Neurophilosophy blog archive
Neurophilosophy is a blog about molecules, mind, and everything in between, written by Mo Costandi. The latest entries can be found at the Guardian. POPULAR POSTS Copyright © Mo Costandi 2006-2013 mohebcostandi@gmail.com | @mocost (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - April 15, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Neurophilosophy blog archive
This is the archive of the Neurophilosophy blog, with popular posts pinned to the front page. The latest entries can be found at the Guardian. Copyright © Mo Costandi 2006-2013 mohebcostandi@gmail.com | @mocost (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - April 15, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Neurocriminology in prohibition-era New York
NEW York City in the 1920s and ’30s was a hotbed of criminal activity. Prohibition laws banning the production, sale and distribution of alcohol had been introduced, but instead of reducing crime, they had the opposite effect. Gangsters organized themselves and seized control of the alcohol distribution racket, smuggling first cheap rum from the Caribbean, [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - February 5, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Obituary: Rita Levi-Montalcini
Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini died on Sunday, December 30th in Rome, at the age of 103. Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine, for her contribution to the discovery of nerve growth factor. Her work gave profound insights into how the nervous system regulates the number and growth of cells during its development, [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - January 1, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
The illusion of attention
You board the train, find a seat and open the latest bestseller by your favourite author. The couple sitting opposite are having a conversation, and the driver announces that there will be a short delay to your journey, but you are so engrossed in your book that you are unaware of these sounds. In fact, […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - August 11, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
A whiff of early brain evolution
The question of how mammals evolved their exceptionally large brains has intrigued researchers for years, and although many ideas have been put forward, none has provided a clear answer. Now a team of palaeontologists suggests that the mammalian brain evolved in three distinct stages, the first of which was driven by an improvement in the […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - May 19, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Evolutionary Biology Neuroscience Palaeontology Source Type: blogs
A whiff of early brain evolution
The question of how mammals evolved their exceptionally large brains has intrigued researchers for years, and although many ideas have been put forward, none has provided a clear answer. Now a team of palaeontologists suggests that the mammalian brain evolved in three distinct stages, the first of which was driven by an improvement in the [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - May 19, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Evolutionary Biology Neuroscience Palaeontology Source Type: blogs
Speed of illusory body movements alters the passage of time
Your brain has a remarkable ability to extract and process biological cues from the deluge of visual information. It is highly sensitive to the movements of living things, especially those of other people – so much so that it conjures the illusion of movement from a picture of a moving body. Although static, such pictures […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - May 4, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Speed of illusory body movements alters the passage of time
Your brain has a remarkable ability to extract and process biological cues from the deluge of visual information. It is highly sensitive to the movements of living things, especially those of other people – so much so that it conjures the illusion of movement from a picture of a moving body. Although static, such pictures [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - May 4, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Box jellyfish stable-eyes vision to hunt prey
Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature) was a landmark in biological illustration. Published in 1904, it was lavishly illustrated with 100 exquisitely detailed lithographic plates, including the one above, showing different species of cubomedusae, or box jellyfish. Since around the time that Haeckel’s masterpiece was published, we’ve known that box jellyfish have a unique visual system […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - April 28, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Animal Behaviour Source Type: blogs
Box jellyfish stable-eyes vision to hunt prey
Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature) was a landmark in biological illustration. Published in 1904, it was lavishly illustrated with 100 exquisitely detailed lithographic plates, including the one above, showing different species of cubomedusae, or box jellyfish. Since around the time that Haeckel’s masterpiece was published, we’ve known that box jellyfish have a unique visual system [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - April 28, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Animal Behaviour Source Type: blogs
Gut bacteria may influence thoughts and behaviour
The human gut contains a diverse community of bacteria which colonize the large intestine in the days following birth and vastly outnumber our own cells. These intestinal microflora constitute a virtual organ within an organ and influence many bodily functions. Among other things, they aid in the uptake and metabolism of nutrients, modulate the inflammatory response to […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - March 25, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Health & Medicine Microbiology Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Gut bacteria may influence thoughts and behaviour
The human gut contains a diverse community of bacteria which colonize the large intestine in the days following birth and vastly outnumber our own cells. These intestinal microflora constitute a virtual organ within an organ and influence many bodily functions. Among other things, they aid in the uptake and metabolism of nutrients, modulate the inflammatory response to [...] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - March 25, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Health & Medicine Microbiology Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Looking into Ramachandran’s broken mirror
I visited Vilayanur S. Ramachandran at the University of California, San Diego recently, and interviewed him and several members of his lab about their work. Rama and I talked, among other things, about the controversial broken mirror hypothesis, which he and others independently proposed in the early 1990s as an explanation for autism. I’ve written a short […] (Source: Neurophilosophy)
Source: Neurophilosophy - March 10, 2011 Category: Neurologists Authors: Mo Costandi Tags: Interviews Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
