RUN LIKE THE WIND
the media claims that a study of football coaching motivation shows that a mere instruction could be the difference between scoring a goal or being tackled. it doesn't, it didn't, & the original study was careful to say so. [read more...]
this story was in episode #38. original article: Moran et al., 2023 (Journal of Sports Sciences), reported in: The Times by Rhys Blakely on 3rd March 2024 #football #motivation #coaching #run #jump
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SEX IN THE BRAIN
every single newspaper in the universe covered the story about a research paper that finds some small differences between men's & women's brains. [read more...]
this story was in episode #37. original article: Ryali et al., 2024 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The New Scientist by Clare Wilson on 19th March 2024 & The New Scientist by Clare Wilson on 19th February 2024 & The Guardian by Gina Rippon on 22nd February 2024 & The Times by Tom Whipple on 20th February 2024 & The Telegraph by Sarah Knapton on 19th February 2024 image source #finally #sex #brain #decision #centuries
ratings: The New Scientist: The New Scientist: The Guardian: The Telegraph:
OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER IS DEADLY
a massive study of the entire swedish population of people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder reveals that, over about 8 years, they are 82% more likely to die than non-sufferers. that is a big & important effect size. [read more...]
this story was in episode #36. original article: Fernández de la Cruz et al., 2024 (British Medical Journal (Clin Res Ed)), reported in: The Telegraph by Michael Searles on 18th January 2024 #OCD #mortality #mental #health
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LOVE IS IN THE ETHER
the 'valentine's effect' is when newspapers strain every sinew to force one or more scientific research articles to be about love. they're not. don't fall into their soppy trap. [read more...]
this story was in episode #36. original articles: Bode & , Kavanagh, 2023 (Behavioral Sciences), Pierce et al., 2024 (Current Biology), reported in: The Independent by Vishwam Sankaran on 9th January 2024 & The Guardian by Nicola Davis on 12th January 2024 image source #valentines #love #brian #vole #dopamine
SEASON THREE RETURNS (probably)
after the longest three-month pause in the history of time, season three of more than thirty people's favourite brain news fact-checking podcast returns. with some differences. [read more...]
this story was in episode #35. #podcast #return #season #three #brains #stats
PIANO LEARNING IMPROVES PERCEPTION
three groups of 14 people learned to play the piano, listened to music, or read quietly. the study was interrupted by covid. by the end, 8 people learning the piano got a little better at saying whether audio-visual signals were in synch. [read more...]
this story was in episode #34. original article: Che et al., 2022 (Scientific Reports), reported in: The Independent by Claire Hayhurst on 2nd December 2022 #responsebias #fishing #power #outliers
rating: The Independent:
YOUR BRAIN NEEDS A BREAK
researchers at microsoft announced 18 months ago that it is good to take breaks when you are working. in their words: "research proves your brain needs breaks". if the study was not so poorly done there might not be reason to disagree. [read more...]
this story was in episode #34. reported in: The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 7th December 2022 #givemeabreak #work #tired #sleep #fatigue
rating: The Daily Mail:
IMAGE MANIPULATION INVESTIGATION
the president of stanford university is under investigation for potential image manipulation in several published papers. data detectorists deserve great credit for their tireless work. [read more...]
this story was in episode #34. reported in: The Scientist by Katherine Irving on 30th November 2022 #image #manipulation #fraud #investigation
rating: The Scientist:
WINTER WALKING WOMEN WORK WONDERS
87 women went for a walk in the snowy polish countryside. afterwards, they felt better about themselves & their bodies, more compassionate & more connected to nature. we shouldn't worry too much that there was no control group, should we? [read more...]
this story was in episode #34. original article: Czepczor-Bernat et al., 2022 (International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health), reported in: The Daily Mail by Fiona Jackson on 29th November 2022 #snow #winter #walk #women
rating:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
the error bar is closing for several months due to winter refurbishments. the local server is going offline, the beer barrels are being drunk dry & the scientific cynicism is being put on hold. for now. see you in 2023. [read more...]
this story was in episode #34. #hibernation #winter #pause #break
COLOUR INCONSTANCY
in a win-win for communication & science, an extensive scientific review of individual differences in colour perception is conveyed clearly & cogently in scientific american. fascinating stuff. [read more...]
this story was in episode #33. original article: Bosten, 2022 (Annual Review Of Vision Science), reported in: Scientific American by Nicola Jones on 1st November 2022 #colour #color #light #perception #difference
TRIGGERS FOR LOVE AND HATE
a scientific report of mother-infant attachment behaviour in monkeys has drawn hyperbolic coverage from the media, & outrage from animal welfare groups & some scientists. all research has ethical implications. a balance must be struck. [read more...]
this story was in episode #33. original articles: Livingstone, 2022 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Grimm, 2022 (Science), reported in: The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 25th October 2022 image source #monkey #infant #vision #animal #rights
WHY IS THE ERROR BAR OPEN
every year or so, the error bar is forced to re-consider why its doors are open. this year, the answer is that the error bar is a space, a blog, a sketch pad & a repository for news, critique & opinion that will likely never be fully-baked. [read more...]
this story was in episode #33. #podcast #science #blog #repository #opinion
THE BRAIN'S LITTLE BRAIN IS EMOTIONAL
most famous for its role in movement, the brain's own little brain - or cerebellum - is implicated in other cognitive functions too. an impressive, large brain scanning study now documents the cerebellum's role in memory for emotive images [read more...]
this story was in episode #32. original article: Fastenrath et al., 2022 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The Independent by Vishwam Sankaran on 10th October 2022 #emotion #image #picture #cerebellum #memory
rating:
EMOTIONAL HEARING DECLINES WITH AGE
in a series of studies of emotional processing, older adults were worse at discriminating the acted emotion of nonsense speech sounds than younger adults. this could be a specific deficit, a general deficit, or an artefact. [read more...]
this story was in episode #32. original article: Maltezou-Papastylianou et al., 2022 (Public Library of Science ONE), reported in: The Daily Mail by Xantha Leatham on 19th October 2022 #ageing #aging #speech #emotion
rating: The Daily Mail:
GOLDFISH LEARN TO SWIM 70CM FOR FOOD
goldfish learn to swim 70cm for food. [read more...]
this story was in episode #32. original article: Sibeaux et al., 2022 (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences), reported in: The Daily Mail by Victoria Allen on 12th October 2022 & The Times by Rhys Blakely on 12th October 2022 image source #goldfish #learn #to #swim #70cm #for #food
'KING PONG
a fancily-named study in a fancy journal replicates some previous findings & gets picked up by almost every news outlet in the known mediaverse. neurons in a dish can be trained to play simple games. [read more...]
this story was in episode #32. original article: Kagan et al., 2022 (Neuron), reported in: The Guardian by Tory Shepherd on 12th October 2022 #pong #freeenergy #sentience #replication
MOUSE SEE, MOUSE ITCH
a remarkably-specific function has been given to light-sensitive cells in the eye & the brain area to which they send their signals: contagious itching. the basic behavioural finding didn't replicate in another laboratory. [read more...]
