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…
James Whitmore, The Conversation and Belinda Smith, The Conversation
A method for restoring feeling and action to amputees and others who have lost their sense of touch has been established through research published in Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS…
How do you know you are sick? No, really… Think about it. If you have suffered through another winter of coughs and sniffles, and you are about to be hit by the spring allergies, you will know the feeling…
According to various large-scale studies conducted by the World Health Organization, about a third of the adult worldwide population suffer from a mental disorder such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia…
Researchers in Japan have used the powerful K computer, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, to simulate the complex neural structure of our brain. Using a popular suite of neuron simulating software…
All memories aren’t created equal. Whether you remember an event the next day, week or year, depends on a number of factors, the most important one of which is the emotion associated with it. Emotional…
Chris Moxon, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Cerebral malaria, or malaria of the brain, means being deeply unconscious with perpetual cycles of seizures and spasms. It can cause death, or often disability. About 600,000 people suffer this terrible…
Do you believe ‘mental illness’ is all about brain chemistry? It wouldn’t be surprising if you did, because this is the message we regularly receive about various forms of troublesome feelings, thoughts…
The voice is an important tool which we use to communicate and express ourselves. But our voices convey so much more than the words we say. Just a few words can reveal clues about someone’s gender, age…
As many as 500 brain scans are performed in Scotland every week. These scans are mostly used to diagnose - or rule out - serious diseases like strokes and tumours, but this is not their only function…
The patterns of brain activity people use to learn to move objects with their mind are similar to neurological activity that occurs when learning to ride a bike or swing a golf club, researchers have found…
Brains are smart enough to rewire themselves, a new international study of rats has found. The study turns on its head the common misconception brain damage is irreversible, showing the precise neural…
Just to the left and above this sentence is a picture of me. Like most places on the web where discussion takes place, The Conversation places a profile picture of each author next to their writing. Indeed…
Infants develop the ability to consciously process their environment as early as five months of age, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The team of French and Danish researchers…
Fron Jackson-Webb, The Conversation and Odile Gotts, The Conversation
Scientists have found a way to control the reward centre of the brain, using a miniature wireless device that emits light and causes the brain to release dopamine, the chemical associated with pleasure…