We hear a lot about anxiety and depression around the holidays – people feeling lonely and far from family or overloaded with stress. Although we may think of anxiety and depression separately, they often go hand in hand. Scientists are now working to better understand the different types of anxiety people experience, and a new […]
When someone cuts you off in traffic, some choice words probably instantly spring to mind about the driver. You assume the person is either a bad driver, inconsiderate, rude, or worse. But what if it turns out the driver was in a hurry because his wife has just gone into labor with their first child? […]
We can detect light even if we cannot see it. And in a startling new discovery, even some totally blind people can detect light. Brief exposure to blue light triggered brain activity associated with alertness and attention – helping scientists further understand light’s role in cognition for all people. “The eye plays a dual role […]
What’s the first treat you pull out of your candy bag on Halloween? Probably your favorite guilty pleasure… but what if you could use pennies to train yourself to pick a candy you might not like the most but that might be healthier? A new study finds that we may be able to train our […]
It’s not quantity but quality that matters when it comes to how much sleep strengthens our memories. A growing body of research is finding that specific stages of sleep shape particular types of learning in the brain. Whether for children napping or for older adults catching z’s at night, we all rely on sleep to […]
“Surely, if we are going to make judgments about whether people should be kept or alive or allowed to die after serious brain injury, it’s better if the people themselves are involved in that decision-making process, rather than others – doctors, relatives, etc. – being entirely responsible for making that decision for them.” Breakthroughs in […]
Q&A with Cay Anderson-Hanley “While exercise does not appear to be a cure-all, it is one of the strongest tools that we individually can enlist in our fight against cognitive decline and diseases of many types.” Playing video games that double as exercise can reap mental benefits above and beyond traditional exercise. In a recent […]
Even for those of us navigationally challenged, we may have vivid memories of exactly where we once saw a bad accident or a deer on the side of the road. These negative experiences boost our recall of places, according to new research. As a result, the very places we may want to forget are the […]
Breakthroughs in cognitive neuroscience: Highlighting influential research from the past 20 years This series explores influential papers in cognitive neuroscience, as measured by the number of times they are cited each year. The papers featured are a sampling of many important works in the field over the past 20 years. This is the fourth in […]
Curbing a smoking habit is a tough task, but a new tool could be in the arsenal: meditation. A new study found that a meditation training regiment reduced smoking among participants, even those who did not intend to kick the habit. “Individuals at risk for substance abuse, including smoking, typically have deficits in self-control,” says […]
