2018–2026

2026 87

October 2026

1. 12 OctCasino culture meets the predictive brain
2. 9 OctArtificial symbiotic intelligence - a future of Agents, AGI and the orchestration of many minds
3. 7 OctFuture-Capable: Curiosity, Adaptability, and Kindness in the Age of AI
4. 6 OctIt's a Bitter, Bitter Lesson
5. 5 OctAging as a Continuation of development
6. 2 OctWho Broke the World? Who are the villains?...Where do we not want to be?

September 2026

1. 30 Sep"Responsibilism" - Collectivism isn't warmth, it's obligation
2. 28 SepThe depth and quality of deep sleep correlates with resilience to stress.
3. 25 SepThe cortex helps organize its own disappearnce from waking consciousness
4. 23 SepSlow breathing modulates brain function and risk behavior
5. 21 SepDeeper meditation is associated with more reproducible sensory responses
6. 18 SepThe agentic self: The brain learns whether action matters before deciding what to learn
7. 17 SepRegulating our subjective well being - our brain's axes of arousal, valence, and agency
8. 16 SepThe deluge of articles on what consciousness is...
9. 14 SepHumanity has the debate about AI consciousness backwards
10. 11 SepCategorization is ‘baked’ into the brain
11. 9 SepMindBlog's AI playground - a new piano piece: Nocturne in a Minor Key
12. 9 SepAnalog cognition and consciousness
13. 7 SepThe moral weight of Human - AI interactions
14. 4 SepA Theory of Cuteness as Developmental Investment
15. 2 SepTranscranial focused ultrasound for identifying the neural substrate of conscious perception
16. 1 SepGennady Lukinykh Reflection
17. 1 SepGennady Lukinykh Romance
18. 1 SepNikolai Sheiko Miniatures "Instant"
19. 1 SepNikolai Sheiko Prelude Op. 9

August 2026

1. 31 AugDeric, MindBlog, and exiting the miasma of AI integration
2. 28 AugCan nondual awareness become a civic technology?
3. 26 AugCuriosity shapes brain-like architectures and functions
4. 24 AugAn AI tool that claims to pick the top 1% of the most original and valid preprints
5. 21 AugMindBlog's Book-Abstraction Series (2006–2026)
6. 19 AugFrictionless Connection, Atomized Lives
7. 17 AugNondualism versus the Nation-State
8. 14 AugHow AI Changes Everything - The Centaur Era
9. 12 AugThe Vanishing Compass: When No Faction Looks Like the Good Guys
10. 10 AugMindBlog's Intellectual History, 2006–2026
11. 7 AugReflections on The Predictive Self.
12. 5 AugWhen the Two Sides of Empathy Fall Out of Balance
13. 3 AugAI as discovery, not invention.

July 2026

1. 31 JulDo Language Models Have a Global Workspace?
2. 29 JulThe Neural Basis of Laughter
3. 27 JulContemporary Russian piano composers and Agentic AI
4. 24 JulTop-Down To Bottom-Up: Rhythmic Synchrony Relaxes Social Priors to Enable Change

June 2026

1. 24 JunWhat six AI models do and don’t know about me
2. 22 JunFuture-Capable: Curiosity, Adaptability, and Kindness in the Age of AI
3. 19 JunBoredom can be Good for You...
4. 17 JunWhen the Self Dissolves, the Precuneus Goes Quiet: A Rigorous Test of Meditation’s “Many-to-(n)One” Continuum
5. 15 JunA dimmer switch for reward: the vagus sets the gain
6. 12 JunSpontaneous problem-solving in bumble bees
7. 10 JunCleaning our brains during deep sleep
8. 8 JunAI construed as a brilliant friend...Claude's New Constitution

May 2026

1. 29 MayThe World is Unraveling: A 3-Step Guide to Staying Sane & Useful
2. 27 MayThe Counterintuitive Need to Slow Down and Find Spaciousness
3. 25 MayGetting Gooier: How AI Is Reshaping Human Nature
4. 21 MayAgentic AI and the next intelligence explosion
5. 19 MayAI Is Not an Alien Intruder — It Is the Latest in a Four-Billion-Year Evolutionary Cascade of Symbiotic Transitions
6. 17 MayThe Tech Mirage: Why the U.S.-China AI Race Is Failing Us All

April 2026

1. 29 AprActivating the evolved healing mechanisms of the placebo response requires permission from a safe environment
2. 27 AprWhen Execution Gets Cheap, What Remains Scarce? - The last biological moat.
3. 24 AprThe Refusal to Dehumanize - Rewilding Creativity
4. 22 AprThe Physiology of Agency in the Age of AI
5. 20 AprWhat a self is.
6. 17 AprFrom Animal to Humans - Multimodality as a safeguard of honesty in communication and language
7. 15 AprExecutive Function: Universal Capacity or Schooled Skill?
8. 13 AprThe Default Mode Network as a Bidirectional Interface Between World and Mind
9. 9 AprAI, Agency, and the Quiet Hollowing of Mind
10. 7 AprMemes Before Machines: The Real Cognitive Risk of the AI Age

March 2026

1. 31 MarAI use can compromise our serendipity, creativity, autonomy, and sense of agency.
2. 23 MarOne terminal chats with another to start vibe coding a new dericbownds.net
3. 18 MarThe polyvagal theory is dead - and HRV isn't a simple indicator of arousal
4. 16 MarThe nature of intelligence and selves.
5. 13 MarA seismic shift in our understanding of intelligence
6. 12 MarAI Makes Workloads Worse, Not Better
7. 5 MarEmpathy as a Brain Rhythm: Orexin, Theta Oscillations, and Prosocial Behavior
8. 5 MarA MindBlog-ready ChatGPT synthesis
9. 5 MarWill Deric’s Mind Blog be firing Deric soon? Is AI is doing his job better?

February 2026

1. 23 FebThe geometries of change and the value of being human
2. 20 FebChanging our systems of governance
3. 18 FebNew Ferality - Seeking new ways of being wild in new nature
4. 16 FebBuying Futures, Renting the Past: How Speculation and Nostalgia Became the Economy
5. 13 FebMindBlog is now 20 years old.
6. 12 FebAgainst the Machine
7. 11 FebI am not my problem
8. 8 FebThe Future of Being Human

January 2026

1. 26 JanThe Mythology of Conscious AI
2. 23 JanThe Case for Being Human
3. 20 JanDo we have an appetite for transcendence?
4. 5 JanVenkatesh Rao's 'World Machines'

2025 120

December 2025

1. 31 DecThe Institutional Stance - an evolved intuitive theory?
2. 29 DecWhat our brains are doing as we experience musical pleasure.
3. 26 DecWhat are humans for? - AI Forces a Question We’ve Been Dodging
4. 24 DecThe Modernity Machine
5. 22 DecHuman Machines and AI Machines
6. 18 DecTime, space, memory and brain–body rhythms
7. 16 DecChanges in human brain organization at age ~83 (as well as ages ~9, 32, and 66)
8. 12 DecBigger AI models are failing faster - The future evolution of AI is into the 4D world
9. 10 DecFocused attention mindfulness meditation changes our cerebrospinal fluid dynamics
10. 9 Dec“Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving

November 2025

1. 17 NovFrom today's Wall Street Journal: how the top 0.1% can live.
2. 12 NovDangerous Ideas.......
3. 10 NovWelcome to the Polycene
4. 6 NovHow nature nurtures
5. 4 NovInequality and hierarchy are features of all natural systems

October 2025

1. 31 OctIs AI Pushing Us Back to a Pre-Gutenberg Culture? - A Rethink of Creativity in the AI Age
2. 29 OctClaude Goes to Therapy
3. 27 OctThe Age of De-Skilling
4. 26 OctI am not my problem
5. 22 OctIs the current AI frenzy a bubble certain to crash? - a check in with disagreebot.bom
6. 21 OctThe illusion of judgment in LLMs
7. 10 OctThe 2025 Ig Nobel prizewinners in full
8. 8 OctLarge-scale cortical functional networks are organized in structured cycles
9. 6 OctWhy depolarization is hard: Evaluating attempts to decrease partisan animosity in America

September 2025

1. 29 SepPlatforms like X and TikTok are destroying our culture.
2. 26 SepEvolved mental errors that underlie our current cultural and political malaise
3. 24 SepCould humans and AI become a new evolutionary individual?
4. 22 SepEnlightenment, Habituation, and Renewal - non-dual awareness as the opiate of the thinking classes.
5. 19 SepValue, Purpose, Meaning, Futures
6. 17 SepHow Humans Work - an integrated model
7. 15 SepThe brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby
8. 12 SepChants across seven traditions share acoustic traits that enhance subjective relaxation
9. 10 SepA Materialist's Credo
10. 8 SepRethinking how our brains work.
11. 5 SepThe case against reality
12. 3 SepResetting my brain…
13. 1 SepSelected MindBlog posts on defining what our human self or "I" is.

August 2025

1. 29 AugWhy You Are Probably An NPC (Non playing character)
2. 27 AugAI is a Mass-Delusion Event - and - Gen Z and the End of Predictable Progress
3. 25 AugGaze patterns can serve as a sensitive marker of cognitive decline
4. 22 AugPredictability and the pleasure of music
5. 20 AugA brain-computer interface that reads inner thoughts.
6. 18 AugPolarization may be inherent in social media
7. 15 AugPoints on having a self and free will.
8. 13 AugThe number of fake scientific journal articles is doubling every year and a half.
9. 11 AugA 25 year study of what distingiushes 'Super-Agers'
10. 8 AugFace (e)motion and the third visual pathway.
11. 6 AugWhy we put off things we enjoy doing.
12. 4 AugThe coming societal collapse
13. 1 AugEverything we experience comes from inside us

July 2025

1. 30 JulIs liberal democracy still viable in our complex world?
2. 28 JulAn epilogue from Glaude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) at 90 years of age
3. 25 JulThe optimistic brain - fMRI reveals shared thought patterns.
4. 23 JulLosing Loneliness
5. 21 JulThe cultural construction of “executive function”
6. 18 JulHow the attention economy is devouring us. - A conversation between Ezra Klein and Kyla Scanlon
7. 16 JulStagnation, disruption, and the future - A conversation between Ross Douthat and Peter Thiel
8. 14 JulTokens of Sanity
9. 11 JulAI sees you in ways you can’t see yourself.
10. 9 JulPromises and Perils of AI: A Mid-2025 Reading Roundup
11. 7 JulThe Monster Inside ChatGPT
12. 4 JulEmotional synchrony among sports fans.(Will Elon Musk's android army be able to do this?)
13. 2 JulWhy is jogging an antidepressant?

June 2025

1. 30 JunGlobal coordination of brain activity by the breathing cycle
2. 27 JunTake caution in using LLMs as human surrogates
3. 25 JunA critique of the MIT AI and cognitive debt study - confusion of "cognitive debt" with "role confusion"
4. 23 JunMIT study - Our brains can accumulate cognitive debt by using AI for writing tasks
5. 16 JunRejecting blind builder and helpless witness narratives in favor of constitutive narratives
6. 14 JunAI ‘The Illusion of Thinking’
7. 6 JunBenefits and dangers of anthropomorphic conversational agents

May 2025

1. 30 MaySocially sensitive autonomous vehicles?
2. 28 MayEnergetics and evolutionary fitness
3. 26 MayEvidence of a social evaluation penalty for using AI
4. 23 MayA new route towards dystopia:? Sonifying tactile interactions and their underlying emotions to allow ‘social touch.’
5. 21 MayWhy does AI hinder democratization?
6. 19 MayAI is not your friend.
7. 16 MayOn replacing the American establishment - the ideological battle for the soul of Trump World.
8. 14 MayOur human consciousness is a 'Controlled Hallucination' and AI can never achieve it.
9. 12 MayHow ketamine breaks through anhedonia - reigniting desire
10. 8 MayThe vocabulary, semantics, and syntax of prosody

April 2025

1. 26 AprDoes Language in our head have a Mind of Its Own?
2. 24 AprCarole Cadwalladr - This is what a digital coup looks like.
3. 7 AprMastering diverse control tasks through world models
4. 1 AprAn example of AI representing concepts outside the current sphere of human knowledge that are teachable to human experts.
5. 1 AprBelief in belief, like religion, is a cross-cultural human universal

March 2025

1. 27 MarDeric and DeepSeek R1 on the enteroceptive self in a small world - taking refuge in troubled times
2. 19 MarParents convey a male default in child-directed speech
3. 14 MarReflections on The Predictive Self.
4. 12 MarCritical fragility in sociotechnical systems
5. 10 MarPsychological ownership and GenAI - Illusion, dilution, or loss
6. 7 MarDeric and Chat GPT 4o on the enteroceptive self in a small world - taking refuge in troubled times
7. 5 MarOn feeling emptiness...
8. 3 MarThe unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s?

