- August 21, 2016
- 05:49 AM
- 127 views
What To Do About Software Errors in fMRI?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Last month we learned that a problem in commonly used fMRI analysis tools was giving rise to elevated rates of false positives. Now, another issue has been discovered in an fMRI tool. The affected software is called GingerALE and the 'implementation errors' are revealed in a new paper by Simon B. Eickhoff et al., the developers of the package.
GingerALE is a meta-analysis tool, that offers the ability to combine the results of multiple fMRI studies to assess the overall level of evide... Read more »
Eickhoff SB, Laird AR, Fox PM, Lancaster JL, & Fox PT. (2016) Implementation errors in the GingerALE Software: Description and recommendations. Human brain mapping. PMID: 27511454
- August 21, 2016
- 03:00 AM
- 144 views
Brawn, Brain and Beauty
by Aurametrix team in Aurametrix Blog
In the future all humans will be tall and beautiful look-alikes, as in GATTACA. Or they will split into frail beauties and sturdy beasts, as described in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. British evolutionary psychologist Oliver Curry and paleoanthropologist Matthew Skinner believe in the possibility of similar scenarios, based on either the rich and poor divide ("gracile" vs "robust" species) or climate change-related evolution (pale hairy giants vs aquatic and space humans). The change may b........ Read more »
Crabtree, G. (2013) Our fragile intellect. Part II. Trends in Genetics, 29(1), 3-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.003
Williams AG, Wackerhage H, & Day SH. (2016) Genetic Testing for Sports Performance, Responses to Training and Injury Risk: Practical and Ethical Considerations. Medicine and sport science, 105-19. PMID: 27287080
Dickenson, E., O'Connor, P., Robinson, P., Campbell, R., Ahmed, I., Fernandez, M., Hawkes, R., Charles, H., & Griffin, D. (2016) Hip morphology in elite golfers: asymmetry between lead and trail hips. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50(17), 1081-1086. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096007
- August 20, 2016
- 09:30 PM
- 125 views
Are Teaching and Learning Coevolved?
by Joshua Fisher in Text Savvy
Discussions in education are increasingly focused on "how students learn," and it seems to be widely accepted that teaching should adjust itself to what we discover about this. But if teaching is as natural a human faculty as learning, then this may be only half the story. How students (naturally) learn might be caused, in part, by how teachers (naturally) teach, and vice versa. And learners perhaps should be asked to adjust to what we learn about how we teach as much as the other way ........ Read more »
Strauss, S., Ziv, M., & Stein, A. (2002) Teaching as a natural cognition and its relations to preschoolers’ developing theory of mind. Cognitive Development, 17(3-4), 1473-1487. DOI: 10.1016/S0885-2014(02)00128-4
- August 20, 2016
- 05:45 PM
- 136 views
'I miss you so much': How Twitter is broadening the conversation on death and mourning
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Death and mourning were largely considered private matters in the 20th century, with the public remembrances common in previous eras replaced by intimate gatherings behind closed doors in funeral parlors and family homes. But social media is redefining how people grieve, and Twitter in particular -- with its ephemeral mix of rapid-fire broadcast and personal expression -- is widening the conversation around death and mourning.
... Read more »
Nina Lyn Cesare, & Jennifer Lynn Branstad. (2016) Dying and Mourning in the Twittersphere. American Sociological Association. info:/
- August 20, 2016
- 06:54 AM
- 153 views
What are we getting wrong in neuroscience?
by neurosci in Neuroscientifically Challenged
In 1935, an ambitious neurology professor named Egas Moniz sat in the audience at a symposium on the frontal lobes, enthralled by neuroscientist Carlyle F. Jacobsen's description of some experiments Jacobsen had conducted with fellow investigator John Fulton. Jacobsen and Fulton had damaged the frontal lobes of a chimpanzee named "Becky," and afterwards they had observed a considerable behavioral transformation. Becky had previously been stubborn, erratic, and difficult to train, but post-operat........ Read more »
Lopez-Munoz, F., & Alamo, C. (2009) Monoaminergic Neurotransmission: The History of the Discovery of Antidepressants from 1950s Until Today. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 15(14), 1563-1586. DOI: 10.2174/138161209788168001
- August 20, 2016
- 04:47 AM
- 141 views
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and risk of psychiatric disorder
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder affecting 5-15% of reproductive-aged women and characterized by high levels of circulating androgens."OK, go on."Women with PCOS had higher risks for a range of psychiatric disorders not shown before. Elevated risk in their siblings suggests shared familial factors between PCOS and psychiatric disorders."So said the findings reported by Carolyn Cesta and colleagues [1] who using Swedish national register data concluded that there ma........ Read more »
Cesta, C., Månsson, M., Palm, C., Lichtenstein, P., Iliadou, A., & Landén, M. (2016) Polycystic ovary syndrome and psychiatric disorders: Co-morbidity and heritability in a nationwide Swedish cohort. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 196-203. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.08.005
- August 19, 2016
- 03:34 PM
- 142 views
Cloth masks offer poor protection against air pollution
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Results of a new study by environmental health scientists suggest that inexpensive cloth masks worn by people who hope to reduce their exposure to air pollution vary widely in effectiveness and could be giving users a false sense of security, especially in highly polluted areas.
