Archive for Minds, Brains, & inbetween
January 30, 2008 at 5:52 pm · Filed under Minds, Brains, & inbetween + Science & Skepticism
A lot of science geeks enjoy lambasting the press for their excessive use of hype in reporting science and medical news. The excellent Bad Science blog specializes in this sort of media skewering, as do several ScienceBlogs writers and other science bloggers.
One problem with all this finger pointing is the fact that scientists and doctors often infuse quite a bit of hyperbole themselves whenever they discuss their research. The discussion section of any paper is often where the forest of wild tangents lives. This is especially true with basic science research where they use this section to say “See! See! Our research is relevant too! It’s worth the funding since it’ll lead to new cures for the Whathaveyou Syndrome.”
Case in point, I was recently gleaning a few recent cocaine research study news releases and I noticed a distinct lack of reality with the conjecture. All these come from Science Daily which prints articles in their original form from universities and research organizations. This all hyperboles are coming straight from the horses mouth.
“We have a brain hard-wired to appreciate rewards, and cocaine and other drugs of abuse latch onto this system. We are looking at the potential for new medications that reduce the brain’s sensitivity to these conditioned drug cues and would give patients a fighting chance to manage their urges.” (Subconscious Signals Can Trigger Drug Craving) 1
“Based on this study, it appears that promising new therapies for addiction may be based on treatments that mute the desire to escalate cocaine intake by blocking the elevation of brain reward thresholds produced by chronic cocaine use.” (Research Helps Explain Why Perception Of Pleasure Decreases With Chronic Cocaine Use) 2
Anyone with an ounce (28.3495231 grams) of scientific skepticism can see right through any of this, tear into the meat of the study, toss out the wild tangents, and hunt for connections to broader theories and future research ideas. This however is not the journalist’s job. There job is to make the science seem more like SCIENCE!
SCIENCE! journalism — as opposed to science journalism — is useful for keeping science interesting and relevant to the public at large, and hopefully inspiring the next generation of scientists. Of course, it also has it’s problems in that distorts the science, but as I mentioned, scientists are pretty good at doing that themselves.
Footnotes
- I.E., put the addict on an antipsychotic (aka dopamine antagonist). Antipsychotics have fun side effects like the desire to sleep a lot, reduced libido, weight gain, and a general anhedonia (they don’t get too exited about anything). Sure it may deaden the cravings (and possibly protect D2 receptors), but will addicts really willingly take a drug that makes them feel like they are in continual withdrawal?
- I.E., somehow get the addict to take some sort of anti-psychotic when they are in the middle of their drug binge — even better if it’s their first drug binge. Sorry to burst your bubble but this ain’t gonna happen.
- The cocaine vaccine while not a panacea shows some promise — if ethically awkward. I’ve been meaning to write something on it but I want to put a bit more research into that post.
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
December 21, 2007 at 1:39 pm · Filed under Minds, Brains, & inbetween + Art Freak Culture
Read an interesting review of Jonah Lehrer’s book Proust was a Neuroscientist by Greta Munger of the blog Cognitive Daily (which in my opinion is one of the best ScienceBlogs.com blogs).
In her review, Greta mentions that in her classes “[students] have to write a few paragraphs to earn ‘culture points.’ They must consider how psychology connects to art…” In response her assignment, some of her students offer unique perspectives; however, most students tend not to get far beyond the visual aspects of the work: “I get a lot of discussion of the Gestalt grouping principles with paintings.”
As I’ve been going back to school for psychology myself, this intersection between psychology and art is fascinating for me. There are some interesting books, papers, and discussions out there on the topic, but often I find that psychologists often fall into the same trap as Greta Munger’s students do. Ramachandran may have some fascinating things to say about the Cognitive Science of Art but he too fails to get past the surface visual nature of the art.
This sorta thing happens a lot with people lacking knowledge of the arts. I’m speaking mostly of those whose only experience of art is the art history museum where contemporary art means having a couple pop art paintings. If they were introduced to a wider expanse of art — especially some of the rich history of performance art — they would realize that symbols, language, meaning, ritual, emotions, relationships, human nature, communication, sociology, politics, and fun are all part of the artistic palette.
I find the easiest way to break people out of their tired purely formalist perspective is to tell them to approach art like a it’s a form of communication. Often the artist is attempting to communicate something to the viewer; sometimes they are selective with the type of viewer and sometimes they are just talking to themselves (as most of the abstract expressionists were in my opinion). Alternately, they may not be communicating themselves but rather creating a space or moment to engender communication or connection between members of the audience.
The palette that the artist uses — color, shape, size, movement, position, symbols, emotion, words, beauty, shock, humor — are all tools for creating a communication that falls outside of what we typically recognize as language. All of which is ripe for discovery and criticism from a psychological perspective and it is in these intersections where my fascination dilates my pupils.
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
December 10, 2007 at 11:41 am · Filed under Minds, Brains, & inbetween
So it seems like my Cat Lady hypothesis linking toxoplasmosis and crazy cattitude that I blogged about in August of 2006 seems to have taken root elsewhere in the scientific community. The New York Times is reporting that the crazy idea may not be so crazy.
