neuroscience - A Tippling Philosopher

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neuroscience

A collection of 28 posts

Brain Scans Predicting Social Bonds

This was a fascinating article from the New York Times that looks at the predictive power of brain scans. New research suggests the roots of friendship extend even deeper than previously suspected. Scientists have found that the brains of close friends respond in remarkably similar ways as they view a

By Inside_my_head.jpg: Andrew Mason from London, UK derivative work: -- Jtneill - Talk (Inside_my_head.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The More We Evolve, The Less We Need God

This is a very recent IntelligenceSquared debate between Berlin and Shermer on the one side and Chopra and Kumar on the other. I am yet to watch it but am led to believe it was a strong win to the skeptics. For the Motion: Heather Berlin, Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Shermer,

By Inside_my_head.jpg: Andrew Mason from London, UK derivative work: -- Jtneill - Talk (Inside_my_head.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Scientists ‘Inject’ Information Into Monkeys’ Brains

The other day, I wrote a piece about Mary's Room and the Chinese Room experiments in the context of The Good Place. Let me tap into that again: We often think that our minds are everything – they are what makes us “us”. But our minds are part of

Marvelling at the Brain

As I wrote some time back. The other day, I was getting really frustrated with my manual coordination. I was leaving school on a Sunday after doing some work and was trying to locate a particular key on a keyring. With one hand. Whilst holding three bags with my other

Brain tests predict children's futures

This is a recent report from the BBC, detailing work carried out in New Zealand. It really builds on work presented in a superb book that I urge everyone to read, called The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine, which documents the bio-social jigsaw that is the causal circumstance out

Being an Expert = More Likely to Have False Memories

This is some interesting research that seems to indicate some bias involved in recounting events if the facts are in the realm of expertise held by the recounter. In a press release from UCD: Experts that are knowledgeable about certain subjects are twice as likely to have ‘false memories’ about

Whitman, tumours, the neurotypical and moral responsibility

Whitman, tumours, the neurotypical and moral responsibility

There was a famous case of a terrible shooting in 1966. Charles Whitman, an otherwise intelligent (138 IQ), ‘normal’ man, did a very abnormal thing. Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American engineering student and former U.S. Marine, who killed seventeen people and wou

Critical Thinking, Science, & Pseudoscience - Lack and Rousseau Nail It!

Caleb Lack is a good friend of mine. Indeed, I have published four of his book son the Onus Books imprint. He has just had a superb book published (aimed at the academic market but begging a popular release) that has been highly lauded (including by the likes of Michael

Scientists can reduce belief in God, increase tolerance to immigrants with magnetism

I know this has done the rounds. I often refer back to similar experiments which have show that TMS can alter moral judgements, as this BBC article shows: Scientists have shown they can change people's moral judgements by disrupting a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses.

My response on free will to a fellow philosophy group member

My response on free will to a fellow philosophy group member

I have been having a long-standing argument with a relative newcomer to our pub philosophy group (The Tippling Philosophers) over free will. He believes in libertarian free will, though it does appear to be largely based on an argument from wishful thinking and being unwilling to confront the ramifi

Steve Novella on consciousness: dualism is the new evolution for theists (Part 1)

I was listening to a Reasonable Doubts podcast from a few years ago, and it was, as ever, cracking. This one was about consciousness, its hard problem, dualism, and how it, and neuroscience, are being co-opted as a philosophical area to argue for the "God of the Gaps" style argument in the same vein

Our brains judge a face's trustworthiness, even when we can’t see it

This fascinating article is from ScienceDaily. It is something I have talked about before with friends, that you can tell so much about a person (or at least think you can) from a cursory look to the face. And, indeed, your brain is doing n awful lot of this non-conscious computation along those lin

Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke (plus rebuttal)

Metaphysical thought processes are more deeply wired than hitherto suspected WHILE MILITANT ATHEISTS like Richard Dawkins may be convinced God doesn’t exist, God, if he is around, may be amused to find that atheists might not exist. Cognitive scientists are becoming increasingly aware that

On editing memories

I reported in my Free Will? book that we can laser in memories to fruit flies, so it was only a matter of time before such procedures were contextualised to humans. Scientific American reports:

Psychology, neuroscience and a fundamental lack of free will

I am presently reading an absolutely superb book by David Eagleman called Incognito: The book is a popular foray into psychology and neuroscience and synthesises a host of different studies into things brain. I wanted to just bring up a few fascinating studies which cast doubt upon the idea t

Growing Up Poor, Stressed Impacts Brain Function as Adult

Childhood poverty and chronic stress may lead to problems regulating emotions as an adult, according to research published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brain May Rely On Computer-Like Mechanism to Make Sense of Novel Situations

Our brains give us the remarkable ability to make sense of situations we've never encountered before -- a familiar person in an unfamiliar place, for example, or a coworker in a different job role -- but the mechanism our brains use to accomplish this has been a longstanding mystery of neuroscience.

Scientists Create New Memories by Directly Changing the Brain

By studying how memories are made, UC Irvine neurobiologists created new, specific memories by direct manipulation of the brain, which could prove key to understanding and potentially resolving learning and memory disorders.

Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

The "mini brain" is roughly the size and developmental level of a nine-week foetus Miniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.

Researcher Controls Colleague's Motions in First Human Brain-To-Brain Interface

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Human Brains Are Hardwired for Empathy, Friendship

Science Daily: Aug. 22, 2013 — Perhaps one of the most defining features of humanity is our capacity for empathy -- the ability to put ourselves in others' shoes. A new University of Virginia study strongly suggests that we are hardwired to empathize because we closely associate people who are

Computer Can Read Letters Directly from the Brain

By analysing MRI images of the brain with an elegant mathematical model, it is possible to reconstruct thoughts more accurately than ever before. In this way, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen have succeeded in determining which letter a test subject was looking at. The journal Neuroim

Neuroscientists Plant False Memories in Mice: Location Where Brain Stores Memory Traces, Both False and Authentic, Pinpointed

Neuroscientists Plant False Memories in Mice: Location Where Brain Stores Memory Traces, Both False and Authentic, Pinpointed

This hit the news yesterday on radio and TV. Fascinating stuff. This reported from Science Daily: July 25, 2013 — The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their re

First interview with a dead man

New Scientist has started a new feature series on people with bizarre and rare mind / brain disorders and predicaments. This article looks at Cotard's syndrome. What is fascinating about this article and syndrome is the interplay between brain, consciousness and self-awareness. That these conscious

Bad Decisions Arise from Faulty Information, Not Faulty Brain Circuits

Bad Decisions Arise from Faulty Information, Not Faulty Brain Circuits

Some research out seems to support an idea that 'bad decisions' that we make are as a result of the quality of the information coming in rather than the quality of the systems working on that information. Of course, this may call into question the quality of the systems actually responsible for coll