65 posts · 55,692 views
A critical sideswipe into the world of scientific controversy with a focus on the murky waters of the science of the mind.
Neurobonkers
65 posts
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- April 29, 2013
- 08:49 AM
- 4 views
The Neuroscience Power Crisis: What's the fallout?
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Last week a paper ($) was published in
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
that is rocking the world of neuroscience. The crack team of researchers including neuroscientists, psychologists, geneticists and statisticians analysed meta-analyses of neuroscience research to determine the statistical power of ...Read More
... Read more »
Button KS, Ioannidis JP, Mokrysz C, Nosek BA, Flint J, Robinson ES, & Munafò MR. (2013) Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 14(5), 365-76. PMID: 23571845
- August 22, 2012
- 04:48 PM
- 321 views
The Science of Bad Neuroscience
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Prof. Dorothy Bishop outlines the major problems currently affecting the field of neuroscience.... Read more »
Weisberg, Deena Skolnick. (2008) The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(3), 229-477. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20040
- July 13, 2012
- 12:13 PM
- 368 views
The theory that liars look up to the right has been proved wrong
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A paper published in PLOS ONE by the Richard Wiseman et al (the king of weird and wonderful psychology experiments) has apparently disproved the long-standing theory that direction of eye gaze can indicate lying.... Read more »
Wiseman, R., Watt C., Brinke, L., Porter, S., Couper, S., & Rankin, C. (2012) The Eyes Don’t Have It: Lie Detection and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. PLOS ONE. info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0040259
- July 7, 2012
- 01:00 PM
- 522 views
Paris Syndrome: Peculiar Madness or Urban Legend?
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A disorder dubbed "Paris Syndrome" is claimed to affect Japanese tourists shocked that Paris is not the fairy tale city they have been led to believe, but does the evidence back up the theory?... Read more »
Viala, A., Ota, H., Vacheron, M.N., Martin, P., & Caroli, F. (2004) "Les Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris : un modèle original de prise en charge transculturelle". Neuvure de journal Psychiatrie, 31-34. info:/
- June 26, 2012
- 09:52 AM
- 398 views
Two Major Reports Slamming The Drug War Released in One Day
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Two reports outline empirically the failure of the war on drugs and the catastrophic effect on the global HIV Pandemic.... Read more »
Count The Costs. (2012) The Alternative World Drug Report. (Public Report). info:/
- June 8, 2012
- 07:21 AM
- 492 views
“The best evidence based advice to help cannabis smokers look after their lungs would be to abandon the peculiar British habit of mixing cannabis with tobacco”
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A letter published today in the Metro by Prof. David Nutt, former leading scientific advisor on drugs to the UK government, in response to the BLF report.... Read more »
British Lung Foundation. (2012) The impact of cannabis on your lungs. British Lung Foundation Reports. info:/
- June 6, 2012
- 09:04 AM
- 339 views
Breaking News: Simply telling depressed people to “jog on” does not help relieve symptoms of depression (especially if they are already on anti-depressants)
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Research published today in the BMJ and reported in the Guardian and by the BBC does not prove that exercise can not help those with depression, as has been reported.... Read more »
Chalder, M. Wiles, N. Campbell, J. Hollinghurst, S. Haase, A. Taylor, A. Fox, K. Costelloe, C. Searle, A. Baxter, H. Winder, R. Wright, C. Turner, K., & Calnan, M. Lawlor, D. Peters, T. Sharp, D. Montgomery, A. Lewis, G. (2012) Facilitated physical activity as a treatment for depressed adults: randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 344(jun06 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e2758
- May 31, 2012
- 12:05 PM
- 473 views
Getting to the bottom of the case of the "bath salt zombie face eater"
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A freak attack described as drug induced “zombie face eating” has hit international headlines this week. Until the results of a toxicological analysis, the drug(s) involved is unknown and open to speculation.... Read more »
Measham,F. Moore, K. Østergaard, j. (2911) Mephedrone, “Bubble” and unidentified white powders: the contested identities of synthetic “legal highs”,. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 11(3), 137-146. info:/
Nutt, D., King, L., & Phillips, L. (2010) Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558-1565. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6
- May 29, 2012
- 12:37 PM
- 577 views
About time for a paradigm shift?
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
The line below is taken from my undergrad revision notes, it is the same conclusion reached in a profile of Thomas Kuhn posted yesterday on the Scientific American blog.
“Kuhn described what science tends to be, Popper described what it ought to be”... Read more »
Horgan, J. (2012) What Thomas Kuhn Really Thought about Scientific “Truth”. Scientific American. info:/
Yong E. (2012) Replication studies: Bad copy. Nature, 485(7398), 298-300. PMID: 22596136
- May 20, 2012
- 11:01 PM
- 662 views
Researchers Demonstrate The First Brain Controlled Robotic Arm
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
esearchers have demonstrated the first 3D control of a robotic arm from electrodes implanted directly in the brain. This technology has been tested before in monkeys but this is the first time the technology has been successfully trialled in humans. Until now, human brain computer interfaces (BCI) have been limited to two dimensions. ... Read more »
Hochberg, L., Bacher, D., Jarosiewicz, B., Masse, N., Simeral, J., Vogel, J., Haddadin, S., Liu, J., Cash, S., van der Smagt, P.... (2012) Reach and grasp by people with tetraplegia using a neurally controlled robotic arm. Nature, 485(7398), 372-375. DOI: 10.1038/nature11076
- April 4, 2012
- 11:20 AM
- 628 views
The Daily Mail incorrectly correct article describing cannabis-schizophrenia research
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
The Daily Mail have issued a "correction" repeating their belief that just one cannabis joint can cause schizophrenia.... Read more »
Kucewicz MT, Tricklebank MD, Bogacz R, & Jones MW. (2011) Dysfunctional prefrontal cortical network activity and interactions following cannabinoid receptor activation. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(43), 15560-8. PMID: 22031901
- April 3, 2012
- 07:17 AM
- 550 views
Parkinson’s Law of Triviality: Why Britain Has Spent The Past Week Talking About Pasties & An Ingenious New Method for Sifting Through Neuroscience Research
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A look at Parkinson’s law of Triviality and a new web-app that links papers semantically.... Read more »
Voytek, B. Voytek, J. (2012) Semi-automated Hypothesis Generation (Preprint). Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive. info:/
- March 22, 2012
- 09:37 AM
- 834 views
"Corporate Psychopathy" or old-fashioned witch hunt?
