The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (49 page)

42
electrodes in the brain:
Michele Lanotte, Leonardo Lopiano, Elena Torre, Bruno Bergamasco, Luana Colloca, Fabrizio Benedetti, ‘Expectation enhances autonomic responses to stimulation of the human subthalamic limbic region’,
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
, November 2005.

42
smelly brown paint:
G. H. Montgomery and I. Kirsch, ‘Mechanisms of Placebo Pain Reduction: An Empirical Investigation’,
Psychological Science
, May 1996.

42
the
unspoken thoughts
of your doctor:
R. H. Gracely et al., ‘Clinicians’ Expectations Influence Placebo Analgesia’,
Lancet
, January 1985.

42
when we know that our medication is pharmacologically useless:
Ted J. Kaptchuk et al., ‘Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome’,
PLoS
, 22 December 2010.

43
Professor Nicholas Humphrey … writes:
‘The Evolved Self-Management System’,
Edge
, 12 May 2011.

43
Because it did:
Dylan Evans,
Placebo
, HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 38–41, in particular his analysis of: S. Fisher and R. P. Greenburg, ‘How sound is the double blind design for evaluating psychotropic drugs?’,
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
, 1993.

4: ‘Two John Lennons’

page

45
For a 1979 study that has been widely replicated:
H. Strupp, S. Hadley, ‘Specific versus non-specific factors in psychotherapy’,
Archives of General Psychiatry
[1979].

45
despite the fact that different varieties of therapy:
M. L. Smith and G. V. Glass,
The Benefits of Psychotherapy
, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.

50
Maarten Peters and his team at Maastricht University:
M. J. V. Peters, R. Horselenberg, M. Jelicic and H. Merckelbach, ‘The false fame illusion in people with memories about a previous life’,
Consciousness and Cognition
, March 2007.

50
Psychologists at Harvard University led by Susan Clancy:
Susan A. Clancy, Richard J. McNally, Roger K. Pitman, Daniel L. Schacter and Mark F. Lenzenweger, ‘Memory Distortion in People Reporting Abduction by Aliens’,
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
111 (2002).

50
Although this result wasn’t replicated in an attempt by UK researchers:
Christopher C. French et al., ‘Psychological aspects of the alien contact experience’,
Cortex
44 (2008), pp. 1387–95.

5: ‘Solidified, intensified, gross sensations’

page

53
plenty of sound evidence for the efficacy of meditation:
Michael Bond, ‘Putting meditation to the test’,
New Scientist
, 11 January 2011.

67
the events that spiralled from a single phone call to a Kentucky branch of McDonald’s:
Andrew Wolfson, ‘A Hoax Most Cruel’,
Courier Journal
, 9 October 2005. ABC Primetime Special, originally broadcast 10 November 2005. ‘Strip Search Case Closed?’ ABC news website, 30 November 2006. Philip Zimbardo,
The Lucifer Effect
, Rider, 2007, pp. 279–81.

70
In a 2012 paper, neuroscientist Professor Chris Frith:
Chris D. Frith, ‘The role of metacognition in human social interactions’,
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society, Biological Sciences
, p. 367.

71
In 1951, Professor Stanley Milgram’s boss, Dr Solomon Asch:
S. E. Asch, ‘Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority’,
Psychological Monographs
70 (1951).

71
In 2005, Dr Gregory Berns, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist:
Gregory S. Berns, Jonathan Chappelow, Caroline F. Zink, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Megan E. Martin-Skurski and Jim Richards, ‘Neurobiological correlates of social conformity and independence during mental rotation’,
Biological Psychiatry
58 (2005), pp. 245–53.

72
In an interview with the
New York Times
:
Sandra Blakeslee, ‘What Other People Say May Change What You See’,
New York Times
, 28 June 2005.

6: ‘The invisible actor at the centre of the world’

page

73
six hundred million years ago:
Jonathan Haidt,
The Happiness Hypothesis
, Arrow, 2006, p. 15.

73
first neurologically recognisable
Homo sapiens
, known as ‘Mitochondrial Eve’:
‘Colin Blakemore: how the human brain got bigger by accident and not through evolution’,
Guardian
, 28 March 2010.

73
prefrontal cortex, which enabled us to strategise, socialise and make lateral associations:
Michael S. Gazzaniga,
Human
, Harper Perennial, 2008, pp. 19–20.

73
We left our sunny Eden in east Africa … evolutionary mystery took place:
J. Anderson Thompon Jnr,
Why We Believe in God(s)
, Pitchstone, 2011, pp. 34–37.

73
a sudden explosion in creativity:
Michael S. Gazzaniga,
Human
, Harper Perennial, 2008, p. 215.

73–74
Even today, we remain … more than two million:
J. Anderson Thompon Jnr,
Why We Believe in God(s)
, Pitchstone, 2011, pp. 34–37.

74
two hundred and fifty thousand cells a minute:
David Brooks,
The Social Animal
, Short Books, 2011, p. 30.

74
‘an alien kind of computational material’:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 1.

74
capable of receiving millions of pieces of information at any given moment:
David Brooks,
The Social Animal
, Short Books, 2011, p. x, quoting
Strangers to Ourselves
, by Timothy D. Wilson of the University of Virginia.

