Category: Science

Placebos and their Efficacy

For this week’s NeuroThursday, I started writing one on Elon Musk’s NeuraLink, but it only ended up being five tweets‘ worth of material. So I called that my “placebo NeuroThursday,” and followed it up with a full-length one on the placebo effect!

Threadreader link

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/867913671187419137.html

Twitter:

Deja Vu and Memory

This week’s all new, never-seen-before NeuroThursday: on déjà vu, and the details of human memory that make this phenomenon possible.

Sleep and its Deprivation

NeuroThursday took a nap last week, but it’s returned with dreams of explaining why sleep deprivation is a thing – and why it’s probably your thing.

Precognition and Evidence

For this week’s NeuroThursday, I tackle the recent scientific evidence for psychic powers – and why it’s unconvincing despite getting published in a major peer-reviewed scientific journal.

The Arm’s Complexity

For the tenth NeuroThursday, I explain why our arms are so much more complex than the movements they have to perform. With bonus Soviet Science Photos!

Thread Reader app:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/850186980562546690.html

Twitter thread:

Maps in the Brain

Time for another week of ! Maps in the brain, and how they lead us to the conclusion “the brain is enslaved to the body.”

Nebula Neuroscience

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m going to have a speaking slot at the SFWA Nebula Conference in June!  My talk “Understanding Neuroscience: The Evolved Brain” will take place on Sunday at 10am for anyone with enough fortitude to shake off their hangover and come here me talk about neuroscience, and how we can improve our understanding and portrayal of the human brain in fiction.

I haven’t yet developed the talk, so if you have any questions or issues too complex for , let me know! Or ask me over a beer1 afterward.

I hope to see some of you there! I’ll only be at the Nebula conference Sat-Sun (arriving late Friday night) due to the travails of work, but so it goes.

Hand Dominance

This week’s NeuroThursday neuroscience explainer: Hand Dominance! Just how dominant is it, anyways? (Less than you think.)

Brain Variability

For NeuroThursday this week I fulfilled a promise from last time: explaining the variability of the brain, and what it means for a single neuron to have countless functions!

Mirror Neurons

This week’s NeuroThursday goes into one of my personal favorite (hated?) hobgoblins of well-popularized neuroscience: mirror neurons. What are they, what’s the myth, and what’s the controversy?