• The Innovative Teen Brain

    By lmunoz | March 19, 2016 | Comments Off on The Innovative Teen Brain

    Q&A with Adriana Galvan We’ve all seen the headlines: “Your teenager’s brain is crazy,” “Teen brain wired to take risks,” “Why teenagers take dumb risks.” Less often covered is the flip side: how the changing adolescent brain provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning and innovation. That’s the shift in discussion Adriana Galvan of UCLA wants […]

  • Sizing Up Living Brain Tissue

    By lmunoz | March 17, 2016 | Comments Off on Sizing Up Living Brain Tissue

    What if we could reliably measure children’s brain circuits to predict reading ability just as we measure their height and weight to predict physical development? That is a question Brian Wandell has been exploring for the past 30 years – how to use neuroimaging techniques like MRI to quantify the properties and activity of living […]

  • Stimulating Our Autobiographical Memories

    By lmunoz | February 29, 2016 | Comments Off on Stimulating Our Autobiographical Memories

    We all wish at times that we had better memories of events in our lives – whether a childhood vacation, what we ate a few weeks ago, or maybe even where we were for the Oscars a few years ago. What if the answer were in a simple pulse of electricity at routine intervals, much […]

  • None of Us is Immune: Leveraging Neural Circuitry to Reduce Implicit Bias

    By lmunoz | February 17, 2016 | Comments Off on None of Us is Immune: Leveraging Neural Circuitry to Reduce Implicit Bias

    Last month at dinner with friends, I heard about a training program some employers are using to reduce implicit bias in hiring – involving, among other things, acknowledging before interviews any potential sources of bias the interviewer may have through past experiences with particular individuals or groups of people. The goal, to increase diversity in […]

  • For the Birds: Our Surprising Shared Singing Circuitry

    By lmunoz | February 12, 2016 | Comments Off on For the Birds: Our Surprising Shared Singing Circuitry

    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 […]

  • Stoking the Motivational Fire: Neuroscience Guides the Way

    By lmunoz | January 31, 2016 | Comments Off on Stoking the Motivational Fire: Neuroscience Guides the Way

    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 […]

  • Listening When Sounds Compete

    By lmunoz | January 15, 2016 | Comments Off on Listening When Sounds Compete

    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 […]

  • You Look Familiar: How Physical Similarity May Contribute to Stereotyping

    By lmunoz | January 11, 2016 | Comments Off on You Look Familiar: How Physical Similarity May Contribute to Stereotyping

    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 […]

  • Press Registration is Open for CNS 2016 in NYC

    By lmunoz | January 8, 2016 | Comments Off on Press Registration is Open for CNS 2016 in NYC

    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 […]

  • 15 Cognitive Neuroscience Stories for 2015

    By lmunoz | December 23, 2015 | Comments Off on 15 Cognitive Neuroscience Stories for 2015

    We searched our blog archives for some of our favorite stories of the year. Exercise, art, language, and the social and developing brain top our 15 stories from 2015: Nature and nurture 1. Why It Should Always Be the Season for Exercise Michelle Voss (University of Iowa) talks about progress in her lab and others […]

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