Why You Should Be Skeptical of the Media's Medical Reporting (Dr. John Cmar) @NCASVideo

Uploaded February 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

See below for video links referenced in this video

One of the greatest disservices that the current trend of sensationalist, opinion-based media "reporting" does is to misinform the public about medical matters. It's one thing to distinguish evidence-based medicine from science-based medicine, and another that the news media often doesn't seem to care about either. We'll discuss specific examples of how news reporting on medical science can get things both right and wrong, and possible ways the non-medically trained public can skeptically approach medical news stories to tease out the truth.

Bio: John Cmar, MD, has been long enthralled with horrible infections that could spell doom for humankind, as well as sanity and skepticism in the practice of medicine. He is currently involved in resident and medical school education in internal medicine at two institutions in Baltimore, and his clinical work involves caring for patients in his specialty of Infectious Diseases. He also does Infectious Diseases outreach in Baltimore television and print media. John is a science fiction and fantasy fan, avid gamer, and podcast enthusiast. He currently blogs and podcasts on skeptical, medical, and geeky topics on The Secret Lair.

Video Link #1: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/07/dr-sanjay-gupta-reports-terror-i...

Video Link #2: thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-7-2011/sanjay-gupta

Video Link #3: youtube.com/watch?v=oGT0r-udstQ

Why You Should Be Skeptical of the Medias Medical Reporting (Dr. John Cmar)

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$2. Arboreal Mind: Finding Self in Nerve Cell Branching (Giorgio Ascoli) Part 2 of a 2-part talk. Presented by Giorgio Ascoli, Ph.D., Computational Neuroanatomy Group, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, VA The importance of neuronal morphology, i.e. the tree-like shape of nerve cells, in modern neuroscience is rooted in two foundational aspects. On the one hand, dendrites and axons mediate respectively the functional input and output of neurons. On the other, they constitute the essential substrates for network connectivity. To connect this level of scientific analysis to the philosophical problem of the mind-brain relation requires a radical shift in the current research paradigm to include first-person (subjective) experience as a legitimate topic of empirical investigation. To date, the exact neural correlates are not yet known for any conscious function. However, two general principles are commonly (if implicitly) believed. First, mental states (thoughts, feelings, memories, intentions, etc.) consist of spatio-temporal activity patterns in networks of neurons. Second, learning, meant as the acquisition of the potential to instantiate a previously unknown mental state, corresponds to the formation of new connections among neurons, enabling the activation of the new spatio-temporal pattern underlying said mental state. In this talk, Dr. Ascoli will introduce the notion that the branching structure of neurons provides a fundamental physical underpinning for a key cognitive function, namely the capability to learn. In particular, he will explain that this capability is far from trivial and that any individual can typically only acquire a fraction of the relations that can in principle be known. Moreover, he will illustrate how the spatial architecture of axons and dendrites provides a crucial constraint (and insight) on the capability to acquire knowledge. This talk will be presented at a lay level because subjective experience and tree shapes are accessible to all humankind. Dr. Ascoli is head of the Computational Neuroanatomy Group at the Krasnow Institute. The groups main effort is to model neuronal morphology (the shape of brain cells) and its influence on network connectivity and electrophysiological activity. One of the products of that group is L-Neuron, a modeling tool that generates and describes realistic neurons. Among the current research projects of the Computational Neuroanatomy Group are anatomically plausible neural networks and autobiographic memory. He edited the scientific book, Computational Neuroanatomy: Principles and Methods, which defines Computational Neuroanatomy in broad terms. His main long-term scientific and philosophical goal consists in establishing a working model for the highest cognitive functions such as human consciousness. His current consciousness model is fundamentally based on associative learning. On the experimental side, Dr. Ascolis research involvement is primarily in neuroanatomy, but his scientific background is biochemistry. As a researcher at the former Laboratory of Adaptive Systems of the N.I.H., he worked on the structural characterization of a learning-associated neuronal protein, Calexcitin, and on the Prion protein, the infective agent of Mad Cow disease. He received his M.Sc. (Laurea) from the University of Pisa, and his Ph.D. from the Scuola Normale Superiore, in Italy, where he investigated drug-protein binding. The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of National Capital Area Skeptics.$

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