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Automatically-Triggered Brain Stimulation during Encoding Improves Verbal...
Fig. 4 (modified from Ezzyat et al., 2018). Stimulation targets showing numerical increase/decrease in free recall performance are shown in red/blue. Memory-enhancing sites clustered in the middle...
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Big Theory, Big Data, and Big Worries in Cognitive Neuroscience
Big Theory vs. Big Data Debate at CNS2018Eve Marder, Alona Fyshe, Jack Gallant, David Poeppel, Gary Marcusimage by @jonasobleserWhat Will Solve the Big Problems in Cognitive Neuroscience?That was the...
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The Fractionation of Auditory Semantic Knowledge: Agnosia for Bird Calls
How is semantic knowledge represented and stored in the brain? A classic way of addressing this question is via single-case studies of patients with brain lesions that lead to a unique pattern of...
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“My family say they grieve for the old me” – profound personality changes...
Okun (2012). New England Journal of Medicine.Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been highly successful in controlling the motor symptoms of this...
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What counts as "memory" and who gets to define it?
Do Plants Have “Memory”?A new paper by Bédécarrats et al. (2018) is the latest entry into the iconoclastic hullabaloo claiming a non-synaptic basis for learning and memory. In short, “RNA extracted...
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Citric Acid Increases Balloon Inflation (aka sour taste makes you more risky)
from Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART)– Joggle Research for iPadRisk taking and risk preference1 are complex constructs measured by self-report questionnaires (“propensity”), laboratory tasks, and the...
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The Lie of Precision Medicine
My next blog post will be entitled "The Lie of Precision Medicine"— sarcastic_f (@sarcastic_f) June 23, 2018This post will be my own personalized rant about the false promises of personalized medicine....
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An epidemic of "Necessary and Sufficient" neurons
A great deal of neuroscience has become “circuit cracking.” — Alex Gomez-MarinA miniaturized holy grail of neuroscience is discovering that activation or inhibition of a specific population of neurons...
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Improved Brain Health for All! (update on the BRAIN initiative)
adapted from Figure 3 (Koroshetz et al., 2018). Magnetic resonance angiography highlighting the vasculature in the human brain in high resolution, without the use of any contrast agent, on a 7T MRI...
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A Preventable Tragedy in a Man with Semantic Dementia
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: All suicide attempts and parasuicidal gestures should be taken very seriously in patients with dementia.“Previous parasuicide is a predictor of suicide. The increased risk of...
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Brain stimulation during sleep does not enhance memory for learned material
“Learn while you sleep” has been the claim of snake oil salesmen since the 1950s. The old pseudoscience methods involved listening to tapes and records. From a 1958 article by Lester David:Max...
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Dr. Bernard Carroll: blogger, funny tweeter, and critic of scientific and...
Dr. Bernard Carroll (Nov 21, 1940 – Sep 10, 2018)The sound of one hand clapping while putting lipstick on pigs: Ketamine, A Promising Depression Treatment, Seems To Act Like An Opioid...
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There Is a Giant Hole Where My Heart Used To Be
With profound grief, I announce that Sandra’s journey has come to an end.Gardens at Government House, Victoria BC (June 2017)Sandra Dawson was taken from this earth by the indiscriminate brutality of...
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Survey Skeleton
Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers has a lovely Survey Skeleton peeking out enticingly on some of their journal websites now.It's to lure you to take their survey, where you can win attractive...
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Manifestations of Fear in Cross-Cultural Interpretations of Sleep Paralysis
Frontispiece from: Blicke in die Traum- und Geisterwelt (A look into the dream and spirit world), by Friedrich Voigt (1854).What are you most afraid of? Not finding a permanent job? Getting a divorce...
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Folie à deux and Homicide for the Holidays
Nothing says home for the holidays like a series of murders committed by family members with a shared delusion. So sit back, sip your hot apple cider or spiked egg nog, and revel in family dysfunction...
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2018 Was a Year to Forget. Really.
Our memory for the details of real-life events is poor, according to a recent study.Seven MIT students took a one hour walk through Cambridge, MA. A day later, they were presented with one second video...
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What Can Brain Imaging Tell Us About Violent Extremism?
Before answering that question, I'll tell you about an incredibly impressive ethnographic study and field survey. For a one year period, the investigators (Pretus, Hamid et al., 2018) conducted field...
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Unlucky Thirteen
Today is the 13th anniversary of this blog. I wanted to write a sharp and subversive post.1 Or at least compose a series of self-deprecating witticisms about persisting this long. Alas, it has been an...
View ArticleIs executive function different from cognitive control? The results of an...
It ended in a tie!Is executive function different from cognitive control?— sarcastic_f (@sarcastic_f) January 30, 2019Granted, this is a small and biased sample, and I don't have a large number of...
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