Science Faction

Now

2011-09-11T11:34:00.001-04:00

Every year I sit alone listening to the reading of the names. I imagine my name being read, and I think of my family. That's when I cry. Love to all the families who lost someone ten years ago today.

Here is my sister's poem inspired by a conversation between my father and I about fate. Thank you for this Lily Belle:

Experience has nothing to do with it.
My father says denying my brothers theory
Can you listen to me this time?
Past arguments have taught me to tune them out
However, this debate changed my usual path of silence
Not expecting how this moment would change me now

The question presented is whether now is an illusion
if so, can we experience anything at all
negating the idea of a decided path of life
Each had a strong and opposite theory
Arguing whether the past has a cause
And the concept of time

My father says time is irrelevant
There is only now and nothing more
There is no past
And memory is not an experience
With this my fathers theory concludes
Fate or a mapped out path is impossible

Of course we have a path
And time is the acknowledgement of our life
My brothers theory intrigues me more then my fathers
As I was confused on his sense of now
My instinct initiates a recall of his life experience
The past that has formed his ideals

A past event comes to mind
Walking his usual path to work
An experience permanently changed his being
At the time, I struggled to understand his devastation
Ten years later, I now have some sense
This conflicting theory is his struggle for why

He furthers his theory to say the following
The past haunts us
Present always in the now
The path we follow
Every time we process a moment
The experience affects our future

Reflecting on the experience a theory emerges
The time has come to unmask the past
Break through the misty path and understand his now

How is this still okay?

2011-07-07T22:01:00.002-04:00

These abilify ads. One, fuck you ad people for making "depression" a little black cloud with sad eyes. Two, ADD it to your existing anti-depressant? Three, here are the potential side effects they actually tell you about in the ad:

Unusual changes in behavior
Thoughts of suicide
Stiff muscles
High fever
Confusion
Uncontrollable muscle movements (which could become permanent)
Decreases in white blood cells, which can be serious (thanks for clearing that up)
Dizziness upon standing
Seizures
Trouble swallowing
Impaired judgement

You know what that's starting to sound like? Fucking Parkinson's. People willingly take this? Also fuck you to any doctor that prescribes this psychotropic poison.

I'd say this is a good conversation addresses it well.

Lovebots. Kind of gross and creepy

2011-07-03T14:33:00.003-04:00

I suppose this was just a matter of time - Someone made the first love robot that emulates human internal states based on levels of hormones and neurotransmitters like oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, etc. The result is kind of a creepy little David Cronenbergesque, spinning, chirping 20's hat. Install a flesh light and I'm in...

Bobby McFerrin is a Neuroscientist

2011-06-28T17:25:00.000-04:00

Amazing (thanks Elise)

Ouch, my brain

2011-06-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

Man, these hurt.

MJ's Ghost

2009-07-07T12:46:00.000-04:00

Finally, proof...

Subtlety = Officially Over

2009-07-03T12:20:00.001-04:00

Jesus, this a bit brutal, isn't it?

I'm gonna have nightmares...

Fake Pharmaceutical Publications

2009-05-12T14:03:00.004-04:00

Care of Philip at Furious Seasons:

Earlier this month I noted that news had come out that Merck had--with the help of major academic medical journal publisher Elsevier--had created a fake medical journal earlier this decade, which then presented studies that were basically gigantic advertorials for Merck's products. Now there's news that the same academic publisher has admitted to creating five other fake journals earlier this decade.

The journals in question are: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Elsevier has a lot to answer for. So far, the company has blamed all of this an its Australian office.

And people think I am off-base when I point out how corrupt the research world has gotten.

You can't make this stuff up...bit more info here.

More stuff you couldn't write if you tried:

God and Cats Playing Keyboard

2009-05-06T17:43:00.003-04:00

This poor kid is trying to come out as an atheist to his idiot mother and (I'm assuming) subordinate father. I love the "you'll get nothing for Christmas" threat, which makes sense here because "Christmas is all about Jesus Christ!"

Anyway, what better way to break the tension with a cat playing keyboard.

I'm getting slightly ashamed this blog has turned into a viral video stop, oh well...

Newsflash: Satan is Dead

2009-04-30T16:10:00.003-04:00

New Hope First Babtist Church interrupts your regular programming to bring you some breaking news - Satan is dead.

The killer was indeed identified as Mr. Jesus Christ...of...heaven...

This is a sad day for hell and a happy day for the saints and residents of Greenville Mississippi.

There may be too many soundbites to list...just watch...

Kurzweil, Shatner - Dreams Coming True

2009-04-29T23:42:00.004-04:00

The new documentary on Raymond Kurzweil looks pretty amazing. He is a technology and future predictor, whose proclamations are often correct (human genome mapping, the internet, the collapse of the soviet union, a computer beating a human chess champion, etc...). The recent big one focuses on the singularlity - a point at which biology and technology are so intermingled they are indistinguishable. I've written about this a lot here, but I can't stop thinking about it - he thinks it will happen right around 2029.

An interesting parallel to Darwin (and maybe a reason he's sometimes regarded as a crackpot), Kurzweil believes he can resurrect his father with DNA and robots. Darwin himself was often quoted as believing in an afterlife and/or God - in particular, during the time when his mother and sister died, which he was heartsick over. Even the most brilliant people can be somewhat deluded it seems. Deluded or not, he believes this evolution of technology will allow him (and maybe all of us) to live forever.

The trailer is great, it really paints him as Vonnegut-like character - half evil genius, half prophet, mostly misunderstood. Towards the end, you can tell the type of backlash he must often receive from bible thumping, fear-mongers frightened he's playing God. Then again, it's nice to hear a quote from Stevie Wonder (a major God believer) praising him, "he is using the gift he was given for the betterment of human kind." Kurzweil is of course also famous for his unique brand of electric keyboards, of which Stevie is a big fan.

There is a showing of this at the Tribeca Film Festival Friday night, anyone got a spare ticket??

Oh yeah, the reason I have to see this now is because it seems to include an unironic interview with THE William Shatner about eternal life.

Auto-Tuned Baby

2009-04-27T11:21:00.002-04:00

This baby sounds better than T-Pain and Kanye combined. Seems like something right out of Radiolab...

It Takes Different Strokes

2009-04-27T11:16:00.002-04:00

A little exercise in music's ability to...shift the emotion of a visual scene. For the love of God, Arnold and Dudley, do NOT get in that old white guy's car. Courtesy of The Gothamist:

The Micro-Expressions of A-Roid

2009-02-19T17:36:00.004-05:00

Our faces our billboards to our emotions, but often only on a lightning fast time scale. The famous microexpressionist (I think I just made that word up), Dr. Paul Eckman takes the time to analyze A-Rod's lying ways on his 60 minutes interview in 2007.

"The most reliable thing that he did is what we call a gestural slip," Dr. Ekman said. Several times during his session with Ms. Couric, Mr. Rodriguez raises his left shoulder momentarily as he speaks.

"It's a slight raise of one shoulder, a fragment that slips out of a full gesture," Dr. Ekman said. In a full shrug, both shoulders rise, stay up, then drop.

A half-shrug can be prompted by feelings like helplessness in the face of tough questions, or a "Who, me?" response to accusations. It doesn't square with firm denials, Dr. Ekman said.

In the interview, Ms. Couric asks: "What's your reaction to this investigation?" referring to the Mitchell report on steroid use in baseball.

His shoulder appears to pop up three times as Mr. Rodriguez talks of being "extremely disappointed" and adds, "It would be a huge black eye on the game of baseball."

He is also asked if he ever witnessed or suspected illegal drug use among players. His answer: "I never saw" - here, his left shoulder lifts - "anything. I never had raw evidence."

The article goes on to explain, that scientifically, nothing is particularly conclusive because he would need to study the purple-lipped cheater during a less stressful conversation to establish a baseline of whatever idiosyncratic facial expressions he has. Frankly, I couldn't imagine staring at that face any longer than I had to.

And even more frankly, I don't need science to prove that Arod and the rest of baseball's lying liars are in a constant state of fabrication, back pedalling, and denial.

If there's anything the steroid era in baseball elucidates, it's the extraordinary lengths people will go to protect their secrets and lies, and that most people, despite instinctually knowing the truth, will still believe the perpetuated stories. Innocent until proven guilty works well in the court of law, but I think we can safely say it doesn't apply to celebrities, athletes and politicians.

Go Jonah Lehrer!

2009-02-07T13:15:00.003-05:00

He was just on the Colbert show! I think he did great. In fact, I have no idea how guests can handle being interviewed like that. Not easy to get a word in edge-wise, but he did eventually.

Jonah discusses his new book, How We Decide, which is high on my reading queue, but haven't gotten to it yet. He mentions the idea of metacognition, which is such an important idea in neuroscience and every day life. Knowing your bad habits, knowing the context, knowing how you relate to the other characters in the scenario, the other variables. He calls it, "thinking about thinking." One has to consider their rational thoughts AND their emotional instincts. Colbert throws in "like Spock!" My thoughts exactly.

I wonder when we're all gonna get on board with this idea, it's vital to everything from global ideas like politics and religion to local issues like choosing your mate or what to have for dinner. Great to see Jonah getting more recognition for his insightful work.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Jonah Lehrer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

Post-Op Pain Killer Freak Out

2009-02-03T19:30:00.003-05:00

From a 7-year old. This seems awfully familiar to me...yes, freshman year in college...in the quad...I ate something that tasted bad and made the world go all swirly...

"Is it always going to be like this?!"

The Singularity University is Near

2009-02-03T14:20:00.001-05:00

I'm very seriously considering considering this.

To be housed at Nasa’s Ames Research Center, a stone’s-throw from the Googleplex, the Singularity University will offer courses on biotechnology, nano-technology and artificial intelligence.
The so-called “singularity” is a theorised period of rapid technological progress in the near future. Mr Kurzweil, an American inventor, popularised the term in his 2005 book “The Singularity is Near”.
Proponents say that during the singularity, machines will be able to improve themselves using artificial intelligence and that smarter-than-human computers will solve problems including energy scarcity, climate change and hunger.
Yet many critics call the singularity dangerous. Some worry that a malicious artificial intelligence might annihilate the human race.

Science fiction coming faster than we think...

Fast Cheap and Out of Control

2009-01-28T14:01:00.002-05:00

My friend Kevin recommended I see Fast, Cheap and Out of Control recently. He knew (and was right) that it was in my wheelhouse and actually sent me a copy from Amazon. Merry Christmas, Kevs...

It's a very unique Errol Morris documentary shot by the cinematographer who did Natural Born Killers (a movie I'm secretly very fond of). It follows a topiary gardener, a biologist that studies mole rats, a lion tamer, and a robotics engineer. All seemingly disparate topics that eventually blend into a pretty brilliant theme about man's role in nature.

My favorite is the robotics engineer (though the lion tamer comes close), who has a brilliant digression about how robots begin to take on identities. There is a sense of being that can transcend their programming, where they are simply reacting to their environment. He goes on to specify how absurd it is to have consciousness without a body - a very subtle (and maybe unintentional) reminder that the separation of mind and body is a myth.

It's funny to watch that idea in action with this collection of robot videos (the best from 2008). The robots playing violin and soccer is fun to watch, but this one is the most singularity-esque and seemingly applicable to humanity. Skip ahead to 3:50 to see this strength suit in action.

Nigerian Shape-Shifting Goats

2009-01-26T10:41:00.003-05:00

Being such a neuro-enthusiast, I often catch myself at parties extolling its virtues, explaining how its discoveries will dispel many of the common mass delusions of our time (religion, global warming, ghosts, etc). Whenever I have that discussion with my father, he gives me a friendly but condescending look and says he hopes I'm right.

I understand his doubt when I see articles like this on a Monday morning (thanks Gordon).

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.
Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

Is the world one big satire show now? A shape-shifting friggin goat?! Okay, I give up...you win, Dad...

The Large Hadron Rap

2009-01-16T16:42:00.003-05:00

Quite possibly the nerdiest thing I've ever seen also happens to be the best explanation for how the large hadron collider works. I'm not really into her flow so much, but I actually feel confident enough now to try discussing this with someone. Who wants some?

