the actual medication is compared with the placebo to determine if the medication works. …Now, researchers at UCLA have found a new explanation: genetics. Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a professor [...]
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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 [...]
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Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse? Now that you have checked out whether you’re adequately prepared for that (and I have your attention!) – the 2nd of March should be in your blogging schedules – as that’s the date for Encephelon, the the bi-weekly neuroscience blog carnival – hosted here at [...]
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Quick update before I head into the office and get back to writing for the week – whilst I’m busy for the rest of the time, check out the latest Skeptical Parent Crossing which is now out at Mainstream Parenting! I discovered this entry myself and suggested it for inclusion: Little Isis – Latest Victim [...]
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From The Scientific American Magazine an excellent six-page article – “Magic and the Brain: How Magicians “Trick” the Mind – Magicians have been testing and exploiting the limits of cognition and attention for hundreds of years. Neuroscientists are just beginning to catch up”: …In an unpublished study in 2006 Kuhn and cognitive neuroscientists Ben A. [...]
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Hat-tip to Swoopy of Skepticality – this is in the LA Times: Scientists Erase Scary Memories In Mice: Scientists have succeeded in permanently erasing frightening memories in mice, an early step toward the development of treatments for people haunted by traumas they can’t forget. According to a study in the journal Neuron this week, researchers [...]
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Ah, I adore E, my regular commentator under many guises. And deliverer of LolCat goodness! Anyway, after E sent me an article today on superstitious beliefs amongst politicians, I countered with the blog entry I wrote a while back on the issue – Political Punditry On McCain’s Magical Thinking: The notion of ‘magical thinking‘ has [...]
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