3 ms·

I wonder why it's so difficult for news reporter and journalists to link to the actual paper. "According to researchers at Yale Medical School ..." great start

by kgarten 13y ago

I wonder why it's so difficult for news reporter and journalists to link to the actual paper. "According to researchers at Yale Medical School ..." great start (irony ;) ). Here's the paper link (unfortunately behind a paywall): http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v15/n8/full/nn.3147.html http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v15/n8/full/nn.3147.html Given the paper I find these sentences highly speculative: "... causes mice to take in information more quickly, and to retain it better — basically, it makes them smarter. And that’s very likely to be true for humans as well." To broad and too vague, ... there are too many influences on knowledge acquisition (information intake)

diydsp 13y ago
This, in light of Norbert Wiener's requirement that good democracy has access to adequate information for making decisions, is a perpetual source of fury for me. Even when papers are, like this one, paywalled, the abstracts are still useful. Also, the author's names and even the original title of the paper are very useful and so are its references. Tip: in many fields, the authors publish the same paper free on their own websites.
gwern 13y ago
Always check Google Scholar, which in this case ( http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=8662111615898838267&hl=en&as_sdt=0,9 http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=866211161589883826... ) turns up two public copies: https://www.med.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/Dietrichetal2012NatureNeuroscience.pdf https://www.med.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/Dietrichetal2012Natu... / http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228063201_AgRP_neurons_regulate_development_of_dopamine_neuronal_plasticity_and_nonfood-associated_behaviors/file/79e41502949107cec2.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228063201_AgRP_neuro... Not that I'd place any weight on this. Mice responses differ from group to group, breed to breed, and need not generalize to humans at all ( http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ#fn97 http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ#fn97 ). In particular, if hunger really did improve general cognitive performance in humans, it should be trivial to show this! Take two groups of undergrads, keep them busy for a few hours so they miss lunch, administer IQ test; done. In fact, it's so trivial that it's been studied in any number of contexts, particularly dieting: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hunger%20cognitive%20performance http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hunger%20cognitive%20per... I dunno about you guys, but skimming over the abstracts and titles, I'm not thinking 'hunger will turn me into a genius'...

by kgarten 13y ago

diydsp 13y ago

This, in light of Norbert Wiener's requirement that good democracy has access to adequate information for making decisions, is a perpetual source of fury for me. Even when papers are, like this one, paywalled, the abstracts are still useful. Also, the author's names and even the original title of the paper are very useful and so are its references. Tip: in many fields, the authors publish the same paper free on their own websites.

gwern 13y ago

Always check Google Scholar, which in this case ( http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=8662111615898838267&hl=en&as_sdt=0,9 http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=866211161589883826... ) turns up two public copies: https://www.med.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/Dietrichetal2012NatureNeuroscience.pdf https://www.med.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/Dietrichetal2012Natu... / http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228063201_AgRP_neurons_regulate_development_of_dopamine_neuronal_plasticity_and_nonfood-associated_behaviors/file/79e41502949107cec2.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228063201_AgRP_neuro... Not that I'd place any weight on this. Mice responses differ from group to group, breed to breed, and need not generalize to humans at all ( http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ#fn97 http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ#fn97 ). In particular, if hunger really did improve general cognitive performance in humans, it should be trivial to show this! Take two groups of undergrads, keep them busy for a few hours so they miss lunch, administer IQ test; done. In fact, it's so trivial that it's been studied in any number of contexts, particularly dieting: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hunger%20cognitive%20performance http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hunger%20cognitive%20per... I dunno about you guys, but skimming over the abstracts and titles, I'm not thinking 'hunger will turn me into a genius'...