Arts

Music: It’s Got the Power To Move You

September 3, 2020

You know that feeling you get when your favorite party track starts playing on the radio? Your feet start tapping to the beat, your body begins swaying to the rhythm, and your head bops side to side; you suddenly realize that you’re on the verge of breaking into dance because somehow

Clarifying Creative Cognition

August 31, 2020

Creativity is an aspect of personality that is characterized by novel and appropriate ideas and processes. Linda Neiman, founder of Creativity at Work, a consulting, coaching and training alliance, relates that creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality

Facing the Music: The Power of Rhythmic Movements

August 13, 2020

If you’ve seen “The Wolf of Wall Street,” you probably remember the scene early on in the film when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character goes out to lunch with his boss (who is played by Matthew McConaughey) and learns the secret to working on Wall Street. In the middle of a fancy restaurant, McConaughey’s character starts

Can Disaster Movies Prepare You For The Real Thing?

July 27, 2020

All too often, you’ve probably heard people talk about how it’s hard to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t something out of a disaster movie we’ve all seen — that the way in which the world shut down so abruptly for such a long period of time and forced us to rethink nearly every aspect of our own lives

At A Loss for Words: Your Brain on Writer’s Block

July 21, 2020

He’d lost his magic. The impulse was spent. His talent was dead.” So opens “The Humbling,” one of the last novels by celebrated author Philip Roth. Although it tells the story of a washed up stage actor at the end of his career, these three short sentences sum up what every writer dreads the most — losing whatever

Neuroaesthetics — The Science of Pleasure : An Interview with Dr. Anjan Chatterjee

July 5, 2020

Medical doctor, neurologist, and cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Anjan Chatterjee has dedicated his life to understand how the workings of our mind can be observed in the brain — what patterns our thoughts and dreams make. Fifteen years ago, he developed an interest in aesthetics — what images, sounds, and tastes

Discovering Synesthesia: Loud Apples and Green Mondays

June 22, 2020

As a writer, I tend to cover a wide range of topics, and in the process, I usually get to learn something new. One of these topics is music. Every once in a while, I get to write an album review; doing so allows me to familiarize myself with the artists. This week, I learned about Annamaria Pinna, lead singer

Can Sleep Boost Your Creativity?

June 9, 2020

In art, literature, or science, it’s an elusive question: how do you create something new? How do you get past a block or solve a seemingly impossible problem? Well, putting it aside and sleeping on it just might help. “Sleeping on it” has led to many famous inventions and artistic creations.

Super-Hearing: The Secret Power of Learning an Instrument

May 30, 2020

Christopher has been playing the violin since he was 9 years old and studied under Marjorie Talvi, who was the first chair of the Seattle Symphony. Little does he know that his 10 years of classical training has given him a hidden superpower: His brain is really, really good at reading emotional sounds in speech.

Lost In Thought: Is The Wandering Mind More Creative?

May 27, 2020

Most people spend anywhere between one-third to half of their waking hours daydreaming. Although we are often told to stop dreaming or zoning out of the present moment, it may not be a total waste of time. In fact, there could even be benefits to having your head in the clouds.

Colorful Language: How Synesthetes Perceive Words

May 26, 2020

Although the phenomenon of synesthesia has been known for centuries, it is only in the last 30 years or so (since scientists developed brain-imaging technology) that synesthesia has been seriously studied. In 1995, Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge University neuroscientist, headed a team that undertook

Looking At The “Art” of Choosing

May 21, 2020

How much control do you have in your life? Have you ever refrained from doing something that you wanted to do because you didn’t have a choice? Do you spend more time than desired in the cereal aisle at the grocery store trying to decide?

The Power of Words (And What They Do For Your Brain)

May 17, 2020

It’s long been said that the pen is mightier than the sword — that the written word is a far more effective catalyst at impacting the world — shaping society and individual thought more significantly than any weapon ever has. Edward Bulwer-Lytton actually coined the phrase around 1837, sometime after

Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do

May 16, 2020

Jeremy Bailenson, a communications professor at Stanford and the founder of the Virtual Human Interactive Lab, demonstrates why the conventional attitude toward VR should change alongside the rapidly advancing technology. In “Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do,”

Does Listening to Music Help You Focus?

May 15, 2020

For millions of parents sheltering in place, the home has become an office, a school and a playground all rolled into one, and the ability to dive into hours of uninterrupted work seems like a distant memory. Can popping in your earbuds and turning on some tunes diminish at least some of the distraction and improve

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A magazine dedicated to the brain.

We believe that neuroscience is the next great scientific frontier, and that advances in understanding the nature of the brain, consciousness, behavior, and health will transform human life in this century.

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