When you think about which animals most closely resemble people, naturally thoughts turns to primates, our closest ancestors. But while nonhuman primates shared much neural wiring with people, when it comes to singing, it may surprise you to learn that we take our notes from songbirds. A new study suggests that people and songbirds draw […]
Guest Post by Teodora Stoica (University of Louisville) As dawn breaks, Rob Young quietly ties the laces of his favorite running shoes, dons his distinctive kilt and hits the road to complete a marathon. Specifically, his 370th marathon in 365 days. Besides the mind-boggling 10,178 miles raced, thousands of dollars earned for charities, and shattering […]
As I write this, I am in a crowded room surrounded by different voices, a blowing A/C, footsteps down the hall and the sound of typing from various laptops. How can I best focus on a single voice? Turns out the background noise matters: According to a new study, our brain uniquely processes different types […]
Guest Post by Brandon Levy, NIMH In February 2012, Florida neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after calling 911 to report a “suspicious person” in his neighborhood. In November 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by a Cleveland police officer while playing in a public park with a toy gun. Nearly […]
CNS 2016: Advances for Brain Science and Society Join us in the Big Apple to explore the underlying nature of how we think! Press registration is now open for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual conference, April 2-5, 2016, in New York City, at the New York Hilton Midtown. Get great story ideas and connect with […]
There are many moments in a day where we might have a brief emotional reaction to something – like smiling when we see a baby smile or grimacing when we see a baby crying. We experience continuum of emotions from the very brief in-the-moment reactions to the sustained emotions that impact our behavior at a […]
Teenagers like to explore and push boundaries but not all exploration is the same. Neuroscientists have yet to fully distinguish between risk-taking, for example, as compared with strategically exploring novel experiences. A new study shows marked differences in brain activity among individual teens who are more or less exploratory. The work could help shape future […]
Our day-to-day lives can be thought of as a battle on the neural level. We have tons of stimuli fighting for our attention and of those, only a few will stick. I am often surprised by which things stick in my memory for the long-term, a particular shirt I wore or a line from a […]
It’s breakfast time, and you head to the fridge to grab some orange juice but just as you go to pour it into your cup, you hear someone calling to you, turn toward the sound, and pour it into your cereal bowl instead or maybe even onto the floor. We’ve all been there – had […]
For the past 15 years, researchers have been studying the effects of neglect on the developing brain through the study of Romanian orphans. The work has spawned dozens of papers, and even a book, detailing the profound consequences of early institutionalization on brain and behavior development. In one of the latest studies, researchers found that […]
