Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100924/10290211154/dailydirt-mans-best-friends.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100924/10290211154/dailydirt-mans-best-friends.shtml Bowlingual for translating dog barks into human languages, and here are just a few more interesting links on human-dog relationships.

• Researchers are using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to try to understand what dogs are thinking. Two dogs have been trained to stand completely still while their brains are scanned, and one of the dogs is a squirrel-hunting dog -- so maybe these neuroscientists will be able to see what part of a dog's brain activates when someone says, "Squirrel!" [url]
• Doggelganger is a fun way to match up people and dogs that are up for adoption. Dogs and their owners are supposed to grow to look like each other, but what if facial recognition software made it possible for you to adopt a dog that already looked like you from the start? [url]
• Does neutering pets cause any kind of depression for our beloved domesticated animals? Vets may want to change the way they make pets sterile if enough pet owners are convinced that there's even a possibility of post-neutering depression. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100924/10290211154 Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:05:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110119/02380812715/excess-correlation-linked-to-claims-causation-without-proof.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110119/02380812715/excess-correlation-linked-to-claims-causation-without-proof.shtml excess gaming is linked to depression and bad grades, with the report clearly suggesting that those "addicted" to gaming get depressed and do poorly. It even trots out the old silly argument about making "video game addiction" an official disorder. But, of course, the study is really only showing a correlation between these things, rather than any sort of causal relationship. One could just as plausibly argue that depressed kids choose to deal with or mask their depression by playing more video games. But, I guess headlines that say "depression causes kids to play more video games" isn't as catchy as assuming it's the other way around. Those who have worked with compulsive video gamers have found that there's almost always a separate cause, and treating the problem as "video game addiction," rather than figuring out why the person wants to play so much, tends not to work.

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]]> correlation-and-causation http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110119/02380812715 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 18:13:41 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100203/0200588021.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100203/0200588021.shtml real study I've seen on the subject doesn't find much behind the concept of "internet addiction." What they tend to find is that some people, when depressed, tend to spend a lot of time on the internet, but that doesn't mean that the internet leads to depression. Often, the evidence suggests the relationship goes in the other direction (depressed people tend to lose themselves online, as it keeps them away from the "real world" that's depressing them). But that makes a less interesting story, so again we're seeing reports of a new study that "internet addiction" is "linked" to depression. While the article is clear that the causal link is not established, just the way the article itself is promoted, the casual reader may assume otherwise. Also, this particular "study" has pretty questionable methodology, relying on an online survey -- something that isn't known for producing particularly reliable information. On the whole, I don't think it's surprising that a segment of depressed people would spend a lot of time online, but it hardly means they're "addicted" -- and focusing on the "addiction" may be the wrong way to treat the real problem of depression.

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]]> duh? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100203/0200588021 Mon, 2 Feb 2009 15:05:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090202/0218393604.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090202/0218393604.shtml are more likely to be depressed. The study's authors suggest that girls get stuck in a rut communicating about their problems, reinforcing those problems and depressing the kids. The more they discussed their romantic ups and downs, the more likely they were to be depressed.

Of course, aren't there questions about cause and effect here? Wouldn't a more reasonable explanation be that those who were already more depressed are more likely to make use of these tools to wallow in their depression?

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]]> cause?-effect? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090202/0218393604