Nash Psychology

Click here to watch a mockumentary that students created for homework.  

Here is a nice overview of a range of non-intrusive brain imaging that are used in a number of your core studies such as Maguire, Dement & Kleitman.

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between eye movements and dreaming.

The study had three hypotheses:

1. There will be a significant association between REM sleep and dreaming.

2. There will be a significant positive correlation between the estimate of the duration of dreams and the length of eye-movement

3. There will be a significant association between the pattern of eye movement and the context of the dream

Procedure/Method

The nine participants were seven adult males and two adult females. Five were studied intensively, while only a small amount of data was collected on the other four just to back up the findings of the main five.

The participants were studied under controlled laboratory conditions, whereby they reported to the laboratory just before their usual bedtime. They had been asked to eat normally but to avoid caffeine or alcohol on the day of the study. The participants went to bed in a quiet, dark room.

An electroencephalograph (EEG) was used to amplify and record the signals of electrodes which were attached to the participants face and scalp. Two or more electrodes were attached near to the participants’ eyes to record electrical changes caused by eye movement. Two or three further electrodes were attached to the scalp to record brain activity which indicated the participants’ depth of sleep. The participants then went to bed in a quiet, dark room.

This is just a fun little amateur video I made for a psychology of personality class. We had to pick a character from pop culture and a psychological viewpoint from which to analyze the character. Well, our group picked Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader and Sigmund Freud (since little Ani has some mommy separation issues). It’s a little cheesy, and don’t be thrown by Freud’s German / British / East Indian accent. Enjoy!

The end is CUT OFF so here’s the rest of the narration:

“The question becomes: What happens when you allow both hands together to try and solve the problem? And what we find out is that they fight over each other. One hand knows how to do it and one hand does not. And so they more or less squabble. And the reason for this is that the hemispheres are disconnected. The right hemisphere controls the left hand and the left hemisphere controls the right hand and these are almost mutually independent systems as if two people were fighting over performing th task. One knew how and the other d one would fight for dominance over the situation. What have we gained from this research into split-brains? It is now possible to localize in one half brain, basic mental processes like learning and memory. This cuts the complexities of brain research almost in half so that in the future we can expect to achieve deeper insights into the mechanics of how the brain really works.” END

Click here to read Jonah Leyer’s article published in the NY Times

To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. Here’s what happens as a result: