Papers

Journal articles, etc.

Underlined texts are available for download from ResearchGate. Click to go to the site.

1965

Constancy and the geometric illusions. Nature, 206, 744-745, 1965. (With M.J.Morgan).

1967

The receptive fields of single units in the superior colliculus of the rat. Journal of Physiology, 189, 86p, 1967.

Receptive fields of single units in the visual system: a new method for mapping their characteristics and extents. Vision Research, 7, 497-498, 1967. (With S.J.Salter).

Vision in monkeys after removal of the striate cortex. Nature, 215, 595-597, 1967. (With L.Weiskrantz).

1968

Two studies in the neuropsychology of vision. Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge. 1968.

Responses to visual stimuli of single units in the superior colliculus of rats and monkeys. Experimental Neurology, 20, 312-340, 1968.

1969

Size constancy in monkeys with inferotemporal lesions. Quarterly Journal Experimental Psychology, 21, 225-238, 1969. (With L.Weiskrantz).

Varieties of colour anomia. Brain, 92, 847-860, 1969. (With J. M. and S. M. Oxbury).

1970

What the frog's eye tells the monkey's brain. Brain, Behaviour, Evolution, 3, 324-337, 1970.

1971

Colour and brightness preferences in monkeys. Nature, 229, 615-617, 1971.

Contrast illusions in perspective. Nature, 232, 91- 93, 1971.

Ventral temporal lobe lesions and oddity performance in monkeys. Brain Research, 30, 253-263, 1971. (With S. D. Iversen).

1972

Seeing and nothingness. New Scientist, 53, 682-684, 1972.

Les illusions visuelles. La Recherche, 3, 631-638, 1972.

Interest and pleasure: two determinants of a monkey's visual preferences. Perception, 1, 395-416, 1972.

1973

Predispositions to learn. In Constraints on Learning, ed. R. A. Hinde and J. Stevenson-Hinde, pp. 301- 304, Academic Press, London, 1973.

Turning the left cheek. Nature, 243, 271-272, 1973. (With I. C. McManus).

Asymmetry in gorilla skulls: evidence of lateralised brain function? Nature, 244, 53-54, 1973. (With C. P. Groves).

Status and the left cheek. New Scientist, 59, 437- 439. 1973. (With I. C. McManus).

The illusion of beauty. Perception, 2, 429-439, 1973.

1974

Species and individuals in the perceptual world of monkeys. Perception, 3, 105-114, 1974.

Lasting effects of early blindness: a case study. Quarterly Journal Experimental Psychology, 26, 114-124, 1974. (With C. Ackroyd and E. K. Warrington).

Variations on a theme. New Scientist, 63, 233-234, 1974.

The apparent heaviness of colours. Nature, 250, 164-165, 1974. (With E. Pinkerton).

The reactions of monkeys to 'fearsome' pictures. Nature, 251, 500-502, 1974. (With G. R. Keeble).

Vision in a monkey without striate cortex: a case study. Perception, 3, 241-255, 1974.

1975

Interactive effects of unpleasant light and unpleasant sound. Nature, 253, 346-347, 1975. (With G. R. Keeble).

Une esthetique naturelle. In Colloque d'Esthetique Applique a la Creation du Paysage Urbain, pp. 73-90, Copedith, Paris, 1975.

1976

How monkeys acquire a new way of seeing. Perception, 5, 51-56, 1976. (With G. R. Keeble).

The colour currency of nature. In Colour for Architecture, ed. T.Porter and B.Mikellides, pp. 95-98, Studio-Vista, London, 1976.

The social function of intellect. In Growing Points in Ethology, ed. P. P. G. Bateson and R. A. Hinde, pp. 303- 317, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976.

Hypnosis explained. New Scientist, 71, 485-486, 1976.

1977

Do monkeys' subjective clocks run faster in red light than in blue? Perception, 6, 7-14, 1977. (With G. R. Keeble).

Finding mental capacities in the brain. Theoria to Theory, 11, 27-47, 1977. (With C. Blakemore and A. Appiah).

Unfoldings of mental life. Science, 196, 755-756, 1977.

1978

Nature's psychologists. New Scientist, 900-904, 29 June 1978.

Effects of red light and loud noise on the rate at which monkeys sample their sensory environment. Perception, 7, 343-348, 1978. (With G. R. Keeble).

The origins of intelligence. Human Nature, 42-47, December 1978.

1979

The biological basis of collecting. Human Nature, 44-47, February 1979.

1980

Natural aesthetics. In Architecture for People, ed. B.Mikellides, pp. 59-73, Studio-Vista, London, 1980.

Nature's psychologists. In Consciousness and the Physical World, ed. B.Josephson and V.Ramachandran, pp. 57-75, Pergamon, Oxford, 1980.

