Tom Stafford's Blog, page 141

Don't sweat the technique

[image error]Wooly Thoughts are a small online company who design and sell patterns for amazing optical illusion knitwear.

Some of these are for sweaters or scarfs that display well-known optical illusions such as café wall or the Necker cube illusions.

However, the company has also designed knitwear specific illusions that use raised stitches that involve two colours, one of which is only visible when viewed from the side.

This means that when seen from the correct angle, images jump out on what would...

Computationally, my dear Watson

[image error]The New York Times has an excellent article on IBM's 'Watson' project which is an artificial intelligence system designed to answer natural language queries to the point where it can beat humans at Jeopardy! quiz show questions - where contestants are given an answer and they have to come up with the question.

Natural language questions are traditionally very difficult for computers because they involve a lot of assumptions. For example, take the question "How many people work in a bank?". To ...

Divorce spreads through social networks

[image error]A completely fascinating study published on the Social Science Research Network looked at how likely a marriage was to survive depending on who else in the social network was getting divorced.

The study used data from the famous Framington Heart Study and found that while we tend to think of marriage as a 'couple thing' is turns out that even our most intimate bonds are deeply embedded into the social webs we weave.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Unless Everyone Else is Doing it Too: Social...

2010-06-18 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

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Forensic psychology blog In the News hits the nail on the head with a final round-up of the psychopath research fight that recently came to light. Props to the blog for breaking the story.

Science News reports on a study that shows how our psychological associations with north and south ('up' and 'down') affect travel behaviour.

There's an excellent analysis of the discovery of yet more autism risk genes over at Neuroskeptic.

The New York...

Facial expression techno ballet

[image error]Earlier this week we discussed how 1800s neurologist Duchenne studied the components of facial expressions by electrocuting individual face muscles.

It turns out someone has done a modern day version, but automated the process and set the dancing faces of four participants to the rhythm of abstract techno. The video to be seen to be believed.

The compelling clip was actually from posted in the comments of another recent Mind Hacks entry on whether we can fake the supposedly unfakeable...

Architecture of the brain

[image error]The building for Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas is just beautiful.

The centre is a neuroscience research institute that was designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry.

It particularly focuses on Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain diseases.

The 'Lou Ruvo' in the name is a tribute to the father of the centre's founder who died from dementia.

Link to image from BoingBoing

Link to the centre's website.

Are you near death experienced?

[image error]A recent study in the Journal of Substance Use and Misuse reported on 'near death experiences' by users of the anaesthetic drug ketamine which is also widely used illicitly for it hallucinogenic effects.

'Near death experiences' are most commonly associated with being seriously ill or injured, although one of my favourite studies found that about half of people who reported the events were never actually in danger of dying.

NDEs typically involve a 'light at the end of the tunnel' experience...

Headache pill reduces the pain of social rejection

[image error]Over-the-counter headache pill paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, reduces the pain of social rejection according to a new study just published in Psychological Science.

Based on past findings of an overlap between the brain circuits involved in physical pain and those involved in feeling rejected, the researchers wondered whether painkillers would also ease emotional distress stemming from exclusion.

Not all painkillers work the same though: some work by numbing the local nerves - like

The dynamics of open sexuality

[image error]The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom has just released a new document entitled 'What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory' which aims to educate therapists about people in consenting non-monogamous relationships.

The document reviews the research on the well-being of people in open relationships and the emotional challenges that they can face, although, I'm afraid I don't have the knowledge to judge how balanced the analysis actually is (where's Meg Barker when you need...

US Army clipboard corps lose leader

[image error]Wired's Danger Room blog has a short news item reporting that the co-founder and leader of the Human Terrain System, the US Army's teams of battlefield social scientists, is no longer in post and has presumably been fired.

The HTS has been a controversial innovation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and aims to understand the culture in which the conflict takes place to give the military a strategic advantage. Civilian social scientists have criticised the project as violating the 'do no...