April 2010
3 posts
February 2010
2 posts
January 2010
2 posts
“A life is such a strange object, at one moment translucent, at another utterly...”
– Simone de Beauvoir: Force of Circumstance (translated by R. Howard) (via fuckyeahphilosophy)
November 2009
12 posts
Time-Space Synaesthesia
Is there a link between Time-Space synaesthesia and hyperthymestic syndrome? Hypthymestic syndrome is usually attributed to autistic patients who have an enhanced autobiographical memory. Perhaps they visualize their entire history in some large mental map. Whatever the case, it’s quite fascinating, if anything.
“On the other hand, when a man thinks for himself he follows his own impulse,...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer from “Thinking for Oneself”
We Can't Handle the Truth?
Maybe. If it’s true, that is. Even if not entirely true, it could expose the baseless assumptions many have regarding recreational drug use.
“The government’s chief drug advisor David Nutt is “extremely disappointed” after being asked to leave for claims that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes.”
Are Negative Emotions more Valuable than Positive...
Here is an interesting survey of recent findings in cognitive psychology about negative emotions. It suggests that negative emotions may have a greater pay off than our positive ones. I would like to revisit these studies in depth some day for actual study rather than viewing small blurbs about them.
Juggling and the Brain
“University of Oxford researchers recruited 48 healthy young adults who were unable to juggle and put them in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to get a cross-section map of their brain….
Among the juggling group, imaging showed important changes in white matter, the bundle of long nerve fibres that carry electrical signals between nerve cells and connect...
Dolphins - Deep Thinkers
I found a curious article from The Guardian that talks about the comprehension capacities of dolphins. It’s an interesting read, and delves into some notable issues regarding intelligence. What is intelligence? Do animals think? If the structure of an organism does not predicate its intelligence, what does? Does anything? How do we measure something that we’re not even sure is...
“What I have read is far more important than what I have written. For one reads...”
– Borges when he gave the Norton Lectures (from This Craft of Verse, p.98). (via elpasajero, sitdown) (via ewilcox) (via signa) (via enormousair)
“It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of...”
– —Douglas Hofstadter (1945- )
thanks to ontheborderland (via enormousair)
October 2009
30 posts
Kaku and Carp
How could we begin to understand the possibility of other dimensions? Michio Kaku developed an interesting metaphor for looking at the problem in this COSMOS magazine article. The article reads:
“Wondering in the way that only a child does, Kaku looked at the carp swimming in a weedy pond and imagined how they would not be able to conceive of other worlds. “A carp engineer would...
Memories Are Made of This
A study shows that our memories of the past may be reduced to the reactivation of neurons associated with an event. My memories of the past are just a “resurrection of neuronal activity.”
“Paul, don’t speak to me, my serotonin levels have hit bottom, my brain is awash...”
– Patricia Churchland (via errabundus)
(Something came to mind when I read this. Here’s a link to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s article on eliminative materialism An interview with Patricia and Paul Churchland can be found here from NPR.)
I am sympathetic to the eliminative...
Color Perception is in the Brain
The study shows that color is defined by our experience of the world. Since we all share the same world the final definition for what a color is becomes the same for all.
Despite differences in the primary visual system by each participant they all arrived at the same color. Perhaps there is some type of genetic wiring toward color recognition. It is a curious link between the world around us...
The Effects of Marijuana on Consciousness
I came across this and felt the need to post it for the sake of curiosity.
It’s from a book titled ‘Altered States of Consciousness’.
The Effects of Marijuana on Consciousness
“We know many things, and will learn more; what we will never know for certain is...”
– Donald Davidson: ‘The Structure and Content of Truth’ (Dewey Lectures) (via fuckyeahphilosophy)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Metacognition
An interesting case of metacognition in use. Understanding the underlying processes that constitute our cognition may be the most effective way in enhancing their effects. If I know how my mind works I can use its own built in advantages to amplify my use of it. Another case as to why understanding the physiological characteristics underlying consciousness contribute to understanding the 1st...
Nature and Memory
The University of Michigan psychological research team discovered a possible connection between nature and memory. People who interact with nature in any way have a tendency to remember up to 20% more than people who don’t. Another way the environment potentially shapes aspects of our selves.
The Curious Case of the Ashkenazi Jews
A study shows that the higher median IQ of the Ashkenazi Jews may have been conditioned through evolution.
It would mean that on some basic level one group of people actually are smarter than others by default.
Language Doesn't Reflect Our Thought Entirely
A study shows that the way English is built, a subject-verb-object order, may be in conflict with the order our brain naturally creates when trying to communicate. A possible source of low-level stress? Our some of us just biologically conditioned to think a different way?
WatchSusan Blackmore proposes that current models of understanding consciousness may all be based on an illusion, and that the key to understanding consciousness would be figuring out the trick the brain pulls on us.
She never ceases to insight an intellectual awe.
Emotional Reductionism
The sweet relief of drug induced passivity.
Searching The Internet Increases Brain Function !
rovingidealist:
tesskaiser:
Functional MRI brain scans show how searching the Internet dramatically engages brain neural networks (in red). The image on the left displays brain activity while reading a book; the image on the right displays activity while engaging in an Internet search. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)
UCLA scientists have found that for...
“The familiar material objects may not be all that is real, but they are...”
– Willard Van Orman Quine
A Cognitive Science Repository
Cogprints.com is a wonderful source for articles and information pertaining to cognitive science. It covers areas in biology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and computer science.
Check it out. Any curious mind will find at least one thing I think.
Don't Trust Your Self
Check out this New York Times article here.
Ever since the conception of epistemology have we looked toward truth in establishing ourselves as rational people. The article suggests that emotions have greater consequences than we want to believe and our beliefs are not always chosen. Honesty is not always the best policy if you want people to hear you I guess.
Incense is Psychoactive
A study shows that the burning of incense my activate ion channels in the brain that aid in alleviating anxiety or depression. It conjures up ideas of all the other things that may play a role in our development that we never think do.
“Conscious experience is like a tunnel. Modern neuroscience has demonstrated that...”
– from The Ego Tunnel via prasanna’s posterous (via chakakhanate)
Are Smart People Grumpier? →
I may be grumpy, but not smart. I may be smart, but not grumpy. The important thing to realize is that there is a general tendency for the two to be found together. It does not mean they will always be together. I have a really strong chance that I will see my friend with his girlfriend in the store, but that does not mean I will always see them together.
A curious point of interest is that...
WatchMaybe your brain really can be downloaded…
The Truth Behind the Smile →
Body ‘language’ may not be as penetrating as we would like to think it is. What you immediately perceive may not tell you anything about whats going on inside me. Consider a new car. It’s new, so it must be good. However, the engine beneath the hood could be the engine of a car that quit running several years ago. Therefore, the assumptions you make based on observable...
Never Say Die →
Consciousness cannot reason to unconsciousness, because that is not what is in its nature to do. The brain is only a conscious thing. Therefore, the reasoning to psychological continuity after death is a consequent of neural architecture inherent within what is doing the reasoning. I suppose religion and culture just encourage the natural disposition. Maybe.
An Infinite Loop in the Brain →
A notable addition to understanding the role of memory as an element of identity. It also suggests that our feelings actually do seem to matter. If an event makes me feel great depression or joy, then it there is a greater chance that I will have a long term memory for it.
On a side note, just because one is Jewish does not mean they immediately have no knowledge of anything outside their...