1981

Having feelings and showing feelings. In Self- awareness in Domesticated Animals, ed. D.G.M. Wood-Gush, M.Dawkins, R.Ewbank, pp. 37-38, 1981.

Four Minutes to Midnight. The BBC Bronowski Memorial Lecture, BBC Publications, 1981

1982

Consciousness: A just-so story. New Scientist, 95, 473-477, 1982.

1983

The adaptiveness of mentalism. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 6, 366, 1983.

The lessons of the night. New Society, 65, 275-277, 1983.

1987

Arms and the man. New Blackfriar's Journal, 68, 35-40, 1987.

The inner eye of consciousness. In Mindwaves, ed. Colin Blakemore and Susan Greenfield, pp. 377-383, Blackwell, Oxford, 1987.

The uses of consciousness. (James Arthur Memorial Lecture). American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Bugs and Beasts before the Law. Foreword to The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, by E.P.Evans, pp xiii - xxxi. Faber &Faber, London, 1987.

1988

Lies, damned lies and anecdotal evidence. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 11, 257-258, 1988.

1989

The number of the beast. New Scientist, 123, 62-63, 1989.

1990

Speaking for our selves: an assessment of multiple personality disorder. Raritan, 9:1, 68-98, 1989. (With Daniel C. Dennett).

Movement. In Images and Understanding, ed. H. Barlow, C. Blakemore, M. Weston-Smith, pp. 79-80, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

1993

City of mists and fruitful mellowness. Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington), July 1993.

Is there anybody here? Psi Researcher, 10, 3-5, Summer 1993.

1994

The private world of consciousness. New Scientist, pp. 23-25, 8 January 1994.

Reflections on consciousness. The Psychologist, 7, 259, 1994.

1995

On taking another look. In How Things Are, ed. John Brockman and Katinka Matson, pp. 177-182, William Morrow, 1995.

The thick moment. In The Third Culture, ed. John Brockman, pp. 198-208, Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Blocking out the distinction between sensation and perception: superblindsight and the case of Helen. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 18, 257-8, 1995.

Histories. In In the Company of Animals, Social Research, 62, 477-480, 1995.

1996

The bounds of reason. Prospect, 34-37, January 1996.

1997

Kinds of Minds. Journal of Philosophy, 94, 97-103, 1997.

Carl Sagan: a tribute. Skeptical Inquirer, 21, no. 2, 14, 1997.

Varieties of altruism - and the common ground between them. Social Research, 64, 199-209, 1997.

Science. In Technology and the Rest of Culture, Social Research, 64, 1115-1118, 1997.

In sight of the mind. [Commentary on Mark Solms: “What is Consciousness?”] Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, 45, 726-731, 1997.

1998

Left-footedness in peacocks: an emperor’s tale. Laterality, 3, 289, 1998.

What shall we tell the children? Oxford Amnesty Lecture. Social Research, 65, 777-805, 1998.

1999

Cave art, autism and the evolution of the human mind. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8, 165-191, 1998.

Why grandmothers may need large brains. Psycoloquy, 10 (024), 1999.

The privatization of sensation. In The Evolution of Cognition, ed. L. Huber and C. Heyes, pp. 241-252, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000..

2000

The power of prayer. Skeptical Inquirer, 24, 61, 2000.

How to solve the mind-body problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7, 5-20, 2000.

In reply. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7 (4), 98-112, 2000.

Now you see it, now you don’t. Neuro-psychoanalysis , 2, 14-17, 2000

One-self: a meditation on the unity of consciousness. Social Research, 67, no. 4, 32-39, 2000.

Dreaming as play. Behavioral & Brain Sciences , 23, 953, 2000.

2001

Altered states. Social Research, 68, 585-7, 2001

The Deformed Transformed. CPNSS Monograph, DP 55/01, 2001

Doing it my way: sensation, perception – and feeling red. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 24, 987, 2001

2002

Great expectations: the evolutionary psychology of faith-healing and the placebo effect. In Psychology at the Turn of the Millennium, Vol. 2: Social, Developmental, and Clinical Perspectives, ed. Claes von Hofsten & Lars Bäckman, pp. 225-46, Hove: Psychology Press, 2002.

Shamanism and cognitive evolution [Commentary on Michael Winkelman]. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 12, 91-3, 2002.

