Neuroscience
Sharon Begley uses her article April 9, 2007 article in Newsweek, In Our Messy Reptilian Brains to review a new book by Johns Hopkins professor of neuroscience David Linden The Accidental Mind.
In it, Begley quotes Linden as saying that while the brain is impressive in function, in design, the brain is "quirky, inefficient and bizarre ... a weird agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have accumulated throughout millions of years of evolutionary history."
Begley uses Linden's example of blindsight to explain why the human brain is "essentially a mouse brain with extra toppings." Blindsight is when some blind people are able to sense and describe objects they cannot see. Folks with blindsight, then, have lost their "traditional" vision, located in the traditional visual cortex, but still retain some use of the "amphibian visual system", located in the midbrain. They can sense objects, but "because the midbrain is not connected to higher cognitive regions, they have no conscious awareness of an object's location..."
In typical Begley style, she compares the brain and musical technology: "the brain is like an iPod built around an eight-track cassette player."
Read on for more fun, and check out Linden's book for even more fun!
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Great article in Newsweek about the potential pitfalls of using scientific research to make a point. Sharon Begley details some ways in which research methodology can skew study results. Study design, Begley argues, can lead to results which contradict...
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Interesting article in last month's Wall Street Journal about emotions & cognitive performance. The free abstract sums it up: "After years of studying situations such as choking under pressure or succumbing to 'stereotype threat' (in which...
Neuroscience
Messy Reptilian Brains
Sharon Begley uses her article April 9, 2007 article in Newsweek, In Our Messy Reptilian Brains to review a new book by Johns Hopkins professor of neuroscience David Linden The Accidental Mind.
In it, Begley quotes Linden as saying that while the brain is impressive in function, in design, the brain is "quirky, inefficient and bizarre ... a weird agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have accumulated throughout millions of years of evolutionary history."
Begley uses Linden's example of blindsight to explain why the human brain is "essentially a mouse brain with extra toppings." Blindsight is when some blind people are able to sense and describe objects they cannot see. Folks with blindsight, then, have lost their "traditional" vision, located in the traditional visual cortex, but still retain some use of the "amphibian visual system", located in the midbrain. They can sense objects, but "because the midbrain is not connected to higher cognitive regions, they have no conscious awareness of an object's location..."
In typical Begley style, she compares the brain and musical technology: "the brain is like an iPod built around an eight-track cassette player."
Read on for more fun, and check out Linden's book for even more fun!
- Want To Spend Less? Ditch Your Credit Card And Don't Shop When Sad
As the recession bites, Newsweek magazine has a timely article on some of the brain processes underlying consumer decision making. The author Begley particularly emphasises research showing that people tend to be willing to spend more when they pay by...
- Older Brains Can Be Spiffy, Too!
Between the frisson of excitement at the upcoming testimony of Andy Fastow at the Enron trial and the anxious waiting over the BlackBerry patent dispute, today's Wall Street Journal devotes its Science Journal column by Sharon Begley to an ode to...
- Critiquing Scientific Studies, For The Layperson
Great article in Newsweek about the potential pitfalls of using scientific research to make a point. Sharon Begley details some ways in which research methodology can skew study results. Study design, Begley argues, can lead to results which contradict...
- Science Blogs
Science Librarian pal Naka Ishii receommended a cog sci blog I hadn't known about, which leads me to post this short list of science blogs new to me, and maybe to you. Naka points me to Mind Matters, a cognitive science blog by Scientific American....
- Emotion & Cognition
Interesting article in last month's Wall Street Journal about emotions & cognitive performance. The free abstract sums it up: "After years of studying situations such as choking under pressure or succumbing to 'stereotype threat' (in which...