There’s both money and prestige invested in the simple idea that different brain areas are responsible for certain functions. But that doesn’t make it true.
A study has found there are differences in the brains of people with ADHD.
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This week, the prestigious journal The Lancet published a large study identifying objective differences in the brains of people diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Because everyone is different, psychologists have long debated how to characterise personality.
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Both genetic and environmental factors determine someone’s personality. Genes account for between 30-50% of the determination and unique environmental experiences making up the rest.
A team of American researchers have mapped the cerebral cortex into 180 distinct regions.
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Neuroscientists analysed the brains of 210 healthy young adults. The result was a modern atlas of the human brain, 97 areas of which have never been described before.
An early understanding of numbers may be a sign of mathematical ability.
Oksana Kuzmina
Particular parts of an individual’s brain tend to work together on certain tasks. Researchers can look at these patterns of “functional connectivity” to predict traits – like the ability to pay attention.
Typically, researchers pool a bunch of brain scans to figure out the average way brains handle certain tasks. Instead, could they pick out individual brain profiles from a stack of 126 people’s scans?
Patients with alexia – or acquired dyslexia – can recognise letters but not words.
Letters via B Calkins/www.shutterstock.com
Brain damage is caused by persistent depression rather than being a predisposing factor for it, researchers have finally concluded after decades of unconfirmed hypothesising.
Thomas Andrillon, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL and Sid Kouider, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL
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Given the media coverage brain imaging studies get, you might think that they are constantly revealing important secrets about this mysterious organ. Catherine Loveday thinks otherwise. She makes the point…
This is good, talking to people is better.
Peter Byrne/PA
Imagine you’ve suddenly been given a job as a car mechanic but there’s a slight hitch: you know nothing whatsoever about cars, there are no books to help you, no internet and no-one who is willing to tell…
The headlines The Guardian: Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal The Atlantic: Male and female brains really are built differently The Independent: The hardwired difference between male…
We live in a society that is fascinated by the brain – how it works, how it differs across individuals or changes over our lifetimes and how it makes us different to other species. And over the years…
Going under a general anaesthetic usually involves sensory checks such as getting you to count down as you lose consciousness. After that an anaesthesiologist will continually monitor your response and…