this story was in episode #31. original articles: Gao et al., 2022 (Cell Reports), Yu et al., 2017 (Science), Liljencrantz et al., 2017 (Science), Barry et al., 2017 (Science), reported in: The New Scientist by Miriam Fauzia on 4th October 2022 #itch #mirror #neurons #contagion #vision
rating: The New Scientist:
DOGS ARE EVERYWHERE
there must have been a dog science conference recently, because two scientific papers and four newspaper articles are about dogs this week. this week. [read more...]
this story was in episode #31. original articles: Riddoch et al., 2022 (Public Library of Science ONE), Marti et al., 2022 (Public Library of Science ONE), reported in: The Daily Mail by Fiona Jackson on 5th October 2022 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 30th September 2022 & The Independent by Nina Massey on 28th September 2022 & The Daily Mail by Fiona Jackson on 28th September 2022 #dog #behaviour #smell #pulp #stress #robot
EFFINGHAM'S SHAVING FOAM FIRE HOSE
occam's razor is a principle of parsimony & simplicity. lesser-known is frank of effingham who thought that science was at its best when it multiplied concepts far beyond all sense & reason. we give thanks for his shaving foam fire hose [read more...]
this story was in episode #31. image source #OCCAM #RAZOR #FOAM #SIMPLICITY #PARSIMONY
BRAIN BUZZ BOOSTS MEMORY
twenty minutes of brain stimulation over several days can dramatically improve memory for words in adults over 65 years old. if true, this sort of result would be amazing scientifically & practically. that's a big if. [read more...]
this story was in episode #30. original article: Grover et al., 2022 (Nature Neuroscience), reported in: The Independent by Nina Massey on 22nd August 2022 #brainstim #tacs #memory #learning #aging
rating: The Independent:
CLIMBING MOUNT THETA(BURST)
ten years after the discoverers of 'theta-burst stimulation' also discovered that it doesn't work the way they discovered it, other researchers continue to discuss why it doesn't seem always to work they way other researchers say it does. [read more...]
this story was in episode #30. original articles: Park, 2022 (Journal of Neurophysiology), Chung et al., 2016 (Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews), image source #brainstim #TBS #TMS #methods #reliability
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BRAIN AREAS LIGHTING UP: ZERO
the new scientist reports on a new study which finds which brain areas light up when we look at food. the answer is none of them. because the brain is not a lamp. [read more...]
this story was in episode #30. reported in: The New Scientist by Jason Arunn Murugesu on 19th September 2022 #lighting #up #fudge #FMRI #activation #food
rating: The New Scientist:
SIR BLAKEMORE, PROFESSOR BRADDICK
in 2022 neuroscience said farewell to two long-serving professors at the university of oxford - sir colin blakemore & professor oliver braddick. [read more...]
this story was in episode #30. original articles: Philipp-Muller et al., 2022 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Greer & , Firestein, 2022 (Nature Neuroscience), Molnár & , Parker, 2022 (Current Biology), Molnár & , Hannan, 2022 (Nature Neuroscience), Charman, 2022 (Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics), Perception, 2022 (Perception), #blakemore #braddick #vision #development
MAN GETS JOB
the host of a barely successful, intermittent & occasionally-offensive brain science news podcast has got a new job. this story serves by way of an apology for the lack of episodes in 2022 [read more...]
this story was in episode #29. image source #manbitesdog #news #podcast #host #career
BIGGEST BRAIN SCAN STUDY EVER
in the largest brain scanning study of all time, two hundred researchers compiled 124 thousand brain scans into a single database. brain size, growth & composition, from birth to death, is comprehensively documented [read more...]
this story was in episode #28. original article: Bethlehem et al., 2022 (Nature), reported in: The New Scientist by Carissa Wong on 6th April 2022 #brain #big #data #MRI #age #growth #lifespan
rating: The New Scientist:
THE ERROR BAR WAS WRONG
in episode 27, the error bar incorrectly said that the new scientist said that "all brain studies are too small". the new scientist did not say that; that was my interpretation of the study & the news reports. i apologise for exaggerating. [read more...]
this story was in episode #28. #brain #big #data #MRI #error #nitpicking
ZAPPING BRAIN IMPROVES LANGUAGE
studying the effect of distraction on language learning, researchers compared the effects of magnetic stimulation of a scalp location where stimulation can be quite uncomfortable, with another area where it is not at all uncomfortable. [read more...]
this story was in episode #28. original article: Smalle et al., 2022 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The Scientist by Catherine Offord on 4th April 2022 #brain #stimulation #language #distraction
rating: The Scientist:
BRAIN NEWS ROUNDUP
after a two month absence, the error bar rounds up several brain news stories that should otherwise have escaped your attention: the irrationality of worms, fifty years of perception & the best crisps to put in a sandwich [read more...]
this story was in episode #28. reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 5th May 2022 & The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 21st April 2022 #worm #hangry #perception #crisp #sandwich
MOVEMENT: A SECOND SIGHT?
in a carefully-conducted brain stimulation study comparing the movement skills of blind & sighted people, the authors excluded 93% of their data & pretended that the main purpose of their work was always to focus on the 7%. riiiiigggghhhht. [read more...]
this story was in episode #27. original article: Ikegami et al., 2022 (bioRxiv), reported in: The New Scientist by Jason Arunn Murugesu on 16th March 2022 #brain #stimulation #blind #moving #phacking
rating:
ALL BRAIN STUDIES ARE TOO SMALL
the claim that all brain scanning studies are 'too small' provides fodder to armchair pundits & students around the world. the more limited claim that massive unfocused brain-behaviour correlation studies are underpowered is fair. [read more...]
this story was in episode #27. original article: Marek et al., 2022 (Nature), reported in: The New Scientist by Clare Wilson on 16th March 2022 #brain #scan #size #number #replication
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THE CLITORIS HAS BEEN FOUND
the tabloids missed this story, but the error bar didn't - brain science has found the clitoris! the brain area responding to clitoral vibration is in the middle at the top of the brain, just where it should be. [read more...]
this story was in episode #26. original article: Knop et al., 2022 (Journal of Neuroscience), image source #clitoris #brain #tactile #MRI #mapping
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COVID SHRINKS BRAIN
a large brain scanning study finds that some parts of the brains of older adults shrink after infection & mild symptoms of covid. these are small & specific changes in the brain, but every percentage counts. avoid covid. [read more...]
this story was in episode #26. original article: Douaud et al., 2022 (Nature), reported in: The Guardian by Linda Geddes on 7th March 2022 #COVID #brain #smell #taste #size #shrinkage
rating: The Guardian:
NEW CANADA BRAIN DISEASE NOT NEW
the official investigation into the mysterious new brain disease in canada over the last two years finds that, in fact, there is no new brain disease. mis-diagnosis explains most of the cases. real & serious, but not new disease. [read more...]
this story was in episode #26. reported in: The Washington Post by Amanda Coletta on 24th February 2022 #canada #brain #disease #enquiry
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BRAIN DOESN'T SLOW DOWN UNTIL 60
analysis of 1.2 million responses on the 'implicit association test' finds that adults' mental processing speed is totally good & constant until age 60. that's good news for all adults over age 35. until you look at the data. [read more...]
this story was in episode #25. original article: von Krause et al., 2022 (Nature Human Behaviour), reported in: The Guardian by Hannah Devlin on 17th February 2022 & The Independent by Vishwam Sankaran on 19th February 2022 #brain #speed #ageing #lifespan #mental
ratings: The Guardian:
LIFE FLASHES BEFORE EYES
a report of an 87 year old man who died while his electrical brain activity was being recorded raises the possibility that our life really does flash before our eyes. this report provides no evidence either way that it does. [read more...]
this story was in episode #25. original article: Vicente et al., 2022 (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 23rd February 2022 & The Guardian by Nicola Davis on 23rd February 2022 #neardeathexperience #EEG #brainwaves
ratings: The Daily Mail: The Guardian:
PHYSICS & CONSCIOUSNESS ARE FUNDAMENTAL
the irish times selects five of the 'unanswered, fundamental questions' in all science. four of them are from physics & one from brain science. [read more...]
this story was in episode #25. reported in: The Irish Times by William Reville on 17th February 2022 #physics #consciousness #mystery #question
THE PRESENT IS AN ILLUSION
twelve online experiments find our perception of faces is biased by preceding videos of the same face changing slowly. this interesting finding is hyped, first by the authors, second by the media, into time-warping nonsense. [read more...]
this story was in episode #24. original article: Manassi & , Whitney, 2022 (Science Advances), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 1st February 2022 #vision #face #illusion #time #memory
VIRUS CAUSES MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
analysis of over 10 million health records of us military personnel reveals a greatly-increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis after infection with the epstein-barr virus. [read more...]
this story was in episode #24. original article: Bjornevik et al., 2022 (Science), reported in: The Irish Times by Gina Kolata on 14th January 2022 & The New Scientist by Michael Le Page on 13th January 2022 #epsteinbarr #virus #military #population
CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED THRICE
three more books explaining consciousness have been published & reviewed in the news media. it's just a matter of time before one of these books actually explains consciousness. keep printing! [read more...]
this story was in episode #24. reported in: The Guardian by Andrew Anthony on 6th February 2022 & The New Scientist by Richard Webb on 26th January 2022 & Science News by JP O'Malley on 5th January 2022 #consciousness #book #review #mind #brain
NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING
having an magnetic resonance imaging scan can be anxiety-generating. the latest mri scanners in aberdeen can now address their patients in the local dialect of doric. £1.2 million pounds well spent. [read more...]
this story was in episode #24. reported in: Irish Independent by Dan Barker on 28th January 2022 #mri #doric #scotland #language #upgrade
BRAIN NEWS ROUNDUP
after 5 weeks away from the brain news, there are mountains of stories to cover. most of the stories are about food, alcohol, ai, dementia, sleep & dogs. [read more...]
this story was in episode #24. #brain #science #news #roundup
ROCKET SCIENCE & NEUROSURGERY FOR ALL
the uk media seized on a report that rocket scientists & brain surgeons are no more intelligent than the general population. only the daily mail noted the authors' pleas for more non-white non-males to enter the professions [read more...]
this story was in episode #23. original article: Usher et al., 2021 (British Medical Journal), reported in: The Independent by Vishwam Sankaran on 14th December 2021 & The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 13th December 2021 & The Guardian by Nicola Davis on 13th December 2021 #rocket #science #brain #surgery #christmas
GUIDANCE GUIDANCE IS BOGUS
the british medical journal continues its christmas season by publishing bogus guidance for reporting underwhelming studies. it's worth a read & it's only partly parody. [read more...]
this story was in episode #23. original article: Bauer, 2021 (British Medical Journal), #guidanceguidance #howto #spoof #christmas
MUSIC RELEASES DOPAMINE
in a post-christmas music quiz, the bbc's counterpoint asked a contestant which neurotransmitter in particular is released by listening to music. the correct answer, of course, was dopamine. i mean, where do i even begin with this? [read more...]
this story was in episode #23. reported in: The BBC by Paul Gambaccini on 27th December 2021 #dopamine #music #serotonin #quiz
rating: The BBC:
PLOTKIN, KOHONEN, LEAKEY, WILSON
evolutionary & brain sciences have lost four esteemed members: henry plotkin, teuvo kohonen, edward o wilson & richard leakey. [read more...]
this story was in episode #23. reported in: Twitter by Sophie Scott on 17th December 2021 & Twitter by BrainsOnWaves on 14th December 2021 & The BBC on 3rd January 2022 & The BBC on 27th December 2021 #plotkin #kohonen #leakey #wilson #evolution
2021: A YEAR IN ERROR
the error bar celebrates its first year, looking back at the best story, paper, error, sexiest neural correlate & the latent story of 2021 that the media failed to publish: ai robot dogs that diagnose dementia from body odour [read more...]
this story was in episode #23. #2021 #best #worst #sexiest #dogs
MEN: SMELL POO TO RELAX
making men & women smell a chemical found in mice, on skin & in poo makes men a bit less aggressive & women a bit more aggressive in deliberately-annoying computer games. no one but the authors or journalists seems to know why. [read more...]
this story was in episode #22. original article: Mishor et al., 2021 (Science Advances), reported in: The Scientist by Chloe Tenn on 22nd November 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 19th November 2021 image source #skin #breath #faeces #brain #aggression #men
ratings: The Scientist: The Daily Mail:
BINGE DRINKING SHRINKS BRAIN
excessive alcohol consumption is bad for you, but 21st birthday boozing binges are associated with having a smaller brain later that week. specifically, less white matter connecting left & right. gulp. [read more...]
this story was in episode #22. original article: Hua et al., 2020 (Alcoholism, Clinical And Experimental Research), reported in: The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 23rd November 2021 #binge #booze #brain #shrink #corpus #callosum
rating: The Daily Mail:
BEWARE SYNDROME SYNDROME
a couple who experienced years of sickness related, they claim, to a nearby wind farm, have won a legal case in france. their symptoms sound a lot like havana syndrome, migraine & other stress-induced malaises... [read more...]
this story was in episode #22. reported in: The Guardian by Kim Willsher on 8th November 2021 #wind #turbine #syndome #Havana
rating: The Guardian:
MIRRORCLE NEURONS: A CLARIFICATION
in episode 14, the error bar bemoaned the failure of scientists to stop the hype over mirror neurons - interesting sensory motor brain cells in certain parts of the brain. but this was a general moan. not directed at any specific scientist [read more...]
this story was in episode #22. #mirror #neurons #clarification #hype #spin
HUG FOR FIVE SECONDS
when hugged by the same researcher in a controlled laboratory setting, london undergraduate students prefer five- or ten-second hugs to one-second hugs. out on campus, male huggers tend to criss-cross their arms. [read more...]
this story was in episode #21. original article: Dueren et al., 2021 (Acta Psychologica), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 16th November 2021 #hug #affective #posture #social #touch
rating: The Daily Mail:
CANADIAN BRAIN DISEASE UPDATE
the mysterious brain disease in canada, first reported in episode #9, returns to the headlines as a canadian neuropathologist dismisses evidence of a new cluster of disease [read more...]
this story was in episode #21. reported in: The Globe and Mail by Kevin Bissett on 26th October 2021 & The Globe and Mail by Greg Mercer on 27th October 2021 & The Guardian by Leyland Cecco on 16th November 2021 #canada #brain #neuropathology #error
MANY HANDS MAKE LABS WORK
two large replication & manylab collaboration papers came out this month. they represent major steps forward for improving neuroscience practice [read more...]
this story was in episode #21. original articles: Pavlov et al., 2021 (Cortex), Schilling et al., 2021 (NeuroImage), #manylab #EEG #DTI #collaboration
RUTTER, CORBALLIS, BECK
psychiatry & cognitive neuroscience pay their respects to professors rutter, beck & corballis, who worked on autism, depression & brain lateralisation, respectively. [read more...]
this story was in episode #21. reported in: The New York Times by Richard Sandomir on 7th November 2021 & The BBC on 1st November 2021 & Twitter by Steven Dakin on 15th November 2021 #rutter #beck #corballis #brain #health
TOOLS IN THE BRAIN: THE FIRST 25 YEARS
on the 25th anniversary of an influential neuroscience paper, the error bar talks to drs marie martel & luke miller about how using tools changes our brain [read more...]
this story was in episode #20. original article: Iriki et al., 1996 (NeuroReport), #tool #brain #hand #silver #iriki #birthday
OVULATE TO CREATE
an online questionnaire study reported that women were more 'creative' - by a miniscule amount - when the researchers estimated that they were most fertile. the data are bad; the motivation worse. [read more...]
this story was in episode #19. original article: Galasinska & , Szymkow, 2021 (International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 14th October 2021 #ovulation #creativity #Darwin #Qualtrics
rating: The Daily Mail:
AUTISM IS TREATABLE
a small intervention study in australia reports that 10 sessions of infant therapy can reduce the likelihood of developing autism by age three. in fact, all the statistics are weak and multiple uncorrected tests were done. ignore. [read more...]
this story was in episode #19. original article: Whitehouse et al., 2021 (JAMA Pediatrics), reported in: The Week on 2nd October 2021 #autism #treatment #therapy #cure
rating: The Week:
BALLS: A REBUTTAL
in episode #11, the error bar identified the worst brain imaging study ever published. comments placed on pubpeer.com have prompted the authors to rebut that claim. the error bar takes another look. [read more...]
this story was in episode #19. #penalty #choke #football #FNIRS #QRP
THE MEN WITH THE GOLDEN FINCH
the brains of three zebra finches are studied while they sing songs. each of the birds had different sequences & syllables in their song. activity in the brain's 'premotor cortex' reveals how these syllables may be strung together [read more...]
this story was in episode #18. original article: Brown et al., 2021 (Public Library of Science Computational Biology), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 23rd September 2021 image source #bird #song #zebra #finch #electrode #syllable
rating: The Daily Mail:
SOMATOSENSATIONAL
a nobel prize for the noblest of sensory systems - somatosensation - has been awarded to david julius and ardem patapoutian. the citation states: "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch" [read more...]
this story was in episode #18. reported in: The Scientist by Chloe Tenn on 4th October 2021 & The Independent by Andrew Griffin on 4th October 2021 & The Guardian by Ian Sample on 4th October 2021 #touch #pain #temperature #pressure #nobel
ratings: The Scientist: The Independent: The Guardian:
BBC BREAKING: BAD SCIENCE
in the latest episode of the bbc's breaking: bad science, desperate users seek to calm their troubled minds with brain stimulation hardware. the bbc shamelessly promotes several companies trying to sell you this e-junk [read more...]
this story was in episode #18. reported in: The BBC by Kitti Palmai on 11th October 2021 & Twitter by Vince Walsh on 11th October 2021 #brainhacking #headbands #smart #snakeoil
GARDNER, MISHKIN, CHAUDHRI
neuroscience has lost three highly influential scientists: robert allen gardner, mortimer mishkin and nadia chaudhri [read more...]
this story was in episode #18. reported in: The Washington Post by Emily Langer on 6th October 2021 & The Scientist by Lisa Winter on 5th October 2021 & The Scientist by Lisa Winter on 7th October 2021 #Gardner #Mishkin #Chaudhri
THE SPY WHO CAME IN TO BE COOKED
havana syndrome causes cia officers to hear sounds beamed into their brains from microwave guns operated by enemy spies. it's all backed-up by fifty-year-old research. bad research. bad, scant research. [read more...]
this story was in episode #17. original articles: Frey, 1962 (Journal of Applied Physiology), Lin & , Wang, 2007 (Health Physics), Lubner et al., 2020 (Frontiers in Neurology), reported in: The BBC by Gordon Corera on 9th September 2021 & The Washington Post by Andrea RodrÃguez on 13th September 2021 image source #microwave #sound #pressure #hearing
ratings: The BBC: The Washington Post:
SIT! LIE DOWN! STAY! FIXATE!
dogs in mri scanners listening to their owners' praising voice show larger activation in the auditory & learning-and-reward areas of their brain, as compared with listening to neutral or a stranger's voice. woof! [read more...]
this story was in episode #17. original article: Gábor et al., 2021 (NeuroImage), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 8th September 2021 image source #dog #MRI #scanner #speech #social
rating: The Daily Mail:
CONSCIOUSNESS IS NEARLY SOLVED!
in time for christmas, sussex professor anil seth has written a book about consciousness, self & reality. it has been reviewed widely in the media & is available from bookstores, both good & bad [read more...]
this story was in episode #17. original article: Seth, 2021 (NeuroImage), reported in: The New Scientist by Anil Seth on 1st September 2021 & The Irish Times by Joe Humphreys on 16th September 2021 & The Guardian by Gaia Vince on 25th August 2021 #consciousness #self #book #tour
A JOURNAL FOR TRIAL AND ERROR
the new journal of trial and error gives scientists a platform to write about research errors, negative or unexpected results, and failed grant applications [read more...]
this story was in episode #16. image source #journal #error #failure #reproducibility
THE NULL RITUAL OR: P, P, P, PLAGIARISM
each time science news publishes bruce bower's article about potential problems with pernicious p-values in psychology - in 1997, 2013, 2018 & 2021 - it gets a little bit worse [read more...]
this story was in episode #15. original article: Piaget, 1979 (Annual Review of Psychology), reported in: Science News by Bruce Bower on 12th August 2021 & Twitter by Darren Dahly on 16th August 2021 #pvalue #statistics #selfplagiarism
ratings: Science News:
A LITTLE ALCOHOL IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART
a meta-analysis of nearly 50000 people's drinking habits & cardio-vascular health finds that drinking up to a bottle of wine a day is no worse for your heart than not drinking at all. tabloid gold! [read more...]