February 2025

1. 28 FebA machine accepts the truth about itself.
2. 26 FebSelf regulation of brain areas underlying our emotional arousal.
3. 24 FebEvidence for a 'Theory of Mind' in Bonobo Chimps - they attribute knowledge or ignorance to social partners
4. 21 FebHow complex brains and cognition first arose
5. 19 FebAccepting being alone
6. 17 FebLife sets off a cascade of machines
7. 14 FebThe perceptual primacy of feeling
8. 12 FebThe Coup has already happened.
9. 12 FebEven more cheerful reading....on civilizational war and oligarchic technocracy.
10. 10 FebWe are towers of fantasies
11. 7 FebStructural and Cognitive Mechanisms of Group Cohesion in Primates
12. 5 FebA human machine writes
13. 3 Feb“Now Is the Time of Monsters”

January 2025

1. 31 JanTokens of sanity
2. 29 JanEverything we experience comes from inside
3. 27 JanRegions of our brains making multiple predictions of others' actions.
4. 24 JanHow much does language shape our thinking?
5. 22 JanThe birth of aspirational multiethnic populism
6. 20 JanPoof! I'm 15-20 years younger...
7. 17 JanThe Neurobiology of Aging
8. 15 JanThe origin of color categories
9. 13 JanIs critical race theory an inversion of history?
10. 10 JanBreathing during sleep orchestrates hippocampal nested sleep oscillations underlying memory consolidation
11. 8 JanPredictive coding for social perception
12. 6 JanRomantic Relationships Matter More to Men than to Women
13. 3 JanChildren as agents of cultural adaption
14. 1 JanHow our brain networks are reconfigured by a cortisol increase 30-45 min after our waking.

2024 111

December 2024

1. 30 DecAwe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health
2. 26 DecOliver Sacks - The Machine Stops
3. 23 DecSteven Fry: "AI: A Means to an End or a Means to Our End?"
4. 18 DecSculpting new visual categories into the human brain.
5. 16 DecAnalysis of the dumbing down of language on social media over time
6. 12 DecSustainability of Animal-Sourced Foods - how to deal with farting cows...
7. 10 DecNeurons in the amygdala jointly encode the status of interacting individuals
8. 9 DecAn AI framework for neural–behavioral modeling
9. 7 DecBattle of the Bots - AI gets creative with Brain Hacks
10. 6 DecMagnetic soft microrobots for erectile dysfunction therapy!
11. 5 DecThe Future of Warfare
12. 3 DecHave hope - we're not there yet...
13. 3 DecThe End of Democratic Delusions

November 2024

1. 29 NovMindBlog's Brain Hacks
2. 27 NovHalf a century of quantitative cultural evolution
3. 25 NovAmazing.....the AI effect: Nearly 1 Billion Threats a Day
4. 22 NovThe election is over. How do we feel now?
5. 22 NovOur looming civil unrest is predicted by Turchin's historical model.

September 2024

1. 29 SepTokens of sanity
2. 28 SepNetworks of connectivity are the battleground of the future.
3. 15 SepA caustic review of Yuval Harari's "Nexus"
4. 15 SepThe Fear of Diverse Intelligences Like AI

August 2024

1. 30 AugThe delusions of transhumanists and life span extenders
2. 28 AugRegulating our subjective well being - our brain's axes of arousal, valence, and agency
3. 26 AugThe brain simulates actions and their consequences during REM sleep
4. 23 AugAn epilogue from Glaude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) at 90 years of age
5. 14 AugHuman distinctiveness and Artificial Intelligence
6. 12 AugHuman Distinctiveness in Different Cultures
7. 9 AugSelections from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS.org)
8. 7 AugThe Art of Pretending to Govern
9. 5 AugPsilocybin desynchronizes our brains during ego dissolution
10. 2 AugThe Ooze is Growing

July 2024

1. 31 JulHow we got to where we are
2. 29 JulPositive effects of aging on cognition and emotion regulation
3. 26 JulNuances of non-dual awareness - progress after "waking up" ?
4. 24 JulA human machine writes...
5. 22 JulThe blanding and flattening of our culture
6. 19 JulMindBlog does a survey of futurists and recommends a few.
7. 17 JulAn essay on Geopolitics and Globalization
8. 15 JulWhat about some positive news for a change?
9. 12 JulThe emerging world order as a global version of the pre-Westphalian Middle Ages.
10. 10 JulFrom nematodes to humans a common brain network motif intertwines hierarchy and modularity.
11. 8 JulOur well being influences our mitochondrial biology.
12. 5 JulChatGPT as a "lab rat" for understanding how our brains process language.
13. 3 JulCumulative human culture began ~600,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene
14. 1 JulThere are no more human elites of any sort...

June 2024

1. 28 JunHow AI will transform the physical world.
2. 26 JunOff the rails - inequity and unfairness built into capitalism
3. 24 JunThe tyranny of words
4. 21 JunThe other shoe is about to drop in 2024 - important closure moments in the state of the world.
5. 19 JunManaging the human herd
6. 17 JunEmpty innovation: What are we even doing?
7. 14 JunThe future of life.
8. 12 JunThe pathologies of the educated elites
9. 10 JunProtecting scientific integrity in an age of generative AI
10. 7 JunIs it a fact? The epistemic force of language in news headlines.
11. 5 JunImpact of our built environment on our microbiome and health

May 2024

1. 27 MayAncient origins of aspects of instrumental and song melodies distinctive from those of language.
2. 24 MayThink AI Can Perceive Emotion? Think Again.
3. 22 MayThe Happiness Gap Between Left and Right
4. 20 MayAge of Revolutions
5. 17 MayEvolutionarily conserved neural responses to affective touch transcend consciousness and change with age
6. 15 MayCollective behavior from surprise minimization
7. 13 MayHow the US is destroying young people's future.
8. 10 MayBlueprint - Nicholas Christakis on the evolutionary origins of a good society
9. 8 MayAnother Big History - why the West is WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic)
10. 6 MayAre we the cows of the future?
11. 3 MayCan there be scientific criteria for what is moral behavior?
12. 1 MayHow blue light regulates the body, brain, and immune system

April 2024

1. 29 AprAn expanded view of human minds and their reality.
2. 10 AprThe world of decentralized everything.
3. 8 AprNew protocols for uncertain times.
4. 5 AprOur seduction by AI’s believable human voice.
5. 3 AprNeurons help flush waste out of our brains during sleep
6. 1 AprWhen memories get complex, sleep comes to their rescue

March 2024

1. 29 MarHow communication technology has enabled the corruption of our communication and culture .
2. 27 MarBrain changes over our lifetime.
3. 25 MarIf you want to remember a landscape be sure to include a human....
4. 22 MarThe magic of spurious correlations...
5. 20 MarFundamentally changing the nature of war.
6. 18 MarThe Physics of Non-duality
7. 14 MarAn inexpensive Helium Mobile 5G cellphone plan that pays you to use it?
8. 13 MarMindBlog becomes a 5G cellular hotspot in the the low-priced ‘People’s Cell Phone Network’ - Helium Mobile
9. 11 MarHow AI’s GPT engines work - Lanier’s forest and trees metaphor.
10. 8 MarExplaining the evolution of gossip
11. 6 MarDeep learning models reveal sex differences in human functional brain organization that are replicable, generalizable, and behaviorally relevant
12. 4 MarBrains creating stories of selves: the neural basis of autobiographical reasoning
13. 1 MarThe Hidden History of Debt

February 2024

1. 28 FebWhat Is a Society?: The Importance of Building an Interdisciplinary Perspective
2. 26 FebThe "enjunkification" of our online lives
3. 23 FebUsing caffeine to induce flow states
4. 21 FebAI makes our humanity matter more than ever.
5. 19 FebComparing how generative AI and living organisms generate meaning suggests future direction for AI development
6. 17 FebGemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of context
7. 16 FebAn agent-based vision for scaling modern AI - Why current efforts are misguided.
8. 14 FebHow long has humanity been at war with itself?
9. 12 FebThe Art of Doing Nothing
10. 9 FebBodily maps of musical sensations across cultures
11. 7 FebHistorical Myths as Culturally Evolved Technologies for Coalitional Recruitment
12. 5 FebFunctional human brain tissue produced by layering different neuronal types with 3D bioprinting
13. 2 FebTowards a Metaphysics of Worlds

January 2024

1. 31 JanThoughts on having a self - Deric's MindBlog as WebLog - January 2024
2. 29 JanMind blog’s first 18 years - what next? A space for discussions among MindBlog readers?
3. 26 JanTolerance of uncertainly as a key to resilience.
4. 24 JanThe Neurobiology of Stress: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Major Depression
5. 21 JanTitles and URLs for selected MindBlog posts on selves
6. 10 JanIf psychedelics heal, how do they do it?
7. 8 JanThe Importance of Not Being Earnest
8. 5 JanCapturing non-dual reality in language
9. 3 JanWhy can't robots check the box that says 'I'm not a robot'?
10. 1 JanOn shifting perspectives....

2023 143

December 2023

1. 28 DecOrigins of our current crises in the 1990s, the great malformation, and the illusion of race.
2. 25 DecLarge Language Models are not yet providing theories of human language.
3. 22 DecThree common assumptions about inflammation, aging, and health that are probably wrong
4. 20 DecIn Search of Hardness - Protocol studies, the next crypto cycle, and the next age of the world
5. 18 DecTraumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience
6. 15 DecThe ebb and flow of physical and cognitive fatigue
7. 13 DecAI is a camera, not an engine.
8. 11 DecThere are more living cells on Earth than stars in the universe: ~ 10^30 vs. ~ 10^22
9. 7 DecGoggle's Bard and Chat GPT-4 on using AI to explore beyond language and words...
10. 3 DecA flash of clarity on what current LLMs can and can not do. An AI apocalypse does not appear to be eminent...

November 2023

1. 29 NovMeta-Learned Models of Cognition
2. 27 NovThe feasibility of artificial consciousness through the lens of neuroscience
3. 26 NovReligious wars in the tech industry.
4. 19 NovAI is infusing our daily lives. Is it an existential threat?
5. 10 NovPersonalized chatbots and wearable AI devices for melding AI with our everyday lives
6. 8 NovSelf-Organization: Nature's Intelligent Design
7. 6 NovVisual event segmentation alters higher-level thought.
8. 3 NovHow our genes support our illusory selves - the "Baldwin effect"
9. 1 NovDavid Brooks on "What is a Person?"

