The Fractionation of Auditory Semantic Knowledge: Agnosia for Bird Calls
How issemantic knowledge represented and stored in the brain? A classic way of addressing this question is via single-case studies of patients with brain lesions that lead to a unique pattern of deficits.Agnosia is the inability to recognize some class (or classes) of entities such as objects or persons. Agnosia in the visual modality is most widely studied, but agnosias in theauditory andolfactory modalities have been reported as well. A key element is that basic sensory processing is intact, but higher-order recognition of complex entities is impaired.Agnosias that arespecific for items in a particular category (e.g., an...
Source: The Neurocritic - April 29, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
Through the Revolving Door, with a Few Stumbles - Health Care Corporate Executives and Consultants Continue to Become Leaders of Trump's Department of Health and Human Services
We continue to see a remarkable stream of people transiting therevolving door from high-level positions in health care corporations to high-level positions in health care policy or regulation for the Trump administration. Lately, though, these transitions have not been without missteps. The most recent cases we have found, in the order of their public appearance, appear below.John Bardis, Who Went from MedAssets to Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Administration, Resigned Under FireWe first discussed the appointment of Mr Bardis in May, 2017,here. We noted then that most recently Mr Bar...
Source: Health Care Renewal - April 18, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: conflicts of interest CVS Donald Trump finance health care corruption Pfizer revolving doors Source Type: blogs
Birding glossary
A short and light-hearted glossary of birding terms you might hear the more enthusiastic birder use if you fail to hear the alarm call and are not quick enough to leave the hide while you have the opportunity.
Birder, birding – Someone interested in watching birds, their avian-related hobby (not to be confused with Falco subbuteo).
Twitcher, twitching (derog.) – A person who will apply unusual effort or expense to see a rare bird they have not seen before, their hobby.
Ornithology – The branch of the zoological sciences that deals with birds, the endothermic vertebrates known as aves.
Ave – Any of...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 31, 2018 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
LexaGene ’s New LX6 Rapid Pathogen Detection System: Interview with CEO Dr. Jack Regan
With the ever-growing list of potentially harmful pathogens being discovered, the systems needed to detect different strains need to become more sophisticated as well. Enter LexaGene, a biotechnology company developing automated and sensitive solutions for efficient pathogen detection. LexaGene’s unique microfluidics approach to pathogen detection uses disposable cartridges to analyse the molecular signature of large volumes of samples. While LexaGene is initially targeting the food safety and vet diagnostics industry in the coming years, their technology is transferrable to the clinical diagnostics market. We recently h...
Source: Medgadget - March 29, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Rukmani Sridharan Tags: Diagnostics Exclusive Pathology Public Health Source Type: blogs
To feed or not to feed – fat is the question
Recently, I posted about whether or not you should feed wild birds in your garden. The obvious answer if you like birds, is: of course!
Research in the news today asks the same question in the context of emergent diseases that are afflicing avian populations. Here’s the paper.
The bottom line is they don’t really know. You are assisting wild birds if you put out food and keep feeders and bird tables clean. Some birds lacking food and water in harsh weather would otherwise die. But, if lots of different species congregate on dirty feeders with mouldy or rotten food and guano, then emerging diseases can spread ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 12, 2018 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
GRCg6: Curation of the chicken reference genome assembly transfers to the GRC
The GRC announces the release of the latest chicken reference genome assembly,GRCg6.The chicken reference assembly defines a standard upon which other avian whole genome studies are based. Providing the best representation of the chicken genome is essential for facilitating continued progress in understanding and improving human health as this species serves as a model organism similar to mouse, zebrafish and other vertebrates.The chicken reference genome project began as an international research collaboration coordinated by the McDonnell Genome Institute with past funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and ...
