July 27, 2010

Editor’s Selections: Methods FAIL, Empathic Robots, Gorilla Tag, and MDMA for PTSD

Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: EcoPhysioMichelle explains a giant methods FAIL on a recent paper that “claims that women who are approaching menopause become ‘more willing to engage in a variety of sexual activities to capitalize on their remaining childbearing years.’” NeuroKuz wonders, “Is it really possible to empathize with [...]

By Jason G. Goldman

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

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Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:

EcoPhysioMichelle explains a giant methods FAIL on a recent paper that "claims that women who are approaching menopause become 'more willing to engage in a variety of sexual activities to capitalize on their remaining childbearing years.'"
NeuroKuz wonders, "Is it really possible to empathize with and emotionally respond to a robot while simultaneously knowing that it is just a robot?" What is the human neural response to emotional robots?
Eric Michael Johnson brought the Primate Diaries in Exile Tour to David Dobbs' Neuron Culture, where he explains what happens when gorillas play tag.
DrugMonkey reviews the first peer-reviewed clinical trial of the administration of MDMA (Ecstasy) for PTSD. In follow-up posts, he notes that the media coverage of that study stinks, and that we tend to forget that many sufferers of PTSD are not soldiers, but women who have suffered sexual or physical criminal attacks.