Ignorance is bliss? Why people prefer to remain unaware of potentially unpleasant but useful information

A study of more than 2,000 people in Germany and Spain by Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for ...

Recreating evolution: Human gene triggers bigger brains in monkeys

Researchers in Germany and Japan introduced a human-specific gene to the fetuses of common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. In turn, that ...

30 years later in Romania: What happened to the babies deprived of human contact?

In 1990, the outside world discovered [Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu’s] network of “child gulags,” in which an estimated 170,000 abandoned ...

Certain autism behaviors and seizures might have a common origins

Early behavioral signs predict seizures in autistic children, according to a new study. Previous work has shown that 5 to ...
ruxnodu mdc ntu

Autism linked to eating disorders—but which comes first?

At least 20 percent of adults and 3 percent of children with eating disorders also have autism. But much of ...

Exercise may benefit your brain more than any other part of your body

The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends that people exercise at moderate intensity a total of 2.5 hours each week – ...

People with PTSD may have trouble suppressing memories—good and bad

One question the researchers want to explore through the lens of the [November 13, 2015] Paris attacks is why some ...

What physicists get wrong about free will

It might seem that everything that’s happening at the higher, ‘emergent’ levels should be uniquely determined by the physics operating ...

Monkey mind control? Ultrasound pulses influence decision making

A team of scientists was pulsing imperceptible ultrasound waves through his skull into frontal parts of his brain, and tacitly ...

Stimulating brain waves prompts immune cells to fight against Alzheimer’s disease

Discoveries that transcend boundaries are among the greatest delights of scientific research, but such leaps are often overlooked because they ...

‘Bioelectric memory patch’ promises to boost short-term memory. Could it really work?

What if you could boost your brain’s processing capabilities simply by sticking electrodes onto your head and flipping a switch? ...

‘Diagnostic conundrum’: COVID-19 pandemic has given us a lot of clinically depressed people

As a rough average, during pre-pandemic life, 5 to 7 percent of people met the criteria for a diagnosis of ...

Lefty or righty? Is handedness genes or chance?

Many geniuses, from Einstein to Bill Gates were lefties. But left-handedness remains a rarity--only 1 in 10 of us are ...

Treasure hunting: Traveling to new locations allows the brain to seek ‘rewards’

We are free to wander but usually when we go somewhere it’s for a reason. In a new study, researchers ...

Brain’s ‘ready-to-encode’ mode helps us create memories

What happens in the hippocampus even before people attempt to form memories may impact whether they remember. A new study ...
x cmsv afc bc c f ce cf a

People with two copies of ‘Alzheimer’s gene’ at greater risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection

The APOE ε4 gene variant that puts people at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease also has a link ...

Infographic: How our brains keep track of time

It’s unclear how the brain keeps track of the timing of events within a memory. One theory posits that, as ...

Explaining near-death experiences and why they aren’t always ‘blissful’

Near-death experiences, or NDEs, are triggered during singular life-threatening episodes when the body is injured by blunt trauma, a heart ...

‘The Idea of the Brain’: Pinpointing the storage location for our memories

For centuries, scientists have been arguing about where memory resides in the brain. I explore the fascinating history of this ...

The human brain may not be such a great model for designing artificial intelligence

[M]ost artificial neural networks are decidedly un-brainlike, in part because they learn using mathematical tricks that would be difficult, if ...

Seeking a big break: How ‘brain-on-a-chip’ devices are revolutionizing brain disorder research

How do we pick apart an organ as complex as the brain and gain a better understanding of what goes ...

Struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic? These apps could help you stay sane

Set a reminder to write down how you’re feeling every day. Now you’ve started a mood diary. These sorts of ...

Environmental factors can’t be blamed for rising autism rates, study says

The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to autism and traits of the condition have held steady over multiple ...

Early test for autism could be possible by measuring levels of the hormone vasopressin

Low levels of the hormone vasopressin in early infancy may presage an autism diagnosis in childhood, according to a new ...

Understanding brain states: How your mind functions when tired, versus wired on caffeine

Ever wonder what happens in your brain to make the switch between down-and-out tired, and borderline over-caffeinated? As it turns ...

Autistic children struggle with emotional control. It’s even harder for girls, study says

Emotion control eludes more girls than boys with autism, according to a new study of young people hospitalized for psychiatric ...

Experimental Parkinson’s treatment draws ethics scrutiny with wealthy donor selected as first patient

A secretive experiment revealed [May 12], in which neurosurgeons transplanted brain cells into a patient with Parkinson’s disease, made medical ...

Do you miss or spot Hollywood movie ‘continuity errors’? Here’s how ‘change blindness’ works

Gaze at the top image of Ben Franklin’s famous kite study. Now, the one below it. See the changes? You ...