Neuroscience – Personality Pedagogy

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Academics Question the Reliability of Neuroscience Research New research has questioned the reliability of neuroscience studies, saying that conclusions could be misleading due to small sample sizes. This according to new research published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience and summarized here in Medical News Today, April 12, 2013.

Amygdala Volume and Social Network Size in Humans Summarizes recent research which found that the size of the amygdala is correlated with the size and complexity of social networks (like Facebook). Discusses the findings and possible alternative explanations. Find the original article here

Antidepressants Can Change Personalities Taking an antidepressant can lead to significant personality changes, likely for the better, a new study finds. The study looked at the effects of taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are widely used to treat depression today, and found that those who took these antidepressants experienced more positive emotions, were more outgoing and more emotionally stable in the long-term. “Our findings lead us to propose a new model of antidepressant mechanism,” said Tony Z. Tang of Northwestern University in Chicago. “Our data suggests that modern antidepressants work partly by correcting key personality risk factors of depression” according to this summary in Live Science”, December 7, 2009.

Anxious? Activate Your Anterior Cingulate Cortex With a Little Meditation Research by Fadel Zeidan and colleagues published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that area of the brain which regulate worrying are activated during mediation, leading to lowered anxiety according to this summary in Science Daily, June 4, 2013.

Area of brain that makes a people person discovered Cambridge University researchers have discovered that whether someone is a ‘people-person’ may depend on the structure of their brain: the greater the concentration of brain tissue in certain parts of the brain, the more likely they are to be a warm, sentimental person.

Are Male and female brains wired differently? According to research by Madhura Ingalhalikar and colleagues and summarized here Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains. Evidence suggests that men’s brains have more connectivity within each hemisphere; women have more connectivity between the hemispheres. From The Guardian, December 2, 2013. However, Christian Jarrett in Getting in a Tangle Over Men’s and Women’s Brain Wiring for Brain Watch takes a critical view of the research and the interpretation of the evidence suggesting that men’s and women’s brains are wired differently. Posted December 4, 2013.

Biological Bases of Behavior Teaching of Psychology in the Secondary School (TOPSS) and the APA Education Directorate are pleased to announce a newly revised lesson plan on Biological Bases of Behavior (September, 2012). The lesson plan includes lessons on the brain and neural function, the neuron, the organization of the nervous system, localization of function of the brain, lateralization of function of the brain, the endocrine system, and behavioral genetics. Five teaching activities are included in the unit plan, and two online modules aligned to the unit are also available through the website above, one on key points to remember in biopsychology and one of classroom demonstrations for the unit. Note: You must be a member of TOPSS to access the materials.

Brain Activity Map Proponents Explain Goals of Blood Neuroscience Science writer Stephanie Pappas explains Neuroscientists are pushing for a major project that would map the activity of the brain, potentially illuminating the causes of depression, schizophrenia and other major mental health disorders. in this article from LiveScience, March 7, 2013.

Brain Activity Map: What’s Wrong With the Brain Activity Map Proposal Science writer Partha Mitra explains With the president suggesting a multibillion-dollar neuroscience effort, a leading neuroscientist explains the deep conceptual problems with plans to record all the brain’s neurons in this article from Scientific American, March 5, 2013.

BrainFacts.org The Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience, all leading global nonprofit organizations working to advance brain research, created this web site to share what neuroscientists know, explore what they don’t yet know fully, and discuss how today’s research advances understanding. Written for a general audience, the site presents short articles and summaries of current research on the brain and nervous system.

The Brain Basis of Unrealistic Optimism Discovering that an initial estimate was unduly pessimistic was associated with increased activity across the frontal lobes which being unduly optimistic was associated with reduced activity in these areas according to research by Tali Sharot and colleagues published in Nature Neuroscience (2011) and summarized here in BPS Research Digest, December 5, 2011.

Can Brain Imaging Detect Risk Takers? Apparently so, according to new research summarized here. Research by DeWitt et al. published in Psychiatry Research and by Helfinstein et al. published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found correlations between brain structures and risk-taking. From Brain Blogger October 2014.