Welcome to what has probably been re-enacted endlessly in AP high school physics classes around the globe. (Thanks, John).

The 80s - How one drug could create 10 years worth of unintentional comedy

2009-01-15T12:21:00.003-05:00

I mean, this video pretty much says it all doesn't it?

Was everyone doing so much blow, that no one could have the foresight to say, "dudes, I don't think it's good idea for you to play air and wall keyboard..." Jeez, just watch..

Artist Site

Eddy Curry Finds Gap in Homosexuality Definition

2009-01-13T13:28:00.004-05:00

All crap studies trying to find a physical substrate for homosexuality (either in the brain or DNA) basically define homosexuals as having physical, emotional, or neurological traits of the opposite sex. A gay man has more feminine characteristics, and a woman has more male characteristics.

Let's take the recent case of New York Knickerbocker, Mr. Eddy Curry. Eddy it seems has homosexual tendencies as evidenced by his recent sexual harassment lawsuit, filed by his male driver:

The lawsuit alleges, "On more than one occasion in the last year of plaintiff's employment, Curry approached him, in the nude, and tried to solicit him to engage in homosexual acts with him by telling the plaintiff 'Look at me, Dave, look' and 'Come and touch it, Dave.' "

How do you resist that invitation?

These examples of homosexuality never seem to make into the scientific literature do they? Like with most worthless neuroscience/psychology studies, if the data points don't fit the hypothesis, leave 'em out.

Not to mention, it's not like Curry was exhibiting "female" sexual behavior. In fact, this would appear to be pretty dominant alpha male (asshole) behavior:

Curry also made Kuchinsky perform "humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [Curry had ejaculated into] so that his wife would not see them," the Manhattan federal court suit says.

Or I could be wrong, maybe the gay gene is next to the degrading asshole gene. Doesn't seem like a desirable hypothesis either...

Apocalypse Porn

2008-12-30T15:28:00.004-05:00

I don't know why this is, but pop culture is obsessed with the various ways the world can end. And I blatantly admit I am part of that group. Why is it so intriguing to imagine the planet engulfing itself into a black hole (my favorite), or freezing over, or having all of human life wiped out by a super virus? Hollywood has been banking on these scenarios for a while now, and I'll put my $11 down more often than not just to watch the CGI rendering of it on the big screen.

Well, Discovery channel is praying on my disaster lust with a really beautiful HD scenario of an asteroid making earth a little less hospitable for a while, all to the tune of Pink Floyd's Great Gig In The Sky. (Via fellow Apocalypse Porn Addict, Alex Rainert)

(Here is the link to the HD version if it didn't embed properly below...)

The Hiccup Project

2008-12-07T14:03:00.005-05:00

A long time ago, I had this idea I would write a screenplay about a guy that rises to fame curing hiccups around the world. I deemed myself a shaman that had the powers to sniff them out, and exorcise the demons from the body. If I put on a good enough show, it really did cure people's hiccups because they believed it. It was a form of hypnosis really.

I can't say I understand a lot about the mechanism of hiccups or why they happen, but I did figure out that if you can distract someone from them, they go away. From Wikipedia:

"While numerous home remedies are offered, they mostly fall into three broad categories. These categories include purely psychosomatic cures centered around relaxation and distraction..."

As people were leaving my friend Alex's holiday party last night, I noticed my tipsy friend had the hiccups, and I could tell they were the lethal kind that makes you feel like either you can't breathe or that you might puke. Since I didn't have the energy to put on the old hiccup-curing shaman act, I asked her to count down in sevens from 101, which she found really irritating. One, because I think she was paranoid that she wasn't good at math (distraction #1), and two, that she was a bit annoyed that I was forcing the issue so much (distraction #2).

So with some more coaxing, we did it together: "ninety....four....eighty...seven..." She was so self-conscious and distracted that by the time she got to seventy three, they were gone. Felt good that I was able to help, but I think she was still mad that I made her do math on a Saturday night...go figure...

Upon a little more research, I found an evolutionary theory of hiccups. Amphibians have a specific motor respiratory mechanism that has them gulp air and water, which basically looks like a human hiccup. So this respiration reflex is an antecedent to our modern, mammalian version of breathing. This would explain why infants have the hiccups so frequently - they haven't fully developed the normal breathing mechanism, and are still enacting a phylogenetically earlier respiratory characteristic.

It seems we are on the precipice of learning how much willful control we can have over what we ordinarily consider our "automatic" physiology. The process of how to manipulate physical processes is obviously still sloppy, but I have a feeling new and proven techniques are going to explode into pop culture. Curing hiccups is only the beginning my friends...

[Another thing to consider - why is it so fun to watch people with hiccups?]

Especially Southern Meteorologists:

Homosexual Necrophiliac Ducks

2008-12-05T12:12:00.004-05:00

I found about this from a friend last night in the typical perverted mallard sex practices conversation one often overhears at New York art openings. Frankly, I figured she was making this up, especially when she casually mentioned that the scientist studying these little miscreants, Kees Moeliker, won the Nobel peace prize for biology.

He describes hearing a thud outside his office, which was a specific genus of mallard doing a nose dive right into his window (one of those tragicomedy realities of civilization throwing curveballs at nature). When he went to survey the damage, he noticed another mallard casing out his dead counterpart:

The unfortunate duck apparently had hit the building in full flight at a height of about three metres from the ground. Next to the obviously dead duck, another male mallard (in full adult plumage without any visible traces of moult) was present. He forcibly picked into the back, the base of the bill and mostly into the back of the head of the dead mallard for about two minutes, then mounted the corpse and started to copulate, with great force, almost continuously picking the side of the head.

Apparently, this particular Sting-esque mallard practices tantric necrophilia, as he made sweet duck love for (and I shit you not) over SEVENTY FIVE minutes.

My big question last night - was this ever repeated? And it seems the answer is no. I haven't looked closely yet, but I'm a little unclear what it is about one case of a psycho sexual duck that warrants receiving a Nobel peace prize. Then again, it seems they'll give those things to anyone these days. Here's Donald reenacting the scene:

Neuro-Consciousness Focus Group Part 2: Girl Talk

2008-11-17T12:54:00.005-05:00

In sort of an odd twist of fate, my good friend Alex got me a ticket to see Girl Talk last night at Terminal 5 and we went with his wife and a few friends. If you haven't heard of Girl Talk, it's a DJ who does a lot of mashing - take a hook from a Nine Inch Nails song and play it alongside Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone." Quite a sweet spot for drunken, 20-something hipsters. It's pure marketing genius really - it's going to be a while before those little lab rats stop hitting that lever.

A few posts ago I discussed frame shifting in the context of listening to over a thousand 15-second snippets of music for a focus group. Girl Talk effectively re-created that experience, except it was far more fun and clever. What's funny is that you spend half the time either dancing (Alex and Karen) or staring blankly into space wondering what song that beat playing under the Van Halen riff comes from (Kevin, Gabe, and Micah). Once you figure it out, you continually crave the mental act of dissecting the "songs."

We went for a drink after the show and my friend Oliver was frustrated with the song playing at the bar. Not realizing he was joking, I asked why he didn't like it. "It won't change! And it's not mashed up with anything!"

We are the generation of frame shifters. Somehow I think that doesn't apply to me, but as I write this post, I have four different instant message conversations going on, a few emails I'm responding to, some very heavy texting, and the occasional phone call. The characters, relationships, and plot are all totally different in each, yet I'm effortlessly and obsessively switching between them at lightning speed. In fact, when a few of the conversations begin to slow I get tense as if I'm not stimulated enough.

I guess this is what the future tastes like. Sometimes I worry that I've gotten too good at compartmentalizing my emotions. I'm having one conversation with a girl that just had a tough break up, and another with a friend recapping the prior evening's highlights. Is that disrespectful to my friend going through a tough time? On occasion I feel guilty when that happens. Is there a dark side to all this frame shifting?

Atheists Like to Make Fun of Religious People

2008-11-16T15:09:00.002-05:00

Ouch, not exactly subtle, guys, but good for a giggle...

I do like "talking to the ceiling"

Music Neuro-Consciousness Focus Group?

2008-11-15T14:08:00.003-05:00

In the effort to supplement my income, I sign up for the occasional focus group here in NYC. These are not usually very stimulating affairs. In fact, I usually leave wondering if the incredibly banal experience is worth the 100-200 clams. But this last one felt more like an experiment in psychology and neuroscience - I thought Daniel Leviten was hiding somewhere behind a one way mirror.

The focus group was for a new, rock radio station. Over the course of four hours (split over two days), me and about 50 other subjects listened to 15-second snippets of over a thousand songs and subsequently rated them. As a musician and an avid music fan, I figured this would be interesting. I recognized roughly 90% of the songs I heard, and liked about 50%. The music ranged from Radiohead, Kings of Leon, and Pearl Jam to Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, and The Doors.

I can't imagine what my brain scan images under un fMRI machine would have looked like. I thought my amygdala was going to catch fire by the end. After last night's second session, I left there with a massive headache. I assume it was brought on by the intense emotional responses of each song I listened to.

It was like an exercise in emotional frame shifting - a new scene once every 15 seconds. An inadvertent reminder that emotion does not happen in a vacuum. There was a whole scene associated with every song that elicited images and feelings from memory. Sights, sounds, smells, people, places, objects, sex, childhood, anger, frustration, elation, depression, regret, euphoria. My brain felt like a hurricane - bounding around in the storm of one's memory is the closest thing we have to time travel, I felt like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five coming unstuck in time. A brief excerpt of my internal play:

(first song starts)
Oh, I used to listen to that song in the car with my dad when I was five years old, felt safe and happy...
(change song)
My mother loved this song and she used to play it on the piano in the living room, it was a meloncholy song, but I loved how she played it, she was such a good music-
(change song)
Fast forward to 23 years od - breakup song, wish I wasn't hearing this right now, I'm sad and bitter and remembering her face, which I used to be attracted to, god, i hope i never have to see her again...
(change song)
Ha, my brother used to attempt playing this song during his brief stint on the saxophone, sounded like he was killing a goose in his bedroom, shit I need to call him...
(change song)
Sweet! - I used to listen to this on my yellow Sony Sports Walkman while I mowed the lawn when I was 15, screaming over the mower to sing along. I found out later my parents used to get a kick out of that image.
(change song)
Oh shit, this is the song my friends and I used to listen to while driving around in my friend's black, Nissan 300ZX that he got from his uncle, right after our good friend died in a car accident - an odd combination of nostalgia, euphoria, devastating regret and sadness. I wonder how his parents are-
(change song)
Back to 12 years old, this was playing during a 7th grade dance when I first french kissed Ornella Rullo, she had chinese food for dinner that night. I was wearing red pants for some reason. Man, that was a good first french kiss, we were only TWELVE-
(change song)
Maybe I do like Tom Petty? This is from that cheese-y, tripped out Alice in Wonderland video where Alice looks like a blond Karen Carpenter, and there's that scene where her body is a cake, and the Mad Hatter is cutting himself and everyone else a piece. Ha ha...

Okay, my headache is coming back...I think you get the point.

(On a side note, upon re-watching the video below, I'm impressed with my memory's ability to remember that it was the Mad Hatter cutting the cake - haven't seen that video in at least 7-8 years...)

Tom Petty - Don't Come Around Here No More
Uploaded by PigLips

If You're Considering Going on Anti-Depressants

2008-11-14T10:50:00.003-05:00

Consider how hard it is to come off them. Pharma Industry watchdog, Philip Dawdy works his ass off chronicling the endless side effects while on and tapering off anti-depressants (as well as anti-psychotic meds) on his blog, Furious Seasons. He populates his blog with three to four, if not five posts a day with facts and stories on patient experiences, his own experiences, and the daily goings on in the psychotropic drug world.

Not to mention the brave guy has to suffer endless abuse from readers that he is either anti-psychiatry, or oddly pro-pharma - neither of which are true. I think what Mr. Dawdy is doing is incredibly vital, and an important reminder that we're still far from a truly functional paradigm that relates the brain, consciousness, and mood.

