CNS 2023 Q&A with Sabine Kastner In high school and then into undergraduate school, Sabine Kastner was most interested in the humanities: literature, history, and philosophy. But she would have a formative experience attending a public “Christmas Lecture” by neurologist and neurophysiologist Otto Creutzfeldt in the mid-1980s about the connection between Kant’s philosophy and neuroscience. […]
Diving into Attentional Control with Robert Desimone
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. […]
Bringing Hyperfocus into Research Focus
Guest Post by Tessa Abagis, University of Michigan “I get hooked into Netfix, and I’m not able to stop easily to get work done.” Sound familiar? Maybe you’re trying to catch up on Game of Thrones before the new season comes out or keep up with the seemingly infinite Netflix stand-up specials. For most of […]
Your Brain on Channel Surfing
It’s Sunday morning and I am looking through tweets while watching the news. With smartphones now ubiquitous, such situation are increasingly common: taking in information with multiple interruptions, often by choice. In a new study, researchers studied this phenomenon on the neural level by having people watch movie clips in different combinations – finding significant […]
From the Classroom to the NICU: Real-World Neuroscience Opening New Avenues
CNS 2017 Press Release March 26, 2017 – San Francisco – When going to the movies with a group of friends, one small action can make a big difference when it comes to being on the same page after the movie: eye contact. A simple conversation before the movie sets you up to be more […]
Faces Distract Our Movements, Especially Emotional Ones
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 […]
Where’s My Car? Senior Moments are Not Intractable
We call it a “senior moment” – when we forget where we parked the car or left the keys. These moments of forgetfulness are so called because they tend to become more frequent with age. But all is not lost: New research suggests that senior moments have a lot to do with how we approach […]
Framing Our Experiences: New Study Reveals Attention at Neuron Level
Q&A with Ron Mangun Two people sitting at a sports bar watching a game may notice very different things around them. While one may see the couple next to him arguing, the other may see a small fire starting in the kitchen. How they direct their attention, whether consciously or not, could lead to important […]
CNS 2013 Meeting: Attention Research Guides Toward Behavioral Training
Changing how people direct their attention – and the associated brain patterns – could be key to some promising behavioral therapies to help everyone from smokers to patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A symposium Tuesday morning at CNS 2013 set out to integrate the current state of research on the neural networks involved […]