Can Brain Scans Read Your Mind? Can neuroscience read people’s minds? Some researchers, and some new businesses, are banking on a brain imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to reveal hidden thoughts, such as lies, truths or deep desires. This summary, from ScienceDaily, July 23, 2009, summarizes the research of Russell Poldrack and colleagues at UCLA.

Can cognitive behavioural therapy really change our brains? From the website: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking therapy that’s used to treat a wide range of mental health problems, from depression and eating disorders to phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It recommends looking at ourselves in a different way that might prove useful for all of us in everyday life. But what happens to our brains when we have CBT? From BBC Science, August 6, 2013.

Culture Wires the Brain According to research by Denise Park and colleagues from Perspectives on Psychological Science, Where you grow up can have a big impact on the food you eat, the clothes you wear, and even how your brain works […] There is evidence that the collectivist nature of East Asian cultures versus individualistic Western cultures affects both brain and behavior according to this summary from Science Daily, August 3, 2010.

Damaged Connections in Phineas Gage’s Brain: Famous 1848 Case of Man Who Survived Accident Has Modern Parallel The personality changes noted in Phineas Gage after his famous brain injury may have been due more to a disruption in connections between the left frontal cortex and the rest of the brain, than due to injury of the cortex itself. Jack Van Horn and colleagues studied the wiring of the brain and the severing of these connections which made neuroscience’s most famous case study no longer Gage. Their research, published in PLoS ONE is summarized here in ScienceDaily, May 16, 2012.

Dead Salmon’s Brain Activity Cautions fMRI Researchers A shopping center or an empathy center in the brain? See why fMRI studies are problematic and should be interpreted with caution. A team of researchers vividly illustrate the problem of not correcting for chance properly in fMRI studies by finding that parts of the brain of a dead salmon responds to human emotion. PDF of their study is also available here. See also the Story Behind the Salmon here.

Extroverts Come in Two Different Types Brain Scans Reveal New research finds evidence for brain differences between agentic extroverts (the outgoing, persistent, assertive, achievement-focused extroverts) and affiliative extroverts (the affectionate, friendly, and sociable extroverts).

Facebook Friends Predicted by Size of Brain Structures Brain regions associated with creating memories of names and faces and interpretation of social cues appears to be larger in people who have more friends on Facebook according to research by Geraint Rees published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and summarized here in LifeScience, October 18, 2011.

Flawed Logic of Segregating Boys and Girls for Education Purposes Based on Alleged Brain Differences According to research by Lise Eliot and colleagues, There is no scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately. Her review reveals fundamental flaws in the arguments put forward by proponents of single-sex schools to justify the need of teaching teach boys and girls separately. Eliot shows that neuroscience has identified few reliable differences between boys’ and girls’ brains relevant to learning or education. This research was published in Sex Roles and is summarized here in Science Daily, August 18, 2001.

fMRI techniques: Validity and Reliability Questioned New findings raise questions about reliability of fMRI as gauge of neural activity in this article by Richard A. Lovett from Nature News, March 17th, 2010.

Functional Assymetry: Sitting in the Right Spot According to research by Matia Okubo of Japan, right-handers sit to the right of the movie screen to optimize neural processing of the film. This summary from the British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog, December 29, 2009, of the paper: Okubo, M. (2010). Right movies on the right seat: Laterality and seat choice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24 (1), 90-99.

How Your Brain Reacts to Emotional Information is Influenced by Your Genes According to research published in the Journal of Neuroscience and summarized here for ScienceDaily, Your genes may influence how sensitive you are to emotional information … carriers of a certain genetic variation perceived positive and negative images more vividly, and had heightened activity in certain brain regions. Posted May 7, 2015.

The Human Brain: Hardwired to Sin Read about what neuroscientists have discovered about how the brain processes lust, gluttony, sloth, pride, wrath, and greed using brain scanning techniques. From Focus Magazine, February 2012.

