Most popular Neuroscience Blogs
I’m curious about what are the most popular blogs for neuroscience right now because I want to see what people are interested in, and learn how to write an interesting blog by example.
But how exactly do you find the most popular blog? There are blog ranking lists, top results on google, and lists of expert recommendations. Half the ones you find haven’t been updated in over a year.
Here I’ve analyzed some of these listings, and put my personal recommendations of up to date quality blogs in bold. (Updated June 2012.)
List I – Google Reader’s Top Results for Neuroscience Blogs or Neuro Blogs
1. Mind Hacks – Neuroscience and psychology tricks to find out what’s going on inside your brain. Features cool case studies, links to interesting articles, and analysis of the popular presses coverage of psychology issues. Most posts by Vaughan Bell, senior research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, with occassional offerings from Tom Stafford, Lecturer in Psychology and Cognitive Science in the Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield.
2. Action Potential – A Nature.com blog that is updated almost weekly. Similar in style to what I want to achieve, this blog lays out long summaries of papers recently published in nature, reports on conferences. Highly Reccomended. I really hope we start seeing more of this kind of blog.
3. Law and Neuroscience Blog – Blog where MacArthur Foundation Researchers on Law and Neuroscience can post about how Neuroscience is influencing (or should be influencing) law.
4. NeuroSkeptic – A UK neuroscientist’s skeptical look at his own field, and beyond.
5. Neuropathology Blog – Brian E. Moore, MD, a neuropathologist in the US, discusses the practice of neuropathology, tumors, anatomy, neurodegenerative disease, muscle and nerve disorders, and more.
List II – Most Popular Neuroscience Blogs according to Networked Blogs Neuroscience Rankings – This is a site I discovered while researching this post. Networked Blogs allows you to find new blogs, follow them, and read all of your blogs in one place. Conveniently uses Facebook login. (Follow me!)
1. Neurophilosophy – A great blog for keeping up with a wide birth of neuroscience news. Maintained by an active blogger, tweeter, and ex-molecular and developmental neurobiologist Mo Costandi. On Neurophilosophy, you can find accurate articles about interesting new findings long before they are covered by other blogs.
2. Psychology Corner – Blog by a Romanian clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Lucia Grosaru. I’d like to see more updates and more coverage of scientific articles, but popular articles like: “Toddlers and children beauty pageants – Risk factors for severe psychological turmoils” and “10 (Psychological) Reasons why we like Dexter Morgan” engages people and gets them commenting in a way I haven’t managed to.
3. NeuroLogica – You may also know the accomplished Yale Neurologist Steve Novella from his podcast The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, his other blogs, or lectures with the Teaching Company. For such an accomplished busy man, Novella keeps his blog regularly updated with articles about new scientific findings. What really sets this blog apart is how Novella uses his background knowledge to frame the study in it’s surrounding body of work, explain why he finds it interesting, and talk about the future of the field.
4. Snow Drop – This blog’s appearance in the top 5 demonstrates the dangers of democracy, and a need for the blogging community to regulate itself better. This blog is clearly spam to sell the author’s rehabilitation programs. For example: the “author’s” 2012 article The Importance of Zinc is uncredited copy-pasta plagiarism of this 2006 eurekalert press release. I know very little about neurodevelopmental consultant Andrew Brereton, who says he became interested in neuroscience and child development after his son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but his lack of integrity makes me skeptical about his claims, and I wonder how legitimate his therapy is.
5. Neuromarca – Spanish-language neuromarketing blog. Si quieres leer de neuromarketing esto es tu blog! And if you want to read it in english, google chrome’s translate feature will do a good enough job. Sergio Monge Benito’s quality blogposts on an area outside my main interests and expertise, but a good way to learn about practical applications of neuroscience to a field with little exposure in conventional neuroscience academia.
List III – Researchblogging.org’s 2010 Best Neuroscience Blogs (most recent awards)
Previously mentioned Neuroskeptic, and Neurophilosophy were in the top overall blogs.
Winner for Best Neuroscience Blog: Neurotopia – no longer updated, but interesting to look through the archives
Other Finalists:
Neurocritic – Interesting blog with diagrams and links to primary literature.
