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Author Archives: Lascap
A tale of two wars
We are upon the 100 year anniversary of the start of the 1st world war. Most people alive today don’t fully appreciate the cataclysmic forces that were unleashed in this conflict, several of which still shape world events today. Of … Continue reading
The relative scale of early visual areas
The visual system of primates comprises a large number of distinct cortical areas containing neurons that modulate their activity in response to a visual stimulus and are believed to represent different aspects of the visual scene. It has been recognized … Continue reading
Posted in Neuroscience, Science
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The social mission of perceptual research
Our perception corresponds to an idiosyncratic model of reality, not reality itself. This is easy to forget, as we all share a common outside environment in the form of external reality and process it with a cognitive apparatus that has … Continue reading
Posted in Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Social commentary
3 Comments
A primer on the neuroscience of happiness
The age old question of what makes for a happy life is of great interest to almost anyone who is in fact alive. A classic answer, building on Aristotelian notions of happiness, is provided by Charles Murray who points out … Continue reading
Posted in In eigener Sache, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Social commentary, Technology
1 Comment
The consolation of temporal perspective
Few things are more discouraging and galling to the righteous than the raging success of the obviously undeserving and unworthy. This can be particularly dispiriting early in life. The wise will recognize that virtue and non-virtue have fundamentally different time … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
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SfN 2013 in San Diego
This post will document my annual pilgrimage to SfN. This year (as in 2004, 2007 and 2010), it will take place in San Diego. See here how I prepare for the event and what I recommend how to go about … Continue reading
Posted in Neuroscience, Science
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You really do need to sleep right
Two years ago, I wrote extensively why getting sufficient sleep is crucial to a good life and how to go about getting establishing sufficient levels of quality and quantity. Since then, the situation has – if anything – gotten even … Continue reading
Posted in Neuroscience, Optimization, Science, Social commentary
2 Comments
The paradox of progress
I often wonder how people managed to get by a thousand years ago, without effective anesthetics or antibiotics or even a fundamental understanding of the underlying causes of illness and disease. However, I realize that people a thousand years from … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science, Social commentary, Strategy
1 Comment
On the importance of consistent mapping
The problem I’m about to write about has been persisting for quite a while and I thought Google would have fixed it by now. Alas, no such luck, thus far. In a nutshell, we have been aware of the extreme … Continue reading
Posted in Misc, Optimization, Pet peeve
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Data were analyzed using Matlab…
It is important to use the right tools for a given job. Science is no exception. In particular, given the vast amounts of data that are now routinely encountered in the field, one will want to use the best available … Continue reading
Posted in Matlab, Neuroscience, Psychology, Science
8 Comments
A more general relationship between relevance and rigor
Recently, SMBC (one of the few webcomics still worth reading, as he somehow manages to be uncorrupted by his own success) posted another inimitable offering. Except that in this case, it is actually perfectly imitable. This kind of thing can … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science
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Superior motion perception in individuals with autism?
The empirical evidence seems to contradict Betteridge’s law. For the past 10 years, research on the “spatial suppression effect” showed that large moving stimuli are more readily perceived than smaller ones. However, this relationship doesn’t seem to hold in certain … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Science
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Local and global connectivity – a tale of two datasets
The original images were generated based on facebook friendship data as well as data on scientific collaborations from Elsevier’s Scopus. The map of scientific collaborations was in itself inspired by the facebook map – I considered a direct comparison to … Continue reading
The current mental health crisis and the coming Ketamine revolution
Few FDA approved drugs have a reputation as controversial as Ketamine. This reputation is well earned. Originally developed in the 1960s as a short-acting anesthetic for battlefield use, in recent decades it has become notorious as a date-rape drug (‘Special … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Science
19 Comments
Can music elicit a visual motion aftereffect?
Briefly, if you look at a large moving scene for a while, you will experience things moving in the opposite direction afterwards. This “motion aftereffect” was already known to Aristotle, presumably from the visual inspection of waterfalls. It was rediscovered … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Science
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Bang or BAM? On respecting complex problems
There are simple problems that can be solved with a single bang. The task of understanding the (human) brain is not a simple problem. On the contrary, the classic quote “The brain, the masterpiece of creation, is almost unknown to … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Social commentary
2 Comments
PSA: Your “sleep monitor” is probably anything but
As the “quantified self” (probably ill-named) movement gains steam, all kinds of apps that purport to measure important physiological parameters that are related to health gain popularity. In principle, this development is to be welcomed, as individual lifestyle and metabolism … Continue reading
Meet the netmonger – could it be you?
Netmongers (Excerpt from “Advice for a modern investigator”, chapter 5. Elsevier Press, 2011) The most striking observation regarding this category is that it was entirely absent in the 1898 edition of this book. Meanwhile, it has become by far the … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Social commentary, Technology
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Ideology poisons everything, as it rotates perceptions of reality
It is obvious where ideology comes from. It solves a lot of problems. A small tribe needs to agree on a distinct course of coherent action. Otherwise, its strength is frittered away, defeating the very point of finding strength in … Continue reading →