Neuroscience

Why Doesn’t Size Matter…for The Brain?

No one draws pictures of heads with little gears or hydraulics inside any more. The modern conceptualization of the brain is firmly computational. The brain may be wet, squooshy, and easy to serve with an ice cream scooper, but it is nevertheless a compute ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Nov 16 2009 - 4:38pm

Can Science Explain Our Foolish Financial Decisions?

Whether you're a liberal or a libertarian, it's generally accepted across the political spectrum that, in some form, the opportunity to make a lot of money drives the economic recessions and depressions the global economy experiences. Since we se ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2009 - 12:17pm

FoxJ1 Discovery Advances Understanding Of The Nervous System

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a gene, FoxJ1, that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing neurons. The research is a significant advance in understanding the development of the nervous system, which ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2009 - 1:40pm

Avoiding The Easy Way In Science

Our neurological structures are made mainly for survival; curiosity (a main tool for living) and its satisfaction are deeply inserted, by evolutionary genetics, into our central nervous system because of the need to find solutions to make sure survival. Y ...

Article - Arturo Pèrez-Arteaga - May 11 2010 - 5:38pm

Brain Scans Show Cocaine Addicts Can Restrain Their Cravings

 According to a new study soon to appear in NeuroImage, active cocaine abusers were, on average, able to suppress activity in brain regions linked to drug cravings when asked to inhibit their response to a "cocaine-cues" video. The findings sugge ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 30 2009 - 7:20pm

Nerve Cells' Delicate Balancing Act Explains Lifelong Memories

Our ability to learn new information and retain lifelong memories appears to lie in the minute junctions where nerve cells communicate, according to a new study conducted by NYU Langone Medicine Center researchers and published online this week in the jour ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:58pm

Need To Sober Up? Caffeine Isn't Your Friend

The next time you have a little too much to drink and need to sober up, researchers say you should avoid caffeine because it doesn't counter the effects of alcohol intoxication and may lead to some less than brilliant choices, like driving. The reason ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 7 2009 - 4:45pm

The Power Of The Brain Through The Window Of Savants

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant and author of the recent book Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Free Press). You may have heard of him. For example, most people first became aware of the existence of Iceland upon hearing t ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Jun 4 2010 - 8:11pm

Pot Smoking Could Leave Lasting Neurological Impression On Teenagers

The potentially damaging effects of marijuana on young brains may be even worse than previously thought, according to new research conducted by scientists from McGill University. Their new study, published in Neurobiology of Disease, suggests that teenager ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 17 2009 - 1:16pm

The Science Of Illusions In Four Easy Steps

Many illusions are like spherically curved space. Below on the left (fig. 1) is a geometrical illusion, and on the right is a ball with some great arcs drawn on it. Notice the similarities: the distortions in the illusion are qualitatively similar to the n ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Dec 24 2009 - 5:59pm