Quantum Lobe Chronicles – William Lu’s blog about Psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, quantum physics. Barely updated anymore.
Neurodojo – A neuroethologist’s blog less about neuroethology and more about blogging, the internet, sociology of science, and random stuff.
Wiring the Brain – Brain wiring during development and what happens when it goes wrong. Good, focused blog, with diagrams and references to primary literature.
Talking Brains – Greg Hickok and David Poeppel–Professors at UC Irvine and NYU–blog on the neural organization of language. Essays, comments on new papers, and job openings. I like the idea of a small collaborative blog like this–always having someone to bounce ideas off of, more writers makes updates more consistent, but it’s not too anonymous or dilute. (If anyone is interested in merging blogs or contributing to NeuroAmer let me know. I haven’t thought about it too seriously.)
Brain Blogger – A collaborative blogging effort supported by the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation (GNIF), Brain Blogger has over 80 contributors including neurosurgeons, psychotherapists, forensic psychologists, registered nurses, clinical pharmacists, patient advocates, and general citizens concerned about neurological and mental health.
List IV Blogrank’s Top Mental Health – Uses a 20-factor formula to rate blogs and displays some stats for many sites such as number of visitors and RSS subscribers. Unfortunately doesn’t have a category for neuroscience, so I scrolled through and found the top 5 neuroscience-y blogs. These blogs are more on the human experience side than on the science side, but its important for even the most basic neuroscientists to understand the impact of mental health and psychiatric disease.
1. Autism Learning Felt – This blog is written by Tammy L., the stay-at-home mother of a 15-year-old girl with autism. She describes the blog as P.R.-friendly, meaning she’ll reviews of all types of products that can be related to children with autism or moms. Reviews don’t seem too critical, but aren’t saccharine either, just straight-up descriptions of products. A good window into the types of commercially available products for children with autism.
2. The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive – A mental health activist’s blog chronicling her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, and navigating the mental health care system in the UK. The writer has written for One in Four magazine, BBC Ouch, the Guardian, Independent and the Observer.
3. Storied Mind – Recover Life From Depression – John Folk-Williams’ blog to share the ideas, stories and information that have him get over depression and restart his life. Pop-psychology advice.
To be honest, not much from this list really impressed me, so I moved on.
Also, check out my post: Beyond Blogs – Keep up with neuroscience through podcasts. More posts will be coming soon with similar analysis for the most popular psychology blogs, most popular biology blogs, and most popular genetics blogs.
If anyone has recommendations for good neuroscience blogs that are consistently updated or tools to find them, please post them below or shoot me an email.
Filed under: Blogs | 29 Comments
Tags: Blogs, Neuro Blogs, Neuroscience, Neuroscience Blogs
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Current Neuroscience Book Recommendation:
In Search of Memory -Eric Kandel
Kandel’s book is a nobel prize winner's memoir that spans from his Jewish childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna to his work on sea slugs that uncovered synaptic plasticity, the molecular foundation of learning and memory. When I graduated college, every neuroscience major was given a copy of this book.
Ben Kuebrich
Neuroamer 
Slightly different platform, but one of the best Neuroscience blogs is http://www.facebook.com/neurosciences
A lot of my students find this one very useful for neuroscience news and articles.
Best,
Steve.
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Very cool. Thanks for posting this! I didn’t realize people used facebook as a platform for things like this.
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Brainsciencepodcast.com is a great blog too
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Yeah, I love that podcast. Ginger Campbell is great and I found it especially good for finding books, and getting introduced to schools of psychology out neuroscience I hadn’t previously heard of.
I should really do a post on podcasts. I also love neuropod http://www.nature.com/neurosci/neuropod/index.html for shorter form pieces and interviews, and neuroscientists talk shop http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/neuroscientists-talk-shop/id279181187 for longer more technical interviews (usually with a computational slant).
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Hey thanks for the plug!! Our podcast is not for everyone, but we wanted to do something decidedly un-pop, and content-rich for scientists. Thanks for toiling through all the technical and sound snafus.