An excerpt from one of his posts today:

I was out on a walk yesterday afternoon and ran into a friend in the neighborhood, one who I don't run into so much these days. She's in her late-20s and told me she was feeling crappy. Why? I asked.

"Oh, I finished tapering off my anti-depressant and I feel all slowed down."

The anti-depressant in question was citalopram (Celexa in branded form) and she'd tapered down from 10 mgs. over four weeks, a bit too fast in my experience. But she wanted off the drug, which she'd been on for two years, because she felt it wasn't doing much for her, so she went for it. We talked and as it came out she'd experienced some of the buzzing in the back of the neck that many people experience coming off an SSRI. No brain flashes though.

I assured her the sluggishness she was feeling was fairly common following SSRI withdrawal and that hopefully it would clear up in a week or two. But it could take longer. She was worried about having to go back on citalopram. I told her about some I know in Seattle who's been hooked" (his term for it, not mine) on Prozac for 20 years, despite several lengthy attempts to taper off the drug.
I sensed she hadn't looked into any outside resources for managing her withdrawal--Peter Breggin would've argued for a much longer taper--and I told her that what she was experiencing was almost entirely unresearched by researchers.

It's just astounding, seems like an added bonus for drug makers that the withdrawal from these pills are so painful. I try not to be extreme on this blog, but the way these drugs are sold, marketed, and prescribed is just irresponsible and evil. The irony is that these anti-depressants are billed as "medicine" by your doctors who so often seem to oversell their benefits. Makes me so angry.

Anyway, thanks to your continued hard work and sacrifice, Philip. Keep fighting the good fight.

Global Warming - A Crisis of the Mind? RIP Michael Crichton

2008-11-12T16:14:00.005-05:00

Well, I don't share my viewpoint on this topic with many people. Basically, my friend Kevin, and my Dad are the only other atheists to both God and Global Warming. It's not an easy viewpoint to have these days, especially living in Brooklyn, NY - a place where people danced in the streets on election night as if world peace was announced. Bill Maher in his silly, smug way proclaimed the other day that our "planet is melting." PZ Myers in his blowhard, asinine blog voice insulted a teenage girl who tried to determine the reality of global warming based on her own research into the literature. Of course she would have been applauded had she concluded it was anthropogenic.

It is an obvious and irritating irony to hear atheists painting doomsday scenarios if we don't change our ways. I'm always amused to hear left-leaning people so outraged at the Bush administration's use of 9/11 to propel their agenda. Meanwhile, we're repeatedly told by democrat policy makers that the planet will be ruined by the time our children are adults, and that the majority of natural disasters are our fault. The hypocrisy of calling fear tactics on one side, while blatantly using them on your own is astounding.

Watch below as Iam Pilmer manages to irritate everyone in the room as he describes how environmentalism is the new religion (thanks, Kevin). He makes some really beautifully illustrated points. Parts actually seem lifted from the late Michael Crichton's lecture on the topic.

"Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday---these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs. They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. I certainly don't want to talk anybody out of them, as I don't want to talk anybody out of a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from the dead. But the reason I don't want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that I can't talk anybody out of them. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith.

"And so it is, sadly, with environmentalism. Increasingly it seems facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them."

RIP M. Crichton, it takes tremendous courage to fight the majority opinion when it's wrong. He took a lot of flak for his unique perspective, and I believe history will prove him right. It makes him a real hero of mine.

Bjork Dismantles Her TV

2008-11-05T20:11:00.003-05:00

Once again, I'm not what this has to do with this blog, but I feel that it does, so here it is.

"You shouldn't let poets lie to you"

A Break in the Action

2008-11-05T20:01:00.002-05:00

Look, I'm not apologizing okay? This is really more of a journal than a blog, and I am a busy man! And it's lame to be out for drinks only tell people that you have to run home and post to your neuroblog. Got some hopefully fun, random, and interesting stuff on the way...just hang in there, i know you've been feeling incomplete...

Gaming Leads to Science?

2008-09-12T16:41:00.005-04:00

Cool article in Wired about the community of young gamer boys who do extensive research on how to crack the patterns of video games (or whatever the kids are calling them these days). They're using the scientific method in their analysis - combing data in spreadsheets, introducing new data sets, and reviewing the predictive ability of their models. The irony is, these same boys are sluggish when it comes to science in school:

One of the reasons kids get bored by science is that too many teachers present it as a fusty collection of facts for memorization. This is precisely wrong. Science isn't about facts. It's about the quest for facts -- the scientific method, the process by which we hash through confusing thickets of ignorance. It's dynamic, argumentative, collaborative, competitive, filled with flashes of crazy excitement and hours of drudgework, and driven by ego: Our desire to be the one who figures it out, at least for now. It's dramatic and nutty and fun.

I really like this description, it reminded me of the process of writing music. It's often painful, but the moments of discovery are always worth it. The key as he says above, is about having the motivation (or even better, obsession) to power through the predominantly frustrating phases.

Man, my aggregate knowledge of all things gaming could fit onto a Commodore 64 floppy disk. Given the advances in the field, I'm starting to realize that may have to change soon...

(Thanks, Alex)

The Neuroscience of Politics

2008-09-12T14:34:00.002-04:00

My favorite neurblogger, Jonah Lehrer over at Frontal Cortex had a really excellent post on the madness of identity politics. I was going too chime in with my opinion here, but I think this says it all:

If neuroscience and psychology can teach us anything about politics, it's that we should approach the sport with a sense of irony and an appreciation for contingency. Yes, crucial issues are at stake - let's not forget that - but the political process is rarely about these issues. Instead, it's about reaffirming an irrational identity and tickling those gut feelings that operate at a very subterranean level. After all, I can easily imagine an alternate childhood that would have tilted me towards conservative politics. (Fortunately, my parents were part of that coastal elite that sips lattes all day long and hates God. Or so Guiliani would have you believe.) As a result, I ended up with an identity that lets me relate to people like this (picture of enthusiastic Obama fans)

The Invasion

2008-09-09T15:37:00.003-04:00

The retread of The Body Snatchers out last year with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig was not a great movie, but an interesting concept. A prescription happy psychiatrist is dosing her patients and her own son with muscle relaxers, anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications. After a crash landing by a space shuttle, which carries an alien virus effecting the brain, we begin to see people walking around like emotionless automatons with their memories preserved. As the infection perpetuates itself across the globe, wars end, and people live in relative peace.

The movie itself is a typical thriller with relatively predictable chase scenes and startle moments. Like I Am Legend, it's basically a zombie movie with some different physical/psychological features of the infected. These zombies don't have much goo/blood on them (just a little that disappears after a while), and the only thing that sets them apart from regular people is that they are as composed as hindu cows - even while watching people throw themselves off buildings.

I have to say, the comparison of zombies to people on psychotropic pharmaceuticals is extreme, but seems pretty apt. It was creepy to see an infected kid staring down at his Halloween candy completely uninterested - seems reminiscent of what an over-medicated child on ritalin looks like. It's a creepy reminder that a lot of anti-depressants like paxil cause a major loss in libido, so much so that they actually prescribe it to sex offenders. It's like Welcome to the Monkey House predicted all of this...

Sometimes it feels like the goal of humanity (or at least the drug industry) is to wipe out emotion, or to have emotions cordoned off and unavailable as if they're a vestigial feature of humanity. As the number of people on prescription psychotropic drugs continues to rise, there is something inherently relevant and haunting about the concept of The Invasion. As technology increases and attention spans decrease, and as the varying streams of emotional information enter our consciousness on a second-by-second basis, our collective ability to frame shift continues to improve. While that can be seen as a good thing, it also makes me wonder if we're not on a trend towards a society of sociopaths...or maybe at best, vulcans.

An understanding of what causes specific emotions will empower an individual to cope with them, as opposed to drugs like SSRI's which have next to no underlying hypothesis as to how they work. The old body snatchers concept is an interesting reminder that we're still in the dark ages when it comes to our understanding of emotion.

By the way, here's a trailer where you basically get to see the whole movie:

Neuroscience and Physics?

2008-08-23T11:50:00.001-04:00

Physics is like an entangled particle of neuroscience - one studies the nature of reality as it is, and the other strives to reveal the machinations and content of our skewed interpretations of reality. They seem inexorably linked; like the yin and yang of science.

For the last fifty years, physicists have been fruitlessly searching for the unified theory that combines general relativity, which explains the behavior of stars and planets, and quantum mechanics, which explains the behavior of atoms, electrons, and quarks. String theory is the leading candidate to solve the problem, but it not only lacks evidence, it lack an experimental paradigm to prove it right or wrong. It is based on elegant formulas, and apparently, the math is beautiful, but the explanation is a bit of a mess. For it to be true, it requires an extra seven dimensions, additional to the four we have now.

String theorists are very attached to their Big Answer - and they are protective over it. How could they not be? They've spent their lives trying to prove this thing correct, so they instinctively attack any voice of dissent.

Well, not to goad, but there is a huge voice lurking - Garrett Lisi, is a ski bum physicist who dropped out of academia for ten years, and recently returned with a unique Theory of Everything. Typically, in the stodgy academic community, he's been met with a lot of resistance from the string theorists who are quick to dismantle his ideas. It should be noted that his theory only needs the four dimensions we live in now.

It's an interesting story about science - I think Lisi (who some call the next Einstein) is onto something with his theory. But I find it disturbing that the old-guard string theorists feel the need to attack it. This idea that the science community holds truth as its #1 priority is a flattering representation at best. In my experience, scientists hold their celebrity and reputation in more esteem than the explanatory power of their discoveries. It's the same in politics, art, and music. Science at least boasts a system of selecting out the bullshit - over time.

The encouraging thing is to see how the internet enables a faster mode of communication and posting theories and studies. Lisi received acclaim and criticism by posting his theory on arXiv, a non-peer-reviewed site on physics and mathematics. Maybe the internet will do to science what it has done to the music industry - remove the dinosaurs and let the highest quality product stand out.

The other interesting facet of physics that relates to neuroconsciousness is how often the most atheistic of physicists sound like they're referring to almost supernatural phenomenon when describing current theories (or like they just dropped acid). It's almost like a cognitive dissonance - sure, you don't believe in God or ghosts, but you're asking me to believe in an infinite number of universes and eleven dimensions? Maybe this is why I like Lisi's theory so much, it appreciates the elegance and reality of nature without having to write a science fiction story to explain it (don't get me wrong, I love the science fiction stories, just not sure I believe them).

I consistently go back and fourth on the idea of a multiverse, which is consonant with quantum physics. The other option is determinism, which basically states there is only one possibility for every outcome, which means fate is real, and free will is an illusion. If I had to chose which of those is true, I have no idea what I'd prefer.

[In an interesting side note, a few psychologists examined the moral implications of determinism. What happens when individuals start to believe they lack free will.]

What's interesting about physics is that discussions on the topic almost serve as a blank canvas for people's predilections and beliefs - from lay person to nobel prize winner. It's very much like religion - it often tries to explain the almost unexplainable. It would be an interesting question to give people the choice: string theory/multiverse vs. determinism - or maybe the third option is "God made it all." Then again, it seems God falls into the determinism category. Certainly, people's answers would elucidate a lot about their character - like a physics/neuroconsciousness rorchach test.

The Uncanny Valley Theory Gets Deeper...and Creepier

2008-08-22T10:33:00.003-04:00

Human face emulation for video games is starting to hit a new level as we approach sci-fi reality one creepy step at a time. I'm not sure I would have been able to tell this woman was computer generated if I hadn't known prior to watching it, though I feel confident I still would have caught on. Still, it's the closest I've seen.

(Though on second watching it's impossible to miss her animated movements - I think I was initially distracted by the discomfort of finding her attractive. Eat your heart out Jessica Rabbit. Still, the uncanny valley theory strikes again.)

You have to love the self-deprecation of the guys that built her - she slings barbs at her own creators. What an animatronic bitch.

The challenges of this kind of work is apparently getting the eye movements right, as well as the naturally asymmetrical gestures of human facial musculature.

The creators of the chip technology, which enable this feat, say by 2020 we won't be able to distinguish between real and computer generated - still a ways to go...

