Clive Thompson over at wired.com wrote an interesting article about how what we like is affected by what people around us like. Most people will recognise this and psychologists call this phenomenon peer pressure. It’s strongest in teens, as every parent who has teen kids can affirm. In adults the process is much more subtle. Group Think, as Thompson calls it, is in psychology something entirely different. In a groupthink situation you’ve got a group who is very close and communicates in jargon. They all think along the same lines and often are led by a directive leader who tells them what to do. What happens next is that they fail to come up with the best solutions because there’s no creativity in the thinking process. In small groups this is too bad for those involved, but it can be very dangerous when it happens to large societies, for instance like the German society during 1933 − 1945.
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Today one of the articles that lit up in my feedreader drew my attention: You won’t find consciousness in the brain. The writer, Ray Tallis, who is a doctor of geriatric medicine who writes on topics ranging from consciousness to medical ethics, argues that consciousness isn’t necessarily residing in the brain. He is vocalising a minority standpoint contesting the idea that science “will be able to explain the mystery of human consciousness in terms of the activity of the brain“. The question is whether that’s true or not. Would it be that simple? When we see neural activity, does that mean we see consciousness?
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What if scientists would invent a pill which enables people to erase all kinds of unwanted memories? People wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of traumatic life events, traumatised soldiers would be enabled to live a normal life. In certain respects it would be wonderful to choose which kinds of bad memories you want to erase from your “hard drive” and which memories you want to keep. What would be the impact of such an invention on the society as a whole, or the human conscience or even human life? It may all sound like science fiction, but it might actually become reality!
People who follow this for some time already know I studied neuro-psychology. I love the field of Cognitive Neurosciences, it’s a great geeky scientific field. It’s also a relatively modern academic field, but researchers get a lot of money to do their research which helps to grow the discipline a lot. In a relatively short period in time, our knowledge about our brain and our mind has increased rapidly. One of those recent discoveries is that of the “memory molecule” called PKMzeta. I know the name doesn’t sound really original or creative, but it is how scientists work. According to scientists, this PKMzeta thing will enable us to wipe out certain memories.
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I really like practicing yoga. It clears my mind and strengthens my muscles. On top of that I notice it improves my flexibility. I feel much better altogether after starting my yoga practice. I just read an article on Science Daily in which is argued that yoga is good for you and that there are scientific reasons to prove it. In the article they write that “scientists proved that” practicing yoga is related to higher levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in one’s brain and therefore it helps to decrease anxiety and stress-related symptoms. It also would decrease depression.
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Photo by tobias.munichDuring one of the lectures of the class on Applied Social Psychology I found myself intrigued by the topic of Self-handicapping. I never thought about the topic like this and I think the speaker, drs. S.E. Dalley, one of the externs of the Kurt Lewin Institute made a very good point trying to answer the question “Why Do Students Procrastinate?
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Last week I read another article on obese mice in New Scientist’s feed. My initial reaction was “Hah! Some new brain research” (I am a self-admitted Neuroscience-nerd). After reading the article I had the distinct feeling I knew this already. As a matter of fact we discussed the whole leptin thing in college already. I have to admit that I get this déja-vu experience on a regular basis when reading popular science news. But since I decided to put more articles on my blog instead of keeping an online diary, it could be a nice topic to write about. Here it comes.
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