To exercise your mind you have to exercise your body, say the results of a newly released MRI study that was 20 years in the making. The study, published February 10 in the journal of Neurology, has its roots in the 1990s when 1,583 middle-aged (average age 40 years) participants took a treadmill test and a [...]
Two leading mental health professionals have cast doubt on the increasingly common practice of using fMRI studies to pinpoint the sites of psychiatric illnesses on anatomical images of the brain. In their report, Finding the Elusive Psychiatric "Lesion" with 21st-Century Neuroanatomy: A Note of Caution, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, authors Dr. Eugenia Radulescu [...]
The hashtags #backtowork and the less subtle #backtoworkblues appeared across Twitter on Monday as millions of people bade the holiday season farewell and settled back into their routines. While it's natural to begrudge getting up early after an extended break of sleep-ins and visits with loved ones, is there something about the holiday season that [...]
Could differences in male-female behaviours simply be social conditioning? One thing's for sure, they're not anatomical; a new MRI study has found no distinct differences between male and female brains. The study, entitled Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic was published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers, based at Tel-Aviv University, scanned over [...]
Self-help literature abounds with the quest for happiness: what causes it and how can you get some of your own? But what does neuroscience have to say on the subject? A new MRI study from Korean researchers offers new information to the happiness market. The study, entitled The structural neural substrate of subjective happiness, was [...]
Chimpanzees, famous for their abilities to learn sign language and use tools, have long been a source of fascination for humans. While chimps are one of the smartest animals on the planet and show remarkable capacity for learning new skills, their cognitive achievements are relatively small when compared with the human brain. New research has [...]
What is so disturbing about screams? Aside from the obvious--that they represent a fellow human's pain or fear of mortal peril? While it may seem clear on an emotional level why a scream is an upsetting sound to hear, scientifically, it appears that screams and other rapid changes in volume trigger the fear centres within [...]
Dementia is on the rise, but fortunately so are solutions for preventing it. A new MRI study has linked smaller size of certain brain structures--such as hippocampi--to an increased risk for dementia. People who are aware that they may be at higher risk may then make greater efforts to fight it--strengthening the brain through cerebral exercises and [...]
Did you know there are conferences for lucid dreamers? Or dedicated post-secondary researchers on the subject, such as the folks at the Stanford Sleep Lab? People are curious about the phenomenon--the ability to come to conscious awareness in the dreaming state. Perhaps they would like to learn how to swallow fire or visit the sun, [...]
In 2008, Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell attempted to dissect the methodology behind high achievement in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. Interestingly, he credited an individual's cultural legacy and societal influences as primary precursors when he wrote: "It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special [...]