An Elegant Explanation of Addiction

2008-08-19T15:22:00.005-04:00

Marc Kern has an excellent post on the nature of addiction. He basically breaks down the various addictions into active (e.g., gambling, smoking, shopping, drinking, etc) and passive (e.g., failing to exercise, inability to work or study, watching too much TV).

It is a subtle and seductive process, which occurs over the course of time. What seems to happen is this: In the early stages of our unhealthy behavior, we are sociologically introduced to a substance or an activity that gives us immediate positive feelings while masking the realities and responsibilities of everyday life.

Through friends, acquaintances, advertising, or just plain accident, we are introduced to things like cigarettes, alcohol, street drugs, pornography, shopping, the advantages of being sick, certain types of food, or even the 'good old' work ethic.

Through the gradual use of these substances or behavior patterns our biological drives take over and we start to need or even crave this stimulus. Before we know it, the needs of our mind have taken control and through our psychological processes we can feel stimulated and relaxed at the same time.

We can feel powerful and friendly, or closeted and protected from the world. It is the FEELING that leads to the ACTION. The substance or behavior that seems to work the best becomes our "Elixir" of choice, our "secret thing" that we do that we think no one else recognizes in us.

This is a theory that strikes a rare balance between neurological and consciousness-based ideas. I tend to shy away from molecular neurobiological explanations of addiction. Of course there are neurological underpinnings to any behavior, but the understanding of how and why an addiction takes place has to be seen in the context of an individual's life experience as well.

For more, I take you to Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox Story:

Lady Demands Government Explain Rainbows

2008-08-18T17:30:00.003-04:00

"We as a nation have got to ask ourselves what the hell is going on."

I mean, rainbows are pretty perplexing, I know, but I don't think it's a consipiracy...

This really didn't need an explanation, it's just plain funny...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Funny British Journalist Lady Experiments With Weed for 30 Days

2008-08-14T16:30:00.004-04:00

Almost like a British Super Size Me, Nicky Taylor will smoke pot for 30 days to determine its effects on her while she investigates the medical, legal, and social ramifications of legalizing marijuana. Get ready, she's a giggler...

The clip below is particularly funny as we watch her try her first joint since college in an Amsterdam coffee shop - she is aptly warned to take a "few puffs" and wait ten minutes before she takes anymore. In a distinctly British way she calmly describes her feeling of utter panic after smoking not two or three, but 25 puffs before it sets in. You feel for her a bit, but it's pretty funny.

Vaughn from Mind Hacks posts all 6 YouTube links and focuses on the difference between the two main active ingredients - THC and cannabidiol. Cannabidiol with THC makes people giddy and calm, while THC alone tends to make people agitated and paranoid (as Nicky shows us quite clearly). Since researchers say cannabis has anti-depressant effects, I'm sure our science-fiction pharmaceutical industry will finally find a way to circumvent the law and make pot pills a reality.

Anyway, the program is a good combination of entertaining and informative...

Life and Radiohead

2008-08-14T12:52:00.005-04:00

From one of the Radiohead Video contest winners for the song, Reckoner.

I don't know the literal interpretation of the video, but it looks like life proliferating on earth and then out into the cosmos. I may be projecting here, but it shares an idea I've always had about life in general - on this planet we evolved from unicellular organisms into human beings with civilizations that will inevitably burn the place down. But life will find its way around somewhere else in the universe - just takes a while before it develops the self-awareness we have. Makes me wonder how many times it has already happened in the history of the universe...

Beautifully and tastefully done. Radiohead are at the forefront on how to share and create art.

SSRI's For Life?

2008-08-13T14:59:00.002-04:00

Yikes, came across this today on Furious Seasons - from Paxil Progress, this patient is told by his doctor that he'll have to remain on Paxil for the rest of his life.

"'[Y]ou may just be one of those people that have to stay on Paxil the remainder of your life. It is like insulin for diabetics. Many people take SSRIs for their whole life. Plus, because of the length that you have been on Paxil, you may never be able to get off it.'"

No big deal, right?

Mel Brooks on Psychoanalysis in 1977

2008-08-06T01:40:00.003-04:00

I've just caught a few scenes from Mel Brooks movie, High Anxiety, described by my cable service as:

"A doctor with vertigo heads the institute for the Very Very Nervous." Classic Mel Brooks (apart from when he wasn't doing The Producers as a musical, then a movie, then a musical again, then a movie again...).

Mel Brooks is Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, and I almost wish he was my pyschiatrist:

Dr. Thorndyke: Dr. Montague, I'm curious, what exactly is the rate of patient recovery here at the institute?

Dr. Montague: Rate of patient recovery? I'll have that for you in a minute (pulls a calculator from his coat pocket, hits some buttons)...once in a blue moon.

What's amazing is that all the cliches of the psychiatry community is just as applicable 30 years later.

The Luck and Misfortune of Indoctrination

2008-08-01T17:47:00.002-04:00

There are times when I see documentaries like HBO's, Hard as Nails that I think how fortunate I was to grow up in a household with no religion. I was, and am free to form my own opinions, to explore the nature of my environment as I choose. Sure, I had my fair share of political indoctrinations, but never religious ones.

Choice and will are amazingly powerful ideas, phenomenon that seem unique to human beings - though it seems the people that utilize their freedom of choice and will are the most susceptible to more extreme forms of madness and sadness.

It's then that I feel unfortunate (or maybe just scared) to be an atheist. That as Dan Gilbert attests (see TED lecture below), too many choices can cause misery. One is constantly weighing the what-if scenarios until whatever choice is made can never be perceived as the right one. More on that later...

Given my frustration and anger over the practice of religious indoctrination, like the atheist biologist, PZ Myers, and his vitriolic minions, I figured I'd find comfort in reading his blog. He practically lead the fight to smear Ben Stein's awful "documentary," Expelled, which peddles the virtues and breakthroughs of intelligent design, and defends itself against the evil tyranny of evolution proponents.

But sadly, after reading PZ's blog a while, and even commenting on a few posts, followed by being summarily ravaged by his readers for my views (and I'm an atheist), I found that instead of finding allies in this group, I found an angry mob that I couldn't relate to at all. Many of the people that find the time to comment on his blog appear to have become what they speak out against - dogmatic, pack-like, group thinkers. Their ideas are grossly simple and obnoxious - religious people are stupid, and atheists are enlightened. On top of that I find PZ to be a goading, narcissist, blowhard.

He actually commands his regular readers to vote on internet polls to skew the answers to silly religious questions. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea, and it appeals to the anarchist atheist in me, but it's the blind faith of his atheist congregation who adhere to his commandments like zombies that I find disconcerting. Of course, I'm not saying he's responsible for the comments of his readers, but he certainly seems to enjoy whipping his fanbase into a frenzy. It's reminiscent of the space monkeys in Fight Club. Though it might be part of a good cause on the surface, it breeds the same kind of indoctrination religion does.

On the flip side, the good fortune of indoctrination through religion is a confidence in life, a track. A feeling that there is a guide and/or reason, which removes the fear to take steps forward - one needn't worry, it's Meant To Be. Many of the theists I know are confident, intelligent people - their religious views relatively quiet. I only know the specifics of their beliefs because I tend to press the issue. And as I listen to their responses, I find myself envying their life as they seem to enjoy the quiet comfort that everything is in its right place. As opposed to more militant atheists (and I used to be one), I see no point in attacking people for their religious beliefs. Nine times out of ten, it just tends to polarize the issue.

We're born to believe. We're bred not just to listen to our parents, but to follow their rules with the fear of death. "If you cross that street without mommy, you'll get hit by that car." You better damn well listen. We are born with our temperaments, but otherwise, we're a sponge for the habits of our parents and culture. This ability ensures our survival - for most species, to question is to die.

But as we're learning, our biology doesn't correspond to our environment anymore. Many humans don't live in constant survival mode as opposed to the rest of the animals (excluding the ones we've domesticated). Civilization allows us to be freer to pursue other endeavors. Despite having all this extra time, the ability or inclination to question our personal indoctrinations is still fairly rare. Yes, it's still beneficial for a child to be obedient, but the side effect is that every child receives the superfluous religious and political beliefs of their parents, which carves patterns into their pliable but ultimately stubborn brains. It's pretty difficult to unlearn the wrong lessons of our parents while maintaining the good ones. Indoctrination is a double edge sword.

Blind, stupid, or some kind of neurological condition?

2008-08-01T15:41:00.001-04:00

Check out this horse, look at those teeth!

I mean, really, how can you miss the picture that badly?

Another Audio Illusion??

2008-07-17T11:43:00.002-04:00

I LOVE these! From Wikipedia:

A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the base pitch of the tone moving upwards or downwards, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch, yet which ultimately seems to get no higher or lower.

(Via Mind Hacks)

5 Brain Hacks That Will Help You Survive a Disaster

2008-07-10T17:29:00.004-04:00

From Io9 - in the context of your airplane going down or a pending zombie attack, will you keep it together? I'm a bit of a closet zombie nerd, and it always astounds me in the movie when a non-zombie person totally copes with their situation. If zombies starting busting through the windows of my apartment, I'd be 100% paralyzed with fear, period. Maybe after reading these tips, I will be better equipped to keep my cool...

Use a Mantra - Whether it's something simple to keep you focused ("I will survive.") or an inspiring reminder of what you'd miss if you give up ("I love my wife and kids."), repeating a mantra over and over can help clear your mind and get you through a chaotic situation.
Don't Be a Victim - Once your basic needs are taken care of (like, you're not going to bleed to death in the next few minutes), divert your attention to the other people around you. See what you can do to help them. This takes your focus off of your own injuries and mental trauma. People who maintain this kind of selfless behavior have better survival rates in disasters. That's just one more reason to start leading a less self-centered life.
Learn New Things - When you devote time and effort to learning a new task or skill, such as playing a musical instrument or speaking a foreign language, it literally changes the shape of your brain. If your life is in a rut and you follow the same routine, never trying anything new, your brain will have a hard time dealing with the sudden upheaval of a disaster. Keep your mind limber and you'll adapt more easily if the worst happens.
Stay Emotionally Cool - Anger, frustration, or despair will cloud your thinking and lead you to make poor, possibly fatal decisions in a disaster scenario. Staying calm and cool is perhaps the most important thing you can do in the aftermath, but you can't just decide to be calm. You have to train yourself to be cool while in line at the DMV, dealing with the "customer service" of your cell phone provider, or whenever you visit your in-laws.
One Step at a Time - What do you do when you find 100 zombies staggering through a corn field toward your isolated farm house? Lock the doors, barricade the windows, and find a gun. Seems simple, but could you clearly think through and prioritize those steps under such circumstances? This is a skill that you can use in your everyday life, whenever you feel totally overwhelmed by work and other responsibilities. Decide which one thing is the most efficient and important thing for you to do right now, then do it. Then do the next thing. Practice that and it will come naturally when the inevitable zombie apocalypse comes.

In the few seemingly life-threatening events I've experienced, I've actually found that thinking rationally about the logistics of the situation is a great removal from the overwhelming emotion that's usually involved. It allows you to turn your attention to what just happened three seconds ago, what's happening now, and what needs to happen three seconds from now. Who has time to freak out?

Tom Wolfe & Michael Gazzaniga - Religion, Free Will, Confabulation - Come Get Some!

2008-07-09T16:36:00.015-04:00

A great conversation between neuroscientist/psychologist, Michael Gazzaniga and writer, Tom Wolfe discussing some of my favorite neuro topics (see the video here).

From Tom Wolfe:

Many of today's leading theorists, such as E. O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, and Dan Dennett, probably know about as much on the human brain as a second-year graduate student in neuropsychology. That isn't their field. Wilson is a great zoologist and a brilliant writer. Dawkins, I'm afraid, is now just a PR man for evolution. He's kind of like John the Baptist — he goes around announcing the imminent arrival. Dennett, of course, is a philosopher and doesn't pretend to know anything about the brain. I think it has distorted the whole discussion.

