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Deconstructing the most sensationalistic recent findings in Human Brain Imaging, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychopharmacology
The Neurocritic
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- June 18, 2009
- 03:41 PM
- 806 views
Myth of the Depression Gene
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
There never was a single "depression gene", and those patting themselves on the back because of the ceremonial defenestration of that straw man are fooling themselves.Yes, a new meta-analysis in JAMA (Risch et al., 2009) found that a variant of the serotonin transporter gene (the 5-HTTLPR polymorphic region) is not linked to an increased risk of depression, either alone or in combination with stressful life events. This study examined 14 prior papers, including the now-maligned article by Caspi ........ Read more »
Risch N, Herrell R, Lehner T, Liang KY, Eaves L, Hoh J, Griem A, Kovacs M, Ott J, Merikangas KR. (2009) nteraction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), stressful life events, and risk of depression: a meta-analysis. JAMA, 301(23), 2462-2471.
- June 13, 2009
- 05:04 PM
- 810 views
More Moronic "Mental"
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Chris Vance as the unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Gallagher and Annabella Sciorra1as his boss (and ex), Dr. Nora Skoff.The late David Carradine made a surprise guest appearance Tuesday night on Fox's much maligned new show Mental, playing the main mental patient. His character, Gideon Graham, was a professor ["a national treasure"]2 and author of the books Anti-wisdom and the [heavy-handed plot device] Book of Judges. His diagnosis: treatment-refractory catatonia of neuropsychiatric origin f........ Read more »
Grisaru N, Chudakov B, Yaroslavsky Y, Belmaker RH. (1998) Catatonia treated with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Am J Psychiatry. DOI: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/155/11/1626g
Saba G, Rocamora JF, Kalalou K, Benadhira R, Plaze M, Aubriot-Delmas B, Januel D. (2002) Catatonia and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Am J Psychiatry. DOI: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/159/10/1794
- May 24, 2009
- 09:05 PM
- 799 views
I'm a People Person!
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Or I would be if I had greater gray matter density in my left and right inferior temporal lobes, my orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum (collapsed into one big region of interest), and my left putamen and pallidum. Plus lower gray matter density in my left and right cerebellum (Lebreton et al., 2009).click figure for larger viewFig. 1 (from Lebreton et al., 2009). Regions in which gray matter density (GMD) is associated with reward dependence. Mean gray matter density was extracted from ea........ Read more »
Lebreton, M., Barnes, A., Miettunen, J., Peltonen, L., Ridler, K., Veijola, J., Tanskanen, P., Suckling, J., Jarvelin, M., Jones, P.... (2009) The brain structural disposition to social interaction. European Journal of Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06782.x
- May 14, 2009
- 08:40 PM
- 848 views
Suicide Rates in Greenland Are Highest During the Summer
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
by: crdagainSeasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a cyclical depressive disorder that typically recurs every year during the shorter days and longer nights of late fall-early winter. Much of the research on SAD has focused on changes in the photoperiod and the accompanying effects on circadian rhythms during winter. So it might come as a surprise that in Greenland, the suicide rate peaks during the summer months of continuous sun (especially at the highest latitudes). However, the rate of homici........ Read more »
Bjorksten, K., Kripke, D., & Bjerregaard, P. (2009) Accentuation of suicides but not homicides with rising latitudes of Greenland in the sunny months. BMC Psychiatry, 9(1), 20. DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-9-20
- May 6, 2009
- 06:21 AM
- 748 views
The Constant State of Desire
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Karen Finley in The Constant State of DesirePhoto by Donna Ann McAdamsIf you are better at exerting self-control by choosing less pleasurable but more healthy options, do you live in a constant state of (suppressed) desire? If you feel like you're always sacrificing and denying yourself what your brain's "valuation system" indicates is worth more, does the craving eventually go away? Or are you more likely to binge in a moment of weakness? Isn't this why most diets fail? Wouldn't it be better t........ Read more »
Hare, T., Camerer, C., & Rangel, A. (2009) Self-Control in Decision-Making Involves Modulation of the vmPFC Valuation System. Science, 324(5927), 646-648. DOI: 10.1126/science.1168450
- April 24, 2009
- 04:44 PM
- 838 views
"All I need is a TV show..."
