Rama

I don't think I've posted this before, and I'm quite surprised because I love this guy's enthusiasm. V. S. Ramachandran speaks at TED about the connections within the brain and how they affect the mind.

Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind [25:31]


In 2003 Ramachandran gave the BBC Reith Lecture and he goes into much more detail. Fascinating! Grow into these trousers... >>

The more we study, the closer we get

A couple of weeks back I posted about our bizarre perception of reality regarding the strange Thatcher Effect.

Well, it's not just people who are mentally challenged by this phenomenon. Monkeys are too (I know I that's a picture of chimpanzees, which are apes same as ourselves; so behaving 'like a monkey' goes much further back in time).

Researchers from Emory University, Atlanta showed monkeys normal pictures of other monkeys, either upside down or right way up, until the first monkeys were shit-faced bored of looking at pics of other monkeys.

Then they showed them 'Thatcher effect' doctored images. The image upside down... still bored shitless. Image right way up... hey watzat? The monkeys noticed the difference and suddenly paid attention.

A subtle but insightful result. We all can tell something is wrong with these images, but not say what it is. It's important because troup/mate/sibling/offspring/friend verification is important for social groupings. Much of this is visual, especially in humans, and an individual's face is exactly who they are.

This confronted me a recently when I had to visit my doctor's surgery. I met someone I hadn't seen for years. Recognition was instant; but he called me by name and I could not remember his. I remembered the charity work we used to do, where he used to live, his zippo lighter, the pub where we used to meet up, his stint in the army, where we met up again, where he lives now, how many children he has. But I could not remember his name.

After I had seen my doctor and was leaving he was still there, 'See you later Brian' came from nowhere, and I still can't remember his wife's name.

Ramble over...
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Thanks to Cryptozoology Online for the HT and here's the reference:

"Thatcher Effect in Monkeys Demonstrates Conservation of Face Perception across Primates, Ikuma Adachi, Dina P. Chou and Robert R. Hampton", Current Biology (2009) in press (abstract only, unless registered). Grow into these trousers... >>

Our bizarre perception of reality

I used to have a page, torn from a magazine, showing a girl's face upside down (no smirking!). She looked really attractive till you turned the page the right way up. I always found it very disturbing and something which I could use to catch other people unawares (ie mindfuck).

It's called the Thatcher Effect, after some grocer's daughter.

Here's a great demo, without Thatcher.

Celebrities Look Better Upside down


And here's another to help explain it.

Head spin trick
Grow into these trousers... >>

10 things you didn't know about...

...orgasm, so if there are children around you'll know what I mean. The topic comes up lots in this next video.

Watch; then go read Bee's comment at Cosmic Variance.

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What Darwin's theory tells us about ourselves

Many thanks to the Atheist Media Blog for posting this oldish (1998) but remarkable discussion on the meaning of evolution as applied to humanity.

Covering ground from evolutionary development to the appreciation of music this round-table talk gets a triple AAA from me.

Chaired by Melvyn Bragg, historian and broadcaster - now Lord Bragg and Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

On the panel are:
Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at MIT - now at Harvard.
Meredith Small, Cornell professor of anthropology.
Steve Jones, biologist and a professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London.
Sir Jonathan Miller, theatre and opera director, neurologist, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor (if you are unfamiliar with Miller, watch this).

The Darwin Debate (1/5)


The debate continues below the belt:

The Darwin Debate (2/5)


The Darwin Debate (3/5)


The Darwin Debate (4/5)


The Darwin Debate (5/5)
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Gullibility as a human trait?

I just watched some great videos of chimpanzees over at Afarensis, take time to watch them all too. Myself, I am amazed at chimps' intelligence and resourcefulness though I maybe should not be given our shared heritage. There are times, however when the difference between us is clearly demonstrated.

Chimpanzee vs. Human child learning (1/2)


Update: Oops, accidentally posted part (2/2) - got it right now. Both are worth seeing though. Grow into these trousers... >>

Not so much a close shave as...

Duncanr at The Mad Hatters asks if we prefer the bikini line waxed or au natural. My own preferences are very clear:
















Now watch Dan Dennett as he begins to explain the roots of attraction.

Cute, sexy, sweet and funny -- an evolutionary riddle
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Here comes Spring!

Happy vernal equinox. From now till October, the days will be longer than the nights. Phew! We've had a few warm sunny days here in West Yorkshire though early morning mists, or just being in the shade, can still make it feel cold.

Pollen is in the air, so the hay-fever sufferers tell me. I've seen queen bumblebees flying, presumably looking for nest sites, and one of my (two) cats brought in the hind leg of a young rabbit. Left by their food bowls it was clearly a 'share' gesture. That's the first rabbit kill this year, there will be many more.

Anyway, Spring is sprung and a young man's fancy turns to lust (or something like that, I forget), so here's an introductory lecture into the nature of sex. Professor Robert Sapolsky explains the ins and outs of sexual reproduction.

Note: it's a long video [1h 40m] but interesting, funny and very educational. Make time and listen, you will be entertained. Highly recommended.