This always astounds me - these guys on the front lines attacking religion avoid the best argument against God's existence - that it's generally impossible to see through the illusions created by the brain (which is why there are so few atheists). It's actually a simple explanation for the phenomenon of God - all of our consciousness is a brain-created illusion afterall. This is particularly ironic given Dennett's book "Consciousness Explained." (If you were wondering, I read it in college, and it wasn't explained, but keep fighting the good fight Danny!.) In my experience, philosopher's explanations of brain and consciousness rarely yield anything of substance.

Another sound bite I really loved:

MG: Okay, so what do you think language and speech are for? I mean, it's probably an adaptation. We're big animals, and that's one of the goodies that we got.

TW: I think speech is entirely different from other survival benefits. Only with speech can you ask the question, "Why?"

MG: Right.

TW: Animals cannot ask why. In one way or another, they can ask what, where, and when. But they cannot ask why. I've never seen an animal shrug. When you shrug, you're trying to say, "I don't know why." And they also can't ask how.

MG: Yeah.

TW: With language you can ask that question. I think it's at that point where religion starts.

MG: Right.

TW: Humans got language and they were suddenly able to say, "Hey, why is all this here? Who put it here?" And my assumption is that they said, "There must be somebody like us but much bigger, much more powerful, that could make all these trees, the streams. God must be really something, and you'd better not get on the wrong side of him." I think that's the way it started.

I love the idea that only humans shrug, but are you telling me an ape has never shrugged before?

This is my favorite quote from Gazzaniga:

As you may know, I came across this phenomenon that I call the Interpreter. It's something that's in the left hemisphere of the human; it tries to put a story together as to why something occurred. So, we found this in patients who've had their brains divided. What we could do is sort of tiptoe into their nonspeaking right hemisphere and get them to do something like walk out of the room or lift their hand up. Then we would ask the left hemisphere, "Why did you do that?" And they would cook up a story to make sense out of what their disconnected right hemisphere just did. The left brain didn't know that we'd pulled a trick on them, so they concoct an explanation for why they walked out of the room. And it's because this left hemisphere can ask, "Why? What's that all about?" But one of the things we've never been able to unpack is whether this Interpreter is completely overlapping with the language system and is therefore a sort of press agent for its own mechanism. What we do know is that there are separate systems for different types of cognition. And the Interpreter seems to be located in the parts of the brain where language is located. So many people do think that interpretive capacity comes with language; that this is the deal with language — it comes along for the ride. Others believe that there are actually all kinds of different cognitive mechanisms happening, and language reports them out. So the function of language is to talk about it, talk about what you know and communicate, "Hey! Look here, I know how to cook a fish. Here, let me show you how.

The idea of the "interpreter" is dramatically explained in Jill Bolte Taylor's amazing Ted talk. The other amazing quality of the interpreter is its propensity to confabulate. We're story telling machines, and when we don't know the answer to something, we fill in the blanks like it's a mad lib puzzle. This is another reason there are fables, myths and religion - they are our attempt at explaining things we don't quite understand.

Confabulation is normal, but it gets more extreme for people with memory impairments like Korsakoff Syndrome sufferers. What's even more interesting is that "confabulation" is a neuropsychiatric term that, in addition to describing a neurological phenomenon, also describes a phenomenon of consciousness. To me, it is a magic words because it incorporates both fields seamlessly. It's ideas like this that are so key to bridging the gaps between brain and consciousness.

---

Gazzaniga touches on another idea that is quickly (and unfortunately) gaining traction these days, which is that we basically don't have free will.

I'm involved in a new project called "Neuroscience and the Law," which I think you're familiar with. It brings up the idea that there are these causal forces that make us do the things we do, that by the time you're consciously aware of something, your brain's already done it. How else could it be? Because the brain is what's producing these mental events that we're sorting through. So these ideas — what I call the ooze of neuroscience — are going out everywhere, and people are willing to accept that: "My brain did it. Officer, it wasn't me." These defenses are popping up all over the judicial system. But if we adopt that, then it's hard to see why we have a retributive response to a wrongdoing. It would seem to me to be morally wrong to blame someone for something that was going to happen anyway because of forces beyond their control. So people get into this loop, and they get very concerned about the nature of our retributive response. This puts you right smack in the middle of the question: Are we free to do what we think we're doing?

I wrote a bit about this in the context of a short story by Kurt Vonnegut called Unready to Wear about the ability to leave your body, but maintain consciousness. Regretfully, I got into a fight at a baseball game once (my first and last I think), and it was one I could have diffused. I remember very distinctly time slowing down and having a moment to make a decision. My body was in its survival mode, so the adrenalin coating my cells was making its argument pretty convincingly. Still, I made that decision to fight, and I suffered a gouged eye by the end (no permanent damage, thank you). In the language of the Wolfe/Gazzaniga conversation, I suppose this was my interpreter, walled in by a mess of other cognitive and subcortical streams trying to make a decision. Makes me wonder if there's a right-brained, pre-linguistic interpreter? Or is the very idea of "interpreting" more of a serial left-brain phenomenon?

This idea that there is no free will is dangerous, it strips people of accountability. During the Monica Lewinsky debacle, Bill Clinton made the idea of being a sexaholic a semi-acceptable excuse for being a horny bastard - as if he had no choice but to receive blowjobs in the oval office. Poor guy has an addiction dammit! It's neurological!

The same issue applies to something like quitting smoking - people are so afraid to take responsibility for quitting that they'd rather take a psychotropic SSRI like Chantix (which is known to cause very serious movement disorders) instead of using their will to quit at every moment they are tempted.

Okay, this post is long enough, if you'd rather hear the more brilliant scholars go on about this stuff, skip me, and read them, I won't be hurt!

Want a Migraine?

2008-07-01T13:45:00.005-04:00

Here, look at this visual illusion (looks like a devastating scintillating scotoma)

I've never quite seen one like this before. There is no motion, but you perceive motion anyway.

The eye sends information to the brain through different types of neurons. Some of these neurons transmit information faster than others, and some of these neurons respond more quickly to high-contrast parts of an image than to low-contrast parts of the image. Because of these differences, the response of the eye to one part of the illusory pattern reaches the brain at a slightly different time than the response of the eye to another part of the illusory pattern. The difference in the arrival time is exactly the same type of event that would occur with “real” motion, and so motion detectors in the brain signal that motion has occurred.

SPORE May Finally Turn Me Into a Video Game Nerd

2008-06-27T14:05:00.008-04:00

I've really never been high on video games, I've always had a hard time finding any value in them. But Spore has certainly caught my attention.

It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.

This game ends up being a coincidentally perfect example of what creationism would look like if you were God. Hope no one gets confused ;).

Reminds me of that Halloween Simpsons episode where Lisa accidentally creates life - she watches the evolving humanoids create fire, civilization, and then futurama-like cities. Since their technology surpasses ours, they develop a shrinker ray and beam her down into their world believing she's God. Then they start asking her all the big life questions - my favorite, "Why do good things happen to bad people?"

Best Dancing Bird I've Ever Seen

2008-06-27T13:05:00.003-04:00

This bird just smokes on the dance floor. This was initially just an internet phenomenon, but according to Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California, this bird could shed some light on the neurology of dancing. More importantly it explores the possibility of using dance as a treatment for neurodegenerative movement disorders like Parkinson's Disease.

"Music with a beat can sometimes help people with Parkinson’s disease to initiate and coordinate walking," says Patel. "But we don’t know why. If non-human animals can synchronize to a beat, what we learn from their brains could be relevant for understanding the mechanisms behind the clinical power of rhythmic music in Parkinson’s."

I just hope my mom watches this...

(Via Neurophilosophy),

Benny Luva Was A Neuroscientist

2008-06-27T10:26:00.006-04:00

I hope Jonah Lehrer doesn't get mad at me for stealing his clever title trick, but as my obsession with one of the most important neuroscience principles continues to grow, I had to post another (hilarious) example of top down processing.

An "interpretation" of the lyrics are subtitled during this electric (and I DO mean electric) Bollywood video, which actually changes the perception of what you think you're hearing.

Michael Shermer did a TED talk about this phenomenon, but he used Stairway to Heaven played backwards - I'm not sure it's as effective as Benny Luva here...

Crazy Indian Video...Buffalaxed!funny videosFunnyOrDie.com

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Good Critique on Recent Homosexuality Study

2008-06-24T11:52:00.004-04:00

I found a great critical review of the amgydala/hemisphere symmetry study I posted about the other day (via The Neurocritic). After providing examples of numerous confounds to the study, the reviewer made this conclusion:

There are many more technical problems with the analytical techniques used in this study. I'm not going to bother going through all of them. Needless to say, this study proves absolutely nothing, and is just another example of bad science. As an MRI researcher, this article offends me personally, for it gives MRI and PET research a bad rap; I'm going to go throw up now.

I would still take this a step further. It's not just the analytical techniques, it's the starting point. We are mired in this search to correlate vague, highly complex variables from two disparate systems - sexuality and the size of a brain region. I know I keep saying this, but it's just phrenology with better tools.

Studies in neuroscience historically run into problems because they try to run before they can walk. While it's amazing to have the technology to measure these brain differences, our understanding of consciousness, personality, character, sexuality, addiction, habitual behavior, etc. is still too questionable and badly defined to make true correlations with neurological attributes. We're nowhere close to close on this one.

The nature of these "neuropsychological" studies is still in dire need of a paradigm shift.

The Fruitless Hunt for the Physical Substrate of Homosexuality

2008-06-20T16:57:00.006-04:00

It seems these silly studies comparing brain regions of gay and straight people are surfacing again. Frankly, if I was gay (which I'm not), I'd be offended by these studies. There is still zero definition of actual character traits when studying these people. We're defining "gay" by an attraction to the same sex. So that's it? All "gay" men act like women? Why not just assume all gay men love the The Bird Cage too?

This idea that gay women have masculinized brains and vice versa is a total stereotype and grossly inaccurate. There are exceptions to the rule everywhere - for instance, how do we categorize macho, aggressive male rappers with homophobic lyrics that also...have sex with men! Like with any shoddy study, they just ignore the unwanted data. And don't let that stop the science writers from the absurd extrapolations like the headline from New Scientist - "Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex."

This claim is based on a study with 45 gay and straight people - not exactly a huge sample size. Not to mention, there's no implication that maybe the difference in amygdala structure may be caused by experience.

This is just another example of dark ages phrenology...I mean, current neuroscience.

Aural Illusion

2008-06-20T16:32:00.004-04:00

I'm guessing this is an example of top down processing (click that link to the left, it's a great explanation of TDP).

First, watch and listen to the video below.

Sounds sort of like "dada dada dada."

Now close your eyes and play it.

It switches to "baba baba baba." Not sure this works for everyone, but it did for me. My guess is seeing the hippie guy mouth the pronunciation of a "da" sound actually changes your perception of the sound. Close your eyes, and your hear the actual sound being made. The visual information is tricking your auditory perception. It's not an extraordinary example of top down processing, but it's pretty interesting.

(from Bad Astronomy)

How to Nap

2008-06-18T13:33:00.002-04:00

Really informative little graphic in the Boston Globe on how to nap.

Look! No Hands!

2008-06-16T13:54:00.003-04:00

Here's a video clip of a guy navigating his Second Life Avatar with his brain. It is speculated that this could help people with Locked-in Syndrome, a rare affliction that was the topic of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," written by Jean-Dominique Bauby. This would potentially allow these people to communicate more effectively - certainly more so than Bauby's pain-staking process:

"The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid - in July and August of 1996. A transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet (E S A R I N T U L etc.), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and each word took approximately two minutes"

Can't Get That Song Out of Your Head?

2008-06-13T16:49:00.003-04:00

Listen to the whole thing, apparently...interesting, if not a bit counter-intuitive...

"Getting "Eye of the Tiger" stuck in your head is the result of a glitch in your auditory cortex. This part of your brain processes sounds and stores them for later recall. It powers up and can start crooning uncontrollably after hearing just a few notes of a familiar tune. Want it to stop? Listen to the whole song or do some math"

Why would you ever want Eye of the Tiger out of your head? I'd be more concerned if it was, "near... far...whereEVER you are..."

Is it in your head now? It's in mine. So I have to go listen to the whole damn song? Not sure I'm happy with this solution...

