Science have published an article by Heather Gray, Kurt gray and Daniel Wegner on their research into the attribution of mindedness [Synopsis available at Kurt Gray’s Web site]. The research was based on results from an online survey of 2040 people. The participants ‘averaged 30 years of age and were modally female, white, unmarried, Christian, Democrat, and with some college education’. The survey required the participants to make

… 78 pairwise comparisons on five-point scales of 13 characters for one of 18 mental capacities (e.g., capacity to feel pain) or for one of six personal judgments (e.g., “which character do you like more?”). The characters included seven living human forms (7-week-old fetus, 5-month-old infant, 5-year-old girl, adult woman, adult man, man in a persistent vegetative state, and the respondent him- or herself), three nonhuman animals (frog, family dog, and wild chimpanzee), a dead woman, God, and a sociable robot (Kismet).

Factor analysis reduced the eighteen dimensions of the survey to two, generalised as ‘experience’ and ‘agency’ (see diagram above).

Gray, H.M., Gray, K., Wegner, D.M. (2007) “Dimensions of Mind Perception”. Science 315(5812) p. 619. doi: 10.1126/science.1134475

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New Scientist has reported that researchers from the Brown University Research Foundation have filed a patent application describing a method for decoding and intepreting activity in the motor cortex. The patent application is available online. The research underlying the patent was published in Nature in July 2006. John Donoghue’s Web site also links to a preprint chapter, “Design Principles of a neuromotor Prosthetic Device” by Donoghue and Serruya.

Hochberg, L.R., Serruya, M.D., Friehs, G.M., Mukand, J.A., Saleh, M., Caplan, A.H., Branner, A., Chen, D., Penn, R.D., Donoghue, J.P. (2006) “Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices by a human with tetraplegia”. Nature 442, pp164-171. doi:10.1038/nature04970

Aaron, R.K., Herr, H.M., Ciombor, D.McK., Hochberg, L.R., Donoghue, J.P., Briant, C.L., Morgan, J.R., Ehrlich, M.G. (2006) “Horizons in Prosthesis Development for the Restoration of Limb Function”. J Am Acad Orthop Surg 14(10) S198-204

[Via New Scientist]

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Systems biologists at the University of California (San Diego) have made the first complete model of the human metabolism available on the internet. Technology Review is reporting that:

The new model includes every known gene and every metabolic reaction Palsson’s group uncovered in an extensive search of the scientific literature.

The BiGG Database contains ‘biochemically, genetically and genomically structured genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions’ and ‘integrates several published genome-scale metabolic networks into one location and uses standard nomenclature, which allows individual components to be compared across different species’ [BiGG Database].

Duarte, N.D., Becker, S. A., Jamshidi, N., Thiele, I., Mo, M. L., Vo, T. D., Srivas, R., Palsson, B. O., “Global reconstruction of the human metabolic network based on genomic and bibliomic data“, Proc. Nat’l Acad. Sci. 104(6):1777-82 (2007).

[via Technology Review]

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Old Nick has posted an interesting article about cities at Hyperstition. Old Nick laments the paucity of good theorising about cities and points out what looks like a great paper by the historian William H McNeill: “Cities and Their Consequences”, at The American Interest Online (subscription only).

There’s enough detail in Nick’s post to whet the appetite, though. From the development of specialisation in China to arms races amongst modern urban sects, there are some fine ideas about the general patterns to be found wherever there is large scale urbanisation.

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Li Gong of the Ohio State University School of Communication has published research concluding that virtual sales people are more effective when they smile:

…the happy agent achieved greater consumption intent, more positive product evaluation, more positive attitudes towards the agent (in terms of liking, trustworthiness, and competence) and the Web-site interface, and more positive user experience than the sad agent. [Gong 2007:188]

Gong, L. (2007)”Is happy better than sad even if they are both non-adaptive? Effects of emotional expressions of talking-head interface agents”. International Journal of Human-Computer Interactions 65(3) pp183-191 doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2006.09.005 [Accessed via ScienceDirect]

[via Science Daily]

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Nasa’s Astrobiology Magazine has an article by Leslie Mullen describing an expedition to the Chihuahua desert of Mexico. The desert is a popular location for Astrobiologists because of its many similarities to ancient earth. The similarity extends to the stromatolites, structures created by colonies of microbial lifeforms, which are rare today but were once more widespread.

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1. Oxytocin Improves “Mind-Reading” in Humans

Gregor Domes, Markus Heinrichs, Andre Michel, Christopher Berger, Sabine C. Herpetz (2006) ‘Oxytocin Improves “Mind-Reading” in Humans’. Biological Psychiatry 61 (6) pp731-733 doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.015

Full text here.

[From Brain Ethics via MindHacks]

2. Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements

Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., Damasio, A. (2007). “Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements”. Nature, advanced online publication. doi:10.1038/nature05631.

[From Neurophilosophy]

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The BBC have reported that the Cassini probe has found what are probably hydrocarbon seas on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.One of the seas (above left) is 100,000 sq. km - larger than lake superior (above right).

Cassini is oart of the joint NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

Cassini-Huygens at NASA JPL

Cassini-Huygens at ESA

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The neurophilosopher has reported on the release of the emotiv neural interface to software developers and the commercial release of the gtec neural interface.

[Update: Mar 21. Legit Reviews have an article on OCZ Technology’s Neural Impulse Actuator which was demonstrated at CeBIT (from Gizmodo via Core77 Design Blog)]

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