Tom Stafford's Blog, page 158

Lords, ladies and videogames

[image error]I attended the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education yesterday to discuss "What is the potential impact of technology, such as computer gaming, on the brain?" alongside Baronness Susan Greenfield and we were pleased to be able to present to a packed committee room.

I've never met Greenfield before, who was a big influence on me when I decided to become a neuropsychologist, and it was a genuine pleasure to meet her in person.

We started off the talks and ...

Is this the boss level?

[image error]I'm just about to go to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education to discuss "What is the potential impact of technology, such as computer gaming, on the brain?".

It turns out Baroness Susan Greenfield will be talking first, followed by me, followed by a discussion with all in attendance.

After forgetting my tie and having to buy one from Tie Rack in Waterloo station, I am all ready to go. I'll upload my slides afterwards and will report how it went.

A very historical madness

[image error]H-Madness is a fantastic new blog on the history of madness written by professional historians with a clear passion for their work.

Although aimed at "university and college faculty, students, and independent researchers" it is written in a striaghtforward style and includes original articles, book and film reviews, as well as news about academic publications, events and talks.

There are occasionally posts in French or German, which, to be honest, I find a bit annoying as I can't read them and ...

Roald Dahl's Marvelous Medicine

[image error]Author Roald Dahl was particularly well known for darkly humorous children's books that form a riotous part of almost every childhood in Britain. Less well known is that he also made some significant contributions to neurology, as detailed in a brief article for Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.

The article is available online as a pdf and starts by noting that several of his books contain possible nods to neurological syndromes or fantastical fictional experiments.

These...

Roald Dahl's Marveleous Medicine

[image error]Author Roald Dahl was particularly well known for darkly humorous children's books that form a riotous part of almost every childhood in Britain. Less well known is that he also made some significant contributions to neurology, as detailed in a brief article for Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.

The article is available online as a pdf and starts by noting that several of his books contain possible nods to neurological syndromes or fantastical fictional experiments.

These...

Roald Dahl's Marvelleous Medicine

[image error]Author Roald Dahl was particularly well known for darkly humorous children's books that form a riotous part of almost every childhood in Britain. Less well known is that he also made some significant contributions to neurology, as detailed in a brief article for Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.

The article is available online as a pdf and starts by noting that several of his books contain possible nods to neurological syndromes or fantastical fictional experiments.

These...

Falling in love with epilepsy and St Valentine

[image error]I was surprised to find out that as well as being the patron saint of love, St Valentine is also the patron saint of epilepsy. I've just found a study that analysed six centuries of artistic depictions of the holy figure where he is often accompanied by people having seizures.

The paper has a good description of St Valentine's historical association with what was known as the "falling sickness" or "the sacred disease". This link to the condition may be based on little more than the fact that h...

An introduction to cognition and culture

[image error]The Culture and Cognition blog covers the territory where culture and psychology meet, and they've just released their '' which has a list of essential books and papers to cover the interface between anthropology and the cognitive sciences.

Many of the articles are available in full online and the list is a fantastic guide to the area.

It includes both popular and academic texts but the list works best as a reference, so bookmark it as I'm sure you'll be returning to it time and again if ...

2010-03-12 Spike activity

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

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The University of California has an interview with space psychiatrist Nick Kanas

There's a thoughtful consideration of the recent New York Times article on whether depression has evolutionary benefits over at Neuron Culture.

Time magazine discusses research finding that deaths from cocaine overdoses rise even when the weather warms up only slightly.

We're slower at processing touch-related words than words related to the other senses...

Back to blightly

[image error]Apologies if updates are a little irregular, as I'm currently on my way back to the UK for a three week visit. This is largely because I've been asked to speak to the 'All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education' about the evidence for whether computer games are damaging kids' brains. I kid you not.

I shall also use the opportunity to catch up with the fantastic research group I'm associated with at the Institute of Psychiatry, but I'll largely be sleeping o...