To digress, the way we describe brain processes still sounds screwy to me. The idea of "powering up" areas of the brain paints an over-simplified and inaccurate picture.

In Entertainment News...

2008-06-12T16:26:00.003-04:00

Dr. Drew Calls Tom Cruise "mentally ill." I can't say I'm a HUGE Dr. Drew fan, but sometimes he comes out with gems like this:

"A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology? To me, that's a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood - maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect."

To a lot, this probably sounds like psychobabble, but from my experience, and based on what I've learned from the few the really good psychiatrists I've met (all one of them) - abuse and neglect are the main culprits for futurepathological behavior. It is NOT chemical imbalances and neurological disorders - that's a pharmaceutical fantasy...

Smoking Cessation Drug = Life Cessation

2008-06-02T16:21:00.004-04:00

This one just blows me away. Have you tried the Chantix to quit smoking? Yet another SSRI on the market to treat any old condition (smoking, despression, obesity, social anxiety - what's the difference?)

Here's a new catch, the drug has been banned for truck drivers, pilots, and traffic controllers due to its side effects (another example of the odd movement disorders associated with SSRI's). According to the Wall Street Journal's Health blog:

"More than 100 traffic or personal accidents, like falling, have been linked to Chantix in a recent study by outside researchers; their figures came from in the FDA’s adverse events database. One hypothesis is that convulsions, blackouts, seizures or spasms could have contributed to such incidents."

I read one account about a guy driving his truck while on Chantix and crashed into a bayou:

"His girlfriend, Melinda Lofton, who was with him, later told him that his eyes had rolled back in his head and that it had seemed as if he was frozen at the wheel, accelerating."

That one really spooked me. God, I need a cigarette...

(This is linked from Furious Seasons)

"Brain Downloads" Are Not Going to Happen

2008-06-02T15:12:00.007-04:00

Nice to see Neurophilosophy agrees with me on this one. Here's a totally stupid and uninformed article on why "brain downloads 'will make [school] lessons pointless.'"

Just recently, I wrote a post about why this is impossible (in the context of Dr. Daniel Carlat's Wired article on brain scans), it seems the progressive ideas of the Matrix are far too pervasive in our culture.

"I think people will be able to directly access, Matrix-style, all the vocabulary you need for a foreign language, leaving you just to clear up the grammar."

This amazingly asinine quote comes from the guy steering curriculum for 1300 private schools in the UK. Best of luck with that, stupid...

Not quite, Neo...

Monkey Uses Brain to Move Robotic Arm

2008-05-30T10:22:00.003-04:00

I haven't read much about this, but it gives hope towards the idea of making life easier for paraplegics or other amputees. I'm very curious to know where the electrodes are placed in his (or her) brain and how they trained him to use the arm. Like any physical skill, I assume it just requires practice, and then becomes second nature.

Yet another example the Singularity is Near...

I'm no PETA member, but I always feel bad for the monkeys in experiments like these, poor little guy just wants his marshmellow.

Brain Scans Sound Like Phrenology

2008-05-29T17:09:00.005-04:00

Psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Carlat has a great article in Wired about the overhype of brain scans. Referring to the terabytes of brain scan data we've accumulated since the advent of the EEG, he asks: "Are we really seeing the mind in action, or are we allowing ourselves to be seduced by images that may actually tell us very little?"

The over-extrapolated brain scan is being utilized in many different arenas outside of medicine now - marketing, law, and politics to name a few.

In the article, Dr. Carlat recounts his experience receiving a brain evaluation at the Amen Clinic - which touts a "prescription for a better brain." Dr. Amen does a Spect (a specific kind of brain scan) on Dr. Carlat and takes a personal and family history of depression.

An excerpt of his "analysis":

...Scrutinizing the scans some more, he (Dr. Amen) says, "You need to be busy to be happy. Your brain is cool at rest. You need stuff in your life to feel alive, together, and connected." He looks at another view, this one showing only the most active regions of my brain. "In this scan, you have increased activity in your thalamus, your two basal ganglia, and your cingulate cortex." He picks up a pen and draws a line connecting these four regions to the right lateral temporal lobe. "I call this the diamond plus.' It's a pattern of angst, and we see it in people who have had significant trauma in their lives."

Dr. Carlat goes on to make the apt comparison of these results to a palm reading:

...I find myself comparing my assessment meeting with Amen to experiences I've had with shrewd palm readers. Like them, Amen made vague pronouncements that could apply to anyone: "You're happier when you're busy." When he made specific statements about my moods and life events, they seemed to be based on information he obtained the old-fashioned way — by asking questions. He already knew about my family history of depression and my mother's suicide when he mentioned a "predisposition to depression" and "significant trauma." Occasionally, he was completely off the mark, like when he saw neural signs of temper problems. In fact, when my wife and I argue, my calmness is exasperating, leading her to ask, "Do you even have a pulse?"

Dr. Carlat discusses the Amen Clinic with a vocal skeptic (Robert Rubin) who easily describes why this is such shotty science:

Rubin, a noted researcher on brain functioning in depression, draws two circles on a sheet of paper. He points to the first and says, "Let's say this represents a bunch of people with low activity of the frontal lobe, and let's say, for the sake of argument, that many of them also have depression." Then he points to the second circle. "And here are all the people without depression. Do any of these people also have low frontal lobe activity? You bet they do. So there are people with depression who have this finding, and people without depression with this finding. How is the finding helpful?"

When I studied neuroscience in college, I was always weary of extrapolating results from neuroimaging studies. And I still think neuroscience is going down a fruitless path in this direction. This idea that we can identify our inclinations, temperament, and moods, or diagnose our depression via fMRI's, EEGs, and Spect is pervasive, but completely unproven. I don't quite agree with Dr. Carlat's idea that while we haven't accomplished this mental transparency yet, we will eventually. I don't see this ever happening, here's why.

This logic is like running a scan on the intel chip in your Macbook to diagnose why a song won't play on iTunes. Or vice versa, to run a scan on your mother board and determine that you're probably having trouble running macros in Excel. The language of the software is completely different than the language of the hardware. And while you need the hardware to run the software, tweaking the hardware isn't going to fix specific software problems.

This metaphor applies to the distinction between our brain and consciousness - they speak different languages. You can't diagnose a problem in consciousness by analyzing the biology of the brain - it's a waste of time. Depression is not a disease of the brain, like some kidney disease that can be treated with medication. The brain creates a whole bigger than the sum of its parts - consciousness. But that doesn't mean that tweaking its wires can fix something specific in consciousness. This only works in extreme cases like giving L-Dopa to Parkinson's patients (in Awakenings).

The only way to determine a cause for depression is to see the story of an individual's life experience, and analyze what's problematic (no small task from what I've heard). This analysis must be on par with that life experience, which is on the software level (mind/consciousness); not the hardware level (brain). No one speaks the language of snyapsese.

This is why I find it so important to differentiate between neurological and psychological disorders - a brain scan is vital for finding a stroke, brain tumors, or early signs of Alzheimer's Disease, but I highly doubt we'll ever be able to use one to see the actual content of our consciousness. This kind of transparency is a lost cause.

A good pop culture example of this logical shortcoming is the major plot hole in Minority Report - how exactly are computers translating the brain activity of the pre-cogs into visual images displayed on monitors? No brain scan in the world will solve the phenomenological problem. Guess that's why it's called science fiction...

UPDATE: Dr. Carlat posted some more thoughts on the response to his Wired article. The more I read about Amen, the more of a charlatan he appears to be...

Hey, Douchebag, try posting more...

2008-05-22T15:05:00.002-04:00

God, I'm mean to myself. Still, more will be coming, life got a bit upended recently. But I saw Alex linking to the Times Machine on his blog, and had to link to it here. Of course, my nerdy mind thought it would have something to do with time travel, but this is still awesome.

I have a backlog of stuff I want to post, so a powerful ejaculation of information and odd opinion is on its way...

Mary Had A Little Luuuuuuurrrrrggggghhhh....amb, Little Lurrrrrrgggghhhh....

2008-05-21T16:57:00.007-04:00

Transcranial magnetic stimulation frightens me. It's supposedly pretty harmless, as you can see below in the video. They're targeting the language center of this man's brain. It stops him cold as he recites Humpty Dumpty, but amazingly enough, it doesn't interrupt him when he sings it. The TMS is targeted on his left frontal lobe where the center for language production is located, but music is in the right hemisphere, so it is not effected.

As a migraine sufferer this is intriguing, because they are using this method to treat the syndrome (as well as stroke and Parkinson's). I just don't think I'm quite ready for having my brain stimulated by anything where I'm not at least pushing the button. Then again, I don't have very severe ones - if that was the case (I'm looking at you, Dad), I would give it a shot.

TMS is also used to treat Dystonia

The film (above) on Dystonia (Twisted) is very good, and an amazing example of what a machine the brain and body is. Like consciousness, we take it for granted when it's functional - we don't appreciate its unbelievable functionality until it becomes damaged.

Tired Of Your Own Identity?

2008-05-21T15:34:00.004-04:00

I feel this way all the time, and thought it was well expressed in Before Sunrise (a movie I had never actually seen until very recently).

From Ethan Hawke's character in Before Sunrise:

"It's usually myself that i wish i could get away from
I have never been anywhere that I haven't been
I've never had a kiss that i wasn't one of the kissers
I've never gone to the movies when I wasn't there in the audience
I've never been bowling when I wasn't there making some stupid joke
I think that's why so many people hate themselves, seriously
They're sick to death of being around themselves."

Funny to cross-reference this blog with my band, but I wrote a song about this sentiment called "Not My Own," which you can hear on my band, Monuments' Myspace page. Both express a yearning to be dissociated from one's self.

Charlie Kaufman Discovers My Wheelhouse, Exploits It Again

2008-05-21T15:11:00.002-04:00

His directorial debut, Synecdoche looks amazing. His normal blend of subtle science fiction, neuroscience, philosophy, and all things meta are all in full force in this preview (volume is weird, you have to turn it up quite a bit). You can read about the synopsis under the preview.

Fiction Vs Reality?

2008-05-15T10:39:00.005-04:00

The boundaries are getting blurred. From Neurocritic, a real live Telekinesis competition hosted by Noxious Sector.

"an ongoing collaborative endeavor by Canadian artists Ted Hiebert, Doug Jarvis and Jackson 2Bears, dedicated to the exploration of alternative cognitive function, the paranormal and the absurd."

Is this just silly performance art, or are these dudes actually trying to move things with their minds? In the misinformation internet age, I really can't tell what's real anymore. Gave me a good chuckle either way.

Predictably Irrational

2008-05-13T16:10:00.006-04:00

A book I will be reading soon (thanks, Alex) by Dan Ariely. Neuroscience and psychology principles through the eyes of economics - interesting stuff.

He describes how placebos work in the video below. Another example of research on the effect expectations and top-down processing have on perception (in this case, pain and flavor). It's experiments like these that makes you realize how subjective and malleable ideas of pain and taste are.

Human experience is a messy operation - one science continues to analyze the same way we would balance a chemical equation. Most "data" in psychology and neuroscience is too confounded to be applicable.

(PS - not a huge surprise that he mentions how antidepressants don't fare much better than placebos.)

Colbert Science

2008-05-10T11:55:00.003-04:00

"...when you investigate the world through the scientific method, you are basically dissecting the rainbow. what could be more beautiful of an experiment than to just look at something and say, "God did it." That's the most beautiful possible explanation because it involves salvation and the afterlife...why do we have to junk it up with thought?"

Ha, I love Colbert, but I've read he does believe in God, so I have to admit it's sometimes hard to tell where the joke begins and ends - maybe that's what makes him so good.

Interesting Post on Stalking

2008-05-09T10:30:00.004-04:00

By Neurocritic.

A unique combination of the new song by Death Cab for Cutie, Huntington's Disease, OCD, basal ganglia pathology, and of course serotonin and dopamine pathways. Interesting stuff, but still leaves out the character/consciousness side of the equation. This is still only one half of the story. Not everything about ourselves can be reduced to brain disorders.

Happy Tattoo

2008-05-09T10:13:00.002-04:00

You get back from the party, you're both feeling good, clothes are coming off, then you see this beauty.

