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N400 and the beautiful is good stereotype continued, results from my current research
2007-01-23 14:34:00
In a previous post I described my current research in which I tried to measure the beautiful is good stereotype using EEG. The idea is that when we are presented with something that contradicts our stereotypes, our brain says "wait a minute, those just don't go together, that is odd". It just so happens that there is an ERP component, called the N400, which is sensitive to mismatching stimuli.So in my experiment, participants were presented with faces rated as either attractive or unattractive, followed by words rated as either positive or negative. Their EEG (their brain activity), was measured throughout the experiment. We expected to find that the magnitude of the N400 wave/component would be larger when presenting incongruous face-word pairs. Pairs that are incongruous contradict the stereotype, so in this experiment it would be attractive faces followed by negative words or unattractive faces followed by positive words.So what did we find? Do our brains object when they see an at


New international guidelines for stem cell science
2007-02-02 13:09:00
I have just had an interesting discussion with "anonymous" about the ethical issues associated with stem cell research. Yesterday I saw that an organisation called International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) have released a document in which they spell out some ethical guidelines. You can read about it here. ISSCR, controversially, states that they think it is okay to pay women to donate eggs. This has been largely prohibited before. Their argument is that the money in itself is only an issue if women start to ignore risks because of the gain.“What you need to focus on is not the amount of money changing hands, but rather how the financial consideration is affecting the decision the woman goes through,†Daley says. “If it would make [the potential donor] trivialise any of the risks then it constitutes an undue inducement.â€ÂA private reflection is that medical testing would come to a complete stop if money were not paid to subjects. Who would want to go to Astra and have


Free will and determinism
2007-02-04 14:18:00
Do we have free will, or are all our thoughts and actions a result of the physical forces in our universe?After having taken part in a discussion about consciousness on Furiku's blog I decided to learn a little bit more about the philosophy of the mind which discusses such things as the nature of the mind, consciousness, and free will versus determinism. The audio-course, which I warmly recommend, is from the teaching company (see my previous post about the the teaching company here), and it is called "philosophy of the mind". Teacher is John Searle (see picture) from the University of California, Berkeley.My experience is that the question of free will versus determinism is a question that many people ask themselves occasionally. Are we free agents in the world or does everything, and I mean everything have a preceding cause. I cannot speak for anyone else of course, but for me it sure feels like I have free will. When I write these words I feel as if I am deciding to write these wor


True cyborgs now a reality!
2007-02-07 16:54:00
Muscular movements are controlled by the central nervous system. Right now my brain is actively planning the muscular contractions that will make my fingers exert a force on different buttons on my keyboard, ultimately resulting in the text that you are hopefully enjoying right now. How does this work? Well, there are many unsolved mysteries, but we have also learned quite a lot.Two areas of the brain, the "supplementary motor area" (SMA) and the "premotor area" (PMA), seems to be involved in planning the exact series of muscle contractions that are required in order to do something such as writing this text. How do we know this? Put a person in an fMRI machine and ask them to imagine doing something, and wallah, SMA and PMA lights up (meaning that more blood is going to these areas, mening that more glucose gets there, meaning more activity in those cells)! In order to actually move you will also have to get your motor cortex involved. It is from this area that axons travel down into


The virtue of changing your mind
2007-02-10 19:55:00
More and more I have wondered why it is seen as such a disgrace to change your mind about things. I have had many different discussions on different subjects online as well as in real life, and almost invariably people hold on to their ideas and beliefs as if their life depended on it. I will haste to admit that I am also guilty of this type of behavior. Even when my opponent has brought up a really good point that threatens my entire argument, it is tempting to go "well you are just an ashole", or something equally relevant... When I am courageous enough to say, "that is a good point, you are right" it often feels like I have lost my dignity, and I will walk away like a dog with the tail between its legs. I wonder why it is so hard to admit that you were wrong? Is there some evolutionary explanation of this?It is of course important to point out that it would also be a problem if people changed their mind too easily. Many of the ideas that are today seen as obvious, were ridiculed whe


The cruelty of male circumcision
2007-02-21 21:37:00
Today it is quite unthinkable to question the cruelty of female circumcision if you are a relatively informed person. However, to my own amazement, male circumcision (see picture) is still considered by many to be perfectly justified. It must evidently be so, considering how often this surgery is performed on young naive infants.At one point in my life I actually became a little bit ambiguous as to whether circumcision might perhaps be justified. It was last year when, during my exchange year at UCSB, I attended some highly entertaining and informative lectures on Human Sexuality taught by two very charismatic (and married) professors John Baldwin and Janice Baldwin. You can read more about the Baldwins' view on circumcision here. I am not being ironic when I say that these were indeed great lectures, and that is perhaps why they almost convinced me that the costs and benefits associated with male circumcision more or less cancels out. As far as I can remember they referred to two pos


The placebo effect
2007-03-03 10:20:00
As far as I can remember I have always been opposed to, or at least skeptical towards the use of medicine that has not been properly tested and compared to placebos . I think that medicines should be tested extensively before they are released on the market. If you will, I am a bureaucrat in these matters, but why? Before I dwell further into this it is probably good with a definition of the placebo effect, here is one:"A physical or emotional change, occurring after a substance is taken or administered, that is not the result of any special property of the substance. The change may be beneficial, reflecting the expectations of the participant and, often, the expectations of the person giving the substance."But this sounds great does it not? If this is true then we can stop all administration of conventional medicine and thereby avoid all the associated side effects. As long as we can convince patients that water will heal them, it will, right? Just as a parenthesis, I think this is ho


Faith in science
2007-03-07 10:47:00
The title is meant to sound paradoxical. Faith is a belief that is not supported by evidence whereas science, by definition, is based on evidence. This distinction is crystal clear theoretically, however, if one looks at reality I think it is evident that there are religious people who modifies their faith in the light of evidence as well as scientists who do not base their theories entirely on evidence but rather use methods that resemble faith.When I have written about science here on my blog I have discussed the ideal situation, that is, I have discussed science as if it always followed the fundamental principles that defines science. These principles include among other things, using evidence to build theories, openness to new ideas, adaptation to new empirical evidence, admitting that you were wrong when evidence becomes overwhelming, unbiased and objective accounts of new discoveries etc. When these principles are followed science is indeed a noble endeavour. Faith on the othe


Evidence suggesting that there might be something to homeopathic remedies, and why I am still not convinced
2007-03-17 12:41:00
In a previous post I have explained why I do not believe homeopathy works. To demonstrate how fair and objective I am =), I thought I would write about the so called “Belfast homeopathy results†(see citation below). These results have become famous because they show that a substance which once contained histamine-like molecules, but which have been diluted so much that there is almost not a single molecule left, still works like histamine. In essence this means that pure water can produce the same effects that histamine produces. Furthermore, the study has been replicated three times. Ennis, the investigator (see picture), seems to be just as puzzled as I am about this. If the experiment was indeed sound in all respects, then the findings are truly revolutionary.So why am I not convinced?Before saying why I am not yet convinced I want to emphasise that I do not think there is any bogus here. I believe Ennis (unlike many others who do similar studies) is a serious researchers, and


Circumcision debate continues
2007-03-20 07:17:00
A few weeks ago I wrote about the cruelty of male circumcision. I wrote that I am opposed to male circumcision because of the fact that the foreskin has many important functions.Since my post some interesting posts with interesting subsequent discussions has appeared on other blogs. If you understand swedish, take a look on ergo ateism here and here, or you can also take a look at Tobias Malm's excellent blog here. In the discussions following these posts some objections to the circumcision objections appeared, that is there were some people who defended circumcision. The four main objections that I recall were.1. People who have their foreskin cut off can have sex for a longer time without ejaculating.2. Circumcision protects against all sorts of different diseases3. "I am circumcised and I haven't noticed anything bad about it"4. Sometimes circumcision need to be done for medical reasons (e.g. foreskin in too tight).The first objection I think is a really bad one for several reason


Probably my last post on circumcision, for a while a least...
2007-03-24 09:53:00
Following my two posts on male circumcision I have received a fair amount of feedback from which I have learned some new things. The commentators have pointed out where I have been wrong about things and they have also provided some great links that I would like to share with my readers here.After my first entry on the subject I received one comment from anonymous with a link to a blog which is entirely dedicated to male circumcision. Here you can among other things, see pictures of the surgical procedure, and read about the similarities between male and female circumcision. I always thought that female circumcision was quite a bit worse, but it seems that this is not necessarily the case...When I wrote my second entry I also received some very nice feedback. The first comment really makes the general point well. Beanie's Appa, who wrote the comment has got his own blog which you will find here. This is what he wrote (I agree completely with what he says)."Wonderful post. Thank you fo


Learning described at the cellular level: Finding from our laboratory in Lund
2007-04-10 16:46:00
Today I want draw the attention to some very exciting discoveries from our neurophysiology laboratory here in Lund. Because I have just started working in the lab I cannot take any credit for the work, though I have been spending a lot of time lately, trying to develop the experimental setup further. Instead it is Dan Anders Jirenhed, Fredrik Bengtsson, and Germund Hesslow who have worked for several years to achieve the experimental setup that allowed the findings that you can read about here.The findings have already received quite a lot of attention from places with more readers than my blog. See for instance the article in New Scientist, or if you understand Swedish you can listen or read about the discoveries on Sveriges Radio homepage. If you are interested in the technicalities I recommend that you read the original article which was published in the Journal of Neuroscienc


Manchester United vs. Roma 7-1
2007-04-12 09:14:00
Since I have been a United fan for no less than 18 years I have to sidetrack from my normal subjects and write a few lines about the magnificent game they played the other night when they completely demolished Roma in the Champions League quarter finals. It was quite an amazing experience to watch the game, the goals just kept on coming, and in the end I almost felt a bit sorry for Roma and the Roma fans.Totti, Roma's perhaps best player said in an interview prior to the first encounter "that 'I don't like the way English football is even if some great players play there. 'I don't like English football and I don't like England either because of the weather.'" (no Totti is not a teenager, he is 30 years old).Following their humiliating defeat Totti, to my satisfaction said that "Unfortunately, we have come across a better team." Poor Totti…


â€ÂNatural Foods†contain more carcinogens than â€ÂUnnatural Foodsâ€Â
2007-04-14 09:47:00
If you are like me, the first thing you will react to in the headline is my discrimination between natural and unnatural foods. It is my impression that people who call natural foods "natural foods" refer to foods which have not been treated with pesticides. Personally I don't think this makes them more natural, and it definitely does not necessarily make them better. I suppose that natural foods are more natural in the sense that it is what we used to eat back in the days when we did not have the kind of technology that we have today, though based on that one could argue that primitive foods would be a more appropriate label. I must admit that I have never actually heard anyone talk about unnatural foods, I just assume that if someone asserts that foods which have not been treated with pesticides are natural, then they must think that foods which have been sprayed with pesticides must somehow be unnatural.In any case, people who eat natural foods often claim that it is better for you


The underweight epidemic
2007-04-21 19:05:00
What is going on with obesity? For a long time now I have been walking around thinking that our modern society has some serious negative consequences in terms of diet. Our evolved preference for foods rich in fat and sugars together with fast food chains and supermarkets which put the candy where you cannot avoid it, should naturally result in an increased consumption of such foods and in consequence more obesity. Indeed this seems to be the case. Since the 1970s obesity levels have been steadily rising. However, the interesting question to ask is "what effects this increase in the average BMI (body mass index) has on our health?" When I lived in California I was constantly exposed to commercials in which you would view pictures from a childhood where the protagonist ate way to much sweet stuff. Following these pictures a man would say something like, because of what I ate in my childhood my life has been shortened by five years. I believed this, just like I believed that obesity was i


Cubic Zirconias, and why I regret buying a diamond ring…
2007-05-01 20:34:00
I have never really understood people who say that they have no regrets, perhaps because I have lots of regrets. I regret all the times I have been unfair or even mean to friends as well as strangers, I regret the fact that I drank too much as a teenager, and I deeply regret having spent a good part of my life watching sunset beach. It seems to me that whoever claims he or she have no regrets is rather naïve. My most recent regret is my engagement ring choice. At the time when I bought the engagement ring that my fiancé is now wearing, I wanted the most beautiful ring I could find (obviously). I finally settled on a ring made out of white gold with a small ingrained diamond. It is in this that my regret lies. Two factors have made me wish that I had not chosen a diamond ring. The first is the truly excellent Edward Zwick movie, Blood Diamond (see picture), starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Indeed it has all the attributes of a typical Hollywood epic, but it also sends a strong resounding


James Randi
2007-05-09 12:27:00
This week I want to pay a tribute to a man that I admire very much, the skeptic James Randi (see picture) who will turn 81 in august. Randi, in a sense, is a man with two faces. First there is "The Amazing Randi", a world famous magician who has performed many seemingly impossible tricks. Among his achievements Randi is the holder of two world records. On one occasion Randi outperformed the infamous Harry Houdini when he spent 104 minutes in a sealed coffin on the bottom of a swimming pool. He earned his second entry into Guiness world records when he came out alive after having been frozen in a block of ice for 55 minutes. Does anyone know how this was done? Magicians are of course interesting and fun, however, it is not magic skills that makes Randi unique. Like the just mentioned Houdini, James Randi is a skeptic. He has openly admitted that he has never performed any real magic in the supernatural sense. In other words, all the magical shows that we laymen find impossible or at lea


The evolution of happiness
2007-05-12 15:31:00
Our genes, containing the recipe for making us, do not care about our feeling. All they care about is replicating themselves. Whether their host is the most depressed anxious, suicidal person out there doesn't matter to the genes as long as they get into the next generation, preferably in great numbers. In a sense we are merely the means to obtaining a goal: replication of our genes.So why do we have emotions? Why are we not just insensitive robots that do not break down because of something silly such as your dog dying, or too much stress at work? The reason is of course that emotions are adaptive in many important ways, and people who lack emotions evidently do not succeed very well in our society. Fear makes us avoid many dangers; pleasure makes us come back to the things that induced it. Guilt and shames tells us we have not been fair and that we should try to fix it, and so on. In other words, we are not born to be happy. Of course we are not born to be sad either; rather we are


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