CNS 2021 Press Release In the world of neurodevelopment, one thing is clear: the earlier the intervention the better. Infancy is a critical time in brain development, and neuroscientists are increasingly identifying factors that can negatively impact cognition and ones that can improve cognition early in life. At the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience […]
Today, we kicked off CNS 2021 with a new virtual platform, reimagining modern-day conferencing. After our opening ceremonies, which helped orient participants to the new format, we had four terrific Data Blitz sessions, with rapid-fire talks on a variety of topics, from language and memory to aging and disease. Other highlights from Day 1 included […]
CNS 2021 Q&A with Anne Collins If there is one thing the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that people learn and adapt to new situations all the time. We are never really starting from scratch. “We have a whole set of strategies that we rely on to adapt quickly compared […]
CNS 2021 Q&A with Amitai Shenhav While interviewing Amitai Shenhav via Zoom about his upcoming award lecture on incentives and effort, he posed the question: “Why are we engaging in this conversation right now even though it’s going to require mental effort on both of our parts?” That type of question has led his research […]
CNS 2021 Paying attention is a fundamental brain process we all use every day. Whether keeping our eyes on the road while our cell phone rings or focusing on work while our kids yell in the background (for those of us working virtually during the pandemic), attentional control is key to healthy and successful living. […]
Dr. Leslie G. Ungerleider passed away on December 10, 2020. A towering scientific figure, she was Chief of the Laboratory for Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she was an NIH Distinguished Investigator. Leslie began as a functional anatomist, and was also a talented physiologist and cognitive neuroscientist. Her early […]
CNS 2021: Q&A with Wendy Suzuki About 15 years ago, Wendy Suzuki was on a mission. She wanted to lose 25 pounds and began a regular gym and diet regimen. As she worked out more, she saw a big shift in her mood and memory. At the same time, her father suffered a sudden and […]
Q&A with Damien Fair, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Recipient Although the global pandemic has slowed his lab’s data collection to a halt, COVID-19 has nothing on cognitive neuroscientist Damien Fair. In the middle of the global health crisis, he moved from Oregon Health & Science University to the University of Minnesota, began the Masonic Institute for […]
Depression is twice as common at the lowest income levels than at the highest. People who are poor during childhood and become more affluent as adults continue to be at elevated risk. As presented in a symposium at CNS 2020 Virtual this past May, it appears that early life socioeconomic status (SES) influences brain development […]
Cognitive neuroscientists have long debated about whether people have visual-like “pictures in the brain” that we activate when we think of them, or whether representations are more semantically organized in sets of features. So, for example, if asked to think of a blond person, will someone conjure in their “mind’s eye,” a typical blond person […]
