Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a remarkable therapeutic innovation that has restored the lives of many individuals with intractable neurological disorders. Nowhere is this more evident than in crippling…
Completely immersive virtual reality is still a little way off – unless you have room to move.
Trypode
Have you ever noticed that even detailed, sophisticated virtual reality experiences don’t feel completely “real”?
It all comes down to your inner ear – and a study published earlier this month using rats…
Implanted electrodes can alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and help treat addiction.
Wikimedia Commons
Neurological disorders can have a devastating impact on the lives of sufferers and their families.
Symptoms of these disorders differ extensively – from motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, memory…
Interpreting what different types of laughter mean requires different brain regions.
chris.huggins
There’s nothing quite like overhearing a hearty belly-laugh, unless perhaps it’s having a good chortle yourself. The happy likelihood is that, in any case, one guffaw will lead to the other. Laughter is…
Pick a card, any card – and maybe a research paper too.
Micah Taylor
Think of your favourite magic trick. Is it as grandiose as David Copperfield’s Death Saw, or is it as simple as making a coin disappear in front of your very eyes?
These two very different tricks have…
A woman reads the Sydney Morning Herald in its new tabloid-sized format while a neuro test monitors her reaction.
Fairfax/AAP
If there’s one thing that could be observed from Fairfax’s move to publish its first tabloid-sized broadsheets it was a surprising level of neuro-illiteracy.
Fairfax’s head of advertising, Sarah Keith…
Plans are afoot to map the brain, but the scientific methods of US scientists involved may be too ambitious.
shutterstock.com
Recently, I wrote a sceptical article for The Conversation on the subject of new proposals for computer mapping of the brain.
The two top contenders are the European Human Brain Project (HBP – which has…
The race to map the human brain may be more political than scientific.
brewbooks
In the past month, we have seen two major announcements of huge projects to map the brain – the European Human Brain Project (HBP) and the Obama Brain Activity Map (BAM).
What you may not have noticed…
Are there things you’d rather not remember?
Megyarsh
By Jee Hyun Kim, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
If you could erase your memories, which ones would you choose?
As a neuroscientist, one of my raisons d’etre is to achieve, in a way, some form of memory erasure, especially for individuals that suffer…
Neuroscience is used to explain everything from sexual attraction to voting habits to why we buy particular products.
Flickr/mutsmuts
In May last year, a new attraction called The Ascent opened for a brief season in Brooklyn, New York. Described as “part art installation, part adventure ride and part spiritual journey,” The Ascent consisted…
“Wait a minute. I’ve been here before …”
PhotoJonny/Flickr
Have you ever experienced a sudden feeling of familiarity while in a completely new place? Or the feeling you’ve had the exact same conversation with someone before?
This feeling of familiarity is, of…
Despite having “simple” brains, dragonflies appear to be capable of more complex tasks than was first thought.
Henry McLin
Being able to focus on an important object or task while surrounded by distractions is a valuable skill.
It’s an ability that’s probably widespread in the animal kingdom, but is best known in large mammals…
Different parts of the brain do different things, but there’s more overlap than you might think.
Brain image from www.shutterstock.com
If I had been asked 15 years ago to write a short piece about what the different parts of the brain did, it would have been a fairly straightforward task. Not any more.
Over the last 15 years, the methods…
There’s still plenty to discover about how the brain works but what we know now is irrelevant to education.
Brain image from www.shutterstock.com
Neuroscience: the word oozes sophistication and intelligence – the very qualities we might want to nurture in our students, our children, our general populace.
Maybe that’s why many people involved in…
The imperative to remember information has been replaced with the imperative to remember where information is located.
parkieblues
When Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” hit newsstands in the July/August 2008 edition of The Atlantic, the reaction was predictably vociferous.
The essay itself – a 4,175 word editorial…
Something’s going on behind your eyes … but what is it, and why does it happen?
Rubén Chase
For most of human history, dreaming has been seen as a second “reality” in which altered forms of perception provide insights into ourselves and others, our fears, fantasies and motivations or even the…
We can learn to use our minds better by becoming more familiar with how they work.
JohnGreenaway
Some interesting recent research using neuroimaging gives us evidence that different brain systems activate in different reasoning situations.
But before we get to that, try the following puzzles:
Puzzle…
Getting rid of negative memories is increasingly within our grasp.
taylor.a
Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render…
We all know the past disappears.
FotoRita [Allstar maniac]
By Jee Hyun Kim, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
If memory can be defined as “a past that becomes a part of me”, can forgetting be defined as “a past that is no longer a part of me”?
Smokers who have abstained for years may not consciously be able to…
Music can create a vortex – and a coupling of cortexes.
AlicePopkorn
Music is an emotional business. But is it also a natural law, bound in with our bodies and ideas of motion we’re only beginning to understand?
I am in the unique position of studying with both Professor…
Did you forget to lock the door, or just forget to pay proper attention?
jef safi \ 'pictosophizing
By Jee Hyun Kim, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Memory is difficult to define without being circular. People often define memory as “something you can remember”. But we cannot deny the existence of a memory when there is no recollection.
Sigmund Freud…
What do these two famous faces have in common?
Alex Hofford/Alan Porritt
Do you recognise the people in the picture above? They are, of course, Jane Goodall – British primatologist and anthropologist – and the actor, author and comedian Stephen Fry.
Recognising the identity…
What can brain imaging reveal about human intelligence?
