Recharge overview
Stolen colonial art as a philosophical problem
Recent years have witnessed growing attention for the problem of stolen colonial art. This discussion, which recently took some interesting new turns, shows that our experiences in museums have a political and ethical dimension.
Language competition causes people to forget words
Forgetting a foreign language doesn’t only happen because of lack of use, using or learning another language can also be a cause. This is the conclusion of a Radboud University PhD research project.
Transformative learning: an eye-opener
Truly innovative thinking about teaching and learning is not always easy. Although you would like to escape from old forms and thoughts, it is not easy to let go of your own perspective and beliefs. Fortunately, there are people who want to help. One of these is Jur Koksma, an enthusiastic ambassador of transformative learning.
Real-life brain cells attached to a computer show continuous rivalry
The brain continuously receives noisy and ambiguous information. How does the brain process this into a clear perception of the world? For this purpose, it has been assumed that the brain chooses from competing signals. Naoki Kogo investigated this so-called neural competition by attaching two brain cells to a computer. The Donders Institute neuroscientist found that they ‘fired’ in turn. This resembles what happens when people experience an optical illusion, called “bi-stable perception”.
Radboud University collaborating in new AI lab
The national Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) has opened a new lab that focuses on health, nutrition and behaviour. Radboud University is one of the partners in this new OnePlanet ICAI lab for Precision Health, Nutrition and Behaviour. This partnership will enable the university to take important steps in the application of artificial intelligence.
Changing the connection between the hemispheres affects speech perception
When we listen to speech sounds, our brain needs to combine information from both hemispheres. How does the brain integrate acoustic information from remote areas? In a neuroimaging study, a team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, the Donders Institute and the University of Zurich applied electrical stimulation to participants’ brains during a listening task. The stimulation affected the connection between the two hemispheres, which in turn changed participants’ listening behaviour.
How gender-neutral is language?
Research shows that with supposedly neutral terms we still automatically think of men.
How do you read a historical letter without opening it?
Is it possible to read a sealed seventeenth-century letter without opening it? The answer is yes, thanks to a special new technique for scanning the lead in the ink and an algorithm that virtually unfolds the letter. Historian David van der Linden (Radboud University) is part of the international research team responsible for this impressive feat.
Getting lost in reading bad news
Reading the news is not exactly uplifting in the best of times, but the past 12 months have been… a lot. An ever-evolving pandemic that continues to threaten us, a global reckoning with the realities of systemic racism, an armed insurrection in the presumed seat of democracy, the entire Dutch government resigning in scandal, mounting evidence of a changing climate… Pretty grim stuff.
What we see shapes what we hear
People often move their hands up and down to ‘highlight’ what they are saying. Are such ‘beat gestures’ important for communication? Hans Rutger Bosker from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and David Peeters from Tilburg University created words with an ambiguous stress pattern and asked listeners what they heard (DIScount or disCOUNT?). The beat gestures people saw influenced what they heard, showing that listeners quickly integrate verbal and visual information during speech recognition.
Real-time dialogue with a dreaming person is possible
Dreams take us to what feels like a different reality. They also happen while we're fast asleep. So, you might not expect that a person in the midst of a vivid dream would be able to perceive questions and provide answers to them. But research shows that, in fact, they can. The study of an international group of researchers is published inCurrent Biology.
Andrej Zaslove brings nuance to the populism debate
He has been researching populism for more than twenty years. By doing so, he wants to introduce nuances and create understanding. ‘That is what I want as well: to understand the world. That’s why I became a political scientist.’
The Fine Line between Spirituality and Narcissism: Spiritual Self-enhancement
Spiritual belief systems teach us to be modest and non-judgmental. But, ironically, spiritual training can make people feel superior to others.
Drama? Or trauma?
The representation of mental disorders in society and pop culture repeatedly misses, at best, the nuances associated with the experience of living with a mental disorder. In the attempt of characterizing psychiatric disorders by creating dramatic and oversimplified caricatures, have we failed to recognize something fundamental that we all share to some extent despite our diagnostic boundaries?
Tougher integration requirements increase social inequality
Plans for more stringent language requirements as part of the naturalisation process will have a negative impact on the integration of immigrants, argues researcher Ricky van Oers.
Brain activity can predict resilience against post-traumatic stress
Why does one person develop post-traumatic symptoms after a stressful event while another does not? Police officers with higher activity in the anterior frontal brain area appear to respond more resiliently to a traumatic event. Brain researchers from the Donders Institute discovered this in collaboration with the Police Academy. An article on their study will be published on 18 February in Nature Human Behaviour.
How rigid algorithms will (soon) trouble the government
For many years, the Netherlands was proud of its advanced digitisation, but the scandal resulting from an algorithm-based policy to detect benefits fraud shows that the haphazard use of such algorithms in data processing can have far-reaching consequences. Marlies van Eck, lawyer and researcher of technology and tax law at Radboud University, sounded the alarm several years ago. “For a long time, we did not want to face how interdependent all those systems are and how enormous the consequences could be if something went wrong.”
We are getting less physically active due to the coronavirus pandemic
In the morning, grab a quick breakfast and then on to the work room in the attic. Downstairs for coffee, and then back to work. Grab a sandwich before the next digital meeting. Okay, one more cup of coffee, with a cookie. Oh! Is it already so late? So! Close the laptop and start making dinner. Then you collapse on the couch. Conclusion at the end of the evening: You have taken only 3,648 steps today.
‘The coronavirus gives the elections a completely different dynamic’
The upcoming House of Representatives elections will have a completely different dynamic because of the coronavirus, says Kristof Jacobs, Associate Professor in Political Science and co-director of the Dutch Parliamentary Election Study (DPES). ‘These elections are going to be incredibly interesting.’
“Magic mushroom” therapy reduces major depression
Psilocybin may treat depression more effectively than any commonly used treatments. And it does so with relatively little side-effects and addiction liability.