Month: September 2008

Neuroplasticity on the radio

Dr. Norman Doidge
Dr. Norman Doidge
Stephanie West Allen, who runs the blog Brains On Purpose, alerted me to the fact that the Australian ABC has posted audio files of a couple of interviews with Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Dr. Norman Doidge, the author of The Brain That Changes Itself (see her post, NeuroMediators: Understanding the brain is a critical key to resolving conflict (both within a culture and between cultures)). Dr. Doidge has been in Australia, attending several writers’ festivals and a workshop on ‘neuro-leadership.’ My wife caught his interview on The 7:30 Report, one of the better in depth news analysis programs on ABC TV, but I have not been able to attend any of the events where he spoke (what can I say? It’s a really really bad semester here…).

The original radio shows, audio recordings and transcripts (!) are available on the ABC All in the Mind website:
Part 1 of 2: The Power of Plasticity
Part 2 of 2 – The power of plasticity
See especially Part 2 as there are links to a host of other resources, such as the video of an interview Dr. Doidge did on ABC television while he was here in Australia, and discussions of the work of Prof. Paul Bach-y-Rita, one of the pioneers in work on neuroplasticity, including his research on technological prostheses for missing sensory information.

The material is great, and I’m nearly finished with Doidge’s book, but I still have several reservations about it even though I share the fascination with neuroplasticity and enthusiasm for Doidge’s work:
Continue reading “Neuroplasticity on the radio”

Ptak Science Books

John Ptak runs an interesting blog where he explores the “History of Ideas–unusual connections in the history of science and mathematics with the arts and social history.” His musings and reflections, his use of striking imagery, and his grounded historical approach make for some enjoyable online reading.

I ran across it while looking for an image of Darwin’s “branching tree” diagram, which he handily included in this post The Wrong Stuff, Righted–the Attack on Darwin’s Descent, 1871.

Ptak Science Books features in the same month of March this striking image of Albrecht Durer’s Geometrical Man, a creation that astounded me for dating to the 1500s.

More recently he’s explored the building and use of the atomic bomb, the hidden geography in old prints, and historical breakthroughs in astronomy.

Race and Racism in Latin America Videos

The journalist Lucia Newman and Al Jazeera English (yes, I was surpised too!) put together some good reporting on race and racism in Latin America. I used the two videos below in my Intro to Anthro class last week, the first on Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic and the second on Quechua Indians in Peru. There are two more that I saw in the same series, one on racial tensions in Brazil and another on linguistic equality in Paraguay.

Overall, I really enjoyed showing my students some examples from outside the US. One of my students was even from the town mentioned in the DR, and was able to tell everyone more about the discrimination and stereotypes that Haitians face there. Some great confirmation!

Wednesday Round Up #30

This week it’s gaming, mental health, academia, technology, the brain, and anthropology.

Video Games

Heather Chaplin, Xbox’s ‘Braid’ Is a Surprise Hit, for Surprising Reasons
NPR on Braid, a “game grownups can play” and a “meditation on the meaning of life”

Clive Thompson, How Video Games Blind Us with Science
Do kids practice science when they play? Professor and gamer Constance Steinkuehler argues yes

Maggie Greene, UC Irvine Gets Grant to Study WoW
World of Warcraft in US and the China – will culture matter?

The Brainy Gamer, Brilliant
Engagement, obsession, immesion? How about open worlds and the ability to express yourself!

The Game Anthropologist, Games’ Influencing of Players
“The long and short of it? The game makes the player.”

Cognitive Daily, The Bloodier the Game, The More Hostile the Gamer
Mortal Kombat settings and a one-game study – the bloodier the game play, the more violent the resulting thoughts. So, are players after that arousal gap? And with the sword, are they looking for that bloody spray? And here context (in game only) helps shape resulting experience.
So, interesting results but various ways to interpret what players are doing and experiencing

Mental Health

Sarah Kershaw, Girl Talk Has Its Limits
Teenage girls and co-rumination – or wallowing in sorrows and anxieties together

Serendip, Mental Health and the Brain
A discussion over at Bryn Mawr college this fall

Richard Perez-Pena, The Sports Whisperer, Probing Psychic Wounds
Gary Smith and the wounds and obsessions and stories of athletes

Clara Moskowitz, Social Isolation Makes People Cold, Literally
Rejected people feel colder. Is it all metaphor and embodied reactions? Benedict Carey at the NY Times also covers the same research in A Cold Stare Can Make You Crave Some Heat

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #30”

A bad case of the Humans

Let’s imagine your name is Gaia, you’re a planet and you have a bad case of the humans. For many years you lived in symbiosis with humans, but then they evolved exogenetically, adapted in ways you were unprepared for and started to multiply in extraordinary numbers. Suddenly, the delicate balance of bacteria in your ecological gut got out of whack and now you have a bad case of gas, greenhouse gas! And no Rennie tablet is going to get you out of this one. Continue reading “A bad case of the Humans”