EXTREME DREAM ARGUMENTS   ⏱15:34

how your brain does maths while you dream, the brain differences between agreeing and disagreeing with someone, & why extreme opinions slow down decisions

episode #4, 26th February 2021 #sleep #lucid #agreement #FNIRS #EEG #stats   image source

  ⇦ listen here ⏱15:34


  ⇨ transcript here


our main brain stories this episode...

PEOPLE CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS WHILE ASLEEP

the ability to communicate with researchers while asleep is an exciting prospect for brain science. 1 in 12 of the volunteers in this study might have been able to do it. sometimes. a bit   [read more...]

this story was in episode #4. original article: Konkoly et al., 2021 (Current Biology), reported in: Scientific American by Diana Kwon on 18th February 2021 & The Independent by Adam Smith on 23rd February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 18th February 2021 image source #sleep #EEG #lucid #stats #selection

ratings: Scientific American: fact - scientific story reported well   The Independent: fair - scientific story mostly intact   The Daily Mail: fact - scientific story reported well  


ARGUING BRAINS REVEAL SOMETHING, MAYBE

pairs of people had their brain activity recorded while taking turns to discuss controversial topics on which they agreed or disagreed. flaws in the experimental design render the results difficult to interpret. convince me otherwise   [read more...]

this story was in episode #4. original article: Hirsch et al., 2020 (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience), reported in: The Wall Street Journal by Susan Pinker on 11th February 2021 #fNIRS #agree #disagree #speech

rating: The Wall Street Journal: fair - scientific story mostly intact  


EXTREMISTS ARE WORSE AT COGNITIVE TASKS

dozens of cognitive tasks & questionnaires given to hundreds of people in online tests revealed strong relationships between cognitive performance & political, religious, & ethical views. how this relates to actual extremism is unknown   [read more...]

this story was in episode #4. original article: Zmigrod et al., 2021 (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences), reported in: The Guardian by Natalie Grover on 22nd February 2021 #personality #extremism #conservatism

rating: The Guardian: fair - scientific story mostly intact  


WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN THIS WEEK

caffeine shrinks your hippocampus, but cocoa improves memory; laying too long in bed causes depression, but too short causes dementia; eating apples helps dementia, while singing in a choir helps you write contradictory tabloid headlines   [read more...]

this story was in episode #4. reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 18th February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 16th February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 12th February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Dan Avery on 12th February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 18th February 2021 & by Johnathan Chadwick on 12th February 2021 #brain #fog #headline #contradiction


LESLIE UNGERLEIDER (1946-2020)

scientific journals and societies mourn the loss of the pioneering and productive scientist professor leslie ungerleider, who sorted out the primate visual system in 1982   [read more...]

this story was in episode #4. original articles: Behrmann, 2021 (Nature Neuroscience), Kastner, 2021 (Neuron), image source #vision #stream #dorsal #ventral #what #where