October 2023

1. 30 OctMindBlog's first talk therapy session with a bot.
2. 27 OctOur Baysean Brain and the Placebo Effect
3. 25 OctA Materialist's Credo
4. 23 OctArchitectural experience influences the processing of others’ body expressions
5. 20 OctDoes a "P-factor" underlie core attributes of mental health maladies?
6. 18 OctMental problems from early life adversity passed down three generations.
7. 16 OctUsing AI to find retinal biomarkers for patient sex that opthalmologists can be trained to see.
8. 13 OctBlithe Spirits and Heavy Souls
9. 11 OctUnification of physics and biology by "Assembly Theory"
10. 9 OctWhat your brain is doing after the light turns green.
11. 4 OctAnthropic Claude's version of my writing on the Mind
12. 2 OctFluid Fogs and Fixed Flows

September 2023

1. 29 SepAI, a boon for science and a disaster for creatives
2. 27 SepMemory for stimulus sequences unique to humans?
3. 25 SepEmergent analogical reasoning in large language models
4. 22 SepThis is the New 'Real World'
5. 20 SepChemistry that regulates whether we stay with what we're doing or try something new
6. 18 SepDoes "situational awareness" in AI's large language models mean consciousness?
7. 15 SepWhat we seek to save when we seek to save the world
8. 13 SepConstructing Self and World
9. 11 SepGlance at Deric's MindBlog only once in a while? Try a dynamic view in the right column.
10. 8 SepOpen access articles on consciousness (Thomas Metzinger and others)
11. 6 SepMapping the physical properties of odorant molecules to their perceptual characteristics.
12. 4 SepInhalation boosts perceptual awareness and decision speed
13. 1 SepThe fragility of artists’ reputations from 1795 to 2020

August 2023

1. 30 AugNeuron–astrocyte networks might perform the core computations performed by AI transformer blocks
2. 28 AugA shared novelty-seeking basis for creativity and curiosity
3. 25 AugThe promise and pitfalls of the metaverse for science
4. 23 AugWhy citizens vote away the democracies they claim to cherish.
5. 21 AugNever-Ending Stories - a survival tactic for uncertain times
6. 17 AugBorn Rich
7. 15 AugHuman History gets a rewrite.
8. 11 AugThe immaturity of America's therapeutic culture
9. 9 AugWhat is intelligence?
10. 7 AugAmerica's legacy of poverty - The injustice of place.
11. 4 Aug18-month old humans discriminate moral violations from disobedient or unexpected events
12. 2 AugWork as war...and Pritzker's Formulae To Spot An Idiot

July 2023

1. 31 JulThe visible gorilla.
2. 28 JulUnnarratability -The Tower of Babel redux - where have all the common narratives gone?
3. 26 JulA MindBlog paragraph on non-dual awareness massaged by Bard and ChatGPT-4
4. 24 JulThe evolution of transhuman forms - a MindBlog paragraph edited by GPT implementations
5. 20 JulProxy Failure is an Inherent Risk in Goal-Oriented Systems
6. 17 JulMindBlog's reading list.
7. 14 Jul‘Adversarial’ search for neural basis of consciousness yields first results
8. 12 JulThe True Threat of Artificial Intelligence
9. 10 JulInheritance of social status - stability in England from 1600 to 2022.
10. 7 JulA meta-analysis questions the cognitive benefits of physical activity.
11. 5 JulWhy music training slows cognitive aging
12. 3 JulWhat Babies Know from zero to 1 year - core systems of knowledge

June 2023

1. 30 JunManaging the risks of AI in pragmatic ways.
2. 28 JunMechanisms that link psychological stress to the exacerbation of gut inflammation.
3. 26 JunThe vagus nerve, heart rate variability, and subjective wellbeing - a MindBlog self experiment
4. 23 JunWhy AI Will Save The World
5. 21 JunTuring, von Neumann, and the computational architecture of biological machines
6. 20 JunThe psychological illusion of "The Good Old Days"
7. 10 JunHow do we define spirituality and what it’s role is in our daily lives?
8. 9 JunA new place for consciousness in our understanding of the universe
9. 7 JunNegativity drives online news consumption
10. 5 JunA simple heuristic for distinguishing lie from truth
11. 2 JunGender inequality is associated with differences between the brains of men and women

May 2023

1. 31 MayConstructing Self and World
2. 29 MayTo fulfill its promise, artificial intelligence needs to deepen human intelligence.
3. 26 MayWhen Their Idea of Liberty Is Your Idea of Death
4. 24 MayUsing AI to decipher words and sentences from brain scans
5. 22 MayMultilevel cultural evolution - new theory and practical applications
6. 19 MayLiberty, Equality, and Fraternity in the Postmodern, Neoliberal Age
7. 17 MayAn evolutionary psychology perspective on the politics of leadership
8. 15 MayPeople who talk too much
9. 12 MayVirality
10. 10 MayMindBlog paragraphs bloviating on the nature of the self ask Google Bard and Chat GPT 4 for help
11. 8 MayCan a theory of events-in-time - our future history - ever be crafted?
12. 5 MayThe Data Deluge - Dataism
13. 4 MayYuval Harari's vision of the end of human history.
14. 3 MayMindBlog points to books on regulating attention and healthy longevity.
15. 2 MayKeeping up with debate and commentary on A.I.
16. 1 MayPanpsychism and Metonymy

April 2023

1. 28 AprAre we living in a simulated world?
2. 26 AprIs the mind a reliable mirror of reality? The marriage of physics and information theory
3. 24 AprNetworks and Emergentism
4. 23 AprHow does a meditation app move toward becoming a corporate behemoth?
5. 21 AprEquivalence of the metaphors of the major religions and transhumanism
6. 19 AprThe Illusion of the Self as Humans become Gods.
7. 17 AprDisenchantment of the world and the computational metaphors of our times.
8. 14 AprBreath - Some basic facts and instructions
9. 12 AprThe Physics of Intelligence - and LDMs (Large Danger Models)
10. 10 AprIf we don’t master AI, AI will master us - A brief list of articles by prominent intellectuals.
11. 7 AprOur heartbeat shapes our perception of time (and a comparison of how ChatGPT and Google Bard condense an account of work showing this)...
12. 5 AprThe fundamentals of empathy
13. 3 AprCan we fight cancer in ourselves with thoughts?

March 2023

1. 31 MarHumans are more than AI machines - OpenAI's chatGPT edits a MindBlog preliminary draft
2. 28 MarMindBlog's seduction by AI
3. 17 MarIs the hype over A.I. justified? Does it really change everything?
4. 15 MarTo the mountains - an analysis of China's current state
5. 13 MarBlood-derived signals as potent drivers of both age-related brain dysfunction and brain rejuvenation.
6. 10 MarAn arthritis drug mimicks the anti-aging benefits of youthful blood transfusions
7. 8 MarA skeptical take on the AI revolution
8. 6 MarMindBlog as a portal to Open AI's ChatGPT? A few stumbles on the way...
9. 3 MarEmpathy lost and regained in a mouse model of dementia
10. 1 MarArtificial intelligence and personhood

February 2023

1. 27 FebPossible mechanism of psychedelic therapeutic effects
2. 24 FebMindBlog picks some of its favorite posts on defining what a self is…
3. 22 FebA fish passes the mirror self recognition test!
4. 20 FebFundamentally rethinking what a mind is and how a brain works.
5. 17 FebThe touch sensitive nerve cells that make mice (and probably us) horny.
6. 15 FebA.I. as a path towards mass lunacy
7. 13 FebAn fMRI marker of drug and food craving
8. 10 FebMultigenerational Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net.
9. 8 FebShifting from foraging to farming, beginning ~12,000 years ago, changed everything.
10. 6 FebOpenness to spiritual experiences...with caution
11. 3 FebCryptocurrency isn't going away - any more that Gold is...
12. 1 FebMarket exposure and human morality

January 2023

1. 30 JanHow sleep shapes what we remember and forget.
2. 27 JanMindBlog's 2010 recital and lecture in Istanbul
3. 25 JanThe Evolution of Peace
4. 23 JanOur different styles of thinking.
5. 20 JanA quick MindBlog riff on what a self is....
6. 18 JanMindful attention enhances brain network control and uncouples past from the present
7. 16 JanCOVID-19 and brain aging
8. 13 JanMaterialism meets transcendence
9. 11 JanAwe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health
10. 9 JanAI After Death: interactions with AI representations of the deceased
11. 6 JanObserving many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty
12. 4 JanA deep-learning model of prescient ideas demonstrates that they emerge from the periphery
13. 2 JanEnlightenment, Habituation, and Renewal - Or, Mindfulness as the opiate of the thinking classes?

2022 157

December 2022

1. 30 DecThe pitfalls of defining neural correlates of brain functions
2. 28 DecWormholes in quanturm computers
3. 26 DecRigorous study does not find that exercise and mindfulness training improve cognitive function in older adults.
4. 23 DecA smart phone intervention that enhances memory in older adults.
5. 21 DecNeurocomputational evidence that conflicting prosocial motives guide distributive justice
6. 19 DecCan we move beyond social media's current destruction of civil society?
7. 16 DecThe dawn of mediocre computing.
8. 14 DecIndividuals prefer to harm their own group rather than help an opposing group
9. 12 DecAutism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide
10. 9 DecHow modern human brains are different from those of other hominids and chimps.
11. 7 DecOpenAI’s ChatGPT answers some questions from MindBlog
12. 5 DecA collection of animal stories
13. 2 DecThe Z-Library Kerfuffle and the whack-a-mole problem

November 2022

1. 30 NovIntuitive physics learning in a deep-learning A.I. model
2. 28 NovThe Computational Society
3. 25 NovThe non-duality industry as a panacea for the anxieties of our times?
4. 23 NovThe Huberman Lab Cornucopia
5. 21 NovMindBlog in Crypto-Land Part II - Is the crypto industry headed for oblivion?
6. 18 NovHow focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray
7. 16 NovThe neurophysiology of consciousness - neural correlates of qualia
8. 14 NovPoisoned by Twitter - Trump, Musk and Kanye
9. 11 NovSleep preferentially consolidates negative aspects of human emotional memory
10. 9 NovThe Neurobiology of long COVID
11. 7 NovSadder but Wiser? Maybe Not.
12. 4 NovSenescent cells targeted by anti-aging therapies may not be all bad
13. 2 NovWell being increases with diversity of social connections.

October 2022

1. 31 OctMolecular markers of eventual chronic diseases of aging are higher in young adults of lower socioeconomic status.
2. 28 OctObserving the activity of our prosocial brains
3. 26 OctA lucid exposition on non-dual awareness by James Low
4. 24 OctGenerative A.I. - more sociopathic than FaceBook and Twitter?
5. 22 OctNew Perspectives on how our Minds Work
6. 21 OctAnxiety - What is it, when is it useful, when is it not?
7. 19 OctFacebook has no idea where it keeps our personal data.
8. 17 OctMusical rhythm training improves short-term memory for faces
9. 14 OctSleepless and unhelpful
10. 12 OctThird-party punishment by preverbal infants
11. 10 OctA sleeping touch improves vision.
12. 7 OctLiberal Democracy versus Christian Democracy
13. 5 OctCognitive and Evolutionary Foundations of Puritanical Morality
14. 3 OctTriggers for mother love

September 2022

1. 30 SepTrigger warnings and ‘safety-ism’ don’t work.
2. 28 SepNeural synchronization predicts marital satisfaction
3. 26 SepHow nature nurtures
4. 23 SepMachine learning is translating the languages of animals
5. 21 SepLasting improvements in seniors’ working and long-term memory with repetitive neuromodulation
6. 19 SepThe sex of human experimenters influences mouse behaviors and neural responses.
7. 16 SepA 2020 MindBlog anti-aging experiment whose results I forgot to report to MindBlog readers.
8. 14 SepHow the internet has fueled our current cultural stagnation.
9. 12 SepNon-duality as a platform for experiencing daily life.
10. 9 SepEye movements are related to the contents of consciousness in REM (rapid eye movment) sleep
11. 7 SepIs History History?
12. 5 SepAnimals (including us) conjure model-based structures from random events
13. 2 SepIncreasingly good artificial intelligence (A.I.) is offering us promise and peril.

August 2022

1. 31 AugDoes crypto-world really give us trustworthyness without gate keepers...? The answer is NO - It hides a new elite.
2. 29 AugThe medium really is the message
3. 26 AugOur anterior insula signals salience and deviations from expectations via bursts of beta oscillations
4. 24 AugThe brain chemistry underlying mental exhaustion.
5. 22 AugEven novices intuit complex music theory,
6. 19 AugReproducability crisis in machine learning systems that inform immediate or future actions
7. 17 AugAlcohol, neuronal plasticity, and mitochondrial trafficking
8. 15 AugA systematic review of microdosing - research on low dose psychedelics
9. 10 AugMusic training enhances auditory and linguistic processing.
10. 8 AugOld hearts learn new tricks
11. 5 AugDissecting and improving motor skill acquisition in older adults
12. 3 AugMotor learning without movement
13. 1 AugBrain changes, or the absence thereof, associated with mindfulness training.

