Jonah Lehrer's Blog, page 28

Stress and Sadness

Sometimes, the human brain can seem astonishingly ill-equipped for modern life. Our Pleistocene olfactory cortex craves glucose and lipids, which makes us vulnerable to high-fructose corn syrup and Egg McMuffins. We've got an impulsive set of emotions, which makes us think subprime mortgages are a good idea. And so on.

If I could only fix one design flaw, however, I'd focus on our stress response. We're stuck with a mind that reacts to the mundane mundane worries of modern life - a falling stoc

Investing in the Developing Brain

For the most part, basic neuroscience research has had zero influence on public policy. Knowing about the dopamine reward pathway and the substrate of addiction hasn't changed the War on Drugs. (Although it certainly should. At the very least, we should decriminalize marijuana.) Knowing about memory reconsolidation and the inherent dishonesty of recollection hasn't changed the way police deal with eyewitnesses or the way juries consider testimony. (Although it certainly should.) Knowing about th

The "Science" of Romance

There's a charming article by Hannah Seligson over at The Daily Beast on the "science" of when to get married. (I've put scare quotes around "science" only because it's not a science at all.) On the one hand, it's rather obvious that making romantic decisions isn't exactly a rational process. Charles Darwin, for instance, made up a spreadsheet of reasons why he should and shouldn't marry Emma Wedgewood.

In the "Marry" column, Darwin entered: "Home and someone to take care of house--Charms of m

Money Illusion

Here's a question:

Consider two individuals, Ann and Barbara, who graudated from the same college a year apart. Upon graduation, both took similar jobs with publishing firms. Ann started with a yearly salary of $30,000. During her first year on the job there was no inflation, and in her second year Ann recieved a 2% ($600) raise in salary. Barbara also started with a yearly salary of $30,000. During her first year on the job, there was 4% inflation, and in her second year Barbara received a 5% (

Stress, Poverty, Working Memory

A new study has demonstrated, once again, that being poor is stressful, and that chronic stress is poison for the brain. Here's the paper:

The income-achievement gap is a formidable societal problem, but little is known about either neurocognitive or biological mechanisms that might account for income-related deficits in academic achievement. We show that childhood poverty is inversely related to working memory in young adults. Furthermore, this prospective relationship is mediated by elevated

Twins and Poetry

In the latest New Yorker, Rebecca Mead has a wonderful profile of two poets (Michael and Matthew Dickman) with starkly different poetic styles who happen to be identical twins.

Michael and Matthew share more than the same raw material; they share the same genetic material. Although there is a rich scientific literature on the subject of identical twins who have been separated at birth - their circumstances help to illuminate the competing influences of genetics and environment on the developme

F-16

An inspired metaphor for the inherent instability of the brain by Moshe Bar:

The fighter plane F-16 is the first aeroplane intentionally designed to have an aerodynamically unstable platform. This design was chosen to enhance the aircraft's manoeuvrability. Most aeroplanes are designed to be stable such that they strive to return to their original attitude following an interruption. While such stability is a desired property for a passenger aeroplane, for example, it opposes a pilot's effort to

Industrialized Science

Wired has now put more photos from my article on the Allen Brain Atlas online. They're grotesquely gorgeous:

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While the Allen Atlas of gene expression has already proven itself to be a valuable research tool, I think the project's most profound long-term impact will come from its methodological innovations. For the most part, modern science remains a field of artisans, of technicians and grad students doing experiments by hand. However, because the Allen Institute needed to generate such vast

Breast-Feeding v2

My short post on breast-feeding from a few days ago (inspired by this article by Hanna Rosin) has inspired a lot of dissenting email. Since comments are still disabled - I hope to have them back soon, though - I want to post a selection of the criticism. Just to reiterate and clarify: I don't want to minimize the slight but statistically significant benefits of breast-feeding. My simple point is that if breast-feeding is a burden to the mother, then those health benefits should be weighed agains

Dartmouth

A quick note: I'll be giving my stump speech at the Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover, NH tomorrow (3/29) at 3 PM.