Comments for Prefrontal.org

Comment on PAPER: How reliable are the results from functional magnetic resonance imaging? by Review: Test-Retest Reliability in fMRI « The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:46:54 +0000

[...] freely available here. MindHacks had drawn attention to this article and it is also referenced on Craig Bennett’s blog. The article, excluding references is just under 10,000 words. Bennett and Miller refer to the Vul [...]

Comment on PAPER: How reliable are the results from functional magnetic resonance imaging? by Some links #3 « A Replicated Typo

Some links #3 « A Replicated Typo — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:46:01 +0000

[...] are fMRI results? Another question I’m not so sure about. However, Prefrontal.org has a full paper on providing something of an answer. The key sentence: “the results from fMRI research may be [...]

Comment on The Story Behind the Atlantic Salmon by Law and Biosciences Blog | What a dead salmon reminds us about fMRI analysis

Law and Biosciences Blog | What a dead salmon reminds us about fMRI analysis — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:14:39 +0000

[...] author Craig Bennett explains further on his blog: In early 2008 I was working with my co-adviser George Wolford on a presentation he was giving [...]

Comment on Human Brain Mapping 2009 – Presentations by Law and Biosciences Blog | What a dead salmon reminds us about fMRI analysis

Law and Biosciences Blog | What a dead salmon reminds us about fMRI analysis — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:53:22 +0000

[...] Paper title: Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: An argument… [...]

Comment on Brain Camp Review – Von Economo Neurons by Robin P Clarke

Robin P Clarke — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:22:11 +0000

Craig, In your reply to Karen Dahn I wonder if you underrate the case for von Economo too much. Especially this sentence seems over the top:
“The article was mostly speculation, arguing that there may be a link for two reasons.”

Allman et al 2005 gave four citations in respect of the direct links to autism alone. They tied together a whole lot more dots into a coherent conception.

The question of whether there are reduced VENS in autistic FI is not crucial to the confirmation of their thesis. They could be there but dysfunctioning, and they presented evidence suggestive of that.

I don’t have enough close expertise to say with confidence that the case is a decisive yes, but it looks to me something that can’t reasonably be rated as mostly speculation. My own sensing (my von Economoes I guess) is that they are most probably on to something here. Lots of sound ideas in history have been held back with the S-word for too long.

Comment on Holiday Presents for a Neurogeek by Erin Mazerolle

Erin Mazerolle — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:04:29 +0000

Just got a great belated xmas gift thanks to this post! Thanks for giving my loved one the good idea! (It’s the Thinking Cap print)

Comment on The Story Behind the Atlantic Salmon by Lingoland » Arkiv » Post-mortem mentalization processes in the Atlantic Salmon

Lingoland » Arkiv » Post-mortem mentalization processes in the Atlantic Salmon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:50:13 +0000

[...] be careful when drawing conclusions from fMRI scans. The salmon scans (poster) and the story behind it. Skrevet af Anders K. Madsen | Ingen kommentarer Emneord: fMRI, kognition, MRI, [...]

Comment on Human Brain Mapping 2009 – Presentations by Lingoland » Arkiv » Post-mortem mentalization processes in the Atlantic Salmon

Lingoland » Arkiv » Post-mortem mentalization processes in the Atlantic Salmon — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:50:47 +0000

[...] be careful when drawing conclusions from fMRI scans. The salmon scans (poster) and the story behind it. Skrevet af Anders K. Madsen | Ingen [...]

Comment on Quote of the Week – Pashler by Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:41:40 +0000

I’d argue that a lot of the problems we have stem from the hellish complexity of data analysis combined with the deceptive simplicity of the analysis tools (FSL, SPM, BrainSurfer) – which make it very easy to do analyses, including bad ones. If everyone had to analyze their raw data by programming a MatLab script from scratch, we’d get very little done, but it would be good stuff, because it would mean everyone would know exactly what they were doing…

Comment on Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience by Justin

Justin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:35:10 +0000

Hi Craig,

Happy New Year!
Any chance of some constructive feedback on this video I put together on the above study

Regards

Justin

Comment on Holiday Presents for a Neurogeek by Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:04:35 +0000

This is hopelessly late but the new Neuro4Kids.com store has some fun stuff too (& is linked to the excellent Neuroscience For Kids site).

Maybe for next x-mas.

Comment on Holiday Presents for a Neurogeek by Sara @ YellowIbis.com

Sara @ YellowIbis.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:38:35 +0000

Many thanks for mentioning our “I heart brains” t-shirt. :) Xmas delivery is still available until Dec 20th by picking 3-day shipping or faster.

Have a great holiday!

Comment on Atlantic Salmon Index by [citation needed]» Blog Archive » a well-written mainstream article on fMRI?!

[citation needed]» Blog Archive » a well-written mainstream article on fMRI?! — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:54:55 +0000

[...] Bennett, of prefrontal.org and dead salmon fame, links to a really great Science News article on the promises and pitfalls of fMRI. As Bennett [...]

Comment on Human Brain Mapping 2009 – Presentations by The Official Harvard Brain Blog

The Official Harvard Brain Blog — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:34:34 +0000

[...] of using the right statistic tools in fMRI, which has got quite a bit of voodoo heat recently. Prefrontal.org has the whole story. We promise this is funniest science poster you will read all [...]

Comment on Brain Camp Review – Von Economo Neurons by karen dahn

karen dahn — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:08:06 +0000

I am interested in how VENS affect autism. How are they different than mirror neurons? Do autistic people have fewer VENS or are they somehow different or flawed? What about inflammation? Any ways of helping the autistic person function better? Any meds or therapies? I would appreciate any insights.

Right now there is a lot of uncertainty regarding whether Von Economo neurons play a role in Autism. Allman et al. (2005) argued that there was a link between VENS and the social dysfunction observed in Autism. The article was mostly speculation, arguing that there may be a link for two reasons. First, VENS mature late in development relative to other cell types, roughly in step with traits of Autism that emerge during the first few years of life. Second, children with Autism are known to have structural and functional deficits in the anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex. These are the two regions of the brain where the greatest number of VENS are found. While these associations are intriguing, the Allman paper did not have much in the way of data to back up their hypotheses.

Kennedy et al. (2007) conducted an experiment to explicitly examine the number of VENS in the fronto-insular cortex of individuals with Autism. Their results speak against the VENS hypothesis of Autism, as an equivalent number of neurons were found between Autistics and normal controls. This does not mean that the neurons were functioning in an equivalent manner, but does show that the cells are present and accounted for in fronto-insular cortex.

Unfortunately a great deal more research is necessary before any medications or therapies can potentially be generated. We don’t even have a good grasp of how VENS function normally, let alone how to characterize their dysfunction in clinical disorders. There is an army of scientists working on the problem, but it is time-consuming, painstaking work. This is frustrating for us as researchers and doubly frustrating for the loved ones of Autistic individuals. Still, work is progressing – one day we may yet beat Autism. ~ Craig [Prefrontal]