CNS 2021 Press Release Vision impairment is a pervasive problem facing nearly 2.2 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organization. But help is on the way: Neuroscientists are working at the cutting edge of technology and brain science to develop new ways for the vision impaired to navigate the world around them. At […]
Computers Generate Faces Based on Mental Maps
Cognitive neuroscientists have long debated about whether people have visual-like “pictures in the brain” that we activate when we think of them, or whether representations are more semantically organized in sets of features. So, for example, if asked to think of a blond person, will someone conjure in their “mind’s eye,” a typical blond person […]
Mapping the Brain’s Visual Behavior One Tidbit at a Time
Q&A with Marlene Behrmann For the past 30 years, Marlene Behrmann has been on a mission to answer some of the biggest questions in cognitive neuroscience about how visual function in the brain maps onto structure. Along her journey, she has explored a wide range of topics, including autism, migraines, aphasia, agnosia, and more. “These […]
Sharpening Understanding of How the Deaf Brain Sees
Q&A with Stephen Lomber We often see it in superhero movies: When people are deprived of one sense, they develop superhuman powers in another sense. While those depictions may be exaggerated, the underlying premise has a real scientific basis. When the brain is deprived of input from one sense, such as hearing, it often compensates […]
Dissecting Artificial Intelligence to Better Understand the Human Brain
CNS 2018 Press Release March 25, 2018 – Boston – In the natural world, intelligence takes many forms. It could be a bat using echolocation to expertly navigate in the dark, or an octopus quickly adapting its behavior to survive in the deep ocean. Likewise, in the computer science world, multiple forms of artificial intelligence […]
We’re Hard Wired for Cranberry Sauce: Why Color Matters for Nutrition
Cranberry sauce is perhaps a non-obvious star of the Thanksgiving dinner table. With its rich red color – whether homemade or from the can – the holiday favorite is actually part of the hardwiring in our brain: A new study finds that people favor red-colored foods over green ones, and consistently undervalue the caloric content […]