this story was in episode #15. original article: Ding et al., 2021 (BMC Medicine), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 27th July 2021 #alcohol #beer #wine #heart #metaanalysis
rating:
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE!
a review of numerical cognition research in the conversation was reported verbatim in the metro, referred to as 'study shows...' in the mirror & as 'study finds...' in the express. mad as a hatter! [read more...]
this story was in episode #15. reported in: The Daily Express on 19th August 2021 & The Mirror by Emily Sleight on 9th August 2021 & The Metro by Silke Göbel on 30th July 2021 image source #alice #wonderland #numbers #rabbithole
ratings: The Daily Express: The Mirror:
MATHS PREDICTS DIVORCE
two newspapers use a decades-old story about maths & marriage to sell some pop-science brain-training nonsense, dragging tv's hannah fry & the error bar down yet another silly season rabbit hole [read more...]
this story was in episode #15. reported in: The Daily Express by Leah Stanfield on 3rd August 2021 & The Mirror by Emily Sleight on 3rd August 2021 #marriage #divorce #maths
ratings: The Daily Express: The Mirror:
MIRRORCLE NEURONS
a relatively sensible-sounding meta-review of the effects of action observation on neurological rehabilitation is blown wildly out of proportion by the media. it's a mirrorcle [read more...]
this story was in episode #14. original article: Ryan et al., 2021 (Archives Of Rehabilitation Research And Clinical Translation), reported in: Irish News by Fiona MacRae on 8th July 2021 image source #mirrorneuron #stroke #rehab #metaanalysis
rating: Irish News:
PHYSICS EXPLAINS THE MIND
the daily express has lined up a series of male physicists to explain the mysteries of the human mind & brain. no psychologists or neuroscientists were available for comment [read more...]
this story was in episode #14. reported in: The Daily Express by Sebastian Kettley on 9th July 2021 & The Daily Express by Sean Martin on 4th July 2021 #physics #mind #mystery #macho #ignorance
ratings: The Daily Express: The Daily Express:
EAT BISCUITS CHOCOLATE DOWN
the newspapers are all lining up to give free advertising space to a major biscuit manufacturer after an unidentified report released on world biscuit day revealed it's better to have the chocolate facing down [read more...]
this story was in episode #14. reported in: The Sun by Julia Atherley on 15th July 2021 & The Mirror by Paige Holland on 9th July 2021 & Irish Mirror by Michelle Cullen on 9th July 2021 & The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 8th July 2021 #chocolate #eating #biscuit #promotion #irony
ratings: The Sun: The Mirror: Irish Mirror: The Daily Mail:
HOBSON, LEWONTIN, LAKATOS (rest in peace)
neuroscience has lost three scholars: allan hobson, richard lewontin and peter lakatos [read more...]
this story was in episode #14. original articles: Dietrich, 2021 (Nature), Obleser, 2021 (Nature Neuroscience), reported in: internet source by World Sleep Society on 12th July 2021 #AllanHobson #RichardLewontin #PeterLakatos
THE ERROR BAR TAKES A BREAK
after 14 episodes, a busy year, and a very busy week, the error bar hangs up his nit-picking tweezers for a few weeks while the british summer passes without note [read more...]
this story was in episode #14. original article: Holmes
THE LOSS OF CONFIDENCE PROJECT
in the loss-of-confidence project, scientists admit to & discuss the mistakes & poor practice that has led them to lose confidence in their previous work. a bold and inspiring move. more like this please [read more...]
this story was in episode #13. original article: Rohrer et al., 2021 (Perspectives on Psychological Science), image source #error #mistake #confidence #phacking
rating:
'INCEPTION' IS A REALITY
40 researchers concerned about an advertiser's influence over our subconscious minds wrote an open letter mentioning the advertiser 16 times, linking to their you tube video & getting stories about them in the daily mail & science magazine [read more...]
this story was in episode #13. original article: Moutinho, 2021 (Science), reported in: DxE on 29th June 2021 & The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 17th June 2021 #advertiser #dream #subconscious #DiCaprio
ratings: DxE: The Daily Mail:
MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC FIGHTS MENTAL FATIGUE
two studies of fit people in edinburgh find that listening to motivational music during physical speed & endurance tests counteracts the draining effects of mental fatigue. whistle while you work out! [read more...]
this story was in episode #13. original article: Lam et al., 2021 (Journal of Human Sport and Exercise), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 22nd June 2021 #exercise #music #fatigue #motivation
rating: The Daily Mail:
AN APOLOGY
in episode #11 we referred to a study on brain imaging during football penalty taking using some quite strong language. following a complaint, we apologise & accept that the language used should have been much stronger [read more...]
this story was in episode #12. #apology #football #penalty #choke #balls
HUMANS LEARN ECHOLOCATION
humans can learn to discriminate the sizes & orientations of nearby objects by making clicking noises with their mouths & listening to the echoes. it takes many hours of training, but performance can be remarkably good [read more...]
this story was in episode #12. original article: Norman et al., 2021 (Public Library of Science ONE), reported in: The Daily Mail by Sam Tonkin on 2nd June 2021 #bat #echo #sound #perception #blindness
rating: The Daily Mail:
NEWS IS BIASED IN PRINT & FAKE ONLINE
two papers report on the perception of bias in news media & the sharing of fake news on twitter. while people are biased & rapidly share fake news, bias can be reduced & people also share fake news corrections [read more...]
this story was in episode #12. original articles: Litovsky, 2021 (Public Library of Science ONE), Murayama et al., 2021 (Public Library of Science ONE), #fakenews #twitter #bias #hostile #media
rating:
BRAIN CHEMICALS PREDICT MATHS CHOICE
a study of students who choose to study maths finds weak relationships with one of eight brain chemicals measured, having excluded lots of different kinds of data in many different ways. the effects in younger students were not replicated [read more...]
this story was in episode #12. original article: Zacharopoulos et al., 2021 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: Irish News on 9th June 2021 & The Daily Mail by Sam Tonkin on 7th June 2021 & The Guardian by Sally Weale on 7th June 2021 #brain #maths #education #QRP
ratings: Irish News: The Daily Mail: The Guardian:
HAND BRAIN HANDLES TOOLS
the part of the brain dealing with images of hands also processes how to grab cutlery & the differences between grabbing cutlery & rods. hands & tools inter-digitate in the visual brain [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. original article: Knights et al., 2021 (Journal of Neuroscience), reported in: Twitter by James Rosen-Birch on 13th May 2021 image source #hand #tool #FMRI #visual #grasp #decode
rating: Twitter:
SCIENCE TAKES A DIVE
likely the worst brain imaging study ever published, researchers interested in football penalty-taking behaviour discarded 86% of their data, did 165 statistical tests, then mis-interpreted the results. in ten thousand words [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. original article: Slutter et al., 2021 (Frontiers in Computer Science), reported in: The Daily Mail by Joe Pinkstone on 7th May 2021 #penalty #choke #football #FNIRS #QRP
rating: The Daily Mail:
MIRROR PHONE NEURONS FOR MISOPHONIA?
mirror neurons - brain cells involved in sensation & movement - have been implicated in two new studies, of phone-related-imitation & sound-related-irritation [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. original articles: Maglieri et al., 2021 (Journal of Ethology), Kumar et al., 2021 (Journal of Neuroscience), reported in: The New Scientist by Christa Leste-Lasserre on 23rd April 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 3rd May 2021 & The Guardian by Ian Sample on 24th May 2021 & The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 24th May 2021 #mirror #smartphone #misophonia #FMRI
A LITTLE ALCOHOL IS BAD AND GOOD FOR YOU
two preliminary reports excited the media into an alcoholic froth by claiming that even a small amount of alcohol is both good & bad for you. cheers! [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. original article: Topiwala et al., 2021 (medRxiv), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 19th May 2021 & The Independent by Vishwam Sankaran on 19th May 2021 & The Guardian by Natalie Grover on 18th May 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 3rd May 2021 & You Tube by Kene Mezue on 7th May 2021 #alcohol #good #bad #health #brain #heart
ratings: The Daily Mail: The Independent: The Guardian: The Daily Mail: You Tube:
ARE THE ZOMBIES COMING?
the ever-perplexing express created a story about zombies caused by brain-invading organisms being on the verge of existence. they're not, they don't, they won't. ignore [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. #zombie #toxoplasma #mouse #cat #urine
GOODALL WINS PRIZE FOR PRIMATOLOGY
jane goodall, the astonishingly accomplished primatologist, receives the $1.5m templeton prize for her life's work on animal intelligence & humanity [read more...]
this story was in episode #11. reported in: The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood on 20th May 2021 image source #JaneGoodall #primatology #hope #templeton
THE RUBBER HAND ILLUSION'S A DELUSION
a series of studies of the now-famous rubber hand illusion has cast doubt over whether it really measures the multi-sensory nature of bodily experience, or is rather more a hypnotic suggestion effect. the error bar finds out [read more...]
this story was in episode #10. original articles: Lush, 2020 (Collabra), Lush et al., 2020 (Nature Communications), Ehrsson et al., 2021 (PsyrXiv), Lush et al., 2021 (PsyrXiv), reported in: University of Sussex by Neil Vowles on 11th April 2020 & Scientific American by Simon Makin on 21st October 2020 #hand #illusion #multisensory #suggestion
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
ratings:
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
BRAIN EVOLUTION EXPLAINED
two studies on brain development & evolution caught the media's attention with flashy data & flashy claims about the relationships between humans, chimps & gorillas. if i understood, these are important pieces in a much bigger puzzle [read more...]
this story was in episode #8. original articles: Benito-Kwiecinski et al., 2021 (Cell), Ponce de León et al., 2021 (Science), reported in: The Guardian by Ian Sample on 24th March 2021 & The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 25th March 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 8th April 2021 & Science News by Charles Choi on 8th April 2021 & The Scientist by Abby Olena on 19th April 2021 #evolvution #parietal #occipital #frontal
ratings: The Guardian: The Daily Mail: The Daily Mail: Science News: The Scientist:
FEEL THE GROOVE OF TOUCH
recording electrical signals in the arm's nerves, this heroic research discovers the limits of touch sensation in the fingertip. at just 0.4mm our sensitivity matches the width of the grooves in our fingerprints [read more...]
this story was in episode #8. original article: Jarocka et al., 2021 (Journal of Neuroscience), reported in: The New Scientist by Christa Leste-Lasserre on 15th March 2021 & The Guardian by Nicola Davis on 15th April 2021 & Twitter by Andrew Pruszynski on 16th March 2021 #fingerprint #touch #maps #microneurography
ratings: The New Scientist: The Guardian: Twitter:
IS EVERYTHING LINKED TO DEMENTIA?
the daily mail links three studies which have nothing to do with dementia to dementia. we're not sure why they are doing this, but they are. it's really very strange indeed [read more...]
this story was in episode #8. original articles: Koblinsky et al., 2021 (BMC Geriatrics), Kamer et al., 2021 (Alzheimer's and Dementia), Dallas et al., 2021 (Scientific Reports), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 16th April 2021 & The Daily Mail by Joe Pinkstone on 12th April 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 14th April 2021 #dementia #teeth #housework #gas
WELCOME TO THE MUSK SHOW
rarely out of the headlines, the daily mail squeezes elon musk into three science stories this month. the error bar promises never to mention mr musk again [read more...]
this story was in episode #8. original article: Simeral et al., 2021 (IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 9th April 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 8th April 2021 & The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 2nd April 2021 #BCI #BrainGate #neuralink #dinosaur
THIS EPISODE'S NEURAL CORRELATES ARE...
everything we do involves the brain, so it is no surprise that horse-assisted therapy, inflamed sinuses, shamanic meditation & obsessive compulsive disorder all have their very own neural correlates [read more...]
this story was in episode #8. original articles: Zhu et al., 2021 (Human Brain Mapping), Jafari et al., 2021 (JAMA Otolaryngology-- Head & Neck Surgery), Huels et al., 2021 (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience), Weeland et al., 2021 (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), #horse #inflammation #shamanism #OCD
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MEN ARE FROM EARTH, WOMEN ARE FROM EARTH
a majestic review of over 600 brain imaging studies over 30 years concludes that men's brains are 11% bigger than women's because men are bigger than women. otherwise they're identical. dump the dimorphism! [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. original article: Eliot et al., 2021 (Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews), reported in: The Daily Mail by Dan Avery on 8th March 2021 & Twitter by Lise Eliot on 20th April 2021 image source #sex #male #female #dimorphism #MRI
ratings: The Daily Mail: Twitter:
PEOPLE ARE SHALLOW WINE CONSUMERS
an oxford professor says that people's wine preferences are influenced by the colour, the label, the name, whether there's a cork, the lighting of the room & the background music. also partly by the taste & smell [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. original article: Spence, 2020 (Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications), reported in: The Daily Mail by Victoria Allen on 13th March 2021 #wine #consumer #paradox #critter
rating: The Daily Mail:
PIMPLE POPPING PLEASURE EXPLAINED
five psychologists put 80 women in a brain scanner & showed them videos of other people popping pimples. half found it enjoyable, half disgusting. the brain's frontal lobe seems to be responsible [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. original article: Wabnegger et al., 2021 (Behavioural Brain Research), #pimple #disgust #enjoyment #pleasure
NEUROSCIENCE SOLVES GUN CRIME
psychologist drew westen selectively reviews evidence about mental health, brain development & violent gun crime in the usa. his conclusion that frontal lobe development stops gun crime is strong, but the evidence presented is weak [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. reported in: The Washington Post by Drew Westen on 5th April 2021 #gun #control #development #frontal #lobe
rating: The Washington Post:
SUGAR CAUSES MEMORY LOSS (in rats)
the daily mail's claim that a sugary diet in childhood leads to memory problems is undermined by the study population (rats), the statistical power (poor) & the statistical analysis (poor) [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. original article: Noble et al., 2021 (Translational Psychiatry), reported in: The Daily Mail by Joe Pinkstone on 1st April 2021 #rat #sugar #underpowered #fishing
rating: The Daily Mail:
MARY JEANNE KREEK (1937-2021)
pioneer of the development of methadone & other treatments for drug addiction, professor kreek studied the neurobiology & genetics of the brain with "boundless energy" [read more...]
