Science

Fitting In: The Neuroscience Of Conformity

May 6, 2021

Scientists have been studying conformity since 1932, when Canadian anthropologist Diamond Jenness first began exploring the phenomenon. By 1951, psychologist Solomon Asch tested male college students and found that one-third of his sample would select an obviously wrong answer if their peer

You’re Fired! Your “Subordinate” Brain At Work

May 1, 2021

In our market-based economy, everyone has a boss. Most of us answer to a manager or supervisor, but even the CEO answers to shareholders. So the pressures of being judged for your work hardly vanish the further up the ladder you climb. And if you asked them, many business leaders would probably tell you they miss the

The Sweet Smell Of Marketing

April 29, 2021

Unlike our other senses, our sense of smell is closely linked to the brain’s centers for emotion, memory, and creativity, according to the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that researches taste and smell. What this means is that when it comes to smell, we process it first with our emotional brain

Working Well: Managing Work Stress

April 27, 2021

Many studies have shown the ways work can affect our mental and physical health — anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system, to name a few. The damage is compounded by the detrimental ways we deal with stress, such as overeating, binging on unhealthy foods, along with

What Meditation Does To Your Brain

April 21, 2021

Anyone who has ever attempted to meditate can vouch for the fact that while it is theoretically simple, it is extremely challenging in practice. In fact, its simplicity is what makes it difficult, and it is also what makes it worthwhile. “Mindfulness meditation” (the practice most popular in the United States)

Cannabis Considered: 50 Shades of Mary Jane

April 20, 2021

Marijuana (cannabis) is one of the most controversial and politicized controlled substances in the United States. It has many names — Mary Jane, pot, ganja, sativa, etc. — and stories about it ranging from positive to negative, depending on whom you ask, abound. The tide, however, seems to be turning.

God Is In The Details

April 18, 2021

Religion has long been a topic of philosophical discussion, but only relatively recently have neuroscientists begun to investigate faith and spirituality, too. Several different strands of research now indicate that there are specific parts of our brains that relate to belief in God

Conjuring At The Society Of Neuroscience

April 17, 2021

An annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience typically attracts over 20,000 neuroscientists from around the world to present their research — with such a large group of scientists, there’s bound to be some great work on almost anything a curious mind can imagine. While the presented projects can range in their aims from

Sensing Your Own Body Is More Complicated Than You Realize

April 15, 2021

Early philosophers did not recognize the origins of our sense of movement. Aristotle wrote that we have only five conscious senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell. But there was a reason why Aristotle may not have made room for the sense of movement, as unless we attend to our body

3 Ways For Teachers To Enhance Learning A Language

April 13, 2021

Despite the best efforts of teachers, students and parents, learning a new language is challenging, and at times can be frustrating or even traumatic. However, by applying a few basics of brain-based education — what neuroscience and educational psychology have taught us about the brain and

How Stereotypes Affect Us (And What We Can Do)

April 11, 2021

African Americans are better at sports. Asians are better at math. Though we outwardly seek and applaud diversity, stereotypes persist. “Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” investigates the research of Dr. Claude Steele, a social psychologist, on stereotypes — and how, even in a society that

How Twins Help Us Understand Nature and Nurture

April 10, 2021

As identical twins, 19-month-old Sol and Luna share 100 percent of the same DNA. Both girls have soft oval faces, tufts of curly brown hair, slight noses, and large almond-shaped eyes. If Sol’s coat is taken off, Luna will notice, and she will eagerly mimic for hers to be removed. If one is dancing

Recognizing Multiple Intelligences: An Interview with Dr. Howard Gardner

April 9, 2021

Howard Gardner, a researcher at Harvard University, had a very different view of what amounts to intelligence. His studies of artistically gifted children and people suffering from brain injuries revealed a rich diversity of the ways in which the brain can excel. In his landmark

Is Your Phone Making You Forgetful? Learning and Memory in the Digital Age

April 6, 2021

The ultraconnectivity of our modern society is causing a wholesale shift in the way we retain information in our heads. Where most of history has been a process of wielding tools to remember things for us (everything from scratches on papyrus to the PC), we’re entering an age where we don’t really have

Breaking Down Overeating Behavior With Neuroscience

April 5, 2021

When it comes to losing weight, some of the most common advice out there is “portion control,” at least when people aren’t trying to promote some combination of foods that will somehow set the process of weight loss in motion. There’s probably some good advice in all of these helpful hints, but they’re not always easy to

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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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