PsychBLOG.co.uk

With $55 million, a collection of frozen human brains and robots capable of processing 192 brain slices a day, the Allen Brain Institute is attempting to do the impossible: systematically map out the expression patterns of more than 20,000 genes that make our grey matter tick.
The science behind the techniques isn’t new. Researchers have probed [...]

Recently we have looked at the impressive progression in the ability of fMRI scanners to record brain activity in ‘real time’ but are we over interpreting these results?  Over the last decade-or-two more-and-more researchers have been turning to fMRI scanners to open the ‘black box’ which is the brain. These scanners measure brain activity by [...]

Could it soon really be possible to look inside the brain in ‘real time’. Over the last three decades we have made leaps-and-bounds in developing non-invasive processes to scan brains; PET, MRI, fMRI etc. These scanning techniques have allowed psychologists an insight into the processes of the brain during specific tasks or just [...]

A great guest post from Amit on his experiences of teaching the new Maguire study and how he linked it in with memory and even got onto a playing field!
Notwithstanding with the fact that we might be an experienced teacher there is that little element of irky nervousness while teaching something new. So was my [...]

Another productive lost evening stumbling the web allowed me one gem of a site that I’ve spent the afternoon playing with. I still can’t work out if it’s absolutely amazing or not really that useful to us psychology teachers but I thought it worth a post anyway. The site is called Visible Body [...]

Hodder Education presents OCR Psychology for AS a brand new text for the 2008 OCR AS Psychology specification, covering all 15 core studies, contextualising, presenting and evaluating each study in full, in order to make it relevant to the student. The textbook is highly accessible and readable, with useful guidance on comparing studies, applying themes, [...]

Recently I posted some videos of Roger Sperry’s research into lateralisation of function in epileptic patients who had had their corpus callosum severed to varying degrees. Now for more Sperry related goodies: how to test your corpus callosum (and no surgery is needed!). Basically all you have to do is:
You need to ask [...]

In the AS course we look a the Sperry study of hemisphere disconnection and the findings surrounding lateralisation of function. It can be quite a difficult and dry study (although it’s one of my favorites and I have a fab PowerPoint that I will put in the resources share) and videos are few-and-far-between so thanks [...]

With all the conferences that are going on lots of us are starting to look forward to the new 2008 specifications: what are the studies like; what else have the authors done? One of the new studies in the physiological psychology module of the AS is Maguire’s research into the size of London cabbies’ [...]

A good while back I compiled a list of references and more importantly full text links for all of the core studies. Well now the new 2008 spec has been finalised it’s time for the updated references. If you’re looking for the ‘old’ (2000-2007) spec studies see this page. All of the files are being [...]