Tom Stafford's Blog, page 152

I know what you're thinking Doctor...

[image error]I just found a completely charming study from 1977 that tested whether psychiatric patients with mind-reading delusions were really telepathic.

Telepathy in mental illness: deluge or delusion?

J Nerv Ment Dis. 1977 Sep;165(3):184-200.

Greyson B.

The belief that one can read others' minds has long been considered a symptom of psychosis, despite reports in the parapsychological literature of veridical telepathy. All patients admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit were screened for paranormal...

Hypnotising lobsters etc

[image error]This is a fantastically odd letter about hypnotising animals that appeared in a 1992 edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Hypnotising lobsters, etc.

Sir: I was very surprised that the idea of hypnotising lobsters was thought to be evidence of gullibility requiring further photographic proof (Brooks, Journal, July 1992,161,134).

As a young child in rural Ireland I was taught to 'hypnotise' various animals by my mother. My particular expertise was in hypnotising turkeys and geese, for...

A marriage made in hormones

[image error]The New York Times has a fantastic article on how the way married couples relate to each other can have a major impact on health, although there are many intriguing interpersonal subtleties that go beyond simply being in a 'good' or 'bad' relationship.

The piece reviews the extensive evidence on how stress impacts on the immune system and discusses how, in general, marriage has a host of health benefits. However, relationship conflict can have some dramatic negative effects on well-being. In o...

The madwoman in the attic

[image error]BBC Radio 4 has an excellent programme on the depiction of the 'madwoman in the attic' in Victorian literature and how it reflects ideas about mental disturbance and femininity of the time.

The programme discusses Mrs Rochester from Jane Eyre, Anne Catherick from The Woman in White, and Madame Bovary from the book of the same name.

Unfortunately, the programme finishes on the rather clichéd interpretation that the novels demonstrate how women who didn't conform ended up being branded mad and...

Visual acuity improves by autopilot

[image error]We tend to assume that visual acuity, the ability to distinguish fine detail with our eyes, is a physical limit of the body but a new study just published online by Psychological Science shows that prompting people with ideas about people who have excellent eyesight actually improves clearness of vision.

The research was led by psychologist Ellen Langer who has become well-known for her inventive and counter-intuitive research that has shown how changing beliefs and mental attitude can affect ...

The YouTube drug observatory

[image error]An innovative new study has analysed YouTube videos of people tripping on a hallucinogenic plant called salvia to understand the behavioural effects of the 'legal high' that is still relatively new to science.

Salvia divinorum is a strongly hallucinogenic plant that has been used by indigenous Mexican shamans for many centuries but has recently become popular as it is legal in many countries.

Pharmacologically, it is fascinating as it seems to have its major effect on kappa opioid receptors...

Silent stopwatch

[image error]This is just a quick tip for psychologists who want a silent or beepless stopwatch, as they are very easy to make.

Stopwatches are often used when psychologists do neuropsychological assessments as they involve the timing of participant responses. Beeps can sometimes be distracting, especially to people who may have brain injury or might be emotionally disturbed, so many assessments recommend stop watches that don't beep every time you press a button.

Surprisingly, few actually have this...

Decisions, decisions

[image error]The New York Times has a review of a new book called 'The Art of Choosing', by psychologist Sheena Iyengar, that tackles the psychology of choice and decision-making. I've not read the book myself but the review is very positive and like all good book reviews, it is full of interesting snippets and is worth reading in itself.

I didn't recognise the author at first but she has done some fantastic work and is responsible for the classic experiment where a stall selling many varieties of jam had ...

Inner strength

[image error]Discover Magazine has an excellent piece by Carl Zimmer on the brains of elite athletes and how they have adapted with practice to process movement and the body differently.

There are lots of fascinating aspects to the article, but this particularly caught my eye:

To understand how athletes arrive at these better solutions, other neuroscientists have run experiments in which athletes and nonathletes perform the same task. This past January Claudio Del Percio of Sapienza University in Rome and...

High time for psychedelic medicine?

[image error]There's an excellent article on the history of the Multidiscplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organisation that has done much to bring psychedelic drug investigation back into the mainstream of medical research, in that well known bastion of science journalism, Playboy.

I must admit to being a bit embarrassed when I was caught reading the article as I usually only buy the magazine for the photo-shopped pictures of girls in bikinis.

For people who want to avoid such embarrassment t...