Many amputees experience pain in their missing limbs, but allowing them to “see” their missing limbs in action through augmented reality technology may help alleviate this phantom limb pain (PLP), a case…
To really get into the brain’s mechanisms, we need to build a working model.
Tankakern/Flickr
The structure of the brain reveals a network of massively interconnected electrochemically active cells. It is known that information can be represented by changes of state within this network, but that…
In times of financial uncertainty and crisis, high stress reactions lead to traders becoming more risk averse, which drives pessimism and further falls in finance, according to a new study. This is because…
This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in the US. But what was it about? Was it the moptop haircuts, Cuban heels, and “yeah yeah…
Research shows that our memories are not direct representations of past occurrences.
Flickr/kharied
Memory is an essential part of our existence. Who we are, what we know and what we think can all be derived from our ability to remember. How reliable, though, are our memories? A study, published in the…
Get used to it: 100-year sentences enjoy popular support.
Amanda Slater
David Cameron plunged into the criminal punishment debate recently by throwing his support around proposals to impose incredibly long sentences (100 years or so) for some murders as a way to circumvent…
While a flinch, or a grimace may provide us with clues, ultimately we only know that someone’s in pain if they tell us.
the italian voice/Flickr
We now know that there’s much more to pain than simply what is happening in the painful body part, and attention has turned to the role of the brain. But not even this mysterious organ can tell us everything…
Lynette Wallworth’s artworks resonate with recent findings in neuroscience, Duality of Light (2009). Photograph by Grant Hancock courtesy Samstag Museum of Art.
Lynette Wallworth
Neuroscientific knowledge of how the brain processes the separate attributes of visual images has expanded exponentially in recent years. The mesmeric appeal of the artworks created by the Australian new…
‘Hanging in there’ may well have neurobiological roots.
Ars Electronica
Perseverance is a quality that plays a large role in the success or failure of many pursuits. It has never been entirely clear why this trait seems more apparent in some people than others, but a new piece…
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…
Are you a left brain or a right brain person? I’ve never met a person who doesn’t know what I mean by this question. The idea that creative people use the right side of their brain more than logical people…
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…
A game of bowls now, or Premier League tickets in a month? Your hippocampus can help.
Crystian Cruz
Would you prefer a beer right now or a bottle of champagne next week? So begins an interesting new study published today in the journal PloS Biology. Of course these kinds of choices feature throughout…
Our ability to grasp and manipulate objects relies on feedback from our sense of touch. Without these signals from the hand, we would have trouble performing even the most basic activities of daily living…
Over the show’s three episodes, Todd Sampson tests whether it’s possible to enhance his mind, using exercises designed by scientists.
ABC
Neil Levy, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
We live in an age of great public fascination with minds and brains; books about brain plasticity, for instance, regularly make the bestseller lists. This fascination is not merely the product of our thirst…
The jelly-like tissue that is the brain is the most complicated object in the known universe.
Dr Case/Flickr
The brain and the mind are two sides of the same coin. We have always wanted to understand how our minds work but, until recently, lacked the tools to investigate the brain. The jelly-like tissue that…
If you’ve ever tried spinning in circles while looking up to the sky, you’ll know the accompanying dizziness that can follow. But what stops ballet dancers, who pirouette endlessly for a living, from falling…