Thomas Z. Ramsøy's Posts

Hippocampus throughout the menstrual cycle by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics The recent issue of the journal Hippocampus has an interesting article on the structure of the hippocampus throughout the menstrual cycle. By studying women two times during the menstrual cycle (pre- and post-menstrual) using volumetric MR scanning, researchers Xenia Protopopescu and her colleagues at Cornell University demonstrated structural c... Read on »

Neuroeconomy in Munich by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics In case any of you have plans for going to the first NeuroPsychoEconomics conference in Munich this Thursday and Friday, let me know. Or if you’re just in the vicinity, you can also let me know. Neuroethicists and cognitive neuroscientists alike (as well as every else interested in this blog) should probably meet whenever possible.The plan... Read on »

Brain value — recent updates by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Current Opinion in Neurobiology now hosts a wonderful special issue on “Cognitive Neuroscience”. Well, it’s actually more narrow and to the point than this. Many of the articles are about the neurobiology of preference formation and decision making. The following articles are included:Dissociating explicit timing from temporal ... Read on »

Two ways of reducing fear by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Emotional reactions may come in many forms and have different causes. But one of the main responses is the fear response, which has been shown to involved the amygdala. Different nuclei of the amygdala may contribute differentially to the fear response process.One vital feature of emotion and amygdala is that emotional responses can be reduced, ... Read on »

I just received this interesting... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics I just received this interesting link to the memebox.com future scanner. I might have misunderstood the email initially, since I thought it was just another spam message, and that it suggested some weird way to predict the future. However, after visiting the site, I think it’s a great idea! Actually, the Future Scanner is a great way to ke... Read on »

Yes, we’ve been! It’s therefore ... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Yes, we’ve been! It’s therefore strange — and wonderful — to see that we are still receiving several hundreds of visitors every day. You are all welcome.A brief update on our “missing in action”: Martin has been most busy analysing several paradigms, writing chapters and editing books. I’m sure Martin wi... Read on »

In May 15-16 this year, the Cope... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics In May 15-16 this year, the Copenhagen Business School arranges a conference on neuroeconomics. According to the mission statement, the idea is to “provide an international discussion forum for research in the intersection of the psychology and neuroscience of decision-making and to set a stage for the presentation of recent contr... Read on »

Michael Gazzaniga is one of the ... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Michael Gazzaniga is one of the directors of a very interesting new neuroethics project, The Law & Neuroscience Project, supported finacially by The MacArthur Fondation. The aim of the project is to convene experts from a number of disciplines (neuroscience, law, philosophy, etc.) to discuss how our understanding of the brain impacts - or, ... Read on »

Ever wondered about the neurobio... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Ever wondered about the neurobiology of memory — how the brain stores information? And, if you know slightly more, how information is stored beyond the hippocampus, or what happens to memory during recall? If you have anything to do with memory — even having a slight interest in the topic — the journal Neurobiology of Learning ... Read on »

How specific — or sparse — is th... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics How specific — or sparse — is the neural representation of a memory trace? Quian Quiroga and colleagues now have an article in Neuron (PDF), where they describe their well-known studies using single-cell recordings to well-known faces. As you most likely know, this has given rise to the debate about the “Jennifer Aniston neuron... Read on »

Seems as if Springer is making a... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Seems as if Springer is making a good move on promoting their new journal, Neuroethics. As the message says, they will provide free access to articles during 2008 and 2009.Well, THAT is something to celebrate. Here at BrainEthics, we will certainly follow the titles as they come, hopefully also comment on them, and even more hopefully so, to hav... Read on »

A unique opportunity to learn ab... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics A unique opportunity to learn about contemporary neuroeconomicsWe are writing to you in connection with the Conference on Neuroeconomics (ConNEcs 2008), which is going to take place at the Copenhagen Business School May 14-16, 2008. The conference is arranged by Center for Marketing Communication in cooperation with Hilke Plassmann (CalTech, US)... Read on »

The burgeoning field of neuroeco... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics The burgeoning field of neuroeconomics is on the rise, now with a few journal updates. First, let me introduce two new journals:Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and EconomicsThis journal “publishes original research dealing with the application of psychological theories and/or neuroscientific methods to business and economics. As an in... Read on »

It should come as no surprise to... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics It should come as no surprise to you that after a prolonged hibernation, the BrainEthics team is heading back to the web-surface to present the novelties and oddities of cognitive neuroscience. And let’s start again with some fresh news from Nature, which besides featuring a nice focus section on the Drosophila, also has a nice article on ... Read on »

That almond-shaped structure we ... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics That almond-shaped structure we call amygdala is typically thought of as solely (or mainly) involved in negative affect. However, some studies have suggested that the amygdala is also involved in other processes, such as novelty (of faces). It should come as a big surprise, however, to many researchers that this structure is also involved in pos... Read on »

Martha Farah just alerted me abo... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Martha Farah just alerted me about her recent comment in the Neuroethics & Law blog. Yesterday, NY Times ran a story about neuro-politics. More precisely, they presented a study of how subjects’ brains responded to, e.g., different political words and pictures of US politicians involved in the 2008 presidental election. The article&rs... Read on »

Can we rid ourselves of the mean... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Can we rid ourselves of the meaningless violence and aggression seen in society today? A news story in Nature News this week shows that aggressiveness may be treated with a serotonin-acting ligand. At least in rats, but nevertheless the study holds the promise for human treatment as well. Serotonin levels are known to be associated with aggressi... Read on »

Physorg reports about an interes... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Physorg reports about an interesting forthcoming MRI study linking paedophilia to regional changes in white matter. Analysing structural MRI using voxel-based morphometry, paedophiles were found to have significantly smaller white matter volumes in specific regions, as the abstract demonstrates:The present investigation sought to identify which ... Read on »

It’s a strange feeling. You scan... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics It’s a strange feeling. You scan what you think is a normal person, and have taken all precautions to make sure that there are no indications of medical complications. But once you look at the scans, there is something wrong with the brain you are looking at. As in this case, I scanned a person some while ago as part of my study of the bra... Read on »

Research on the role of oxytocin... by Thomas Z. Ramsøy Healthy Living Professional

Posted in: Blog Posts in Bioethics Research on the role of oxytocin, a neuropeptide, in social cognition has generated much interest during the last few years. We have earlier written about oxytocin’s role in social attachment; together with vasopressin, another neuropeptide, oxytocin is thought to be critical for linking social signals to structures in the mesolimbic part ... Read on »

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