Source: GenomeRef - February 23, 2018 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Wickedness
Perhaps you have heard ofArk Encounter, a tourist attraction in Kentucky featuring what purports to be a life-sized model of Noah ' s ark. The theme park was built with the help of a subsidy from the taxpayers of Kentucky by Answers in Genesis, an organization led by Australian-American Ken Ham, that insists the Bible is literally true. Funny thing: the ark was constructed by 1,000 Amish craftsmen using more than 3 million board feet of lumber and 95 tons of metal fasteners.Anyway, here ' s the story:9 This is the account of Noah and his family.Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he w...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 11, 2018 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Schizophrenia Prevalence: Fear-Mongering, Fake News & the NIMH
It’s odd what upsets some people. Take E. Fuller Torrey and Elizabeth Sinclair’s recent take on a change in the way a single number — the 12-month prevalence rate of schizophrenia — is displayed on the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) website.
This esoteric number has little impact in most people’s lives. If you live with schizophrenia or know someone who does, they most likely don’t give a hoot about it. Like most people, they probably don’t even know what it means.
But these two authors do care, suggesting the number was reduced due to a hypothesized renewed foc...
Source: World of Psychology - February 1, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Policy and Advocacy Psychiatry Psychology Research E Fuller Torrey incidence rates of schizophrenia Prevalence Rates prevalence rates of schizophrenia schizophrenia prevalence Treatment Advocacy Center Source Type: blogs
Reply to Erich Jarvis by William Matchin
More from William Matchin -- Reply to Erich Jarvis:At the most recent SfN, Erich Jarvis gave the opening presidential address on the functional neuroanatomy of language, which I commented on and critiqued in my recent blog post for Talking Brains (http://www.talkingbrains.org/2017/11/abstractness-innateness-and-modality.html). Erich has briefly responded to my writing on Twitter and suggested a debate. Few things could give me more pleasure than a productive debate on central issues concerning the nature of human language. The following is a response to his comments in the context of a more in-depth exploration of the issu...
Source: Talking Brains - January 10, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
10 Of The Most Famous Animals In Psychology
By Christian Jarrett
Psychologists have long studied chimps and other animals with two principal, related aims: to find out the capabilities of the animal mind, and to discover what makes us truly unique, if anything. This is a challenging field. As any pet owner knows, it’s tempting to project a human interpretation onto animal behaviour. Researchers, especially when they’ve spent many years studying the same animal, can fall victim to this very bias (you’ll see a theme of this field is the powerful, close bonds frequently formed between psychologist and animal). At the same time, though, there is also a...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - December 21, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Comparative Feature Source Type: blogs
… And an aphid in a peach tree!
12: Drummers Drumming (in the right chairs)
On top of high levels of concentration, musical performance places significant physical stress on the body. Strength in limb muscles needed for fast complex movements, while core muscles handle the task of sustaining body position for extended durations.
It is therefore no wonder that musical performance-associated musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are a common medical issue among professional musicians, with some studies indicating that around 80% – 97% of orchestral musicians suffer from muscle pain related to musical performance.
With MSDs presenting such a big threat to m...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - December 19, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: Davy Falkner Tags: Biology Health Medicine Avian Research BMC Ecology Frontiers in Zoology Genetics Selection Evolution Genome Biology Health Research Policy and Systems ISRCTN registry Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology Lipids in Health a Source Type: blogs
Are great tit beaks really getting greater?
Heard a news snippet on R4 this morning reporting on how Brits using bird feeders has apparently led to great tits (Parus major) evolving longer beaks. I read an article or two (National Geographic and The Guardian) to check out how the science was being reported elsewhere and then took at a look at the original research paper itself.
The researchers talk of 26-year data set from live birds in Wytham and estimate a 4 micrometre ± 1 micrometre per year lengthening in this species. That seems like quite a small change, despite that their analysis of avian genetics in this species allows them to suggest some kind of correla...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
The hemp-eating linen weaver – Linaria cannabina
Don’t often see avian couples together…or more to the point, I don’t often catch them “on film” together. Here are Mr and Mrs Linnet (Linaria cannabina) at their residence in Rampton Pocket Park a few miles north of Cambridge. The bird’s English name comes from the species’ fondness for flax seed from which we make linen, the second part of its scientific name from its liking for hemp seed (Cannabis sativa). The bird is found across Europe into western and central Siberia and is non-breeding in north Africa and southwest Asia.
As you can hopefully see from my, not particularly shar...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - August 4, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
