Neuroscience
Burkhard Bilger had a great piece in the April 25, 2011 New Yorker entitled David Eagleman and Mysteries of the Brain. In it, Bilger discusses Eagleman's fascinating work trying to figure out how we think about time. Eagleman goes to a Zero Gravity "ride" to see if he can measure how our sense of time slows down when we are afraid (he can); he also goes to London to see if drummers' brains are more precise about time than "normal" brains (they are).
Our general perception of time seems to be influenced by emotion:
Shortly after I read the New Yorker article, I was going through itunes, pruning some of my podcasts. I found a January 2010 episode of Australia's terrific All In The Mind in which Natasha Mitchell interviewed David Eagleman, in a show entitled: The afterlife, synesthesia and other tales of the senses. Eagleman talks very little about time, but quite a bit about synesthesia. If you want to know more about numbers having colors, or names having taste, give this show a listen.
- Link Feast
Our editor's pick of this week's 10 best psychology and neuroscience links: The Brain With David Eagleman (TV show) New BBC Four series in which neuroscientist David Eagleman explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without...
- Link Feast
Our editor's pick of this week's 10 best psychology and neuroscience links: The Big Baby Experiment A London lab is deploying every technology it can to understand infant brains, and what happens when development goes awry. Linda Geddes reports...
- Podcast / Interviews I've Enjoyed
I've heard some very interesting podcasts / interviews lately & instead of blogging about each one, I thought I'd just list them with a very brief note about what was relevant for cog sci. WNYC's Radio Lab is a fun 50-minute show covering...
- Let There Be Light
All in the Mind has done it again, this time providing a two-part series on the Blind Brain. I've only listened to part one, but I could barely concentrate on driving because the story was so fascinating. Natasha Mitchell spoke with three scientists...
- "rama" & Art
Australia's ABC Radio National program "All in the Mind" recently interviewed the "Marco Polo of Neuroscience", V.S Ramachandran. He talks a little about neuroscience and a lot about how humans perceive art. When he was at Hampshire. "Rama" talked...
Neuroscience
David Eagleman on Time and Synesthesia
Burkhard Bilger had a great piece in the April 25, 2011 New Yorker entitled David Eagleman and Mysteries of the Brain. In it, Bilger discusses Eagleman's fascinating work trying to figure out how we think about time. Eagleman goes to a Zero Gravity "ride" to see if he can measure how our sense of time slows down when we are afraid (he can); he also goes to London to see if drummers' brains are more precise about time than "normal" brains (they are).
Our general perception of time seems to be influenced by emotion:
When something threatens your life, [the amygdala] seems to kick into overdrive, recording every last detail of the experience. The more detailed the memory, the longer the moment seems to last. “This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older,” Eagleman said—why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.For more on this story, read the transcript of Bilger and Eagleman's chat session, Ask the Author Live: Burkhard Bilger on Time and the Brain. It's all fascinating!
Shortly after I read the New Yorker article, I was going through itunes, pruning some of my podcasts. I found a January 2010 episode of Australia's terrific All In The Mind in which Natasha Mitchell interviewed David Eagleman, in a show entitled: The afterlife, synesthesia and other tales of the senses. Eagleman talks very little about time, but quite a bit about synesthesia. If you want to know more about numbers having colors, or names having taste, give this show a listen.
- Link Feast
Our editor's pick of this week's 10 best psychology and neuroscience links: The Brain With David Eagleman (TV show) New BBC Four series in which neuroscientist David Eagleman explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without...
- Link Feast
Our editor's pick of this week's 10 best psychology and neuroscience links: The Big Baby Experiment A London lab is deploying every technology it can to understand infant brains, and what happens when development goes awry. Linda Geddes reports...
- Podcast / Interviews I've Enjoyed
I've heard some very interesting podcasts / interviews lately & instead of blogging about each one, I thought I'd just list them with a very brief note about what was relevant for cog sci. WNYC's Radio Lab is a fun 50-minute show covering...
- Let There Be Light
All in the Mind has done it again, this time providing a two-part series on the Blind Brain. I've only listened to part one, but I could barely concentrate on driving because the story was so fascinating. Natasha Mitchell spoke with three scientists...
- "rama" & Art
Australia's ABC Radio National program "All in the Mind" recently interviewed the "Marco Polo of Neuroscience", V.S Ramachandran. He talks a little about neuroscience and a lot about how humans perceive art. When he was at Hampshire. "Rama" talked...