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Did anti-depressants play a role in the financial crisis? Are bankers more likely to be psychopaths? Do financial institutions behave in the same way as psychopaths?... Read more »
Babiak, P., Neumann, C., & Hare, R. (2010) Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk. Behavioral Sciences . DOI: 10.1002/bsl.925
Price J, Cole V, & Goodwin GM. (2009) Emotional side-effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: qualitative study. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 195(3), 211-7. PMID: 19721109
- March 20, 2012
- 11:37 AM
- 825 views
The Amazing Story of Alexander Shulgin: The chemist who discovered hundreds of psychedelics from his humble garden shed
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A beautiful new film tells the story of Alexander Shulgin, the chemist who re-discovered MDMA (after it was synthesised and abandoned by Merck) and went on to discover hundreds of psychedelic drugs such as the 2C*family. He is famous not only for independently discovering and developing so many psychedelics but for testing them extensively on himself and for writing the core textbooks of the psychedelic literature, PiHKAL (‘Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved’) and TiHKAL (‘........ Read more »
Benzenhöfer U, & Passie T. (2010) Rediscovering MDMA (ecstasy): the role of the American chemist Alexander T. Shulgin. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 105(8), 1355-61. PMID: 20653618
- March 19, 2012
- 01:52 PM
- 475 views
The Great Drugs Debate
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
The President of Colombia, Former President of Mexico and current and former UN and US drug tzars come together with academics and public figures to debate to war on drugs... Read more »
Jahangir, A. Fuentes, C. Gaviria, C. Zedillo, E. Cardoso, F. Papandreou, G. Shultz, G. Solana, J. Whitehead, J. Annan, K. Arbour, L. Cattaui, M. Llosa, M. Caspers-Merk,M. Kazatchkine,M. Volcker, P. Branson, R. Dreifuss, R. Stoltenberg, T. (2011) War On Drugs. Report Of The Global Commission On Drug Policy. info:/
HUGHES, C., & STEVENS, A. (2012) A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31(1), 101-113. DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
- March 15, 2012
- 05:55 AM
- 756 views
Is Your Newspaper Making You Ignorant?
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Why does there appear to be such a strong correlation between newspaper circulation and bullshit?... Read more »
Frankfurt, H. (2005) On Bullshit. Princeton University Press. info:other/
Cooper, B., Lee, W., Goldacre, B., & Sanders, T. (2011) The quality of the evidence for dietary advice given in UK national newspapers. Public Understanding of Science. DOI: 10.1177/0963662511401782
- March 9, 2012
- 04:46 AM
- 637 views
A Yale Professor's Rampage on PLoS and a Group That Failed To Replicate His Research
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
John Bargh, a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University has written a blog post that’s currently receiving a thorough dressing down by the academic community. The title of the blog post, “Nothing in Their Heads” is a scathing ad-hom attack on a research group that failed to replicate his research. The opening gambit is an attack on, well the entire academic community.... Read more »
Doyen S, Klein O, Pichon CL, & Cleeremans A. (2012) Behavioral priming: it's all in the mind, but whose mind?. PloS one, 7(1). PMID: 22279526
Bargh, J. Chen, M. Burrows, L. (1996) Automaticity of Social Behaviour: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. info:/http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/articles/bargh_chen_burrows_1996.pdf
- March 6, 2012
- 09:10 AM
- 555 views
The statistical fallacy that trips up everyone from journalists to gynecologists
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
How most gynecologists that were given a simple stats problem relating to their work gave the wrong answer, why the problem appears in even the most respectable of publications and how the same fallacy led to 13,000 unnecessary abortions.... Read more »
Gigerenzer, G., Gaissmaier, W., Kurz-Milcke, E., Schwartz, L., & Woloshin, S. (2007) Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 8(2), 53-96. DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6053.2008.00033.x
- February 17, 2012
- 10:46 AM
- 947 views
A Scientist’s Worst Nightmare
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A detailed analysis of a new infographic dealing with the issue of falsification in scientific research.... Read more »
Ioannidis, J. (2005) Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Medicine, 2(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
Moonesinghe, R., Khoury, M., & Janssens, A. (2007) Most Published Research Findings Are False—But a Little Replication Goes a Long Way. PLoS Medicine, 4(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040028
Young NS, Ioannidis JP, & Al-Ubaydli O. (2008) Why current publication practices may distort science. PLoS medicine, 5(10). PMID: 18844432
Fanelli D. (2009) How many scientists fabricate and falsify research? A systematic review and meta-analysis of survey data. PloS one, 4(5). PMID: 19478950
- February 13, 2012
- 12:12 AM
- 719 views
Just ONE Copy of The Daily Mail Could Ruin Your Life
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A comprehensive debunking of the Daily Mail's reporting of science.... Read more »
The Poynter Institute. (2006) Eyetracking the news. A study of print and online reading. Poynter. info:/
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