Pinker on ‘The Mystery of Consciousness’

Time magazine has just published an intriguing article on the neural basis of consciousness. The article was written by Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist known for his controversial views on language and cognition. Here are several excerpts from the article… On the brain being the basis for consciousness: Scientists have exorcised the ghost from the …

Wandering Minds and the Default Brain Network

Several news articles have come out today which seem to imply that a recent Science report's main finding is that the mind wanders for a purpose (see this Forbes article), and that "daydreaming improves thinking" (see this Cosmos article). These are typical of fabrications used by popular science journalists to pique the public's interest. Mason, …

Brainprints

Normally, neuroscientists try to discover things about the brain, as if it were one monolithic thing. Might the differences between individual brains be important, or useful? A recent article in New Scientist describes recent efforts to use each person's unique brain activity patterns as a kind of fingerprint (or 'brainprint') for security purposes. The system …

Can a Neural Network be Free…

…from a knee-jerk reaction to its immediate input?  Although one of the first things that a Neuroscience student learns about is "reflex reactions" such as the patellar reflex (also known as the knee-jerk reflex), the cognitive neuroscientist is interested in the kind of processing that might occur between inputs and outputs in mappings that are …

Neuroscience Blogs of Note, Part 2

I will follow up MC's recent post with a brief review of three other neuroscience-related blogs that are worth mentioning as we begin Neurevolution. Brain Waves (http://brainwaves.corante.com/) is a self-labeled "neurotechnology" blog. Written by Zack Lynch, it is a real-world look at the effects and benefits derived from neuroscience research with regards to society, culture …