CNS 2014 Blog: Q&A with Marlene Behrmann The idea of being left-brained or right-brained is pervasive in society. But scientists now know that it is not so simple. While some skills may over time develop to depend more on one side of the brain, the two hemispheres work interdependently from birth. Case in point is […]
When Gazing Into Nothing Helps Us Remember
Trying to remember how you arranged last year’s Christmas ornaments on the tree? It turns out that blankly gazing at your empty tree could help. According to a new study, when we look even at an empty space, it cues our brain to remember the orientation of objects that previously occupied that space. Our eye […]
When We See But Don’t See: Using Illusions to Test Our Perceptions
If you are driving home from work listening to a song on the radio or talking to your spouse in the car, you may miss other things happening around you – like a giant display of Christmas trees for sale or even a car on fire on a nearby street. Even if you traveled pass […]
Detection of Light in Blind People Illuminates Light’s Non-Visual Roles
We can detect light even if we cannot see it. And in a startling new discovery, even some totally blind people can detect light. Brief exposure to blue light triggered brain activity associated with alertness and attention – helping scientists further understand light’s role in cognition for all people. “The eye plays a dual role […]
Navigation and Recall: Why There Are Some Places We Just Can’t Forget
Even for those of us navigationally challenged, we may have vivid memories of exactly where we once saw a bad accident or a deer on the side of the road. These negative experiences boost our recall of places, according to new research. As a result, the very places we may want to forget are the […]
Visual Recognition Study that Led to New fMRI Analysis Technique
Breakthroughs in cognitive neuroscience: Highlighting influential research from the past 20 years This series explores influential papers in cognitive neuroscience, as measured by the number of times they are cited each year. The papers featured are a sampling of many important works in the field over the past 20 years. This is the fourth in […]
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 […]
Understanding What Shapes Our Visual Reality: Q&A with William Newsome
“Anyone who works with monkeys on a day-in-day-out basis eventually asks him or herself a startling question: Exactly who is training whom here?” Our brains, not our eyes, are largely responsible for our visual reality. Although the eyes take and lightly process the pictures, it is our brains that reconstruct what we have seen from […]
