A google search inspired by this article in Science Careers on non-academic careers for behavioral scientists led me to this link about internships at Fidelity Investments's "Center for Applied Behavioral Economics"(no link)...
"Candidates pursuing doctoral or post-doctoral studies in decision theory, cognitive psychology, and/or economics are encouraged to apply."
The posting [...]
A new single-cell firing study from MIT observes prefrontal activation to assign salience to novel stimuli, and parietal activity to draw attention to stimuli already recognized as salient. What I'm more excited about, is their discussion of neural synchrony as a conduit of information.
This review article from last [...]
Although Saturday Night Live may be in the midst of a prolonged rough stretch, Debbie Downer is one of my all-time favorite characters (see a video or the Wikipedia entry). For those who are unfamiliar, the central figure in these sketches is a miserable cynic who constantly rains pessimism on others’ parades. A [...]
The initial edition (June, 2006) of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience included a paper by Heatherton, Wyland, Macrae, Demos, Denny and Kelley that uses fMRI to differentiate the neural representation of oneself from that of one’s best friend:
Whereas neural responses to self-judgments in the …MPFC ROI…approximated a baseline level of MPFC activity, [...]
Yahoo has clips from a recent 60 minutes special posted online on using propanolol to 'weaken' the memories associated with highly stressful events. Propanolol is a beta blocker, and epinephrine is a beta agonist. All sorts of beta receptors in the amygdala, which is the next door neighbors with [...]
The August edition of Neuroscience Letters included work by Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette that examined whether a “God Spot” could be found in the brain. Not surprisingly, the paper generated quite a buzz (see here, here and here for various accounts). From the text:
The main goal of this functional [...]
Following up on our earlier post on Ketamine and depression, Nature has a news feature providing more background on the topic.
[...]Nature's website includes two neuroecon news features. One describes this paper in forthcoming Science; the other is a general state-of-the-discipline piece.
There is a nice review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience on the mechanism that causes asymmetry in the brain. One of the theories discussed is that molecules produced in the embryonic brain that induce cell specialization are distributed asymmetrically in the hemispheres, which starts a chain reaction leading to hemispheric [...]
Information economics is based on the premise that information is a scarce commodity. Because its acquisition is costly, the economic actor weighs the value of an additional unit of information against his/her highest valued alternative. In this sense, information is no different than any tangible good that can be bought and sold. The [...]
Information economics is based on the premise that information is a scarce commodity. Because its acquisition is costly, the economic actor weighs the value of an additional unit of information against his/her highest valued alternative. In this sense, information is no different than any tangible good that can be bought and sold. The [...]
Tyler Cowen is the preeminent blogger at George Mason University. General Director of our favorite thinktank, epicure, and New York Times columnist (as an aside, I love it that Tyler's columns on the NYT website come with a giant picture of Paul Krugman in the right column). So when Tyler [...]
Wal Mart is offering 124 generic drugs (covered drugs available here) at $4 for a month's supply. Today's news features people tripping over themselves describing how this really isn't that big of a deal. Criticisms range from the fact that it will 'only' help the uninsured (because people [...]
Most likely you have heard in the news about "awareness" or "consciousness" in the vegetative state. The paper is here, and the results should be enough to give people of all political persuasion great pause. Perhaps of the most significance, experimenters asked a patient with a vegetative state diagnosis [...]
Experimental economists have long preached that laboratory context matters. But in an article in the September edition of Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Jess Nithianantharajah and Anthony Hannan show how recent research has taken the context-as-an-independent-variable notion to a substantially higher level:
A range of rodent models of other brain disorders, including Alzheimer???s disease and Parkinson???s [...]
Following up on our previous post on magic mushrooms, the Washington Post is reporting that NIMH researchers have reported success using ketamine (commonly used as an anesthetic) to treat patients with multi-drug resistant depression. Apparently the study is still in progress and currently enrolling participants. Taken with the [...]
Predications of emotional impact weigh heavily on decisions. In fact, people avoid risk even when faced with the prospect of large gain (PDF), predicting loss will hurt them much more than an equal gain will please them. If that is true, this phenomenon (termed loss aversion) is [...]
The hippocampus is well known as the primary seat for memory. Previous research suggested that this memory agent is also crucial for making relational (transitive) judgments, though this has been debated by researchers (PDF). A new study in Psychological Science may help to resolve [...]