July 2022

1. 29 JulWolf attacks predict far-right voting
2. 27 JulEmotional contagion and prosocial behavior
3. 25 JulEfficiently irrational: deciphering the riddle of human choice
4. 22 JulThe End of the World is Just the Beginning
5. 20 JulWidespread ripples synchronize human cortical activity during sleep, waking, and memory recall
6. 18 JulRestoring the aged brain with cerebrospinal fluid.
7. 15 JulHow the organization of generalized knowledge promotes memory.
8. 13 JulfNIRS - Functional near Iinfrared spectroscopy as a monitor of brain activity
9. 11 JulSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience - a fascinating journal, many open source articles
10. 8 JulStress in older adults accelerates immune system aging.
11. 6 JulHow stress focuses brain integration
12. 4 JulTruly Humbled....
13. 1 JulReduction of stress and inflammatory responses by transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation
14. 1 JulThe self-immolation of the American progressive left

June 2022

1. 29 JunTheories of consciousness
2. 27 JunThe allure of conspiracy theories.
3. 24 JunMagnetic stimulation of the brain can improve cognitive impairment
4. 22 JunEffortless training of attention and self-control
5. 20 JunMindBlog in Crypto-Land
6. 17 JunTesterone production in adult men is regulated by an adolescent period sensitive to family experiences.
7. 15 JunThe brain signature of choosing to accept pain in exchange for future reward
8. 13 JunNeural signatures of major depressive, anxiety, and stress-related disorders
9. 10 JunThe Conscious Turing Machine - a blueprint for conscious machines.
10. 8 JunStories move the heart - literally
11. 6 JunI am not my problem
12. 3 JunBeginnings
13. 1 JunHeart rate variability as a marker of stress and health - measurements with the 'magic ring'

May 2022

1. 30 MayBrain-Heart interplay in emotional arousal - resolving a hundred year old debate
2. 27 MayExperiential appreciation as a pathway to meaning in life
3. 25 MayWhy is a moving hand less sensitive to touch than a stationary hand?
4. 21 MayMozart and Brahms Piano Trios at an 80th birthday house concert
5. 19 MayHarmonics of the social brain
6. 16 MayHow stress might help reduce dementia and alzheimer’s.
7. 13 MayThe tabula sapiens consortium - mapping cell types in the human body
8. 11 MayIncreases and decreases in affective polarization over the past 40 years in advanced democracies
9. 9 MayGraziano's conceptual framework for consciousness
10. 9 MayThe prosocial effect of touching - the Midas touch effect.
11. 5 MayQuestioning common claims about human brain evolution
12. 3 MayOlder adults store too much information.
13. 2 MayThe human fear paradox: Affective origins of cooperative care

April 2022

1. 28 AprThe cultural evolution of love in literary history
2. 26 AprAre we seeing the beginning of World War III?
3. 21 AprInsight from Jonathan Haidt - "After Babel"
4. 18 AprHow the gut talks to the brain.
5. 15 AprA magisterial summary of the new world disorder by David Brooks
6. 13 AprThe Dance of Sleep
7. 11 AprThe road to our larger brains
8. 8 AprHumans don’t have culture because we’re smart, we’re smart because we have culture.
9. 6 AprThe Science of Consciousness - Tucson 2022
10. 4 AprMagic mind therapy….. Moving your body.
11. 1 AprLosing sleep with age.

March 2022

1. 30 MarRe-energizing the aged brain
2. 28 MarAbnormal hemispheric interactions of Autism Spectrum Disorder present in 1st year of life.
3. 25 MarTrust is needed to run the world, and crypto can make trusting easier
4. 23 MarNeurons in the brain that respond mainly to singing
5. 21 MarMellow Mice - Why deep breathing can keep us calm
6. 18 MarDifference in knowledge production by global north and south
7. 16 MarHow exercise supports the brain
8. 14 MarAddicted to dreaming.
9. 11 MarThe manly art of self-promotion
10. 9 MarGenes for loving nature.
11. 7 MarThe Life Cycle of Outrage
12. 7 MarA feeling of loss in the abstraction of all those beautiful things into streams and algorithms...
13. 4 MarListening to our bodies can make us more resilient to stress
14. 2 MarAI-synthesized faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy

February 2022

1. 28 FebSeven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age
2. 25 FebReconsidering evidence of moral contagion in online social networks
3. 23 FebPredictions help neurons, and the brain, learn
4. 21 FebConsciousness is supported by near-critical slow cortical electrodynamics
5. 18 FebIllusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female
6. 16 FebOur brains store concepts as sensory-motor and affective information
7. 14 FebHow to want less
8. 11 FebA special issue of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience on tDCS
9. 9 FebExpression unleashed: The evolutionary & cognitive foundations of human communication
10. 7 FebMindBlog is 16 years old... It's first post: "Dangerous Ideas"
11. 4 FebAttention and executive functions - improvements and declines with ageing.
12. 2 FebHow fast people respond to each other is a metric of social connection.

January 2022

1. 31 JanThreatening language is contagious - Tracking America’s collective response to threats with a linguistic tool
2. 28 JanThe stories we imagine while listening to music depends on our culture.
3. 26 JanOur brains have multiple representations of the same body part.
4. 25 JanUsing big data to track major shifts in human cognition
5. 21 JanWhat is working for you and what is not?
6. 21 JanCan monitoring brain waves boost mental health?
7. 19 JanC.E.O.s are our heroes, at least according to them.
8. 17 JanDifferent circuits in the brain for reward seeking and novelty seeking.
9. 14 JanUnlocking adults’ implicit statistical learning by cognitive depletion
10. 12 JanChildren universally across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways
11. 10 JanTranscranial stimulation of alpha oscillations up-regulates the default mode network
12. 7 JanTwitter amplifies the political right more than the political left
13. 5 JanHigher performance and fronto-parietal brain activity following active versus passive learning
14. 3 JanThe Power of Us

2021 198

December 2021

1. 31 DecThe rise and fall of rationality in language
2. 29 DecSenolytic therapies for healthy longevity
3. 27 DecMindBlog gets an extreme comment on Covid
4. 25 DecA musical offering.
5. 22 DecWhat Happened to American Conservatism?
6. 20 DecThe Point is to Stop - a farewell to self help coaching
7. 16 DecThe active grandparent hypothesis
8. 14 DecNew articles on exercise and the brain
9. 10 DecTemporal Self-Compression
10. 8 DecSeverity and clinical course of depression correlates with altered connectivity in sensorimotor cortices.
11. 6 DecThe Science of Mind Reading
12. 3 DecIn praise of Sheeple - why we shouldn't always think for ourselves
13. 2 DecWhat is a DAO? Who needs humans?
14. 1 DecThe Science of Hugs?

November 2021

1. 30 NovCannabis use during pregnancy correlates with cortisol, anxiety, aggression, and hyperactivity in young children.
2. 29 NovAn artificial neural network that responds to written words like our brain's word form area
3. 26 NovOnline spread of false information depends on cascade size
4. 25 NovCaution around the fountain of youth.
5. 24 NovVolatile hexadecanal emitted by babies could make men more docile and women more aggressive
6. 23 NovSocrates, Diderot, and Wolpert on Writing and Printing
7. 22 NovFluid intelligence and the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system
8. 19 NovDrifting nerve assemblies can maintain persistent memories
9. 17 NovOur brainstems respond to fake therapies and fake side effects.
10. 17 NovSnippets of Bach
11. 15 NovCoevolution of tool use and language - shared syntactic processes and basal ganglia substrates
12. 12 NovFreedom From Illusion
13. 10 NovComputational evidence that predictive processing shapes language comprehension mechanisms in the brain.
14. 8 NovA MindBlog lecture - A New Vision of how our Minds Work
15. 8 NovIt’s Quitting Season
16. 5 NovVariability, not stereotypical expressions, in facial portraying of emotional states.
17. 3 NovPeople mistake the internet’s knowledge for their own
18. 1 NovWhat the mind is - similarities and differences in concepts of mental life in five cultures

October 2021

1. 29 OctPeople listening to the same story synchronize their heart rates.
2. 27 OctWhat are our brains doing when they are (supposedly) doing nothing?
3. 25 OctScientific fields don't advance if too many papers are published.
4. 22 OctMetabolism modulates network synchrony in the aging brain
5. 20 OctA debate over stewardship of global collective behavior
6. 18 OctPaws for thought: Dogs have a theory of mind?
7. 15 OctThe dark side of Eureka: Artificially induced Aha moments make facts feel true
8. 13 OctNational religiosity eases the psychological burden of poverty
9. 11 OctPrecision and the Bayesian brain
10. 8 OctReconsolidation of a reactivated memory can be altered by stress hormone levels.
11. 6 OctPerceived voice emotions evolve from categories to dimensions
12. 4 OctMusic can be infectious like a virus - the same mathematical model works for both
13. 1 OctCan we get human nature right?

September 2021

1. 29 SepHow the unvaccinated threaten the vaccinated for COVID-19: A Darwinian perspective
2. 27 SepModels of how political polarization happens
3. 24 SepAsymptomatic infection is the pandemic’s dark matter
4. 22 SepIs self awareness a mirage?
5. 20 SepSecure human attachment can promote support for climate change mitigation
6. 20 SepMonday morning tonic - A modern folk song about your brain
7. 17 SepHow social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe
8. 15 SepDomestic dogs: Born human whisperers
9. 13 SepThe 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony -
10. 10 SepYou Are Not Who You Think You Are
11. 8 SepAgeing yields improvements as well as declines across attention and executive functions
12. 6 SepA test of plasticity-based cognitive training in treating mild traumatic brain injury
13. 3 SepBabbling bats
14. 1 SepThe neuroinflammation collection: a review of neuro-immune crosstalk

August 2021

1. 30 AugTwo Americas
2. 29 AugNPR's "Joy Generator"
3. 27 AugDouthat's Guide to Finding Faith
4. 25 AugWell-being of the aging brain - from the Univ.of Wisc. Center for Healty Minds
5. 23 AugResearch experiences and social justice
6. 20 AugYouTube algorithms do not appear to drive attention to radical content.
7. 18 AugCastration delays aging
8. 16 AugWhat is our brain's spontaneous activity for?
9. 13 AugThe connections between two brain regions that are required for consciousness are regulated by dopamine.
10. 11 AugHow the insiders win - Philanthropy, advocacy, and profit.
11. 9 AugElectromagnetic radiation in the wireless signal range increases wakefulness in mice
12. 6 AugSeeing others react to threats triggers our own internal threat responses.
13. 4 AugHistorical language records reveal societal depression and anxiety in past two decades higher than during 20th century.
14. 2 AugOur gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy aging and survival

July 2021

1. 30 JulHow our brain cortex changes in the transition from childhood to adolescence.
2. 28 JulGraphic depictions of an integrative model of mind
3. 26 JulStable individual differences in infants’ responses to violations of intuitive physics
4. 23 JulA place in the brain for the sense of ‘self’
5. 21 JulFrom many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind
6. 19 JulPsilocybin induces rapid and persistent growth of dendritic spines in frontal cortex in vivo
7. 16 JulAlbert Einstein Quotes
8. 15 JulEvolutionary models of financial markets.
9. 14 JulThe A.I. Revolution, Trillionaires and the Future of Political Power.
10. 13 JulWatching a brain encode present, past, and future….
11. 12 JulSullivan on what has happened to the belief system of the American elites.
12. 9 JulCoffee is good for you, mostly....
13. 7 JulSome people have no "Minds Eye"
14. 5 JulHuman behavior and the brain's white matter
15. 2 JulOut-group animosity drives engagement on social media

June 2021

1. 30 JunSeven nuggets on how we confuse ourselves about our brains and our world.
2. 28 JunIn our brains everything changes
3. 25 JunLack of mathematical education impacts brain development and future attainment
4. 23 JunDecision-making ability, psychopathology, and brain connectivity
5. 21 JunGiving help to others may increase your life span.
6. 18 JunOur 'Self' extends vastly beyond our brain.
7. 17 JunA.I. should be afraid of us.
8. 16 JunYour blood proteins can tell you the best kind of exercise for your body
9. 15 JunEquality and Equity in the Life Sciences
10. 14 JunFour Americas
11. 11 JunSocial Media isn't the problem...We are.
12. 10 JunStorytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions, decreases cortisol and pain, in hospitalized kids
13. 9 JunCultural Evolution of Genetic Heritability
14. 8 JunWe’ve been great at extending our lives, but not at ending them.
15. 7 JunMaking the hard problem of consciousness easier
16. 4 JunInequality is a law of nature
17. 3 JunOptogenetics used to induce pair bonding and restore vision.
18. 2 JunI’m Not Scared to Reenter Society. I’m Just Not Sure I Want To.
19. 1 JunWatching brain regions that help us anticipate what's going to happen next.

