When I won't accept a guest post


I get regular requests from people who want to guest post on my blog. Then, I got this unbelievable one yesterday. More unbelievable was that I saw it almost directly after giving a lecture on evidence-based nutrition. Thought I'd share.

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Cortisol, surprise-enhanced cognition, and flashbulb memories: Scaring people with a snake screen and getting a PhD for it!

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Cortisol is a hormone that has a number of important functions. It gets us out of bed in the morning, it cranks up our metabolism in preparation for intense exercise, and it also helps us memorize things and even learn. Yes, it helps us learn . Memorization in particular, and cognition in general, would be significantly impaired without cortisol. When you are surprised, particularly with something unpleasant, cortisol levels increase and enhance cognition. This is in part what an interesting study suggests; a study in which I was involved. The study was properly “sanctified” by the academic peer-review process (Kock et al., 2009; full reference and link at the end of this post). The main hypothesis tested through this study is also known as the “ flashbulb memorization ” hypothesis. Interestingly, up until this study was conducted no one seemed to have used evolution to provide a basis on which flashbulb memorization can be explained. The basic idea here is that enhanced cognition with...
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How environmental change shaped human evolution

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Spin Class

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