PraveenbenK
When it comes to intelligence, what factors distinguish the brains of the exceptionally smart from those of average humans?
New research by post-doctoral fellow Michael Cole and colleagues suggests as…
Brains are supposed to change in response to experiences; that’s a sign they’re working as they are designed to.
Stephen Anthony
By Neil Levy, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Whenever I hear dire predictions concerning the social impact of new technologies, I recall a similar prediction made nearly 2,500 years ago. In the Phaedrus, Plato recounts a myth, according to which…
We don’t know why some people don’t recover from an acute episode of pain.
Kennedy/Wikimedia Commons
Everybody hurts, but not everybody keeps hurting. The unlucky few who do end up on a downward spiral of economic, social and physical disadvantage.
While we don’t know why some people don’t recover from…
An active cognitive lifestyle leads to reduced dementia risk.
Antonio Monerris
“Use it or lose it” is a catch-cry that applies to the brain as well as the body. For some time now, researchers have known that, in general, people who stay more mentally active throughout their lives…
Could your brain be anticipating what’s there before you even turn your eyes?
Joe Fakih Gomez Photography
As you read this article your eyes will move so the words fall on the central part of your vision. This region is called the fovea and it has excellent resolution when compared to your peripheral vision…
A woman drinks using a robotic arm, something she hasn’t been able to do with her own arms for 15 years.
Nature
The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…
Despite being considered a scientific taboo in the past, the study of consciousness is slowly gaining momentum.
emmakate deuchars
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
Rugby player Nate Myles (far right) shouldn’t have returned to the field after suffering a concussion.
AAP
“He got a free trip to Disneyland.” That’s how Wally Lewis described the knockout of Nate Myles, from the Gold Coast Titans, during a tackle two weeks ago. Rugby league is a tough game with tough players;…
The jury is still out on whether mobile phones cause cancer.
yago.com
Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo is, to many of his patients, the “angel” who cuts where other surgeons fear to go. He feels strongly about the possibility that using mobile phones might increase the risk of brain…
You know that guy in the pub that goes on and on and on? You wouldn’t believe how happy he is.
Jaysun
Have you ever been at a party where someone has talked about themselves without pause? You may have thought this a case of “too much information”, but science is begging to differ.
According to new research…
Using lab rats allows us to experiment in ways that would not be acceptable in humans.
ressaure
Many forms of mental illness can affect our moods. But that isn’t all they do: they can also damage our willpower. Problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity…
When emotions meet economics: New York police and protesters clash during the Occupy movement protests on Wall Street.
AAP
In a 2008 paper on neuroeconomics, Carnegie Mellon University economist George Loewenstein said: “Whereas psychologists tend to view humans as fallible and sometime even self-destructive, economists tend…
Differences in the brains of autistic infants emerge well before behavioural signs.
Awen Photography
For parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the diagnostic process can be a long and stressful journey. Behavioural signs of ASD can appear around the child’s first birthday when he fails…
It just isn’t possible for someone with a normal brain to selectively use just one side of it.
vaXzine
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, getting your body in shape often tops the list. But what about your brain?
If your left or right brain is feeling a little flabby, there’s a wide range of books…
Hesitation might be our crowning achievement.
nana untel
Understanding what is special, if anything, about the human brain is a scientific problem of such magnitude it has defied all manner of investigation for centuries.
And human consciousness, our experience…
Dopamine, which is released during gaming, can influence the wiring of the adolescent brain.
Steven Andrew Photography
Teens who frequently play video games have larger reward centres in their brains than those who play less often, according to a study published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
The researchers…
Neuroimaging is commonplace, but do you know what you’re getting into?
Katrina Lawrence/AFP
This month, fMRI brain imaging celebrates its 20th anniversary. And so it should. It has come to dominate cognitive neuroscience.
Massive amounts of precious funding are poured into it and thousands of…
The brain repairs itself only minimally following damage or disease.
x-ray delta one
Welcome to the sixth and final part of On the Brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Professor Malcolm Horne…
By Lachlan Thompson, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Welcome to part five of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Lachlan Thompson, head of the Neurogenesis…
Addicts have choices, but those choices might be severely constrained.
davidblume
By Neil Levy, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Welcome to part four of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Neil Levy, Head of Neuroethics at Florey…
Susceptibility to addiction can be seen as a form of Russian Roulette.
kriffster
By Andrew J. Lawrence, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Welcome to part three of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Professor Andrew J. Lawrence, the Florey…
“A venerable orang-outan”: editorial cartoon depicting Charles Darwin as an ape from The Hornet, 1871.
Author unknown
By Neil Levy, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Welcome to Peer Review, a series in which we ask leading academics to review books written by people in the same field.
Here Neil Levy, ARC Future Fellow, based at the Florey Neuroscience Institutes…
The emerging field of neuromarketing exploits the gap between what we say and what we think.
Flickr/DierkSchaefer
How do we choose? Consumers imagine themselves as rational decision-makers, able to weigh up the relative costs and benefits of decisions to arrive at reasoned choices.
Yet, a growing body of research…
Everything from playing sport to speaking a foreign language is better when done automatically.
pfv
Welcome to part two of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Malcolm Horne,
deputy director of the…
Our understanding of how people’s minds perceive time is still rudimentary.
numb3r
Our perception of time is something we take for granted. It drags. It goes too fast. It’s always there in the background, ticking away.
But the means by which we measure, interpret and remember the flow…
