Muse In Vivo

Why I am taking Dispatches from the Culture Wars off my recommended reading list

2009-12-14T13:20:00.003-05:00

My comment can be found here, and it says all that I needed to say.

They're slicin' up HM's brain today!

2009-12-03T09:41:00.002-05:00

Follow this link: http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm_live.php to see HM's brain get all sliced up by a microtome! It's very exciting - they're doing the hippocampus today, which should be neat.

Happy autumn feasting!

2009-11-27T17:56:00.001-05:00

... and now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

It's not just one day.

2009-11-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

Remembering our trans sisters and brothers who have been killed is not something that should only happen one day a year. It's something we should do every time we hear about a person being dehumanized, degendered, assaulted, or harassed because s/he is trans. Because every 'it' or 'tranny' joke, every 'she's REALLY a he', contributes to a culture where trans people are abused and killed in obscene numbers.

I hope you take some time to remember.

RIP.

Water has an enthalpy of condensation of about 539 calories per gram.

2009-11-17T13:04:00.004-05:00

Better known as: steam will burn the fuck out of your hand.

To rephrase: You must go read this awesome cooking blog.

This would have been useful back in my OChem days!

2009-11-16T01:15:00.001-05:00

Sources for the paper I'm working on

2009-11-14T22:55:00.002-05:00

Aarsland, D., Alves, G., & Larsen, J. P. (2005). Disorders of motivation, sexual conduct, and sleep in Parkinson's disease. In W. J. Weiner, K. E. Anderson & A. E. Lang (Eds.), Behavioral neurology of movement disorders (pp. 56-64). Philadelphia: Raven Press.

Baddeley, A. (1998). Working memory. C R Acad Sci III, 321(2-3), 167-173.

Banich, M. T. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Braver, T. S., & Cohen, J. D. (2000). On the control of control: The role of dopamine in regulating prefrontal function and working memory. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.), Control of cognitive processes : attention and performance XVIII (pp. 511-534, 713-738). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Burns, R. S., Chiueh, C. C., Markey, S. P., Ebert, M. H., Jacobowitz, D. M., & Kopin, I. J. (1983). A primate model of parkinsonism: selective destruction of dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra by N-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 80(14), 4546-4550.

Chiodo, L. A., Antelman, S. M., Caggiula, A. R., & Lineberry, C. G. (1980). Sensory stimuli alter the discharge rate of dopamine (DA) neurons: evidence for two functional types of DA cells in the substantia nigra. Brain Res, 189(2), 544-549.

Cohen, J. D., Braver, T. S., & Brown, J. W. (2002). Computational perspectives on dopamine function in prefrontal cortex. Curr Opin Neurobiol, 12(2), 223-229. doi: S0959438802003148 [pii]

Damier, P., Hirsch, E. C., Agid, Y., & Graybiel, A. M. (1999). The substantia nigra of the human brain. II. Patterns of loss of dopamine-containing neurons in Parkinson's disease. Brain, 122 ( Pt 8), 1437-1448.

Duzel, E., Bunzeck, N., Guitart-Masip, M., Wittmann, B., Schott, B. H., & Tobler, P. N. (2009). Functional imaging of the human dopaminergic midbrain. Trends Neurosci, 32(6), 321-328. doi: S0166-2236(09)00075-7 [pii]
10.1016/j.tins.2009.02.005

Gold, J. I., & Shadlen, M. N. (2007). The Neural Basis of Decision Making. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 535-574.
Hollerman, J. R., & Schultz, W. (1998). Dopamine neurons report an error in the temporal prediction of reward during learning. Nat Neurosci, 1(4), 304-309. doi: 10.1038/1124

Kobayashi, S., & Schultz, W. (2008). Influence of reward delays on responses of dopamine neurons. J Neurosci, 28(31), 7837-7846. doi: 28/31/7837 [pii]
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1600-08.2008

Laviolette, S. R., Lauzon, N. M., Bishop, S. F., Sun, N., & Tan, H. (2008). Dopamine signaling through D1-like versus D2-like receptors in the nucleus accumbens core versus shell differentially modulates nicotine reward sensitivity. J Neurosci, 28(32), 8025-8033. doi: 28/32/8025 [pii]
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1371-08.2008

Lee, H. J., Youn, J. M., O, M. J., Gallagher, M., & Holland, P. C. (2006). Role of substantia nigra-amygdala connections in surprise-induced enhancement of attention. J Neurosci, 26(22), 6077-6081. doi: 26/22/6077 [pii]
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1316-06.2006

Matsumoto, M., & Hikosaka, O. (2009). Two types of dopamine neuron distinctly convey positive and negative motivational signals. Nature, 459(7248), 837-841. doi: nature08028 [pii]
10.1038/nature08028

O'Brien, J. (2009, 10/23/2009). [Motivation and visual selective attention].