Human Connectome Project A joint project of scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles, The Human Connectome Project aims to ”construct a map of the complete structural and functional neural connections in vivo within and across individuals.” Read about the details of their work and see their amazing pictures of neural connections within the human brain.

Inside Out Movie Reflects the Realities and Fantasies of Neuroscience Kids — and the general public — may be learning about how the brain and emotions work from an unlikely source: the hit movie Inside Out (2015). This article takes a look at the science behind the movie.

Interactive Teaching Activities for Introductory Biopsychology The Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology (OTRP) presents these Interactive Teaching Activities for Introductory Biopsychology. This resource by Stephanie L. Simon-Dack describes 11 simple, interactive activities for biopsychology courses to engage students and illuminate core neurophysiological concepts. Each activity requires little or no outlay of resources; most can be implemented in the classroom and take only 10-15 min of class time. Published November 2012. Opens in PDF format.

Is Your Brain Male or Female? Writer Veronica Pamoukaghlian reviews neuroscience investigating possible gender differences in brain form and function. Posted June 6, 2015.

Locating the Brain’s Seasonal Affective (SAD) Center According to research published in Current Biology and summarized here for ScienceDaily, Biologists have known that variations in the amount of sunlight a person receives and her or his circadian clock play a role in the disorder. They have also proposed that the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin may be involved. However, they have not yet identified the underlying neurobiological mechanisms responsible. Biologists have now localized the seasonal light cycle effects that drive seasonal affective disorder to a small region of the brain called the dorsal raphe nucleus. Posted May 7, 2015.

Loneliness Adds to Rate of Blood Pressure Increase Chronic feelings of loneliness take a toll on blood pressure over time, causing a marked increase after four years, according to a study by Louise Hawkley and summarized in Science Daily March 19, 2010.

Mapping Mindsets: The World of Cultural Neuroscience Summarizes research suggesting that cultural differences in emotional expression may be linked to neuroplasticity, genetics, and a genotype-environment interaction. From the APS Observer, December 2013.

Meditation May Increase Gray Matter Certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group. Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions. From Science Daily, May 13, 2009.

Men and Women Process Emotion Differently Women rate emotional images as more emotionally stimulating than men do and are more likely to remember them. However, there are no gender-related differences in emotional appraisal as far as neutral images are concerned. These were the findings of a large-scale study that focused on determining the gender-dependent relationship between emotions, memory performance and brain activity according to research published in January 2015 in the Journal of Neuroscience and summarized here by Science Daily.

Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress according to a study in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging and summarized here in Science Daily, January 21, 2011.

Mindfulness neuroscience Neuropsychologist Deric Bownds summarizes findings from a special issue of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience devoted to meditation and the brain. He describes four possible mechanisms by which meditation works and discusses the problem of control groups and random assignment in meditation research.

Missing “Brake in the Brain” Can Trigger Anxiety According to research published in the journal Cerebral Cortex and summarized here social phobias and fear can be triggered in the brain [by] a missing inhibitory connection or missing “brake” in the brain. Science Daily, December 4, 2013.

MRI — The Magnetic Miracle Game NobelPrize.org, the official site of the Nobel prize, presents this interactive game which illustrates how an MRI works, why metal can not be near the apparatus, and how does MRI compare to x-ray and CAT images.

Narcissists’ Lack of Empathy Detected in Brain Scans Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 34 people, including 17 individuals who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, and found that pathological narcissists have less gray matter in a part of the cerebral cortex called the left anterior insula according to research published in The Journal of Psychiatric Research and summarized here in Live Science, June 24, 2013.

Neuropsychology Central. The objectives of this website are: 1. To describe the importance of neuropsychology as a science of brain and behavior 2. To increase public knowledge of neuropsychology as a branch of practical medicine 3. To indicate the contribution which neuropsychology is making to the neurosciences and 4. To act as a resource for the professional and layperson.