Prof. Robert Sapolsky on the Neurobiology of Primate Sexuality: Part 1


There's a part 2 but I've still to see it I just saw it and I guess Prof. Sapolsky will does enthuse in the same way.
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Many thanks to Bayblab for the link. Grow into these trousers... >>

An insight into the religious mind

So this is what passes for learned discussion in the minds of Yemeni clerics.

Citing a 1995 Time magazine article (possibly this one) and waving a brain scan photo, Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani demonstrates the cutting edge of evidence for the claim in the Koran that it takes two women to equal one man as legal witnesses.

[2:282] "so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her"

KafirGirl of course has a view on this.

Muslim Cleric Presents "Scientific" Proof that Women Cannot Talk and Remember Simultaneously


What a cnut.
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Via Atheist Media Blog. Grow into these trousers... >>

Next on my reading list

A welcome sight on the doormat today was a freshly minted copy of Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain by my long-time friend Andy Roberts - (I'll call him Agg to avoid confusion).



Agg and I were part of the same clan as we emerged into consciousness through our teens. Looking back it was one hell of a roller coaster ride.

But we made it and as the years passed we both continued to probe the nether regions of reality, though in utterly different ways:
Agg through his sceptical interest in folklore, mythology, UFOs and other cultural phenomenon, and his deep understanding of their philosophical entanglement.
Myself with trying to work out how the hell algae make bile pigments and use them for photosynthesis.

I know Agg's writing style, and I know it's far better than his piano playing, so I'm looking forward to a good, well researched read. Grow into these trousers... >>

Colour perception

The Pooflinger has a great challenge for your colour/hue discrimination. Go visit and take the FM 100 Hue Test, arrange the coloured squares into smooth gradients from one side to the other. Low scores are good, zero is perfect.
I tried this on my LCD monitor at work (err, it was at lunchtime OK) and got:

• Your score: 4
• Gender: Male
• Age range: 50-59
• Best score for your gender and age range: 0
• Highest score for your gender and age range: 1429

My problems were in a tight band in the greeny-blues.

Later on I tried again on my CRT monitor at home, after imbibing a couple of beers. I scored 16! Here are some screenshots of my second go.



My first result was like the left hand cluster of four. It just goes to show how our perception may change depending on circumstance.

Years ago I used to argue, no discuss, with my ex the colour scheme of our main room at home. We had dark burgundy red (IMHO) furniture with matching curtains and a carpet of browny/green leafy patterns on a dark red background. It looked very warm and comfortable and it was. It was somewhere to relax and just go Ahhhh!

She would insist that it was all dark pink... I could never get my head around that concept. Dark pink? Is this an oxymoron?
Grow into these trousers... >>

The Amazing Colour-changing Card Trick

Prof Richard Wiseman (see homepage) is a Hertfordshire Uni-based psychologist and well known in the UK media. A few years back he ran a project to find the world's funniest joke, so check that out (see below the belt for my fav).

More recently he has posted some videos including The Amazing Colour-changing Card Trick which, given it's YouTube popularity, you may have seen before. If not :


Find out more at Quirkology.

Here's another from Wiseman, The Psychological Card Trick:


And I still can't map a binary tree to calculate how this works. The Prediction:


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Regarding the funniest joke, I go for the runner up, but the original(?) extended version.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see thousands of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Holmes questioned.

Watson pondered for a moment.

"Astronomically it tells me that if I can see thousands of stars then there may truly be millions of them, perhaps many more. This suggests there may be many millions of planets. Some could be like the Earth and be cradles of life."

"Astrologically I observe that Saturn is in Leo. This portends trouble ahead."

"Horologically, from the angle subtended by The Plough to the horizon, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three."

"Meteorologically the sky seems clear and set fair so I predict that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow."

"Chronologically I suspect that humankind has been speculating on questions like these for thousands of years."

"Theologically, given all the majesty I am observing here, I can see that God, master of the heavens, is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.
What does it tell you?"

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "Watson, you fucking idiot. Some bastard's stole our tent."

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A couple more jokes I like,

the old:

Is that Fanny Greene I see in the congregation?
No vicar, it's just the way the light's shining through the stained glass window.

the bizarre:

Two ladybirds walking along a canal bank. One says "Oh, isn't it a lovely day?" and the other one fell in.

and the surreal:

What's the difference between a duck? One of it's legs are both the same.

Grow into these trousers... >>

The answer to yesterday's connundrum

Pull up your trousers.

The answer is (ta^da)
The planet Saturn.


Universe today have the lowdown, but to me...

It's a map of radio emissions from Saturn, the Cassini mission has been gathering this data for ages. The radio singnals are generated by electrons spiraling around in Saturn's magnetic field which the craft then listens to.

See it here as a 3D space projection. Then listen to the audio again, just like you would on your radio set at home; kinda.

Now what was this thing about synesthesia? Grow into these trousers... >>

Robot controlled by rat neurons

Gosh, this is doing the rounds of the intertubes just now.

