Brain
Why it’s probably not the stress that’s shrinking your brain
A new study shows that people with higher levels of the “stress hormone” tend to have smaller brains — but ...
Boltzmann brain: You may be living in your own simulated reality
The paradox of the Boltzmann Brain can really pull the rug from under you if you follow it to all ...
Not so different after all: Reptile and human brains have a lot in common
Reports of human and reptile brain differences seem greatly exaggerated, according to recent neuroscience ...
Mystery of the mind: How autism got its start in the developing brain
Here are some of the key points [neuroscientist Kevin] Pelphrey made on how autism may get its start in the ...
DNA of God: Did humans evolve a need for religion?
[H]ow does evolution explain religion? Leading scholars propose a two-phase hypothesis (here, here): First, our ancestors evolved certain mental abilities, useful ...
Merging soldiers and machines: Inside the quest to weaponize the brain
What lies beyond bionics? [DARPA director Justin] Sanchez described his work as trying to “understand the neural code,” which would ...
More than a brain relay station: Thalamus could be key to higher level thinking
Scientists have known for decades that the thalamus faithfully transmits information about the visual world from the retina to the ...
Cracking the code for facial recognition
Brain-imaging studies have revealed that several blueberry-size regions in the temporal lobe—the area under the temple—specialize in responding to faces ...
How brain scans of sleeping mice could help identify various types of autism in humans
Autism features vary considerably from one person to the next. One of the biggest challenges in autism research is to ...
Does the internet ‘mess with your brain’? New international project aims to find out
As anyone who has spent any amount of time on Twitter can tell you, the internet can bring out the ...
Rewiring the brain and what’s happening when we’re ‘thinking ourselves better’
A self-help skeptic is confronted with evidence — anecdotal and scientific — that we may be able to think ourselves ...
Puzzling out how the brain turns electrical pulses into ‘thoughts, actions and emotions’
Neuroscientists have tried for decades to observe the swift electrical signals that are a major component of the brain’s language ...
‘Theory of mind’: Why artificial intelligence needs to understand how we think
What AI needs, [said Dr. Jun Wang at University College London] is a type of deep communication skill that stems from a critical human ...
Understanding the brain’s record-keeping system
The brain has a temporary way to keep track of memories ...
ALS patients more likely to have other mental, behavioral problems
Because ALS primarily affects a person’s motor neurons, it has been assumed that the disease spares a person’s mental faculties ...
Could a pill replicate the Alzheimer’s defense gained through exercise?
Mice that model a severe form of Alzheimer’s disease tend to exhibit improved memory after exercise-induced neuron production, according to ...
White noise dangerous to your brain? There’s ‘reason to be skeptical’ of study
A recent research review suggests that white noise, the soothing, fuzzy soundtrack so many of us rely on to sleep ...
The Disordered Mind: How our brains control our emotions
The following is an excerpt of The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves by Eric Kandel. We are all ...
She’s blind, but sees movement. Woman’s condition may help us understand brain’s inner workings
Milena Canning can see steam rising from a coffee cup but not the cup. She can see her daughter’s ponytail ...
Was human brain growth driven by ecological challenges?
Most animals have brains in proportion to their body size – species with larger bodies often have larger brains. But ...
Was a gene mutation responsible for bigger human brains?
One of the major features that distinguish humans from other primates is the size of our brains, which underwent rapid ...
Designed for distraction: Why our brains find it difficult to focus
Laser focus leads to success, or so they say. Except it actually doesn’t. Researchers have found that rather than being ...
Your brain has its own unique ‘functional fingerprint’
The physical links between brain regions, collectively known as the “connectome,” are part of what distinguish humans cognitively from other ...
Sleep paralysis and why it may mean more than we thought
Sleep paralysis affects millions every year, and studies estimate that more than half of the global population will experience at ...
Glioblastoma and John McCain: Why this brain cancer remains an ‘insidious enemy’
Sen. John McCain withstood beatings and torture as a prisoner of war, but he was confronted with an enemy in ...
Hardwired for delusion: How our brains deceive us
[Present bias] is the tendency people have, when considering a trade-off between two future moments, to more heavily weight the ...
Boy almost back to normal 3 years after doctors remove large section of his brain
A boy who had large parts of the right side of his brain removed due to a slow-growing tumor made ...
