Q&A with Morgan Barense In high school biology, students often learn about different parts of the brain, accompanied by a description like “the area of the brain responsible for memory” or “…for attention.” But in recent years, cognitive neuroscientists have found that such sharp boundaries in cognitive functions are really a myth. The brain is […]
Cognition can be the difference between life and death on deep-space missions. Imagine the catastrophes that could occur – whether on the International Space Station or in route to Mars – if a crew member has a lapse of attention on a spacewalk or a memory deficit while navigating due to sleep deprivation. The cognitive […]
Unwanted thoughts can haunt our daily lives – negative memories, worries, or simply off-task thinking. But most healthy adults can control such thoughts. For individuals suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), however, the ability to control such thoughts is greatly hampered. In a new study, neuroscientists have identified […]
I can see it all in my mind like a mini-movie: my family and I eating breakfast at the kitchen table, pouring cereal, drinking juice and coffee, and chatting. The body positioning, senses, and actions are all vividly recreated in my mind’s eye. We all do it to some extent every day – mentally recreate […]
Guest Post by Sadie (Sarah) Witkowski, Northwestern University As one of five children, my mom has plenty of stories about her and her siblings’ misadventures. One of my favorites revolves around my “weird” Uncle Dorsey and his early scientific endeavors. When my mom was about 8 years old, her older brother slipped a tape player under […]
The other day, I reset my password for a social media site. When I went to login today, I inadvertently entered the old password. When that happened, I was using my automatic, “stimulus-response” memory, a rigid, habit-like memory. When I then remembered I had changed my password, I tapped into a different type of memory, […]
The Cognitive Neuroscience Society is adding its voice questioning the new policy that NIH has adopted that fails to distinguish between basic research and clinical trials. As a result of this policy, a wide array of basic research studies will be required to register as clinical trials starting in January 2018. The policy is described […]
Every day, we compare ourselves to others, both in person and increasingly online. Am I smarter than my friend? Am I nicer or friendlier? Such judgments require a type of “social reasoning” – first rating yourself and your friends and then making a comparison. Among adolescents, this type of thinking is even more common, with […]
Speaking at the Big Ideas in Neuroscience session at the recent CNS annual meeting, Angela Friederici of the Max Planck Institute discussed language as a unique human trait. Understanding of the words we use comes from different types of memories in different networks the brain. Neuroscientists often gain insight into these connections through individuals with […]
We all know intuitively that place shapes our everyday experiences. From the colors of the walls to the amount of light in the room, how we design buildings affects how we think, feel, and behave. A growing body of research is examining how architectural design affects us on the neural level. And a new research […]
