Encephalon #59

Welcome to the 59th edition of Encephalon, the blog carnival to read if you're at all into (vertebrate) brains...

First up is GrrlScientist, our next host and author of Living the Scientific Life, with a report on a fascinating study that combines refrigeration and neuroscience in songbirds. No, really.

Vaughn of the venerable Mind Hacks submitted a particularly interesting post highlighting a recent Cortex special issue (viewable here via Science Direct) on the neuropsychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences. I do hope that a lot more research like this gets done...

Next is posts by two of the Neuroanthropology authors, Greg and Daniel. The latter briefly discusses internet communities of delusional or psychotic individuals, while the former writes at length about a new paper by Michael Wheeler and Andy Clark on embodied cognition and cultural evolution.

Walter Jessen of Highlight Health reports on important developments in the genetics of autism: researchers have identified several SNPs likely partially responsible for the disease.

The mighty Neurocritic submitted a very interesting post on the finding that there isn't global cognitive decline in Huntington's Disease, on the contrary, certain cognitive functions might even be enhanced. Another very nice illustration that things are always more complicated than they seem...

Sandy Guatam of The Mouse Trap sketches the goals of personality psychology and the thinks-through the neurological correlates of poverty.

Nicky Penttila and Ben Mauk at the relatively new Dana Press Blog have worthy articles on the big business potential of neurotechnology and dancing for Parkinson's patients.

Finally, two posts from Sharp Brains: Dr. Joshua Steinerman polls readers on their feelings about cognitive mental status assessments and Alvaro updates us on physical fitness and brain fitness.

That's it! The next edition will be hosted by GrrlScientist on December 8th. If you would like to contribute, please send an email to encephalon{dot}host{at}gmail{dot}com.