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A new horizon of sex and gender
If you only listen to one radio programme this week, make it the latest edition of BBC Radio 4?s Analysis on the under-explored science of gender. The usual line goes that ‘sex is biological while gender is social’ – meaning that while genetics determines our sex, how masculine or feminine we are is determined by [...]
Intoxicating tendencies
The latest edition of BBC Radio 4?s Thinking Allowed is a special on ‘intoxication’ looking at the uses, abuses and social function of drugs through the ages. It’s a fascinating programme in itself but it is peppered with vivid excerpts from how drugs, altered states and drug users have been described historically and are discussed [...]
The neuroscience of sexual attractions
A recent edition of radio programme KERA Think has a fantastic discussion on development and the neuroscience of sexual attraction in its many forms. The programme is a discussion with Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist who raised a lot of eyebrows by finding differences in the brain structure of gay and straight men in a 1991 [...]
EMPowered to Kill
Mentally ill killer tried vitamin therapy, court told A man with schizophrenia killed his father and gravely injured his mother at their home in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Jordan Ramsay was off his prescribed antipsychotic medication at the time, instead taking an alternative multivitamin preparation called Truehope EMPowerplus™. Show More Summary
Twelfth century orgasmic brain heat
Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth century nun, possibly with repressed lesbian desires, who had visions, was a proto-scientist, advised the Pope, composed music, and, er, wrote about the role of the brain in the female orgasm. BBC Radio 4?s Great Lives just had a fantastic programme about her where they read out her description [...]
The science of hot
I’ve just listened to a fantastic edition of the BBC programme Am I Normal? on libido and sex drive that covers pretty much everything you might want to know about wanting sex. Unfortunately, because the BBC isn’t normal, if you want to download the podcast you have to go to a different page or grab [...]
They’re Made Out of Meat!
“They’re Made Out of Meat” is a short story by Terry Bisson. It’s a great rift of the improbability of the human situation, and particularly relevant to psychologists (e.g. “So … what does the thinking?”) The full text is here. The story has its own wikipedia page, and there’s a YouTube film here. Now, for [...]
Sonar Voices
Graham March was a drum n’ bass producer who created cutting edge tracks in a teched-up fast-paced version of breakbeat known as neurofunk. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sadly took his own life in 2006, but a friend has created a wonderful tribute site that has all of his tunes online. Often releasing tracks [...]
To catch a thief and fool a scientist
If you only listen to one radio programme this month, make it this one. The BBC Radio 4 programme Fingerprints on Trial explores how identifying people at crime scenes by their prints is subject to serious psychological biases and is not the exact science that we, and ironically, the forensic fingerprint community, like to believe. [...]
Capturing waves of electricity
BBC Radio 4?s Case Notes has an excellent edition on epilepsy that covers everything from the changes in consciousness during seizures to the use of brain surgery to treat the condition. It’s a pretty straightforward discussion but you’ll likely not find a better introduction to the neurological disorder, what it does and how it’s treated. [...]
Audio: Oliver Sacks at Free Library of Phildelphia (Nov 2010)
Free Library of Philadelphia's podcast of Oliver Sacks' Nov 2010 presentation: Click http://libwww.freelibrary.org/podcast/media/20101110-olivers.mp3
Wading through the killing fields of the mind
BBC Radio 4?s From Our Own Correspondent has a gripping report on a meeting with a Cambodian psychologist who works in a country still trying to come to terms with the collective brutality initiated by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. The text of the report is online and makes for powerful reading but [...]
Treating the most dangerous
If you only listen to one podcast this week, make it this one. The BBC World Service Exchanges at the Frontier has a compelling discussion with Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the high security Broadmoor Hospital, who discusses on working with some of the most dangerous psychiatric patients in the country. I [...]
A psychological rift in the perception of war
BBC Radio 4?s Analysis programme has a fascinating edition on how the public’s psychological perception of war is changing and how this is having an effect on the armed forces. It’s drawn from a UK perspective and its bookended by a bit of political stuff but the main part is full of interesting observations on [...]
NeuroPod on ‘bionic ears’ and training neurons
The latest edition of the excellent Nature NeuroPod podcast has just hit the wires with discussions of cochlear implants, conscious control of individual neurons, the neuroscience of Parkinson’s disease and the function of the blood-brain barrier. The highlight for me was the section on ‘bionic ears’ or cochlear implants – the first mass produced neural [...]
Drone war psychology
As US military attacks by unmanned drone aircraft intensify, I was interested to find a podcast (mp3) on the psychology of combat drone piloting from Texas Tech University’s Psychology Podcast. Unfortunately, their podcast series is not well indexed, but from what I can make out, the piece was from 2007 and interviews aviation psychologist Nancy [...]
Is that MY voice? OHwell
I tried to find a video of the Emperor's New Groove where Yzma gets turned into a cat and it's hilarious and adorable. But all I could find were fandubs, most of which were terrible. Why the heck do people make versions of this stuff...Show More Summary
Living and Forgetting
And I'll be easy
Like living and forgetting
And if I pick you up
I'll be sure to let you down
- Living and Forgetting, Glasstown ( mp3 )
Forgetting Emotional Information Is Hard
Our memory for emotional events is generally better than our memory for neutral events. Show More Summary
2010-07-02 Spike activity
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:
NPR have just completed a three part series on violence, psychopaths and the brain.
Bring back the fat cats? Hunger increases financial risk-taking according to a new study covered...Show More Summary
2010-06-11 Spike activity
Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: A new study finds that superstitions improve performance by increasing confidence. Some excellent coverage from Not Exactly Rocket Science and from Bad Science. Time magazine reports...Show More Summary
