20 posts · 5,270 views
I post about science, the brain and the mind. Find me on twitter: @brainsidea
Richard Kunert
20 posts
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- April 24, 2013
- 12:39 PM
- 102 views
Are some languages easier than others?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
‘Long time no see’ is something I heard repeatedly in Britain even though it totally violates all the English grammar I learned at school. Clearly, Brits should correct this expression originating from Chinese Pidgin English rather than adopt it. The reason it entered common usage anyway is at the heart of why you might find [...]... Read more »
Bentz C, & Winter B. (2013) Languages with more second language learners tend to lose case. Language Dynamics and Change. info:/
Lupyan G, & Dale R. (2010) Language structure is partly determined by social structure. PloS one, 5(1). PMID: 20098492
- March 28, 2013
- 05:36 PM
- 148 views
The biological basis of orchestra seating
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Many cultural conventions appear like the result of historical accidents. The QUERTY – keyboard is a typical example: the technical requirements of early typewriters still determine the computer keyboard that I write this text on, even though by now technical advances would allow for a far more efficient design. Some culturally accepted oddities, however, appear [...]... Read more »
Deutsch, D. (1999) Grouping Mechanisms in Music. The Psychology of Music, Second Edition, 299-348. DOI: 10.1016/B978-012213564-4/50010-X
Schneider P, Sluming V, Roberts N, Bleeck S, & Rupp A. (2005) Structural, functional, and perceptual differences in Heschl's gyrus and musical instrument preference. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 387-94. PMID: 16597790
- January 22, 2013
- 02:32 AM
- 156 views
What lies behind the mystery of being born with a phantom penis?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Like a magician our mind tricks us into believing what we see and feel. We only notice that something strange is going on when our expectations are betrayed during the prestige – when the white rabbit is drawn out of the empty hat. Psychology sometimes works in much the same way. After the mind has made us believe in the ordinary, it creates strange cases which point to something bigger going on behind the scenes. One of the most extraordinary illusions is the one of our body. At the final pre........ Read more »
Brugger P, Kollias SS, Müri RM, Crelier G, Hepp-Reymond MC, & Regard M. (2000) Beyond re-membering: phantom sensations of congenitally absent limbs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97(11), 6167-72. PMID: 10801982
Mitchell, W. (1871) Phantom limbs. Lippinscott's Magazine, 563-569. info:/
- January 7, 2013
- 02:19 AM
- 182 views
delaying dementia without pills
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
‘What’s this? A potato?’ asked my friend’s grandfather during lunch. As always, he used his charming grin and characteristically loud voice. Even though the entire conversation was in Argentine Spanish – which I had learned only a short while before – I understood the oddity of the situation at once. Instead of a potato, the [...]... Read more »
Akbaraly, T., Portet, F., Fustinoni, S., Dartigues, J., Artero, S., Rouaud, O., Touchon, J., Ritchie, K., & Berr, C. (2009) Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly: Results from the Three-City Study. Neurology, 73(11), 854-861. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181b7849b
Bickel H, & Kurz A. (2009) Education, occupation, and dementia: the Bavarian school sisters study. Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders, 27(6), 548-56. PMID: 19590201
Hall CB, Derby C, LeValley A, Katz MJ, Verghese J, & Lipton RB. (2007) Education delays accelerated decline on a memory test in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, 69(17), 1657-64. PMID: 17954781
Hall CB, Lipton RB, Sliwinski M, Katz MJ, Derby CA, & Verghese J. (2009) Cognitive activities delay onset of memory decline in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, 73(5), 356-61. PMID: 19652139
Kemppainen NM, Aalto S, Karrasch M, Någren K, Savisto N, Oikonen V, Viitanen M, Parkkola R, & Rinne JO. (2008) Cognitive reserve hypothesis: Pittsburgh Compound B and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in relation to education in mild Alzheimer's disease. Annals of neurology, 63(1), 112-8. PMID: 18023012
Rentz DM, Locascio JJ, Becker JA, Moran EK, Eng E, Buckner RL, Sperling RA, & Johnson KA. (2010) Cognition, reserve, and amyloid deposition in normal aging. Annals of neurology, 67(3), 353-64. PMID: 20373347
Scarmeas, N., Albert, S.M., Manly, J.J., & Stern, Y. (2005) Education and rates of cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery , 77(3), 308-316. DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.072306
Valenzuela MJ, & Sachdev P. (2006) Brain reserve and cognitive decline: a non-parametric systematic review. Psychological medicine, 36(8), 1065-73. PMID: 16650343
- December 18, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 190 views
How Long Should a Scientific Publication be?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
In one word: short. In two words: it depends. A neuroscience expert faces the challenge of 100 new neuroscience articles being published on a daily basis. S/he will never be able to read all that. So, what can be done to get your own publication known to the community? . 1) Know the reader and [...]... Read more »
Haslam, N. (2010) Bite-Size Science: Relative Impact of Short Article Formats. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(3), 263-264. DOI: 10.1177/1745691610369466
Ledgerwood, A., & Sherman, J. (2012) Short, Sweet, and Problematic? The Rise of the Short Report in Psychological Science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(1), 60-66. DOI: 10.1177/1745691611427304
Renear AH, & Palmer CL. (2009) Strategic reading, ontologies, and the future of scientific publishing. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325(5942), 828-32. PMID: 19679805
Krzysztof Zbigniew Stanek. (2008) How long should an astronomical paper be to increase its Impact?. arXiv. arXiv: 0809.0692v1
- December 9, 2012
- 07:27 AM
- 205 views
When to switch on background music
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Some things of our daily lives have become so common, we hardly notice them anymore. Background music is one such thing. Whether you are in a supermarket, a gym or a molecular biology laboratory, you can constantly hear it. More than that, even in quiet environments like the office or the library people get out their mp3-players and play background music. Is this a form of boosting one’s productivity or are people enjoying music at the cost of getting things done? Research on the effect of bac........ Read more »
Avila, C., Furnham, A., & McClelland, A. (2012) The influence of distracting familiar vocal music on cognitive performance of introverts and extraverts. Psychology of Music, 40(1), 84-93. DOI: 10.1177/0305735611422672
Kampfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2011) The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424-448. DOI: 10.1177/0305735610376261
- October 25, 2012
- 05:10 AM
- 245 views
Obama should pray for sun – Psycho-meteorological effects on government approval
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Romney should pray for rain because rain improves a conservative’s chances of getting elected. Having covered this ‘Republican rain advantage’ in my last post, I will turn to a second reason why the presidential candidates should monitor the election day weather in this post. It turns out that the weather influences how well the government is perceived. Could this be exploited by the candidates?... Read more »
Cohen, A. (2011) The photosynthetic President: Converting sunshine into popularity. The Social Science Journal, 48(2), 295-304. DOI: 10.1016/j.soscij.2010.11.007
Mutz, M., & Kämpfer, S. (2011) …und nun zum Wetter: Beeinflusst die Wetterlage die Einschätzung von politischen und wirtschaftlichen Sachverhalten?. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 40(4), 208-226. info:/
- October 21, 2012
- 11:57 AM
- 279 views
Romney should pray for rain – psycho-meteorological effects on GOP vote share
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
I would not be surprised if Mitt Romney was going through the weather forecast for November 6th, the date of the next US presidential election. As the Republican candidate, he will know that his chances of being elected are higher if people are faced with pouring rain upon leaving for the ballot box. Research supports this opinion but the underlying reasons could give the Obama campaign a strategy to undo this Republican rain advantage.... Read more »
Carlson M, Charlin V, & Miller N. (1988) Positive mood and helping behavior: a test of six hypotheses. Journal of personality and social psychology, 55(2), 211-29. PMID: 3050025
Cunningham, M. (1979) Weather, mood, and helping behavior: Quasi experiments with the sunshine samaritan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), 1947-1956. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.1947
Keller MC, Fredrickson BL, Ybarra O, Côté S, Johnson K, Mikels J, Conway A, & Wager T. (2005) A warm heart and a clear head. The contingent effects of weather on mood and cognition. Psychological science, 16(9), 724-31. PMID: 16137259
Eisinga R, Te Grotenhuis M, & Pelzer B. (2012) Weather conditions and political party vote share in Dutch national parliament elections, 1971-2010. International journal of biometeorology, 56(6), 1161-5. PMID: 22065127
Gomez, B., Hansford, T., & Krause, G. (2007) The Republicans Should Pray for Rain: Weather, Turnout, and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections. The Journal of Politics, 69(03), 649-663. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00565.x
- October 16, 2012
- 05:47 PM
- 353 views
The mysterious appeal of too loud music
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
