I’m hoping this is the last of the recent Thursday editions – the end of the semester is getting close, and with it the heavy teaching load I’ve had on Mondays and Wednesdays. But onto the round up – it’s free will, climate change, mind and anthropology this week.

Top of the List

Gretchen Reynolds, Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious
Very cool – exercise prepares the brain to deal with stress. Is this the new version of no pain, no gain?

Carlos Reynoso, Ciencia Cognitiva y Antropología del Conocimiento
The summary page for a fascinating seminar on cognitive science and anthropology in Buenos Aires. Fascinating overviews, and lots to download (under Creative Commons license). Que lastima que no pude asistir.

Ed Yong, Travels with Dopamine – The Chemical That Affects How Much Pleasure We Expect
What is dopamine and how does it affect us.

Schott’s Vocab, Weekend Competition: Squiffy, Sozzled, Smashed
“This weekend, co-vocabularists are invited to share the words and phrases they use to describe being drunk, drummed, daffy, decanted, or utterly Dean Martoonied.” Some smashing entries!

Conrad Lee, Is Obesity Contagious? A Review of the Debate over “Network Effects” of Obesity
In-depth analysis and critique, particularly in terms of modeling and statistics, of the work by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler that obesity is “contagious” and passed through social networks

Free Will

Anil Ananthaswamy, Free Will Is Not An Illusion After All
Libet’s milestone study that alleged to show free will doesn’t exist is now being challenged by new research.

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #90”

I’m leading off with an important set of readings on genetics in relation to neuroanthropology, including plastic genes, gene-culture interactions, and critical takes on genetics in society. Then we’ve got some other top reads, followed by a section on applied anthropology that includes a lot of pdfs you can get online. Then the mind and an anthro grab-bag to finish it off.

Genetics

David Dobbs, I’m Not Vulnerable, Just Especially Plastic. Risk Genes, Environment, and Evolution, in the Atlantic
Genes are not bad, they are just sensitive. Dobbs covers his own feature article coming out in The Atlantic, which includes a video interview with Steve Soumi and his rhesus monkeys.

William Dressler et al., Cultural Consonance, a 5HT2A Receptor Polymorphism, and Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Study of Gene × Culture Interaction in Urban Brazil
Abstract for an American Journal of Human Biology 2009 article. Serotonin function and the ability to match society’s ideals create significant interactive effects, including greater depressive symptoms with individuals with a particular polymorphism. “These results are consistent with a process in which genotype moderates the effects of culturally meaningful social experience on depressive symptoms.”

Dr. X, Do Collectivist Cultures Evolve as Buffers to Psychopathology?
Looking at whether collectivist-individualist dimensions of culture coevolve with genetic peril for anxiety and mood disorders. “Here, we demonstrate for the first time a robust association between cultural values of individualism– collectivism and allelic frequency of the serotonin transporter gene, controlling for associated economic and disease factors.” You can even get the full text free online.

Surfdaddy Orca, Making a Smarter Rat
Overexpressing the NR2B gene lets brain cells communicate just a bit longer. Result: a smarter rat.

The Neurocritic, Genomarketing!
Brains are not enough. Now companies are looking at ways to target you based on genetics. Includes a great graphic: the MAOa Card.

Cesar Vallejo, Genes and Human Freedom to a Case
Why an Italian court reduced the punishment of a man found guilty of murder. So is MAOa now a get out of jail free card? Here’s the original Nature report, Lighter sentence for murderer with ‘bad genes’

Cory Doctorow, Love of Shopping is Not a Gene: Exposing Junk Science and Ideology in Darwinian Psychology
But I thought my genes made me do it.

Nicholas Wade, Speech Gene Shows Its Bossy Nature
NY Times write-up of recent results on the FOXP2 gene that has gotten so much press as the “language gene” – but this time it’s about playing around with the chimp version and considering genetic orchestration rather than cause. John Hawks also comments, and links to more reactions to the Nature article.

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #89”

A busy week – but now you can peruse some economics, war, NY Times mind, anthro, and blogging mind.

Top of the List

Sandra Kiume, Social Neuroscience
Channel N gives us a great video with John Cacioppo speaking on “Connected Minds: Loneliness, Social Brains and the Need for Community.” Sometimes Channel N didn’t load right for me, so you can also go straight to the RSA page with the Cacioppo video.

Ed Yong, Holy Fellatio, Batman! Fruit Bats Use Oral Sex to Prolong Actual Sex
What a title! Just wait until you see the video.

David Dobbs, “YouTube! That’s Why I Became A Writer!”
Very funny video about a writer talking with his agent about how to promote his new book

Dan Sperber, Grieving Animals
An amazing photo of chimpanzees, and a big question about culture among our primate relatives

Economics and Neuroanthropology

Simeleon Sense, Video: Bribing vs. signalling – Marketplace Dept. of Behavioral Economics
Funny video – surviving the cubicle during the downturn, as seen through the eyes of a nature documentary

Sean Mallin, PBR and “Hip” Consumption
Pabst Blue Ribbon flies under the advertising radar, and builds a niche market during the economic downturn

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #88”

The good stuff for this week, then anthropology and the mind, finished off by a great set of readings that consider changes in education and academia.

Top of the List

Michael Jernigan, The Minefield at Home
A US soldier from Iraq writes on injury, trauma, PTSD and coming home. A powerful first-person account that is part of the NY Times series, Home Fires: American Veterans on the Post-War Life.

Dave Munger, In Which I Resist Writing The Obvious Headline
Finding a genetic basis for anger using fMRI research with genetic analysis. Oh the juicy, misleading titles that could have been.

Nate Beeler, American Television Takes A Toll On The Brain
Ah, the cartoon that captures reality television. Except So You Think You Can Dance of course.

Joe Brewer and George Lakoff, Why Voters Aren’t Motivated By A Laundry List Of Positions On Issues
An overture to cognitive policy – the principles, frames, and point of views that make sense of political development.
For more, here’s Cognitive Policy Works: Politics For Real People basic statement on Cognitive Policy: “Cognitive policy is about the values and ideas that both motivate the policy goals and that have to be uppermost in the minds of the public and the media in order for the policy to seem so much a matter of common sense that it will be readily accepted.”

Alex Hutchinson, Global Impositioning Systems
The evils of GPS, or why not figuring how to get places reduces our sense of direction (it’s a skill after all)

Marco Roth, The Rise of the Neuronovel
An in-depth and critical essay on writers’ turn to writing not about the mind but about the brain. Most recommended.

Anthropology

Ed Yong, Culture Shapes The Tools That Chimps Use To Get Honey
Discusses the skills and strengths of chimps that give them an advantage in obtaining food and surviving.

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #87”

Lots of small categories this week – sport, placebo, digital anthropology, and Elinor Ostrom – before the mind and anthropology finish it off.

Top of the List

PsyBlog, How Rewards Can Backfire And Reduce Motivation
Intrinsic rewards matter, unexpected rewards too. Getting something you expect? Not so much.

Maximilian Forte, Welcome To ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY: The End Of The Beginning Of The End
Open Anthropology reflects back and looks forward – what does it mean to do open anthropology?

Margarita Alegria et al., Prevalence of Mental Illness in Immigrant and Non-Immigrant U.S. Latino Groups
2008 full-access American Journal of Psychiatry article that both shows lower overall rates for Latinos of mental illness, and tries to examine more closely what that means for specific lives and specific groups

Pamthropologist, Making Anthropology “Relevant”: Do We Really Want To Go There?
Relevance only so students can understand themselves? An argument for a different sort of relevance, with good discussion in the comments

Larval Subjects, Deluze On Assemblages
Assemblages of ideas, rather than singular fields, as the important basis for understanding, whether individual, academic, or social. Some good implications for this project here.

Sport

Mo Costandi, Kicking Performance Affects Perception Of Goal Size
So, is it skill or is success that makes the goal seem larger? Really fascinating research

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #86”

Short and sweet this week, with me mixing it up on top, and then going basic down below.

The Top and Then Some

David Brooks, The Young And The Neuro
Describes what social cognitive neuroscience is and why it’s becoming popular. If only Brooks knew about neuroanthropology, then he’d really know how to get a better, if still slippery, grasp on culture.

The Neurocritic, The Neurocinema Collection
First in the critical series exploration the latest neuro mash-up. The Neurocritic continues with The Hyperscanning of ‘Paranormal Activity’: A Neurocinematic Study of Collective Fear

Dan Myers, Generation Gulp
Apparently beer pong is becoming a hip diversion for the elderly. Includes the Youtube video of a 90-year-old grandma playing beer pong.

Michael White, Networks Are Killing Science
I thought networks were supposed to explain everything… Not! Why many researchers don’t comprehend what it means to test a theory. What goes wrong?

John Blevins, We Were Powerless: Addiction, The Will, And The Evangelical Roots Of The Twelve Steps
Explores whether or not Alcoholics Anonymous is effective in dealing with addiciton. Also, gives some other treatment/recovery options.

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #85”