MRI studies have previously been done on how expensive wine tastes better, because knowing you're consuming something that's got a higher price tag activates more pleasure centres in the brain. But could the same principle work for distributing placebo medication? According to a new MRI study, it can. The study, entitled Placebo effect of medication [...]
Canadian astronaut and online sensation Chris Hadfield piqued the interests of millions of people worldwide when he published breathtaking photos of the planet during his commanding stint aboard the International Space Station. He continued to make headlines upon his return, but for another reason--he lost one per cent of his bone density for each month [...]
Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, wrote an important article for Wired Magazine in 2010 about the effect that our modern culture of distraction--specifically the Internet--is having on our brains. "When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning," [...]
There's a good reason why composers of operas and musicals have traditionally included an overture intended to precede staged shows--and that reason is now supported by science. The overture and entr-acte, respectively the musical overviews of the first and second halves of a performance, are designed to familiarize the audience with the hooks and choruses [...]
One is likely to think of a boxer's left hook or a mishap on the ski hill when the words "sports" and "head injury" appear in the same sentence, but new research suggests an essential element of the world's most popular athletic pastime may cause brain damage over time. The culprit? The ubiquitous 'header', taught to small [...]
It's no great secret that a healthy digestive tract equals greater overall health, but you may be surprised by just how true this really is. A new MRI study has shown that regular ingestion of probiotics will impact one's brain activity positively, reducing anxiety and negative emotions. The study, published by Gastroenterology, tracked 36 women [...]
The science of MRI has officially confirmed what many people had already deduced for themselves--there is nothing funny about being tickled. Researchers at the University of Tuebingen in Germany used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 18 subjects, recording neural responses of three types of laughter: humorous and joyful laughter, mean-spirited, mocking laughter [...]
A new MRI study published in online journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to examine how brain structure and function may pre-determine how a person will learn mathematics. The study, published on April 29 and led by Stanford psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor Vinod Menon, quickly became controversial due to its [...]
You've heard about the right and left brain; in fact, you may have even taken a quiz to find out which side is dominant in you. But were you aware that the brain is asymmetrical both in its function and its shape? A new US MRI study, entitled Increased morphological asymmetry, evolvability and plasticity in human brain [...]
Addiction is a controversial topic. There are many people who do not accept its status as a disease, concluding that willpower is the sole solution to a person's addictive urges. Researchers looking for a cure for addiction at the University of Pennsylvania, however, know this is not the case. Using MRI to scan the brains [...]