2010-08-13 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

NPR has an excellent short piece on when we became ‘mentally modern’ and began to use symbolic thought.
The awesome Neuroskeptic covers a mind-boggling new study that reported the use of anti-depressant and quit-smoking drug bupropion to treat Starcraft addiction in South Korean teens.
Seed Magazine discusses the psychology of isolation in space – in an excerpt from Mary Roach’s forthcoming book on space travel.
Dodgy headline but there’s a fascinating discussion of cultural differences in self-reflection and mood between the US and Russia over at The Frontal Cortex.
Wired Science covers new research that helps explain why some sleepers can successfully block out the external world and others awake at the slightest flutter.
Is it possible to believe that you’re dead? Philosopher Lisa Bortolotti discusses belief and delusion over at The Splintered Mind.