From Scientific American, this is a short but cool discussion between Joseph LeDoux and Michael Gazzaniga on the topic of free will – Gazzaniga wrote an excellent book on the topic, Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain (2011). Free Will: Is Your Brain the Boss of You? [Video] By Mark … Read more
I’ve been binge watching a new series called Black Box, kind of like House, MD, but specific to neuroscience diagnostic mysteries (oh, and the main character is bipolar rather than narcissistic). In the 5th episode (there’s only 7 so far), one of the recurring characters has a brain tumor metastasize to his liver, which … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, on ABC’s Radio National (Australia), All in the Mind featured a discussion about new technologies in “building” a brain that is comparable to a human brain. Most of the research seems to be taking a bottom-up approach, building from neurons to networks to modules. I’m skeptical. Perhaps we build … Read more
Interesting new research out of Duke University on how specific neurons tell neuronal stem cells where to go to repair damage. Below this press release is the abstract and citation from Nature Neuroscience (where the article is, of course, embargoed). Neuron Tells Stem Cells to Grow New Neurons Researchers identify first piece of new brain-repair … Read more
This is last week’s episode of The Philosopher’s Zone podcast, with guest Daivd Papineau, professor at King’s College in London. Papineau has worked in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophies of science, mind, and mathematics. His overall stance is naturalist and realist. He is one of the originators of the teleosemantic theory of mental representation, a … Read more
Halfway through the year, almost, and there have already been some seriously good books published that will appear on a lot of top-ten lists in December. Some of those books are below, but there also a lot of books below no one will have heard of about side of their respective fields, books from academic … Read more
Mirror neurons, as Christian Jarrett has twice asserted, are the likely the most over-hyped concept in neuroscience. In the paragraph below, the solution to the mystery is stated, but it is not named. Despite her apt framing of the adaptation hypothesis, [Cecilia] Heyes actually argues against it. If she is right, then we’re all simply … Read more
This is an interesting new research article from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience looks at the convergence of neuroscience, epigenetics, and sociobiology. This is certainly a big piece of the future of understanding the brain; of understanding what genes get turned on or off by trauma, diet, environment, and so on; and how all of this … Read more
This is a cool article from Virginia Hughes at Phenomena: Only Human, a National Geographic blog. Hughes presents a video (embedded below, but you’ll need to go to Vimeo to see it, just follow the link) that provides a 3-D view of a synapse in an adult rat brain. We tend to think, and the … Read more
This week’s New York Times Magazine featured an in-depth article about the work of Bessel van der Kolk and his work in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through somatic avenues (i.e., the body). It’s a pretty balanced article, which is appreciated even though I am a fan of his work. It would be great if … Read more