Neuroscience Education Resources Virtual Encycloportal (NERVE) The Society for Neuroscience sponsors the website NERVE, the Neuroscience Education Resources Virtual Encycloportal. Built for instructors of k-12, the site is organized around the themes of addictions, drugs, and the brain; anatomy; cells; sensation, perception and movement; mental health, brain disorders, and disease; nervous system injuries; brain basics; and neuroscientists at work. Filled with activities, cases, fact sheets, images, experiences, quizzes, simulations and much more, many of which are easily tailored to the level of high school and college audiences.

Neuroscience Fiction This article takes a fascinating and critical look at the field of neuroscience and suggests that The real problem with neuroscience today isn’t with the science (…) it’s with the expectations. The brain is an incredibly complex ensemble, with billions of neurons coming into—and out of—play at any given moment. There will eventually be neuroscientific explanations for much of what we do; but those explanations will turn out to be incredibly complicated. For now, our ability to understand how all those parts relate is quite limited, sort of like trying to understand the political dynamics of Ohio from an airplane window above Cleveland. By Gary Marcus for The New Yorker, December 2, 2012.

Neuro Psi Fi: The Brain Science Behind the Movies Neuropsychologist Mary V. Spiers of Drexel University created and maintains this web page dedicated to show the brain science behind brain disorders and special abilities such as amnesia, autism, Tourette’s Syndrome, and others as illustrated in popular films. The page includes neuropsychological movie reviews in which the accuracy of the information portrayed in the film is evaluated in light of current research, and also brain resources, a blog, teaching resources, and more.

Personality Changes After Deep Brain Stimulation Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a well-known and accepted treatment for neurological and psychiatric diseases. In Parkinson’s disease (PD), DBS clearly improves patients’ symptoms, functionality and quality of life in the long run. Nevertheless, it seems that the electrodes do not have motor-specific functions. DBS influences mental states and personality and in some cases it can even lead to a “new personality” by increasing impulsivity. From Brain Blogger, October 29, 2015.

Personality May Influence Brain Shrinkage in Aging Studying MRI images of volunteers aged 44-88 researchers found lower volumes of gray matter in the frontal and medial temporal brain regions of volunteers who ranked high in neuroticism traits, compared with higher volumes of gray matter in those who ranked high in conscientious traits according to research by Jonathan Jackson, David A. Balota, and Denise Head published in the journal Neurobiology and Aging and summarized in this article from Science Daily, April 27, 2010.

Phineas Gage For the 21st Century. A 24-year old Brazilian construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head according to this video and article from the Associated Press which ran August 17, 2012.

Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient Sam Kean for Slate magazine provides this retelling of the Gage tale, this time with the debunking of some myths and with additional information demonstrating thatThe true story of Phineas Gage is much more fascinating that the mythical textbook accounts. Includes new computer models of Gage’s injury and how it may have affected his brain functioning.

Propensity for One-Night Stands, Uncommitted Sex Could Be Genetic, Study Suggests [I]ndividuals with a certain variant of the [dopamine receptor D4 polymorphism] DRD4 gene [linked to sensation-seeking behavior] were more likely to have a history of uncommitted sex, including one-night stands and acts of infidelity, according to author Justin Garcia and summarized here in Science Daily, December 2, 2010.

Psychopaths’ Brains Wired to Seek Rewards No Matter the Consequences The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals, according to research by Francis S. Collins and summarized in this article from Science Daily, March 15, 2010.

Reacting to Personal Setbacks: Do You Bounce Back or Give Up? Sometimes when people get upsetting news – such as a failing exam grade or a negative job review – they decide instantly to do better the next time. In other situations that are equally disappointing, the same people may feel inclined to just give up. How can similar setbacks produce such different reactions? It may come down to how much control we feel we have over what happened according to new research mapping brain activity using fMRI scans published in the journal Neuron and summarized here in Science Daily, September 4, 3014.

The Real Story of Phineas Gage, One of Psychology’s Tall Tales From the website: Instructors can demonstrate the importance of critical thinking by taking a closer look at the tales of Kitty Genovese and Phineas Gage.According to some psychologists and historians, Phineas Gage was not as impaired as was once thought, and was, in fact, able to hold down a steady job (and, in case you were wondering, witness claim to have called the police and helped Genovese).