From what I read, serotonin is her favorite neurotransmitter.

I'm more of a dopamine guy myself.

Seroquel, Another Apparently Fun Antidepressant

2008-05-07T11:45:00.000-04:00

From a reader comment on Furious Season's Blog:

"I took 200 mgs. of Seroquel daily for two years after a questionable diagnosis for Bipolar II (manic symptoms appeared only after treatment with antidepressants or with high doses of IV steroids). Now, a year after withdrawing from Seroquel, I still wake up every two hours, and I still have episodes of akithisia. I believe this drug has permanently damaged my nervous system. I struggled with deep depression the entire time I was taking Seroquel; since withdrawing (a painful process) my mood has improved."

Another example of akathesia and SSRI's - not good.

Big Pharma Worse Than I Thought

2008-05-07T11:43:00.007-04:00

And I already thought it was pretty bad. More from Furious Seasons about a great Slate article exposing another group of doctors and scientists that are on the take from Big Pharma companies like Glaxo Smith Kline, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Novartis.

What's most disturbing is that these guys structure the DSM, which determine diagnoses and recommended treatments for mental illnesses. And their influence is huge - WNYC's "Infinite Mind" recently aired a show called "Prozac Nation Revisited" with its host, Fred Goodwin. The goal of this show was for Dr. Goodwin and his guests to quell the "overblown" fear that there is a link between antidepressants and suicide. Here's the disturbing part:

"All four of the experts on the show, including Goodwin, have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants. Also unmentioned were the "unrestricted grants" that The Infinite Mind has received from drug makers, including Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Prozac."

"The second guest on "Prozac Nation," Andrew F. Leuchter, is a professor of psychiatry at UCLA who has received research money from drug companies including Eli Lilly Inc., Pfizer, and Novartis. The third guest, Nada Stotland, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, has served on the speakers' bureaus of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. None of Leuchter and Stotland's ties to industry was revealed to listeners—instead, each was introduced as a prominent academic."

How can it be this bad? It's just getting harder and harder to trust scientific experts anymore. I know I must sound like a creationist here, but the science community has really been showing its holes lately. It is as susceptible to bias and corruption as politics. The danger of that is that science is supposed to be this impenetrable fortress of truth. And while it's the closest thing we have to that, it gets consumed by the public as unquestioned gospel. We seem to exist in an age of scientific zealotry - just quote a peer-reviewed study, and theory becomes fact.

It's a tricky gray area because it leaves established and monumentally important truths like evolution vulnerable to attack by indoctrinated religious thinkers. But when it comes to amorphous ideas like depression and consciousness, the "facts" are very malleable and susceptible to manipulation - especially when it's part of the mutli-billion dollar antidepressant industry.

It just doesn't seem like the standard, reductionist approach towards a true understanding of human consciousness and mental illness is going to suffice. For now, mental illness is just a ripe marketplace for corporate interest. Not to say there haven't been advances - there are some great therapists and psychiatrists out there (though few and far between it seems). Otherwise, we've just been grasping at straws (or ice picks). The solution to this problem is in dire need of a paradigm shift.

Major kudos to the writers of the Slate article, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer.

(Interesting tidbit, I can't find Infinite Mind on WNYC)

Blindness Movie

2008-05-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

I'm going to see the crap out of this movie - from the director of Constant Gardener about an epidemic of blindness and its effect on society. Seems to have similar themes to Children of Men - one of the best I've ever seen.

Some Uplifting Poetry

2008-05-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

(via Mind Hacks)

Survivor
by Roger McGough

Everyday,
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.

It helps
keep my mind off things.

(me too)

The Singularity Is Coming

2008-05-06T11:39:00.006-04:00

And sports will be the stage for its entrance. Great ESPN article on how prosthetics and physical enhancements will, and already are changing the face of sports.

South African sprinter, Oscar Pistorius was banned from the Olympics because tests found his prosthetic limbs (called Cheetah Flex-Foot legs) are too effective. They're actually more efficient than human legs, and since running on these prosthetics requires less oxygen than regular legs, it provides him with an unfair advantage. I guess I didn't see this coming in my lifetime - amputee athletes banned from sports because they're too good.

The debate about how to handle the evolving bionic abilities of athletes is pretty mind-blowing and will be hard to regulate going forward as advances in biological enhancements continue to explode. It seems for pro sports, they will likely need to create a standard for strength, speed, flexibility, etc and adjust the prosthetics accordingly ensuring a level playing field.

As I watch him run, it reminds me a bit of what it's like to swim with flippers on. You work equally hard, but you go twice as fast. Not sure where I come down on this one yet, hard not to root for this guy...

Charting The Uncanny

2008-05-02T17:29:00.003-04:00

The Uncanny Valley is starting to take over my life slowly but surely. Ever since I heard of it a few days ago, things have been popping up, like this post from Mind Hacks. Vaughan collects the Youtube links for a video lecture by Karl MacDorman on how we interact with robots as their human likeness increases.

The clip from 30 Rock that got this ball rolling in my mind, which is based on the heady idea Tracy Jordan has to create a porn video game:

Illusion Times!

2008-05-02T16:45:00.003-04:00

Hoping this guy's good on his promise to show a cool new illusion each week. This is the contrast/motion illusion, also known as "lucy in the sky" (note: you do not need acid to see the illusion).

The title of his blog is awesome:

"Illusion Sciences: why are we surprised by only some of the things that we see?"

So cool - always hard to remember that everything in our consciousness is being drawn up and processed by our brains at every second of every day. But there are mistakes everywhere, and the more we see the holes, the better we'll see reality.

Throwing Babies

2008-05-02T12:27:00.003-04:00

Lilterally. It makes them grow up strong and healthy...or if they miss, a paraplegic. Seems worth it...

Top Down Processing and Michael Shermer

2008-04-30T17:45:00.004-04:00

Another old TED video from 2006, this time with Michael Shermer about belief. He covers some great topics in this, in particular how our beliefs shape our perceptions, another perfect example of top-down processing. A quick example:

If you don't feel like watching the whole thing, here are some highlights:

At 7:10 he talks about how we see happy faces on pictures of Mars, and my favorite, "The Nun Bun." He explains how we're primed to see faces based on our extensive experience looking at faces throughout our lives. Our brains shape our incoming sensory information into what it expects to see. So if anything even remotely looks like the features of a face, we'll see a face. It's very difficult not to see it once you already have.

At about 9:07 in he talks about how to hear satanic messages when music is played backwards. He plays Stairway to Heaven for a few seconds normally; then he plays it backwards and everything sounds typically gibberish. That is until he projects some satanic worship lyrics on the screen as you listen to the backwards version, at which point you can "hear" what Robert Plant was REALLY trying to tell us.

Microcosmos and Radiohead

2008-04-30T11:47:00.004-04:00

I know, I've been veering off topic a bit, but someone edited Radiohead's "All I Need" with Microcosmos (a film I apparently need to see now), and it's pretty moving. Then again, you could play this song over a knife fight and it would look beautiful, but this was a nice way to spend four minutes.

The original video for the song is also pretty brilliant and gut-wrenching.

Microcosmos:

The Uncanny Valley Theory...and 30 Rock

2008-04-29T21:15:00.007-04:00

I don't tend to go to 30 Rock for my science, but I'll openly admit it - The Uncanny Valley Theory was unknown to me until I watched last week's episode:

"Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely-human" and "fully human" entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is "almost human" will seem overly "strange" to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathetic response required for productive human-robot interaction."

Apparently, this isn't really embraced as legitimate scientific theory, and I can appreciate that, but man, it sure feels true. If you look at this graph, you see what the dip in the valley equates to - a corpse and a zombie. Wow, that really says it all. It sort of explains our obsession (or mine at least) with zombie movies.

Zombies are the versions of us without the free will - I don't think there's anything more terrifying than seeing something human-like on auto-pilot (while trying to devour my flesh). This is probably what freaks me out about religious zealots, it really seems like no one's behind the wheel, making the decisions (while trying to devour my flesh).

Maybe they're not all bad...

Top 20 Science Books For Sci-fi Fans

2008-04-29T19:38:00.003-04:00

According to io9

Not what my list would have been, but some intriguing choices.

The one I really expected to see was The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas. Can't catch em all I guess...

Modern Nano Art

2008-04-29T16:40:00.003-04:00

Some beautiful "landscapes" only microns across. The one above:

"At Stanford University, Zhenan Bao and her team of researchers work to make organic transistors for cutting-edge electronic devices. One of her graduate students, Zihong Liu, used a cross-polarized light microscope to examine this array of the tiny switches. For Liu, bright parts of the film look like lakes and mountains, while the gold electrodes appear to be a fence."

See more here.

A Quick Mental Experiment on Certainty and Belief

2008-04-29T13:52:00.004-04:00

From a great article by Robert Burton about the feeling of certainty and belief:

To understand what I mean about the feeling of knowing, read the following paragraph at normal speed. Don't skim, give up halfway through or skip to the explanation. Because this experience can't be duplicated once you know the explanation, take a moment to ask yourself how you feel about the paragraph. After reading the clarifying word, reread the paragraph. As you do, pay close attention to the shifts in your mental state and your feeling about the paragraph:

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better place than the street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

Is this paragraph comprehensible or meaningless? Feel your mind sort through potential explanations. Now watch what happens with the presentation of a single word: kite.

In an instant, you are flooded with the "aha" feeling that the paragraph makes sense. There's no time for deep consideration and evaluation. Before you can reread the paragraph, your unconscious mind has already sorted through various possibilities, determined that the sentences collectively fit the description of a kite and sent you notification.

(Pretty cool, found via Mind Hacks)

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2008-04-29T11:52:00.004-04:00

Which is why the writers of crappy TV shows like Grey's Anatomy probably scour the internets for stories like these. The one time I caught an episode there was a patient with Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder, which turns out to be a real phenomenon. Though like Restless Leg Syndrome, it strikes me as one of those odd disorders that occurs as a side effect of other psychotropic drugs or hormone therapies. Then again, I'm sure there are other causes of PGAD linked to menopause or pregnancy that send the nerves and hormones out of whack (see a video blurb on 20/20 here).

Anyway, here's the real catch - the best medication for PGAD? Anti-depressants. The decrease of libido associated with many anti-deps, Paxil in particular, are so extreme, they actually help ameliorate the symptoms of this surreal condition. Unfortunately, in the blunt-instrument-treatment of anti-deps, they can also masterbate...i mean...exacerbate the problem (I'm sorry):

"Dearmon [a PSAS sufferer] was about to embark on a long road trip in 2000 when she had a panic attack. She knew the car’s vibrations would be torturous, so she visited her primary care physician, who prescribed the antidepressant Paxil, a drug that lists decreased libido as a possible side effect.
"It had a good benefit," she said. "It put a damper on the sensations; they weren’t as strong. I could masturbate once and as time went on, it was every other day; then every few days. Now, I can go until the seventh or 10th day — and by then I can’t even concentrate."

Unfortunately, Paxil doesn’t work for everyone with PGAD. Some patients have said antidepressants actually act as a trigger to the disorder, Leiblum wrote."

(from Furious Seasons)

Robotic Self Assembly

2008-04-29T10:37:00.004-04:00

More freaky science fiction reality. I assume this is the technology utilized to create the robot that seeks land mines, sets them off by blowing itself up, and miraculously reassembles itself so it can move onto the next one (the demonstration of which was dubbed inhumane by the colonel watching it).

As for these smart building blocks below, it's amazing how watching the guy kick it towards the end of the video makes you feel like that colonel. Your gut is to have compassion for something, you can't really stop that instinct. It's not really until you consciously recognize that it's just a machine, that you can try to quell the emotion. I assume this is only going to get weirder as technology progresses.

(from Futurismic)

God's Prodigal Son

2008-04-28T23:37:00.004-04:00

No need to rip on this shockingly indoctrinated kid speaking out against the "fallacy" of evolution and science to his congregation - the madness sort of speaks for itself.

Disturbing as he is to watch, the kid's is sort of amazing. Every time I see a child as precocious and intelligent as this, it saddens me to know he's not using his potential for something more vital or useful - like becoming a contestant on Viva Hollywood.

