Why a ‘Lifesaving’ Depression Treatment Didn’t Pass Clinical TrialsSome medical experiments are more daunting than others. The one that the neurologist Helen Mayberg came up with to test a model of depression she had developed over about 15 years involved drilling two holes in the top of a patient’s skull and… Apr 17 18April 17, 2018Article at The Atlantic
The Touch of MadnessFeature stories, read aloud: Download the Audm app for your iPhone. I. The Fabric of Reality By the time Nev Jones entered DePaul University's esteemed doctoral program in philosophy, she had aced virtually every course she ever took, studied five… Oct 03 17October 03, 2017Article at Pacific Standard
The Social Life of GenesA few years ago, Gene Robinson, of Urbana, Illinois, asked some associates in southern Mexico to help him kidnap some 1,000 newborns. For their victims they chose bees. Half were European honeybees, Apis mellifera ligustica, the sweet-tempered kind… Jun 14 17June 14, 2017Article at Pacific Standard
The Smartphone PsychiatristFrustrated by the failures in his field, Tom Insel, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, is now trying to reduce the world’s anguish through the devices in people’s pockets. Sometime around 2010, about two-thirds of the way… Jun 13 17June 13, 2017Article at The Atlantic
Terrible Twos Who Stay TerribleTo understand the violent criminal, says Richard E. Tremblay, imagine a 2-year-old boy doing the things that make the terrible twos terrible — grabbing, kicking, pushing, punching, biting. Now imagine him doing all this with the body and resources of… Dec 16 13December 16, 2013Article at New York Times
The Social Life of GenesA few years ago, Gene Robinson, of Urbana, Illinois, asked some associates in southern Mexico to help him kidnap some 1,000 newborns. For their victims they chose bees. Half were European honeybees, Apis mellifera ligustica, the sweet-tempered kind… Sep 03 13September 03, 2013Article at Pacific Standard
Clues in the Cycle of SuicideOn average, about 700 Americans kill themselves each week — but in the fine-weather weeks of May and June, the toll rises closer to 800, sometimes higher. Every year, suicide peaks with the tulips and lilacs — increasing roughly 15 percent over the… Jun 24 13June 24, 2013Article at New York Times
Madness, Genius, & Sherman's Ruthless March - Best of Neuron Culture, #9*Below find #9 in my Best of Neuron Culture Moving Party here at Wired — a run of 10 of my favorite posts from the blog’s stay here, posted on the eve of my departure to more homegrown pastures at my own site. (Details on my move are at bottom of the… Jun 07 13June 07, 2013Article at Wired
The PTSD TrapThis story originally appeared in Scientific American, April 2009. At the The Post-Traumatic Stress Trap by David Dobbs In 2006, soon after returning from military service in Ramadi, Iraq, during the bloodiest period of the war, Captain Matt Stevens… Jun 02 13June 02, 2013Article at Wired
Kill Whitey, It's the Right Thing to DoA couple years ago, David Pizarro, a young research psychologist at Cornell, brewed up a devious variation on the classic trolley problem. The trolley problem is that staple of moral psychology studies at dinner parties in which you ask someone to… May 31 13May 31, 2013Article at Wired
A Trudge to the Roots of AutismMuch of autism’s mystery and fascination lies in a paradox: On one hand, autism seems to create a profound disconnect between inner and outer lives; on the other, it generates what the neuroscientist Oliver Sacks calls an essential and “most… May 13 13May 13, 2013Article at New York Times
Psychiatry: A very sad storyDavid Dobbs enjoys a brilliant look at the making of DSM-5, the new 'psychiatrists' Bible'. When it is published this month, the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-5, will mark well over a… May 01 13May 01, 2013Article at Nature
Playing for All Kinds of PossibilitiesWhen it comes to play, humans don’t play around. Other species play, but none play for as much of their lives as humans do, or as imaginatively, or with as much protection from the family circle. Human children are unique in using play to explore… Apr 22 13April 22, 2013Article at New York Times
Yes, You CAN Do Evo Psych Well. Kate Clancy Tells How.There are so many ways to go wrong in evolutionary psychology. Kate Clancy does us the tremendous favor of specifying how to do evo psych right. Invaluable reading. Here's the pith: For something to be an evolutionarily stable strategy it has to fit… Feb 11 13February 11, 2013Article at Wired
Strange Voices & Apartments as Antipsychotics - T.M. Luhrmann on Schizophrenia and CultureHow does culture shape the expression of mental illness or anamolous mental states? I've explored that questions several times at Neuron Culture, sometimes provoking sharp objections to the idea that culture has any effect at all on the expression of… Jan 15 13January 15, 2013Article at Wired
A New Focus on the ‘Post’ in Post-Traumatic StressPsychological trauma dims tens of millions of lives around the world and helps create costs of at least $42 billion a year in the United States alone. But what is trauma, exactly? Both culturally and medically, we have long seen it as arising from a… Dec 24 12December 24, 2012Article at New York Times
Is Psychology Stuck In a Paradigm Shaft?As the fallout over DSM-V continues, UK psychologist Graham Davey probes the question:> Once scientists establish a paradigm in a particular area this has the effect of (1) framing the questions to be asked, (2) defining the procedures to answer… Dec 10 12December 10, 2012Article at Wired
Psychiatry Set to Medicalize Hissy FitsEvery decade or two, the American Psychiatric Association reworks its Diagnostic Statistical Manual, or DSM, to try to have diagnostic categories reflect the current state of theory and practice. Given enormous evidence that we're currently… Nov 14 12November 14, 2012Article at Wired
Big Answers from Little PeopleIf you had been blind all your life and could suddenly see, could you distinguish by sight what you knew already by touch—say, a cube from a sphere? Would flowers look like flowers you'd felt and faces like faces, or would they all be confusing… Oct 01 12October 01, 2012Article at Scientific American
Is PTSD A Product of War, or Of Our Times?How long has PTSD been around? Is the response to trauma outlined in our current PTSD diagnosis something that has long happened to a subset of people facing trauma? Or did our current concept of PTSD rise from cultural and medical concerns and… Aug 12 12August 12, 2012Article at Wired