this story was in episode #7. reported in: The Scientist by Asher Jones on 31st March 2021 #drug #alcohol #methadone #addiction
CUTTLEFISH COGITION BETTER THAN CHILD'S
thescientist.com says cuttlefish match crows in delayed gratification, while the independent says crows beat a 5-year old child at puzzle-solving. transitive inference thus implies that cuttlefish are better than children at delayed puzzles [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. original article: Schnell et al., 2021 (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences), reported in: The Scientist by Asher Jones on 5th March 2021 & The Independent by Harry Cockburn on 13th March 2021 #cuttlefish #corvid #crow #child #delay #task
ratings: The Scientist:
BINAURAL BEATS BEATEN BACK
a 2017 study of 'binaural beats' - an auditory phenomenon in which sounds appear to oscillate between the ears - was retracted after it was revealed that 48 of the original 88 datasets had not been included in the original report [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. original articles: Colzato et al., 2021 (Experimental Brain Research), Colzato et al., 2017 (Experimental Brain Research), #retraction #beat #responder #phacking
OPEN SCIENCE IS CLOSING DOWN
the goals of open science - to improve access to the methods and results of science - are noble. from time to time, however, these goals are obscured by questionable open science practices - quosps. don't get stung [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. reported in: Twitter by Curate Science (EP LeBel) on 16th March 2021 #openscience #bropenscience #QUOSP
PHYSICAL WARMTH IS INTERPERSONAL WARMTH
the quite interesting team tweeted "people are more likely to see the best in others if they interact with them while holding a cup of hot coffee". but this famous finding from 2008 was not replicated by a much much larger study [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. original articles: Williams & , Bargh, 2008 (Science), Lynott et al., 2014 (Social Psychology), reported in: Twitter by Quite Interesting on 14th March 2021 ##warmth ##replicate ##fail ##interpersonal
MEGA MOOLAH FOR MIGRAINE MECHANISM
four neuroscientists have been awarded 10m danish kroner in the brain prize for decades of work on the role of neuropeptides in migraine. the short protein-like chemicals affect the brain's blood supply [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. reported in: The Guardian by Linda Geddes on 4th March 2021 #migraine #headache #treatment #cause
rating: The Guardian:
DO NOT USE SCI-HUB FOR FREE SCIENCE
in a coordinated information campaign across the news media, uk university students are warned not to use the website sci-hub to access millions of scientific research articles for free [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. reported in: The Independent by Peter Stubley on 20th March 2021 & The BBC by Sean Coughlan on 20th March 2021 #scihub #pirate #publishing #science
THE BRAIN NEWS MERRY-GO-ROUND
about one thousand new brain science studies are published every week. so it is disappointing that news outlets seem to cover the same stories, re-hash, or re-present old ones. the error bar will aim to be the *second* to each brain story [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. reported in: The Guardian by Natalie Grover on 4th March 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 8th March 2021 & The Telegraph by Joe Shute on 23rd March 2021 & The New York Times by Kim Tingley on 24th February 2021 #second #silver #runnerup #nearly #almost
EDITORIAL CHANGES AT THE ERROR BAR
as a brain science news outlet established in 2021, the error bar is updating its editorial policy, with a focus on open access stories. also: feedback from you, the made-up listener [read more...]
this story was in episode #6. #editorial #policy #feedback #hashtag
THERE ARE NO GREEN STARS
astrophysics says there are no green stars. this is not a statement about stars, but about the human visual system. the error bar talks to an astrophysist and a psychophysicist to find out more [read more...]
this story was in episode #5. original article: Harre & , Heller, 2021 (Astronomical Notes), reported in: Twitter by Jim Al-Khalili on 28th February 2020 & Wikipedia on 10th March 2021 #physics #colour #perception #psychology
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: The Independent: The Daily Mail:
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:
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:
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
LANGUAGE LEAKS LOST LOVE
thousands of reddit users' posts were analysed for signs of their impending relationship break-ups. they were a bit less analytical than usual, & said 'i' and 'we' a bit more. love hurts. [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original article: Seraj et al., 2021 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 1st February 2021 & The Times by Rhys Blakely on 2nd February 2021 image source #breakup #male #reddit #dumped #loser
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ratings: The Daily Mail:
LONELY BRAINS LOOK DIFFERENT
analysis of nearly forty thousand brain scans shows that adults who often feel lonely have structural and functional changes in parts of their brains sometimes associated with social interactions and mind-wandering [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original article: Spreng et al., 2020 (Nature Communications), reported in: The Globe and Mail by Eric Andrew-Gee on 9th February 2021 image source #loneliness #connectivity #default #rest
rating: The Globe and Mail:
BEAUTY IS IN THE BRAIN. OR ISN'T
a meta-analysis of 49 brain imaging studies finds that different parts of the brain are involved in the appreciation of the visual beauty of arts and of faces. there's no 'beauty centre' [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original article: Chuan-Peng et al., 2020 (Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience), reported in: Scientific American by Jason Castro on 2nd February 2021 image source #art #beauty #faces #fMRI #meta-analysis
rating: Scientific American:
LOVE IS IN THE (UNDERARM H)AIR
the brains of 18 single young men seem to distinguish between the armpit smells of 5 similar-age ovulating women & the smells of an older group of 5 pregnant women. why we need to know this is anyone's guess. [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original article: Habel et al., 2021 (NeuroImage), image source #ovulation #pregnancy #smell #odour #FMRI
rating:
THERE'S TOO MUCH BRAIN NEWS
there were way too many brain stories to cover in this episode. the error bar's limited capacity means all you'll get is this list... [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original articles: Fugazza et al., 2021 (Scientific Reports), Leipold et al., 2021 (Journal of Neuroscience), Goupil et al., 2021 (Nature Communications), Eyigoz et al., 2020 (EClinicalMedicine), Marselle et al., 2020 (Scientific Reports), Russ et al., 2021 (Journal Of Alzheimer's Disease), Portugal et al., 2021 (Scientific Reports), Power et al., 2021 (Psychological Medicine), Aydogan et al., 2021 (Nature Human Behaviour), Rahimi-Nasrabadi et al., 2021 (Cell Reports), reported in: The Times by Rhys Blakely on 27th January 2021 & The Independent by Tom Batchelor on 26th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 25th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 8th February 2021 & The New York Times by Gina Kolata on 1st February 2021 & The Independent by Joe Middleton on 26th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 3rd February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 28th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 26th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 28th January 2021 & Herald Sun by Noah Manskar on 3rd February 2021 & The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 2nd February 2021 #overload #stimulation #verbosity
LEWIS WOLPERT (1929-2021)
professor of embryology, humanist, and science communicator lewis wolpert passed away in january 2021 having written an extremely influential and honest book on depression, malignant sadness [read more...]
this story was in episode #3. original articles: Aungle & , Langer, 2023 (Scientific Reports), Barber, 1976 (Scientific Reports), Bem, 2011 (Journal of Personality And Social Psychology), Benjamin et al., 2018 (Nature Human Behaviour), Bishop & , Thompson, 2016 (PeerJ), Kerr, 1998 (Personality and Social Psychology Review), Lakens
ELECTROTHERAPY HELPS OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOUR
half an hour of weak electric brain stimulation for five days seems to decrease reports of obsessive and compulsive behaviours for three months, but is it too good to be true? [read more...]
this story was in episode #2. original article: Grover et al., 2021 (Nature Medicine), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 18th January 2021 & Scientific American by Diana Kwon on 25th January 2021 image source #OCD #TACS #brainstim #brainhacking #reward
ratings: The Daily Mail: Scientific American:
SLEEP CLEARS TOXIC THOUGHT FROM THE MIND (if you're a fly)
deep sleep can help to detoxify your brain, so long as it is accompanied by repeated back-and-forth movements of your nose every 3 seconds. and you need to be a fruit fly. [read more...]
this story was in episode #2. original article: van Alphen et al., 2021 (Science Advances), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 21st January 2021 image source #fly #snout #sleep #toxins #proboscis
rating: The Daily Mail:
MICHAEL LAND (1942-2020)
professor of neuroscience michael land passed away in december 2020 after a lifetime studying the vision of humans and many other animals [read more...]
this story was in episode #2. reported in: The Guardian by Daniel Osorio on 19th January 2021 image source #vision #prawn #spider #sight #tea #scallop
MONKEY BUSINESS
long-tailed macaque monkeys in bali have learnt the value of tourists' possessions, systematically relieving them of the higher-value items to trade back for food. adults are better than juveniles [read more...]
this story was in episode #2. original article: Leca et al., 2021 (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences), reported in: The Independent by Samuel Osborne on 26th January 2021 #macaque #thief #barter #bali #tourism
rating: The Independent:
BRAIN OMELETTE
physicists in pennsylvania, usa have been banging some hens eggs around to see how the yolk moves inside. some say this is a bit like how the brain moves around inside the head. don't try to find out. [read more...]
this story was in episode #2. original article: Lang et al., 2021 (Physics of Fluids), reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 19th January 2021 & The Telegraph by Dominic Penna on 20th January 2021 #eggs #helmet #skull #yolk #concussion
VEGETABLES FOR BRAIN HEALTH
broccoli & peppers may prevent parkinson's disease; eating a 'mediterranean' diet may only slow cognitive decline if you don't also eat lots of 'western' food (spoiler: not really) [read more...]
this story was in episode #1. original articles: Agarwal et al., 2021 (Alzheimer's and Dementia), Hantikainen et al., 2021 (Neurology), reported in: The Daily Mail by Ryan Morrison on 7th January 2021 & The Daily Mail by Stacy Liberatore on 11th January 2021 image source #broccoli #vegetable #brain #degeneration
ratings: The Daily Mail:
URBAN LANDSCAPES SLOW YOU DOWN
looking at pictures of urban scenes while you walk slows you down by about 1 meter per minute relative to rural scenes. but a blank scene speeds you up three times as much [read more...]
this story was in episode #1. original article: Burtan et al., 2021 (Royal Society Open Science), reported in: The Daily Mail by Victoria Allen on 6th January 2021 image source #city #urban #rural #distraction #walking
rating: The Daily Mail:
AT LAST! COMPUTERS STILL CAN'T SEE
announcing the world's first "cognitive intelligence televisions", sony claims to have solved the problems of computer vision and hearing [read more...]
this story was in episode #1. reported in: The Daily Mail by Shivali Best on 7th January 2021 #vision #hearing #computer #television
rating: The Daily Mail:
CANNABIS IS A GATEWAY DRUG TO COCAINE (in adolescent male rats)
adolescent male rats walk around their cages more when given cocaine, if they had been given a cannabinoid drug the week before. but adult male rats didn't. some brain areas were affected too. nothing here about humans. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original article: Scherma et al., 2020 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 20th April 2020 image source #rat #cannabis #cocaine #gateway #prefrontal
rating: The Daily Mail:
BURGERS AND SAUSAGES CAUSE DEMENTIA
computer algorithms find associations between some types of foods which may be risk factors for dementia. but genes, diabetes, dieting & mental state were all more strongly linked to dementia. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original article: Samieri et al., 2020 (Neurology), reported in: The Sun by John Sturgis on 22nd April 2020 & The Daily Express by Katrina Turrill on 23rd April 2020 image source #burgers #sausages #dementia #pizza #yoghurt
ratings: The Sun: The Daily Express:
WEARING DATA GLOVE BOOSTS CREATIVITY
the study found that people who were repeatedly woken up produced longer and less coherent story narratives than people who didn't sleep. differences in creativity were assessed by the experimenter alone and may be biased. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original article: Horowitz, 2019 (Neurology), reported in: The Daily Mail by Harry Howard on 20th April 2020 #glove #sleep #creativity
rating: The Daily Mail:
CORONAVIRUS CAUSES FREEZING BRAIN FOG
this is a single person's facebook post about a strange symptom after covid19 diagnosis. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. reported in: The Daily Express by Chanel Georgina on 17th April 2020 & The Mirror by Milo Boyd on 17th April 2020 #covid19 #brain #fog #facebook
ratings: The Daily Express: The Mirror:
SPACE FLIGHT SWELLS THE BRAIN
it may do, but there was no control group, & all the reported brain changes could have occurred up to 18 months before the astronauts went into space. perhaps intensive astronaut training programmes increases brain size? [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original article: Kramer et al., 2020 (Radiology), reported in: The Daily Express by Sean Martin on 17th April 2020 #space #astronaut #brain #volume
rating: The Daily Express:
VITAMIN D CURES DEPRESSION
well, the evidence is mixed. and, in any case, the two studies mentioned in this 'news' story are over 12 years old. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original articles: Armstrong et al., 2007 (Clinical Rheumatology), Jorde et al., 2008 (Journal of Internal Medicine), reported in: The Daily Express by Jessica Knibbs on 22nd April 2020 #vitamind #depression #systematicreview
rating: The Daily Express:
SHY CHILDREN BECOME SHY ADULTS
the study found that infants who were 'inhibited' at 14 months old were more reserved 25 years later. but only 13% of differences in reservedness among the 109 volunteers were explained by this relationship. [read more...]
this story was in episode #0. original article: Tang et al., 2020 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), reported in: The Daily Mail by Johnathan Chadwick on 20th April 2020 #reserved #shy #inhibition #longitudinal
rating: The Daily Mail: