Author's Note: Article originally published in BrainWorld Magazine. Like blood from a wound, refugees pour out of the war-torn nation of Syria. And while international conversation centers on the social and economic toll refugees may have on their adopting countries, very little has been said about how immigration and refugee status may affect the human … Continue reading Refugee Status and the Human Brain
Science
Manic Monday: Harlow’s Pit of Despair, the Rape Rack and Iron Maidens
Manic Monday: Harlow's Pit of Despair, the Rape Rack and Iron Maidens.
2015: Manic Monday, Technique Thursday, Findings Friday and Séance Sunday
Yes, it's that time of year again, when we make resolutions and promptly fail at them. But it'll be different this year, you tell yourself. I'll actually keep my resolutions. Yes, yes, of course you will. Since I, like most everyone else, have a positive bias towards myself, I have made the resolution to maintain … Continue reading 2015: Manic Monday, Technique Thursday, Findings Friday and Séance Sunday
Capgras Delusion: Impostors are Everywhere. Or are they?
Impostors, impostors everywhere. Or are they? David was involved in a bad car accident. He sustained head injuries when he landed head-first on the ground. Seemingly, though, he was fine, retaining the capacity to talk and walk. But there was a problem. Whenever David saw his mother, he would say that she looks like my … Continue reading Capgras Delusion: Impostors are Everywhere. Or are they?
Mirrored-Self Misidentification: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who I See is not Me at all
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who I see is not me at all. When you look into a mirror, who do you see? Yourself? Not if you have Mirrored-self misidentification, a delusional belief that your reflection in a mirror belongs to a stranger’s. The stranger just happens to look like you. The disorder might be … Continue reading Mirrored-Self Misidentification: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who I See is not Me at all
Split-Brain Patients
The corpus callosum is the bundle of never fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain. It’s the largest single structure in the brain, with some two hundred million fibers. As a last resort for epilepsy, this bundle can be cut in a procedure known as a callostomy. When this happens, a split-brain patient … Continue reading Split-Brain Patients
Cognitive Substraction: Why Brain Imaging Techniques aren’t always accurate
In imaging, there are certain methodologies, like the cognitive subtraction methodology. In this method, activity in a control task in subtracted from activity in an experimental task. So for example, take a word task. A simple model of written word recognition is used. In a famous experiment, the Peterson et al. (1988) experiment, they wanted … Continue reading Cognitive Substraction: Why Brain Imaging Techniques aren’t always accurate
Brain Imaging Alphabetical Soup: Making Sense of CAT, PET, MRI, fMRI, SPECT: MRI
I started this mini-series with the articles on how imaging got started, and on CT scans. Now we'll move on to MRI scans.MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, is used to create images of the body's tissues, specifically of the soft tissues, like organs. X-rays pass through soft tissues undistorted and relatively easily. Now, most human … Continue reading Brain Imaging Alphabetical Soup: Making Sense of CAT, PET, MRI, fMRI, SPECT: MRI
Don’t learn to code
With the push to learn code, which I am now a part of, I think we have lost sight of what it means to be a computer programmer.My SO sent me this link, which I think makes sense: Don't learn to code. Learn to think.I think it is well worth a read:http://brikis98.blogspot.gr/2014/05/dont-learn-to-code-learn-to-think.html
Somatophrenia
Look at the right side of your body. It’s yours, right? Or maybe it’s your neighbor’s… Somatoparaphrenia is caused by damage to the right parietal lobe. The similarity of this disorder to BIID, coupled with the childhood onset of these disorders, suggest both may be congenital disorders, that is, present from birth. The disorder is a … Continue reading Somatophrenia
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