Also, those browsing via itunes, please beware that only the most recent 50 are archived there. For a complete archive, visit: http://snrp.utsa.edu/Podcast/Podcast.html
Thanks, and Cheers-
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Yay for twitter and your post! I have been trying to find the most efficient way of discovering the top blogs and your post Neuroamer gets me there. I’m working on a painting series on the various functions of our brain and want to know what new insights and discoveries are out there so my work and understanding can be as accurate as possible. The Facebook link Steven posted is fabulous too! Thanks both!
Regards,
Michelle Hunter
http://www.hunterart.com
http://www.hunterart.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/hunterart
@artchoholic
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I’m glad you found it useful. I took a quick look through your brain series, very cool! I especially liked the brain and smoking piece.
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Thanks for these!
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Thank you for the lists. Here is a blog/book you might want to consider.
http://www.rewiring-neuroscience.com
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Hi John,
I was referred to you and your book, but you have made no provisions to receive feedback on those pages.
.
I can only suggest that in order to rethink neuroscience as you are trying to do you will absolutely have to get rid of the Quantum atom. What if all the neurons were interconnected rather than be mediated by traveling electron beads? What if the synapse is not empty, but rather mediated by an invisible extended entity? What if it is a bridge? If we’re going to explain electrochemical reactions we first MUST determine what ‘electro’ and ‘chemical’ are/mean! WHAT mediates ‘electrochemical’ reactions? Why do I feel the pinch in my toe if as Quantum states we are made of DISCRETE little balls called atoms which are made of DISCRETE little balls known as protons and electrons made in turn by other DISCRETE little balls specified by the Standard Model? Here are my proposals…
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What does an atom look like?
.
http://billgaede.hubpages.com/hub/Einsteins-Idiots-8
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How a magnet physically attracts another…
.
http://billgaede.hubpages.com/hub/Einsteins-Idiots-9
.
.
.
Regards,
BG
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Well my father was dianosed with on-set dimentia, acute bronchitis, and asthma last year. Its been a year now with these diseases and nothing has gotten better. His problem is that he coughs all throughout the day and has a lot of phlegm. When he is in room by himself and watching tv he begins to hack and cough a lot. When he is busy doing something like reading or goes out with my family to the store or something he doesnt cough hardly at all. I figured it is neurological because of the same pattern all the time. Could somebody help me please. What can I do?
rodrumba@hotmail.com
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I write a monthly neuroscience column which explores how the brain works. I use a narrative / case study format and would love to get feedback from the community of blog readers. I need help in fine-tuning my column and finding syndication opportunities.
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After neglecting the spam-filled comments section of my blog I came upon this. Like the posts I browsed through. (Though I might change the front page for a more traditional design :p) I’m actually curious about the questions you asked. Have you changed the format of your column over time, and have you had luck in finding syndication opportunities?
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Hello and Greetings,
I hope this email finds you well. My name is Lindsay Spaulding and I am currently casting King of the Nerds SEASON 2! From the producers of Mythbusters and Survivor, comes a returning competition based show embracing and celebrating both passionate and intellectually savvy men and women, 18-30+. We are looking for chemists, mathematicians, programmers, engineers, inventors, gamers, comic book fanatics, movie buffs, scientists, chess-masters, role players, you name it. We are looking for people who live and breathe their passions, are highly competitive and want to showcase their talents to win $100,000!
Last season, I had many popular sites post my casting information, which not only led a lot of traffic back to their sites, it also really helped me find some great candidates for the show.
If you could post my casting information on your blog, or send it out in your newsletter, or tweet out this link: http://twitpic.com/cnypd0 it would be so great! Anything you can do to help me spread this information on would be extremely helpful! Or perhaps you or someone you know would be a great fit for the show!
It would be absolutely amazing if you could help me find the best of the best. Any and all recommendations for candidates or suggestions of who to speak with would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and have a wonderful day.