At 39km above planet earth, would you have made Felix Baumgartner’s step off the platform? It was very dangerous, no doubt. But is this the reason why you wouldn’t have? People engage in many dangerous things. And I am not talking about skydiving. I mean the ordinary, every day kind of danger. Surely, some dangers can hardly be avoided, say road traffic (which is the leading cause of death for people in my age group). For others there is no obvious non-dangerous equivalent. But what if there........ Read more »
Dean, R.T., Bailes, F., & Schubert, E. (2011) Acoustic intensity causes perceived changes in arousal levels in music: an experimental investigation. PloS one, 6(4). PMID: 21533095
Lamont, A. (2003) Toddlers' musical preferences: musical preference and musical memory in the early years. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 518-9. PMID: 14681176
Russo, F.A., Ammirante, P., & Fels, D.I. (2012) Vibrotactile discrimination of musical timbre. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 38(4), 822-6. PMID: 22708743
Todd, N.P. McAngus, & Cody, F.W. (2000) Vestibular responses to loud dance music: A physiological basis of the ‘rock and roll threshold’?. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107(1), 496-500. DOI: 10.1121/1.428317
Zhao, F., Manchaiah, VK., French, D., & Price, S.M. (2010) Music exposure and hearing disorders: an overview. International journal of audiology, 49(1), 54-64. PMID: 20001447
- October 2, 2012
- 01:07 PM
- 292 views
Is ADHD different around the globe? The role of research cultures
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
An illness is an illness wherever you are. Perhaps this is true for organic diseases but the cultural background can play a tremendous role in the progression and even diagnosis of mental disorders. However, what has been neglected is an appreciation of how culture affects the research underlying the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. As a consequence, our view on the disorder can change.... Read more »
Hodgkins P, Arnold LE, Shaw M, Caci H, Kahle J, Woods AG, & Young S. (2011) A systematic review of global publication trends regarding long-term outcomes of ADHD. Frontiers in psychiatry / Frontiers Research Foundation, 84. PMID: 22279437
Polanczyk G, de Lima MS, Horta BL, Biederman J, & Rohde LA. (2007) The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis. The American journal of psychiatry, 164(6), 942-8. PMID: 17541055
- September 26, 2012
- 07:13 PM
- 294 views
canine confirmation confound – lessons from poorly performing drug detection dogs
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Intuitively, the use of police dogs as drug detectors makes sense. Dogs are known to have a better sense of smell than their human handlers. Furthermore, they cooperate easily. Still, compared to the generally good picture sniffer dogs have in the public eye, their performance as drug detectors in real life is terrible. The reason why scent dogs get used anyway holds important lessons for behavioural researchers working with animals or humans.... Read more »
Beran, M.J. (2012) Did you ever hear the one about the horse that could count?. Front. Psychology, 357. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00357
Doyen S, Klein O, Pichon CL, & Cleeremans A. (2012) Behavioral priming: it's all in the mind, but whose mind?. PloS one, 7(1). PMID: 22279526
Hickey S, McIlwraith F, Bruno R, Matthews A, & Alati R. (2012) Drug detection dogs in Australia: More bark than bite?. Drug and alcohol review, 31(6), 778-83. PMID: 22404555
Lit L, Schweitzer JB, & Oberbauer AM. (2011) Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes. Animal cognition, 14(3), 387-94. PMID: 21225441
NSW Ombudsman. (2006) Review of the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dogs) Act 2001. Sydney: Office of the New SouthWales Ombudsman. info:other/
- September 16, 2012
- 01:23 PM
- 323 views
Risk vs. Opportunity across the life-span: Risky choices decline with age
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Risk taking is somewhat enigmatic. On the one hand, risky choices in every day life – like drug abuse or drink driving – peak in adolescence. Never again in life is the threat to die from easily preventable causes as great. On the other hand, in laboratory experiments this risky choice peak in adolescence is absent. Instead, the readiness to take a gamble simply goes down the older you are. How can we explain this paradox? Perhaps, we should look at a tribe in the Amazon rain forest for answ........ Read more »
Everett, D. (2008) Don't sleep, there are snakes. London: Profile Books. info:/
Paulsen, D.J., Platt, M.L., Huettel, SA, & Brannon, E.M. (2012) From risk-seeking to risk-averse: the development of economic risk preference from childhood to adulthood. Frontiers in psychology, 313. PMID: 22973247
- September 9, 2012
- 09:27 AM
- 265 views
Improving Eye-Witness testimony by undoing false memories
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Do you remember August 31st, 15 years ago? Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris along with her partner Dodi Fayed and others. Do you remember seeing the video of the crash? If so, you share that memory with 44% of the participants James Ost and colleagues recruited in 2002 in Britain.
