Tag Archives: science

The Great Consciousness Swindle

Posted on November 13, 2014 by diplopi

James Kent, the author of Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason, debates dualism. “If I can convince you that something invisible exists, like an ‘invisible mind’, but I also say it is immaterial and can never be measured, then … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Consciousness Explained by John R Searle

Posted on November 10, 2014 by diplopi

John Searle, one of the world’s great philosophers of mind and language, has something to say about consciousness as a biological phenomenon. Underneath the clip I have listed some of his arguments. And at the bottom there’s a link to his … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Conscious Experience Integrated in the Claustrum?

Posted on October 29, 2014 by diplopi

Recent experiments involving electrical stimulation suggest that there exists a brain center in humans, called the claustrum, that integrates our experience of the world. We already know that consciousness is not an ethereal concept, but a brain function that can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Neuroscience, Perception | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Walking Dead Sydrome

Posted on October 24, 2014 by diplopi

Since Halloween is coming up soon, its interesting to know that there are people walking around believing that they are actually dead. The Cotard delusion, or the walking corpse syndrome, is a rare mental illness that causes a person to believe … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Face perception, Neuroscience, Perception | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Nobel Prize Recipients from Norway in Physiology or Medicine

Posted on October 6, 2014 by diplopi

              Congratulations to this year´s Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine and cognitive neuroscientists May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser from Norway together with John O´Keefe from UK, which have discovered an inner positioning system … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartoons, Neuroscience, Psychology, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Animal Madness

Posted on August 28, 2014 by diplopi

Behind those funny animal videos, sometimes, are oddly human-like problems. Laurel Braitman studies non-human animals who exhibit signs of mental health issues — from compulsive bears to self-destructive rats to monkeys with unlikely friends. Braitman asks what we as humans … Continue reading →

Posted in Oxytocin | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

New Technology May Reveal How Long You’ll Live

Posted on July 3, 2014 by diplopi

Facial recognition technology may soon become personal, as a group of scientists is working on a system that analyze an individual’s longevity prospects based on how his or her face has aged. The research is still in its early stages, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Face perception, Judgement and Decision making, Perception, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is the Brain a Receiver for Consciousness?

Posted on May 28, 2014 by diplopi

An interesting article regarding the ‘brain-as-receiver hypothesis’. The author, Steven Novella, claims that the hypothesis is nothing more than a convenient way for dualists to dismiss evidence for the correlation between brain function and mental function. He argues that if the … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Neuroscience, Perception, Psychology, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Molecule for Love, Morality, and Prosperity?

Posted on April 27, 2014 by diplopi

Ed Young touching on the topic of why the hype about oxytocin, known as the ‘cuddle hormone’ and ‘morale molecule’, is dumb and dangerous. Click the heart to learn more.         Reference: Bartz, J. A., et al. (2011). … Continue reading →

Posted in Oxytocin, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

An Algorithm That Recognizes Faces Better Than People Can

Posted on April 24, 2014 by diplopi

Computer scientists are announcing they’ve made a program that is better at matching photos than people are, and this is the first time a program has performed better than people at recognizing people. The new algorithm, developed at the Chinese … Continue reading →

Posted in Face perception, Perception, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment