In today’s modern, technologically advanced world, with e-mail and smartphones and Twitter and Facebook demanding all of our attention all of the time — even as we work, socialize and play — multitasking may seem like the only answer. But science cautions us to restrict multitasking
As a child, were you liable to shirk or embrace time spent practicing at the piano? British scientists have found that dedicating yourself to the pursuit of a new skill increases the amount of white matter in your brain. The good news is that even if you eschewed — or never opted for — piano lessons
It seems an unlikely place to find a discussion on free will, but neuroscientists often grapple with the question of who is making your life choices: Your brain or your consciousness? More importantly, what’s the difference?
One thing that is for certain is that sooner or later, much of the progress that is being made in neuroscience will have an impact on daily life, either through what one does, eats, how one changes one’s life, or through medications. Why such an interest in neuroscience now?
Laughter does have some positive psychological, physiological, and immunological impacts on our health, according to researchers. In fact there’s even a term for the study of laughter and laughing and the examination of its effects on the human body: “gelotology” — from the Greek gelos — meaning laughter.
At birth, the brain is the most underdeveloped organ in our body. It takes up until our mid-20s for our brains to fully mature. Any serious and prolonged adversity, such as a sudden, unexpected, and lasting separation from a caretaker, changes the structure of the developing brain. It damages a child’s
Remember the famous New Yorker cartoon where two women are talking and one says to the other, “But enough about me. What do you think about me?” Solipsistic myopia is endemic to human behavior, so it’s no surprise that such a condition afflicts companies, too. As a client at a big
Research from MIT suggests that there are parts of our brain dedicated to language and only language, a finding that marks a major advance in the search for brain regions specialized for sophisticated mental functions. Functional specificity, as it’s known to cognitive scientists, refers to the idea that discrete parts of the brain
Editing genetic material — something that we can now do more rapidly than ever — is not without its detractors. For many countries in the European Union, the sale of GMOs is cautiously restricted, as these modified products are believed to be agents of cancer and birth defects. Even in the United States
When the term neuroscience was originally forged, it referred mostly to research at the molecular and cellular levels. Higher-order cognition was not deemed amenable to rigorous research and was thus relegated to the domain of “soft sciences.” But the second half of the 20th century witnessed nothing short of a revolution
Fantasyland, cleverly hidden behind Sleeping Beauty Castle, was, out of the five Disneyland lands, the one most important to Walt Disney himself. Disney’s flare for visual-spatial wonderment was played out here at what was once the core of the Magic Kingdom experience
Dogs and humans share a mutual desperation for each other’s attention. According to a study in Nature Communications, scientists estimate that dogs and humans have been best friends for quite some time; they’re talking, 32,000 years! By sequencing the genomes of our hairy best friends – dogs – and comparing them with their even hairier ancient ancestors – grey wolves
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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