“That idea doesn’t seem completely crazy,” Sapolsky says. “But there’s no data supporting it.” [Toxo expert Robert Sapolsky of Stanford]
Not yet. But Jaroslav Flegr, an evolutionary biologist at Charles University in the Czech Republic, is looking into it.
It’s a rather simple leap in logic for anyone who knows the effects of toxoplasmosis, so I’m not surprised that someone else glommed onto the idea. However, I like to think that I may have helped it percolate to the surface, so now it can get some actual scientific study.
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
November 16, 2007 at 2:52 pm · Filed under uncategorized + Minds, Brains, & inbetween + Politics
The Society of Homeopaths is holding a symposium on the treatment of AIDS in December. Their flier states that “Harry van der Zee will introduce us to a completely different and controversial treatment for AIDS in Africa using a new set of healing remedies created by Peter Chappell.”
And what is this “completely different and controversial treatment” you ask? He offers “healing downloads”:
“Downloads are based upon resonance which is an ancient principle for healing and resonance is a natural law that has always existed. Modern quantum physics is confirming resonance works on all levels of existence.”
And how do you get these “healing downloads”? Well he sells them on iTunes of course “engrafted” onto jazz music!
“The music is simply the carrier and alerts you to listen. The download is engrafted on the music by a special process. That is the new technology.”
Hell maybe we can just preload his quantum engrafted ancient healing resonance music on all those XO Laptops! That’ll solve the African AIDS crisis in no time!
ugh
It’s this sorta shit that pisses me off about hemopathology and all the other new ager placebo crap. I’m not gonna even bother disproving hemopathology for you here as others have done it better than me.
I ran into someone tangentially in my social circle the other day who exclaimed the benefits of using magnets to balance the body. I admit that my initial response was mildly snarky, and in turn their response was basically an outright distrust of “western medicine” because that’s “how [they] were raised.” For them it had become a religion.
Reiki, acupuncture, hemeopathology, prayer, MMR vaccine hysteria, witch doctors, raping virgins to get rid of AIDS — it’s all part of the same circle of faith-based medicine. At best it’s hucksterism sucking money out of wallets of dupes; and at worst it’s spreading disinformation and killing patients who forgo vaccines and real treatment. Obviously, it’s mostly the latter that pisses me off about the former.
When faced with this sorta new ager stuff (fairly common here in San Francisco), I think it’s important to challenge these ideas. However, it can be hard not to come off sounding disdainful (because frankly that’s basically how I feel).
Any other skeptics out there have ways of approaching these conversations?
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
September 18, 2007 at 2:16 pm · Filed under Minds, Brains, & inbetween
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
Fabulous Article On Why Repetition Makes Things Seem Truthful
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
August 23, 2007 at 6:20 pm · Filed under Design & Web Geekery + Minds, Brains, & inbetween + Art Freak Culture + Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
- dead simple and so easy you’ll barely know you’re using it (which is what really makes it work)
- a constant stream of banal life snippets of the world in 140 characters or less
- shouting out to no one and everyone with little expectation that anyone will read it or care
- a digital location-less replacement for the the social awareness of the village*
* In the village, you always knew
…that Agnes always went to the grocery store at noon on Sunday, and Old Fred’s hanging out at the tavern later than usual lately. In our messy chaos of busy urban life, we only run into most of our friends every week or so. We try to catch up but usually we only remember to mention the big things — not the little banal things which also make us who we are. As result, there’s something missing in our interactions, and we end up lacking that ambient social awareness that helps bring people together.
Not everyone “Get’s it”
While not perfect, Twitter somehow fills this gap in social awareness. You don’t feel it right away, which is why some people try it out for a week or so and then stop saying “I don’t get it!?!” However after a couple weeks of gleaning the stream of your friend’s twitters, you start to feel it. There it is out of the corner of you vision — you somehow feel closer to those people even though it’s hard to put your finger on why. And the next time you see them, the tension of “catching up” is softened.
What about LiveJournal?
For some LiveJournal works in this manner, but LJ is also as the name implies a journal, and it too often becomes a forum for melancholy narcissistic griping and the ubiquitous replies of *hugs* and commiseration. Not to mention, the flood of inane LJ memes (what CareBear are you?) which are a poor substitute for social bonding. It’s hard to really pour your heart out in 140 characters or less, and this limitation grants Twitter to fill a different role.
Floating In My Twitter Stream
I have to say that Twitter is more relevant when mobile (via sms or mobile browser; my iPhone is great for it), but it still fills it’s purpose on normal computer. I check my twitter stream every now and then and see my friends and my family (yes my parents have jumped on twitter and it’s fabulous). I also follow a couple other bloggers and people I find interesting or funny like Othar who writes what can only be described as Twitter fantasy fiction. With only the simplest perusing, I have a slightly stronger connection with all of their lives.
Links:
| Trackback url |
Bookmark:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
