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Tag Archives: brain

Who is Logan Gage?

I was beginning to think that DI had given up on attacking neuroscience as they had not posted an anti-brain article since January.  I was wrong, however.  There is an article marked April 27 about free will.
But it’s not by Egnor.
It’s by a guy named Gage.
All that it says about him on the DI website [...]

I love this research baby but I can’t think straight anymore

So I’ve been gone for a lot longer than I meant to.  I finished the thesis and defended it, I’ve taken my last class here, and now all that’s left is finals.  And graduation.  And finding a job.  And a new apartment.
As this blog is hosted by the Charles Center, I suppose I should give [...]

No longer unrequited

Steven Novella loves me back:
The brain processes sensory information so that it is a useful, and not necessarily accurate, depiction of the world. This sensory input is also highly selective, giving us that slice of reality that proved to be most evolutionarily adaptive. That part of our brain that pays attention then attends to a [...]

What is behind that statement?

I want you to tell me what is wrong with this video.  The only part I’m going to address here is at the end, but the rest is also interesting and it’s only 14 min long, so you may want to watch the whole thing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_XAMm_TBJk
Did you catch it?  Benjamin Wallace talks about a study where [...]

Paging Dr. Gupta

Last week, a friend and I were having a discussion about solutions to the economic crisis.  I pointed out that the “sole superpower” status that the US enjoyed in the 90s and early 00s was probably a result of massive investment in science, technology, and science education during the Soviet era.  In other words, a [...]

Another email exchange

I got this the other day:
“…they had used low-power, low-frequency ultrasound to stimulate activity in thin slices of brain tissue preserved on slides; by early November, the team had performed an experiment on a live mouse in which they induced involuntary movement by stimulating certain regions of the mouse’s brain from outside its head…are also [...]

There is also no texting plan

Good news: it looks like I have just one more day crunching numbers in the lab before I can start writing it all up.  I have 112 participants and solid p values (and what else do you really need?).
Bad news: I was under the impression that I was to produce an 8 to 10 page [...]

There is also no lettuce

Not having been trained in philosophy, it took a bit longer than I had expected to make it all the way through the most recent version of Susan Hurley’s shared circuits model.  Off the top, I must admit that it is quite an achievement of thought , but something doesn’t sit quite right with me [...]

Nocturne in E flat major

It’s three in the morning (not exactly 4 am, but the metaphor holds true here). I should be working on graduate applications (due in two days), but I can’t focus.  I passed out this afternoon before I could make a second pot of coffee and ended up napping for about 8 hours (my roommate must [...]

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics

And then there is journalism.  Novella is referring to news organizations like Reuters and the Washington Post, but I’ve been seeing a lot of this in New Scientist lately as well.  Now that I think about it, This American Life is guilty too (I’ve only caught them once, but that’s only because that particular act [...]