Whether we study single cells, measure populations of neurons, characterize anatomical structure, or quantify BOLD, whether we collect reaction times or construct computational models, it is a presupposition of our field that we strive to bridge the neurosciences and the psychological/cognitive sciences. Our tools provide us with ever-greater spatial resolution and ideal temporal resolution. But […]
A Note to Worried Graduate Students: There’s Still Hope
Guest Post by Shelby L. Smith As I sat in an audience of students listening to a panel of professional researchers and data scientists at the CNS annual meeting in San Francisco, I couldn’t help but notice two things: 1) Trainees are exceptionally worried about their futures, and 2) trainees have an army of forces […]
Mind Melding: Understanding the Connected, Social Brain
CNS 2019 Press Release March 26, 2019 – San Francisco – Parents may often feel like they are not “on the same wavelength” as their kids. But it turns out that, at least for babies, their brainwaves literally sync with their moms when they are learning from them about their social environment. In a new […]
CNS 2019 Day 3
On the third day of CNS 2019 in San Francisco, attendees were treated to pipe cleaner neuron-making in the poster session (right), as well as some wonderful award talks. Receiving her Young Investigator Award, Muireann Irish of the University of Sydney discussed her work on semantic and episodic memory. And co-recipient of the award Michael […]
Third Grader Picks Best Research in Cognitive Neuroscience
Nooa Marantz-Pylkkanen is a busy 8-year-old boy who spends his time doing gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, archery, and soccer, and he loves video games. Unlike most third graders, he also spends time at scientific conferences and attended his first when he was just six months old, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) annual meeting in San […]
CNS 2019 Day 2 In Brief
The second day of CNS 2019 in San Francisco was action packed with two poster sessions, five symposia on a diverse set of topics, an award lecture, and, of course, lots of good company and food! The symposia covered topics ranging from exercise and casual inference to episodic memory and selective attention. Rounding out the […]
Exercise Adds Up to Big Brain Boosts
CNS 2019 Press Release March 24, 2019 – Anyone who trains for a marathon knows that individual running workouts add up over time to yield a big improvement in physical fitness. So, it should not be surprising that the cognitive benefits from workouts also accumulate to yield long-term cognitive gains. Yet, until now, there was […]
CNS 2019 Day 1 in Brief
The question that might be on everyone’s mind after a fantastic first day of the the 26th annual meeting of CNS in San Francisco is: How did you sleep last night? That’s because Matthew Walker (UC Berkeley) delivered a riveting keynote address yesterday to kick off the meeting, all about the vital role sleep plays […]
Time for Understanding Time in the Brain
CNS 2019 “Time is passing too fast!” Many of us use that phrase every day when we feel like our kids are growing up fast or when a deadline sneaks up on us. When Virginie van Wassenhove hears that phrase, it conjures an entirely different point of view. She goes straight to consciousness, musing on […]
Putting Together the Puzzle of Adaptive Constructive Memory
Q&A with Daniel Schacter The image most often used to describe how memory works is that of a video recorder retaining impressions in real time of each event, and your brain then plays back those impressions when calling up a memory. But that is but a memory myth. The image Harvard cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Schacter […]
