Neurological Correlates

This is your brain on “hate”:

Hating another individual lights up brain areas associated with disgust, contempt and also — romantic love.
Zeki S, Romaya JP (2008) Neural Correlates of Hate. PLoS ONE 3(10): e3556. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003556
Astonishing.
Drs. Zeki and Romaya have previously studied “love”. Because, in that cosmic fashion, love and hate are so connected, they chose to [...]

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Maternal smoking while pregnant may result in conduct disorder of the offspring, particularly where there’s a genetic predisposition already according to a paper from last May:
Baler RD, Volkow ND, Fowler JS, Benveniste H., “Is fetal brain monoamine oxidase inhibition the missing link between maternal smoking and conduct disorders?,” J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2008 May;33(3):187-95.

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RNAs have a reputation as the unemployed brother-in-laws of genetic molecules; sort of around all the time, but no one can figure out what they really do. The intellectually easy way is to think of them as mere intermediaries from DNA on the way to protein. No more. Big news: RNA regulation is big, important, [...]

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This is an e mail I didn’t get, but would answer as set forth below:
Dear Swivelchair,
I seem to turn people off with my boring conversation and bad breath. How can I be irresistibly charming and meet the person of my dreams?
/s/Lonely
Dear Lonely,
Here’s how to be irresistibly charming and meet the person of your dreams: Become [...]

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Now we know, Ayn Rand isn’t all she’s cracked up to be. Nor is the Chicago school. (See the Bloomberg article here, for example). Here’s a post from a little over a year ago, and if you scroll down you get Barbra Streisand.    I have to say it: Toldjaso.   (Originally posted [...]

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A study on question dodgers:  those who give brilliantly compelling answers to a question that should have been asked, but wasn’t, are admired. Those who plainly dodge questions to manipulate the listener, however, are viewed with asperity.
Conversational Blindness: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way
Published:October 15, 2008
Paper Released:September 2008
Authors:Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton
HBS Working [...]

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Oh you silly Republican National Committee and campaign strategists. Don’t you read your neuroscience literature?  If you did, you would know that the politics of fear, while working pretty well on conservatives, is bound to fall flat on undecided voters.
Two recent papers (here and here) point out, not surprisingly, conservatives have neurological soft spots making [...]

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Psychoanalyzing the Bush Administration, By the Cast of ‘W.’
See here for my previous assessment, basically, white matter microstructure impairment of a recovering alcoholic.
Bert (of Sesame Street) served as the President of the National Association of ‘W’ Lovers, here:

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It’s Friday, time for a fluff break (*sigh* video embedding disabled, click through to Youtube)
Gabriella Cilmi – Sweet About Me
Ludo- Love Me Dead
Hayes Carll – She Left Me For Jesus
Fatal Bazooka feat Yelle – Parle à ma main
And here’s one for sleep disturbances:

Enjoy!

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Ok, I’ve been looking for an excuse to post the music,  \”War, What is it good for?\” (War, Edwin Starr) so here it is: Junk DNA. What is it good for? Gene regulation.
To the uninitiated, it may be surprising that most of your DNA has heretofore been referred to as “junk”.  This is not because [...]

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