-
24th NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience
The 24th NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience will be held from June 24 - July 7, 2012. This year's topics are "Does Brain Plasticity Account for Everything?" with Jon H. Kaas, and "The Indispensable Role of Episodic Memory in Adaptive Behavior" with Ian Dobbins and Mike Miller. Both weeks feature an international faculty of leaders in the field. Applications are invited from eligible beginning and established researchers. The Summer Institute values diversity and welcomes applications from all qualified scientists. For applications and further information, visit our website at http://sicn.cmb.ucdavis.edu.
-
Meaningful Meals
As you prepare a meal to share with family and friends, learn what not to feed your guests and why comfort food make us feel so much better when we’re down.
-
Your Broker Is Probably a Master of Illusion
U.S. News & World Report: Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-born psychologist. He won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 2002. He is best known for his work in behavioral economics, which attempts to explain how investors make decisions. In a thoughtful article adapted from his upcoming book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman makes some interesting observations.
-
Video gaming children ‘more creative’
The Telegraph: Researchers at Michigan State University, in the United States, found that playing video games was linked to greater creativity, regardless of the type of game played. Linda Jackson, the professor of psychology at Michigan State who led the research, said that the findings should encourage game designers to try to discover what it is about video games that stimulates creativity. She said: "Once they do that, video games can be designed to optimize the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values such that a new generation of video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment." Read the whole story: The Telegraph
-
A Brief Guide to Embodied Cognition: Why You Are Not Your Brain
Scientific American: Embodied cognition, the idea that the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind, is one of the more counter-intuitive ideas in cognitive science. In sharp contrast is dualism, a theory of mind famously put forth by Rene Descartes in the 17th century when he claimed that “there is a great difference between mind and body, inasmuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible… the mind or soul of man is entirely different from the body.” In the proceeding centuries, the notion of the disembodied mind flourished.
-
Dyslexia not related to intelligence, study finds
Los Angeles Times: One's intelligence appears unrelated to the specific brain pattern that causes dyslexia, researchers reported Thursday. The findings are important because they suggest that IQ shouldn't be considered by education specialists when diagnosing dyslexia. In fact, doing say may bar some children from receiving special education services to improve reading comprehension. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was undertaken because many educators diagnose dyslexia based on a lag between reading scores and overall IQ scores. Researchers, led by Dr. Fumiko Hoeft at Stanford University, measured brain activity in 131 children ages 7 to 16.