Category: general

Videos from The Encultured Brain – NOW AVAILABLE!

Dear Loyal Readers (and Passers By) —

It gives me great pleasure to announce that you can apparently now access streaming .wmv files of the four long-format talks that were given at The Encultured Brain Conference at the University of Notre Dame in October 2009. No, you do not have to rush out to your video store, nor do you need to send me a stamped self-addressed envelope as well as a surprisingly large fee for ‘postage and handling.’ Yes, it has taken a while, so file this in the ‘much better late than never’ box, and enjoy.

At the moment, we do not yet have them posted on YouTube, but we are working on that, so there will likely be a second message very soon (maybe more) with the videos. I’d like to write some commentary on each as well, but I want to watch them again before I do so. The reason I say ‘apparently’ the videos are accessible is because I am a bit of a slow adapter, and between my computer and my current from-home Internet connection, I cannot watch them, but I’m certain our readers are more technologically sophisticated and media savvy than I am.

The talks can be linked to through:

Daniel Lende, Opening Address: “Neuroscience and the Real World”
Patricia Greenfield, Keynote Address 1: “Mirror Neurons and the Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Cultural Processes.”
Harvey Whitehouse, Keynote Address 2: “Explaining Religion.”
Greg Downey, Closing Address: “A Brain-Shaped Culture: Ambitions, Acknowledgments and Opportunities.”

If you want to read more before committing your computer to a streaming video, the abstracts for the talks are below the fold.
Continue reading “Videos from The Encultured Brain – NOW AVAILABLE!”

Summer Institute for Cultural Neuroscience at Uni of Michigan


The Center for Culture, Mind and the Brain, CCMB, University of Michigan, will be hosting its first Summer Institute for Cultural Neuroscience in the second half of July 2010. The event has a line up of leading researchers on this field such as Shinobu Kitayama, host of the Institute and Director of the CCMB, Richard Nisbett, Shihui Han, Denise Park and Joan Chiao.

The topics that will be covered during the ten days include culture, self and the brain; culture, cognition and the brain; neuroeconomics, decision making and culture; and stereotyping, racial bias and brain processes.

While no anthropologist will be speaking at the Summer Institute, this program represents an important step toward the consolidation of research into the culture-brain nexus. For example, Joan Chiao was a wonderful presenter at our Encultured Brain conference back in October.

Applications for the Summer Institute are due March 1st, so jump on the opportunity if you want to go.

Click here for more information about the Summer Institute in Cultural Neuroscience.

And here is the link to the Center for Culture, Mind and the Brain.

Wednesday Round Up #103

I really like this round up – one of my better efforts of late, I think. Some great stuff up top, and then lots of good material on new media, social networking, gaming, etc. Then a neuroanth mash-up, followed by drugs, genetics, mental health, and of course chickens.

Top of the List

Emily Polis Gibson, Children’s Hospital Rotation
A powerful poem about attending to an anencephalic newborn, a baby without a brain. Written by a doctor in Washington State

Science Friday – Ira Flatow, Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall on studying chimpanzees, preserving habitats, and what lies ahead for the field of evolutionary science. I particularly liked her answers to people’s questions, including an adorable 13 year old girl, in the second half as she powerfully described how she moved from working on chimps to working for conservation and human development.

Research Digest Blog, Evidence-based Tips for Valentine’s
Miss out on Valentine’s Day? Well, better dig into the research on how to enhance your irresistibility

Desde el Manicomio, Adrian
Some beautiful and award-winning photos of an autistic child in his daily life

Reader Comments – NY Times, Comments on Bob Herbert’s Watching China Run
These reader recommended comments are some of the best critiques of US society and culture that I have read in a long time

Daniel Elkan, The Comedy Circuit: When your Brain Gets the Joke
Neuroimaging humor, with a look at why a joke is funny to some and not funny to others.

David Sloan Wilson, Economics and Evolution as Different Paradigms IV: The Limiting Factor of Cultural Evolution Is Not Origin But Spread
I had an illuminating conversation with David when I visited Binghamton University last week. He has really pushed evolutionary thinking into applied arenas, and here examines the intersection of cultural evolution and economics, with childhood education and risky adolescent behavior both discussed.

Tara Parker-Pope, As Girls Become Women, Sports Pay Dividends
Showing that sports participation has direct benefits for development with “ lifelong improvements to educational, work and health prospects”

New Media

Vaughan Bell, Don’t Touch That Dial!
I thought Facebook rotted my brain… right? Not so fast, says the master behind Mind Hacks, in this “history of media scares, from the printing press to Facebook”

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #103”