Relative Length of Adults’ Fingers Indicator of Verbal Aggression: Prenatal Exposure to Testosterone Linked A new study links verbal aggression to prenatal testosterone exposure, using the 2D:4D finger ratio measure to predict verbal aggression. This study is the first to use this method to examine prenatal testosterone exposure as a determinant of a communication trait according to the study published in the Journal of Communicationand summarized here in ScienceDaily, November 29, 2012.

Scientists Use fMRI to Reveal the Movies in Our Mind Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers Jack Gallant and colleagues have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers, according to this summary and published September 22 2011 in the journal Current Biology. Includes excerpts from the actual movies participants viewed alongside images recreated from their brain scans.

Top Ten Myths About the Brain Smithsonian.com asks When it comes to this complex, mysterious, fascinating organ, what do — and don’t — we know? in this article by Laura Helmuth published May 20, 2011.

What Holocaust Survivors Can Teach Us About Gratitude Neuroscientists have gained new insights into how gratitude operates in the brain. Glenn Fox and his colleagues had participants read testimonies of Holocaust survivors while their brains were being scanned. They discovered that areas activated during moments of gratitude include processing reward, fairness, moral cognition, and self-reference. Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, and summarized here for PsyBlo, October 21, 2015.

What Makes Us Extroverts and Introverts? Drawing on the theories of Carl Jung, Hans Eysenck, and current research in neuroscience, BBC staff writer Tom Stafford explains how the way the brain processes rewards may make people more extroverted or introverted. From July 17, 2013.

What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You About Psychology’s Most Famous Case Study If you turn to many of the leading introductory psychology textbooks (American ones, at least), you’ll find the wrong answer, or a misleading account. Richard Griggs, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, has just analysed the content of 23 contemporary textbooks (either released or updated within the last couple of years), and he finds most of them contain distortions, omissions and inaccuracies when it comes to describing the life of Phineas Gage. British Psychological Society Research Digest, June 30, 2015.

Who Am I? Your Brain The Science Museum of National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), London, UK sponsors an extensive website. Check out their interactive online exhibit on Who Am I? featuring videos, pictures, handouts, and information on understanding your body, your brain, and your genes. This page on Your Brain answers the questions how can illness affect the brain, what happens when you are asleep, how do drugs affect the brain, what are emotions, and others.

Assignments, Exercises, and Activities

Sex and the Brain From the BBC sponsored website: Find out more about “brain sex” differences by taking the Sex ID test, a series of visual challenges and questions used by psychologists in the BBC One television series Secrets of the Sexes. Get a brain sex profile and find out if you think like a man or a woman, see if you can gaze into someone’s eyes and know what they’re thinking, find out why scientists are interested in the length of your fingers, see how your results relate to theories about brain sex.

Electronic Texts

Brain Facts The society for neuroscience provides this free 74-page primer on the brain and nervous system designed as an introduction to neuroscience for a lay audience.

Conversations with Neil’s Brain Neurophysiologists William H. Calvin and George A. Ojemann at the University of Washington wrote this book Conversations with Neil’s Brain: The Neural Nature of Thought & Languageand have made it freely available online. The basics of neuroscience are presented as a series of conversations between a surgeon and his patient. Originally published 1994 by Addison Wesley.

Examples and Illustrations

fMRI: Real-Time Self-Regulation of Emotion Networks Using fMRI, 8 patients with depression were able to increase activity in areas of the brain related to positive emotion and lowered their depression through neuro(bio)feedback. A control group who went through similar cognitive strategies but without the feedback did not show such improvement. Includes downloadable slides of their findings.

Phineas P. Gage Check out the only known photograph (daguerreotype) of Phineas Gage, the foreman who sustained a serious and amazing head wound which changed his personality for the rest of his life. Provides links to background information on Phineas P. Gage. Also available here and an NPR story on him here.