2003

Foreword to Folk Physics for Apes, Daniel J. Povinelli, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

2004

Thinking about feeling. Guest essay in Oxford Companion to the Mind, ed. R.L.Gregory , p. 213-4, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

The placebo effect. In Oxford Companion to the Mind, ed. R.L.Gregory, p. 735-6, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

A family affair. In Curious Minds: How a child becomes a scientist, ed. John Brockman, p.3-12, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004

2005

Do babies know what they look like? Doppelgängers and the phenomenology of infancy. In Perspectives on Imitation: From Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science. Vol. 2., ed. Susan Hurley and Nick Chater, pp. 178-80, Cambridge Ma.: MIT Press, 2005

Human Hand-Walkers: Five Siblings Who Never Stood Up. CPNSS Discussion Paper, DP 77/05, 2005 (with John R Skoyles and Roger Keynes)

Prirodni psychologovia [Natural psychologists]. Kritika & Kontext, 31, 23-29, 2005

2006

Consciousness: the Achilles Heel of Darwinism? Thank God, Not Quite. In Intelligent Thought: Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement, ed. John Brockman, pp. 50-64, New York: Vintage, 2006

Science looks at fairness. Social Research, 73, 345-7, 2006

Killer instinct. (Review of Niall Ferguson, “World of War”). Prospect. September 2006.

2007

Could vision after recovery from early blindness be “blindsight”? The Psychologist, 20, 3, 139, 2007

The society of selves. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 362, 745-754, 2007

La natura e il valore del colore. Multiverso, n.4, 3-8, 2007

Dreaming to learn. In Mind, Life and Universe: Conversations with great scientists of our time., ed. Lynn Margulis & Eduardo Punset, pp. 140-148, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.

2008

Questioning consciousness. Seed Magazine, February 2008.

Getting the measure of consciousness. In What is Life? The Next 100 Years of Yukawa's Dream. Ed. M. Murase and I. Tsuda, Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement, no. 173 pp. 264-269, 2008

Cerebellar hypoplasia, with quadrupedal locomotion, caused by mutations in the very low density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) gene. European Journal of Human Genetics 16, 1070-74, 2008 (with Seval Türkmen, et al.)

Genes and quadrupedal locomotion in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105(21):E26, May 2008. (with Stefan Mundlos, and Seval Turkmen.)

2009

The colour currency of nature. In Colour for Architecture Today. Ed. Tom Porter and Byron Mikellides. London: Taylor and Francis, pp. 912, 2009

Helen “a blind monkey who saw everything”. Oxford Companion to Consciousness , ed. Tim Bayne, Axel Cleeremans, Patrick Wilken, pp. 343-345, 2009.

Parler au nom de nos Soi(s): Une évaluation du trouble de personalité multiple. (French translation of “Speaking for ourselves”). Terrain, 52, 18-37, 2009

Il potere delle parole. (Italian translation of “What shall we tell the children?”). Prometeo, June 2009, pp38-51. 2009

Ca8 Mutations Cause a Novel Syndrome Characterized by Ataxia and Mild Mental Retardation with Predisposition to Quadrupedal Gait. PLOS Genetics May 2009. (With Seval Türkmen et al.)

2010

The nature of beauty. Prospect, September, p. 62-65, 2010

Person as moral scientist. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 33.4, p. 340, 2010

2011

Introduction to Descartes Meditations and Other Writings. Folio Society, London, 2011

It takes a thief to catch a thief. Behav. Brain Sc 34.1. p. 28, 2011

Ideology, fear of death and death anxiety. Political Psychology, 32, p 601-621, 2011. (With Emanuele Castano et al).

2012

'This chimp will kick you ass at memory games, but how the hell does he do it?'. Trends in Cognitive Science, 16, pp.353- 355, 2012

The evolved self-management system. EDGE. 2012. https://www.edge.org/conversation/nicholas_humphrey-the-evolved-self-management-system

The evolutionary psychology of healing: a human success story. Current Biology, Sept 10, vol 22. no. 17 (with John Skoyles). 2012

In a dark time. Clio’s Psyche, 19, pp 163-165, 2012

2013

Placebos at large. New Scientist, 6 August 2013

A beautiful explanation for why the human mind may seem to have an elegant explanation even if it doesn't. In “This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works.” Ed John Brockman. Harper Perennial, pp. 119-21. 2013

2015

Consciousness Spirited Away. Interalia Magazine, April 2015

Consciousness as Art. Scientific American Mind, May/June 2015, pp. 65-69

The bigger an animal’s brain the greater its intelligence. In "This Idea Must Die", ed. John Brockman, pp. 29-31, HarperCollins, 2015.

2016

Dissociation of the Reach and the Grasp in the Destriate (V1) Monkey Helen: A New Anatomy for the Dual Visuomotor Channel Theory of Reaching.Experimental Brain Research, 234(8), 2351-2362. 2016. [with Ian Q. Whishaw and Jenni M. Karl].

A Riddle Written on the Brain. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 23, pp. 278-87, 2016

Redder than Red: Illusionism or Phenomenal Surrealism? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 23, 116-123, 2016

2017

Humans Are the Only Animals Who Crave Oblivion Through Suicide. Aeon. 28 July 2017.

The Invention of Consciousness. Topoi, 39(1), 13-21.

2018