... Read more »
Shakya, K., Noyes, A., Kallin, R., & Peltier, R. (2016) Evaluating the efficacy of cloth facemasks in reducing particulate matter exposure. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. DOI: 10.1038/jes.2016.42
- August 19, 2016
- 02:42 PM
- 130 views
The Brain That Goes Through Phases: Temporal Metastates in fMRI
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Do you ever feel like your brain is stuck in a rut? A new study from neuroscientists James M. Shine and colleagues reveals the existence of 'temporal metastates' in human brain activity. These metastates are modes or patterns of activity that can persist over days, weeks or even months at a time, and they seem to be related to fluctuations in energy levels and attention.
The authors made use of a unique fMRI dataset, namely the results of repeated scanning of neuroscientist Russ Poldrack's br... Read more »
Shine JM, Koyejo O, & Poldrack RA. (2016) Temporal metastates are associated with differential patterns of time-resolved connectivity, network topology, and attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 27528672
- August 19, 2016
- 07:02 AM
- 144 views
Psychopaths brains work differently—at least when they are criminal psychopaths
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
This will shock you, or maybe relieve you: Psychopaths are different from the rest of us. Here’s another article saying there are measurable differences in how the brains of how criminal psychopaths work (and look) when compared to non-criminal psychopaths (those who have psychopathic traits but have not been convicted of criminal offenses) and non-psychopaths. […]
Related posts:
Is this a new treatment for adult criminal psychopaths?
I want to believe some psychopaths have feelingsÂ........ Read more »
Geurts DE, von Borries K, Volman I, Bulten BH, Cools R, & Verkes RJ. (2016) Neural connectivity during reward expectation dissociates psychopathic criminals from non-criminal individuals with high impulsive/antisocial psychopathic traits. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(8), 1326-1334. PMID: 27217111
- August 19, 2016
- 07:00 AM
- 127 views
Friday Fellow: Asian Pigeonwing
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Today’s Friday Fellow is a creeping (but not creepy) plant with nice deep blue flowers shaped like a human female genitalia. Yeah, you read that right. Its scientific name is Clitoria ternatea, the genus name being a … Continue reading →... Read more »
Devi, B., Boominathan, R., & Mandal, S. (2003) Anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic properties of Clitoria ternatea root. Fitoterapia, 74(4), 345-349. DOI: 10.1016/S0367-326X(03)00057-1
Taranalli, A., & Cheeramkuzhy, T. (2011) Influence of Clitoria Ternatea Extracts on Memory and Central Cholinergic Activity in Rats. Pharmaceutical Biology, 38(1), 51-56. DOI: 10.1076/1388-0209(200001)3811-BFT051
- August 19, 2016
- 04:35 AM
- 139 views
Childhood inflammation and hypomanic symptoms in young adulthood?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Higher levels of systemic inflammatory marker IL-6 in childhood were associated with hypomanic symptoms in young adulthood, suggesting that inflammation may play a role in the pathophysiology of mania."That was the conclusion reached by Joseph Hayes and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) who drew on data derived from the excellent resource that is ALSPAC ("Charting the health of 14,500 families in the Bristol area to improve the health of future generations"). I'll be talking abou........ Read more »
Hayes JF, Khandaker GM, Anderson J, Mackay D, Zammit S, Lewis G, Smith DJ, & Osborn DP. (2016) Childhood interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and atopic disorders as risk factors for hypomanic symptoms in young adulthood: a longitudinal birth cohort study. Psychological medicine, 1-11. PMID: 27476619
- August 18, 2016
- 04:07 PM
- 152 views
Neural stem cells control their own fate
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
To date, it has been assumed that the differentiation of stem cells depends on the environment they are embedded in. A research group now describes for the first time a mechanism by which hippocampal neural stem cells regulate their own cell fate via the protein Drosha.
