Category: Psychology

Now, being a loyal follower of all things psychological, as I’m sure you are, you’ll have heard of synaesthesia by now. If not, trundle on over to Wikipedia and have a quick read.

Originally when this cross-sensory perception became known, researchers were keen to see if people were really having a really real experience or whether it was, to some extent, a fiction. How permanent actually is the connection between, for example, the number 32 and the smell of recently cut grass. Real synaesthetes passed the test and so researchers moved onto something more advanced.

Here in the latest research published in Neuron, a heavyweight-type journal, V S Ramachandran (Reith lecturer from 2003) and others have found further evidence that synaesthetes are experiencing something real and different from the rest of us.

Putting people into an fMRI scanner, the researchers found that synaesthetes showed greater activation in the colour perception region of the cortex. Not only that but different synaesthetes showed different patterns of activation suggesting they might each be having diverse experiences.
ScienceDaily (Press Release)
Individual Differences among Grapheme-Color Synesthetes: Brain-Behavior Correlations [Full article PDF]

Perhaps verging on the ghoulish today, but still a good reality check for all students of the mind/brain – whether amateur or professional:

A story from the NYT about the Cornell Brain Society founded in 1899 when collecting brains was cool.

And in case you want to a send a brain to them, here’s how to pack it for transport. If you are sending your own brain, please make sure beforehand that you no longer require it.

Steven Johnson, author of a new book called ‘Everything Bad is Good For You’ is persisting in pedalling his line that computer games and interactive media have contributed to increased IQ levels over the past few decades.

Just because IQ levels increased at the same time as the rise of interactive media, doesn’t mean one thing caused the other. There are other perhaps more important trends over the past few decades, such as the improvement in diet.

I hate to criticise a book I haven’t read and I hope that it contains better material than this. I suspect that the video games to IQ link is simply a nice angle for journalists to knock out a story.
The Guardian

“Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that comprehend sarcasm – honestly. By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts of the brain, they found the front of the brain was a key to understanding irony. Damage to any of three different areas could render individuals unable to understand sarcastic comments.”
BBC News

Writing today’s post I’m painfully aware that the web is bursting at the seams with this kind of rubbish: “Want to know women more? Buy my book!” (sic). Or ‘How to Make a Man/Woman/Horse Fall in Love With You in 75 Easy Steps. Guaranteed!” (not sic.) But when I came across this ‘Guide to Flirting’ by Kate Fox of the Social Issues Research Centre I had to post it. The article provides not so much advice as a useful and extensive guide to the research.

Psychologists have logged up thousands of hours hanging around in bars watching how people interact with each other, all in the name of science. In one study the researchers got so good at reading body language, they could accurately predict whether a girl would be approached 18 out of 20 times. Incidentally it had little to do with how attractive she was…
SIRC Guide to Flirting

There has been a surge of interest in the US over Donald Herbert’s recovery that comes on the back of the legal battle over Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube was eventually removed and 17 days later she died.

Whether Herbert’s recovery sheds any light on the Schiavo decision depends on how their medical conditions compare. The US non-commercial radio station, NPR, has a short interview with neurologist Dr. James Bernat, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School. He makes clear that, while few medical details have so far been released, it seems their conditions were quite different.

While Terry Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state, Donald Herbert was ‘minimally conscious’. This means he had some awareness of his surroundings, compared to Terry Schiavo who had none whatsoever.

Dr Burnett gives some of the credit for the recovery to the medications Herbert has been given, but warns that his gains may not be sustained or permanent. Brain damaged people in minimally conscious states are extremely sensitive to changes in metabolic conditions and can easily relapse.
NPR

Last night the psychological illusionist Derren Brown on his TV show, ‘Trick of the Mind’, shocked his audience with a video game stunt. He took an apparently unsuspecting member of the public and subjected him to what appeared to be a gruelling psychological experience, without gaining his permission in advance.

Derren Brown’s shows have certainly courted significant controversy. He played Russian Roulette live on TV (above), although reputedly with blank ammunition. This was gripping TV but many claimed the stunt was irresponsible. More recently he held a live seance in which he scared a number of willing volunteers half to death but all in the name of debunking supernatural beliefs.

What sets the trick from last night’s show apart was that no attempt was made to get the permission of the participant beforehand. While Derren Brown often uses unsuspecting members of the public, he doesn’t normally subject them to a difficult psychological experience.

How Derren Brown does some of his tricks (Channel 4)

There’s an update on Donald Herbert’s condition in the NYT, apparently he has become less animated. We’ll have to wait and see what happens…
Who is Donald Herbert?

Ten years ago a firefighter in Buffalo, Donald Herbert, rushed into a burning building looking for survivors. He was knocked out by a collapsing roof, taken to hospital and remained in a coma for two and a half months. A year later he regained consciousness but did not recognise his wife and four children and seemed to have no idea who he was.

Ten years later, last Saturday, he really woke up:

“I want to talk to my wife,” Mr. Herbert was quoted as saying. A staff member called his wife, Linda, but it was his youngest son, Nicholas, 13, who picked up the phone and began speaking.

“That can’t be,” Mr. Herbert said. “He’s just a baby. He can’t talk.”

UPDATE: Donald Herbert ‘Minimally Conscious’ Unlike Terri Schiavo

New York Times [Free Reg. Req.] [via Mind Hacks]