Ploran, E. J., Nelson, S. M., Velanova, K., Donaldson, D. I., Peterson, S. E., & Wheeler, M. E. (2007). Evidence Accumulation and the Moment of Recognition: Dissociating Perceptual Recognition Processes Using fMRI. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(44), 11912–11924.

Salamone, J. D., & Correa, M. (2002). Motivational views of reinforcement: implications for understanding the behavioral functions of nucleus accumbens dopamine. Behavioural Brain Research, 137(1), 3-25.

Sanfey, A. G., Loewenstein, G., McClure, S. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2006). Neuroeconomics: cross-currents in research on decision-making. Trends Cogn Sci, 10(3), 108-116. doi: S1364-6613(06)00027-1 [pii]
10.1016/j.tics.2006.01.009

Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593-1599.

Sugrue, L. P., Corrado, G. S., & Newsome, W. T. (2005). Choosing the greater of two goods: neural currencies for valuation and decision making. Nat Rev Neurosci, 6(5), 363-375. doi: nrn1666 [pii]
10.1038/nrn1666

Waelti, P., Dickinson, A., & Schultz, W. (2001). Dopamine responses comply with basic assumptions of formal learning theory. Nature, 412(6842), 43-48. doi: 10.1038/35083500
35083500 [pii]

P.S.: Endnote is awesome.

The AMA, the FDA, marijuana, Marinol, Sativex, and Barack Hussein Obama

2009-11-12T09:43:00.005-05:00

The AMA has recommended a change in the classification of marijuana to facilitate medical research on it!

I am actually presenting on this in class:

As part of my presentation, I'll be talking about how the FDA has denied the scientific evidence for the efficacy of marijuana for medical purposes... but at the same time the FDA has approved Marinol, which is delta-9 THC but not plant-derived, for distribution; and the FDA has approved Sativex, which is a mix of plant-derived cannabinoids, for Phase III trials!

So, there's evidence enough to support cannabinoids' safety and efficacy for medical purposes to sell pot to us as a prescription drug, at a premium price, but obviously not enough evidence to lower the Schedule of the whole plant product. Uh-huh.

I'll finish up with a word from our President:

Evolution rock anthem!

2009-11-09T13:38:00.001-05:00

Why you suck at things when you're sleep deprived.

2009-11-02T01:33:00.003-05:00

According to some new research by Todd Maddox at U of Texas, sleep deprivation makes the thinky part of your brain, the frontal cortex, get all sucky.

Yeah, we all knew that, right? But what we didn't know is that it doesn't really affect the instinct-y part of your brain, the striatum. Which is why, for example, you're still OK at doing routine tasks (take out the milk, take out the cereal, take out the bowl, put food in face), but sometimes you'll muck up and do something wrong, but do it in the right way (put the milk away in the pantry, put the cereal away in the fridge).

And when you're really sleep deprived, you'll start consciously over-thinking things, which leans on the frontal cortex, which as you'll recall is all wonky from the sleep-dep, so you'll muck things up even more.

I will try to keep this in mind during grad school, and do everything by instinct. :)

My Wii:

2009-10-31T17:12:00.001-04:00

Check out the synaptic cleft.

2009-10-23T22:09:00.002-04:00

AWESOME.

2009-10-15T01:30:00.004-04:00

A good friend once told me that part of the role of government is to intervene in large-scale Prisoner's-Dilemma type situations. I think that's a fantastically succinct way to put it.

Being categorically against that kind of government intervention basically outs you as someone who thinks you have some sort of "right" to snitch in a prisoner's dilemma. Even if it's worse for everyone, yourself included, in the long run. In Dawkinsonian terms, you're a cheat. And not only does this make you a right smart asshole, but you're also supporting a completely unsustainable strategy.