Probe the Brain PBS presents this site where you pretend you are a brain surgeon and get to virtually map out the brain’s motor cortex.

Lecture Notes

Slide Presentations

Tests, Measures, and Scales

Multimedia Resources

Buddha’s Brain: The Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, & Wisdom Shrink Rap Radio: A Psychology talk and Interview Show (Podcast; Show #249, Oct 16, 2010). In this episode, Dr. Dave talks with neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, who works at the intersection on the brain, positive psychology and meditation. Hanson believes that when the brain changes the mind changes; when the mind changes the brain changes; and you can use your mind skillfully to change your brain and your mind for the better (1 hour, 12 minutes, 47 seconds).

Could We Record Our Dreams? Have you ever wished your could record your dreams and watch them later? It may be possible sooner than you think according to this video by Asap Science. While the premise may sound a bit like science fiction, the video does a great job of explaining the latest fMRI studies which do come eerily close to mind-reading. (runs 3 minutes, 55 seconds).

Changing Brains Helen Neville and her colleagues at the University of Oregon Brain Development Lab created this 12-part program to help parents, educators, policy-makers, and care-givers of young children understand how and when experience shapes the development of the human brain. Separate segments focus on vision, hearing, motor skills, attention, language, reading, math, music, and emotions and learning.

Hormones and Trust Oxytocin, the trust hormone appears to increase our trust in others, even momentarily lowering our distrust of strangers. But what happens to people who are born with a genetic syndrome in which they are unable to regulate oxytocin? Hear this fascinating story of a 9-year-old girl with Williams Syndrome and current research on oxytocin and trust (including trust in government) in this feature from All Things Considered on National Public Radio, April 22, 2010 (runs 8 minutes, 36 seconds).

How to Interpret Brain Imaging Studies The Neuroethics Learning Collaborative, of the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, created this video on Brain Imaging: Reality and Hype. Jeff Aguirre presents this talk on the basics of neuroimaging, focusing on how scientists go from tracking neural activity to making an inference about human behavior. Describes how PET scans and fMRIs work, and how to interpret results from fMRI studies. The talk was given on March 2, 2010 and runs 47 minutes and 10 seconds.

Is This Your Brain on God? According to NPR which created this interactive website: More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve. The information is presented in five parts, each revolving around a topic such as The God Chemical, The God-Spot, Spiritual Virtuosos, The Biology of Belief, and Near-Death Experiences, including brain images and interviews with believers and skeptics.

The Meditating Brain With Richard Davidson Shrink Rap Radio: A Psychology talk and Interview Show (Podcast; Show #231, February 26, 2010). In this episode, Dr. Dave talks with Richard J. Davidson, Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about the impact of meditation on the brain.

Prenatal Testosterone and Finger Ratio Can you predict the winner of an athletic contest by looking at finger ratios? John Manning explains how finger length ratio reflect prenatal hormone exposure which is also related to athletic ability in this short video from the BBC program Secret of the Sexes (runs 6 minutes, 8 seconds).

Psychology Apps for the iPad/iPhone/iPod Michael Brit, former professor of psychology, produces a podcast about psychology called The Psych Files. In this episode (Episode 121) he shows — using his iPad — the 10 apps he considers to be the best for psychology, including credible therapy apps, mind mapping tools, relaxation apps, games based on Gestalt principles, and 3-D brain imaging apps.

The Voodoo Debate On the heels of the famous Ed Vul, Nancy Kanwisher and Hal Pashler paper Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience, Matt Lieberman and Piotr Winkielman continued the debate at the annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists (SESP) in 2009. Background information about the original paper which started the controversy is available here.

See-Through Brains Clarify Connections In what has been called one of the most important advances for doing neuroanatomy in decades scientists have found a way to reconstruct three-dimensional data from thin slices to create a transparent view of parts of the brain revealing the brain’s neuronal communication networks. Read about the technique here and see a video of the spectacular images it created of the brains of mice (runs 4 minutes, 17 seconds).