Best,
Lindsay Spaulding
Casting Director
King of the Nerds Season 2
e: lindsaycasting@gmail.com
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Hello,
my name is Julian Ivaldi and I would like to bring to your kind attention my researches on mental processes, and how they affect the human body, published on the websites: http://www.psychophysics.eu, http://www.psicofisica.it
Sincerely,
Julian Ivaldi
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I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you make this website yourself or did you hire
someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. many thanks
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Hi. I feel that your comments about my ‘lack of integrity’ and comments about the Snowdrop blog, (one word, not two, – you couldn’t even get that right) are unfounded and defamatory. Might I suggest that you remove them. As for the ‘legitimacy’ of my therapy, might I invite you to speak with the families whose children are now walking, talking, seeing, hearing and feeling, who would otherwise not be doing so. I am inviting you to our private Facebook group for parents who have children on the programme so you can actually report on facts for a change. Andrew Brereton, (Snowdrop, – not Snow drop, – got it)?
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Hi all. My name is Panayiotis Stavrou, from Cyprus. For a fun hobby I released a website in August and it’s doing so well regarding viewers worldwide. 6000 unique viewers, 20,000 page views. Its realted to mind / brain / health / culture and would love a critique from all of you lovely people. The Mind Voyager, type in google or http://www.themindvoyager.com Advice and input welcome. :):)
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Please check out this site as well:
http://healthierbrain.wordpress.com/
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Hi All,
I have written few articles and mutiple choice questions on neuroscience here
Thanks
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Hello, check out Neuroadvance’s blog at http://www.neuroadvance.wordpress.com. Very informative website that provides the latest in neuroscience news and research.
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So glad to see active social neuroscientists making a public disruption in the value of brain health.
If interested, I have a nifty Neuro blog that incorporates pictures of real people and posts about everyday situations that our brains experience.
NeuroSpace Blog | http://www.calvinparshad.com
Would love to get your input!
Best,
Calvin
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Thank you for the mention. I’d like to make a small correction, though. My 15 year old son is autistic. My 11 year old daughter isn’t. Great post! I’m always on looking for new blogs to read.
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Thank you for this handy list. I am a layperson, but I am interested in neuroscience, and I just started a blog myself on the subject because I needed an outlet. It’s difficult to find people interested in studying the brain. I have no one I can talk to very much about the subject.
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Hi Ben, thanks a mill for the great list, appreciate it. You use some great web search methods in there. Am reading up on Neuroscience at the moment for my PhD studies. Peter
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thank you so much for providing these blogs..I’m looking forward to make blogs about neuroscience these blogs would help me to know about it in deep details
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Consciousness:
I read an article about mystery of phenomenon of consciousness. I think it is not great mystery.
When person is unconscious for long time it is called coma. There are two stages: one is deep coma which may be irreversible. Second is superficial coma which may be reversible. Doctors don’t know yet which is which.
Then there is sleep which is superficial unconsciousness and these are various stages of it. But scientists have studied sleep in great details and mainly found that during sleep the person has reduced electronic activity of the brain waves. When person becomes awake then the brain waves activity becomes normal or maximum.
Then in death the electronic activity of brain ceases totally. Whereas even in deep coma though the electronic activity is greatly reduced it does not cease completely. There may be lower level of electronic waves coming intermittently on graphs. It all depends on type and severity of trauma to brain.
My hypothesis is simple. The doctors have not found a method or procedure for reviving a coma patient. They only wait and observe. It may take days and months for coma patient to revive. Many times the patient may not. In some type of trauma such as concussion and blunt injuries to head, revival may be quicker or easier. But in cases with severe trauma it may take many days or months. In case of good prognosis cases my method may work.
Doctors can apply low voltage current to brain on skull to gradually increase the electronic wave movements in the brain. They may do it in portion of brain which is not traumatized after sufficient time is given to wounds to heal. Objective will be to expedite the recovery to consciousness stage. Of course it will be a very gradual process constantly monitored , otherwise the patient may go in deeper coma with brain failure. It is only facilitation procedure. Objective is brain activity at that stage must improve leading to earlier consciousness. Dead portion of brain anyway wont get stimulated and is dysfunctional.
Whatever brain waves are seen in coma patient are to be encouraged to enter newer and newer areas. By expanding to healthy areas which have survived trauma the consciousness is revived.
More research would be necessary with this procedure. But I am sure this may be developed as one of methods to revive the coma patient.
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Great idea Jayant. You have strong intuition about the brain. In fact doctors and scientists agree with your hypothesis, and it has been successful in some cases: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-472451/Man-coma-years-wakes-doctors-jump-start-brain.html
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