Some people might be able to focus on their task at hand — and filter out distractions. However, research is indicating that as we age — we’re not able to do this as easily — an aging brain is a distracted one. Even simpler things, things that we may take for granted when we’re younger, like sitting across from your friend and having
Posts by Rania Hanna
5 Ways To Increase Your Motivation
Motivation pushes you to perform certain behaviors to achieve results. But what exactly is motivation, and how can you give yours a boost? Motivation is based on reward prediction and value-based decision-making. It is your brain’s way of pushing you to perform certain behaviors
We Are Not Born With Bigotry
Lately, a serious discussion about systemic racism in the United States has finally become front and center in the public sphere, which caused me to reflect on a classic discrimination experiment done at the end of the 1960s by an elementary schoolteacher. Jane Elliott was ironing a teepee for a classroom activity
Cool Head, Open Heart: How Bodily Awareness Increases Empathy
Research shows, however, that the heart and the brain are interconnected, with one organ passing information along to the other. Importantly, we can recognize — and manipulate — our heart and brain through our heartbeats. At the University of Sussex, Dr. Sarah Garfinkel tells the story of how
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So You Think You Can Multitask?
Being wired to technology isn’t necessarily good for our neural wiring. Multitasking — which many people think they do well — is not healthy for neural efficiency. With each task switch, there is a cost, which makes our brains less efficient, and depletes nutrients more readily than if we concentrated on one task
Connected: The Fascinating Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces
Technology has always feared and fascinated people. Revered for its role in shaping society and improving lives — feared for the same reasons. As neuroscience evolves, and technology alongside it, both invasive and noninvasive techniques will be used to view the brain, treat illness, and even enhance cognition.
Two Left Feet? You Might Be Gliding Without Enough GABA
You may blame your two left feet on your cerebellum, or your genetics. But maybe, it’s your GABA that’s to blame. Whether you’ve got moves like Jagger, or you lose your balance like Larry and Moe, scientists have learned that GABA — a neurotransmitter that plays a role in the motor cortex — rise and fall when learning
Mysteries of Modern Art, Or Why Some People Hate or Love It
A recent excursion with friends brought me to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. With the random wire sculptures and the torn canvases, the splotches of paint dripped or flung, and even the pantyhose filled with potato, I disliked looking at anything. In fact, I mocked the so-called art
Exploring the Uncanny Valley
With bright red lips, rosy cheeks, and painted smiles, clowns are creepy. They make us balloons shaped like puppies, dance, and tell jokes — they even come out of small clown cars, all to make us laugh. So why are these (supposedly) beloved clowns so unnerving? It’s because of the “uncanny valley”
Out From Damascus: Syrian Refugees and the Increasing Mental Health Crisis
Like blood from a wound, refugees pour out of the war-torn nation of Syria. And while international conversation centers on the social and economic toll refugees may have on their adopting countries, very little has been said about how immigration and refugee status may affect the human brain.
What Your Handwriting Says About Your Native Language
I puzzled for a long while at why my dad’s handwriting had such an exotic tilt to it, why his letters slanted a certain way, and how I knew that it was his handwriting no matter what. And why other family members, or even friends, wrote like him. And why, even if I didn’t know the person, but saw their handwriting