Forget Fear says it pretty damn well:

In essence [some conservatives] want to be able to live completely without care or regard for the plight or wellbeing of anyone but themselves (and sometimes the immediate family unit), and not have to worry about anything that happens outside their immediate geographic area. The hypocrisy is, they seek to enforce this socioeconomic model on everyone else to create the circumstances for them to setup a “little house on the prairie” style life for themselves. They put the wants of themselves (the few) over the needs of everyone else (the many), and will tell you that 1 > 2, if they are the 1, and mathematics can be damned.

This may not be what conservatives openly advocate, however if you look at the end-result of their policies this is what they are trying to establish. It’s plain as day, and if you follow conservative socioeconomics through to their logical conclusion, the above-described is what you end up with. It’s immoral, it’s hypocritical, it’s illogical, and it’s just plain selfish.

So what should we do? What’s the answer? Simple: Care. Care about other people, about their experiences, their happiness, their well being, and their safety. This may sound overly idealistic, and maybe it is, but it’s the only solution to modern conservativism.

Word.

Working with the IAPS: Cute overload meets Rotten.com

2009-10-07T23:29:00.002-04:00

The International Affective Picture System! IAPS for short.

These pictures, they make you feel things. In a standardized way.

See this guy here wanted to study emotion, so he got this set of pictures together and showed them to people, and he had them rate how good/bad the pictures made them feel, and also how intensely the pictures made them feel that way. And then he averaged these scores.

So now if I want to make you feel happy for the purposes of studying your brains, I can pull out an IAPS picture with a high happiness rating, like bunnies nibbling on cut flowers. The most intense happy pictures are pretty much softcore porn.

But if I want to make you feel unhappy, I can show you a picture of a pointed gun, or a starving child, or a dead kitty. And if I want to make you intensely unhappy, I can show you a mutilated face.

I have spent a lot of my time looking at emotional pictures lately.

Ahhh so busy!

2009-09-30T01:02:00.001-04:00

Grad school is like being kicked in the face all day by an adorable kitten. Yeah, it's not exactly unpleasant, but you're still getting kicked in the face all day.

On that note, it is time for some brainless cuteness.

Pittsburgh Police

2009-09-27T14:47:00.002-04:00

Starting from the WPU lawn:

Starting from the Schenley Plaza:

This is MY fucking campus these cops are locking down; I've been part of similar "curiosity sit-ins". Those lawns are where I used to sit and smoke my cigarettes; it's between two of the busiest buildings on campus and RIGHT NEXT TO THE DORMS. I know, being a Pitt alum, that when you see something like riot cops marching in formation out your window, you're likely to come down and check it out. And it didn't look like much of a fucking protest to me until well after the cops started the push - and I've been at plenty of protests, some of which were actually ON those lawns.

During the memorial service for those three downed officers, there was even more of a crowd on the WPU lawn than in this video - people paying their respects.

I feel angry and sick.

Fuck the police.

Fallacies 101

2009-09-23T21:53:00.002-04:00

Cherry-picking and ad hominem.

Orac and White Coat Underground make my life a little bit more worthwhile.

fMRI is a useful tool - you just have to use it right!

2009-09-23T14:17:00.004-04:00

Some dudes at Dartmouth put a dead fish in an fMRI scanner, "instructed" it in a task, and (using crappy statistical methods) found a couple significant voxels in the fish's brain. This is used to demonstrate the importance of using good statistical methods in analyzing fMRI data so that you minimize the false positives. (There's a good summary over at Neuroskeptic.)

But for some reason, my friends who've forwarded me the Wired article about it are all like, "SEE- just like I've been telling you, imaging studies are silly and untrustworthy."

Grrrr.

See, here's the big thing that the dead-fish peeps point out. When you're making statistical comparisons, you shoot for a certain confidence level. Let's say we're shooting for 95% confidence. That means, even if we do everything completely right, about 5% of the time we're going to get wacky results - completely by chance.

In an fMRI, you're making thousands of statistical comparisons, one for each voxel. So even if you are shooting for 99.999% confidence, there's enough voxels that some of them are going to, completely by chance, show weird and unlikely things. Like "activity" in a dead fish's brain.

As the Wired article says:

Bennett’s point is that a suite of methods known as multiple comparisons correction can allow researchers to maintain most of their statistical power while keeping the danger of false positives at bay.

But people, even smart people, even psychologists, look at the fishy fMRI and go, "OH WOW FMRI = USELESS LOLOL U STOOPID IMAGING PPL".

Ugh.

I've been so freakin' busy...

