BrainBlog

"Suzanne Corkin, Who Helped Pinpoint Nature of Memory, Dies at 79" The New York Times By Benedict Carey 27 May 2016 Obituary

Earlier this year, Dr. Jean Maria Arrigo was celebrated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as the recipient of its 2015 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award. 2015 AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award Goes to Social Psychologist Jean Maria Arrigo by Andrea Korte AAAS News 08 February 2016 Read press release here [Photo by Anthony Risser, 15 June 2008, Philadelphia]

New developments in torture psychology and the APA, as reported by James Risen in the New York Times: Critic of Psychologists’ Role in Interrogation Is Asked to Reconsider By James Risen The New York Times 15 April 2016 Article [Photo by Anthony Risser, 15 June 2008, Philadelphia]

The annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has begun. The meeting is taking place in Vancouver. Tweets from the conference appear to be using two hashtags: #AAN16 and #AANAM

An excellent paper is available this month in the current issue of Lancet Neurology :

The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology's Annual Conference (June 2016, Chicago) Registration Material and Program are now available, at: AACN registration

"My Beautiful Broken Brain" is a documentary by filmmaker Lotje Sodderland about her life after experiencing an hemorrhagic stroke. It was a Kickstarter-funded project. It is co-directed by Lotje and Sophie Robinson. Both are joined by David Lynch as Executive Directors of the film. Film website: My Beautiful Broken Brain Available on Netflix in mid-March after its SXSW premiere. (Here is an article by Lotje Sodderland written for The Guardian in late November, 2015: I felt as if I had become fear itself .)

The 44th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) begins today in Boston. The homepage of of the meeting can be found here .

Again and again and again ... "Pentagon Wants Psychologists to End Ban on Interrogation Role" by James Risen The New York Times 24 January 2016 Read article here [Photo by Anthony Risser, 15 June 2008, Philadelphia]

The new novel from Joyce Carol Oates is about a person with amnesia and his relationship with his clinical scientist. Place this work of fiction adjacent to the non-fiction work about Patient H.M and - voila! - the covers seem to create what could be another story! I will be writing and posting a review of the Joyce Carol Oates novel here next week.

UCL (University College London) is presenting a four-week MOOC on the FutureLearn platform (no cost) titled "The Many Faces of Dementia" . The course begins on 14th March. Course Description Four domains are explored: Familial Alzheimer's Disease, bvFTD, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, and Posterior Cortical Atrophy.

Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges for Its “Brain Training” Program Company Claimed Program Would Sharpen Performance in Everyday Life and Protect Against Cognitive Decline For Release January 5, 2016 FTC Press Release Case Timeline here

Pan-American Health Organisation Webpage PubMed Search Results for "Zika Virus" Search Results ECDC Webpage WHO 21 October 2015 Article Microcephaly - NINDS Microcephaly Information Page Basic Information Webpage ECDC "Rapid Risk Assessment" on risk of microcephaly in Zika virus infection (24 Nov 2015) pdf Paper

A good read from Slate about the movie, "Concussion": Concussion Lies by Daniel Engber Slate 21 December 2015 Concussion Lies (link) Don't mistake drama for truth, fiction for fact, excellent acting for documentary accuracy. And, in the bigger picture, the loudness of an argument for the sound scientific basis of that argument.

Otfried Spreen

Public Workshop - Neurodiagnostics and Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Medical Devices Workshop, November 19-20, 2015 Meeting homepage with links to agenda, background papers, and webcast streams from the meeting. [snip] "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the following two-day public workshop entitled, “Neurodiagnostics and Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Medical Devices Workshop.” The focus of the first day of the workshop will be cognitive assessment medical devices, which are intended to provide healthcare professionals with an evaluation of cognitive function through non-invasive measurements. The focus of the second day of the workshop will be non-invasive brain stimulation medical devices, which are medical devices that are intended to improve, affect, or otherwise modify the cognitive function of a normal individual (i.e., without a treatment objective) by means of non-invasive electrical or electromagnetic stimulation to the head. The purpose of t...

Dr. Otfried Spreen died, aged 89, on the 29th of November. A colleague, a mentor, a professor for so many of us in neuropsychology. A true gentleman. A true academic. Our profession will miss him and his contributions.

Dr. Kerry Hamsher died on 23rd October, 2015. Dr. Hamsher's commitment to neuropsychology as a science and as a profession was an ever-present one. His was an encyclopedic and sharp mind that could wrap itself around any clinical topic related to the central nervous system and behavior. He was indefatiguable in his pursuit of best practices for the education and post-graduate training of neuropsychologists. He was an essential participant in the work of the Houston Conference and within the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN). His two-year fellowship program at the Neurology Department of the University of Wisconsin Medical School – Milwaukee Clinical Campus during the decade of the 1980s was to become a model of post-graduate training in neuropsychology. A student of Dr. Arthur L. Benton, he was instrumental in the development of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination (MAE), the Facial Recognition Test (FRT), the Judgment of Line Orientation test (JLO), and the...

The first part of a two-part course on the topic, Principles of fMRI , opens at Coursera in October. Addendum: Opening day is Monday, the 12th of October.