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 […]
Early Childhood Neglect Impairs Mechanism for Communicating Across Brain Regions
For the past 15 years, researchers have been studying the effects of neglect on the developing brain through the study of Romanian orphans. The work has spawned dozens of papers, and even a book, detailing the profound consequences of early institutionalization on brain and behavior development. In one of the latest studies, researchers found that […]
Cochlear Implants Enable Deaf Children to Distinguish Basic Linguistic Features Rapidly
For parents of deaf children, deciding whether to get a cochlear implant can be tough. The great hope is that an implant will help deaf children gain oral language skills. Behavioral data has suggested that congenitally deaf children best receive implants by age 4, but little has been known about how they perceive their first […]
Evidence from Tone Deafness: Limiting Musical Exposure Can Deteriorate the Auditory System
Often thought of in pop culture as a funny quirk (think: Cameron Diaz singing karaoke in My Best Friend’s Wedding), tone deafness is actually a brain disorder. Whereas most of us derive great pleasure from music, someone who is tone deaf may hear music as a noisy din and may even avoid situations where music […]
Smell Stimulates Early Visual Processing in Women But Not in Men
Smells are undeniably powerful, able to transport us to different places and times in our memories. Think of how you feel when you smell cookies baking in the oven. But can they also change how we see things? New research shows that smells can enhance visual processing – but only in women, not men. “The […]
5 Things You Didn’t Know About EEG Studies
“Think of it as a weird massage…” Journal articles can often feel impersonal to the readers. The participants are nameless subjects, the equipment and the meticulous lab set-up overshadowed by the findings. But as I learned firsthand, such studies are anything but impersonal. I recently participated in an electroencephalogram (EEG) study in the lab of […]
