Comments on: Brain Blog Breakdown

Question: Brain Blog Breakdown

solipsophistocracy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:48:51 -0800

What are your favorite neuroscience blogs?

I want to start reading some good neuroscience blogs. There are a lot out there, and I'm interested in finding out which ones various MeFites might give their stamp of approval. My particular interest is in social neuroscience, but please don't limit your responses based on that. Blogs that are somewhat related to neuroscience are would also be great to hear about (i.e. cognitive science, psychology, etc.). Also, do you have a particular method of staying current with said blogs that you feel is particularly effective?

By: diogenes

diogenes — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:03:57 -0800

I'm a big fan of Steven Novella, the author of NeuroLogica. He's president of the New England Skeptical Society and hosts one of my favorite podcasts (The Skeptics Guide to the Universe). I don't read the blog regularly, but he refers to it frequently on the podcast. He's particularly good at debunking pseudoscience when it wanders into the realm of neuroscience.

By: Jaltcoh

Jaltcoh — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:04:39 -0800

Neurophilosophy.

Garden of Forking Paths -- a blog on the philosophical problem of free will, possibly of interest.

PsyBlog (psychology)

Scroll down near the end of this webpage for lots of links to "cognitive science weblogs" (might be pretty dated).

"Philosophy, etc." is a philosophy blog with some posts on the mind, sometimes bringing in empirical research. Of course, you can easily find tons of philosophy blogs and then look through them for posts on the mind, but as someone who often reads philosophy blogs I can vouch for this as one of the best (check the comments sections for illuminating, vigorous debate).*

*I recommend keeping up with more philosophical discussions along with the more scientific ones. Neuroscientists may draw all sorts of philosophical conclusions from their data, and it's entirely possible that they'll unwittingly make philosophical errors in doing so. Each field has its strengths and weaknesses, and none has a monopoly on the truth.

By: TNOTGILL

TNOTGILL — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:25:36 -0800

Mind Hacks and ScienceBlogs Brain and Behavior are two great jumping points. You can find tons of interesting links through them. My favorite is the Frontal Cortex.

By: idb

idb — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:54:53 -0800

Neurotopia--just happened across it the other day.

By: tangerine

tangerine — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:22:07 -0800

The Thinking Meat Project.

By: you're a kitty!

you're a kitty! — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:12:21 -0800

It's not very formal or technical, but Jonah Lehrer's blog is good. He's a regular on the always-spectacular Radiolab (see how I snuck a Radiolab rec in there?)

By: introcosm

introcosm — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:41:52 -0800

Neuroanthropology is sooo good. Nuanced and thoughtful writing about the intersections of mind and culture.

The Neurocritic and Neuroskeptic critique sloppy research (and sloppy reporting about good research), which is important for lay readers who want to be alert to some of the methodological issues...and often hilarious too.

At Scienceblogs, I like Developing Intelligence (pretty technical) and Mixing Memory (now defunct, but great archives). Also seconding Neurotopia.

By: solipsophistocracy

solipsophistocracy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:21:03 -0800

Thanks very kindly, folks. Neurotopia in particular is blowing my mind.