Brilliant Blog

Finally. "The House took steps yesterday to improve counseling and care for the tens of thousands of military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder." keep reading the Washington Post's article House Passes Four Bills Aimed at Aiding Veterans. Our previous thoughts on TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), Iraq and neuropsychology. Brain health, [...]

This week we have enjoyed 2 great blog carnivals Encephalon (neuroscience and psychology) Grand Rounds (medicine and health) And, of course, there are more on a varity of topics: Medicine and web 2.0, Change of Shift, Education, Change the World, Mind and Body Fitness, Abundance Thinking, Positive Thinking, Healing, Living a real life, Homeschooling, Midlife Careers. education blogs, grand rounds, health [...]

I have just read the best blog post I have read in a loooong while, so let me share it here now. Brett Steenbarger is a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and a Trading Psychology expert who I had the pleasure to interview a while back. He is a master at trading, learning, teaching and coaching.  And has [...]

Dr. Michael Merzenich has written a great post titled A “cognitive reserve” is a good thing to work on!. Recommended reading if you are interested in another scientific perspective for cognitive training. I agree we should know more (as usual), especially for policy decisions, but there is enough research, from Marian Diamond et al (see beautiful [...]

Shelley launched a good discussion on The Neuroscience of ADHD in her blog, discussing the situation and providing a technical overview of drug-based interventions. Something I hadn't heard is that "For example, babies born prematurely face a significantly greater risk of developing ADHD than full-term babies (socioeconomic status was controlled for)." Which helps me better understand the [...]

Given the stock market performance these days, Brett Steenbarger offers timely tips and resources for traders on managing stress and self-confidence: Updated Psychology of Trading Resources, including a list of relevant blogs such as Afraid to Trade blog, Trader Psychology blog, the Head Coach blog, his Stock Market Psychology blog and Smart Trader blog. He also offers very good [...]

Very good article in MarketWatch titled Beating forgetfulness and boosting the brain. Probably the best we have seen so far providing an overall industry perspective on a nascent field. I recommend reading the whole article, but here you have some teasers: "As boomers age, the drive to correct such discomfort has implications for health and wellness, employment [...]

Dr. Yaakov Stern is the Division Leader of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center, and Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York. He is one of the leading proponents of the Cognitive reserve theory, which aims to explain why some individuals with full Alzheimer's pathology (accumulation [...]

Hi, It's Andreas, the neuroscience intern from Norway. Lately, you might have noticed the comedian Judson Laipply's awesome movie clip, the Evolution of Dance on Youtube? The dance is part of Laipply's "Inspirational Comedy" and has become a huge success. As a neuroscientist I'm interested in what are the neural substrates of dance? Further, I [...]

The ABA (American Bar Association) Journal has a good article titled Law Hacks: 101 tips, tricks and tools to make you a more productive, less stressed-out lawyer, combining tips on email usage, software, and some brain tips from us: 67 "The Web site SharpBrains suggests self-improvement exercises. Try this one: Take five-minute visu­alization breaks with deep [...]

Very fun interview with Jack and Elaine LaLanne by Dave Bunnell: read it at Meet Fitness Legends Jack and Elaine LaLanne | ELDR.com. See some quotes: In 1936, Jack opened America’s first health club in Oakland, California, called the “Jack LaLanne Physical Culture Studio.” Through television shows, public appearances, and books—and by selling health-related products—they have been [...]

Vaughan writes a great post titled Psychologist wins world poker championships on Jerry Yang, a 29 year-old psychologist and social worker who just won the World Series of Poker. He says: "In terms of dealing with the interaction between social influence and risky financial decisions, a study by Dr. Andreas Roider found that psychologists made, on [...]

Mating Intelligence

Sex, Relationships, and the Mind's Reproductive System

• Edited by Glenn Geher, Geoffrey Miller

Human intelligence is sexually attractive, and strongly predicts the success of sexual relationships, but the behavioral sciences have usually ignored the interface between intelligence and mating. This is the first serious scholarly effort to explore that interface, by examining both universals and individual differences in human mating intelligence. Contributors include some of the most prominent evolutionary psychologists and promising new researchers in human intelligence, social psychology, intimate relationships, and sexuality.

David Buss’ Foreword and the opening chapter explore what ‘mating intelligence’ means, and why it is central to human cognition and sexuality. The book’s six sections then examine (1) our mating mechanisms—universal emotional and cognitive adaptations for mating intelligently—that guide mate search, mate choice, and courtship; (2) how mating intelligence strategically guides our choice of mating tactics and partners given different relationship goals, personality traits, forms of deception, and the existence of children; (3) the genetic and psychiatric causes of individual differences in mating intelligence; (4) how we use mental fitness indicators—forms of human intelligence such as creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence—to attract and retain sexual partners; (5) the ecological and social contexts of mating intelligence; (6) integrative models of mating intelligence that can guide future research.

Mating Intelligence is intended for researchers, advanced students, and courses in human sexuality, intimate relationships, intelligence research, behavior genetics, and evolutionary, personality, social, and clinical psychology.

ISBN: 9780805857481

Published September 05 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Interesting article titled Key to funding for eldercare technologies? Pilots, just published in CNET. A few quotes: "No matter the size, a pilot not only serves as a means to vet whether an eldercare technology will work, but it also generates much needed data for insurance companies and government entities to weigh whether they might be [...]

A few years ago I had the chance to meet, and see in action, Hans Rosling (follow the link and play the fascinating clip if you have 6 minutes), at a summit by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He is a Professor of International Health who developed Trendalyzer software, a tool that brings statistics to live with great [...]

A collection of recent announcement in the "brain games" or "brain training games" space: The Wii sets new generational standards for the videogame industry "The ageing of the Japanese population compelled gamemaker Nintendo to widen its audience. Now, the Wii is leading the industry standards. But hardcore gamers are still too important to be neglected." Strain your brain [...]

Well, today we have an exceptional collection of blog carnivals to mention. Please only start browsing if you do have some time to spare...otherwise you will end up spending more time reading the articles than you really can afford to First, some superb editions of: Grand Rounds (Medicine). An amazing collection of medicine-related articles, with fun [...]

Brandon Keim writes a nice post on The Future Science of Altruism at Wired Science Blog, based on an interview with Jordan Grafman, chief of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Brandon provides good context saying that "Scientists, said Grafman, are understanding how our brains are shaped by culture and environment, and a mechanism [...]

Today I have an announcement to make. You probably are seeing all the articles about Brain Fitness in the press and wondering, “What is this all about?”, “Can someone help me navigate through all the programs out there?”, “How is Brain Fitness relevant to me in my personal life or at work?”. Well...we are delivering a series of [...]

Not a joke The Complete Lawyer, a legal publication distributed to bar members in several states, just published an article on Ten Important Truths About Aging: How we age is at least partially under our control, By Elkhonon Goldberg and Alvaro Fernandez. We were happy to contribute to the ongoing debate about ethics and aging [...]