Tag Archives: Neuroscience

I didn’t know it hurt till they put my head in a scanner

To be filed under the heading, “Neuroscience News Flash: Rejection Is Painful” The regions of the brain that respond to physical pain overlap with those that react to social rejection, according to a study that used brain imaging on people involved in romantic breakups. “These results give new meaning to the idea that rejection ‘hurts.’” …

March 31, 2011 – 1:03 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged | Comments (5)

The Will to Power–Is “Free Will” All in Your Head?: Scientific American

This from Scientific American raises interesting questions regarding knowledge: The Will to Power–Is “Free Will” All in Your Head? The author, Christof Koch, apparently wants to balance philosophical questions with scientific ones. I appreciate his trying—but he doesn’t succeed. Not even if we ignore the oddly inappropriate allusion to Nietzsche in the title (for which …

November 16, 2009 – 1:32 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (160)

“Spirituality: Is it all in your head?”

Neurotheology strikes again, this time in an article that begins, Jan. 4–Having a spiritual experience may be all in your head — or at least part of it. A group of University of Missouri researchers recently completed a study that claims a particular area of the brain is linked to spirituality. At the risk of …

January 6, 2009 – 11:39 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (8)

“Evolution News & Views: My “Neuroscience Denial”?”

Some of you have been watching the exchange between Dr. Steven Novella and Dr. Michael Egnor on neuroscience and mind. The most recent installments are here (Dr. Egnor’s), responding to this from Dr. Novella. Dr. Egnor writes in summary to his post, I’ll get back to Dr. Novella’s specific arguments in my ensuing posts, but …

December 22, 2008 – 7:52 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged | Comments (26)

Dualism Dueling With Science?

There is a lively debate going on regarding two views of the mind: dualist vs. materialist. Last month’s New Scientist article, “Creationists Declare War Over the Brain,” prompted responses from several quarters, including one of my own. Dr. Steven Novella wrote a two-part response (Part One, Part Two), taking the opportunity especially to make swipes …

November 22, 2008 – 3:28 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged | Comments (44)

“War over the brain”

Amanda Gefter wrote in New Scientist on October, 22, Could the next battleground in the ID movement’s war on science be the brain? [Link: Creationists declare war over the brain - brain - 22 October 2008 - New Scientist] Some key excerpts: The article is riddled with words like “worry,” “attack,” “war,” “threat.” Gefter tried …

October 25, 2008 – 5:32 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (5)

Mind and Brain: Philosophy or Science?

Denyse O’Leary was the co-author (with Dr. Mario Beauregard) of a book I reviewed in the April issue of Touchstone magazine: The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. Beauregard has published research (see links from here) challenging some neuroscientists’ view that spiritual experiences can be explained through physical brain science …

April 25, 2008 – 11:31 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (11)

“Unconscious decisions in the brain”

A new study just reported from Germany concludes that “Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain…. The decision could not be predicted perfectly, but prediction was clearly above chance. This suggests that the decision is unconsciously prepared ahead of time but the …

April 14, 2008 – 1:26 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (64)

“The functional neuroanatomy of science journalism”

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Science "Journalism"

Language Log takes frequent note of strange things science journalists say. Their most recent is about the neuroscience of mothers watching children in distress. Here is part of what LL’s Mark Liberman’s had to say: It’s rhetorically interesting that Ms. Parker-Pope takes the existence of brain differences observed by fMRI as evidence that the reactions …

March 13, 2008 – 6:02 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (196)