(via Pharyngula)

Design and The Elastic Mind

2008-04-25T16:53:00.004-04:00

Way too much to discuss in one post regarding this amazing exhibit at MOMA in NY. After taking an hour or so to go through it last week, it was great to see their amazing website basically emulates the whole experience - tons of interactive demos with pictures and video. A must see for programmers, nanotechnologists (i don't think that's a word), interactive designers, artists, neuroenthusiasts, medical practitioners, musicians, etc. The future is coming fast and it's sort of freaking me out.

More on this soon...

(Incidentally, if you watch the video below, check out the part about the "afterlife" project - it will make you squirm a little. It's an intriguing idea in principle, but the execution is a bit creepy...)

Jeff Hawkins - The Future of AI

2008-04-25T16:40:00.003-04:00

This is an old TED talk from 2003, but really interesting nonetheless (especially because I just watched it). Jeff Hawkins, neuroscientist and computer engineer, talking about the breakthrough concept that will make artificial intelligence more useful and integrated in every day life - prediction. He talks fast and a bit like he's on speed, but he has some brilliant insights into what it is about human intelligence that is so powerful.

He makes a good point about the sci-fi vs. pragmatic reality of AI - that we're not as likely to see smarter robots as we are to see things like smarter cars and security systems.

More Random Marketing of Anti-depressants

2008-04-23T12:29:00.005-04:00

From Furious Seasons:

"This is certainly a fabulous Friday for pharma execs in the land. Abilify gets approved for kids this morning and this afternoon we learn that the FDA just approved Pristiq for depression. The drug is made by Wyeth and is essentially a rejiggered Effexor, only this one was originally developed to help women with hot flashes. You know Wyeth is going to give this drug a huge roll out since Effexor goes off-patent fairly soon and I'm sure that the made-for-hot-flashes-but-good-for-depression sales pitch is going to work wonders with men and women of every age."

Classic. I use to work at a clinical research organization that ran clinical trials on Meridia. Originally marketed as an anti-depressant, the drug struggled for an identity in the crowded playing field. After searching for trends in the data, they noticed people lost weight while on the drug. And lo and behold, a new psychotropic weight loss drug hits the market. This drug isn't just an SSRI, it prevents reuptake of dopamine and norepinephrine as well. Oh, and Monica Lewinsky was hired as the spokesperson.

Will and Awakenings

2008-04-22T13:41:00.005-04:00

If you've ever read "Awakenings," (or seen the movie based on the Oliver Sacks book) you'd remember that many of the Parkinson's patients were locked in a set of tremors that were so extreme their muscles were literally locked in place. This was the case for decades while they wasted away in the back of mental wards.

Sacks presciently noticed that unlike stroke victims, these forgotten patients could move if the "will" of another person empowered them. Once given the experimental drug L-Dopa, they were able to will their own movements. Sadly, the "awakening" didn't last long and brutal side effects emerged, many actually chose to return to their initial state of catatonia instead of the tardive dyskenia caused by the drug.

The basal ganglia seems to be the intersection of these phenomenon. In healthy individuals it appears to be the interface between willed impulses for movements and the motor responses elicited. It also seems to be the culprit for many movement disorders consisting of almost psychically painful, unwilled movements (parkinson's, huntington's, tourette's, dystonia, the list goes on and on and on).

My Power To Will

2008-04-21T18:14:00.004-04:00

I've become a bit obsessed with the idea of a "will" center in the brain, and the endogenous neurochemicals associated with it. Obviously it's never as simple one location in the brain for any complex behavior - but there are circuits that have a lot to do with the conscious impulse to perform a physical act, which in a lot of ways is the foundation for the link between our thinking and behavior. Maybe it's where each conscious decision is made at its most fundamental level?

Today's surreal science fiction-esque phenomenon du jour is the newly diagnosed (and, of course, medicated) condition called Restless Leg Syndrome, or RLS as it's commonly referred.

In relation to a prior post, I was not surprised to find that:

"Certain medications may worsen RLS in those who already have it, or cause it secondarily. These include: anti-nausea drugs, certain antihistamines (often in over-the-counter cold medications), drugs used to treat depression (both older tricyclics and newer SSRIs), antipsychotic drugs, and certain medications used to control seizures."

It would surely be interesting to see the numbers of people with "RLS" that are on or have taken anti-depressants. My own (totally unsubstantianted) theory is that the effect of leaving dopamine and/or serotonin in their synapses (as is the goal of reuptake inhibitors) may be creating some kind of feedback loop of movement circuits. These circuits were the result of willed impulses originally, but are now on a highly uncomfortable auto pilot, where the individual can no longer consciously inhibit these looped movements.

It is also noteworthy, that certain medications for RLS have also been used to treat Parkinson's patients. Also of note are the bizarre side effects of Mirapex, a new RLS drug:

"Several unusual adverse effects of this medication may include compulsive gambling, hypersexuality, and overeating"

Akithesia and Anti-depressants

2008-04-19T13:44:00.004-04:00

A side effect of certain SSRI's - Akithesia:

"...a syndrome characterized by unpleasant sensations of “inner” restlessness that manifests itself with an inability to sit still or remain motionless."

High-functioning patients have described the feeling as a sense of inner tension and torment or chemical torture.

Akathisia makes some patients act out in violent fits of rage throwing and breaking things or harming others. Ironically antipsychotic drugs are many times prescribed as “mood stabilizers” but then have the opposite intended effect, which often leads to increased doses further escalating the symptoms when the intent was to ameliorate the symptoms."

(antipsychotics are different than anti-depressants, but Akisthesia is a known side effect of anti-deps as well.)

It certainly gives the impression that anti-deps enhance "will." Neurologically, it's difficult to define will, but the idea of initiating physical movement seems a good start, which is also something many people diagnosed with clinical depression complain of - being paralayzed, stuck in bed, etc. Could this effect of anti-deps be responsible for these perceived positive and negative effects?

Elusive Objectivity

2008-04-17T17:26:00.003-04:00

Great op-ed by Nicholas Kristof about the elusiveness of objectivity. He refers mostly to politics here, but it really applies to everything. In most cases, I try to let my subjectivity and bias apply only to my sports teams.

We think and argue emotionally, only looking for the facts that support our theory; as opposed to the opposite - looking at the facts, then structuring our theories. It's so deeply embedded in our brains, it's very difficult to stop. I know this is true because I'm so guilty of it.

No,it's not new news exactly, but it it's a phenomenon of neuroscience referred to as top-down processing. We have an expectation of an experience, and we literally structure how the sensory information enters our brains. That sensory info distorts as we contort it based on what we expect. It's a reminder that much of what we see, touch, and hear are self-induced illusions.

On Kristof's blog, of course, all the crazy commenters (with a few exceptions) revert right back to partisan politics. The irony!

Here is some commentary from one of my favorite writers Jonah Lehrer - I think his point about resigning yourself to a sense of certainty despite knowing you are torn between two conflicting ideas is really apt. That craving for the feeling of certainty is what drives most bad thinking. It's probably the root of religious thinking, and why people think they have answers to unanswerable questions - it feels better to feel certain. Questioning creates a sort of psychic pain. I liken it to western music that doesn't return to the tonic (leaving a sense of unpalatable dissonance), or watching a bad TV mystery movie that you can't walk away from because you have to know "who done it."

Anyway, Mr. Lehrer states it better than I do...

Anti-depressants and Homicide, Suicide

2008-04-14T18:03:00.004-04:00

Terribly sad case of a 12 year old kid sentenced to 30 years in jail, for the brutal murder of his grandparents. Christopher Pittman is now 19, and his murder case was recently appealed to the supreme court, and was denied a hearing today, which is terribly tragic given his background and the fact that he was on heavy doses of Zoloft.

(from the CNN article linked to above) "The Food and Drug Administration in 2004 ordered Zoloft and other such medications to carry warnings of an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children."

The extremely weak and unproven theory of depression treatment consists of keeping serotonin in the synapses longer, supposedly "regulating" the baseline of the neurotransmitter in the brain (a baseline that has never been established). Seemingly, the difference between most SSRI's and placebos is the restoration of will power that was formerly missing.

It explains why certain people live by the stuff - many have trouble getting out of bed in the morning; they don't feel like they can function. It seems many anti-deps enable you to act on your will better.

Now imagine giving a drug with those effects to someone with suicidal or homicidal tendencies. It certainly provides one possible explanation for why we're seeing these violent homicides/suicides and finding out the perpetrators are usually dosed with some kind of SSRI.

In Christopher Pittman's case:

"At the time of the crime, the boy had bounced around homes for years, experiencing a half dozen family splits and divorces after his mother had twice abandoned him as a child. She has not been in Pittman's life for years."

"Just days before [the shooting], a doctor had begun prescribing Zoloft, another antidepressant. The family contends the abrupt substitution of drugs caused a bad chemical reaction, triggering violent outbursts."

Most interesting, Pfizer's [maker of Zoloft] comments about the trial:

"[Zoloft] didn't cause his [Pittman's] problems, nor did the medication drive him to commit murder. On these two points, both Pfizer and the jury agree."

This awful, heartless comment is half right. Pittman had problems alright, none of which were his fault either - he was bounced around from home to home with no semblance of structure while often getting abused. No, Zoloft didn't cause his problems either, though it's ironic it's prescribed to somehow cure them.

But did Zoloft drive him to commit murder? In a sense, I would absolutely agree. I believe they provided him with the will to act on his understandable impulses - he was a troubled, angry, and neglected teenager. And it saddens me that despite the overwhelming evidence of a correlation between SSRI's and homicidal/suicidal behavior, this poor young man will be in jail until his 40's. This kid didn't need psychotropic drugs, he needed attention and someone to care for him, and that simple fact is grossly misunderstood.

Here is the old bizarre Zoloft ad that looks like something out of a Kurt Vonngeut novel:

"While the cuase is unknown, depression may be related to an imbalance of natural chemicals in nerve cells in the brain, presscription Zoloft works to correct his imbalance."

Thank you Zoloft for spreading this toxic crap into the American public (232 million prescriptions of Zoloft and other anti-deps in 2007) without really knowing what's causing the depression you're so-called treating.

I'd say we're better off with ecstacy.

Geological Perspective

2008-04-14T16:18:00.004-04:00

Cute video of time between ice ages. Provides a bit of perspective for human existence and evolution. Also neat through the eyes of little, sentient rock beings especially when you consider that Darwin was able to understand that physiological changes occur in species over geological time, not human life spans. Probably one of the biggest reasons people have a difficult time really grasping the central tenants of evolution.

Fighting the Curse

2008-04-13T18:56:00.003-04:00

As a Red Sox fan, I was all for the burial of a Sox jersey in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium, which sent the new generation of Crazy Monkey Steinbrenner (Hank Steinbrenner, son of George) to flip out. Unfortunately, they actually found the jersey, effectively lifting the potential curse.

I'm against all kinds of magical thinking, but I've admittedly been guilty of believing in the curse of the Bambino most of my child and adult life (very hard not to when watching the '86 World Series and the 2003 ALCS). I'd say I've been guilty of it up until 2004 when the curse and the belief in such silly baseball ghosts finally began to dissipate.

So it's unfortunate that the Sox fan construction worker that planted the jersey was also a magical thinker, or he would have been smart enough to simply lie that he actually did it, causing Hank and the rest of the Yankee fan monkeys to perpetuate the myth of the "unfound" Sox jersey in the bowels of the newly cursed Yankee Stadium. Too bad...

Is Acid the Solution to War?

2008-04-11T12:59:00.007-04:00

Check out these soldiers totally chilaxing on the battle field after being administered LSD. I'm by no means advocating the use of acid...well...except to treat migraines, and to maybe provide us with a little perspective on the absurdity of war. Obviously psychedelics are not something you want to be addicted to - too many false epiphanies and psychological/neurological side effects, but maybe at least a temporary reprieve would help.

How about World Acid Day? Shhh, no one even has to know, we'll just spray it in the air, like the end of Batman Begins (except without the rioting). Okay, shitty idea, but funny video (found on Wired).