“Errant Behaviors,” a video and sound installation by Shawn Decker and Anne Wilson. In response to my post on “Music, Mood, and Genius (not) — or RockNRoll meets neuroscience,” one Shawn Decker, a music professor and composer at the Chicago Art Institute (and a former classmate and ultimate-frisbee teammate of mine from college), wrote asking…
Monthly Archives: August 2006
Uncategorized
Music, Mood, and Genius (not) — or RockNRoll meets neuroscience
by David Dobbs •
I’ve been interested in music and science since taking a physics of music class back in college (20 years later, amazingly, I discovered my violin teacher of 2000, Kevin Bushee, was married to the daughter of the professor who taught that class), so I was intrigued to find this Wired piece in which neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, formerly a rock producer, talks about the neuroscience of music.
read more →
Uncategorized
Spills of War
by David Dobbs •
It’s good to see NASA hasn’t completely abandoned its mandate to look after the home planet. As its Earth Observatory notes: Among the casualties of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel in the summer of 2006 was the Mediterranean. Israeli raids in mid-July on the Jiyyeh Power Station released thousands of tons of oil along…
Uncategorized
Fast Plasticity
by David Dobbs •
Among the many wonders of neuroscience — and central to the discipline — is the brain’s plasticity, its ability to rework synapses and networks to respond to new challenges and experiences. In this dynamic lies the physical explanation of the fluid nature of experience, thought, and consciousness. This is why I find so fascinating the…
Uncategorized
Neurologist Helen Mayberg in SciAm Mind
by David Dobbs •
My profile of Emory neurologist Helen Mayberg is out now in Scientific American Mind. You can read either a text-only version at my website, or get the full published version, with photos and such, at the Scientific American Mind site (free to subscribers, $5 for the article for non-subscribers). Mayberg made headlines last year when…
Uncategorized
Breastfed Babies Bounce Back Better (or: Of Mice & Moms Redux)
by David Dobbs •
No sooner had I noted that mouse pups seem to handle stress better when near their mothers than I found a study of some 9000 British kids showing that breastfeeding seems to make kids more resilient to stress even well after they’ve stopped breastfeeding. As the press release puts it, Breastfed babies cope better with…
read more →