Recent Interesting Articles
Jun 9th, 2008 by admin
A few recent articles of interest:
PLoS ONE: Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans
>”Those on oxytocin were 80% more generous than those given a placebo. Oxytocin and altruism together predicted almost half the interpersonal variation in generosity. Notably, oxytocin had twofold larger impact on generosity compared to altruism.”
PLoS Medicine – Association of Prenatal and Childhood Blood Lead Concentrations with Criminal Arrests in Early Adulthood
“The researchers found that increased blood lead levels before birth and during early childhood were associated with higher rates of arrest for any reason and for violent crimes.”
Not Exactly Rocket Science : Computer predicts brain activity associated with different objects
>”A team of scientists has developed the first computer programme that can predict patterns for concrete nouns – tangible things that you can experience with your senses.”
Law, Economics and Neuroscience Conference: Implications for Innovation
>”One participant suggested that Neurolaw was at the stage where Neuroeconomics was five years ago: enterprising researchers who want to engage in the work will do so, despite skeptics, and will eventually produce useful results.”
Mind Hacks: Warping court memories with subtle suggestions
>”The legal system works on a principal of innocent until proven guilty by the evidence presented in court, but Cognitive Daily covers several studies that shown our memory of the evidence is affected by moral judgements of the person in question.”
ScienceDirect – Cognition : Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning
>We argue that brain images are influential because they provide a physical basis for abstract cognitive processes, appealing to people’s affinity for reductionistic explanations of cognitive phenomena.