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
A Warm TV Can Drive Away Feelings of Loneliness & RejectionStudies find that illusionary relationships with TV characters can give us real pleasureRelease Date: April 22, 2009BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Not all technology meets human needs, and some technologies provide only the illusion of having met your needs.But new research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and Miami University, Ohio, indicates that illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows ca........ Read more »
Derrick, J., Gabriel, S., & Hugenberg, K. (2009) Social surrogacy: How favored television programs provide the experience of belonging. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(2), 352-362. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.003
- April 20, 2009
- 09:06 AM
- 983 views
Neural Correlates of Admiration and Compassion and Envy and Schadenfreude
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
In light of all the sensationalistic press coverage about a journal article that wasn't publicly available last week, it's worth taking a moment to look at the actual experiment. Of course, the savvy skeptics know by now that the paper in question (Immordino-Yang et al., 2009) has absolutely nothing to do with Twitter (see Recommended Reading below for a recap). Instead, the authors conducted a neuroimaging study to examine the brain's response to stories designed to elicit the emotions of admi........ Read more »
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Andrea McColl, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio Damasio. (2009) Neural correlates of admiration and compassion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- April 8, 2009
- 05:17 AM
- 995 views
The paper formerly known as “Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience”
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Voodoo no more!The paper everyone loves (or loves to hate) has a new name.1 Through a number of channels [The Chronicle of Higher Education via @vaughanbell, Ed Vul's website, and Neuroskeptic], The Neurocritic has learned that the "Voodoo Correlations" have been downgraded to mere "Puzzlingly High Correlations." The field of social neuroscience has been spared as well, because the full title of the paper is now "Puzzlingly High Correlations in fMRI Studies of Emotion, Personality, and Social C........ Read more »
Ed Diener. (2009) Editor's Introduction to Vul et al. (2009) and Comments. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(3).
- April 2, 2009
- 09:24 PM
- 916 views
Heterotopagnosia: When I point at parts of your body
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Heterotopagnosia is an unusual neurological syndrome, as described below by Laurent Cleret de Langavant and colleagues:Heterotopagnosia is the acquired inability of brain-lesioned patients to point at someone else's body parts when prompted. The cognitive basis of this disorder is unclear. It might result from a biological function deficit critical for communication in human beings; alternatively, it could result from the disruption of a body representation. Here, we report three patients with h........ Read more »
Cleret de Langavant, L., Trinkler, I., Cesaro, P., & Bachoud-Lévi, A. (2009) Heterotopagnosia: When I point at parts of your body. Neuropsychologia. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.02.016
- March 29, 2009
- 03:32 AM
- 1,173 views
One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tallWhite Rabbit ---Jefferson AirplaneNo, we're not really discussing hallucinogenic drugs today (despite the psychedelic reference). The real question for today is this: Does the wakefulness drug modafinil (Provigil) lessen the weight gain caused by atypical antipsychotics? Not really (Roerig et al., 2009), despite what the Elsevier press release tells us:Combating Weight Gain Caused by Antipsychotic........ Read more »
Roerig, J., Steffen, K., Mitchell, J., Crosby, R., & Gosnell, B. (2009) An Exploration of the Effect of Modafinil on Olanzapine Associated Weight Gain in Normal Human Subjects. Biological Psychiatry, 65(7), 607-613. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.10.037
- March 19, 2009
- 02:25 PM
- 914 views
Lie To Me on the Autobiographical Implicit Association Test
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Lie to Me - Season 1 - "Moral Waiver" - Monica Raymund as Ria Torrescourtesy Adam Taylor/FoxLie detection is all the rage with the new TV show based on Paul Ekman's work1 that uses "microexpressions" to detect deception.The use of brain imaging technologies as lie detectors, and the admissibility of data obtained in this fashion as evidence in a court of law, has a high media profile as well - most recently (and notoriously) because of a juvenile-sex-abuse case in San Diego, recounted by Wired ........ Read more »
Verschuere, B., Prati, V., & Houwer, J. (2009) Cheating the Lie Detector: Faking in the Autobiographical Implicit Association Test. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02308.x
Verschuere, B., Prati, V., & Houwer, J. (2009) Cheating the Lie Detector: Faking in the Autobiographical Implicit Association Test. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02308.x
- March 15, 2009
- 12:52 AM
- 900 views
I Know What You Sweated Last Summer
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
From the authors who first brought you "sexual sweat" (Zhou & Chen, 2008)...Be afraid... be very afraid and prepare yourself for the sequel: "FEARFUL SWEAT" (Zhou & Chen, 2009)!!!In case you didn't know that "sexual sweat" (collected from men watching porn) differs from ordinary sweat, the results of an fMRI experiment suggested that the orbitofrontal cortex and the fusiform region in 20 female participants responded differently when smelling the two substances (Zhou & Chen, 2008). H........ Read more »
Zhou, W., & Chen, D. (2009) Fear-Related Chemosignals Modulate Recognition of Fear in Ambiguous Facial Expressions. Psychological Science, 20(2), 177-183. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02263.x
- March 5, 2009
- 08:08 AM
- 1,016 views
Atheists Are Neurotic and Religious Zealots Are Antisocial
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