May 2021

1. 31 MayWill our American democracy collapse?
2. 28 MayThe latest on wearable stress-relief
3. 27 MayBias Is a Big Problem. But So Is ‘Noise.’
4. 26 MayDarwin’s insights: How the evolutionary perspective has come to permeate the social sciences.
5. 25 MayCan You Have More Than 150 Friends?
6. 24 MayFor consciousness theory mavens: an argument against Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory.
7. 22 MayI owe my soul to the company store (Google).
8. 21 MayEducational attainment does not influence brain aging
9. 19 MayThe curiosity circuits of our brains.
10. 18 MayLiberal fact-master nerds go down the rabbit hole of a social media conspiracy.
11. 17 MayHow both tribes are missing the mark
12. 14 MayTwo promising post-traumatic stress disorder treatments
13. 12 MaySocial isolation makes us stupid.
14. 10 MayTribe trumps truth.
15. 7 MayStructural Whitening
16. 5 MayEvidence that monkeys have conscious awareness of self - they know what they saw.
17. 3 MayPeople have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years

April 2021

1. 30 AprExcess mortality rates since 2000 in the US compared with Europe.
2. 28 AprEmbracing diversity can disadvantage minorities
3. 26 AprSensitivity to geometric shape: A putative signature of human singularity
4. 23 AprWhat coffee does to body and mind
5. 21 AprAncient Greece's Army of Lovers
6. 19 AprGamma-frequency oscillations link different brain regions during learning.
7. 16 AprVision: What’s so special about words?
8. 14 AprUseful Delusions
9. 12 AprWhy does passion matter more in individualistic cultures?
10. 9 AprThe Psychology of Fake News
11. 7 AprHow dopamine leads to hallucinations
12. 5 AprA Dendrite-Focused Framework for Understanding the Actions of Ketamine and Psychedelics
13. 1 AprFalse memories can be reversed without damage to true memories.

March 2021

1. 30 MarThe case against reality
2. 26 MarPlasticity during our development of mapping time on to space.
3. 25 MarMeasuring happiness in small steps.
4. 24 MarBrain mechanism by which testosterone reduces generosity
5. 23 MarFour distinct patterns of aging - what is your 'ageotype'?
6. 22 MarPoints on having a self and free will.
7. 19 MarPassion matters but not equally everywhere.
8. 18 MarHierarchical dynamics as a macroscopic organizing principle of the human brain
9. 17 MarHow about another global conspiracy theory?..... Multinational mega-corporations are a global oligarchy maintaining world peace.
10. 16 MarTraces of psychedelics make you feel good, but so does placebo.
11. 15 MarYou should probably end a conversation sooner than you think.
12. 12 MarTurn your living room into a Neuro Lab for marketing research....
13. 11 MarChanging basic personality traits with a smartphone App?
14. 10 MarEvidence for an influence of meditation on immune-related pathways?
15. 9 MarThe echo chamber effect on social media
16. 8 MarSexiest birds on the planet - Manakins have the best moves
17. 5 MarLifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19
18. 4 MarA graphic of the coming collapse of our marine ecosystems.
19. 3 MarWellness apps can't cure our digital dehumanization
20. 2 MarAvoiding psychological biases that trick your brain.
21. 1 MarHumans are animals - get over it. Let go of 'the purpose and meaning of it all'

February 2021

1. 26 FebThe life cycle of a new social network
2. 25 FebTrain Yourself to be Happy
3. 24 FebMusic and Medicine
4. 23 FebReal-time talking with dreamers during REM sleep
5. 22 FebSo...whatcha gonna offer me for this cell phone I stole from you?
6. 19 FebWhy cats like catnip...
7. 17 FebMindBlog Outage
8. 16 FebThe gut microbiome can instruct brain cells to fight neuroinflammation.
9. 15 FebPersonal experiences bridge moral and political divides better than facts
10. 12 FebYou've gotta watch this - A billion year journey of Earth's tectonic plates
11. 11 FebMindBlog keeps the blood pumping
12. 10 FebSensing the presence of gods and spirits across cultures and faiths
13. 9 FebHow LSD tweaks our brain synapses to promote social behavior.
14. 8 FebTiming matters when correcting fake news
15. 5 FebMindBlog's 15th birthday
16. 4 FebMoonstruck sleep: Synchronization of human sleep with the moon cycle
17. 3 FebUnderlying forces that are determining America's future governance.
18. 2 FebA brief afternoon nap is probably good for your brain.
19. 1 FebThe Coup We Are Not Talking About - an article of foundational importance

January 2021

1. 29 JanExperienced well-being does increase above incomes of $75,000/year
2. 28 JanWhy do our brains dream?
3. 27 JanWhat Can Experimental Studies of Bias Tell Us About Real-World Group Disparities?
4. 26 JanThe languages of human smell
5. 25 JanA broad approach to understanding emotions - Semantic Space Theory
6. 22 JanThe paradox of pleasurable fear.
7. 21 JanMost People are Good
8. 20 JanData-driven solutions to U.S. polarization
9. 19 JanA third visual pathway specialized for social perception.
10. 18 JanEndorsement of dominant masculinity best predicts 2016 and 2020 voting and candidate evaluations.
11. 15 JanHow oxytocin enhances male sexual activity
12. 14 JanHow technology destroys bonding cultural narratives
13. 13 JanHow mice feel each other's pain or fear
14. 12 JanCults, cabals, white power, and Trumpism
15. 11 JanEnvironmental noise degrades learning and memory
16. 8 JanA reality-challenged America of echo chambers and cults
17. 7 JanAre we the cows of the future?
18. 6 JanCuttlefish can pass the marshmellow test.
19. 5 JanThe brains of friends have similar brain functional connectivities.
20. 4 JanThe changing geography of social mobility in the United States
21. 1 JanCommentaries on our times

2020 231

December 2020

1. 31 DecMatriliny reverses gender disparities in inflammation and hypertension.
2. 30 DecThe generic "you" enhances connection between people and ideas
3. 29 DecSixteen facial expressions occur in similar contexts worldwide .
4. 28 DecHallucinogens at a prehistoric rock art site.
5. 25 DecA musical offering for this day.
6. 24 DecThe plasticity of well-being and the cultivation of human flourishing
7. 23 DecBarrett's grand finale... From Brain to Mind: The New Frontier
8. 21 DecThe emotions of animals - and our human mental inference fallacy
9. 18 DecEmotion and the Law
10. 16 DecImplications of the new understanding of how our emotions really work - emotional well being
11. 14 DecA New View of Human Nature
12. 11 DecEmotions as Social Reality
13. 9 DecHow the Brain Makes Emotions
14. 7 DecConcepts, Goals, and Words
15. 4 DecThe Origin of Feeling
16. 2 DecEmotions are constructed, and are not universal.

November 2020

1. 30 NovEmotions do not have distinctive brain and body ‘fingerprints’
2. 27 NovA unified view of reasons and emotions.
3. 23 NovYour brain is not for thinking.
4. 18 NovWe have been wrong about what emotions are - MindBlog is taking a study mini-sabbitical
5. 17 NovNature's lessons for a more kind society.
6. 16 NovThe complexity model of societal collapse
7. 12 NovOur looming civil unrest is predicted by Turchin's historical model.
8. 11 NovThe pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights
9. 9 NovIncreasing acceptance of psychotropic drugs reflected by US Election results
10. 6 NovOxytocin can increase or decrease anxiety-related behaviors.
11. 5 NovPower to the people (on climate change policy)
12. 4 NovLearned hopefulness
13. 3 NovHealing the partisan partisan divide - is there a vital center?
14. 2 NovBeing an America First populist correlates with reported lifetime criminal arrests.

October 2020

1. 30 OctMindBlog's 5,000th post - The milliseconds of a choice - Watching your mind when it matters.
2. 29 OctWhy have we become more comfortable and less happy over the past 40 years?
3. 28 OctA case for "we" in an "I" country
4. 27 OctThe end of an expanding epidemic cannot be precisely forecast
5. 26 OctMachine learning detects online influence campaigns.
6. 23 OctUnethical amnesia
7. 22 OctCompassion research
8. 21 Oct5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Baroque Music - Calming sounds for our times
9. 20 OctCorrelation between increased COVID-19 cases and support for political leaders.
10. 19 OctAnother description of how science works.
11. 16 OctWant to feel better? Make a fake smile by holding a pencil in your teeth.
12. 15 OctPhysics of virus transmission by speaking droplets
13. 14 OctMindBlog starts another anti-aging self experiment.
14. 13 OctCan podcasts make us happy?
15. 12 OctOur looming societal bereavement.
16. 9 OctPartisan polarization about voting by mail during the pandemic
17. 8 OctThe mystery of American pain - a warning for the future
18. 7 OctAge related cognitive decline and the gut microbiome
19. 6 OctBodybuilding supplement promotes healthy aging and extends life span
20. 5 OctFacing major changes that are a predictable and integral part of life.
21. 2 OctTipsy microglia binge on synapses - another reason to cut down on the booze
22. 1 OctAcetaminophen increases risk taking

September 2020

1. 30 SepAll of us are racists in our early infancy.
2. 29 SepWhat to Do When the Future Feels Hopeless
3. 28 SepKitty see, kitty do: cat imitates human
4. 25 SepPerceptions of family social status correlate with health and life chances
5. 24 SepGenes and environments, development and time
6. 23 SepInflammaging - Another reason seniors don't want to catch COVID-19
7. 22 SepThe 2020 Ig Nobel Prizes - research on knives made of feces.
8. 21 SepBrain circuits signaling the absence of emotion in body language
9. 18 SepAnother Big History - why the West is WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic)
10. 16 SepEthnic antagonism erodes Republicans’ commitment to democracy
11. 15 SepDisagreeable people are not more likely than agreeable people to obtain power in an organization.
12. 14 Sep"Us" versus "Them" in 17 month old infants.
13. 10 SepCognitive control increases honesty in cheaters but cheating in those who are honest
14. 9 SepOrigins of human music - two perspectives
15. 8 SepThe science of inequality.
16. 7 SepPredicting results of our presidential election.
17. 4 SepDemocracy in the Balance - Special Issue of Science Magazine
18. 3 SepThe illusion of objectivity enhances political polarization.
19. 2 SepMechanisms of our current political polarization.
20. 1 SepThe active grandparent hypothesis - an evolutionary explanation of why and how exercise delays senescence and death.

August 2020

1. 31 AugChanges as MindBlog's autonomic nervous system ages 11 years
2. 28 AugReconsidering the value of believing in free will.
3. 27 AugA brief history of risk
4. 26 AugGetting the rhythm to suppress Alzheimer's
5. 25 AugRice-farming predicts tigher social norms, less innovative thinking, worldwide
6. 24 AugStable isotopes in hair reveal dietary divergence related to socioeconomic status and health
7. 21 AugGaze deflection reveals how gaze cueing is tuned to extract the mind behind the eyes
8. 20 AugEffects of lockdown on human sleep and chronotype during the COVID-19 pandemic
9. 19 AugA model shows herd immunity to COVID can be achieved at a population-wide infection rate of ~40%
10. 18 AugPhilanthropy—or tax-exempt lobbying?
11. 17 AugOur default-mode network contains nine subnetworks serving different cognitive tasks.
12. 14 AugThe Neurobiology of Social Distance
13. 13 AugPlacebos without deception reduce self-report and neural measures of emotional distress
14. 12 AugPersonality dimensions are predicted by cell phone usage data
15. 11 AugConversational primes influence choices - a magic trick example
16. 10 AugThe Paradoxical Role of Social Capital in the Coronavirus Pandemic
17. 7 AugWorking memory capacity predicts individual differences in social-distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic
18. 6 AugThe coming de facto world government?
19. 5 AugConserved aspects of sex-biased brain development in humans and mice
20. 5 AugCats associated with early human farming long before their domestication
21. 4 AugRobust evidence for bisexual orientation among men

