November 17, 2010
Listeners’ brains respond more to native accent speakers; Imaging study suggests accents are subtle ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ signal to the brain
The brains of Scots responded differently when they listened to speakers with Scottish accents than to speakers with American or British accents, a new study has found. Understanding how our brains respond to other accents may explain one way in which people have an unconscious bias against outsiders.
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September 22, 2010
Blink and you’ll miss it (depending, of course, on your religious beliefs)
The attentional blink is another of those weird and wonderful cognitive blind spots with which the human race is afflicted. Flash up two images in close succession, and we find it really difficult to even notice the second, let alone figure out what it is. That's basically because our brains are still engaged in processing the first one.In another recent study by Lorenzo Colzato (she also did the
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September 16, 2010
Increased brain protein levels linked to Alzheimer’s disease
Elevated levels of a growth protein in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients is linked to impaired neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are generated, say researchers.
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September 10, 2010
People learn new information more effectively when brain activity is consistent, research shows
People are more likely to remember specific information such as faces or words if the pattern of activity in their brain is similar each time they study that information, according to new research. The finding challenges psychologists' long-held belief that people retain information more effectively when they study it several times under different contexts and, thus, give their brains multiple cu
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August 20, 2010
Brain gene expression changes when honey bees go the distance
Tricking honey bees into thinking they have traveled long distance to find food alters gene expression in their brains, researchers report.
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August 18, 2010
Becoming a Better Person: The Good, the Bad, and the Past
When we think of ourselves as being morally good or morally bad, what goes on in our brains? What moral memories does our mind gather to affirm that we are one or the other, and how are these memories influenced by cognitive biases?In some ways, we are already aware of some cognitive biases in the way we remember events. For example, we know of an "emotional bias" where emotional memories are re
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August 12, 2010
Left hemisphere already specialised for language by two months of age
It's widely known that in the majority of people the left hemisphere is dominant for language. But how early does this lateralisation of function emerge? An obvious way to find out is to put babies in a brain scanner and see if their brains show the same left-sided preference for language, compared with other auditory stimuli, as is observed in adults. Of course, from a practical perspective, tha
19 Vote(s)
19 Vote(s)
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August 9, 2010
Top down, bottom up or both? Attention to pain
I guess we all pretty much know that our brains don’t seem to capture everything that goes on around us – thankfully we can filter out a lot of unnecessary information (no, I don’t want to know what that funny noise outside is right now!) so that we can focus on what is important. When … Read more... Legrain V, Damme SV, Eccleston C, Davis KD, Seminowicz
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August 5, 2010
Study Finds Brains Literally "Sync Up" In Conversation
Good communication is a matter of getting "in sync" with others, as you've probably noticed when you've seen people match their steps perfectly as they walk, and imitate each other's gestures as they talk, and use each other's phrases and grammar. Last week, this paper reported this kind of coordination in the most important place of all: When people converse, it reports, regions of their
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July 23, 2010
Gene linked to aging also linked to Alzheimer’s
Biologists report that they have discovered the first link between the amyloid plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and a gene previously implicated in the aging process, SIRT1.
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