2009-09-21T23:03:00.004-04:00

...I don't even have time for video games. But that won't stop me from trying, damnit! I started the original Fallout game on the PC, and a combination of limited time and me sucking has led to very very little progress.

Here's a good gameplay overview. It's comfortably Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque, and it has that Ultima Online 2.5-D style. I love the 1997 graphics, and so should you.

Because I am a complete n00b, I died repeatedly the first time I played. Dying is serious business, and it made me generally unhappy.. especially because there is no such thing as autosave. Then I made a new character with better starting stats, and stopped being stupid. (Protip: If you don't have high strength, you'd better have a high first aid / doctory skill. And don't be afraid to bitch-run. Also, save your game a lot.)

I really really really want to play more [and post more, and post more things of substance, heh], but almost all of my time is spent between school, lab, and starting a new social circle in my new home town.

I'm thinking about playing for a half hour or so before I get some sleep.. or bringing my laptop to school so I can catch a quick lunch-break level or two.

In the meantime... I'm off to do some SCIENCE!

I am a big fat lying liar!

2009-09-18T14:17:00.003-04:00

So...

On Thursday, I had an in-class presentation that would have made me late for the Great Faith Debate... and additionally the person who was supposed to drive me was overloaded with work. So I didn't have a ride.

You can read about the debate on Reuters, and there's a decent blogospheric review done by Josh Colwell.

Looking at the review, it didn't look like I missed much. And instead I went to a Greek restaurant to celebrate a friend's birthday, so it worked out well!

Omg meatspace.

2009-09-15T01:50:00.002-04:00

Something you should all have figured out by this point: graduate school keeps a person busy.

BUT I do have a neat little surprise for any loyal readers!

I'm going to The Great Faith Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza with a couple of friends. This happens on Thursday evening, and I plan on writing it up here for you guys.

So stay tuned!

The sound of computation:

2009-09-07T22:59:00.001-04:00

PalMD is my new hero.

2009-09-07T14:47:00.003-04:00

This. This this this. THIS.

Bremner: If you're going to criticize Pharma for something (insufficient evidence, poor sources, conflating bias with fact).. make sure you're not doing it yourself. Glass houses. Stones. Etc.

PalMD is the coolest mofo on the planet.

That is all.

(If you know me personally, feel free to call me up for details.)

The coolest thing about grad school...

2009-09-06T02:56:00.004-04:00

The coolest thing about grad school is being able to socialize with respected, influential people as if they were peers. I'm still squee-ing every time I talk to someone whose reputation precedes them, and I'm in absolute disbelief that they actually take me seriously.

On a semi-related note, a couple science-bloggers have been commiserating with me on a topic that I find suddenly more relevant than I'd like. I will link-dump massively when I have time, I promise.

Pax hominibus.

One more argument against the existence of deities...

2009-09-04T13:00:00.001-04:00

My pal takes on some silly ad campaign trying to convince us heathens that God is realz0rz, and is also Jesus. He makes some good points - I especially like his refutation of the anthropic principle (though no one can best Douglas Adams' puddle analogy). I'm not going to approach the subject that my good friend Noisy Queer Vegan covered, as he's taken care of that quite well indeed, but I will go off on my own tangent..

Since I've recently moved to a new location and am surrounded by people who don't know me well, I've gotten to explain why I'm a deterministic atheist to a good handful of fairly educated, non-judgmental people. I think it's gone down well, and I've learned how to succinctly explain what I believe and why.

Basically, what I think is that the God-belief-thing is really statement about what a person believes is the nature of the universe at its most basic level. If you take away all the matter and the energy and the spacetime (if you can do such a thing), what's left? In a theist's conception, the basic and default nature of the universe is an infinite consciousness, with desires and thoughts and feelings, which can create and destroy through sheer will.

That seems pretty damn unlikely. And it certainly poses more questions than it answers. From what I understand about how reality works, things start out simple and then, over time, things develop progressively more complex emergent patterns. A very simple "first cause" would require a lot less explanation for its own existence than a very complex one.. and I can't imagine anything more complex than the infinite consciousness that I described above.

Thus, I do not believe in a God. I am not sure what exactly the basic, default state of the universe is (my best guess - empty spacetime?), but I can say with confidence that God ain't it.

In sum: Ultimate 747 + Occam's Razor = o'rly.

BTW: I got to where I am, philosophically, from watching Scott Clifton's vlogs. I may or may not be desperately in love with this man.