MISINFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY ⏱10:15
the psychology of misinformation, what we can do to fight fake news & neuromyths, brain size, a new brain disease in canada & dementia - again...
episode #9, 7th May 2021 #fakenews #neuromyth #atrophy #Bonhoeffer image source
⇦ listen here ⏱10:15
⇨ transcript here
our main brain stories this episode...
MISINFORMATION OVERLOAD
ten reviews & commentaries on the psychology of misinformation & the role of fake news in modern science were published this month. as a whole, they are a fabulous, enlightening resource - a must for your summer holiday reading list [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. original articles: West & , Bergstrom, 2021 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Yeo & , McKasy, 2021 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Pennycook & , Rand, 2021 (Trends in Cognitive Sciences), #fakenews #backfire #scicomm #infodemic
rating:
NEUROMYTHS PERSIST
neuromyths are popular but misleading claims about the brain. despite warnings from international organisations, they persist in education & elsewhere. if you see or hear a neuromyth, bust it! [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. original article: Torrijos-Muelas et al., 2021 (Frontiers in Psychology), #neuromyth #fake #news #education
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NO EDUCATION LINK TO BRAIN SIZE & DECAY
separate studies find no link between education & age-related brain shrinkage in humans, & different relationships between brain size & body size during the evolution of mammals [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. original articles: Nyberg et al., 2021 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Smaers et al., 2021 (Science Advances), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ian Randall on 26th April 2021 & The Conversation on 28th April 2021 #education #atrophy #shrinkage #mammals
ratings: The Daily Mail: The Conversation:
NEW BRAIN DISEASE DISCOVERED
nearly 50 people have contracted a new neurological disorder over the past 5 years. all the cases are from new brunswick in eastern canada. sufferers experience rapid-onset dementia, hallucinations & other serious neurological symptoms [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. reported in: The Globe and Mail on 18th March 2021 & Government of New Brunswick on 29th April 2021 #neurology #CJD #dementia #NewBrunswick
ratings: The Globe and Mail: Government of New Brunswick:
DEMENTIA LINKED TO SLEEP
mending its ways, the daily mail reports that sleeping for less than 6 hours over many years is associated with dementia in later life; but the express fails by linking an old study of mice to green tea and alzheimer's disease [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. original articles: Sabia et al., 2021 (Nature Communications), Mori et al., 2019 (Journal Of Biological Chemistry), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 20th April 2021 & The Daily Express by Chanel Georgina on 25th April 2021 #sleep #tea #dementia #alzheimers #mice #olds
ratings: The Daily Mail: The Daily Express:
FRIEDRICH BONHOEFFER (1932–2021)
professor friedrich bonhoeffer, who passed away in january 2021, studied the development of the visual brain in chickens & zebrafish, revealing how nerve cells follow chemical signals to find their targets in the embryonic brain [read more...]
this story was in episode #9. original article: Baier, 2021 (Neuron), image source #axon #vision #retina #tectum #chicken