Kevin Warwick, a cyberneticist, and Ben Whalley a pharmacist both from the University of Reading in the UK have interfaced rat brain cells with electronics to control a simple robot. Reading Uni has a press release, and this article from New Scientist magazine has the low down.

NS have a short video:

More below the belt:

Here's another clip with a bit more substance from Reading Uni:


And ITN take note when you make posts on YouTube...


Put things in the right category.

Sci-tech is not comedy. Wankers.
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4/4 time in modern music

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Oliver Sacks and his study of music in neurology. In the comments Kai Roberts asked:

"At a slight tangent, I was recently pondering on why the 4/4 time signature is so ubiquitous in popular music and why, as a musician, it's so easy to fall into. Is it simply learnt behaviour or is it somehow primal (perhaps connected with the rhythm of walking, for instance)?"

I find this a difficult question. 4/4 does have a satisfying appeal but I don't know why it singles itself out in popular music. Other timings are widespread in our culture. Two-steps, polkas and quicksteps are 2/4 or sometimes 2/2, waltz is 3/4 and then you get your foxtrots and tangos etc at 4/4. There are others, 6/8 springs to mind. All seem equally enjoyable to play, sing, listen or dance to. So why 4/4?

And what is the rhythm of walking? It repeats every two steps :Left Right: is that 2/1? Heartbeat must be similar.

Just recently I found the website Science Friday. They have a great archive of videos and podcasts and I found a couple of things which may add to the discussion.

I want to know more about this software. Watch the video Predicting Hit Songs (sorry, embedding didn't work).

Also on SciFri is another interview with Oliver Sacks on 'Musicophilia'. Watch the video for a snippet, but the full interview is in the audio player, top left. He makes an interesting point: very young children readily dance to music and chimpanzees do not. Somehow music and rhythm are associated with being human, or must have conferred some advantage to our ancestors. Why?

Why does beating a stick on a hollow log feel so good?

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Thanks to Rob at bayblab for the link to SciFri. Grow into these trousers... >>

Old style comedy, the best, and some music

After my last post on music and the brain I found my web butterfly flitting onwards...

Amusia, where a person has no perception of tone or rhythm in music and just hears a cacophony, must be difficult in the modern world. Music is everywhere and some great moments in comedy would be incomprehensible.

Les Dawson, playing the piano


MORECAMBE & WISE : Andre Previn (1/18)

(Eric: “I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order”)


To the amusic why would this be funny? This got me thinking even more about the perception of music. It's not just tapping your foot. People's voices have tonal changes, when asking a question for instance. How do the amusic hear this?

I would also love to know the amusic’s feelings about Karlheinz Stockhausen*.

Now I was just going to cite some trivial piece by Philip Glass when I remembered Koyaanisqatsi and web butterfly goes off at a tangent.

Koyaanisqatsi is amazing. If you haven’t seen it, get it now. The whole movie seems to be on YouTube but you've got to view it in hi-res on a big screen with loud music.

Sorry, I do feel a deep emotion for anyone who cannot enjoy music so here is some more comedy.

Shirley Bassey & Les Dawson

(Les: "He was an atheist for years but he was getting no holidays")

MORECAMBE & WISE : Elton John (7/18)

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* Karlheinz Stockhausen

Grow into these trousers... >>

Here's a book I'd like to read - (hint, hint)

While I was scanning the news headlines today I came across this article - Neurologist, choir explore music's healing power

Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music.

[Sacks] shared the church stage Saturday with the famed gospel choir as part of the inaugural World Science Festival, a five-day celebration of science taking place in New York this week.

"It should be an exciting and unusual event," Sacks said in an interview this week. "I will talk about the therapeutic and beneficent power of music as a physician, and then their wonderful choir will perform. ... And the audience will make what they can of it."

Oliver Sacks is Professor of Clinical Neurology and Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. His latest book is called Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. I was intrigued. A few clicks later having had my memory jogged by The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, remembering having heard Oliver often on the radio and no longer confusing him with Jonathan Sacks, I found a few YouTube gems.


Sacks is promoting his book with some video shorts. In no particular order here's:

Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amusia*


And the rest:

• Amnesia and Music
• Bolt from the Blue
• Brainworms
• Music Therapy and Parkinson's
• The Power of Rhythm

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*amusia - see Wikipedia, BBC news
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The layers of an onion

This is remarkable and very emotional.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist at the Indiana University School of Medicine, USA. One morning, some years ago, she awoke to realize she was having a stroke; a brain hemorrhage. She recounts her experience with great honesty, candor and comedy. In her own words:

"How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?"

The story she tells is full of imagery familiar from religion, psychedelia, near death experiences etc. Ideas which blur the distinction between self, non-self and the meaning of 'now'. What blows my mind is that intense experience like this is coupled to the brain's structure. When certain cognitive functions are disabled whether by trauma, drugs or ritual, people often report feelings of 'the interconnection of all things' and 'universal love' (I would love to hear V.S. Ramachandran's take on this).

Jill is absolutely right about La-La Land though, we have to be careful. As the late, great Richard Feynman said:

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that."

Jill passes both these tests. A 'Stroke of Insight' indeed.
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