"Religion is the Xanax of the people" (Inzlicht et al., 2009).The clever quote above is from the latest paper to garner the _______ Are Neurotic and _______ Are Antisocial style of sensationalistic headline, a study that claims to reveal the Neural Markers of Religious Conviction. I was all prepared to hate the paper, but the authors are not unreasonable in their hypotheses and predictions.But first, a little background. A year and a half ago, Amodio et al. (2007) published an eye-catching ar........ Read more »
Michael Inzlicht, Ian McGregor, Jacob B. Hirsh, & Kyle Nash. (2009) Neural Markers of Religious Conviction. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02305.x
- January 22, 2009
- 08:49 PM
- 970 views
When I Get That Feeling, I Need Sexual Sweating
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Did you know that male "sexual sweat" differs from ordinary sweat? Apparently so, according to a new paper in the Journal of Neuroscience (Zhou & Chen, 2008). Curiously, the article did not cite any references for this, nor did it specify the chemical composition of sexual sweat. Nonetheless, the results of an fMRI experiment suggested that the orbitofrontal cortex and the fusiform region in 20 female participants responded differently when smelling the two substances. How was such a study c........ Read more »
W. Zhou, & D. Chen. (2008) Encoding Human Sexual Chemosensory Cues in the Orbitofrontal and Fusiform Cortices. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(53), 14416-14421. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3148-08.2008
- January 15, 2009
- 08:12 PM
- 991 views
Voodoo Schadenfreude
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Voodoo doll, by SickboyMost hip researchers in cognitive neuroscience and human brain imaging have already heard about the critical new journal article with the incendiary title: "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience" (Vul et al., in press - PDF). If you haven't, you can read a comprehensive summary here and a micro version here.Avenging Voodoo SchadenfreudeNature News ran a piece on the debate and the burgeoning backlash from an angry mob of researchers whose methods were derided as fatal........ Read more »
Edward Vul, Christine Harris, Piotr Winkielman, . (2009) Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
- January 5, 2009
- 08:49 AM
- 1,127 views
Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
The end of 2008 brought us the tabloid headline, Scan Scandal Hits Social Neuroscience. As initially reported by Mind Hacks, a new "bombshell of a paper" (Vul et al., 2009) questioned the implausibly high correlations observed in some fMRI studies in Social Neuroscience. A new look at the analytic methods revealed that over half of the sampled papers used faulty techniques to obtain their results.Edward Vul, the first author, deserves a tremendous amount of credit (and a round of applause) f........ Read more »
Edward Vul, Christine Harris, Piotr Winkielman, . (2009) Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
- December 30, 2008
- 12:15 AM
- 815 views
Deal, No Deal, or Dots?
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
OR: Is Perceptual Decision Making in Primate LIP Equivalent to Financial Decision Making Under Risk?In the universally familiar game show Deal or No Deal, contestants choose from among 26 briefcases held by 26 models. Each of these briefcases contains a different amount of money ranging from $0.01 to $1,000,000. The contestant begins by choosing one briefcase, then starts selecting other cases to open, hoping to reveal small cash amounts because this will improve the odds of winning the $1 milli........ Read more »
J BECK, W MA, R KIANI, T HANKS, A CHURCHLAND, J ROITMAN, M SHADLEN, P LATHAM, & A POUGET. (2008) Probabilistic Population Codes for Bayesian Decision Making. Neuron, 60(6), 1142-1152. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.09.021
- December 26, 2008
- 10:43 PM
- 603 views
Fainting In The Name Of
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
OR: The Glasgow Coma Scale-Revised: The Texting Sign.Watch Killing in the Name, live at the Reading Festival 2008.Rage Against the Machine SyncopeFirst we had dangerous sandwiches. Now we have dangerous concerts, as described in an article in the special Christmas edition of BMJ by Mike Sinclair and colleagues (Sinclair et al., 2008). They examined the utility of texting ability as a sign of return to consciousness after fainting or panic attack at large outdoor music festivals in the UK:Three y........ Read more »
M. Sinclair, D. W Pigott, & K. N Carpenter. (2008) Texting shows recovery after faint. BMJ, 337(dec17 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a2723
- December 18, 2008
- 12:06 PM
- 752 views
Can You Reread My Mind?
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
PLoS ONE @ TwoOriginally posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008. On the corner of main streetJust tryin' to keep it in lineYou say you wanna move on andinstead of falling behindCan you read my mind?Can you read my mind?Read My Mind ------The KillersEarlier this year, a study in PLoS One (Shinkareva et al., 2008) received some wildly overblown coverage in the media:Scientists can read your mind... sort ofTHOUGHTS are successfully being read for the first time by scientists using nothing but a mod........ Read more »
Svetlana V. Shinkareva, Robert A. Mason, Vicente L. Malave, Wei Wang, Tom M. Mitchell, & Marcel Adam Just. (2008) Using fMRI Brain Activation to Identify Cognitive States Associated with Perception of Tools and Dwellings. PLoS ONE, 3(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001394
- December 17, 2008
- 10:46 PM
- 917 views
Crime, Punishment, and Jerry Springer
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
RT @Dostoyevsky Realists do not fear the results of their study."Good God!" he cried, "can it be, can it be, that I shall really take an axe, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open... that I shall tread in the sticky warm blood, blood... with the axe... Good God, can it be?"- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Ch. 5A new fMRI paper in Neuron (Buckholtz et al., 2008) claims to have discovered the neural correlates of evaluating another person's crime and deciding on the ........ Read more »
J BUCKHOLTZ, C ASPLUND, P DUX, D ZALD, J GORE, O JONES, & R MAROIS. (2008) The Neural Correlates of Third-Party Punishment. Neuron, 60(5), 930-940. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.10.016
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