July 2020

1. 31 JulInflammaging and COVID-19
2. 30 JulStepping backwards enhances cognitive control.
3. 29 JulAre you holding your breath?
4. 28 Jul“Design fiction” skirts reality to provoke discussion and debate
5. 27 JulDynamic Views of MindBlog
6. 27 JulFollowup on MindBlog's Istanbul lecture on our subjective "I"
7. 24 JulTraining internal resilience
8. 23 JulHow we get stronger.
9. 22 JulMindblog does another anti-aging experiment.
10. 21 JulOur brain's chemistry of love neutralizes its chemistry of fear.
11. 20 JulA calming Brahms Romance for Monday afternoon.
12. 20 JulUrgent care for our brains.
13. 18 JulMindblog's back office has expanded
14. 17 JulBenefits of exercise on aging brain obtained without exercise - by plasma transfer.
15. 16 JulWe navigate with stereo smell
16. 15 JulThe enlightenment returns.
17. 14 JulHow stress triggers inflammation
18. 13 JulGay scientists isolate christian gene.
19. 10 JulNearest neighbors shape educational attainment regardless of class origin.
20. 10 JulAn interlude of Grieg's Lyric Pieces
21. 9 JulLower socioeconomic status and the acceleration of aging.
22. 8 JulExaggerated meta-perceptions predict intergroup hostility between American political partisans
23. 7 JulBrain correlates of the muting of our emotions as we age.
24. 6 JulFor a tranquil start to your week, Debussy with flowers
25. 6 JulSome rambling on "Selves" and "Purpose"
26. 3 JulWhich way are you wagging your tail?
27. 2 JulResponse to climate change...."Managed Retreat"
28. 1 JulFive Epic Crises All at Once - David Brooks

June 2020

1. 30 JunFeeling bad is not bad.
2. 30 JunMindBlog's half-sour pickle recipe
3. 29 JunThe pandemic has put history on fast-forward.
4. 26 JunVote-by-mail has no impact on partisan turnout or vote share
5. 25 JunThe University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age
6. 25 JunMindBlog statistics.
7. 24 JunStephen Wolfram - Computation All the Way Down
8. 23 Jun10 reasons why a 'Greater Depression' for the 2020s is inevitable.
9. 22 JunWhy have stocks been rising.?
10. 19 JunThe molecular choreography of acute exercise
11. 18 JunNostalgia... Remember Disco??
12. 17 JunJon Stewart weighs back in.....
13. 16 JunRich and Poor
14. 16 JunMotion aftereffect demonstration
15. 15 JunAs diversity increases, people paradoxically perceive social groups as more similar
16. 12 JunThe psyche is not inside us but between us.
17. 11 JunMaking Us/Them Dichotomies More Benign.
18. 10 JunA perky bit of piano - Haydn Fantasia in C major, glitches included
19. 9 JunPeople aged 95 and older show stronger brain connectivity
20. 8 JunHow Covid-19 stress scrambles our brains
21. 5 JunConfront your decline head on.
22. 4 JunDo you really want to make your own complex medical decisions?
23. 3 JunAnxiolytic actions of oxytocin, unlike those of benzodiazepines, involve brain regions outside the amygdala
24. 2 JunYour voice carries information about your upper body movements.
25. 1 JunAn "Apostle's Creed" for the humanistic scientific materialist?

May 2020

1. 29 MayBrain connectivity fingerprinting of complex human personality traits - another tool for the surveillance state?
2. 28 MayAn explanation for human synesthesia
3. 27 MaySocial animals need connection for health and survival
4. 26 MayThe obsolescence of three core operating systems that have shaped civilization for the past 350 years
5. 25 MayRules for identifying your life's work.
6. 22 MayAI for social good: Well meaning gobbledegook
7. 21 MayKetogenic diet enhances brain network stability, a biomarker of aging
8. 20 MayHow Social Networks are destroying democracy.
9. 19 MayClosing the gap between mind and brain - The dynamic connectome and psilocybin
10. 18 MayAnti-Intellectualism, Populism, and Motivated Resistance to Expert Consensus
11. 15 MayMeet the psychobiome
12. 14 MayArthur Brooks on "The Hero's Journey" and retirement
13. 13 MayYoung blood plasma reverses the epigenetic aging clock.
14. 12 MayTake the shutdown skeptics seriously.
15. 11 MaySelf, purpose, and tribal mentality as Darwinian adaptations (or…Why why aren’t we all enlightened?)
16. 8 MayInfant behavioral inhibition predicts personality and social outcomes three decades later
17. 7 MayFuture of the Human climate niche
18. 6 MayThe Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science
19. 5 MayThe cultural origins of metacognition.
20. 4 MayRising workplace inequalities in high-income countries.
21. 1 MayHow do cognition-enhancing drugs work?

April 2020

1. 30 AprWhy does awe have prosocial effects?
2. 29 AprEvidence that aerobic exercise reverses aging.
3. 28 AprNon-invasive DIY brain stimulators are a bad idea.
4. 27 AprThe deep historical roots of global economic inequality
5. 24 AprChanges in cerebral cortex functional organization in healthy elderly.
6. 23 AprA review on transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation.
7. 22 AprEffects of social media on well-being.
8. 21 AprDifferential fertility makes society more conservative on family values
9. 20 AprOlder adults proactively downregulate anticipated negative affect.
10. 17 AprLooking at pictures makes your brain’s visual cortex swell!
11. 16 AprProgress toward gender equality in the United States has slowed or stalled
12. 15 AprGender differences in the brain connections that predict intelligence.
13. 14 AprArthur Brooks launches a happiness column.
14. 13 AprTwo sources on the state of America
15. 10 AprPsychedelic psychiatry's brave new world, and a new rapid-acting antidepressannt
16. 9 AprStress can be enhancing.
17. 8 AprSelf Help during the COVID-19 crisis.
18. 7 AprThe perils of nighttime dining
19. 6 AprThe lockdown turns out to NOT be an introvert's paradise.
20. 3 AprRejuvenating aging human cells.
21. 2 AprBrain regions that predict money choices also predict allocation of time to watching videos
22. 1 AprProsocial behavior can increase happiness in the short term but decrease it in the long term.

March 2020

1. 31 MarGoogle knows more about me than I do. Further comment on Harari article.
2. 30 MarVulnerable robots induce prosocial behavior in groups of humans.
3. 28 MarSpringtime for introverts...
4. 27 MarWhen we return to the gym...A molecular muscle memory helps retraining of muscles after inactivity.
5. 26 MarHarari on the world after coronavirus.
6. 25 MarModeling Donald Trump - A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit
7. 23 MarA Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right
8. 20 MarSurprise! Oil and gas companies give more money to legislators that vote against the environment.
9. 19 MarIn response to COVID-19 crisis, several anti-anxiety apps have become free.
10. 18 MarHumans were not designed for sitting in chairs.
11. 16 MarKrugman on Piketty's new book on inequality - "Capital and Ideology'
12. 13 MarMindBlog passes on a note: on the relief of not being yourself.
13. 11 MarCannabis increases susceptibility to false memory.
14. 9 MarSam Harris' "Waking Up" wakes up Deric's MindBlog
15. 6 MarUsing your brain's functional connectivity to track psychiatric symptoms and treatments.
16. 4 MarWhy are teenagers so unpredictable and impulsive? - brain changes during adolescence
17. 2 MarSpeech versus music in the brain

February 2020

1. 28 FebOptimism and longevity.
2. 26 FebA magic mushroom nose spray for psychedelic microdosing?
3. 24 FebThe role of memory suppression in resilience after trauma.
4. 21 FebImposter syndrome threatens diversity
5. 19 FebWinner of Dance your PhD 2019 contest - Social experiences in larval zebrafish and their brains
6. 17 FebMindBlog is starting its 15th year...
7. 14 FebMindfulness as an antidote to the intrusions of artificial intelligence?
8. 10 FebAmazing technology - a total body PET scanner with 100ms resolution.
9. 7 FebEconomic Inequality increases desire for a strong leader.
10. 5 FebResilient misinformation in a crisis
11. 3 FebHow much are we misled by inauthentic internet content? Perhaps not much...

January 2020

1. 31 JanUniversality and diversity in human song
2. 29 JanWhat music makes us feel - 13 cross cultural categories
3. 27 JanRepeated fake headlines feel more moral
4. 24 JanAltruistic behaviors relieve physical pain.
5. 22 JanChildhood deprivation alters adult brains despite subsequent environmental enrichment.
6. 20 JanWhat is your biological age? A problem with the epigenetic clock approach.
7. 17 JanThe Mind-Body problem - How our brain talks to stress systems in our body.
8. 15 JanYou ideal job can be predicted by your social media behavior.
9. 13 JanAn alternative neural mechanism for treating anxiety disorders through safety signal learning.
10. 10 JanGreat graphics - a review of cerebral cortex structure/folding from mice to humans.
11. 8 JanBrain aging reduced by elevating acetyl-CoA levels.
12. 6 JanThe quiet brains of athletes
13. 3 JanAnti-immigration sentiment does not correlate with local democraphic changes.
14. 1 JanIncreased emotional reactivity in men with high hair testosterone concentrations.

2019 197

December 2019

1. 30 DecWe’ve just had the best decade (and year) in human history. Seriously
2. 27 DecWorld in decline? New authoritarian age? - the dangers of declinism.
3. 25 DecFor the holiday season - the gift of self care
4. 23 DecIs this what my grandson will be doing in a few years?
5. 20 DecSetting back our epigenic age?
6. 18 DecMindBlog reviews the HealthyMinds App
7. 18 DecFavorite sentences
8. 16 DecOur blood protein profiles change in the fourth, seventh and eighth decades of life
9. 13 DecOur visual system uses recurrence in its representational dynamics
10. 11 DecMore insight into metformin's beneficial effects on diabetes, aging, and several diseases.
11. 9 DecHeritable gaps between chronological age and brain age are increased in common brain disorders.
12. 6 DecSame-Sex behavior in animals - a new view.
13. 4 DecSomething in the way we move.
14. 2 DecRival theories of consciousness being tested by large project.

November 2019

1. 29 NovThe real cost of texting and tweeting.
2. 27 NovCognitive and noncognitive predictors of success.
3. 25 NovHow trance states might have forged human societies
4. 22 NovEvidence for premature aging caused by insufficient sleep.
5. 20 NovA "Department of the Attention Economy"
6. 18 NovSocial class is revealed by brief clips of speech.
7. 15 NovExplaining the puzzle of human diversity in the Christian world
8. 13 NovNew work on how and why we sleep.
9. 11 NovWhy we can't tell the truth about aging.
10. 8 NovWorld wide movement of people into cities is degrading the human microbiome
11. 6 NovHow human breeding has changed dogs’ brains
12. 4 NovA triple drug combination increases lifespan by 48%
13. 1 NovSkill development - the intelligence vs. practice debate reframed

October 2019

1. 30 OctThe miracle cure - just move
2. 28 OctFeeling grateful - a shortcut to virtuous behavior.
3. 25 OctFive myths about aging.
4. 23 OctThe Metamorphosis of the Western Soul
5. 21 OctShape of your heart is determined by whether you run or sit.
6. 18 OctThe default mode network represents esthetic appeal.
7. 16 OctCross-national negativity bias in reacting to news
8. 14 OctAn update on the science of ‘free will’
9. 11 OctMore critique of work linking loving kindness meditation and cellular again
10. 9 OctPsilocybin + Mindfulness Meditation change brain connectivity - lasting positive effects
11. 7 OctMindfulness doesn't reduce impulsive behavior.
12. 4 OctGender and race stereotypes - what's in a name...
13. 2 OctCognitive and Affective Neuroscience

September 2019

1. 30 SepPeople of color - getting quantitative about police-involved deaths
2. 27 SepRed and Blue Voters Live in Different Economies
3. 25 SepMindfulness training and attentional control of mind-wandering
4. 23 SepLoving kindness meditation slows cellular aging?
5. 20 SepGender neutral pronouns reduce bias in favor of traditional gender roles
6. 18 SepThe power of "cute"
7. 16 SepPsychological adaptation to the apocalypse - meditate, or just be happy?
8. 13 SepTwitter is making us dumber.
9. 11 SepCan we reverse our biological age? The usual media hysteria...
10. 9 SepTraining to reduce cognitive biases.
11. 6 SepHow personal and professional conduct relate to one another.
12. 4 SepTraining wisdom - the Illeist (third person) method.
13. 2 SepInfants expect leaders to right wrongs

August 2019

1. 30 AugLoss of control in aging cells.
2. 28 AugInterindividual variability - rather than universality - in facial-emotion perception.
3. 26 AugFrom "Love Your Enemies" - Arthur Brooks on Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory
4. 23 AugWhat we see is biased by ongoing neural activity.
5. 21 AugMore diversity in Flow-land.
6. 19 AugWhat we see is influenced by what we can do about it
7. 16 AugA Schism in Flow-land? Flow Genome Project vs. Flow Research Collective
8. 16 AugHow weight training changes the brain.
9. 14 AugFive myths about consciousness
10. 12 AugIt’s not just how the game is played, it’s whether you win or lose
11. 9 AugIngroup vigilance in collectivistic cultures
12. 7 AugFeeling pleasure from music - brain correlates of why people differ
13. 5 AugCan an uprising of decency win the next presidential election?
14. 2 AugWhat can we do when facts don't matter?

