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A point no one has (apparently) made before
The Washington Post: One of the great intellectual pleasures is to hear an idea that not only seems right, but that strikes you as so terribly obvious (now that you’ve heard it) you’re in disbelief that no one has ever made the point before. I tasted that pleasure this week, courtesy of a paper by Walter Boot and colleagues (2013). The paper concerned the adequacy of control groups in intervention studies–interventions like (but not limited to) “brain games” meant to improve cognition, and the playing of video games, thought to improve certain aspects of perception and attention. To appreciate the point made in this paper, consider what a control group is supposed to be and do.
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Danger! This Mission to Mars Could Bore You to Death!
The New York Times: Right now, six people are living in a nearly windowless, white geodesic dome on the slopes of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano. They sleep in tiny rooms, use no more than eight minutes of shower time a week and subsist on a diet of freeze-dried, canned or preserved food. When they go outside, they exit through a mock air lock, clad head to toe in simulated spacesuits. The dome’s occupants are playing a serious version of the game of pretend -- what if we lived on Mars?
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Why Teens Are So Self-Conscious
The Huffington Post: It's not teens' fault they're so worried about what others think about them: Their brains just might be that way, according to a small new study. Researchers from Harvard University found that adolescents not only felt more embarrassed, but also had a peak of activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (a brain region that is known for developing later in life), as well as higher connectivity between this brain region and another region called the striatum, when they were put through a test where they were made to feel like they were being watched and socially evaluated.
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The Neuroscience of Social Influence
Scientific American: Before I wrote this article, I went through two stages. In the first stage, I cruised the academic journals for interesting papers. Once I found a study that grabbed me, I entered phase two: I figured out how in the world to communicate the essence of the findings to a broad audience in a comprehensible, interesting, and relatable way without skimping on the science. Not so easy. What was happening in my brain during each of these stages? Can the pattern of neurons firing in my brain predict how much this article will be retweeted on twitter?
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Distractions Can Help You Make Better Decisions
Inc: Distractions help you make better decisions, researchers say. According to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, you may be better able to make a complex decision after a period of distraction than a period of conscious focus. In the study, led by Marlene Abadie of the University of Toulouse, researchers presented participants with a complex problem-solving question. Then the participants were given either a simple matching game to distract them, a complex distraction, or a quiet period in which to focus and reflect on the problem. Read the whole story: Inc
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Do you have brain power to make an idea go viral?
The Boston Globe: What distinguishes a hot new idea from one that’s destined to be a dud? University of California, Los Angeles, researchers explored what they called the “buzz effect” by recruiting nearly 100 undergraduate students to serve as either “interns” pitching what they deemed to be the next megahit TV show or “producers” to evaluate the interns’ ideas.