... Read more »
Chiara Rolando,, Andrea Erni,, Alice Grison,, Robert Beattie,, Anna Engler,, Paul J. Gokhale,, Marta Milo,, Thomas Wegleiter,, Sebastian Jessberger, & Verdon Taylor. (2016) Multipotency of Adult Hippocampal NSCs In Vivo Is Restricted by Drosha/NFIB. Cell Stem Cell . info:/10.1016/j.stem.2016.07.003
- August 18, 2016
- 08:54 AM
- 201 views
Wait, let me google it. On the fall (and rise?) of human memory.
by gdw in FictionalFieldwork
Ruins of a memory palace Once upon a time, there were no computers. And yet, even in the ancient days when writing was not widespread, people told gigantic tales or recited poems of epic proportions. Often more than once. Admittedly, they probably changed a bit along the way, but still the plot remained intact. How […]... Read more »
Carvalho JT, & Nolfi S. (2016) Cognitive Offloading Does Not Prevent but Rather Promotes Cognitive Development. PloS one, 11(8). PMID: 27505162
Risko, E., & Gilbert, S. (2016) Cognitive Offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 676-688. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002
Storm, B., Stone, S., & Benjamin, A. (2016) Using the Internet to access information inflates future use of the Internet to access other information. Memory, 1-7. DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2016.1210171
- August 18, 2016
- 08:00 AM
- 147 views
Sorry, I Don't Drink
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Koalas don’t drink a lot of water, but the spinifex hopping mouse and kangaroo rat put him to shame. They never drink. What water they need they get from the seeds they eat and from the fact that they conserve water amazingly well – including the water that they produce during metabolism. Adult mayflies don’t drink either – they don’t have working mouthparts! Of course, some only live a few minutes as adults, so it may not be that big a deal.... Read more »
Banta MR. (2003) Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) voluntarily select temperatures that conserve energy rather than water. Physiological and biochemical zoology : PBZ, 76(4), 522-32. PMID: 13130431
King RF, Cooke C, Carroll S, & O'Hara J. (2008) Estimating changes in hydration status from changes in body mass: considerations regarding metabolic water and glycogen storage. Journal of sports sciences, 26(12), 1361-3. PMID: 18828029
- August 18, 2016
- 06:09 AM
- 153 views
Mercury and autism: where the science currently stands
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Yes, I know that on the 'hot potato' scale, to talk about mercury and autism still moves the needle up to somewhere approaching furnace level for some people despite discussions on this heavy metal still figuring in several quarters. This is however a blog based on peer-reviewed science (for the most part) and so with mucho, mucho caveats included I want to draw your attention to the review paper by Janet Kern and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) and the observation that: "The pr........ Read more »
Kern JK, Geier DA, Sykes LK, Haley BE, & Geier MR. (2016) The relationship between mercury and autism: A comprehensive review and discussion. Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS), 8-24. PMID: 27473827
- August 17, 2016
- 08:03 PM
- 137 views
It takes a village to raise a capybara
by Emily Makowski in Sextraordinary!
Capybaras have been making headlines recently. First, they may have established a breeding population in Florida. Then, they took over the Olympic golf course in Rio (part of their natural habitat). This week, I discuss social groupings and parental care in these noteworthy rodents. ... Read more »
Dos Santos E, Tokumaru RS, Nogueira-Filho SL, & Nogueira SS. (2014) The effects of unrelated offspring whistle calls on capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Brazilian journal of biology , 74(3 Suppl 1). PMID: 25627382
- August 17, 2016
- 03:17 PM
- 142 views
How do researchers and journalists in Brazil relate to each other?
by SciELO in SciELO in Perspective
Scientists admit that dealing with complex issues related to their research with journalists is not an easy task. However, long they realized that communicate their results in scientific journals is not enough. To obtain research grants, attract collaboration opportunities and for career advancement, it is necessary - and advisable - to communicate with the public through journalists. Read about the details of this relationship and what can be done to improve it. … Read More →... Read more »
Peters, H., Brossard, D., de Cheveigne, S., Dunwoody, S., Kallfass, M., Miller, S., & Tsuchida, S. (2008) SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: Interactions with the Mass Media. Science, 321(5886), 204-205. DOI: 10.1126/science.1157780
MASSARANI, L., & PETERS, H. (2016) Scientists in the public sphere: Interactions of scientists and journalists in Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 88(2), 1165-1175. DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765201620150558
Peters, H. (2013) Gap between science and media revisited: Scientists as public communicators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(Supplement_3), 14102-14109. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212745110
- August 17, 2016
- 02:20 PM
- 156 views
Can cell phones make you feel less connected to your friends and family?
