Link feast

Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so:

The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Colour of This Dress
The internet is abuzz with talk of the dress that some people see as white and gold, others as blue and black. Adam Rogers at WIRED provides an explanation.

Hard Feelings: Science’s Struggle to Define Emotions
"While it's possible for researchers to study facial expressions, brain patterns, behavior, and more," writes Julie Beck at The Atlantic, "each of these is only part of a more elusive whole".

Words and Sorcery
Simon Oxenham and Jon Sutton at The Psychologist consider the causes and consequences of bad writing in psychology.

Five Things Alice in Wonderland Reveals About the Brain
"All of us can learn something about ourselves from Alice in Wonderland – if only we look in the right way," says David Robson at BBC Future.

Do Blind People Really Experience Complete Darkness?
No. "For me," says Damon Rose at BBC News, who is completely blind, "dark has come to signify quiet, and because my built-in fireworks never go away I describe what I've got as a kind of visual tinnitus."

Why Are Men Committing Suicide?
"We are living in an epidemic of male suicide," writes Marc Judge at Acculturated.

The Elastic Brain
"A child’s brain can master anything from language to music," argues Rebecca Boyle at Aeon. "Can neuroscience extend that genius across the lifespan?"

Confessions Of A Disordered Eater
"After a lifetime struggling with compulsive, secretive, and restrictive eating, I’m still figuring out how to have a healthy relationship with food," says Anita Badejo at Buzzfeed.

Brain-controlled Drone Shown Off by Tekever in Lisbon
"... one aviation expert told the BBC he thought the industry would be unlikely to adopt such technology due to a perception of being potentially unsafe."

Why Reading and Writing on Paper Can be Better For Your Brain
"I can’t imagine teaching my son to read in a house without any physical books, pens or paper. But I can’t imagine denying him the limitless words and worlds a screen can bring to him either," says Tom Chatfield at The Guardian.
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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.

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Link feast

Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so:

My Own Life
Oliver Sacks in the NYT on learning he has terminal cancer.

The Placebo Problem
BBC Radio 4 documentary on the nocebo effect - the malign counterpart to the placebo.

Don’t Fear Our Changing Language
Some people decry change and fear it will bring about the demise of English as we know it. But change is totally harmless, argues Raffaella Zanuttini in Pacific Standard, and offers us a window on the complex system that underlies our knowledge of language.

Your Brain on Celebrity Gossip
Over at Brain Watch, I looked at a new study that scanned the brains of people listening to celebrity stories.

Conflicting Goals Can Make You a Better Decision Maker
Some conflicts actually improve your ability to choose, says Art Markman at Psychology Today.

Problems Too Disgusting to Solve
Recycled water could solve global shortages, but there's one big problem - the human disgust reaction. Maria Konnikova at the New Yorker talks to the psychologists looking for solutions.

Bethlem Hospital Museum Shows How Art Can Help Mental Health
Video report from the BBC provides a glimpse of some of the amazing art produced by current and former patients at the psychiatric institution.

50 Years of Neuroscience
Steven Rose in the Lancet looks back on the birth of a discipline.

The Coming Boom in Brain Medicines
There is renewed hope and excitement that biological approaches to mental and neurological illness will soon bear fruit, says Matthew Herper in Forbes.

Worried Well
"Since ancient times philosophy has tried to cure us of anxiety," writes Charlie Kurth in Aeon. "But worry is an important part of being a moral person."
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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.

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Link Feast

Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so:

Listen To Your Heart
Our new Valentine's-themed podcast, plus loads more Valentine links and resources from The Psychologist magazine and our own archive.

The Surprising Downsides of Being Drop Dead Gorgeous
Finally, someone understands my pain - David Robson at BBC Future on "the unrecognised pitfalls of the beautiful".

Masculinity, Trauma and "Shell-shock"
Tracey Loughran at The Psychologist magazine delivers a fitting tribute to the men who suffered in the First World War, and in more modern conflicts.

The Neuroplasticity Bait-and-Switch
Blogger PZ Myers takes aim at a popular author who hypes the concept of neuroplasticity.

Nine Myths About Schizophrenia
Professor Richard Bentall presents this free online course for the Institute of Art and Ideas.

My Trouble With Mindfulness
Jill Suttie has her doubts about the popular technique, but after looking through the evidence, she decides they're unfounded.

Still Alice is "Shockingly Accurate" 
The Guardian asked people with dementia what they thought of the film that stars Julianne Moore as a woman with dementia.

The Internet’s Hidden Science Factory
Psychology researchers are increasingly using participants recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk website - but who are these people? Jenny Marder investigates.

Neuroscience: The brain, Interrupted
Premature babies are surviving from an increasingly younger age, but neuroscience is only just beginning to understand the long-term implications.

Studying Oversize Brain Cells for Links to Exceptional Memory
Carl Zimmer reports on new findings into "Super Agers" [more on Super Agers in our archive]
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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.

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Link Feast

Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so:

Meet Your Brain (video)
Watch these young children introduce you to the basics of neuroscience.

Exporting Trauma: Can the Talking Cure Do More Harm Than Good?
It's dangerous to assume that other cultures will benefit from our own Western approaches to psychotherapy, says Anna Leach in the Guardian.

How Your Eyes Trick Your Mind
An interactive guide to the history of visual illusions and what they've taught us about the mind.

Trying to Be Less Stupid: The Hard Work of Brain Science
An interview with Michael Gazziniga, cognitive neuroscience pioneer who performed some of the breakthrough studies on split-brain patients.

The Trip Treatment
"Research into psychedelics, shut down for decades, is now yielding exciting results," says Michael Pollan in the New Yorker.

Even Cockroaches Have Different Personalities, Scientists Find
Some are shy, others are bold.

A Memory Expert Explains Brian Williams's 'False' Memory
A US news anchor recently apologised for inventing an account of when he was shot down in a helicopter over Iraq. Memory expert Lawrence Patihis says it's plausible that Williams experienced a false memory.

Response to the Book Review Symposium: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (pdf) [more misunderstanding of psychology by sociologists]
At the end of 2013, four sociologists tore into the arguments made by Steven Pinker in his book about the historic decline in human violence. In this retort, the psychologist dismantles their criticisms with flair and erudition.

How Real Are Facebook Friendships? [more psychology of Facebook]
The photographer Tanja Hollander found that most of her friends on the network were willing to pose for portraits, and they showed her great hospitality, even those she'd never met or hadn't seen for years.

Beware Of The Pseudoscience Of Self
When it comes to understanding how we came to be the way we are, there's no control group, says Tania Lombrozo, so we should make causal inferences with great care.
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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.

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