Brain-Mind Blog

Migraines: Scientific searches for the cause

2012-02-28T12:08:00.030-05:00

My guess is that some of you suffer migraines or know someone who does. A person close to me gets them. Luckily her new medication has been effective in eliminating the pain - so long as she takes a pill soon after an attack begins. My laboratory studies brain dopamine and learning. I'm not an expert on migraines. But if I suffered migraines, I'd want to have an idea in my mind, a working

Speculations on an Unfriendly Personality

2012-02-25T15:55:00.017-05:00

I know a guy at work who’s unfriendly. I don’t think he’s bad tempered, just strict and unfriendly. One day after interacting with him, I wondered whether he'd had strict parents. I don't want to mention details that might give away his identity (in the unlikely case he were to stumble upon this blog), but I want to speculate on why he might be unfriendly. 1. He’s under stress. Could be. But

Beethoven

2012-02-22T07:59:00.001-05:00

Beethoven’s emotional and powerful 7th symphony, 2nd movement, is my favorite classical piece. The first minute of it is so quiet that you need to turn the volume up in order to hear it. Some people like recordings where it's played faster, but I like this slow tempo. Here's another version, with a faster tempo. I think it changes the entire attitude of the piece and loses impact. I

I am an INFP #2: Introversion and extroversion

2012-02-18T19:08:00.013-05:00

In "I am an Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiver (INFP)", I wrote about the four dimensions in the Myers-Briggs test of personality “types”. Myers-Briggs based these dimensions on personality functions described by Jung. Jung actually described only the first three dimensions: extrovert/introvert, intuitive/sensing, and feeling/thinking. The last one, perceiving/judging, was added by

My grandmother told me 'People don't change'

2012-02-15T08:58:00.003-05:00

What she really said was: “People don’t change, and if they do it’s for the worse”. It’s a funny comment. But I’m pretty sure it’s overstated. The main idea is that it’s better not to begin a long-term relationship with the idea that the other person will change. It could be that they’ll change in this way or that over time, but the likelihood that they’ll change in the direction that you’

An Acquired Taste - Jane Austen

2012-02-12T09:39:00.007-05:00

So many things that I’ve enjoyed in life were acquired tastes. The comedian, Jackie Mason, once joked that people tell him to try this or that fancy food, and they always say the same thing: ‘it’s an acquired taste, it’s an acquired taste”. But, he says, “How come potato chips aren’t an acquired taste? Because they taste good.” But really, so many things I’ve come to love took time to

Are atheists stigmatized in your community?

2012-02-10T08:52:00.005-05:00

Here’s an interesting article, Atheism in America, on the stigma of being an atheist in much of the United States. One woman describes how her family won't let her babysit their kids because they know she's an atheist. It gives lots of other examples of people throughout the country who either have to hide their atheism or suffer ostracism. It also notes that the internet may be helping to

Sharing your weaknesses

2012-02-08T08:13:00.006-05:00

“People respect you for your strengths and love you for your weaknesses.” I once heard my mother say this. Maybe it's a well-known quote - I don't know. I think there’s something to it. There is something special that happens when you reveal your weaknesses, your defeats, your vulnerabilities to others. We all have our weaknesses – and by revealing yours, you let others know that it’s OK

Maximizers and satisficers

2012-02-05T10:39:00.005-05:00

I’d like to revisit the idea of perfectionism by talking about something very similar. Psychologists distinguish between people who are maximizers and those who are satisficers. When maximizers try to decide between options, say what computer to buy, they try to make the best possible choice. Nowadays this can be exhausting. Even if you know your price range, there are so many different

The perks of my job

2012-02-02T09:26:00.013-05:00

There's a joke about the (fill in the "dumb" ethnic group) professor. He's in it for the money. It's true - being a professor won't make you rich. But I do have some perks. Here are three I appreciate every day. press for #1 OK, maybe my key to the staff bathroom isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. But it is nice, since the other men’s room on the floor ---- let's just say it's

Music in the NYC subway station

2012-01-29T14:33:00.004-05:00

On the way to work the other day ... For more NYC Subway music ....

Coffee

2012-01-27T09:17:00.003-05:00

Until I’ve had my first cup of coffee in the morning, life isn’t worth living. I used to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee - and of course the combination, first thing in the morning, was just great. Nowadays, it's just coffee. I'm sticking with it. I read that during the days of the French Revolution, the monarchy had a fear of coffee houses. That’s where political philosophy was discussed.