July 2019

1. 31 JulPolitics are in our DNA - why societies evolved to have both conservatives and liberals.
2. 29 JulRe-skilling the brain.
3. 26 JulDeindividuation of outgroup faces occurs at the earliest stages of visual perception.
4. 24 JulFacial muscles in dogs evolved for interactions with humans.
5. 22 JulAround the globe, financial temptation increases civic honesty.
6. 19 JulIt’s never simple...The tidy textbook story about the primary visual cortex is wrong.
7. 17 JulAn anti-aging pill with some credibility....
8. 15 JulCorrelating our our physical and mental experiences of stress linked to psychological and physical well-being
9. 12 JulThe Problem With ‘Sharenting’
10. 10 JulLooking for a dose of optimism?
11. 8 JulSubgroups of gay men correspond to different biodevelopmental pathways
12. 5 JulSocial Media - no effect on adolescent life satisfaction?
13. 3 JulThink twice about metformin as an anti-aging drug.
14. 1 JulYour professional decline.

June 2019

1. 28 JunPerception as controlled hallucination - predictive processing and the nature of conscious experience
2. 26 JunImplicit racial bias is preserved by historical roots of social environments.
3. 24 JunOver 50-fold difference between individuals in circadian melatonin sensitivity to evening light.
4. 21 JunMechanism of exercise and antioxidant stimulation of memory and new nerve cell growth
5. 19 JunEnhancing longevity by removing deteriorated body cells.
6. 17 JunWhy can we read only one word at a time?
7. 14 JunWhy high-class people get away with incompetence.
8. 12 JunPolicy evaluation by randomized trials may provoke greater objections than implementing them untested.
9. 10 JunIs technology really reshaping our consciousness?
10. 7 JunThe wisdom of partisan crowds.
11. 5 JunInequality brokered
12. 3 JunBlueprint - Nicholas Christakis' new book on evolutionary origins of a good society

May 2019

1. 31 MayAfter brief music training 8-10 year old kids show less hyperactivity and better inhibitory control.
2. 29 MayHappily ever after....
3. 28 MayLive younger longer
4. 27 MayWith the rise of Trump, the fall of racial prejudice?
5. 25 MayBlame the liberals for unlivable cities!
6. 24 MayEducating liberals about white privilege doesn't make them more empathetic.
7. 23 MayBenefits of a period of exercise persist after 10 years.
8. 21 MayA Sunday Afternoon Musicale - Bridges and Mendelssohn
9. 20 MayAre rich people really less generous than poor people?
10. 17 MayLike the emperor’s new clothes, DNA kits are a tailored illusion
11. 15 MayFather's physical activity directly enhances offspring's brain physiology and cognition.
12. 13 MayReady to pounce - Cat smarts get some attention
13. 10 MayWant to escape your liberal bubble? Try this.....
14. 9 MayMindBlog Changes
15. 6 MayThe Case for Doing Nothing
16. 3 MaySame-sex marriage legalization reduced implicit and explicit antigay bias
17. 2 MayWhy are some people more anxious than others? Brain correlates of trait anxiety.
18. 1 MayIs Superintelligence Impossible?

April 2019

1. 30 AprDigital addiction and the attention economy.
2. 29 AprA bit of digital detox - rehearsing a Mendelssohn Piano Trio
3. 26 AprBringing dead brains back to life.
4. 25 AprFactfulness - Rosling's instinctual mental errors - Destiny, Single Perspective, Blame, Urgency
5. 24 AprFactfulness - Rosling's instinctual mental errors - Fear, Size, Generalization
6. 23 AprFactfulness - Rosling's instinctual mental errors - Gap, Negativity, Straight Line
7. 22 AprFactfulness - Hans Rosling - Introduction
8. 19 AprReturn of the oppressed.
9. 18 AprNew microscopy technique sees thousands of cells and their activity deep in the brain
10. 17 AprMcMindfulness - how capitalism captured the mindfulness industry
11. 16 AprThe New York Times Privacy Project
12. 15 AprChanges in well-being measured by massive online choice experiments.
13. 12 AprTracking emotions of unseen persons by their context.
14. 11 AprStudies on brain renewal and enhancement
15. 10 AprSynchronizing rhythmic brain circuits improves working memory in older adults.
16. 9 AprAffective forecasting and partisanship
17. 8 Apr"Learned Helplessness" from constant attention to your input stream (email, etc.)?
18. 5 AprThe life prospects of female co-twins are diminished by prenatal testosterone from their male twins.
19. 4 AprOne mechanism of a basic life choice - to ‘go for it’ or to ‘scram’
20. 3 AprStudents of color are healthier in schools that emphasize the value of diversity
21. 2 AprAmerican geography of opportunity reveals European origins
22. 1 AprInfants and toddlers expect different third party punishment behaviors from ingroup and outgroup members.

March 2019

1. 29 MarYet another longevity predictor?
2. 28 MarUsing artificial intelligence for medical billing scams.
3. 27 MarInflam-aging
4. 26 MarAffect theory and the new age of anxiety.
5. 25 MarMore green space in childhood, fewer psychiatric disorders in adulthood.
6. 22 MarNeural signal diversity is increased by psychedelics
7. 21 MarKnowing your own heart - distinguishing interoceptive accuracy and awareness
8. 20 MarLethal mass partisanship
9. 19 MarMRI can detect the content of decisions 11 seconds before they are made.
10. 18 MarWhy science needs philosophy
11. 15 MarSpinning drops!
12. 14 MarPsychological underpinnings of politics
13. 13 MarWhy is it so hard for democracy to deal with inequality? The Brahmins vs the Merchants
14. 12 MarSocial threat learning transfers to our decision making.
15. 11 MarHow sleep aids recovery from infection, may protect brain from Alzheimer's disease
16. 8 MarHow many push-ups can you do? Predicting heart health...
17. 7 MarControl of OCD behavior by amygdala to prefrontal input.
18. 6 MarLong term trends in politics - Trump is not an outlier
19. 5 MarEven 10 minutes of low intensity physical activity enhances executive function in older adults
20. 4 MarOur emotional reward from music is modulated by dopamine.
21. 1 MarMindfulness + acceptance training - randomized controlled trial shows prosocial effects, less loneliness

February 2019

1. 28 FebA ketamine inspired nasal spray for depression.
2. 27 FebNew form of neural communication at a distance.
3. 26 FebThe Neuroscience of ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby’
4. 25 FebFemale brains are younger than male brains.
5. 22 FebOhmygawd.....warms of drones with one distributed brain.
6. 21 FebWatching social influence start to bias perceptual integration as children develop
7. 20 FebFighting social media misinformation using crowdsourced judgements
8. 19 FebSleeping in standby mode
9. 18 FebBrain patterns of consciousness
10. 15 FebHow brain and spinal cord distinguish self touch from the touch of others
11. 14 FebThe science of sway in musical ensembles.
12. 13 FebParents mention sons more often than daughters on social media.
13. 12 FebCorrelations between our gut microbiota and mental health.
14. 11 FebOliver Sacks - The Machine Stops
15. 8 FebFlash judgement based on appearance.
16. 7 FebA few anti-technology screeds:
17. 6 FebSuccesses of advantaged group members get more attention.
18. 5 FebThe decay of cognitive diversity - global WEIRDing is upon us
19. 4 FebFacial masculinity does not indicate immunocompetence
20. 1 FebOligarchia - the rise of autonomous analog computing

January 2019

1. 31 JanFeedspot: MindBlog in top 100 psychology blogs
2. 30 JanFake News: The misinformation machine.
3. 29 JanDefault mode network as seat of our ego - The entropic brain hypothesis
4. 28 JanHomo Prospectus - the brain as a time traveler - augmentation by A.I.?
5. 25 JanThe emotional dimension of pain.
6. 24 JanSocial networks explain academic success and failure.
7. 23 JanHow exercise protects memory.
8. 22 JanCan psychological scientists make the world a better place?
9. 21 JanThe passing of governance to corporate oligarchies serving the top 10%?
10. 18 JanThe bacteria in your gut reveal your true age.
11. 17 JanUpstairs/ Downstairs in our Brain - Who (or what) is running our show?
12. 16 JanWhy 2018 was the best year in human history.
13. 15 JanDifferent meditation practices differently buffer from stress.
14. 14 JanDoes meditation provide the only way to survive our brain-dissolving technological and political environment?
15. 11 JanThe illusion of multitasking improves performance.
16. 10 JanReal world demonstration of how tribes determine opinions.
17. 9 JanPeople use less information than they think to make up their minds
18. 8 JanStimulating creativity with alternating current transcranial brain stimulation
19. 7 JanThe return of paganism
20. 4 JanYuval Harari - "21 Lessons..." abstracted - Part 5 - Resilience
21. 3 JanYuval Harari - "21 Lessons..." abstracted - Part 4 - Truth
22. 2 JanYuval Harari - "21 Lessons..." - abstracted - Part 3 - Despair and Hope
23. 1 JanYuval Harari - "21 Lessons..." - abstracted - Part 2 - The Political Challenge

2018 254

December 2018

1. 31 DecYuval Harari - "21 Lessons.." abstracted - Part 1 - The Technological Challenge
2. 28 DecReimagining the human
3. 27 DecBrain biomarkers for resilience - executive frontal lobe activity
4. 26 DecBlood proteins are different in people who exercise.
5. 25 DecA Seasonal Offering...
6. 24 Dec"Meaningful Life" science - a tonic for our times?
7. 21 DecBrain correlates of successful cognitive aging.
8. 20 DecCorruption of online social systems by Bots
9. 19 DecMore on slowing down aging.
10. 18 DecCan we really inherit trauma?
11. 17 DecBad news on human nature - a listicle
12. 14 DecSeptuagenarians with the bodies of 25-year-olds
13. 13 DecStop talking about 'male' and 'female' brains.
14. 12 DecTesting theories of sex differences and autism with big data.
15. 11 DecWatching memories change the brain - a challenge to the traditional view
16. 10 DecThe coding of perception in language is not universal.
17. 7 DecThe neuroscience of hugs.
18. 6 DecLimited prosocial effects of meditation.
19. 5 DecHow stress changes our brains' blood flow.
20. 4 DecMore on the sociopathy of social media.
21. 3 DecOur brains are prediction machines. Friston's free-energy principle

November 2018

1. 30 NovBeing a Beast Machine: The Somatic Basis of Selfhood
2. 29 NovA molecular basis for the placebo effect.
3. 28 NovFactoids about an ideal gas.
4. 27 NovImpacts of outdoor artificial light on plant and animal species.
5. 26 NovDietary fat: From foe to friend?
6. 23 NovSocial learning circuits in the brain.
7. 22 NovConversation with your angry uncle over Thanksgiving - a chat bot.
8. 22 NovTop-down and Bottom-up causation in the emergence of complexity.
9. 21 NovREM sleep in naps and memory consolidation in typical and Down syndrome children.
10. 20 NovThe ecstasy of speed - or leisure?
11. 19 NovPracticing gratitude, kindness, and compassion - can our i-devices help?
12. 16 NovSelf driving cars will have to decide who should live and who should die.
13. 15 NovBiomarkers of inflamation are lower in people with more positive emotions
14. 14 NovNew longevity vitamins?
15. 13 NovAre we getting too hysterical about the dangers of artificial intelligence?
16. 12 NovEven a 10 minute walk can boost your brain
17. 9 NovFacebook language predicts depression in medical records.
18. 8 NovAdvancing front of old-age human survival
19. 7 NovThe human herd and its digital overlords.
20. 6 NovMight tribal conflict fatigue lead to a contagion of civility and kindness ?
21. 5 NovCore mechanisms undermining liberal democracy.
22. 2 NovA review of body effects of mindfulness meditation
23. 1 NovAre you holding your breath?

