October 9, 2009
1/f scaling (or 1/f noise) refers to a scaling relation followed by fluctuations that have been widely observed in nature. 1/f fluctuations have been observed ubiquitously across different disciplines of science (e.g. chemistry, psychology, biology). In specific relation to cognitive neuroscience, 1/f scaling has been observed widely in fMRI measurement series and treated, generally, as noise to work around as opposed to an object of study. The challenge is that since 1/f fluctuations seem to be present throughout the brain, they do not help localize specific cognitive functions to specific areas of the brain. However, studies have shown that the appearance of 1/f fluctuations in fMRI measurements change as a function of cognitive variables.
Whereas some researchers argue that 1/f scaling is a byproduct of processes that are irrelevant to theories of cognition, others argue that 1/f fluctuations reflect a general and essential principle of emergent pattern formation in complex systems, including cognitive systems.
In a past study Kello, Beltz, Holden and Van Orden examined the relevance of 1/f scaling to cognitive function in four experiments using simple and choice response tasks. (For full access to the paper, click here.) The results of this study supported the emergent coordination argument and the researchers concluded that “the generality of 1/f scaling in cognitive performance is evidence that cognitive functions are universally formed as emergent patterns of physiological and behavioral activity”.
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May 19, 2009
From the Dana Foundation: The Dana Foundation released at a news conference on March 4, Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a three-year study at seven universities, which finds strong links between arts education and cognitive development. Speakers included Michael Gazzaniga, Ph.D., UC, Santa Barbara; Michael Posner, Ph.D., University of Oregon; Elizabeth Spelke, Ph.D., Harvard University and Brian Wandell, Ph.D., Stanford University. Guy Mckhann, M.D., Johns Hopkins University gave a summary and Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts spoke of the study’s importance to the field of education.
Click here for the webcast archive.
Click here for the event transcript.
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January 25, 2009
Alan Costall
Article in Consciousness and Cognition
Abstract
According to the majority of the textbooks, the history of modern, scientific psychology can be tidily encapsulated in the following three stages. Scientific psychology began with a commitment to the study of mind, but based on the method of introspection. Watson rejected introspectionism as both unreliable and effete, and redefined psychology, instead, as the science of behaviour. The cognitive revolution, in turn, replaced the mind as the subject of study, and rejected both behaviourism and a reliance on introspection. This paper argues that all three stages of this history are largely mythical. Introspectionism was never a dominant movement within modern psychology, and the method of introspection never went away. Furthermore, this version of psychology’s history obscures some deep conceptual problems, not least surrounding the modern conception of “behaviour,” that continues to make the scientific study of consciousness seem so weird.
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April 2, 2007
 What is the relation between emotion and consciousness? In their recent paper in TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, Tsuchiya and Adolphs review recent studies that address this question.
Focusing on domains where emotion and consciousness overlap and interact, Tsuchiya and Adolphs suggest that each (emotion and consciousness) is necessary for aspects of the other. They follow the common view that emotion and consciousness result from neuronal activity in the brain and they argue that both emotion and consciousness depend on neural representations of one’s own body. Moreover, Tsuchiya and Adolphs argue that these representations arise from structures in the brainstem and medial telencephalon that receive interoceptive information. The authors believe that future work requires not only more data but also further theoretical development of the relevant concepts that are currently under investigation.
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February 20, 2007
 The journal Biological Psychiatry has a special issue on the autism spectrum, its diagnosis and treatment.
It is a comprehensive yet diverse collection of multidisciplinary treatment of the issue, containing articles onautism and phenotypic homogeneity; cortical layering and thickness; cortical dysfunction; executive function and gaze fixation.
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January 15, 2007
 It’s time for this year’s Illusion Contest.
The 2007 Contest Gala will be held in Sarasota, Florida (Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall) on Saturday, May 12th, 2007, during the week of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) conference.
The 2006 annual contest, also held in Sarasota, Florida, was a huge success, which drew numerous accolades from attendees as well as international media coverage. The First, Second and Third Prize winners were Max Dursteler (Universitätsspital Zürich, Switzerland), Peter Tse (Dartmouth College, USA), and Gideon Caplovitz & Peter Tse (Dartmouth College, USA). To see the illusions, photo galleries and other highlights from the 2006 contest, go here.
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December 31, 2006
 A new issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences is out.
Articles include topics such as
- introspective reports
- perception and action
- evolutionary autonomous agents
We here bring the TOCs and links
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October 21, 2006
 The levels of a chemical released by the brain determine how detailed a memory will later be, according to researchers at UC Irvine.
The neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a brain chemical already established as being crucial for learning and memory, appears to be the key to adding details to a memory. In a study with rats, Norman Weinberger, research professor of neurobiology and behavior, and colleagues determined that a higher level of acetylcholine during a learning task correlated with more details of the experience being remembered. The results are the first to tie levels of acetylcholine to memory specificity and could have implications in the study and treatment of memory-related disorders.
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 A new article is out describing how we use our senses to fill out the blanks when we are only provided with input from one modality. Talking in a phone is a good example. Here, we are only provided with the auditory input. In a new study, it seems that knowing the face of who you’re talking to helps recognizing the people you are talking to.
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October 20, 2006
 Experiment reveals how expectation interferes with perception.
What colour are your bananas? Most people see a tinge of yellow even when the picture is grey. When we look at a banana, does our brain tell us it looks yellow, even if it isn’t? A recent study shows that it does.
Psychologists at the University of Giessen, Germany, report in Nature Neuroscience that our perception of an object’s colour depends on our memory of its typical colour.
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October 4, 2006
 The second most read article in TICS (see previous headline) is a review (PDF) of studies from imaging genetics, the study of how genes make up our minds, as we have described here at SCR. Ahmad Hariri and Andrew Holmes reviews the evidence and discusses the implications of the genetic regulation of serotonin function on both brain function and behaviour in emotions.
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March 11, 2006
Do you think using a hands-free device makes it okay to talk on a cell phone while driving? Despite the well-intended laws requiring the use of hands-free devices, a driver’s performance is impaired when distracted by even the simplest tasks, whether or not both hands are on the steering wheel.
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February 28, 2006
In a Science publication, it is reported that “purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.”
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February 24, 2006
Can we do math unconsciously? A study by Rusconi et al. demonstrates that in a neglect patient, neglect does not prevent neglected numbers from accessing their representations in arithmetic networks. Doing simple math, like reading, seems to be highly automatic.
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February 14, 2006
How are false memories formed? Are they the result of imagination only, or a combination of newly perceived events and imagination? A study by Lyle and Johnson actually finds that perception might play a larger role than imagination
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