Link feast
Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so.
25 October 2014
Brain Games Exploit Anxieties About Memory Loss For Profit – Scientists
A group of over 70 psychologists and neuroscientists has written an open letter warning that the claims of brain training companies are unsubstantiated, and that playing the games could divert people from healthier activities.
Free Journal Articles on the Psychology of Violence and Aggression
A digital give away from the publishers Psychology Press.
Beware, Playing Lots of Chess Will Shrink Your Brain!
A new study compares the brain structure of chess grandmasters and amateurs.
Coma Songs
From BBC Radio 3: A meditation on the cultural representation of comas through music, poetry and interviews with the families of people who have a suffered brain injury.
"Just Because Something Mentions the Word 'Brain' Doesn't Mean It's Necessarily Valid Neuroscience"
A video of Professor Dorothy Bishop's recent conference talk on the increasingly popular field of "educational neuroscience".
Are Women Better Decision Makers?
A round-up of recent research findings suggests that, in stressful situations, women make better decisions than men.
Brain Baloney Has No Place in the Classroom
Pete Etchells reports on a worrying new study that found strong endorsement of neuromyths by teachers around the world.
Social Anxiety: Why The Mundane Can Be Terrifying
Guardian blogger Dean Burnett with some personal reflections on extreme shyness.
The Real Crisis in Psychiatry is That There Isn't Enough of It
President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Simon Wesseley lampoons the idea that psychiatrists are agents of government control, and argues instead that the real problem with psychiatry is a lack of funding and services.
This is What Developing Acute Schizophrenia Feels Like
Moving, graphic first-person account of a young man's descent into a psychotic episode and his subsequent recovery.