74
One cubic millimetre:
Email to author from Professor Chris Frith.

74
It has eighty-six billion of these cells:
James Randerson, ‘How many neurons make a human brain? Billions fewer than we thought’,
Guardian
, 28 February 2012.

74
each one is as complex as a city … a hundred trillion of them:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 1.

74
a hundred and twenty metres per second:
Michael O’Shea,
The Brain
, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 8.

74–75
According to the neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran, ‘The number of permutations’:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, p. 8.

75
And yet, he continues, ‘We know so little about it’:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, p. 83.

75
Other mammals give birth to their young when their brains have developed:
Jonathan Haidt,
The Happiness Hypothesis
, Arrow, 2006, p. 52.

75
babies create around 1.8 million synapses per second:
David Brooks,
The Social Animal
, Short Books, 2011, p. 47.

75
Throughout childhood, the brain is extraordinarily alive:
Bruce E. Wexler,
Brain and Culture
, MIT Press, 2008, p. 43.

75
In his book
Brain and Culture
Professor Bruce E. Wexler writes:
Bruce E. Wexler,
Brain and Culture
, MIT Press, 2008, p. 5.

76
up to 90 per cent of what you are seeing right now:
Richard Gregory, ‘Brainy Mind’,
British Medical Journal
317 (1998), pp. 1693–95.

76
When writer Jeff Warren was trained to ‘wake up’:
Jeff Warren,
Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness
, Oneworld, 2007, p. 117.

77
The light is not out there:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 40.

77
The music … rose petal has no colour:
Richard Gregory, ‘Brainy Mind’,
British Medical Journal
317, pp. 1693–95 (1998).

77
in the words of neuroscientist Professor Chris Frith:
Chris Frith,
Making up the Mind
, Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

78
In a startling 1974 experiment that tested these principles:
M. Solms and O. Turnbull,
The Brain and the Inner World
, Other Press, 2002, p. 154.

78
Scott Krepel, who was fitted with a cochlear implant:
Interview with Ira Glass via Marc Holmes (interpreter),
This American Life
, first broadcast on WBEZ Chicago 25 March 2010.

79
Estimates vary … we are all living half a second in the past:
Jeff Warren,
Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness
, Oneworld, 2007, p. 145.

79
One-third of the human brain is devoted to its processing:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 23.

79
Beyond ten degrees from this vivid centre:
Chris Frith,
Making up the Mind
, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 41.

79
happen up to five times per second:
Susan Blackmore,
Consciousness
, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 57.

79
neuroscientist David Eagleman in his book
Incognito
:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 1.

80
in the back of each eye:
Michael O’Shea,
The Brain
, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 67, 68.

80
in the visual area of the striate cortex V
₄
:
Richard Gregory, ‘Brainy Mind’,
British Medical Journal
317, pp. 1693–95 (1998).

80
some birds and insects have four, five or even six colour receptors:
‘Inside Animal Minds’,
New Scientist
, 20 August 2011, p. 34.

80
According to Professor Eagleman, ‘Our brain is …’:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 54.

80
less than a ten-trillionth of the spectrum is available to us:
David Eagleman,
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
, Canongate, 2011, p. 77.

81
it is, he says, a ‘map of signs about future possibilities’:
Chris Frith,
Making up the Mind
, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 41.

81
quotes a figure of over eleven million:
Timothy D. Wilson,
Strangers to Ourselves
, Belknap Harvard, 2002, p. 24.

81
Professor John Gray has it at ‘perhaps 14 million’:
John Gray,
Straw Dogs
, Granta, 2002, p. 66.

81
As V. S. Ramachandran writes, ‘The brain must have some way …’:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, p. 134.

81
the maximum number of points of information we are able to appreciate consciously:
David Brooks,
The Social Animal
, Short Books, 2011, p. x.

81
‘One option is to revise your story …’ writes Ramachandran:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, p. 134.

81
cartoon characters, loved ones and historical characters:
Todd E. Feinberg,
Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self
, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 9–10.

82
Ten per cent of elderly people … similar processes:
Chris Frith,
Making up the Mind
, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 30.

82
Dr Clarence W. Olsen has spoken:
Todd E. Feinberg,
Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self
, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 28–29.

82
it takes between two and three weeks for their unpleasant situation:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, p. 150.

82
Academics at the University of Wisconsin:
Daniel Levitin, ‘The illusion of music’,
New Scientist
, 23 February 2008.

82
V. S. Ramachandran has come across:
V. S. Ramachandran,
Phantoms in the Brain
, Harper Perennial, 1998, pp. 40–42.

83
our world is ‘not really … saints and sinners’:
Jonathan Haidt,
The Happiness Hypothesis
, Arrow, 2006, p. 15.

83
In New Guinea, the Gururumba men:
Dylan Evans,
Emotion
, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 13, 14.

83
Many South Koreans are terrified of ‘fan death’:
‘Newspapers fan belief in urban myth’,
International Herald Tribune
, 10 January 2007.

83
contractors carrying out huge public works:
Colin Nickerson, ‘In Iceland, Spirits are in the Material World’,
Boston Globe
, 25 December 1999.