Neurological Correlates

Exhibit A: A committee of badly disguised Bob Dylan imposters?
As a child, with “Maggies’ Farm” on the record player, I asked an elder sibling why Bob Dylan looked so different on each of his (vinyl) album jackets. She calmly lied through her teeth, and explained that Bob Dylan was a committee, not a [...]

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“Dopamine Futures” original art by Swivelchair
(all rights, if any totally waived, copy it all you want).
If you compare a screen shot of on-line gambling with a screen shot of on-line stock trading, they look very similar. That is probably because humans are hard wired for rewards — if you hunt and are successful, [...]

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Ricky, don’t cry! You haven’t been Auf’d! [Swivelchair note: Ricky was auf'd]  I hope you’re OK - you know, the very basic areas of the brain are involved in crying. If you can’t stop, I hope it’s not a tumor (see abstract below).

J Clin Neurosci. 2008 Jan 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Brainstem compression [...]

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Theodore Kaczynski
Even though he was holed up in a backwoods cabin containing piles of his feces, writing a manifesto against technological society, in moldy pants he had worn constantly for a year, Dr. Kaczynski was entirely unaware of his mental illness. In fact, he refused treatment of any sort over the better part of his [...]

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There are lots of studies as to why people purchase luxury goods, but these are mostly directed at individuals in isolation. What about group behavior?

Manhattan, Harlem, Lenox Ave.
Ray Fisman, an economist, has an interesting article in Slate about why African-Americans (and other ethnic minorities) in the US spend disproportionately on status-seeking items. As quoted in [...]

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Brain. 2008 Jan;131(Pt 1):72-89. Epub 2007 Dec 7., “The tauopathy associated with mutation +3 in intron 10 of Tau: characterization of the MSTD family,” Spina S, Farlow MR, Unverzagt FW, Kareken DA, Murrell JR, Fraser G, Epperson F,Crowther RA, Spillantini MG, Goedert M, Ghetti B., Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School [...]

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More on white matter month — What happens when one part of the brain is “unplugged”?
Dyslexia, Williams Syndrome, and OCD all involve cognitive processes that seem to go awry. It’s not as though something is necessarily lacking — but rather a particular trait is distorted.
It may be that white matter tracts — the [...]

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Using Neuroimaging to Resolve the Psi Debate — Moulton and Kosslyn 20 1: 182 — The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Here’s the block quote:
. . .To increase sensitivity, this experiment was designed to produce positive results if telepathy, clairvoyance (i.e., direct sensing of remote events), or precognition (i.e., knowing future events) exist. Moreover, the study [...]

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Chanraud S, Martelli C, Delain F, Kostogianni N, Douaud G, Aubin HJ, Reynaud M, Martinot JL., Brain morphometry and cognitive performance in detoxified alcohol-dependents with preserved psychosocial functioning, Neuropsychopharmacology. 2007 Feb;32(2):429-38. Epub 2006 Oct 18 PMID: 17047671
Continuing “White Matter Month” — should you date someone you met at Rehab? Or should they [...]

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In keeping tradition with the department store “white sales” in January, this month will be “January White Matter Days.”

“Woman Ironing,” Edward Degas, 1887, (courtesy National Gallery of Art)
I’m interested in white matter, which is sort of the neural wiring in the brain, connecting the areas of gray matter. I think that the trouble with [...]

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In the ovarian lottery, we are born human babies ready to adapt to our surroundings.

Dr. Vitelli at Proventia posted on how child abuse - sexual, physical, emotional, verbal, witnessing the abuse of others — affects brain development. (This was way back in November — I’ve been meaning to post on this.) The post [...]

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Jury consultants, start your engines
Let’s say your client — the one with the violent past, long rap sheet, and general air of no credibilitiy whatsoever — is on trial for murder.
He tells his story: “The other dude did it!”
You believe him.
Will anyone else believe him? How should he present his story to the jury? [...]

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More on psychopaths. I was watching a tv show last night where an FBI criminal profiler provided running commentary to Charles Manson’s interview from some time ago. Basically, she (the FBI profiler) was interpreting Manson’s 1987-on camera statements in light of what is known about the way a psychopath thinks.
What a show. [...]

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Happy pre-Thanksgiving!
On that note, I thought I’d catch up on weight loss abstracts.
1. New Phen-fens without the side effects look good, and they may also be useful in treating diabetes. They may have an “anxiety” type side effect initially.
2. Leptin plus a satiety protein (Amylin’s pramlintide) makes 200+ pound people lose about 25 pounds [...]

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The Clinton Neurons, Quian Quiroga et al., “Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain,” Nature 435: 1102-1107 (2005)
Neurodemocracy, you gotta love it. Branding, celebrity and politics — all evoke neurological responses in primitive brain areas. How can the candidates best position themselves to have the best neurological response in swing [...]

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