Brain Mysteries

Killer Competition: Neurons Duke It Out For Survival (5/9/2008)

The developing nervous system makes far more nerve cells than are needed to ensure target organs and tissues are properly connected to the nervous system. As nerves connect to target organs, they somehow compete with each other resulting in some living and some dying. Now, using a combination of computer modeling and molecular biology, neuroscientists have discovered how the target tissue helps newly connected peripheral nerve cells strengthen their connections and kill neighboring nerves. ...> Full Article

Not sure? Don't sweat it: Embrace Uncertainty (5/9/2008)

Governments and other large organisations should put more resources into ways of dealing with the unknown, according to experts pioneering a new approach to understanding and managing uncertainty. ...> Full Article

Does the brain control muscles or movements? (5/8/2008)

Scientists analyzing muscle function in monkeys, have created a mathematical model that captures the control characteristics of the motor cortex. ...> Full Article

Hunger hormone makes food look more attractive (5/7/2008)

A new brain-imaging study reveals that ghrelin - a stomach hormone, acts on specific regions of the brain to enhance our response to food related cues and eating for pleasure. ...> Full Article

Imaging study provides glimpse of alcohol's effect on brain (5/5/2008)

Findings help explain why people engage in risky behavior while intoxicated ...> Full Article

It's a Unisex Brain with Specific Signals that Trigger 'Male' Behavior (5/4/2008)

Research shows that males and females have essentially unisex brains - at least in flies ...> Full Article

What does it mean to be alive? (5/4/2008)

How notions of the natural world unfold- in development and across languages. ...> Full Article

Decoding the Dictionary: Study Suggests Lexicon Evolved To Fit in the Brain (5/3/2008)

The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary boasts 22,000 pages of definitions. While that may seem far from succinct, new research suggests the reference manual is meticulously organized to be as concise as possible - a format that mirrors the way our brains make sense of and categorize the countless words in our vast vocabulary. ...> Full Article

Singing in the brain: Baby birds' chirps use different neural pathway (5/2/2008)

Young songbirds babble before they can mimic an adult's song, much like their human counterparts. Now, in work that offers insights into how birds--and perhaps people--learn new behaviors, scientists have found that immature and adult birdsongs are driven by two separate brain pathways, rather than one pathway that slowly matures. ...> Full Article

New Research Shows Consistency in Synaesthetic Experiences (5/2/2008)

A quirky psychological phenomenon known as "grapheme-color synaesthesia" describes individuals who experience vivid colors whenever they see, hear, or think of ordinary letters and digits ...> Full Article

United We Stand: When cooperation butts heads with competition (5/1/2008)

Study reveals that the individuals preferred choosing cooperation over competition, when given the option to do so ...> Full Article

Decision making, is it all 'me, me, me'? (5/1/2008)

Psychologists find evidence that it's not. ...> Full Article

Is Happiness Having What You Want, Wanting What You Have, or Both? (5/1/2008)

Research suggests that people can grow accustomed to their possessions and thereby derive less happiness from them ...> Full Article

High self-esteem is not always what it's cracked up to be, especially when it comes to being insecure and defensive (4/30/2008)

High self-esteem is not the same thing as healthy self-esteem ...> Full Article

Language skills develop at 6, say researchers (4/30/2008)

Psychologists have discovered that children as young as six are as adept at recognising possible verbs and their past tenses as adults. ...> Full Article

Of culture and tool use: tap into your left parietal cortex (4/30/2008)

Functional MRI is showing that a person's pantomiming or performing a task involving tools draws from the brain's left hemisphere, and that becomes a problem when a brain injury is involved ...> Full Article

Reputation and money: New insights into how the brain processes social, economic reward (4/29/2008)

Researchers have mapped the brain regions that process social standing and money rewards, yielding new insights that they said will aid understanding of the basis of social behaviors. ...> Full Article

Scientists Explore Brain's Reaction to Potent Hallucinogen (4/29/2008)

Increasingly popular recreational drug, salvia, shows rapid uptake, short duration in animals ...> Full Article

Cause and Affect: Emotions can be unconsciously and subliminally evoked (4/29/2008)

Recent research suggests emotions can be unconsciously evoked and manipulated ...> Full Article

Looking at neurons from all sides (4/28/2008)

A new technique that marries a fast-moving laser beam with a special microscope that look at tissues in different optical planes will enable scientists to get a three-dimensional view of neurons or nerve cells as they interact ...> Full Article

Psychology professor's research shows how numerical information can be persuasive or informative depending on how it's presented (4/28/2008)

Large numbers are too big to perceive ...> Full Article

Why dominant individuals climb the proverbial ladder (4/27/2008)

Scientists using metaphor and symbolism to determine socially dominant people ...> Full Article

Mechanisms of memory identified (4/27/2008)

Major step forward in understanding how memory works ...> Full Article

Researcher Studies Neurofeedback to 'Retrain' Brainwaves in Children with Autism (4/26/2008)

Researcher is using video games to see if the brainwaves of children with autism can be 'retrained' to improve focus and concentration ...> Full Article

Praise equals money? (4/26/2008)

A new neural evidence suggests that the brain's reward system works similarly for both praise and money ...> Full Article

Human brain appears 'hard-wired' for hierarchy (4/26/2008)

Scans hint at why it can be unhealthy even at the top ...> Full Article

Being distracted can make you more susceptible to ads (4/25/2008)

Can Evaluative Conditioning Change Attitudes toward Mature Brands? ...> Full Article

High anxiety? Research looks to brain & genes to improve treatment (4/25/2008)

The study showed that THC reduces the response to threat in a brain region called the amygdala ...> Full Article

Antidepressants enhance neuronal plasticity in the visual system (4/25/2008)

Researchers provide new information about the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs ...> Full Article