Stories by William Skaggs

William Skaggs is a neuroscientist whose experimental work has focused on the role of the hippocampus in learning, memory, and spatial navigation, but he is interested in several other areas of science as well, especially the study of consciousness. He has ambitions to be a science writer, and has contributed extensively to Wikipedia under the name "Looie496", mainly by writing articles about the nervous system. Follow William Skaggs on Twitter @weskaggs

Neuroscience

New Neurons Make Room for New Memories

How does the brain form new memories without ever filling up? Scientists turn to the youngest neurons for answers

August 28, 2014 — William Skaggs

Mind & Brain

Electrical Brain Stimulation Can Restore Consciousness

Mild electrical stimulation might help brain-damaged patients communicate

August 9, 2014 — William Skaggs

Mind & Brain

New Drug Targets Promise to Treat Jet Lag

Molecular clues may reveal how to instantly reset the brain's clock

July 13, 2014 — William Skaggs

Biology

Can Whales and Dolphins Make Mental Maps?

The brains of cetaceans--dolphins and whales--differ from those of other mammals in a number of ways, but one of the most striking differences is the size of the hippocampus. As a general rule, the larger the size of a mammal’s brain, the smaller the fraction of it that the hippocampus occupies, so dolphins and whales [...]..

April 24, 2014 — William Skaggs

Mind & Brain

Are You Afraid of Holes?

Trypophobia is a real aversion and may relate to unconscious associations

February 20, 2014 — William Skaggs

Evolution

How Could We Recognize Pain in an Octopus? Part 2

A few days ago I posted a discussion here of the problem of determining whether an animal such as an octopus has genuine pain. I claimed that the most common way of thinking about pain—the idea that we attribute pain to other species to the extent that they resemble ourselves—does not really account for the [...]..

September 26, 2013 — William Skaggs

How Could We Recognize Pain in an Octopus?

At the level of personal experience, there is nothing that seems easier to understand than pain. When I jam my finger in a doorway, I have no difficulty at all recognizing the sensation that results...

September 20, 2013 — William Skaggs

Snarks and Boojums

Lewis Carroll had a gift for framing the thorniest issues in the simplest terms. For example in this passage from Alice in Wonderland: When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether [...]..

August 31, 2013 — William Skaggs

Wassup, Wikipedia? Oh … wow!

I’d like to examine the concept of freedom in a somewhat unusual way — from the viewpoint of motivational psychology. The starting point is to realize that there are basically four ways of influencing behavior: reward, punishment, restraint, and compulsion...

August 20, 2013 — William Skaggs

Environment

Global warming: The folly of certainty

Larry Jones is driving the minivan across the Utah desert on Highway 163, with Sally in the passenger seat and the two kids dozing in the back.

August 4, 2013 — William Skaggs