This memory is false.
[...]... Read more »
Greenberg, D.L. (2004) President Bush’s False ‘Flashbulb’ Memory of 9/11/01. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 363-370. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1016
Oeberst, A., & Blank, H. (2012) Undoing suggestive influence on memory: The reversibility of the eyewitness misinformation effect. Cognition. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.07.009
Ost, J., Vrij, A., Costall, A., & Bull, R. (2002) Crashing Memories and Reality Monitoring: Distinguishing between Perceptions, Imaginations and ‘False Memories’. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 125-134. DOI: 10.1002/acp.779
- September 1, 2012
- 08:53 AM
- 284 views
Extreme neural adaptation – how musical ability is lost through focal dystonia
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
‘There was a question of not having a purpose in life. Just floundering’. Leon Fleischer was a true musical prodigy. By the age of sixteen he performed with the New York Philharmonic. He was called ‘the pianist find of the century’. Suddenly, in 1964, he lost control over his right hand. His fingers would simply [...]... Read more »
Burman, D.D., Lie-Nemeth, T., Brandfonbrener, A.G., Parisi, T., & Meyer, J.R. (2009) Altered Finger Representations in Sensorimotor Cortex of Musicians with Focal Dystonia: Precentral Cortex. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 10-23. DOI: 10.1007/s11682-008-9046-z
Elbert, T., Candia, V., Altenmüller, E., Rau, H., Sterr, A., Rockstroh, B., Pantev, C., & Taub, E. (1998) Alteration of digital representations in somatosensory cortex in focal hand dystonia. Neuroreport, 9(16), 3571-3575. PMID: 9858362
Zheng, ZZ., Pan, PL., Wang, W., & Shang, HF. (2012) Neural network of primary focal dystonia by an anatomic likelihood estimation meta-analysis of gray matter abnormalities. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 51-55. DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2012.01.032
- August 25, 2012
- 08:32 AM
- 293 views
Who dunnit? The avoidable crisis of scientific authorship
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
This year, Germany’s highest court reached a damning verdict concerning academic pay. It is so low that it is in breach of the constitution. Why do research then? One reason is that it gives you prestige – which often precedes money. Brain areas are still talked about in terms of Brodmann areas and not Smith [...]... Read more »
Eggert, L.D. (2011) Best practices for allocating appropriate credit and responsibility to authors of multi-authored articles. Frontiers in psychology, 196. PMID: 21909330
Seeman, J.I., & House, M.C. (2010) Influences on authorship issues: an evaluation of receiving, not receiving, and rejecting credit. Accountability in research, 17(4), 176-197. PMID: 20597017
Wislar, J.S., Flanagin, A., Fontanarosa, P.B., & Deangelis, C.D. (2011) Honorary and ghost authorship in high impact biomedical journals: a cross sectional survey. BMJ. PMID: 22028479
- August 7, 2012
- 02:48 AM
- 257 views
Mimicking infants rather than adults – how infants choose their models.