October 2018

1. 31 OctThe evolution of overconfidence
2. 30 OctSelf-care and finding personal peace in today's socio-political climate.
3. 29 OctDNA variants linked to same sex behavior.
4. 26 OctDiffusion in networks and the virtue of burstiness
5. 25 OctMusicians' enhanced auditory perception depends on the instrument they play.
6. 24 OctSeeing something that is not there - our brain retroactively constructs our reality.
7. 23 OctAn average person can recognize 5,000 faces.
8. 22 OctWhat is the last question?
9. 19 OctIt's better to be born rich than gifted.
10. 18 OctTrump Anxiety Disorder
11. 17 OctFeeling unsafe in a safe world - the unsafety theory of stress
12. 16 OctHealth of fathers influences the well-being of their progeny.
13. 15 OctToo much or too little sleep correlates with cognitive deficits.
14. 12 OctA new algorithm for predicting disease risk.
15. 11 OctDigital media and developing minds
16. 10 OctWhere is free will in our brains?
17. 9 OctSans Forgetica
18. 8 OctIn praise of mediocrity
19. 5 OctMilitarized police forces do not enhance safety or reduce crime, but do diminish police reputation.
20. 4 OctThe number of neurons in the amygdala normally increases during development, but not in autism.
21. 3 OctIncome inequality drives female sexualization.
22. 2 OctDaily fasting can improve health span and life span
23. 1 OctConstancy of the architecture of shame across cultures is due to biological, not cultural, evolution.

September 2018

1. 28 SepAnti-aging molecule produced during fasting.
2. 27 SepIs Democracy Dying? - Irrelevance of most humans in a technocratic future...
3. 26 SepThe Flow Genome Project - modern snake oil? con?
4. 25 SepThe war for our attention - an existential threat.
5. 24 SepInfants distinguish between leaders and bullies
6. 21 SepGiving Ecstasy to Octopuses
7. 20 SepBuilding molecular machines.
8. 16 SepMapping our subjective feelings.
9. 13 SepDetails of how a fear response is unlearned.
10. 12 SepExposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization.
11. 11 SepHow exercise slows Alzheimer’s disease.
12. 10 SepRobots R Us

August 2018

1. 31 AugMindBlog is on vacation Aug. 31 - Sept. 22
2. 30 AugCollective intelligence is improved by intermittent breaks in interaction.
3. 29 AugRobots exert peer pressure on children, but not adults.
4. 28 AugReversing age related decay of brain plasticity with prozac
5. 27 AugOn the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit
6. 24 AugThe architecture of pride is a cultural universal.
7. 23 AugOur divided brains
8. 22 AugBrain tracking of musical beat is enhanced by low frequency sounds.
9. 21 AugThe false idols of wellness.
10. 20 AugMesolimbic reward circuitry influences valuation of knowledge versus ignorance.
11. 17 AugMeditation quiets the ego? ….maybe just the opposite.
12. 16 AugThe neuroscience of pessimism.
13. 15 AugMore evidence against the transferable benefits of online brain training on cognitive function
14. 14 AugRediscovering ancient greek music.
15. 13 AugControlling drones with a body-machine interface.
16. 10 AugNo gender differences in early math cognition.
17. 9 AugA ecosystem of podcast bros who want to optimize your life.
18. 8 AugOur weaponized social media
19. 7 AugHow pupil mimicry promotes trust.
20. 6 AugBrain regions involved in compensating for lost body parts.
21. 3 AugResidential isolation of disadvantaged groups is not mitigated by extensive urban mobility.
22. 2 AugChimps can psych out humans
23. 1 AugEnhanced brain activity associated with highly superior memory.

July 2018

1. 31 JulAre things getting better or worse?
2. 30 JulPiano training enhances speech perception.
3. 27 JulMechanism of white matter changes induced by meditation?
4. 26 JulThe neuroscience of mindfulness meditation
5. 25 JulWhen persistence doesn't pay - the sunk cost bias.
6. 24 JulDeclining mental health among disadvantaged Americans.
7. 23 JulTherapy for NYTAD - read about citrus micro-jets!
8. 20 JulCrows make mental templates.
9. 19 JulPerceptual and judgement creep.
10. 18 JulAuthentic lies.
11. 17 JulSocial media and the emergence of violence during protests.
12. 16 JulWhat is consciousness, and could machines have it?
13. 13 JulPlaying with proteins in virtual reality.
14. 12 JulIncreasing despair among poor Americans.
15. 11 JulA fundamental advance in brain imaging techniques.
16. 10 JulMindfulness training increases strength of right insula connections.
17. 9 JulMortality rates level off at extreme age
18. 6 JulBrain imaging predicts who will be a good musical performer.
19. 5 JulWhy are religious people trusted more?
20. 4 JulSeven creepy Facebook patents
21. 3 JulA patent for emotional robots?
22. 2 JulAn optimistic outlook creates a rosy past.

June 2018

1. 29 JunStress and autoimmune disease
2. 28 JunSocial media and democracy
3. 27 JunThe Philosophy we need: Personalism
4. 26 JunMindfulness can lower your motivation.
5. 25 JunDeep origins of consciousness
6. 22 JunBrain EEG activity can predict who antidepressants will work on
7. 21 JunOld Italian violins imitate the human voice.
8. 20 JunFamilies and politics - curtailed conversations
9. 19 JunTipping points in changing social conventions.
10. 18 JunThe misunderstood sixth mass extinction
11. 15 JunComparing human prefrontal cortex to that of other primates
12. 14 JunEvolutionary cognition - bees demonstrate an understanding of zero
13. 13 JunJaron Lanier on why you should delete your social media accounts.
14. 12 JunWhat makes a man attractive?
15. 11 JunSocioeconomic status moderates age-related differences in brain organization throughout adulthood.
16. 8 JunMove into your virtual body avatar with just your hands and feet
17. 7 JunSocial contagion of ethnic hostility.
18. 6 JunPlacebo treatment facilitates social trust.
19. 5 JunThe End of Humanism - Homo Deus
20. 4 JunMore on the sociopathy of social media
21. 1 JunHow much should A.I. frighten us?

May 2018

1. 31 MayA.I. needs to learn like a human child.
2. 30 MayIntelligent brains have more sparse and efficient nerve connections.
3. 29 MayThe light and dark sides of friendship.
4. 28 MayGood things about a party drug (Ketamine).
5. 25 MayWhy we itch more with aging.
6. 24 MayThe microbiome regulates amygdala-dependent fear recall.
7. 23 MayResearch on subjective well-being.
8. 22 MayCognitive underpinnings of nationalistic ideology.
9. 21 MayBrain changes from adolescence to adulthood
10. 18 MayHas artificial intelligence become alchemy?
11. 17 MayStatus threat explains 2016 presidential vote
12. 16 MayThe effort paradox - Effort is both costly and valued
13. 15 MayTransparency is the mother of 'fake news'
14. 14 MayIndustrial revolutions are political and social wrecking balls.
15. 11 MayHow not to mind if someone is lying...
16. 10 MayMore on the vagaries of expertise
17. 9 MayThe illusion of skill acquisition.
18. 8 MayProtein synthesis in brain tissue is much higher than previously thought.
19. 7 MayElectrical brain stimulation enhances visual memory performance
20. 4 MayA morning cortisol pulse is crucial for normal cognitive and emotional responses.
21. 3 MaySitting is bad for your brain...
22. 2 MayBrain signals predict who we will like in the future.
23. 1 MayYou're as old as you feel...

April 2018

1. 30 AprA workshop on music and the brain.
2. 27 AprRisk tolerance is predicted by amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity
3. 26 AprPropagation of economic inequality through reciprocity and reputation.
4. 25 AprSeeing what you feel - unconscious affect drives perception
5. 24 AprWhy exercise alone may not cause weight loss.
6. 23 AprHow our "I" is like a virtual reality headset.
7. 20 AprAndy Clark on extended mind, A.I., and predictive processing
8. 19 AprBaby Boomers reaching the end of their To-Do list
9. 18 AprBasal forebrain and default mode network regulation.
10. 17 AprScared by the news? Take the long view.
11. 16 AprCracking the code relating speech prosody to social judgements.
12. 13 AprLocus Coeruleus integrity and memory in aging adults
13. 12 AprA.I. quantifies 100 years of gender and ethnic stereotypes.
14. 11 AprThe contract with authoritarianism
15. 10 AprA small molecule for stroke therapy
16. 9 AprWhy senior adults get lost more frequently than younger adults.
17. 6 AprWe choose what we want to hear.
18. 5 AprReprogramming fear responses outside of conscious awareness.
19. 4 AprIf resources are scarce infants choose ingroup support over fairness.
20. 3 AprIs loneliness a health epidemic?
21. 2 AprPredicting the effectiveness of cognitive therapy with functional MRI

March 2018

1. 30 MarYoung muscles and immune systems in aging cyclists.
2. 29 MarHow is tech dividing us?
3. 28 MarLogic in babies.
4. 27 MarDifferent kinds of smiles elicit different physiological responses
5. 26 MarYouTube's A.I. finds that radicalization gets more ad revenue.
6. 23 MarThe reputation age.
7. 22 MarThink you’re not a competitor? Think again.
8. 21 MarBrain coupling during holding hands correlates with pain reduction
9. 20 MarBeing what we think we are.
10. 19 MarRationalizing undesired change as soon as it takes effect.
11. 16 MarDying for the group - a theory of extreme self-sacrifice
12. 15 MarWe project our own spatial bias onto others.
13. 14 MarA Slow Thought Manifesto
14. 13 MarOn social media lies spread faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth.
15. 12 MarCritical comment on Pinker's "Enlightenment Now"
16. 9 MarPinker on humanism and human flourishing.
17. 8 MarPinker on reason, and our presumed post-truth era
18. 7 MarThe Future of Progress - return to the Middle Ages, or continuing upward curve?
19. 6 MarPinker on progress
20. 5 MarProgressophobia
21. 2 MarTwo very different worlds to live in.
22. 1 MarPinker's "Enlightenment Now" - a must read book

February 2018

1. 28 FebCulture of Empathy
2. 27 FebComputerized Gaydar - a threat to privacy and safety of gay people
3. 26 FebAmygdala structure and defense of the social system.
4. 23 FebOur microbiome challenges our concept of self.
5. 22 FebWhen our eyes move, our eardrums move.
6. 21 FebHuman cooperation in dynamic networks.
7. 20 FebWelcome to the post text future (of the new authoritarian state?)
8. 19 FebAncient origins of walking on land - the walking skate.
9. 16 FebComputers no better than humans at predicting who should go to jail.
10. 15 FebAfraid of A.I.? Be very afraid of quantum computing....
11. 14 FebA Valentine's Day musical offering - Respighi's Intermezzo Serenata
12. 13 FebMind treats on the web.
13. 12 Feb“The rich are different from you and me..” - the psychology of inequality
14. 9 FebOur body tissues crosstalk during exercise.
15. 8 FebA Thursday musical offering... Charles Meyer - Valse Melancolique
16. 7 FebBrain correlates of our ability to think creatively
17. 6 FebMindBlog's 12th anniversary. Blogs as relics or rebirths?
18. 5 FebThe blogging golden age
19. 2 FebMental autonomy - developing a ‘culture of consciousness’.
20. 1 FebHow to goose your memory.

January 2018

1. 31 JanCommentary on devolution of advanced societies towards tribalism.
2. 30 JanCorporate social responsibility to counter the sociopathy of capitalism?
3. 29 JanHow our bones regulate our weight.
4. 26 JanTaming modern Frankensteins
5. 25 JanPreferences for moral vs. immoral traits in others are conditional
6. 24 JanSelf protection from social media feedback.
7. 23 JanThe ‘social genomes’ of friends are correlated.
8. 22 JanHow much can we change our aging?
9. 19 JanImproving ourselves to death
10. 18 JanExplanation of fraternal birth order effect on sexual orientation.
11. 17 JanBenefits of talking to yourself.
12. 16 JanOld brains come uncoupled in sleep.
13. 15 JanHow to detect that someone is sick.
14. 12 JanA Two-System Framework for understanding fear and anxiety.
15. 11 JanDemonstrating reciprocity on a global scale.
16. 10 JanForget about major life extension - Aging is a fundamental feature of multicellular life
17. 9 JanExercise alters the microbiome, enhancing immune function.
18. 8 JanMemories are stored by the extracellular matrix surrounding brain cells.
19. 5 JanThe narcissism epidemic is dead?
20. 4 JanThe temporal organization of perception.
21. 3 JanFacebook admits its sociopathic side. Are social media the drug epidemic of our times?
22. 2 JanHow early stress exposure influences adult decision making.
23. 1 JanPax Technica - the new web of world government