Clik here to view.
02202020
New and exciting content will be available for you this weekend. Until then, please enjoy Lena Lovich and my four part series on money, religion, and numerology from 2008.080808 (god is a number part...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The City of Lost Engrams
I was travelling back in time to an unreal place when The City appeared again after a long absence. It had been 16 months since we’d been together, and The City was not pleased. A vivid image of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coping with COVID-19: Resources for Managing Mental Health
Despite coronavirus, Trump keeps shaking hands(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Don't shake hands. Maintain a distance of 6 feet. Don't touch surfaces that could contain respiratory droplets. Don't touch your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The "Six Feet Away" Rule is Woefully Inadequate
“...the rapid international spread of COVID-19 suggests that using arbitrary droplet size cutoffs may not accurately reflect what actually occurs with respiratory emissions, possibly contributing to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Noble Prize for a Life Well-Lived
In honor of a beautiful and affectionate cat.RIP, beloved MaxApril 19, 2003 – April 24, 2020So much acrimony and confusion and death...In the true meaning of the word, Max lived a noble life.“But he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The COVID Stress Scales
Danger. Deprivation. Xenophobia. Contamination. These are some of the fears related to COVID-19. Scores of COVID questionnaires have popped up recently to assess fear, anxiety, stress, and depression...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Traces of Fear in Aphantasia
When reading a vivid story that describes a shark attack, do you imagine yourself in the ocean, seeing the dorsal fin approach you?“...sun glints off the waves / suddenly a dark flash / in the distant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Color is Your Mental Parachute?
Aphantasia and Occupational ChoiceNOTE: This isn't a real test of visual imagery. Click HERE for the Simple Aphantasia Test, which assesses whether (and how well) you can imagine pictures in your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mundane Spectacle of the Three Little Pigs
“This Neuralink is implanted in the region of the brain that uh where where the snout the snout is located which is actually quite a large part of the pig's brain.”1Elon Musk held a press event...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Neuralink in a Dozen Pigs
In a far-ranging chat with Kara Swisher, Elon Musk talked about sustainable energy, brain implants, the stupidity of the press, and more. He gave a casual update on the “Three Little Pigs” demo of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COVID-19, Predictive Coding, and Terror Management
Pandemics have a way of bringing death into sharper focus in our everyday lives. As of this writing, 1,188,259 people around the world have died from COVID-19, including 234,218 in the United States....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Neurohumanities: a new interdisciplinary paradigm or just another neuroword?
The latest issue of Neuron has published five thematic “NeuroView” papers proposing that neuroscience can augment our understanding of classically brain-free fields like art, literature, and theology....
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the Brain Works
Every now and then, it's refreshing to remember how little we know about “how the brain works.” I put that phrase in quotes because the search for the Holy Grail of [spike trains, network generative...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thoughts of Blue Brains and GABA Interneurons
An unsuccessful planto create a computer simulation of a human brain within 10 years. An exhaustive catalog of cell types comprising a specific class of inhibitory neurons within mouse visual cortex....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Overview of 'The Spike': an epic journey through failure, darkness, meaning,...
from Princeton University Press (March 9, 2021)THE SPIKE is a marvelously unique popular neuroscience book by Professor Mark Humphries, Chair of Computational Neuroscience at the University of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Overinterpreting Computational Models of Decision-Making
Bell (1985)Can a set of equations predict and quantify complex emotions resulting from financial decisions made in an uncertain environment? An influential paper by David E. Bell considered the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hoarders and Collectors
Andy Warhol's collection of dental models Pop artist Andy Warhol excelled in turning the everyday and the mundane into art. During the last 13 years of his life, Warhol put thousands of collected...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did dreams evolve to transcend overfitting?
A fascinating new paper proposes that dreams evolved to help the brain generalize, which improves its performance on day to day tasks. Incorporating a concept from deep learning, Erik Hoel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The rs-FC fMRI Law of Attraction (i.e., Resting-State Functional...
Feeling starved for affection after 15 months of pandemic-mandated social distancing? Ready to look for a suitable romantic partner by attending an in-person speed dating event? Just recline inside...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why would nasally-transferred coronavirus only affect the left side of the...
WE GET QUESTIONS!Q– “I survived a mild case of COVID. Should I be worried about the volume of gray matter in olfactory-related structures in the left hemisphere of my brain?”A– Most of what you've read...
View Article