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Parents are often afraid of what happens once their children hit puberty and stop emulating their parents. Recent research suggests that this fear should start a lot earlier: in infancy. Of course, infants need their parents to learn but they need other infants when it comes to imitating things they already know. Two recent articles [...]... Read more »
Seehagen, S.,, & Herbert, J.S.,. (2011) Infant Imitation From Televised Peer and AdultModels. Infancy, 16(2), 113-136. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00045.x
Zmyj, N., Aschersleben, G., Prinz, W., & Daum, M. (2012) The Peer Model Advantage in Infants' Imitation of Familiar Gestures Performed by Differently Aged Models. Frontiers in psychology, 252. PMID: 22833732
Zmyj, N., Daum, M.M.,, Prinz, W.,, Nielsen, M.,, & Aschersleben, G. (2012) Fourteen-month-olds' imitation of differently aged models. Infant and Child Developement, 21(3), 250-266. DOI: 10.1002/icd.750
- July 31, 2012
- 01:23 AM
- 342 views
Three fun ways to have three hands – for you at home
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Tired of having been born with only two hands? Jealous of Indian goddesses? Doubtful about Psychology and Neuroscience’s ability to replicate findings? Then this set of exercises is for you. No need for any technical equipment. If all goes well you will grow* a hand as part of all this. You will have the strong [...]... Read more »
Aimola Davies, A.M., & White, R.C. (2011) Touching my face with my supernumerary hand: A cheeky illusion. Perception, 1245-1247. DOI: 10.1068/p6956
Botvinick, M., & Cohen, J. (1998) Rubber hands 'feel' touch that eyes see. Nature, 391(6669), 756. PMID: 9486643
Ehrsson, H.H. (2009) How many arms make a pair? Perceptual illusion of having an additional limb. Perception, 38(2), 310-312. PMID: 19400438
Ehrsson, H.H., Holmes, N.P., & Passingham, R.E. (2005) Touching a rubber hand: feeling of body ownership is associated with activity in multisensory brain areas. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 25(45), 10564-10573. PMID: 16280594
Guterstam, A., Petkova, V.I., & Ehrsson, H.H. (2011) The illusion of owning a third arm. PloS one, 6(2). PMID: 21383847
- July 16, 2012
- 05:35 AM
- 360 views
Psychological principles as guidelines for effective PowerPoint presentations
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
You probably wouldn’t have much difficulty if I asked you to imagine a bad PowerPoint presentation. Nowadays one sits through so many of them that confusing, boring or annoying slide shows are sometimes perceived as the norm rather than the exception. A research team from the universities of Stanford, Amsterdam and Harvard headed by Stephen [...]... Read more »
Kosslyn S.M., Kievit R.A., Russell A.G., & Shephard J.M. (2012) PowerPoint® Presentation Flaws and Failures: A Psychological Analysis. Front. Psychology, 230. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00230
- July 2, 2012
- 02:55 AM
- 332 views
How are invisible colours possible?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
To some people I am half colour blind even though I can see everything from blue to red like most people. For them it is odd that I can only see colours when they are directly presented to me. More than that, I can only see colours for which there are proper words. These people [...]... Read more »
Hubbard, E.M., Brang, D., & Ramachandran, V.S. (2011) The cross-activation theory at 10. Journal of Neuropsychology, 152-177. DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-6653.2011.02014.x
Ramachandran, V.S., & Hubbard, E.M. (2001) Psychophysical investigations into the neural basis of synaesthesia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 979-983. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2000.1576
- June 20, 2012
- 03:54 AM
- 368 views
Red in the Head – Psychology Predicts Portugal to Win Euro 2012
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Is it possible to predict with great certainty who will be crowned Europe’s best football team this summer? No, but we are flooded with a barrage of statistics which try anyway, e.g. ‘Spain won the last competitions at European and World levels but no one ever went on to win the following European Championship after such a run, therefore Spain won’t win’. Because I neither like unreliable statistics nor understand all that much about football it is time to turn to Psychology and see what........ Read more »
Attrill, M. J., Gresty, K. A., Hill, R. A., & Barton, R. A. (2008) Red shirt colour is associated with long-term team success in English football. Journal of Sports Sciences, 577-582. DOI: 10.1080/02640410701736244
Felden, S.V. Ten, Baas, M., Shalvi, S., Preenen, P.T.Y., & Dreu, C.K.W. De. (2012) In competitive interaction displays of red increase actors' competitive approach and perceivers' withdrawel. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.04.004
Hill, R. A., & Barton, R. A. (2005) Red enhances human performance in contests. Nature, 293. DOI: 10.1038/435293a
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