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
In this digital age, with phones at our fingertips, you would think that access to constant communication would make us feel closer to one another. But a new study shows that may not be the case. In fact, cell phone use might actually lead to feeling less socially connected, depending on your gender or cell phone habits.
... Read more »
Lepp, A., Li, J., & Barkley, J. (2016) College students' cell phone use and attachment to parents and peers. Computers in Human Behavior, 401-408. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.021
- August 17, 2016
- 01:30 PM
- 154 views
The PROCAMIO Trial – IV Procainamide vs IV Amiodarone for the Acute Treatment of Stable Wide Complex Tachycardia
by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic
This is a very interesting trial that may surprise the many outspoken amiodarone advocates, but it should not surprise anyone who pays attention to research.
ALPS showed that we should stop giving amiodarone for unwitnessed shockable cardiac arrest. The lead researcher is still trying to spin amiodarone for witnessed shockable cardiac arrest, even though the results do not show improvement in the one outcome that matters – leaving the hospital with a brain that still works.[1],[2],[3]... Read more »
Kudenchuk PJ, Brown SP, Daya M, Rea T, Nichol G, Morrison LJ, Leroux B, Vaillancourt C, Wittwer L, Callaway CW.... (2016) Amiodarone, Lidocaine, or Placebo in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. The New England journal of medicine, 374(18), 1711-22. PMID: 27043165
Ortiz M, MartÃn A, Arribas F, Coll-Vinent B, Del Arco C, Peinado R, Almendral J, & PROCAMIO Study Investigators. (2016) Randomized comparison of intravenous procainamide vs. intravenous amiodarone for the acute treatment of tolerated wide QRS tachycardia: the PROCAMIO study. European heart journal. PMID: 27354046
Marill KA, deSouza IS, Nishijima DK, Senecal EL, Setnik GS, Stair TO, Ruskin JN, & Ellinor PT. (2010) Amiodarone or procainamide for the termination of sustained stable ventricular tachycardia: an historical multicenter comparison. Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 17(3), 297-306. PMID: 20370763
Marill KA, deSouza IS, Nishijima DK, Stair TO, Setnik GS, & Ruskin JN. (2006) Amiodarone is poorly effective for the acute termination of ventricular tachycardia. Annals of emergency medicine, 47(3), 217-24. PMID: 16492484
Tomlinson DR, Cherian P, Betts TR, & Bashir Y. (2008) Intravenous amiodarone for the pharmacological termination of haemodynamically-tolerated sustained ventricular tachycardia: is bolus dose amiodarone an appropriate first-line treatment?. Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, 25(1), 15-8. PMID: 18156531
Kułakowski P, Karczmarewicz S, Karpiński G, Soszyńska M, & Ceremuzyński L. (2000) Effects of intravenous amiodarone on ventricular refractoriness, intraventricular conduction, and ventricular tachycardia induction. Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 2(3), 207-15. PMID: 11227590
Bonny A, De Sisti A, Márquez MF, Megbemado R, Hidden-Lucet F, & Fontaine G. (2012) Low doses of intravenous epinephrine for refractory sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. World journal of cardiology, 4(10), 296-301. PMID: 23110246
Kowey PR. (1988) The calamity of cardioversion of conscious patients. The American journal of cardiology, 61(13), 1106-7. PMID: 3364364
- August 17, 2016
- 11:45 AM
- 145 views
Multiplicative versus additive fitness and the limit of weak selection
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Previously, I have discussed the importance of understanding how fitness is defined in a given model. So far, I’ve focused on how mathematically equivalent formulations can have different ontological commitments. In this post, I want to touch briefly on another concern: two different types of mathematical definitions of fitness. In particular, I will discuss additive […]... Read more »
Wu B, GarcÃa J, Hauert C, & Traulsen A. (2013) Extrapolating weak selection in evolutionary games. PLoS Computational Biology, 9(12). PMID: 24339769
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