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 […]
Neurotransmitters that Help Control Unwanted Thoughts
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 […]
Linking Words and Memories: How We Remember the Structure of Things
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 […]
Understanding How We Trigger and Rehearse Memories
CNS 2016 Blog Today I met Daphna Shohamy. Will I remember who she is if I run into her later for dinner? If I see her, I probably won’t relive her morning talk but memories of CNS likely (hopefully!) will come to mind to help me remember who she is. This is how Shohamy likes […]
Inducing Amnesia of Daily Events by Trying to Forget Unwanted Memories
When we try to forget something unpleasant, whether a bad argument or a traumatic event, we may be unintentionally inducing amnesia of unrelated memories. According to a new study, this temporary state of amnesia mimics organic amnesia, disrupting the processes in the hippocampus that lead to long-term memory creation. The work, says senior author Michael […]
Stimulating Our Autobiographical Memories
We all wish at times that we had better memories of events in our lives – whether a childhood vacation, what we ate a few weeks ago, or maybe even where we were for the Oscars a few years ago. What if the answer were in a simple pulse of electricity at routine intervals, much […]