Taking advice

2012-01-25T07:49:00.006-05:00

Some students have told me of the pressure they feel from their parents to pursue a particular life path. For instance, one student’s parents were insistent that he become a doctor, and he pursued that track under enormous pressure, with barely a thought to what he wanted for his life. "Remember, Junior, money isn't everything... it's the only thing." Over the course of our lives we hear a

Side Streets

2012-01-22T11:29:00.010-05:00

I lived in Boston for five years. When I moved there, I looked for a neighborhood that would remind me of one of the NYC neighborhoods I'd come to love. Maybe a little bit of Greenwich Village or an Upper West Side. Most cities have their own charms, and I found lots of nice areas in Boston, but usually the commercial areas didn't ‘capture my imagination’. I could never feel enveloped in the

Once

2012-01-20T10:02:00.009-05:00

This is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in years. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Falling Slowly from Once, a film about two musicians who meet in the streets of Dublin during difficult periods of each of their lives. They end up recording music together. The whole thing's just beautiful. Here's another from Once, with some scenes of the film included.

The Philosopher has Never Killed any Priests

2012-01-18T08:13:00.024-05:00

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. ~ Denis Diderot At the time I came across the Diderot quote, I had been reading the blog by the atheist writer Sam Harris, and was eager to defend humanism and rationality against religious zealotry. The quote makes for a strong response to culture warriors of the right, like Sean Hannity,

The Political Pendulum Swings - 80 year cycles?

2012-01-15T07:40:00.006-05:00

People often talk of the political pendulum swinging back and forth from left to right, progressive to conservative. But I was intrigued when I read about the idea that society goes through one of four stages every 20 years or so, each stage coinciding with a generation. I’m no historian. I just wanted to share the idea with you. It begins (arbitrarily) with a generation that seeks social

It's All One Big Experiment. Blogging. Everything.

2012-01-13T06:25:00.018-05:00

I remember writing my first few blog posts from Spain last August ("Santiago de Compostela", "Spanish Hospital"). I was excited to be throwing something into the blogosphere. Of course no one visited the blog, but it was fun. (I've since deleted these first two posts). The next several posts were more heartfelt and raw (“Henry Miller”, “Inhibition”). My guiding principle was 'Express an

Ready...Fire...Aim

2012-01-10T03:40:00.005-05:00

My stepfather’s favorite line is: “Ready... fire ... aim”. I like it too. It’s a call-to-arms against perfectionism. How many times have we heard ‘look before you leap’? “Think carefully before you act”? “Ready .. aim .. aim .. aim ... fire”. Yes, there are surely situations when caution is called for. But the “Ready ...fire...aim” intuition is that we err too often on the side of caution.

Henry Miller, on Writing

2012-01-08T04:54:00.014-05:00

Looking back a bit, we’ve discussed the “voice” one uses when writing, the idea of writing without self consciousness, and more recently we watched some videos suggesting that we mimic others and give in to social pressure, sometimes in silly ways. All of these ideas point to Henry Miller who, in the quote below, talks about his friend who is trying to write a book, but who is so self-conscious

Metacognition

2012-01-06T05:05:00.009-05:00

There’s a term, metacognition, that is widely used by cognitive scientists. It’s not a part of everyday vocabulary. But it refers to something that may be of interest to scientists and non-scientists alike. You’ll hear questions like, “Do babies have metacognition? At what age does it develop?” “Do other animals have it?” Metacognition is the ability to monitor your own mental states;

Who's smarter, us or the chimps?

2012-01-04T02:52:00.011-05:00

(Ignore the captions at the beginning of the video). I know the larger idea here is that our propensity to copy from a teacher has advantages (even though it seems kind of silly in the experimental situation shown here). But can we learn something from the chimps here? How much of our social behavior is silly and pointless imitation? Wait, before you answer ...

The Value of Vaguely-defined Goals

2011-12-30T04:51:00.013-05:00

When you set a goal for yourself, how specific do you make the goal and the actions needed to achieve it? I remember one night, as a teenager, approaching the piano with the vaguely-defined goal of figuring out how to improvise over a blues chord progression. I’d struggled with it before, but I had a strong feeling that I’d figure it out that evening. And I did. I stumbled upon the ‘blues

Two pieces of Wisdom from the Guy with a Beard

2011-12-28T03:55:00.016-05:00

I was living in Santa Barbara California when I met a guy who influenced me. He looked like the ‘motorcycle guy with a beard’ that I used to doodle when I was a kid. His friend, Erica, was paralyzed. I’d often see him helping her get around town in her wheelchair. I remember they laughed a lot. He told me two things that stuck in my head. The first was about his job counseling juvenile

What if Others Could Read Your Thoughts?

2011-12-26T06:10:00.008-05:00

A common psychotic delusion it that others can read your thoughts. But what would it be like if our thoughts really were no longer private. Let’s imagine that all our thoughts - yours, mine, everyone’s - are immediately apparent to others. Lies and deception, of course, would be a thing of the past. Romantic courtship would change– if I’m attracted to you or in love with you, you would know